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What Defiles a Person - Traditional and Real
1 THEN came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: 2 Why do thy disciples trangress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3 But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: 4 Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee. 6 And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. 7 Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: 8 This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men. 10 And having called together the multitudes unto him, he said to them: Hear ye and understand. 11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man: but what cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 12 Then came his disciples, and said to him: Dost thou know that the Pharisees, when they heard this word, were scandalized? 13 But he answering them, said: Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit. 15 And Peter answering, said to him: Expound to us this parable. 16 But he said: Are you also yet without understanding? 17 Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? 18 But the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and those things defile a man. 19 For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. 20 These are the things that defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doth not defile a man. The Canaanite Woman
(Matt 15:21-28 Mark 7:24-30) 21 And Jesus went from thence, and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil. 23 Who answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying: Send her away, for she crieth after us: 24 And he answering, said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. 25 But she came and adored him, saying: Lord, help me. 26 Who answering, said: It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs. 27 But she said: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. 28 Then Jesus answering, said to her: O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt: and her daughter was cured from that hour. Jesus Heals a Deaf Mute and Many Others
(Matt 15:29-31 Mark 7:31-37) 29 And when Jesus had passed away from thence, he came nigh the sea of Galilee. And going up into a mountain, he sat there. 30 And there came to him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others: and they cast them down at his feet, and he healed them: 31 So that the multitudes marvelled seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, and the blind see: and they glorified the God of Israel. Feeding of the Four Thousand
(Matt 15:32-39 Mark 8:1-10) 32 And Jesus called together his disciples, and said: I have compassion on the multitudes, because they continue with me now three days, and have not what to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. 33 And the disciples say unto him: Whence then should we have so many loaves in the desert, as to fill so great a multitude? 34 And Jesus said to them: How many loaves have you? But they said: Seven, and a few little fishes. 35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down upon the ground. 36 And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, he brake, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the people. 37 And they did all eat, and had their fill. And they took up seven baskets full, of what remained of the fragments. 38 And they that did eat, were four thousand men, beside children and women. 39 And having dismissed the multitude, he went up into a boat, and came into the coasts of Magedan. Gospel Harmony on Matthew 15
The Canaanite Woman
(Matt 15:21-28 Mark 7:24-30) A Canaanite, not of Cana in Galilee, but one of the posterity of Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. The Canaanites were of the seven nations of Palestine. They dwelt near the coast, as appears from Numb. xiii. 29, and were expelled by Joshua, but not entirely. They remained in Phœnicia, that is to say in Tyre and Sidon, which the Hebrews were never able to capture. Sidon, the founder of the city of that name, is called (Gen. x. 15.) the first-born of Canaan, the son of Ham. The Canaanites therefore are the same as the Phœnicians. For this reason the LXX, in Joshua v. 1. instead of kings of Canaan, translate kings of Phœnicia. Mark (5:26.) calls this woman, a Syrophœnician, because she was from that part of Phœnicia which borders upon Syria, or rather because Syria includes Phœnicia and all the adjacent countries which lie between the Mediterranean Sea and the river Euphrates. Moreover Mark calls her a Greek. She was called a Greek, although she was a Syrian, because in the New Testament especially by S. Paul, all Gentiles are called Greeks. (See Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 28.). This was because of the wide extension of the Greek language, which in time became extended to Syria. (Cornelius a Lapide) Matthew, accordingly, proceeds with his narrative, after the notice of that discourse which the Lord delivered in the presence of the Pharisees on the subject of the unwashed hands. Preserving also the order of the succeeding events, as far as it is indicated by the transitions from the one to the other, he introduces this account into the context in the following manner: “And Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But He answered her not a word,” and so on, down to the words, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”(Mt 15:22-28) This story of the woman of Canaan is recorded also by Mark, who keeps the same order of events, and gives no occasion to raise any question as to a want of harmony, unless it be found in the circumstance that he tells us how the Lord was in the house at the time when the said woman came to Him with the petition on behalf of her daughter.(Mark 7:24-30) Now we might readily suppose that Matthew has simply omitted mention of the house, while nevertheless relating the same occurrence. But inasmuch as he states that the disciples made the suggestion to Him in these terms, “Send her away, for she crieth after us,” he seems to imply distinctly that the woman gave utterance to these cries of entreaty behind the Lord as He walked on. In what sense, then, could it have been “in the house,” unless we are to take Mc to have intimated the fact, that she had gone into the place where Jesus then was, when he mentioned at the beginning of the narrative that He was in the house? But when Matthew says that “He answered her not a word,” he has given us also to understand what neither of the two evangelists has related explicitly,—namely, the fact that during that silence which He maintained Jesus went out of the house. And in this manner all the other particulars arebrought into a connection which from this point onwards presents no kind of appearance of discrepancy. For as to what Mc records with respect to the answer which the Lord gave her, to the effect that it was not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it unto the dogs, that, reply was returned only after the interposition of certain sayings which Matthew has not left unrecorded. That is to say, [we are to suppose that] there came in first the request which the disciples addressed to Him in regard to the woman’s case, and the answer He gave them, to the effect that He was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel; that next there was her own approach, or, in other words, her coming after Him, and worshipping Him, saying, “Lord, help me;” and that then, after all these incidents, those words were spoken which have been recorded by both the evangelists. (St. Augustine Harmony of the Gospels 2.49) Feeding of the Four Thousand
(Matt 15:32-39 Mark 8:1-10) In the case of this miracle of the seven loaves, it is certainly not a superfluous task to call attention to the fact that these two evangelists, Matthew and Mark, have thus introduced it into their narrative. For if one of them had recorded this miracle, who at the same time had taken no notice of the instance of the five loaves, he would have been judged to stand opposed to the rest. For in such circumstances, who would not have supposed that there was only the one miracle wrought in actual fact, and that an incomplete and unveracious version of it had been given by the writer referred to, or by the others, or by all of them together; so [that we must have imagined] either that the one evangelist, by a mistake on his own part, had been led to mention seven loaves instead of five; or that the other two, whether as having both presented an incorrect statement, or as having been misled through a slip of memory, had put the number five for the number seven. In like manner, it might have been supposed that there was a contradiction between the twelve baskets and the seven baskets, and again, between the five thousand and the four thousand, expressing the numbers of those who were fed. But now, since those evangelists who have given us the account of the miracle of the seven loaves have also not failed to mention the other miracle of the five loaves, no difficulty can be felt by any one, and all can see that both works were really wrought. This, accordingly, we have instanced, in order that, if in any other passage we come upon some similar deed of the Lord’s, which, as told by one evangelist, seems so utterly contrary to the version of it given by another that no method of solving the difficulty can possibly be found, we may understand the explanation to be simply this, that both incidents really took place, and that they were recorded separately by the two several writers. This is precisely what we have already recommended to attention in the matter of the seating of the multitudes by hundreds and by fifties. For were it not for the circumstance that both these numbers are found noted by the one historian, we might have supposed that the different writers had made contradictory statements. (St. Augustine Harmony of the Gospels 2.50) |
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