Mark

Chapter 1

John the Baptist prepares God’s people for Jesus’ coming

^1-2 The following is the Good News ^[1] about Christ ^[2] Jesus, God’s Son. ^[3] This event began as it was previously written by the Prophet Isaiah in his book. He wrote what God said to His Son,

     “Take notice: I’ll send a messenger first, so that he prepares the way before I send You.” ^[1]

     ³ That man will teach with a loud voice in the desert, saying,

         “Let’s prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming! And let’s be prepared to meet Him.” ^[2]

⁴ Long after that, the man that the Lord spoke about came to the desert. His name was John. He taught the people who came to him and said, “Each one of you must repent of your sins so that God will forgive you. And to show that you want to keep following the Lord, come to me so that I can baptize ^[4] you.” ⁵ Then a crowd from the whole province of Judea and also from the city of Jerusalem came to John at the Jordan River. They all confessed their sins to God, and then John baptized them there. ⁶ John’s lifestyle was like that of the Prophet Elijah in times past. John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair and his belt was made from animal skin. And he often ate locusts and honey.

⁷ He also spoke to them like this, “In a short time, a Person who is more powerful than I am will come. I’m actually unworthy to serve Him, not even to stoop down and untie the strap of His sandal. ^{[5] 8} I’m only baptizing you with water now, but He who is more powerful than I am will come to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John the Baptist baptizes Jesus

⁹ Sometime later, Jesus came from the village of Nazareth, which was in the province of Galilee. Then John baptized Him in the Jordan River. ¹⁰ When Jesus came out of the water, He suddenly saw heaven open up and God’s Spirit descend on Him in the form of a dove. ¹¹ Then God’s voice was heard from heaven which said, “You’re My Son, whom I love very much, and You please My heart.”

Jesus is tempted by the devil

¹² After that, God’s Spirit immediately led Jesus to a lonely region. ¹³ For forty days, Jesus stayed in that lonely region, where there were many wild animals. And at that time, the devil tried to tempt Him over and over again, but he never succeeded. Then angels came to serve Jesus.

Jesus begins His work

¹⁴ After John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus went to the region of Galilee and began teaching the Good News of God there. ¹⁵ Jesus said, “Repent and believe in the Good News, because it’s almost time for God to set up His kingdom in this world.”

¹⁶ While Jesus was walking by the shore of Lake Galilee, He saw two fishermen throwing their net into the lake. They were Simon, who was also called Peter, ^[6] and his younger brother, Andrew. ¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Come and follow Me. Your work isn’t going to be catching fish anymore, but I’ll teach you to catch people so that they become My followers.” ¹⁸ At that very moment, they left their net and followed Jesus. ^19-20 Jesus walked a little farther away from there, and He saw two more fishermen who were mending their net in a boat. They were James and his younger brother, John, the sons of Zebedee. As soon as Jesus saw them, He immediately called them. At that very moment, they left Zebedee and some of his workers too, and then followed Jesus.

Jesus drives an evil spirit out of a man of Capernaum

²¹ After that, Jesus and His disciples went to the city of Capernaum. On the Sabbath Day, He entered the Jewish meeting house ^[7] and taught there. ²² Everyone who heard His teaching was very amazed because He spoke like a leader who had the authority to rule. His teaching wasn’t like the teaching of the Law experts.

²³ Then suddenly a man who was controlled by an evil spirit came in and shouted, ²⁴ “Hey, Jesus the Nazarene, you ^[8] have no business with us! Have you come to destroy us? I already know who you are; you’re the holy messenger from God.” ²⁵ Then Jesus immediately ordered the evil spirit, “Be quiet! Come out of that man!” ²⁶ The evil spirit shook the man really hard, and while shouting, it left the man. ²⁷ Everyone who saw that happen was really amazed. Then they said to each other, “Wow! That's amazing! This is a new teaching! This man has authority so that the evil spirits obey Him.” ²⁸ Then the news about Jesus spread very quickly throughout the whole province of Galilee.

Jesus heals many people

²⁹ When Jesus and His four disciples left the synagogue, they immediately entered Simon and Andrew’s house. James and John went too. ³⁰ And when they went in, someone told Jesus that Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed because she was sick with a fever. ³¹ So Jesus went to her, took her hand and helped her to sit up. At that very moment, her fever disappeared. Then she got up and served them. ³² That evening, when it was almost dark, ^[9] people in that city brought all of the people to Jesus who were sick and controlled by demons. ³³ Almost all of the residents of the city of Capernaum gathered in front of Simon and Andrew’s house. ³⁴ Then Jesus healed them of all kinds of diseases. He also drove out demons who controlled those people. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew who He was. ^[10]

Jesus tells the Good News in the province of Galilee

³⁵ The next morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went to a quiet place to pray. ³⁶ When Simon and his friends saw that Jesus wasn’t in the house, they went to look for Him. ³⁷ After they found Him they said, “Sir, let’s go home because everyone’s looking for You.”

³⁸ But He answered, “It’s better for us to go to another place, to the other villages in this region so that I can teach the Good News there too, because that’s why I came.” ³⁹ So He went everywhere in the province of Galilee and taught in their meeting houses. He also drove out many demons from people.

Jesus heals a man with a contagious skin disease

⁴⁰ At that time, there was a person who had a contagious skin disease. ^[11] He came and knelt down in front of Jesus and said, “Sir, if You want to, You can heal me for sure.”

⁴¹ Jesus had so much compassion for that man, so He touched him ^[12] while saying, “I want to heal you. Be healed!” ⁴² At that very moment, the skin disease disappeared and the man was truly healed.

⁴³ Then Jesus immediately ordered him to go and strictly forbid him, saying, ⁴⁴ “Don’t tell anyone at all about what happened to you. Go first to one of the priests and show your body to him. Then give an offering to God, like what Moses commanded everyone who has been healed from a skin disease to do. ^[13] In that way, everyone will know that you’re truly healed.”

⁴⁵ But the man went everywhere and told everyone about what had happened, that Jesus had healed him. For that reason, Jesus didn’t want to openly enter the city anymore. So He and His disciples stayed in quiet regions outside the city. Even so, people continued to come to Him from everywhere.

Chapter 2

Jesus heals a paralyzed man

¹ After several days, Jesus returned to the city of Capernaum. So the news that Jesus had returned spread quickly in the city. ² Then many people came and gathered to hear Him teach about God's Word. The house was full of so many people that there wasn’t even room to stand in front of the door. ³ Meanwhile, four men came to Him carrying a paralyzed man on a mattress. ⁴ But because there were too many people, they weren’t able to carry him directly to Jesus. So they carried him on the mattress up to the roof of the house, and opened it up at the exact place where Jesus was. Then they let the paralyzed man down with the mattress, in front of Jesus. ⁵ When Jesus saw them do that, He knew that the men fully believed that He had power to heal the paralyzed man. So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Young man, I’ve forgiven your sins.”

⁶ But there were some Law experts sitting there. When they heard Jesus say that, they found fault with Him, thinking, ⁷ “This man is too daring to speak like that! He has insulted God! No one can forgive the sins of man, except God Himself.”

