Chapter 15

Chapter 15. — On the Transgression of the Commandment of God Through the Tradition of the Elders. And on the Strangers Who Were Healed

¹ Then there come to Jesus the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, saying: Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Although all the regions had scribes and Pharisees, yet the more honored ones were in Jerusalem; wherefore these especially were envious, as being more fond of glory. Now the Jews had a custom, from an ancient tradition, not to eat with unwashed hands. Seeing, therefore, the disciples despising this tradition, they supposed that they were setting at nought the elders. What, then, does the Savior do? He makes no defense at all against this; but he counter-charges them.

² But he answered and said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, saying: Honor your father and your mother; and he who speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whoever shall say to father or mother, It is a gift, whatever you might have been profited by from me, and he shall not honor his father or his mother; and you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition. The Pharisees accused the disciples as transgressing the commandment of the elders; but Christ shows them to be transgressing the law of God. For they taught the children to give nothing to their parents, but to dedicate whatever they had to the treasury of the temple. For there was in the temple a treasure, into which whoever wished cast [his offering], and this was called the corban. And the treasure was distributed to the poor. The Pharisees, therefore, persuading the children to give nothing to their parents, but to dedicate it to the treasure of the temple, taught them to say: It is a gift—that is, it is dedicated to God, O father, that which you seek to be profited by from me. And thus they themselves shared the money with the children, and the parents were left uncared for in their old age. And the creditors also did this. For if anyone lent money to someone, and then the debtor was difficult and did not pay back what was owed, the creditor would say to this ungrateful debtor: It is corban that you owe me—that is, a gift dedicated to God. The debtor, then, as thenceforth owing it to God, paid it even against his will; this the Pharisees taught the children to do.

³ Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying: This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the precepts of men. He shows, through the voice of Isaiah, that they were such toward his Father as they are found to be toward himself; for being wicked, and through their wicked works removing themselves far from God, they spoke the oracles of God with the mouth only. For wholly in vain do they worship and seem to honor God, who through their works dishonor him.

⁴ And having called the multitude to him, he said to them: Hear and understand. Not that which enters into the mouth defiles the man, but that which comes forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man. He no longer discourses with the Pharisees, as being incurable, but with the multitude. And by calling them to him he seems to honor them, that they might receive his word, and he says: Hear and understand, rousing them to attention. Now since the Pharisees blamed the disciples as eating with unwashed hands, the Lord speaks concerning foods, that no food defiles the man—that is, pollutes [him]. And if food does not pollute, much less does eating with unwashed hands. For what defiles the inner man is the speaking of things that ought not [to be spoken]. And by this he hints at the Pharisees, who were polluted by speaking words of envy; and see his wisdom, how he neither openly lays down a law to eat with unwashed [hands], nor turns [men] away from it. But he teaches something else: not to cast forth wicked words from the heart.

⁵ Then his disciples came and said to him: Do you know that the Pharisees, when they heard the word, were offended? The disciples speak on account of the Pharisees, that they were offended. Yet they themselves also were disturbed; and this is plain from Peter’s coming forward and asking about this. Jesus, then, hearing that the Pharisees were offended, said:

⁶ Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up; let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into a pit. He says that the traditions of the elders and the Jewish precepts shall be rooted up; not the things of the law, as the Manichaeans suppose; for the law is a planting of God; this, then, was not rooted up. For its root remains, that is, the hidden spirit. But the leaves, that is, the apparent letter, fell away; for we no longer understand the law according to the letter, but according to the spirit. And since the Pharisees were past hope and incurable, he said: Let them alone. From this, then, we learn that the being offended of those who are willingly offended and incurable is not harmful to us. And he calls them teachers blind [guides] of the blind; and this he says in order to draw the multitudes away from them.

⁷ And Peter answered and said to him: Explain to us this parable. Peter, since he knew that the law forbade the eating of all things, fearing to say to Jesus, I am offended at the things you said, which appear to be unlawful, feigns ignorance and asks.

⁸ But Jesus said: Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet perceive that everything which enters into the mouth passes into the belly, and is cast out into the privy? But the things which come forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those things defile the man; for out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies. These are the things that defile the man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. The Savior rebukes the disciples, and reproaches their foolishness, either as having been offended, or as not perceiving what is plain; he says, then: Do you not perceive this thing, which is understood and apparent to all? That foods do not remain within, but pass downward, defiling the man in no way as to the soul, for they do not remain inside. But the thoughts are both begotten within, and remain there, and coming forth—that is, advancing into deed and into action—they defile the man; for the thought of fornication, both remaining within, pollutes, and coming forth into deed and being acted upon, stains [the man].

⁹ And Jesus, going forth from there, withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon; and behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders and cried to him, saying: Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed by a demon. But he answered her not a word. For what reason, having forbidden the disciples to go into the way of the Gentiles, does he himself come to Tyre and Sidon, the Gentile cities? Learn, then, that he did not come there to preach, since, as Mark says, he even hid himself. And besides, since he saw that the Pharisees did not receive the discourse concerning foods, he passes over to the nations. And she says, Have mercy—not on my daughter; for she has no feeling—but on me, who suffer the terrible things and have feeling. And she does not say, Come and heal, but Have mercy. But he answers her not a word, not as despising her, but that he might show that he came first of all on account of the Jews; and that he might stop their slanders, so that they might not have it to say afterward that he benefits the Gentiles; and at the same time, that he might display the persevering faith of the woman.

