² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”^(A)

⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders^(A) instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.^(A)

¹⁴ “Surely not, Lord!”^(A) Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”^(B)

²⁸ He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile.^(A) But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.^(B)

⁸ “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.^(A) But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.^(B)

²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(A) underfoot,^(B) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(C) that sanctified them,^(D) and who has insulted the Spirit^(E) of grace?^(F)

²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,^(A) but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.^(B)