Mark 2:18-5:43

^2:18 And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹ And Yeshua said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. ²¹ No 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. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and the skins will be destroyed; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

²³ And it happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. ²⁴ And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

²⁵ And he said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? ²⁶ How he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the cohen hagadol, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the cohanim, and gave also to those who were with him?” ²⁷ And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

^3:1 And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered. ² And They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up in the middle.” ⁴ And he 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. ⁵ And when 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. ⁶ And the Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

⁷ And Yeshua withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a large crowd followed from Galilee, and from Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A large crowd, when they heard what great things he did, came to him. ⁹ And he told his disciples that a small boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they would not press on him. ¹⁰ For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him. ¹¹ And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and shouted, saying, “You are the Son of God.” ¹² And he sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

¹³ And he went up into the mountain, and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him. ¹⁴ And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach, ¹⁵ to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. ¹⁶ And he appointed the twelve. And to Simon he gave the name Peter; ¹⁷ and Jacob the son of Zebedee; and John the brother of Jacob (and he surnamed them Boanerges which means, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and Jacob the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

²⁰ And he came into a house, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. ²¹ And when his family heard it, they went out to take charge of him: for they said, “He is out of his mind.” ²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.”

²³ And so he summoned them, and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he will not be able to stand, but has an end. ²⁷ But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will plunder his house. ²⁸ Truly I tell you, all human sins will be forgiven, including their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme; ²⁹ but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin”— ³⁰ because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹ And then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. ³² And a crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ And he answered them, saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ And looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Look, my mother and my brothers. ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”

^4:1 And again he began to teach by the seaside. And a large crowd was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. And the whole crowd was on the land by the sea. ² And then he taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, ³ “Listen. Look, the sower who went out to sow. ⁴ And it happened, as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ And others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And when the sun came up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸ And others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and brought forth thirty times, and sixty times, and one hundred times.” ⁹ And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁰ And when he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, ¹² that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn and be forgiven.'”

¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all of the parables? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones by the road where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶ And these in a similar way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. Then, when oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. ¹⁸ And others are those who are sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ and the cares of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”

²¹ And he said to them, “Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not put on a stand? ²² For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

²⁴ And he said to them, “Consider carefully what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you. ²⁵ For whoever has, more will be given, and he who does not have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶ And he said, “The Kingdom of God is like someone who scatters seed on the earth, ²⁷ and he sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed springs up and grows; he doesn’t know how. ²⁸ The earth bears fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ And he said, “To what will we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable will we use for it? ³¹ It’s like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown upon the soil, though it is less than all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² And when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the garden plants, and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”

³³ And with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. ³⁴ And he did not speak to them without a parable; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

³⁵ And on that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. ³⁸ And he himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are dying?”

³⁹ And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace. Be still.” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ And he said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

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

^5:1 And they came to the other side of the sea, into the territory of the Gerasenes. ² And when he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. ³ He lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. No one had the strength to tame him. ⁵ And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Yeshua from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, ⁷ and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Yeshua, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.”

⁹ And then he asked him, “What is your name?”

And he replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he pleaded with Yeshua repeatedly not to send them away out of the region. ¹¹ Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. ¹² And they begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”

¹³ And he gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs; and the herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. ¹⁴ And those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country.

And the people went to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And they came to Yeshua, 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. ¹⁶ And those who saw it declared to them how it happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs. ¹⁷ And then they began to plead with Yeshua to leave their region.

¹⁸ As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons pleaded with him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ However, Yeshua did not allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your own, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”

²⁰ So he went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Yeshua had done great things for him, and everyone was amazed.

²¹ And when Yeshua had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a large crowd was gathered to him; and he was by the sea. ²² One of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet, ²³ and pleaded with him repeatedly, 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.”

²⁴ And he went with him, and a large crowd followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides. ²⁵ Now a woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse, ²⁷ having heard the things concerning Yeshua, came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his clothes. ²⁸ For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.” ²⁹ And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

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

³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?'”

³² He looked around to see her who had done this thing. ³³ But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.

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

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

³⁶ But Yeshua, overhearing the message spoken, said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him, except Peter, Jacob, and John the brother of Jacob. ³⁸ And they came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing. ³⁹ And when he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”

⁴⁰ And they 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. ⁴¹ And taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which translated means, “Little girl, I tell you, get up.” ⁴² And immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And he strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.