Did Jesus Make All Foods Clean?

Mark 7:19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)

Some have claimed that the phrase about making all foods clean is not in the original manuscripts. I’ve found the claim several places, but never with any indication of which manuscripts they have in mind.

The phrase appears in all the earliest and best manuscripts, includingא (Siniaticus – 4th Century), A (Alexandrinus – 5th Century), and B (Vaticanus – 4th Century), and many others. The first variation that appears is a manuscript from the 9th century (K) in which the phrase still appears, but one letter in the ending of the word “clean” is changed (an omicron is put in place of the omega – both letters are transliterated with the English letter “o”).

The UBS 3rd edition apparatus lists no manuscripts in which the phrase is omitted. And the rendering upon which all English Bibles’ translations of this verse are based is given an “A” rating in that apparatus, which is the rating that reflects the highest degree of certainty that the reading reflects exactly what was in the original.

The argument may come from the KJV supposedly omitting the phrase. It seems that the reasoning is that if the phrase isn’t in the KJV, then it must be missing from certain MSS. However the phrase is indeed in the KJV. It is translated “thus purging all meats.”

The idea that the phrase is omitted in some manuscripts is a myth.

Furthermore, the abolition of the kosher rules is made very clear again in Acts 10, where God commands Peter to eat non-kosher foods, Peter objects, and God says, 

“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15, 11:9)