CHAPTER 7 1 _The Pharisees find fault at the disciples for eating with unwashen hands_. 8 _They break the commandment of God by the traditions of men_. 14 _Meat defileth not the man_. 24 _He healeth the Syrophenician woman's daughter of an unclean spirit_, 31 _and one that was deaf, and stammered in... [ Continue Reading ]
_To eat with common, that is, with unwashen hands._ Hands unwashed were called _common_, because unclean and profane things were _common_ to both Jews and Gentiles, to clean and unclean persons alike. Observe, the Apostles were not so boorish as not to wash their hands before dining or supping, whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Often washing_ : Syr. _betilarth_, i.e., _diligently_ or _carefully_; Gr. _πυγμη̃_, _zealously_; Heb. _caph el cabh_, i.e., _hand to hand_, namely, by constant rubbing, as they do who wish to cleanse defiled hands.... [ Continue Reading ]
_From the market._ Because in the market are all kinds, both of persons and things, clean and unclean, by coming in contact with which they feared they had incurred pollution, and so they thought they could not cleanse themselves from such contamination except by washing, not their hands only, but t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because it entereth not into his heart_, _i.e._, into his soul, and cannot therefore defile it. _But goeth into the belly_, where the purer portion of the food, being separated, proceeds to the liver and heart; but that which is impure and feculent _into the draught_, by its going forth, _purging,... [ Continue Reading ]
_And spitting_, _He touched his tongue._ Christ wrought harmoniously, as though by His healing saliva He would moisten and loosen the dumb mouth, which was bound through drought. Now He spat not upon the mouth of the mute, but upon His own finger, and by means of His finger applied the saliva to th... [ Continue Reading ]
_He charged them that they should tell no man._ This was not properly a command, involving a fault if disobeyed, but merely a token of urbanity and modesty, that, indeed, He might signify He would not make a parade of His miracles, or by their means obtain the vain glory of men. Wherefore they did n... [ Continue Reading ]