Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2 And when he returned to ^tCapernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 ^uAnd they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, ^vthey removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus ^wsaw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, ^xyour sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? ^yHe is blaspheming! ^zWho can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 And immediately Jesus, ^aperceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that ^bthe Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— 11 “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and ^cglorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Jesus Calls Levi

13 He went out again beside the sea, and ^dall the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 ^eAnd as he passed by, he saw ^fLevi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many ^gtax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And ^hthe scribes of¹ the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ^g“Why does he eat² with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ⁱI came not to call the righteous, ^jbut sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

18 Now ^kJohn’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^l“Why do John’s disciples and ^mthe disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, ⁿ“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 ^oThe days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^pthen they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old ^qwineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”³

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

23 ^rOne Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples ^sbegan to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, ^twhy are they doing ^uwhat is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, ^v“Have you never read ^wwhat David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of^{4 x}Abiathar the high priest, and ate ^ythe bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, ^z“The Sabbath was made for man, ^anot man for the Sabbath. 28 So ^bthe Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

3 ^cAgain ^dhe entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And ^ethey watched Jesus,¹ to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, ^f“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he ^glooked around at them with anger, grieved at ^htheir hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” ⁱHe stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 ^jThe Pharisees went out and immediately ^jheld counsel with ^kthe Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

7 ^lJesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ^ma great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and ⁿIdumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around ^oTyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to ^phave a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they ^qcrush him, 10 for ^rhe had healed many, so that all who had ^sdiseases pressed around him ^tto touch him. 11 ^uAnd whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they ^vfell down before him and cried out, “You are ^wthe Son of God.” 12 And ^xhe strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

13 ^yAnd he went up on the mountain and called to him those ^zwhom he desired, and they came to him. 14 ^yAnd he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 ^yand have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: ^aSimon (to whom ^bhe gave the name Peter); 17 ^cJames the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and ^dMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,² 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

20 Then he went ^ehome, and the crowd gathered again, ^fso that they could not even eat. 21 ^gAnd when ^hhis family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He ⁱis out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

22 And ^jthe scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ^k“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 ^lAnd he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 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 cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But ^mno one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. ⁿThen indeed he may plunder his house.

28 ^o“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever ^pblasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers

31 ^qAnd his mother and his ^rbrothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers³ are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And ^slooking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 ^tFor whoever ^udoes the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again ^vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, ^wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And ^xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! ^yBehold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And ^zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ^ait withered away. 7 Other seed fell among ^bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ^ca hundredfold.” 9 And he said, ^d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

10 And ^ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, ^f“To you has been given ^gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for ^hthose outside everything is in parables, 12 ⁱso that

13 ^lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 ^mThe sower sows ⁿthe word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it ^owith joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but ^pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^qthey fall away.¹ 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but ^rthe cares of ^sthe world and ^tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ^ubear fruit, ^vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

A Lamp Under a Basket

21 ^wAnd he said to them, ^x“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 ^yFor nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 ^zIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: ^awith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 ^bFor to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The Parable of the Seed Growing

26 And he said, ^c“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; ^dhe knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once ^ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 ^fAnd he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like ^ga grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

33 ^hWith many such parables he spoke ⁱthe word to them, ^jas they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them ^kwithout a parable, but ^lprivately to his own disciples he ^mexplained everything.

Jesus Calms a Storm

35 ⁿOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves ^owere breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and ^prebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and ^qthere was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you ^rso afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ^s“Who then is this, that even ^tthe wind and the sea obey him?”

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

5 ^uThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.¹ 2 And when Jesus² had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 ^vHe lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and ^wfell down before him. 7 And ^xcrying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ^ySon of ^zthe Most High God? ^aI adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is ^bLegion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed³ man, the one who had had ^cthe legion, sitting there, ^dclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And ^ethey began to beg Jesus⁴ to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and ^ftell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in ^gthe Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus’s Daughter

21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 ^hThen came one of ⁱthe rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and ^jlay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and ^kthronged about him. 25 And there was a woman ^lwho had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 ^mAnd immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ⁿdisease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that ^opower had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, ^pyour faith has made you well; ^pgo in peace, and be healed of your ⁿdisease.”

35 While he was still speaking, there came from ^qthe ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why ^rtrouble ^sthe Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing⁵ what they said, Jesus said to ^qthe ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except ^tPeter and James and ^uJohn the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus⁶ saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, ^v“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but ^wsleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he ^xput them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 ^yTaking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, ^zarise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And ^ahe strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

6 ^bHe went away from there and came to ^chis hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And ^don the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and ^emany who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 ^fIs not this ^gthe carpenter, the son of Mary and ^hbrother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And ⁱthey took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, ^j“A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And ^khe could do no mighty work there, except that ^lhe laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And ^mhe marveled because of their unbelief.

ⁿAnd he went about among the villages teaching.

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

7 ^oAnd he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to ^pwear sandals and not put on two tunics.¹ 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, ^qshake off the dust that is on your feet ^ras a testimony against them.” 12 ^sSo they went out and ^tproclaimed ^uthat people should repent. 13 ^tAnd they cast out many demons and ^vanointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.