Mark 2–5

1When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was at home.

2Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them.

3Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him.

4When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on.

5Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

6But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,

7“Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

9Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk’?

10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” —he said to the paralytic—

11“I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”

12He arose, and immediately took up the mat and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

13He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them.

14As he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him.

15He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

16The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

17When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

18John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

19Jesus said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.

20But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

21No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made.

22No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”

23He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.

24The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

25He said to them, “Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry—he, and those who were with him?

26How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”

27He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

28Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

1He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there whose hand was withered.

2They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.

3He said to the man whose hand was withered, “Stand up.”

4He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do harm? To save a life or to kill?” But they were silent.

5When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.

6The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

7Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples; and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea,

8from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him.

9He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t press on him.

10For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him.

11The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried, “You are the Son of God!”

12He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

13He went up into the mountain and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him.

14He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach

15and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:

16Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);

17James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder);

18Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;

19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then he came into a house.

20The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

21When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.”

22The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.”

23He summoned them and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

26If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can’t stand, but has an end.

27But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then he will plunder his house.

28“Most certainly I tell you, all sins of the descendants of man will be forgiven, including their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme;

29but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”

30—because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him.

32A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, “Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you.”

33He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

34Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers!

35For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother.”

1Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.

2He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,

3“Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow.

4As he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.

5Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.

6When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

8Others fell into the good ground and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some produced thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much.”

9He said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

11He said to them, “To you is given the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,

12that ‘seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.’”

13He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?

14The farmer sows the word.

15The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

16These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.

17They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.

18Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,

19and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

20Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”

21He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand?

22For there is nothing hidden except that it should be made known, neither was anything made secret but that it should come to light.

23If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”

24He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you; and more will be given to you who hear.

25For whoever has, to him more will be given; and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”

26He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,

27and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how.

28For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

29But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

30He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?

31It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,

32yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”

33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

34Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

36Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him.

37A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.

38He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

39He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm.

40He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

41They were greatly afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

1They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs.

3He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains,

4because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.

5Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.

6When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him,

7and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.”

8For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

9He asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

10He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding.

12All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”

13At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.

14Those who fed the pigs fled, and told it in the city and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.

15They came to Jesus, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

16Those who saw it declared to them what happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs.

17They began to beg him to depart from their region.

18As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.

19He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.”

20He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.

21When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea.

22Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet

23and begged him much, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live.”

24He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides.

25A certain woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years,

26and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse,

27having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes.

28For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

29Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

30Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

31His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

32He looked around to see her who had done this thing.

33But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”

35While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”

36But Jesus, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”

37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.

38He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.

39When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”

40They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying.

41Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!”

42Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement.

43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.