The Bullet Point Bible

¹ Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said,² "Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat."³ He answered them, "And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?⁴ For God said, ' Honor your father and mother ' and ' Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death .'⁵ But you say, 'If someone tells his father or mother, "Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,"⁶ he does not need to honor his father.' You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition.⁷ Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,⁸ ' This people honors me with their lips,⁸ but their heartis far from me,⁹ and they worship me in vain,⁹ teaching as doctrines the commandments of men .'"

¹⁰ Then he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand.¹¹ What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person."¹² Then the disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?"¹³ And he replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.¹⁴ Leave them! They are blind guides. If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit."¹⁵ But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us."¹⁶ Jesus said, "Even after all this, are you still so foolish?¹⁷ Don't you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer?¹⁸ But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.²⁰ These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person."

²¹ After going out from there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.²² A Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!"²³ But he did not answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, "Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us."²⁴ So he answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."²⁵ But she came and bowed down before him and said, "Lord, help me!"²⁶ "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," he said.²⁷ "Yes, Lord," she replied, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

²⁹ When he left there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up a mountain, where he sat down.³⁰ Then large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.³¹ As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.

³² Then Jesus called his disciples and said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have already been here with me three days and they have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry since they may faint on the way."³³ The disciples said to him, "Where can we get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy so great a crowd?"³⁴ Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" They replied, Seven-and a few small fish.³⁵ After instructing the crowd to sit down on the ground,³⁶ he took the seven loaves and the fish, and after giving thanks, he broke them and began giving them to the disciples, who then gave them to the crowds.³⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.³⁸ Not counting children and women, there were 4,000 men who ate.³⁹ After sending away the crowd, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.