Mark 11:15–33

Jesus Drives Merchants from the Temple

^15aThen they ^*came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling ¹doves;

¹⁶and He was not permitting anyone to carry ¹merchandise through the temple.

¹⁷And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘^aMy house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? ^bBut you have made it a robbers’ ¹den.”

¹⁸And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and ^abegan seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for ^bthe whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.

^19aAnd when evening came, ¹they were going out of the city.

^20aAnd as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

²¹And being reminded, Peter ^*said to Him, “^aRabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”

²²And Jesus answered and ^*said to them, “^aHave faith in God.

²³“^aTruly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says ¹is going to happen, it will be granted him.

²⁴“For this reason I say to you, ^aall things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.

²⁵“And whenever you ^astand praying, ^bforgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.

^261a[“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

²⁷Then they ^*came again to Jerusalem. ^aAnd as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders ^*came to Him,

²⁸and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”

²⁹And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰“Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.”

³¹And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

³²“But if we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for everyone was regarding John to have been a real prophet.

³³And answering Jesus, they ^*said, “We do not know.” And Jesus ^*said to them, “Neither ¹will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”