Mark 2–3

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

²When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ²So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them.^{* 3}Then some people^s came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.^{* 4}And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, ⁷“Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”^{* 8}At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—¹¹“I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” ¹²And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”^*

Jesus Calls Levi

¹³Jesus^t went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.^{* 14}As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.^*

¹⁵And as he sat at dinner^u in Levi’s^v house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting^w with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶When the scribes of^x the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat^y with tax collectors and sinners?”^{* 17}When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”^*

The Question about Fasting

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people^z came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.^*

²¹“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²²Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”^a

Pronouncement about the Sabbath

²³One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.^{* 24}The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, ²⁶how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?”^{* 27}Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath,^{* 28}so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Man with a Withered Hand

³Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.^{* 2}They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.^{* 3}And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.^*

A Multitude at the Seaside

⁷Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him;^{* 8}hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon.^{* 9}He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him, ¹⁰for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.^{* 11}Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!”^{* 12}But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.^*

Jesus Appoints the Twelve

¹³He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.^{* 14}And he appointed twelve^b to be with him and to be sent out to preach ¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶So he appointed the twelve:^c Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),^{* 17}James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), ¹⁸and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who handed him over.

Jesus and Beelzebul

²⁰Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.^{* 21}When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”^{* 22}And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”^{* 23}And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?^{* 24}If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.^*

²⁸“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter,^{* 29}but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”—³⁰for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

The True Kindred of Jesus

³¹Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.^{* 32}A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers^d are outside asking for you.” ³³And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”