The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered to Him, and when they saw some of His disciples eating bread with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands, they reproached Him. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, adhering to the tradition of the elders, do not eat without washing their hands thoroughly; and when they come from the market, they do not eat without washing. There are many other things that they adopted to hold onto: to observe the washing of cups, mugs, cauldrons and benches. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him: Why do Thy disciples not act according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?

Taught to adhere to one virtue and not to be concerned with anything else besides it, the disciples of the Lord ate without intent and in simplicity with unwashed hands. Meanwhile, the Pharisees, wishing to find a pretext for censure, seize this incident and accuse the apostles, although not as transgressors of the Law, but as transgressors of the tradition of the elders, for in the Law there is no prescription to wash one's hands up to the elbows before eating, but they adhered to this as the traditions of the elders.

And he answered and said unto them, Isaiah hath prophesied well concerning you hypocrites, as it is written, These men worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, but in vain they worship me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men. For you, having forsaken the commandment of God, hold fast to the tradition of men, the washing of cups and cups, and do many other things like this. And he said to them; is it good that you abolish the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition? For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother; And he who curses his father or mother, let him die. And you say, "Whoever says to his father or mother, 'Corban,' that is, the gift to God that which you would use from me, you already allow him to do nothing for your father or your mother, removing the word of God by your tradition, which you have established; and do many similar things.

In order to rebuke the Jews more strongly, the Lord also brings a prophet who condemns them. They blamed the disciples for transgressing the tradition of the elders, and the Lord directs a much stronger accusation against them, namely, that they transgress the law of Moses. The law, He says, teaches: "Honor your father and your mother"; but you teach children to say to their parents thus: what you want from me is corban, that is, it is consecrated to God. For the Pharisees, desiring to take advantage of the property of the common people, taught the children (when the children had any property and the parents demanded of them) to say the following: I have already consecrated this to God, and thou shalt not demand that which is consecrated to God. Thus deceiving children and persuading them to dedicate to God from their possessions, the Pharisees thereby forced them to neglect their parents, and they themselves devoured what was consecrated to God. It is this that the Lord accuses them of transgressing the Law of God for the sake of gain.

And having called all the people, he said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand that nothing that enters into a man from without can defile him; but what proceeds from it defiles man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear! And when he entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, "Are you also so incomprehensible? Do you not understand that nothing that enters into a person from without can defile him? For it does not enter into his heart, but into his belly, and goes out, whereby all food is cleansed. Then he said; That which proceeds from man defiles man. For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, malice, deceit, lewdness, an envious eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evils proceed from within, and defile man.

Teaching people to understand the precepts of the Law of Food not in a carnal way, the Lord begins here to gradually reveal the meaning of the Law and says that nothing that enters inside defiles anyone, but defiles that which proceeds from the heart. By "envious eye" he means either envy or debauchery: for even the envious one usually casts a sly and sarcastic glance at the envious, and the depraved, looking with his eyes, strives for an evil deed. Insulting God is called "blasphemy": if, for example, someone begins to say that there is no Providence of God, then this will be blasphemy: which is why the Lord copulates "pride" with it. Pride is a kind of disregard for God, when someone, having done a good deed, attributes it not to God, but to his own power. By "madness" he means resentment against one's neighbors. All these passions defile the soul, and arise and proceed from it. The Lord did not speak to the people in this way quite clearly, which is why He remarked: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," that is: he who understands, let him understand. As for the Apostles, who understood the Lord's speech more deeply and came to ask Him about the "parable," that is, about this hidden speech (a parable is a hidden speech), the Lord first rebuked them, saying: "Are you really so incomprehensible?" but then He allowed them what was incomprehensible to them.

And departing from thence, he came to the borders of Tyre and Sidon; and when he entered into the house, he would not let anyone know; but he could not hide himself. For a woman heard of Him, whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, and when she came, she fell down at His feet; and the woman was a pagan, a Syrophoenician by birth; and she asked Him to cast out a demon from her daughter. But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs." And she answered and said to him, "Yes, Lord; But the dogs under the table also eat crumbs from children. And he said to her, For this word, go; A demon came out of your daughter. And when she came to her house, she found that the demon had come out and her daughter was lying on the bed.

After He had spoken about food and saw that the Jews did not believe, the Lord went over to the Gentiles, for because of the unbelief of the Jews, salvation had to pass to the Gentiles. At first, the Lord tried to hide Himself, so that the Jews would not have a pretext to accuse Him, as if He had joined the side of the unclean Gentiles. However, He could not hide Himself, for He could not hide Himself and not be recognized by anyone. The said woman, hearing about Him, reveals fervent faith. Therefore, the Lord does not immediately agree (to her request), but delays the gift, in order to show that the woman's faith is firm and that she waits patiently, despite the refusal. Let us also learn not to immediately abandon prayer when we do not immediately receive what we ask for, but to patiently continue prayer until we receive what we ask for. The Lord calls the Gentiles "dogs" because they were considered unclean by the Jews. "Bread" He calls the good deed appointed by God for the "children," that is, for the Jews. For this reason he says that the Gentiles should not share in the good that is prescribed for the Jews. And since the wife answered wisely and in faith, she received what she asked. The Jews, she says, have bread, that is, all of Thee that came down from heaven, and Thy blessings, but I ask for a "crumb," that is, a small portion of Thy blessings. But look how the Lord works! He did not say, "My power has saved you," but what did he say? "For this word," that is, for your faith, "Go, your daughter is healed." Learn a useful lesson from this. Each of us, when he commits a sin, is a "woman," that is, a weak soul. Such a soul is a "Phoenician woman," as having scarlet, that is, bloody and murderous sin. Such a soul has a "daughter" – evil actions, demonic actions. Being sinners, we are called "dogs" full of impurities, which is why we are unworthy to receive the "bread" of God, that is, to partake of the most pure Mysteries. But if we humbly realize that we are dogs, if we confess and reveal our sins, then our daughter will be healed, that is, the works of demons.

