But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
Read Chapter 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Note how sharply he deals with them and how he delivers his rebuke. He rebukes with a view to their cure. He appeals to our common human nature when he says, “Whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on.” Even if it did abide for a while, it would not make one unclean. Yet they were not able to hear this. Because of this the lawgiver allows just so much time for the law to have effect. After it has gone through one’s system, it is dispelled. At evening he asks you to wash yourself and so be clean. The time of digesting and excreting is a limited time. But in matters of the heart, they abide within. He is not making a refutation of the goodness of the nature of things. Rather, Jesus is speaking of the difference between what proceeds from the stomach and what proceeds from the heart. One does not remain; the other does. One enters in from the outside. The other goes out from the inside, and having gone forth it may defile, and the more it goes out the more it ...
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...
