Mark 6–7

Chapter 6

Teaching at Nazareth

^1aJesus went out from there and came into ^1bHis hometown; and His disciples followed Him.

²When the Sabbath came, He began ^ato teach in the synagogue; and the ^bmany listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such ¹miracles as these performed by His hands?

³“Is not this ^athe carpenter, ^bthe son of Mary, and brother of ¹James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not ^cHis sisters here with us?” And they took ^doffense at Him.

⁴Jesus said to them, “^aA prophet is not without honor except in ^1bhis hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

⁵And He could do no ¹miracle there except that He ^alaid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

⁶And He wondered at their unbelief.

^aAnd He was going around the villages teaching.

The Twelve Sent Out

^7aAnd ^bHe summoned the twelve and began to send them out ^cin pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits;

^8aand He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no ¹bag, no money in their belt—

⁹but ¹to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not put on two ²tunics.”

¹⁰And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you ¹leave town.

¹¹“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, ^ashake the dust ¹off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.”

^12aThey went out and ¹preached that men should repent.

¹³And they were casting out many demons and ^awere anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

John’s Fate Recalled

^14aAnd King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “^bJohn the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.”

¹⁵But others were saying, “He is ^aElijah.” And others were saying, “He is ^ba prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”

¹⁶But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

¹⁷For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of ^aHerodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her.

¹⁸For John had been saying to Herod, “^aIt is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

^19aHerodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so;

²⁰for ^aHerod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; ¹but he ²used to enjoy listening to him.

²¹A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday ^agave a banquet for his lords and ¹military commanders and the leading men ^bof Galilee;

²²and when the daughter of ^aHerodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and ¹his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.”

²³And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to ^ahalf of my kingdom.”

²⁴And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

²⁵Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of ¹his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her.

²⁷Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison,

²⁸and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.

²⁹When his disciples heard about this, they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb.

^30aThe ^bapostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.

³¹And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and ^athey did not even have time to eat.)

^32aThey went away in ^bthe boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Fed

³³The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

³⁴When Jesus went ¹ashore, He ^asaw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because ^bthey were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

³⁵When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “¹This place is desolate and it is already quite late;

³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves ¹something to eat.”

³⁷But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” ^aAnd they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^1bdenarii on bread and give them something to eat?”

³⁸And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

³⁹And He commanded them all to ¹sit down by groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰They ¹sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.

⁴¹And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^ablessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all.

⁴²They all ate and were satisfied,

⁴³and they picked up twelve full ^abaskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish.

⁴⁴There were ^afive thousand men who ate the loaves.

Jesus Walks on the Water

^45aImmediately Jesus made His disciples get into ^bthe boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to ^cBethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away.

⁴⁶After ^abidding them farewell, He left ^bfor the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land.

⁴⁸Seeing them ¹straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the ^2afourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.

⁴⁹But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out;

⁵⁰for they all saw Him and were ¹terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “^aTake courage; it is I, ^bdo not be afraid.”

⁵¹Then He got into ^athe boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished,

⁵²for ^athey ¹had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but ²their heart ^bwas hardened.

Healing at Gennesaret

^53aWhen they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.

⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him,

⁵⁵and ran about that whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to ¹the place they heard He was.

⁵⁶Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and imploring Him that they might just ^atouch ^bthe fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured.

Chapter 7

Followers of Tradition

^1aThe Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come ^bfrom Jerusalem,

²and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with ^aimpure hands, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they ¹carefully wash their hands, thus observing the ^atraditions of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they ¹cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the ²washing of ^acups and pitchers and copper pots.)

⁵The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the ^atradition of the elders, but eat their bread with ^bimpure hands?”

⁶And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘^aThis people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

⁷‘^aBut in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

⁸“Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the ^atradition of men.”

⁹He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your ^atradition.

¹⁰“For Moses said, ‘^aHonor your father and your mother’; and, ‘^bHe who speaks evil of father or mother, is to ¹be put to death’;

¹¹but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is ^aCorban (that is to say, ¹given to God),’

¹²you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother;

¹³thus invalidating the word of God by your ^atradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

The Heart of Man

¹⁴After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

¹⁶“¹If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered ^athe house, ^bHis disciples questioned Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and ¹is eliminated?” (Thus He declared ^aall foods ^bclean.)

²⁰And He was saying, “^aThat which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

²¹“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, ¹fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,

²²deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, ^1aenvy, slander, ²pride and foolishness.

²³“All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

The Syrophoenician Woman

^24aJesus got up and went away from there to the region of ^bTyre¹. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; ²yet He could not escape notice.

²⁵But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a ¹Gentile, of the…