Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 7:17

"And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked of him the parable." — Mark 7:17 (ASV)

After leaving the crowd, Jesus entered a house and was teaching the disciples privately (cf. 9:28, 33; 10:10). Although the disciples had already spent considerable time with Jesus and belonged to the inner circle of his concern, they were slow to grasp the meaning of his teaching. Jesus expressed surprise that they still could not comprehend spiritual truth. The reason nothing entering a person from the outside makes him or her “unclean” (GK 176) is because it enters into the stomach, not the heart (v.19). And the heart is the center of human personality that determines one’s actions and inaction (cf. Proverbs 4:23; Isaiah 29:13). In v.19b Mark explains for his readers the significance of Jesus’ teaching about ceremonial purity. This statement relates to the situation in the Pauline mission churches about questions of clean and unclean foods (cf. Acts 10:9–16; 11:5–10; Romans 14:13ff.) and idol-meats (1 Corinthians 8–10). Mark is probably trying to publicize the charter of Gentile freedom by recording in the plainest terms possible Jesus’ detachment from Jewish ceremonial laws and to spell out in clear tones the application of this principle to his readers.