Exegetical Brief on Mark 7:19 "Who or what makes all foods clean?"

Abstract

Four words (καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα) bring Mark 7:19 to a close and are the focus of this exegetical brief. A straightforward translation is “cleansing all foods,” but the challenging question is “Who or what is it that makes all foods clean?” Many see καθαρίζων (a nominative singular present tense participle) as agreeing with the subject of the verb λέγει back at the start of verse 18. In other words, καθαρίζων is a circumstantial participle modifying λέγει and referring to what Jesus was doing while speaking the words recorded in vv 18-19. Thus the NIV translation: “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.”

However, there are problems with this interpretation such as the context which makes no mention of God’s Sinai declaration of unclean foods and the timing of the Jesus’ statement which would place his declaring all food clean before he fulfilled all the law. A better interpretation, as Professor Zell points out, is the most unadorned one. The phrase καθαρίζων πάντα τὰ βρώματα can simply be translated “cleansing all foods,” and it need not be placed in parentheses and regarded as an editorial aside. They connect with Jesus’ own words as he completes his illustration. The passage then reads, “Don’t you understand that nothing which comes from the outside and enters into the person is able to defile him, since it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach and passes out into the latrine, cleansing all foods.” Might the foods that arrived unwashed from the market place be prepared in unwashed pots and pans and eaten with unwashed hands by diners reclining on unwashed couches? (See Mark 7:1-4.) Do not be alarmed, Jesus is saying. Do not be so concerned about what manmade rituals demand. Your body has a remarkable process for purifying all foods and depositing the impurities in the outhouse. The heart is the source of evil and no ritual can make it clean because only Christ can cleanse the evil heart.