15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 So Jesus said: “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is expelled into the sewer? 18 But the things coming out of the mouth actually come from the heart; those are the things that defile the man. 19 Because out of the heart proceed malignant thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,[f] thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things that defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
32 Then Jesus summoned His disciples and said: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have already remained with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” 33 So His disciples say to Him, “Where could we get, in an uninhabited place, enough bread so as to satisfy such a great crowd?” 34 Jesus says to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35 So He commanded the crowds to recline on the ground. 36 And taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks, broke and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the crowd. 37 So they all ate and were filled; and they took up seven hampers full of the fragments that remained.[k] 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.[l] 39 And having dismissed the crowds He got into the boat and went to the region of Magdala.[m]
<- Matthew 14Matthew 16 ->- a Instead of “commanded saying”, perhaps 1.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, have ‘said’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).
- b Perhaps 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit “or mother” (as in NIV, LB, TEV, etc.). NASB informs us that “many” manuscripts omit “or his mother”—by ‘many’ they mean three, against some 1700! That is a dishonest use of language.
- c Perhaps 2% of the Greek manuscripts omit “draw near to me with their mouth and” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).
- d See Isaiah 29:13. Are there no such ‘doctrines’ in our churches? The Lord Jesus declares that such worship is in vain—if it does you no good, you are wasting your time (and it may be doing you harm).
- e Jesus makes no effort to conciliate or to convert the Pharisees. For all that, some did convert.
- f This is one of a number of places where ‘adultery’ and ‘fornication’ both occur in a list of sins—it is clear that they are distinct in meaning, and so ‘fornication’ does not include ‘adultery’; and so to render ‘fornication’ as ‘sexual sin/immorality’ is misleading.
- g “Son of David”—as a Canaanite she appealed to the Jewish Messiah, upon whom she had no claim. But how did she know that? I suspect there is more to this story than meets the eye.
- h Although His ultimate mission included the whole world (see the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20), His earthly ministry was directed to the “house of Israel”.
- i Here she drops the appeal to the Messiah—evidently the Lord spoke loudly enough for her to hear.
- j We may feel that Jesus was harsh with her, but in this way He put into bold relief her faith and humility—and she got her crumb!
- k Where did the “hampers” come from? Probably from fishing boats that stopped by.
- l Again, the crowd was much larger than just the 4,000 men; probably at least 10,000 people.
- m Magdala was Mary Magdalene's hometown; perhaps this was when Jesus delivered her from the demons (Mark 16:9). Less than 0.5% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, read “Magadan” instead of Magdala (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). The parallel passage in Mark 8:10 has ‘the region of Dalmanutha’—I assume that Magdala was in that region.