All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
For some things are joined to others in such a way as both to change and be changed, just as food, losing its former appearance, is both itself turned into our body, and we too are changed, and our strength is refreshed by it. Further, a most subtle liquid, after the food has been prepared and digested in our veins, and other arteries, by some hidden channels, called from a Greek word, pores, passes through us, and goes into the draught. Wherefore it goes on: “And He said, That which cometh out of a man, that defileth a man.”
This is an answer to those who consider that evil thoughts are simply injected by the devil and that they do not spring from our own will. He can add strength to our bad thoughts and inflame them, but he cannot originate them. .
For that man is a faulty hearer who considers what is obscure to be a clear speech, or what is clear to be obscurely spoken.
From this passage are condemned those men who suppose that thoughts are put into them by the devil, and do notarise from their own evil will. The devil may excite and help on evil thoughts, he cannot be their author.
It says therefore into his heart, that is, into his mind, which is the principal part of his soul, on which his whole life depends; wherefore it is necessary, that according to the state of his heart a man should be called clean or unclean, and thus whatsoever does not reach the soul, cannot bring pollution to the man.Meats therefore, since they do not reach the soul, cannot in their own nature defile a man; but an inordinate use of meats, which proceeds from a want of order in the mind, makes men unclean. But that meats cannot reach the mind, Heshews by that which He adds, saying, “But into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats.” This however He says, without referring to what remains from the food in the body, for that which is necessary for the nourishment and growth of the body remains. But that which is superfluous goes out, and thus as it were purges the nourishment, which remains.
The meaning of which He points out, when He subjoins, “for from within, out ...
Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. The Jews regard and murmur about only the bodily purification of the law; our Lord wishes to bring in the contrary. Wherefore it is said, “And when He had called all the people unto Him, He said unto them, Hearken unto Me every one, and understand: there is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him, but the things which come out of a man, those are they which defilea man;” that is, which make him unclean. The things of Christ have relation to theinner man, but those which are of the law are visible and external, to which, as being bodily, the cross of Christ was shortly to put an end.
Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. Again He subjoins, “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” For He had not clearly shown them, what those things are which proceed out of a man, and defile a man; and on account of this saying, the Apostles thought that the foregoing discourse of the Lord implied some other deep thing. Wherefore there follows: “And when He ...
But the intention of the Lordin saying this was to teach men, that the observing of meats, which the law commands, should not be taken in a carnal sense, and from this He began to unfold to them the intent of the law.
The Lord begins by chiding them, wherefore there follows, “Are ye so without understanding also?”.
Then the Lord shows them what was hidden, saying, “Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from withoutentereth into the man, it cannot make him common? "The principal seat of the soul according to Plato is the brain, but according to Christ, it is in the heart.
An evil eye, that is, hatred and flattery, for he who hates turns an evil and envious eye on him whom he hates, and a flatterer, looking askance at his neighbour’s goods, leads him into evil; blasphemies, that is, faults committed against God; pride, that is, contempt of God, when a man ascribes the good, which he does, not to God, butto his own virtue; foolishness, that is, an injury against one’s neighbour.