⁸ At that very moment, Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he rebuked them, “I know that you have doubts in your hearts about what I said! ⁹ You certainly have had trouble accepting that I told this paralyzed man, ‘I’ve forgiven your sins.’ Will it be easier for you to accept it if I say to him, ‘Get up, pick up your mattress and go home’? ¹⁰ But by saying that I’m proving to you that I, as the Son of Man, ^[1] have the right to forgive people’s sins!” Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ¹¹ “Get up, pick up your mattress and go home!” ¹² At that very moment, the paralyzed man got up, picked up his mattress, and went out of that house. Everyone who saw it was really amazed, and they praised God saying, “We’ve never seen a miracle like this!”

Jesus calls Matthew

¹³ When Jesus returned again to the shore of Lake Galilee, many people came to Him, so He taught them. ¹⁴ After teaching, while Jesus was walking away from that place, He saw a government official who was sitting in his booth. The man’s job was to collect taxes ^[2] from the people to give to the Roman government. His name was Matthew, ^[3] and he was the son of Alphaeus. Jesus approached him and said, “Come and follow Me!” At that very moment, Matthew got up and followed Jesus as He went on his way.

¹⁵ Then Jesus and His disciples ate supper at Matthew’s house. Matthew’s co-workers, and other people who were also considered to be sinners, ^[4] were eating there. At that time, many other people who weren’t considered to be good often followed Jesus. ¹⁶ There were some Law experts there at the time, who were also members of the religious group called the Pharisees. ^[5] They came and saw that Jesus and His disciples were eating with people who were considered to be sinners. So they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?”

¹⁷ When Jesus heard their words, He said to them, “A healthy person doesn’t need to go to a doctor. A sick person is the one who needs to go to a doctor. It’s the same with Me. I came to call sinful people to repent, not people who feel they’re righteous!”

Jesus answers a question about why His disciples don’t fast

¹⁸ On another day, John the Baptist’s disciples were fasting as was the tradition of the Jewish forefathers. The members of the Pharisee group were also fasting. So some people came to Jesus and said, “John's disciples often fast. The members of the Pharisee group do too. Why don't Your disciples?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered by giving an example that shows a similarity, “The guests at a wedding feast would never be ordered to fast as long as the groom was still with them! In the same way, as long as I’m with My disciples, they won’t fast either. ²⁰ But think about what will happen if the groom is killed by his enemies. That’s what will happen to Me, and at that time My disciples will fast, as a sign of mourning.”

²¹ Then Jesus gave them two more examples: “If a person has an old tunic that’s already torn, he can’t patch the tunic with new cloth, because if the tunic is washed, the new cloth patch will shrink, and it’ll make the torn part tear even more.

²² It’s like that with new wine too. ^[6] That wine can’t be put into an old leather bag because when the wine produces gas and the gas can’t get out, the bag will burst. In the end, the wine will be spilled and the leather bag will just be thrown away. For that reason, new wine must be put into a new leather bag.” ^[7]

Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath

²³ On the Sabbath Day, Jesus and His disciples were walking through a large wheat field. Because they were hungry, His disciples picked some stalks of wheat and ate the grains. ²⁴ At the time, some Pharisees saw them and said to Jesus, “Why did Your disciples do that?! They’re breaking the rules of the Sabbath Day.”

²⁵ So Jesus answered them, “You already know the story about David, of course, when he and the men who were with him were in trouble and were hungry. ²⁶ David went into the Lord’s Tabernacle to ask for bread from Abiathar, who was serving as high priest at the time. The bread that he gave to David was the bread that was always put in the Holy Place in the Lord’s Tabernacle. And according to the Law of Moses, that bread could only be eaten by the priests. ^[3] But because they needed it, no one considers what David did to be a sin.”

²⁷ Then Jesus spoke to the Pharisees again, “The Lord created the Sabbath Day to help people, not to make men's lives slaves of the Sabbath Day! ²⁸ In the same way, I as the Son of Man, am the Lord who has authority to determine everything, including what may or may not be done on the Sabbath Day.”

Chapter 3

Jesus heals a man with a paralyzed hand on the Sabbath Day

¹ When Jesus went into a Jewish meeting house again, ^[1] there was a man there whose hand was paralyzed. ² There were some Pharisees there too, ^[2] who were watching Jesus closely, because they had already planned to report Him to the Jewish leaders if He healed that man on the Sabbath Day.

³ Then Jesus said to the man whose hand was paralyzed, “Come and stand up here in front.” ⁴ So Jesus asked them, “What are we allowed to do on the Sabbath Day according to the Law of Moses? Are we allowed to do good or to do evil? Are we allowed to save a person’s life or to kill a person?” No one answered.

⁵ Then Jesus looked around at those people in anger. But He also felt sad because they were so hard-headed. So He said to the man whose hand was paralyzed, “Stretch out your hand in front of you!” Then the man stretched out his hand, and he was immediately healed! ⁶ After the Pharisees left the meeting house, they immediately met with King Herod’s friends to make plans for how to kill Jesus.

Jesus heals many people by the lakeshore

⁷ After that, Jesus and His disciples left that place and went to Lake Galilee. Many people, that is people from the provinces of Galilee and Judea, followed behind them. ⁸ And there were those who came from Jerusalem, from the region of Idumea, and from the region on the eastern side of the Jordan River too. There were also some from the region around Tyre and Sidon. They all came because they had heard about the amazing things Jesus had done.

⁹ When Jesus saw how many people had gathered, he ordered His disciples, “Get a boat ready so that I can teach from the boat. If I teach from here, I’ll get crushed.” ¹⁰ Jesus healed many sick people that day, but there were still many other sick people who were pushing each other to get near Him and touch Him. ¹¹ And there were people who were controlled by evil spirits too. When the evil spirits saw Jesus, those who were controlled by the spirits immediately fell to the ground and shouted, “You’re God’s Son!” ¹² But Jesus forbid the evil spirits with a loud voice not to tell about Him.

Jesus chooses twelve people to become His apostles

^13-14 After that, Jesus went up a hill and called the twelve people that He had chosen and they came to Him. He appointed them to be His apostles so that they would be with Him, and they could also be sent out to spread the news of salvation. ¹⁵ He gave them power to cast out demons too.

¹⁶ The names of the twelve apostles that were chosen were

Simon, to whom Jesus gave the new name “Peter”,

¹⁷ and the two sons of Zebedee, namely James and John. Jesus also gave them a new name, “Boanerges.” That name means “Sons of Thunder.” ^[3]

¹⁸ And the others were Andrew, Philip,

     Bartholomew, Matthew,

     Thomas, and also James, the son of Alphaeus,

     Thaddaeus, and Simon, who had followed the freedom movement that fought for Israel to be free from Roman colonization,

     ¹⁹ and Judas who came from the village of Cariot. He was the one who later betrayed Jesus.

According to the Law experts, Jesus worked by the power of Satan

²⁰ After that, Jesus returned to the house where He usually stayed. But many people gathered there again, so Jesus and His disciples had no time at all to rest, or even to eat. ²¹ At the time, there were people who said, “Jesus is crazy.” When His family heard that, they began to travel there to force Jesus to come home.

