Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly, and then out of the body?
- KJV Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
- BSB “Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated?
- NKJV Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?
- NLT “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus explains that food simply passes through the body and is eliminated. It matters because it shows that physical eating cannot touch a person's moral condition.
Overview
Jesus argues from the obvious: food goes into the stomach and out of the body, never reaching the heart. Therefore ceremonial concerns about unwashed hands cannot determine true defilement. This grounds his teaching in plain observation, making the spiritual point unmistakable. The real issue lies elsewhere—in the heart, as the next verses make clear.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Luke 6:45The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
- 1 Cor 6:13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
- Matt 7:19–20Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.
- Col 2:21–22“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
- Jas 3:6And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.
- 2 Kgs 10:27They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 15:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.