Mark 3:7–30

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.”