²² But there were also Law experts who came from Jerusalem, and they said, “Jesus is controlled by the devil, who is also called Beelzebul. ^[4] So it’s the devil who gives Jesus power to drive out demons.”

²³ For that reason Jesus called the crowd together and started telling them, “It isn’t possible for the devil to drive out the spirits that are on his side.” ^[5] Then Jesus taught them by using several illustrations: ^24-26 Satan’s cohorts can’t possibly be divided and oppose each other. This can be illustrated by a country or a family. If they oppose each other and go to war against each other, that country or family will be destroyed. So it’s clear that the devil can’t give power to Me to drive out the spirits that are on his side. If that happened, the devil’s kingdom would be destroyed. ²⁷ I’m here as the devil’s enemy and came to snatch his possessions from him. No one is brave enough to simply go in and steal from a very strong person’s house. Before going in, he has to tie up the strong person first and only then can he go into his house and steal his possessions.

²⁸ “I’m speaking the truth. God is ready to forgive people of all kinds of sins, including the sin of insulting Him. ²⁹ But people who insult the Holy Spirit ^[6] will never be forgiven by God for such a great sin. They have to bear that sin forever.” ³⁰ Jesus said this because of the people who had insulted Him by saying, “Jesus is controlled by an evil spirit.”

The character of people whom Jesus considers to be His family

³¹ At that very moment, Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived at the house and were waiting outside. They asked people to call Him. ³² At the time, Jesus was sitting inside the house, surrounded by a crowd of people. Then some people told Him, “Teacher, your mother and your brothers want to meet with you. They’re waiting outside.”

³³ But Jesus answered, “Now I’ll show you the people I consider to be My mother and My brothers and sisters!” ^{[7] 34} Then He looked at the people who were sitting near Him and said, “People like these are the ones I consider to be My mother and My brothers and sisters, ³⁵ that is the people who obey the will of God. They’re the ones whom I consider to be My mother, My brothers and My sisters.”

Chapter 4

The parable about the scattered seeds

¹ Another time, when Jesus was teaching by the shore of Lake Galilee, a large crowd gathered around Him. So He got into a boat that was anchored there and He sat down in it, while the crowd still stood on the shore. ² Then Jesus taught them many things using different parable like the following.

³ He said, “Listen closely! One day a farmer went to scatter seeds in a field. ⁴ When he scattered the seeds, some of it fell on the road and the birds came and ate those seeds until they were all gone. ⁵ Some also fell on rocky ground, and the sprouts from those seeds came up quickly because of the thin layer of soil. ⁶ When the sun got hot, the sprouts withered and dried up because their roots couldn’t go down deep into the soil. ⁷ There were also some seeds that fell among thorny weeds, but those weeds grew bigger and prevented the plant shoots from growing. So in the end they didn’t produce anything. ⁸ But some also fell on fertile soil. Those seeds sprouted, grew big, and produced a lot of grain. There were some stalks that produced thirty grains, some produced sixty grains, and there were even some that produced a hundred grains.” ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “You have ears, don’t you!? So listen closely!”

The reason Jesus taught by using parables

¹⁰ When Jesus was alone, His disciples and some people who heard that parable came to Him and said, “We still don’t understand the meaning of that last parable.”

¹¹ Then He said to them, “In the past, people weren't allowed to understand the teachings about God’s kingdom. ^[1] You have now been given permission to understand these secret things. But I always teach others these things through parables. ¹² God wants what the prophet wrote to come true, when God said,

     ‘Even though these people see many miracles,

         they won’t realize what’s happening.

     And even though they continually hear teachings,

         they won’t understand them.

     Don’t let them repent and return to Me,

         so that I forgive them!” ^[4]

Jesus explains the parable of the scattered seed

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “How could you not understand the meaning of that parable?! When I teach you again some other time with a parable like that, you still won’t understand.” ¹⁴ Then Jesus explained the parable saying,

“The person who scattered the seed is like a person who spreads God's teachings.

¹⁵ The seeds that fell on the road are like people who’ve just heard God's teaching, but the devil comes and steals that teaching from their hearts.

¹⁶ And the seeds that fell on the rocky ground are like people who hear God’s teaching and immediately receive it gladly. ¹⁷ But the teaching can’t take root in their hearts and doesn’t last long. When they experience trouble or persecution because of following the teaching, they quickly abandon the Lord.

¹⁸ In the same way, the seeds that fell among thorny grass are like people who’ve heard God's teaching, ¹⁹ but they worry about the basic needs of life in this world, and they’re influenced because they want to become rich. So they’re busy seeking all the various things they want. All of those desires are like thorny grass that hinders the teaching so that it isn’t productive in their lives.

²⁰ And the seeds that fell on fertile ground are like people who hear teaching from God and accept it wholeheartedly. Like the fertile soil, they produce much fruit, ^[2] like a plant that produces thirty, or sixty, or even a hundred grains.”

We have to understand Jesus’ teachings

²¹ Then Jesus said to them again, “A person would never put a lamp that’s lit under a pail! You would never put it under a bed either. But a lamp is always put in a high place so that it can give light in the house. ²² It’s the same with all the lessons that I teach to the crowds through parables. The meaning is kept hidden now, but later on everything will be out in the open. What isn’t clear now will become clear later on. ²³ Then Jesus said to them, “You have ears, don’t you! So listen closely!”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to them again, “Each of you must hold what I’m teaching you closely in your hearts, because as you try to understand My teaching, God will also increase your ability to understand it. In fact, He’ll add even more wisdom. ²⁵ So for the person who has the ability to understand My teaching, God will increase that ability even more. But for people who don’t try to remember and understand My teaching, God will take that ability away from them.

Two parables about the growth of God’s kingdom in the world

²⁶ Then Jesus gave them another parable. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who scatters wheat seeds in his field. ²⁷ After scattering the seeds, he goes on and lives life as usual. He lives day and night without worrying about those seeds. The seeds sprout on their own and keep growing, but the farmer doesn’t understand how the seeds can grow. ²⁸ Without the farmer’s help, the wheat seeds that were scattered on the ground will grow on their own and produce fruit. First the seeds sprout, then small grass-like stalks will grow. The stalks will grow bigger, and then the heads will grow, which will finally become full of grains. ²⁹ But when the crop is ripe, the farmer will know that it’s time to harvest it, and he’ll quickly take a scythe and cut it down.

God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed

³⁰ Then Jesus said to them again, “To make it even clearer, I’ll give you another parable to illustrate God’s kingdom for you. ³¹ God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed. ^[3] Even though it’s the smallest seed in the world, ³² when it’s planted, it’ll become the biggest plant in the garden. The plant will grow large branches so that birds can make nests and take shelter there.”

³³ Jesus used many parables like that to teach them, because in that way they were able to understand. ³⁴ He always used parables to teach the crowds, but when Jesus was alone with His disciples, He explained the meaning of everything that was illustrated in the parables.

Jesus stops a storm

³⁵ That same day, when it was almost night, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So they went and left the crowd behind, using the boat that Jesus had used for teaching. There were other boats that followed them too. ³⁷ Suddenly a strong wind and big waves came and beat against the boat, so that it rocked the boat, and water poured in until it was almost full. ³⁸ At the time, Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat with His head on a pillow. Then His disciples woke Him up and said, “Teacher, why don’t you care?! We’re going to sink soon and be destroyed!”

³⁹ Then Jesus woke up and commanded the wind and the lake, “Stop, and be quiet!” At that very moment, the strong wind stopped and the lake became very calm. ⁴⁰ Then He said to them, “Why do you get frightened so easily? It’s clear now that you don’t yet believe in Me!”

⁴¹ They became really afraid of Him and respected Him, and then said to each other, “Wow, what kind of man is this?! ^[4] Even the wind and the lake obey his command.”

Chapter 5

Jesus drives evil spirits out of a man from the Gerasenes

¹ Then Jesus and His disciples arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region around the city of Gergesa. ^{[1] 2} When Jesus got out of the boat, a man controlled by an evil spirit immediately came to Him from where he lived in a graveyard ^[2] that had caves. ³ The man used the caves in the graveyard as his place to live, and he was very dangerous. The Gerasene people had often tied him up, but he could get loose, even when he was bound with iron chains. ⁴ When his feet and hands were bound with iron chains, he broke the chains, and smashed the chain on his feet until it broke. No one could restrain him. ⁵ The man was in the graveyard caves and surrounding hills day and night. And He often screamed out and cut his body with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from far away, he ran and knelt down in front of Him. ^7-8 Then Jesus said repeatedly to the evil spirits, “Hey you evil spirits, get out of that man!” Then the man cried out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Son of the most high God, why are you ^[3] bothering me? I beg you to promise in God’s name that you won’t torture me.”

⁹ Then Jesus asked, “What’s your name?”

The demons who were inside the man answered, “Battalion, ^[4] because we who control him are many.” ¹⁰ And the demons begged Jesus over and over again not to chase them away from that region.

¹¹ At that time, there was a large herd of domestic pigs feeding on the side of a steep hill. ¹² So the evil spirits begged Jesus, “Give us permission to enter those pigs.” ¹³ Then Jesus agreed, and the evil spirits immediately went out of the man and entered the pigs. Then the pigs ran quickly and fell off the side of the slope into the lake, and drowned. The total number of pigs was about two thousand.

¹⁴ When the pig herders saw what had happened, they ran and told about it in the city and in the surrounding region. Then the people who heard the news went to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to the place where Jesus was, they saw the man who had been controlled by those evil spirits sitting calmly, and wearing clothes. His sane thinking had returned. Seeing what had happened made them afraid of Jesus. ¹⁶ And the pig herders, who had seen what happened themselves told what had happened to the people who had just come, too. ¹⁷ After that, they asked Jesus to leave their region.

¹⁸ When Jesus got into the boat, the man who had been called Battalion asked Jesus over and over again if he could go with Him. ¹⁹ But Jesus didn’t agree. He said to the man, “Go home and tell your family and the people in your village how God had compassion on you and helped you.” ²⁰ Then the man went to the Ten Cities province ^[5] and told how Jesus had helped him in such an amazing way. And everyone who heard his testimony was amazed.

Jesus heals a woman with a bleeding ailment, and brings Jairus’ daughter back to life

²¹ After that, Jesus and His disciples went back across to the western side of Lake Galilee. When they arrived, many people came and surrounded Him on the lakeshore. ²² Then the leader of a Jewish synagogue, whose name was Jairus, came to Him. When he saw Jesus, he immediately knelt down at His feet. ²³ He begged Jesus earnestly, “My little girl is seriously ill and almost dead. Please Sir, come to my house! Lay your hands on her, so that she’ll be healed and won’t die.”

²⁴ Then Jesus and His disciples went with him. But as they were going, many people followed them, to the point that they were all pressing in around Jesus. ²⁵ There was also a woman who had suffered from a bleeding ailment for twelve years. ²⁶ She had spent all of her money to be treated by many doctors, but they weren’t able to heal her. Instead, their treatments had made her really suffer, and her ailment just got worse. ²⁷ The woman had heard about Jesus, so she followed Him from behind, along with the crowd, and touched His robe. ²⁸ She did that because she thought, “If I just touch the edge of His robe, I’ll be healed for sure.” ²⁹ When she did that, her bleeding stopped immediately, and she knew that her ailment had been healed.

³⁰ Jesus immediately felt that power had gone out of Him, so He turned and asked the crowd, “Who just touched My robe?”

³¹ Then His disciples answered, “Sir, You can see for Yourself how many people are pressing in. Why did You ask who touched Your robe?”

³² But Jesus kept looking and searching for the person who had touched His robe. ³³ Then the woman shook and was afraid because He knew what she had done, ^[6] so she knelt down in front of Jesus’ feet and told Him what she had done. ³⁴ Then Jesus said to her, “My child, because you believe in Me completely, you were healed. Go home now with a calm heart, because you’ve truly been healed from your ailment.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking with the woman, some people came from Jairus’ house and said to him, “Sir, your child has already died, so you don’t need to bother the Teacher anymore. It’s pointless.”

³⁶ Of course Jesus heard what they said to Jairus, but it didn’t bother Him. Then He said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just keep believing in Me.”

³⁷ Jesus didn’t allow any other people to follow Him, except Peter and the two brothers, James and John. ³⁸ When they arrived at Jairus’ house, they saw the noisy people who were crying in loud voices. ³⁹ Then Jesus went in and said to them, “Why are you being so noisy and crying! The child isn’t dead, she’s just sleeping.”

⁴⁰ The people laughed at Him, but Jesus ordered all of them to leave. And He invited the child’s parents and His three disciples to enter the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Then Jesus held the child’s hand and said in their language, “Talitha cumi.” (It means, “Hey little girl, I’m telling you to wake up!”) ⁴² The girl got up immediately and walked. She was twelve years old. And everyone who was there was really amazed. ⁴³ But Jesus strongly forbid them to tell other people about this. Then He ordered the child’s parents to feed her.

Chapter 6

Jesus is rejected in His hometown

¹ Then Jesus left the town of Capernaum and returned to Nazareth, His hometown. His disciples also went with Him. ² On the Sabbath Day, Jesus began teaching in their synagogue. Many people were really amazed when they heard Him teach, so they said to each other, “Why does he think he can teach us?! Has he learned from someone else? Who has given him the power to do many miracles? ³ He’s just that carpenter we know, the son of Mary, and the older brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon! And his younger sisters also live here with us.” They didn’t want to believe in Him because they already knew who He was.

⁴ Then Jesus said to them, “A prophet is always honored everywhere, except where he came from, among his brothers and sisters and family.” ⁵ Because they didn’t believe in Him, Jesus didn’t do many miracles there. He just laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ Jesus was truly amazed, because the people in His own village really didn’t believe in Him.

Jesus sends out His disciples

So Jesus went walking from one village to another to teach throughout that region. ⁷ Then Jesus called His twelve disciples to come because He wanted to send them out. He divided them into six groups, each group having two people. Then He gave them authority to drive out evil spirits. ⁸ He also instructed them, “Don’t take anything on the trip, not food, a bag, or even money. You can only take a walking stick. ^{[1] 9} You may wear sandals and just the clothes on your back. Don’t take a change of clothes.

¹⁰ “When you enter a village and a family takes you into their house to stay overnight, stay only in that house until you leave that village. ¹¹ But if you go to another village, and the people there don’t want to accept you and don’t want to hear what you teach, leave that village. And when you leave, remove the dirt of the city from your feet and sandals as a warning sign to them.” ^[2]

¹² Then His disciples went and told people that it was now time to repent. ¹³ They also drove many demons out of people. And when they put olive oil ^[3] on sick people as a sign of God’s blessing, those sick people became well.

Herod hears about Jesus

¹⁴ Then King Herod,the king of the province of Galilee, heard about Jesus because His name was already well-known everywhere. By the time that happened, Herod had just murdered John the Baptist. ^[4] So there were people who said, “John the Baptist has come back to life, but now he calls himself Jesus, ^[5] and that’s why he can do many miracles.” ¹⁵ But there were other people who said, “He’s the Prophet Elijah who was taken up alive to heaven long ago, and now he has come back and calls himself Jesus.” But there were also those who said, “He’s a new prophet, like the prophets that lived in times past.”

¹⁶ When Herod heard that, he said, “He’s definitly John the Baptist whom I ordered my soldier to behead, and now he has come back to life.”

How John the Baptist was killed

^17-18 Long before that event, Herod had taken off with Herodiana, ^[6] the wife of his own younger brother, Philip. John the Baptist had rebuked him over and over again, “According to the Law you can’t marry your younger brother’s wife.” ^[7] For that reason Herod ordered his soldiers to arrest John, and put him in prison, bound with iron chains. ¹⁹ Because of that, Herodiana had a grudge against John the Baptist, and tried to arrange plans to kill him. But she couldn’t do it, ²⁰ because King Herod didn’t give her permission, since he was afraid of John the Baptist. Herod was aware that John was a holy and righteous man in God’s eyes, and he also enjoyed hearing John’s teaching, even though it always made him feel anxious.

²¹ Finally, Herodiana got the opportunity she wanted when they celebrated Herod’s birthday. Herod invited high officials, the head of the army, and also people who were important in Galilee to that dinner party. ²² At the party, Herodiana’s daughter danced in front of Herod and all of his guests. They were all very pleased watching her dance, so Herod immediately promised her, “You may ask whatever you wish, and I’ll give it to you.” ²³ Herod also swore like this, “I’ll give you whatever you ask, even if it’s half the power I have over this kingdom.”

²⁴ So the girl went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?”

And her mother said, “Ask for John the Baptist's head.”

²⁵ The girl returned quickly to King Herod and said, “I’m asking for John the Baptist’s head to be cut off, put on a large plate and brought here right now!”

²⁶ When Herod heard that request he really regretted it. But he couldn’t deny the girl’s request, because he’d already taken a vow in front of all of his guests. ²⁷ So Herod immediately ordered a soldier to go and cut off John’s head and bring it. The soldier who was ordered to do that was the one who was always assigned to kill people who were sentenced to death. So he went to the prison and cut John’s neck, ²⁸ and brought his head on a large plate. Then he gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹ When John’s followers heard the news, they went to the prison to get his body and bury it.

Jesus feeds more than five thousand people

³⁰ When the disciples whom Jesus sent out returned and got together with Him, they told Him everything that they had done and taught. ³¹ But at the time, people kept coming to that place, so Jesus and His disciples had no time at all to rest, not even to eat. So Jesus said to them, “Let’s go to a quiet place, so that we can rest there.”

³² Then they got into a boat and went to a quiet place. ³³ But there were many people who saw Jesus and His disciples get into a boat. And without being told, the people guessed where they were going. So those people went on foot, following them. There were other people from the cities of that region who heard and ran to join them too. So those people arrived at the place before Jesus and His disciples did. ³⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat, He saw how many people had already gathered there. And He felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep who didn’t have a shepherd. Then He began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was getting dark, His disciples came and said to Him, “It’s already getting dark now, and this is a remote region, ³⁶ so it would be best to order them to go to the nearby houses and villages to buy food.”

³⁷ But Jesus said to His disciples, “You should be the ones to feed them!”

But the twelve disciples replied, “It’s impossible for us to buy food for this many people! If we worked for a month, we could possibly get enough money, ^[8] and then buy food for them.” ³⁸ Then Jesus asked, “How many pieces of bread do you have? Go and see.”

After looking, they answered, “There are five pieces of bread and two fish.”

³⁹ Then Jesus ordered the crowd to sit in groups on the grass. ⁴⁰ So the crowd sat down in many groups. Each group had fifty people, and some even had a hundred people.

⁴¹ Then Jesus took the five pieces of bread and two fish, looked up to the sky, and gave thanks to God for the food. So he tore up the bread and shredded the fish. Then He repeatedly gave it to His disciples while they distributed it to the crowd. ⁴² After the crowd had eaten until they were satisfied, ⁴³ His disciples gathered up as many as twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The total number of those who ate was five thousand men, not yet including women and children.

Jesus walks on water

⁴⁵ After that, Jesus immediately ordered His disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the village of Bethsaida on the other side of the lake, while He ordered the crowd to go home. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus went alone to a hill to pray.

⁴⁷ When it was night, the disciples who were in the boat were already in the middle of the lake while Jesus was still on land. ⁴⁸ He saw that they were having trouble rowing the boat against a strong wind. Then about one hour before morning He came to them, walking on the water. And He seemed to be walking past them on purpose. ^49-50 When they saw Jesus walking on top of the water, they were afraid and cried out because they thought He was a ghost.

But He said to them, “Take courage! It’s Me. Don’t be afraid!” ⁵¹ When Jesus got into the boat, the wind stopped immediately. And they were really amazed. ⁵² They didn’t yet understand about the miracle that Jesus did either, when He fed five thousand people with just five pieces of bread and two fish. It was hard for them to understand because their hearts and minds hadn’t yet been opened by God.

Jesus heals many sick people in Gennesaret

^53-54 After Jesus and His disciples arrived in the village of Gennesaret, when they got out and tied up the boat the people who were there immediately knew that He was Jesus. ⁵⁵ Then the people ran to every region there to tell that Jesus had come back. So they brought sick people on their mattresses to the places where they heard Jesus was. ⁵⁶ If Jesus was in a city, or in a village, or in a house outside of a village, they brought sick people to the nearest public place. And they asked that He permit the sick people simply to touch the edge of His robe. And everyone who touched Him was healed.

