[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Mark 7:19



    I consulted the Stephens 1550/Scrivener 1894 edition (TR) and the 1991
Byzantine/Majority Textform edition.  The "all foods are clean," phrase is
given as the words of Jesus:

oti    ouk    eisporeuetai       autou    eiv   thn  kardian  all  eiv
because       it does not enter  of him   into  the  heart    but  into

thn  koilian  kai  eiv  ton   afedrwna   ekporeuetai  katharizon      panta
the  stomach  and  and  into  the drain  it exits     make clean   all

ta brwmata
   foods

     However, the ecletic Greek text in the 26th edition of the Nestle-Aland
Greek New Testament, and in the 3rd edition of the United Bible Societies'
Greek New Testament has _katharizwn_.

	If we look at katharizwn in the literal sense of "make clean" 
we come with the reading of the KJV, "purging all meats." The NKJV 
conveys the same idea, with a nice slight twist: "purifying all foods."
Purging has a sense of elimination that is needlessly applied here. 
Purge, coming from the Latin, purigare, stresses the act of making 
pure. So even with this view, we have a sense of Jesus making all 
foods clean.

	If we look at katharizwn in the figurative sense, we would 
have "make clean" take on an almost Levitical sense, more like "declare 
clean" [like Leviticus 13:6, 23]. This would help to give the last 
part of this section as a type of comment by Mark: ``He (Jesus) (thus)
declares clean all foods.''

    	The section is in all of the major editions; there is nothing 
added or deleted from the text. The difference is whether we will take 
this as the words of Jesus, or as a comment of Mark. But even if we 
take this as the words of Jesus, even in a literal sense, there is still 
a shade of meaning that He purified all foods.



 en agape,
 Bob 


Follow-Ups: