Bible Strands
Mark 7:6
Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus responds directly to the Pharisees and scribes who have just challenged his disciples for eating with unwashed hands (Mark 7:5), quoting Isaiah 29:13 as a verdict on them.
The words — καλῶς (kalōs, "rightly") is the load-bearing adverb: Jesus is not merely citing Isaiah but certifying that the prophecy has landed precisely on his interlocutors.
The thread — The source is Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–9 gives the parallel in the Synoptic tradition; Titus 1:16 restates the same pattern of verbal profession divorced from action.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to ask whether their own observance is a performance for an audience or a movement of the heart, and it offers no middle ground between the two.
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
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 29:13 Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
- Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.
- Matthew 15:7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:
- Ezekiel 33:31 So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
- 2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
- Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
- John 5:42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.
- Luke 11:39 Then the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
- John 15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.