Chapter 7

The rules of the Jewish forefathers oppose God’s teaching

¹ One day, people from the Pharisee group and the Law experts came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. ² They noticed that some of Jesus’ disciples were eating without following the Jewish ritual, which was that they didn’t pour water over their hands according to the rules of their forefathers. ^[1] Because of that, in their opinion Jesus’ disciples had become ritually unholy before God. ³ All the Jews followed the forefathers’ rules, of course, but the Pharisee group held very strictly to all of those rules. They couldn’t eat without pouring water over their hands according to that rule. ⁴ And if they came home from the market, they had to bathe in a special way before they ate. There were also many other rules of their forefathers. And they kept all of those rules, such as how to wash cups, kettles and other cooking utensils. ^[2]

⁵ Then the Pharisees and the Law experts asked Jesus, “Why don’t your ^[3] disciples follow the rules of our forefathers, because they eat without pouring water over their hands first?”

⁶ But Jesus answered, “What the Prophet Isaiah said about you who only pretend to be good people was true of course, when he wrote:

     ‘This people group just honors Me with their words,

         not with their hearts. ⁷ They worship Me for no reason,

         because they teach people to follow rules that are just made by humans

         and aren’t My rules.’” ^[5]

⁸ Then Jesus said again, “You’ve left behind the commands of God in order to just follow human rules.”

⁹ Then He said to them again, “You’ve become very clever at pretending to follow God’s commands, but you’re actually just following the rules taught by your forefathers. ¹⁰ For example, it’s written in the Law, ‘You must honor your father and mother. And if someone insults his father or mother he must be sentenced to die.’ ^{[6] 11} But you teach that we don’t need to obey our fathers and mothers in this matter: If someone says to his parents, ‘Whatever I should give to my mother and father I can’t give anymore because I’ve promised to give it to God.’ ¹² By doing that, you’re teaching other people not to help their parents anymore. ¹³ So in continuing to follow the rules that our forefathers taught, you’re no longer following the Ten Commandments that come from God. And there are also many other things that you’re doing like that.”

Things that make people spiritually unholy in God’s eyes

¹⁴ Then Jesus called to the crowd again and said, “All of you need to listen to Me and try to understand. ^15-16 Whatever you put into your bodies through your mouths doesn’t make you spiritually unholy before God. Instead, what comes out of you is what determines whether you’re spiritually unholy before God or not!” ^[4]

¹⁷ When Jesus left the crowd and entered a house, His disciples asked Him about the meaning of that statement. ¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “Why do you find it so hard to understand when I said, ‘Whatever goes into your bodies through your mouths doesn’t make you spiritually unholy before God?!’ ¹⁹ Food doesn’t enter the heart and mind, but enters the stomach and then gets passed out into the toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus meant that there isn’t any kind of food that can make people spiritually unholy before God. Every type of food is permitted.) ²⁰ “But it’s the things that come from inside you that make you spiritually holy or unholy God! ^21-22 Because what comes from inside of you, that is from your hearts and minds, comes from all of these kinds of desires:

     stealing, killing

     having sex before marriage, adultery,

     or wanting to do other lustful desires.

     Also envy, greed,

     wanting to do evil, wanting to deceive people,

     wanting to insult other people, arrogance

     and hard-headedness. ^[5]

²³ All of these evil things come from within the hearts and minds of people. And that’s what determines if you’re spiritually unholy or not before God.”

Jesus tests the heart of a non-Jewish woman

²⁴ Then Jesus left that place and went to the region of Tyre. Jesus went into a house and He didn’t want people to know that He was there. But He couldn’t hide, because He was already well-known everywhere. ²⁵ There was a woman there whose daughter was possessed by an evil spirit. When she heard the news that Jesus had come, she immediately went and knelt down at Jesus’ feet. ²⁶ The woman wasn’t Jewish. She came from the region of Phoenicia in the province of Syria, and she spoke Greek. She asked Jesus to drive the evil spirit out of her child.

²⁷ But Jesus said to her, “You aren’t Jewish, so if I help you it would be like a person throwing his children’s food to the dogs. Let them be fed first, until they’re full.”

²⁸ But the mother answered, “True, Sir. Let the Jewish children eat until they’re full. But the dogs can usually eat the leftover food that the children don’t eat.”

²⁹ Then Jesus said, “Because you answered like that, you may go home, Ma’am. The evil spirit has already gone out of your child.” ³⁰ Then the mother went home and saw her daughter lying peacefully on her bed, because the evil spirit had already gone out of her.

Jesus heals a man who was deaf and couldn’t talk

³¹ After that, Jesus and His disciples left the region of Tyre. They walked through the city of Sidon and went to the region near Lake Galilee which was called the Ten Cities. ³² There were some people there who brought a man to Jesus. The man was deaf and couldn’t talk. They asked Jesus to lay His hands on the man so that he would be healed.

³³ Then Jesus invited that man to go alone with Him away from the crowd. He put His fingers into both of the man’s ears. After that, He spit on His own hand and then rubbed the spit onto the man’s tongue. ³⁴ Then Jesus looked toward the sky and He took a deep breath, as if He was preparing Himself to do something difficult. ^[6] Then He spoke to the man’s ears, “Ephphatha.” In the Hebrew language it meant “Open up.” ³⁵ At that very moment, the man could hear. His tongue immediately became well and he was able to speak clearly.

³⁶ Jesus forbid them to tell about this healing to anyone. But the more He forbid them, the more they were inspired to tell what He had done. ³⁷ Everyone who heard about it was really amazed and said, “Everything that Jesus does is really awesome. He can even heal a deaf and mute person!”

Chapter 8

Jesus feeds more than four thousand people

¹ Another time, many people came back and gathered around Jesus. They didn’t have any food. So Jesus called His disciples and said, ² “I feel very compassionate for this crowd because they’ve already been with Me for three days and now they don’t have any more food. ³ If I order them to go home hungry, they may faint on the road because some came from far away.”

⁴ But His disciples answered, “What! Why do You say that, Sir?! It's impossible for us to feed this many people in a desert place like this!”

⁵ Then Jesus asked them, “How much bread do you have?”

They answered, “Only seven pieces.”

⁶ Jesus ordered the crowd to sit on the ground. He took the seven pieces of bread and gave thanks to God. Then He tore the bread and gave it to His disciples repeatedly, and they distributed it to the crowd. ⁷ They also had a few small fish. So Jesus gave thanks to God for the fish and then ordered His disciples to distribute them. ⁸ The crowd ate until they were satisfied. After that, they gathered all of the leftover food, and seven large full baskets were leftover. ⁹ There were about four thousand people who ate. After that Jesus ordered them to go home. ¹⁰ Then Jesus and His disciples immediately got into a boat and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

The Pharisee religious group orders Jesus to do a miracle

¹¹ Then the Pharisees came and began to debate with Jesus. They were actually looking for a reason to accuse Him. Because of that, they ordered Him to do a miracle in order to prove that God had sent Him.

¹² When Jesus heard that, He felt offended ^[1] in His heart, and said, “It isn’t proper for hard-headed people ^[2] like you to order Me to do a miracle! I won’t do any miracle at all for people like you.” ¹³ After saying that, Jesus left them and got into a boat with His disciples for the other side of the lake.

