These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashed hands defiles not a man.
All Commentaries on Matthew 15:20 Go To Matthew 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
De Vera Relig., 40: The nourishment of the body being first changed into corruption, that is, having lost its proper form, is absorbed into the substance of the limbs, and repairs their waste, passing through a medium into another form, and by the spontaneous motion of the parts is so separated, that such portions as are adapted for the purpose are taken up into the structure of this fair visible, while such as are unfit are rejected through their own passages. One part consisting of faeces is restored to earth to reappear again in new forms; another part goes off in perspiration; and another is taken up bythe nervous system for the purposes of reproduction of the species.
de Trin., xv, 10: And the Lord includes herein man’s two mouths, one of the body, one of the heart. For when He says, “Not all that goeth into the mouthdefileth a man,” He clearly speaks of the body’s mouth; but in that which follows, He alludes to the mouth of the heart; “But those things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile a man.”
