Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Study Note
Study Note
Jesus' statement that 'out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies' radically relocates the source of defilement from external ingestion (the Pharisaic hand-washing debate of vv. 1–11) to internal moral disposition. The catalog of seven evils from the heart partially overlaps with the Decalogue (murder, adultery, theft, false witness) while adding items (evil thoughts, fornication, blasphemy) that extend the moral analysis inward. The anthropological claim — that the heart is the seat of moral corruption before the hand acts — echoes Jeremiah 17:9 ('the heart is deceitful above all things') and grounds the need for Ezekiel's new heart and the new birth of John 3. The verse became a cornerstone for Christian anthropology's diagnosis of the human condition and for Reformed doctrines of total depravity.
Other Translations
For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings:
for out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, whoredoms, thefts, false witnessings, evil speakings:
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, the taking of life, broken faith between the married, unclean desires of the flesh, taking of property, false witness, bitter words:
Cross References
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting …
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and …
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within …
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you …
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,