Jesus warns them not to be affected by the yeast of the Pharisee group or of King Herod’s friends

¹⁴ At the time, Jesus’ disciples had forgotten to bring food. They had only one piece of bread in the boat. ¹⁵ Then Jesus told them, “Be careful, don’t be affected by the yeast ^[3] of the Pharisee group or of King Herod’s friends.”

¹⁶ They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying, so they said to each other, “He said that because we forgot to bring enough bread.” ¹⁷ But Jesus already knew what they were saying. So He said to them, “Why are you talking about your lack of bread! You should already be able to understand! You’re too hard-headed!” ^{[4] 18} You have eyes and ears, don’t you?! If so, why can’t you see or hear?! How could you forget what you witnessed for yourselves?! ¹⁹ When I tore up the five pieces of bread to feed five thousand people, how many full baskets of leftover bread did you collect?”

Then they answered, “Twelve.”

²⁰ “And when I tore up the seven pieces of bread to give to four thousand people, how many large full baskets of leftover bread did you collect?”

And they answered, “Seven full baskets.”

²¹ Then He said to them again, “Don’t you understand yet?” ^[5]

Jesus makes the blind man in Bethsaida able to see

²² When Jesus and His disciples arrived in the village of Bethsaida, there were some people who brought a blind man to Jesus. Then they begged Jesus earnestly to touch the blind man so that he could see. ²³ So Jesus held the blind man’s hand and led him outside the village. After that, Jesus rubbed His spit on the man’s eyelids and then put His hands on his eyes and asked, “Can you see something already?”

²⁴ When the man looked around he said, “Yes, I can see people, but they look like walking trees.”

²⁵ Then Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes again, and when the blind man tried to see he could already see clearly. ²⁶ Then Jesus told him to go home to his house. But Jesus forbid him to go through that village.

Peter says that Jesus is the King of Salvation

²⁷ After that, Jesus and His disciples went to the villages around the region of the city of Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, “What position do people say that I’m filling?” ^[6]

²⁸ They answered, “There are those who say that You’re a replacement for John the Baptist. And some say You’re the Prophet Elijah who has come back to life. And other people also say that You’re one of the prophets from times past who has come back to life.”

²⁹ Then He asked them again, “But what’s your opinion about Me?”

Peter answered, “You’re the Christ, ^[7] whom God has promised.”

³⁰ And Jesus firmly forbid them not to tell anybody about His position.

Jesus begins to teach that He’ll suffer and be killed

³¹ After that, Jesus began to teach His students that as the Son of Man, He was appointed by God to suffer much and be rejected by the Jewish leaders, chief priests and Law experts. And He also told them, “After I’m killed, I’ll come back to life on the third day.” ³² He taught that clearly to them, but Peter thought it couldn’t be possible for the King of Salvation to suffer. So he took Jesus aside so that he could speak to Him privately, and began to rebuke Him, “Teacher, you mustn’t talk like that!”

³³ But Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, and rebuked Peter, “Get away from Me, you devil! For what you’re thinking didn’t come from God, but from man.”

The determination to become Jesus’ followers

³⁴ After that, He called to the crowd who were following Him and to His disciples, and said to them, “Everyone who wants to follow Me has to leave his own self interests, ^[8] and follow Me continually, thinking like this, ‘I’ll keep following the Lord to the point of death, even to death by crucifixion.’ ^{[9] 35} For everyone who tries to preserve his life will still die. But a person who’s killed because of following Me, or because of telling the Good News about me, will live forever. ³⁶ Think about this: what good is it for you to become so rich that you own all the wealth in the world, but then you die immediately without having eternal life? ³⁷ After death, what possessions can you trade with God anymore so that you’re allowed to live again? It’s impossible, isn’t it?! ³⁸ The people of this age are becoming more evil and aren’t faithful to God. So while you live among them, don’t be ashamed to acknowledge, ‘I’m a follower of Jesus and His teaching.’ For whoever is ashamed to acknowledge Me, I won’t acknowledge him as My follower either, when I come with the heavenly angels in the glory of My Father.”

Chapter 9

¹ Then Jesus said to them, “What I’m saying is true. Some of the people who are here won’t die before they see God begin to set up His kingdom with power in this world.” ^[1]

Jesus appears radiant on the mountain

² After six days had passed, Jesus invited Peter, James and John to climb a high mountain to be alone together. Then the three of them saw Jesus’ body and clothes change. ³ His clothes became shinning white. No one in the whole world can make cloth as white as that. ⁴ Suddenly the three disciples saw the Prophet Elijah and Moses speaking with Jesus.

⁵ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Wow, Teacher! It’s so wonderful that we’re here! We’ll make three huts here, one for You, one for Moses, and one more for Elijah.” ⁶ Peter talked like that because he didn’t know the proper things to say since he and the other two disciples were really frightened.

⁷ But at that very moment, a cloud descended and covered them. Then there was a voice from the cloud which said, “This is My Son, whom I love very much. Listen closely to Him.” ⁸ Suddenly, they didn’t see anyone else with them except Jesus.

⁹ While they were going back down the mountain, Jesus forbid them, “Don’t tell anyone about what you saw on top of this mountain until I, the Son of Man, come back to life after death.” ¹⁰ They obeyed what Jesus commanded them, but then they kept asking each other what Jesus meant by “come back to life after death.”

¹¹ That same day, they asked Jesus, “Why do the Law experts teach that the Prophet Elijah must come before the King of Salvation comes?” ^[2]

¹² Jesus answered, “That’s true, Elijah has to come first to prepare everything before the Son of Man comes. But it’s also written in God’s Word, ‘The Son of Man has been apppointed to suffer much and will be insulted by people.’ ¹³ But I’m telling you that Elijah has already come ^[3] before Me, but people did many evil things to him according to their desires. That also agrees with what’s written about him in God’s Word.”

Jesus drives an evil spirit out of a boy

¹⁴ When Jesus and His three disciples returned, they saw many people surrounding Jesus’ other disciples. And there were also Law experts there who were arguing with His disciples. ¹⁵ But when the crowd saw Jesus they were very startled and ran to welcome Him.

¹⁶ Then Jesus asked, “What were you arguing about?”

¹⁷ There was a father among the crowd, who answered, “Teacher, I came because I wanted to bring my child to You, Sir. There’s an evil spirit that controls him so that he can’t talk. ¹⁸ When the evil spirit attacks him, it throws him around, foam comes out of his mouth, he grinds his teeth and his body becomes rigid. I’ve asked Your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they can’t do it.”

¹⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “That’s too much! You who live in this age don’t believe in God! How long do I have to be patient with you! Haven’t I been with you long enough! Bring the child here!”

²⁰ So they brought the child to Him. But the moment the evil spirit saw Jesus, it attacked the child and shook him. And the child fell to the ground, rolled around, and foam came out of his mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the child’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

Then the father answered, “Since he was small. ²² The evil spirit has often thrown him into fire and pushed him under water because the spirit wants to kill him, of course. But if You can do something, Sir, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³ But Jesus reprimanded him. “Why do you say, ‘If You can!’ Everything is possible if you believe in Me.”