Leaving the borders of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus again went to the Sea of Galilee through the borders of the Decapolis. They brought to Him a deaf man with a tongue-tied tongue and asked Him to lay His hand on him. And Jesus took him aside from the people, and put his fingers into his ears, and spit, and touched his tongue. And he looked up to heaven, and sighed, and said to him, "Ephetha," that is, be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the bonds of his tongue were loosed, and he began to speak clearly. And he commanded them not to tell anyone. But no matter how much He rebuked them, they divulged them even more. And they were exceedingly amazed, and said, "He does all things well, and makes the deaf hear, and the dumb speak."

The Lord does not tarry in pagan places, but soon withdraws from them, lest, as I have said, give the Jews a reason to say of Himself that He is acting unlawfully, mixing with the Gentiles. Therefore, departing from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, He came to Galilee and there healed a deaf and dumb man, whose illness was caused by a demon. He takes "him aside," for He was not a lover of glory, humbling Himself to our poverty, and not wishing to perform miracles before many, except when the benefit of the spectators demanded it. "Spitting, he touched his tongue" as a sign that all parts of His holy flesh were divine and holy, so that even spitting loosed the bonds of the tongue. Any spittle is an excess (of juices), but in the Lord everything is wondrous and divine. Looking up to heaven, the Lord "sighed," on the one hand, in prayer to the Father, that He would have mercy on man, and as an example to us, that we, intending to do some good deed, should look to God and ask Him for help in doing it; and on the other hand, he sighs out of pity for human nature, how it is so devoted to the devil that it endures such mockery and suffering from him. That is why, when the Lord healed, the healed also preach about Him, despite the fact that He forbade them to do so and commanded them not to say anything. From this we also learn, when we do good to others, not to receive praise from them, and when we receive good deeds, to glorify the benefactors and to proclaim them, even if they do not desire it.

Chapter Eight

In those days, when a great multitude of people were gathered together and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, "I am sorry for the people, because they have been with Me for three days, and they have nothing to eat." If I let them go to their houses when they were not, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar. His disciples answered Him, "Where could anyone get loaves here in the wilderness to feed them?" And he asked them, "How many loaves of bread do you have?" They said: seven. Then he commanded the people to sit down on the ground; And having taken the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples, that they might give them. And they distributed it to the people. They also had a few fish: having blessed them, He ordered them to be distributed also. And they ate, and were satisfied; And they gathered up the seven baskets that remained of the pieces. And those who ate were about four thousand. And he let them go.

The Lord had already performed a similar miracle before. He works miracles even now, having a favorable opportunity for this. And it came to pass that the people were with Him for three days, and the food they had taken for the journey was exhausted. For the Lord did not always perform miracles on food, lest it be thought that the people were following Him for food. Even now he would not work miracles, if the people were not apparently in danger from lack of food. But look also at the disciples, how foolish they are yet and do not yet have faith in His power, although they have already seen miracles! However, the Lord does not rebuke them, teaching us not to attack the inexperienced too much, but to forgive them as those who do not understand. Consider also the fact that Christ does not want to let anyone go hungry, but wants to feed everyone with His gifts, and especially those who have been with Him for three days, that is, those who have been baptized. Since baptism is called enlightenment and is performed in three immersions, those who are enlightened by baptism turn out to be three-day. The Lord takes the "seven loaves," meaning the seven most spiritual words, for the number seven is the image of the Spirit. The Spirit brings everything to fruition, and our life and this age are completed in a sevenfold number. The enlightened eat, and are satisfied, and leave abundance, since not all of God's thoughts can contain. Above, at the miracle of the five loaves, there remained twelve baskets of surplus, since there were five thousand, which signified those who were subservient to the five senses; therefore they could not eat much, but were satisfied with little, so that there was much left in abundance. And here of the seven loaves there remained seven baskets and a small surplus, since the people were four thousand, which signify those who were established in the four virtues; and therefore, as the stronger ones, they ate much and left little, for they could not eat only that which was more spiritual and deeper, and this is the meaning of the seven baskets. From the history under consideration, learn also that we must be content with only what is necessary, and ask for nothing more. For behold, these people, having eaten and were satisfied, did not take with them the remnants of bread, but the disciples took them, as was the case with the aforesaid boxes. In the same way, we should be content with what is given, according to our need.

And straightway he entered into the boat with his disciples, and came to the borders of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees went out, began to argue with Him, and demanded a sign from heaven from Him, tempting Him. And he sighed deeply, and said, Why does this generation require a sign? Verily I say unto you, no sign shall be given unto this generation.