Matthew 15:11

Bible verse

Matthew 15:11 is a verse in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

The Pharisees maintained, that, by partaking of food with unwashed hands, defilement was imparted to the food, and this food defiled the soul. Jesus refutes this by saying, that no food, of itself, can defile someone. The Pharisees held that certain kinds of food, defile a person, and make him polluted before God. So, we find St. Paul, in refuting these doctrines, saying, "every creature of God is good." Jesus appears to be stating that we do not sin by partaking of food, if we do so, contrary to the prohibition of God, as did Adam; or, as the Jews would, by partaking of food forbidden to them; or, the first Christians, had they violated the Apostolical injunction, commanding them to abstain from blood, (Acts 15:20). And so it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles; but what comes from it, that is disobedience and resistance to the law of God. (see Mark 7:20)

Jerome: "The word here ‘makes a man common’ is peculiar to Scripture, and is not hackneyed in common parlance. The Jewish nation, boasting themselves to be a part of God, call those meats common, of which all men partake; for example, swine’s flesh, shell fish, hares, and those species of animals that do not divide the hoof, and chew the cud, and among the fish such as have not scales. Hence in the Acts of the Apostles we read, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. (Acts 10:15.) Common then in this sense is that which is free to the rest of mankind, and as though not in part of God, is therefore called unclean."