L11-30: Did Yeshua really declare all foods clean in Mark Chapter 7?

Today I want to do a Scripture teardown of another classic set of verses the church INCORRECTLY uses to teach that the Kosher food laws were done away with.

Let’s read those verses below:

Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!” When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. He replied to them, “So you too are without understanding? Don’t you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) “It is what comes out of a person,” he went on, “that makes him unclean. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness…. All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”-Mark 7:14-23

I have to agree that when read in a quick and casual manner, these verses do seem to be saying that Yeshua did indeed do away with any distinctions between clean and unclean foods.

However, that’s just the kind of interpretation you get when you take verses COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTEXT.

And of course, it doesn’t help when gentile Bible Translators editorialize by inserting their own theological interpretations into the text.

In most Bibles, the phrase “and thus he declared all foods clean” is wrapped in parentheses.

Why?

BECAUSE THOSE WORDS WERE NOT IN THE ORIGINAL TEXT!

Those words were put there by anti-semitic theologians who lived during medieval times. 

In fact, if you read the King James Version of the Bible, the phrase isn’t even there.

The words “and thus he declared all foods clean” is a boldfaced lie and reflects nothing but an INCORRECT assumption the Bible translators wrote into Scripture.

When Yeshua said “For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine”, all He is saying is that food when eaten is digested and then passed out of the body.

That’s all He is saying.

In classic analogical terms, Yeshua is simply using metaphor and illustration to make his point.

And by the way, to use metaphor and illustration to demonstrate a pattern or make a point is the very definition of what a parable is.

There is absolutely no judgement being made about food here!

Consider the parable Yeshua gave about seed being scattered on hard ground, fertile ground, and rocky ground.

Recall He said that it is important to allow the tares (weeds) to grow up alongside the wheat before pulling them out lest we harm the wheat.

Now honestly, does anyone really think Yeshua was teaching us about how to farm properly or giving us a lesson on agricultural?

Of course not.

He was simply using wheat and tares and the different types of soil as an analogy to show what happens when the Gospel is presented to different kinds of people, and how some will accept the Gospel, and others will reject it etcetera.

Yeshua was doing the exact same thing here in Mark 10.

He was making an analogy.

He wasn’t abolishing anything.

Now let’s take a look at these verses in their proper context by reading from verse 1 of Mark Chapter 7.

Pay attention to the parts I bolded, enlarged, and underlined.

The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua and saw that some of his disciples ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim.  (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.) The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” Yeshua answered them, “Yesha’yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites- as it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’ “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ‘ ” (that is, as a gift to God) ” ‘ “what I might have used to help you,”‘ then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus, with your tradition, which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”-Mark 7:1-13

So when read in its proper context, we can see that this entire discourse had nothing to do with clean and unclean foods.

Yeshua was talking about the comprehensive list of traditional purity laws the Jews had developed over the centuries.

In this particular case, He was pointing out that the ritual hand washing wasn’t even Scriptural, but just a manmade tradition.

According to Jewish tradition, before eating his CLEAN AND KOSHER food, an Israelite had to first undergo a ritual hand washing before he ate.

Otherwise his clean and kosher food would become defiled.

To that tradition, Yeshua basically said “get outta my face”. 

“Clean and Kosher food remains clean and kosher whether somebody goes through a ritual hand washing or not.”

So we can discard yet another ridiculous attempt by the gentile church to somehow paint Yeshua as saying the Kosher food laws were done away with.

In fact, Kosher eating isn’t even being addressed here.

And why would it be?

Yeshua was one Jew talking amongst His fellow Jews.

There would never have been any inkling of doubt or questions raised concerning whether it was okay to eat pork or shellfish for example.

All parties concerned in this scene (including Yeshua) fully accepted the Kosher food laws as God established in Leviticus 11.

Again, Yeshua was only shooting down hand washing and other ritual traditions that didn’t jive with what Holy Scripture really said.

Do you want to know why mainstream Christianity misses the whole point of many things in the New Testament?

The answer is because they fail to see that Yeshua’s problem with the ruling religious elite in His day was always a battle over Torah observance. 

It was the battle between Yeshua standing up for the Torah and Him being accused of breaking it.

In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say Yeshua’s whole mission was a constant battle proving that He did NOT break Torah every time He was accused of breaking it.

However, the church can’t see this and as a result break the Torah because they believe Yeshua gave them permission to break it.

Now how blasphemous is that?!