Bible Strands
Mark 7:18
“Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to His disciples inside a house after leaving the crowd, directly answering their request to explain the preceding parable. The words — λέγει (legei) = He says; ἀσυνέτοις (asunetoi) = without understanding, characterizing the disciples' current state of comprehension. The thread — The motif of spiritual dullness recurs in Matthew 15:16 and Hebrews 5:11, while Isaiah 28:9 poses a parallel question about God's audience. Why it lands — The text states that external ingestion cannot defile a person, requiring the reader to abandon ritual-based purity in favor of internal moral reality.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Cross-references
- Matthew 15:16 “Do you still not understand?” Jesus asked.
- Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing.
- Isaiah 28:9 Whom is He trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To infants just weaned from milk? To babies removed from the breast?
- Matthew 16:11 How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
- Luke 24:25 Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
- Jeremiah 5:4 Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
- Mark 4:13 Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
- John 3:10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things?
- 1 Corinthians 3:2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,