Are All Foods Clean

"And He (Yashua) said to them, ‘Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?’ Thus He declared all foods clean." Mark 7:18-19

Does this mean that the dietary laws were abolished by the Messiah?

Many Christians will readily admit that Yashua, as a 1st century Jew, observed the dietary commandments of the Torah. But, they will say that He abolished the kosher laws in the Gospels. Did Yashua truly abrogate these commandments as many Christians believe?

Mark 7:18-19 is often used as a proof text to say that the Messiah annulled kashrut (Clean and Unclean) law. Yet, in order to understand what He is truly saying here, we must consider the entire scope of His statements.

Previously, Mark 7:1-5 tells us, "The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalemand had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, ‘Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?’"

The issue that this group of Pharisees brought against Yashua related to His Disciples eating with unwashed hands. These Pharisees held to a tradition that required them to "give their hands a ceremonial washing" (wash the hands to the wrist), before eating, which is what Yashua’s Disciples failed to do.

It is with this background that Yashua tells these Pharisees that what goes into a person does not defile him, but it is what comes out of a person that does. This did not negate or make unimportant the need to eat as Yahveh has commanded us in the Torah. The Pharisees were making an issue out of an extra-Biblical tradition in regard to ritualistic hand washing before eating.

"And He said to them, Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? Thus He declared all foods clean." Mark 7:18-19

In this passage, Yashua does not negated the validity of kashrut. To do so would contradict his statement of Matthew 5:17-18, where He said that He did not come to abolish the Law. Instead, Yashua was teaching about the misconceptions of the ritual hand washing before meals. The group of Pharisees in this text always carried out this hand washing ritual before each meal, believing that not to do so according to their specific method would cause a person to be ritually defiled. Therefore, Yashua said, ‘To eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.’ Not performing the ritual hand-washing ceremony according to the method of this group of first-century Pharisees did not make one impure before God, and thereby did not obligate the person to cleanse himself ritually.

Another description of this can be seen in Matthew 15:1-2

"Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Yashua from Jerusalem and said, Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

Washing hands before eating was considered a ‘tradition of the elders’ and not a commandment from the Torah. This concept denotes the development of traditions, not necessarily found in the Torah, which deal with how to perform a certain commandment.

The Complete Jewish Bible renders Mark 7:19 as "Thus He declared all foods ritually clean" meaning that it was unnecessary to participate in the extra-Biblical ceremonial hand washings to eat. In fact, the Greek text does not say, "Thus He declared". It simply reads katharidzown panta ta browmata, meaning "purging all the foods."

There is a debate in Bible translation regarding how katharidzown panta ta browmata should be translated. The majority of modern English versions render it as "Thus he declared all foods clean". Many English versions render this phrase in parenthesis ( ), indicating the opinion of some that this statement may have been added by a scribe in later centuries to clarify Yashua’s words. However, there has always been the long-standing opinion that "purging all the foods" is the more accurate translation.

In the context of Mark 7, Yashua says that it is not eating with unwashed hands that makes one unclean, but what goes into a person’s heart. He then finishes His discourse with saying that food, which Biblically does not include pork or shellfish, eaten with unwashed hands does not defile a person: "This is because it does not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and goes out into the wastebowl, purging all the foods." (Mark 7:19) Food which is eaten with unwashed or dirty hands is processed by the natural functions of the body and "is eliminated, thus purifying all foods".

Two other English translations properly render Mark 7:19. The New Covenant by Willis J. Barnstone renders it as "since it doesn’t enter the heart but the stomach, and goes into the sewer, purging all foods" (p 68). The Original New Testament by Hugh J. Schonfield says, "because it enters his stomach, not his mind, and is evacuated in the toilet". (p 22)

"Thus He declared" is an addition by Bible translators that is not in the Greek text. On the contrary, the text speaks of a person’s bodily elimination of food by excretion. This is confirmed by the parallel passage in Matthew 15:17: "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?"

Yashua the Messiah did not cancel the Biblical dietary commandments in Mark chapter 7. Rather, He criticized a group of Pharisees for their ritualistic hand washing and said that food eaten with unwashed hands was not unacceptable and that what came out of a person’s mouth was more important.