Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 7:19

"because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? [This he said], making all meats clean." — Mark 7:19 (ASV)

It entereth not into his heart.—The words are not in Matthew, and emphasize the contrast with what follows. The “heart” is, after the common Hebrew idiom, the symbol of the mind as well as the affections. (Proverbs 9:4; Proverbs 9:16; Proverbs 10:13, in all of which “understanding” stands for the Hebrew of “heart.”)

Purging all meats.—This also is peculiar to Mark, and presents some difficulties. In the commonly received text, the participle is in the neuter nominative, agreeing with the nominative to the verb “goes out.” But in this construction it is difficult to see in what sense that which goes into the mouth—itself an article of food, with no special character—can be said to purge or cleanse all other forms of food.

The better manuscripts, however, give the participle in the masculine. This has been explained by many as a grammatical anomaly, and the participle being treated as if it agreed (though in a different case) with the word “draught” or “cesspool,” the latter is said to cleanse all meats, as removing the excreta, or impure parts, from them, and leaving only that which nourishes the body.

A far better construction, both as to grammar and meaning, is found by making the word “purging,” or better, cleansing, agree with the subject of the verb “He says,” in Mark 7:18—“He says this . . . and in so saying, cleanses all meats.” So taken, the words anticipate, in almost the same terms, the truth of Acts 10:15, What God has cleansed, that do not you call common. The construction is tenable grammatically, has the support of high authority both ancient and modern, and obviously gives a much better sense. It is a possible conjecture that the words “cleansing all meats” may have been, at first, a marginal note (like the addition in Mark 7:16), attached to “He says,” and have afterwards found their way into the text.