The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 297

all e:dernal wn~hings are in vain. It is RB in St. Chrysostom (Homily on St. Matthew though he ~nicl., "The scribes tee.oh you that ll'V.): 'O H Md.p1tos ,P111rlv, 3T1 ""8"P((a,v Tc\ it is not lawful to eat with unwe.shen hands, f, pd,µaT", TauTc,. (>,.,-y,v: "But ?!fork affirms because unwashen hands mflke the food un- that ho se.id these thinga, me.king the meats clenn, and unclean food defiles the soul. clean." It may be added the.t this explana- Bnt in this they err; because not that which tion agrees finely with the words in Acts entera from without into the mouth, but x. 15, "What God hath olee.nsed, that oall that which proceeds from within through not thou oommon." the mouth, and so from the bee.rt, if it be Vera. 20-23.-P'rom within, out of the impnre,-tbis defiles the man; " as be more hca.rt of men; that is, from the reason and fully explains at ver. 21. the will, of which the heart is the symbol and Vor. 16.-Tbis verse bas some good e.u- the laboratory. For the heart ministers the thoritv, but not sufficient t.o be retained in vital foroe to the intellect to enable it to the text. The Revisers of 1881 have placed understand, and to the will to enable it to it in the margin. live, although the seat of the intellect ie in Yer. 17.-0ur Lord, having proclaimed the brain. St. Mark's enumeration of evil this great principle to the multitude in the things is in a somewhat different order from presence of their teachers, the scribes and that of St. Matthew; and he adds to St. Mat- Pharisees, returned into the house (the true thew's list (lz.ppo<roJ/71), foolishness, showing reading is here ,ls 011<011, without the article). how all evil terminates in the loss of all moral It means, of course, the house where he was and intellectual illumination. All these evil lodging. And then his disciples e.sked of him things prooeed from within, and defile the· the parable. St. Matthew (xv. 15) says that ma.n. Dr. Morison, in his admirable commen- the question was put to him by St. Peter, tary on St. Mark, well observes here that speaking in the name of the other disciples "these things have an inward origin, and, -another instance of the reserve main- are vomited forth from the crater of the heart tained in this Gospel with reference to or sonl ; " and further on he says, " In a, this apostle. little sphere of things, and as regards am, Vere. 18, 19.-Our Lord had already, in though not as regards substance, or e,sencu, bis sermon on the mount, taught bis dis- men may be spoken of as creators. Men, ciples fully wherein purity or impurity of tbe.t is to say, are the efficient causes of heart consists, and he might, therefore, with their own choices. If they were not, they good reason, ask them how it we.a tha.t they, would not be really free. If it was not so, even they who ha.d been so favoured by there would be no real responsibility." St. being constantly with him, ha.d forgotten or Matthew (xv. 20) adds here, "But to eat misunderstood him. Our Lord's illustration with unwasben hands defileth not the man." is physically e.ccure.te. The portion carried This is the end and scope of the parable, off is the.t which by its removal purifies what which is to show that unwe.shen hands and remainll. The pa.rt which is available for unclean meats defile not a man, but only an nourishment is, in it.a passage through the impure and depraved will n seems almost &yBtem, converted into chyle, the matter needless to observe that our Lord does not from which the blood is formed. What is condemn the washing of the hands before not available for nourishment pa.sses away mealt as a thing in itself in any way wrong. into the a.,PE3prl,v, or draught, Purging all All nations approve of ablutions as tending meats. The most approved reading here is to cleanliness and health. undoubtedly the masculine (,cc,.Bap/(a,i,), and not the neuter (,ra8c,.pl(ov). This ohange of " Dant famuli manib111 lymphe.s, Cere- reading oompels a eomewhat different con• remque canistris 11truction. Accepting, therefore, the mas- Expediunt, tonsisque ferunt mantelia. culine BB the true reading, the only possible villi.a." "'!lnderi.ng is that which makes this la.et (Virgil, 'lEneid,' i. 701, 702.) clause a oomment by the evangelist upon " It we.a thought sordid and mean to sit our Lord's previous words, in which he in- down to mea.ls with unwasben hands. dicates to the reader tha.t our Lord intended Whence not the clergy only, but the people, by this illustration to show that no food, of we.shed their hands before prayer " The whatever kind, when received with thanks- more.I of all is this, how carefully is the giving, ca.n make a man unclean. The clause heart to be guarded, instructed, and adorned, must, therefore, be connected with the pre- seeing that it ia the instrument and labora- ceding words, by the introduction of the tory of all evil and all good, of all vice and words, in italics, "Tltia M ,aid, making all all virtue I " Keep thy heart with all dili- meat.I! clean." The pe.ssage, thns rendered, gence," so that nothin11: may enter therein becomes a very significant exposition of and nothing go out therefrom and you not what has gone before. It ii, well worthy of be conscious of it, and your reason may not. DOtice that this explanation is to be found approve; " for out of it a.re the iilsuee of life." 011, vu, 1-37.] THE GOSPEL ACCOil.DlNG TO ST. M.A.RK.