since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
One great design of Christ's coming, was, to set aside the ceremonial law which God made, and to put an end to it; to make way for which he begins with the ceremonial law which men had made, and added to the law of God's making, and discharges his disciples from the obligation of that; which here he doth fully, upon occasion of the offence...
Commenting on Mark 7:1-23
And he said,.... Continued to say in his discourse; though this is left but in the Syriac version; that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man; meaning, not his excrements, which were unclean by the law, Deu 23:13 but what comes out of his heart, by his mouth; or is expressed in action, as appears by what follows; See Gill on Mat 15:18.
Verse 19. Entereth not into his heart. Does not reach or affect the mind, the soul, and consequently cannot pollute it. Even if it should affect the body, yet it cannot the soul, and consequently cannot need to be cleansed by a religious ordinance. The notions of the Pharisees, therefore, are not founded in reason, but are mere superstition. The draught. The sink, the vault.