But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
All Commentaries on Matthew 15:18 Go To Matthew 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Do you see how sharply He deals with them, and in the way of rebuke?
Then He establishes His saying by our common nature, and with a view to their cure. For when He says, It goes into the belly, and is cast out into the draught, he is still answering according to the low views of the Jews. For He says, it abides not, but goes out: and what if it abode? It would not make one unclean. But not yet were they able to hear this.
And one may remark, that because of this the lawgiver allows just so much time, as it may be remaining within one, but when it is gone forth, no longer. For instance, at evening He bids you wash yourself, and so be clean; measuring the time of the digestion, and of the excretion. Leviticus 11:24-25 But the things of the heart, He says, abide within, and when they are gone forth they defile, and not when abiding only. And first He puts our evil thoughts, a kind of thing which belonged to the Jews; and not as yet does He make His refutation from the nature of the things, but from the manner of production from the belly and the heart respectively, and from the fact that the one sort remains, the other not; the one entering in from without, and departing again outwards, while the others are bred within, and having gone forth they defile, and then more so, when they are gone forth. Because they were not yet able, as I said, to be taught these things with all due strictness.