¹⁰ And his disciples came and asked him, saying: Send her away, for she cries after us. But he answered and said: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The disciples, burdened by the crying of the woman, asked that he might send her away—that is, they besought him to dismiss her. And this they did, not as being without compassion, but rather wishing to persuade the Lord to have mercy on her. But he says: I was not sent except to the Jews, who are lost sheep, [lost] through the wickedness of those entrusted with them. And through these [words] he makes the faith of the woman the more public.

¹¹ But she came and worshiped him, saying: Lord, help me. But he answered and said: It is not good to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the little dogs. But she said: Yes, Lord; for even the little dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. When the woman saw her advocates, the apostles, fail, she comes forward again fervently, and calls him Lord. And since Christ calls her a dog, because the Gentiles have an unclean life and busy themselves about the blood of things offered to idols, and [calls] the Jews children, she answers prudently and very wisely, that: Even if I am a dog and not worthy to take bread—that is, some power and great sign—yet grant this thing, which is little as regards your power, but great to me; just as with the crumbs, those who eat the loaves have nothing great, but the dogs [have it] as great, and are nourished from them.

¹² Then Jesus answered and said to her: O woman, great is your faith; be it done to you as you wish; and her daughter was healed from that hour. Jesus now made manifest the reason for which he had put off the healing from the beginning; for that the faith and understanding of the woman might be made to shine forth, for this reason Christ did not at once from the beginning consent, but rather even sends her away. But now, since her faith and understanding were uncovered, she is praised, hearing: Great is your faith; and in saying, Be it done to you as you wish, he showed that, had she not had faith, she would not have obtained her request; so that, if we too are willing, there is nothing to hinder us from obtaining what we wish. And note this, that even if the apostles were not strong enough to ask on our behalf, as the apostles [asked] on hers, yet we, asking on our own behalf, accomplish the more. And the Canaanite woman is also a symbol of the Church from among the nations. For indeed the nations, formerly cast off, were afterward raised up into the rank of sons, and were counted worthy of the bread—the body, I mean, of the Lord. But the Jews became dogs, seeming to be nourished from the crumbs, that is, from the small and worthless things of the letter. And Tyre signifies a constraining; Sidon, hunters; and Canaanite, made ready by humility; those, then, who are held fast by wickedness, the Gentiles, over whom were the demons who hunt souls, these are the ones made ready by humility; for the demons were made ready by the height of the kingdom of God.

¹³ And Jesus, departing from there, came beside the sea of Galilee, and going up into the mountain, he sat there; and there came to him great multitudes, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at the feet of Jesus, and he healed them; so that the multitudes marveled when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. He does not sojourn continually in Judea, but in Galilee, on account of the great unbelief of the Jews; for the Galileans were more believing than they. See, then, their faith, how, being lame and blind, they go up even into the mountain, and do not shrink back, but cast themselves at the feet of Jesus, glorifying him as one above man, whence also they obtained healing. Do you also, then, go up into the mountain of the commandments, where the Lord sits; even if you are blind, not able of yourself to see the good; even if lame, seeing indeed the good, but not able to come to it; even if dumb, neither hearing another exhorting, nor able to exhort another; even if maimed, that is, not able to stretch out the hand to almsgiving; even if you be sick with any other thing, falling at the feet of Jesus and touching the footsteps of that life, you shall be healed.

¹⁴ But Jesus, having called his disciples to him, said: I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with me three days, and have nothing to eat, and I am not willing to send them away fasting, lest perhaps they faint on the way. The multitudes did not dare to ask for bread, as having come for healing. But he, being loving toward men, takes thought; and that no one might be able to say, But they have provisions, he says: Even if they had, they would have been used up; for it is now three days. And he shows that they had also come from afar, in saying: Lest they faint on the way. And these things he says to the disciples, wishing to rouse them to say to him, You are able to feed them as you did the five thousand also; but they are still without understanding.

¹⁵ And his disciples say to him: Where should we get so many loaves in a wilderness, so as to fill so great a multitude? And yet they ought to have understood, when before also more were fed in a wilderness; but they are without perception, that, when you see these same men afterward full of so great wisdom, you might marvel at the grace of Christ.

¹⁶ And Jesus says to them: How many loaves have you? And they said: Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitudes to recline upon the ground; and taking the seven loaves and the fishes, having given thanks, he broke them and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the fragments, seven baskets full. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Teaching frugality, he makes them recline upon the ground; and teaching us to give thanks before food, he himself also gives thanks. But you ask how it is that there, although there were five loaves and five thousand who were fed, [there were] twelve baskets; while here, the loaves being more and those fed fewer, seven baskets were left over. It is possible, then, to say either that the baskets were larger than the [former] baskets, or that [it was] lest the equality of the wonder should cast them into forgetfulness. For if even now twelve baskets had been left over, they would have forgotten, by reason of the equality, that he had worked a wonder upon loaves a second time. But do you know this also, that the four thousand—that is, those who have the four virtues perfectly—these are nourished by seven loaves, that is, by more spiritual and more perfect words. For the number seven is a symbol of the seven spiritual gifts; and they recline upon the ground, putting beneath them all earthly things and trampling them under, just as the five thousand also reclined upon the grass—that is, they set the flesh and [its] glory beneath them. For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. And the seven baskets here are the superfluities, because the things which they were not able to eat were spiritual and more perfect; those things, then, were left over which seven baskets contain—that is, the things which only the Holy Spirit knows. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

¹⁷ And having sent the multitudes away, he entered into the boat, and came to the borders of Magdala. Jesus withdraws, since no other sign made more [people] follow him than that of the loaves. So that they were even about to make him a king, as John says. That he might flee, therefore, the suspicion of [seeking] tyranny, he passes over.