²⁴ The child’s father immediately cried out, “I believe! Help me to believe even more!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the number of people was quickly growing greater, He commanded the evil spirit, “Hey, you spirit that’s making this child deaf and mute, I command you: Come out of him, and don’t enter him again.”

²⁶ The evil spirit cried out and shook the child hard, then it came out of him. The child looked like he was dead. So the crowd who witnessed it said, “He’s dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took the child’s hand and helped him stand up.

²⁸ When Jesus and His disciples were alone in a house they asked Him, “Why couldn’t we drive out that evil spirit?”

²⁹ Then Jesus answered, “An evil spirit of this kind can only be driven out by praying.”

Jesus tells His disciples that He’ll be killed

³⁰ Then Jesus and His disciples left that place and went through the region of Galilee to the city of Capernaum. Jesus didn’t want other people to know where they were, ³¹ because He was teaching His disciples like this, “The Son of Man, who I am, will be turned over to the hands of evil people and will be killed. But on the third day after I die, I’ll live again.” ³² At the time, His disciples didn’t understand what Jesus taught, but they were reluctant to ask Him about it.

The character of the people who’ll be most important in God’s kingdom

³³ Then Jesus and His disciples reached Capernaum. When they were in the house, Jesus asked, “What problem were you discussing earlier along the way?” ³⁴ But they just kept quiet because on the way they were discussing which of them was number one. ³⁵ Jesus sat down and called to His disciples. Then He told them, “If you want to become number one in God’s eyes, you must be ready to become the very last one and be ready to serve everyone too.”

³⁶ Then Jesus invited a little child and put the child in between them. While hugging the child He said, ³⁷ “If you receive and serve ^[4] a little child like this for the purpose of glorifying My name, you’ve received and served Me. And if you’ve served Me, you haven't just served Me, but you’ve also served God who sent Me into the world.”

³⁸ Then John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a person who drove out demons by using Your name. So we forbid him because he isn’t part of our group.”

³⁹ Then Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him, because a person who does miracles using My name won’t turn around and immediately insult Me. ⁴⁰ For people who don’t oppose us belong to our group. ⁴¹ I’m saying what is true. If a person gives just a cup of water to one of you to drink because you are a follower of Christ, that person will receive a reward from God for that deed, for sure.”

⁴² Then Jesus said again, “If someone causes a little child who believes in Me to sin, that person will receive a very harsh punishment from God. Before the person commits that great of a sin, it would be better if a large stone ^[5] were tied around his neck and he was then thrown into the sea. That trouble would be far less than God's punishment for that great of a sin.”

Becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom isn’t easy

^43-44 Then Jesus said again, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and just throw your hand away! Don’t let your hand make you fail to receive eternal life in heaven. It’s better for you to enter heaven with just one hand than to have a whole hand but go to hell, where the fire never goes out. ^{[6] 45-46} It’s the same if one of your feet causes you to sin. Just cut off your foot! Don’t let your foot make you fail to receive eternal life in heaven. It’s better to enter heaven crippled than to have a whole foot but be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if one of your eyes causes you to sin, dig it out and throw that eye away! It’s better for you to enter God’s kingdom with just one eye, than to have a whole eye, but be thrown into the fire of hell. ⁴⁸ As it’s written in God’s word, ‘In hell, the worms that eat people will never die and the fire there will never go out.’

⁴⁹ “Actually everyone will be tested with trouble that feels like the heat of a fire. ^{[7] 50} “You who follow Me are like salt. Salt is used to make food taste better. But if its salty taste disappears, the salt isn’t useful at all. Don’t be like salt that has lost its salty taste! May you be useful and live in peace with each other.” ^[7]

Chapter 10

Jesus’ teaching about husbands and wives

¹ Then Jesus left that place and went across to the east side of the Jordan River, to the province of Judea. Many people were coming to Him there, and Jesus taught them as usual. ² At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him. They asked Him, “Is a husband allowed to divorce his wife?” ³ Then Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you about this matter?” ⁴ They said, “Moses gave permission to a husband to divorce his wife by giving her a letter explaining the divorce.’” ^{[8] 5} So Jesus said to them, “Moses wrote that order for you because your hearts are hard and you don’t know how to love your wives. ⁶ But the true will of God was already clear when He created this world,

     ‘He created just one man and one woman.’ ^[9]

     ⁷ ‘For that reason, in marriage, a man always leaves his father and mother and is united with his bride, ⁸ so that the two of them become one.’ ^[10]

In that way, in God’s eyes, a husband and wife are no longer two but one. ⁹ For that reason, a husband and wife who’ve been united by God in marriage can’t be separated by man.”

¹⁰ When Jesus and His disciples were in the house, they asked Him again about divorce. ¹¹ Jesus said to them, “If a husband divorces his wife and marries another woman again, he’s living in adultery against his first wife. ¹² It’s the same if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man again, then she’s also living in adultery against her first husband.”

People who believe like children will become citizens of God’s kingdom

¹³ Then some people brought their children to Jesus so that He would touch the children and bless them, but His disciples strongly forbid those people. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw that, He was angry and said to His disciples, “Allow the children to come to Me and don’t forbid them, because it’s people like these who become citizens of God’s kingdom. ¹⁵ What I’m saying is true. You have to receive God’s kingdom like a child receives something from its parents. If not, you won’t enter it.” ¹⁶ After saying that, Jesus hugged the children and put His hands on them and blessed them.

Rich people have a very hard time becoming citizens of God’s kingdom

¹⁷ As Jesus was leaving that house, a man ran to meet Him. Then he knelt down in front of Him and asked, “Good teacher, what do I have to do so that I can have eternal life?”

¹⁸ But Jesus asked him in return, “Why do you say that I’m good? Only God is good; no one else is. ¹⁹ You already know these commandments, of course:

     ‘don’t kill, don’t commit adultery,

     don’t steal, don’t give a false testimony,

     don’t deceive, honor your mother and father.’ ” ^[11]

²⁰ The man answered Him, “Teacher, I’ve done all of those things from the time I was young until now.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and felt compassion for him, and said, “There’s still one more thing that you need to do. Go and sell all your possessions. Then distribute the money to poor people. In that way, you’ll have treasure in heaven. Then come to Me and follow Me.”

²² The man was very disappointed when he heard what Jesus said. Then he left that place with a sad heart, because he was very rich and didn’t want to sell his possessions.

²³ Jesus looked around Him and then said to His disciples, “It’s really hard for rich people to become citizens of God’s kingdom!” ²⁴ The disciples were amazed to hear Him say that. But Jesus said again, “My children, it’s really hard to become citizens of God’s kingdom! ²⁵ It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, ^[1] than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”

²⁶ When they heard that, they were even more amazed and asked each other, “If so, who can be saved and enter heaven?”

²⁷ As He looked at them Jesus said, “What’s impossible for people is possible for God. God is able to do anything.”

²⁸ Then Peter said to Him, “How about us? We’ve left all of our possessions and followed You.”

²⁹ Jesus answered them, “I’m telling you the truth. Everyone who leaves his house, his brothers and sisters, his parents, his children, or his fields to follow Me, or to tell the Good News, ³⁰ will receive a hundred times more of the same kind in return in his life now. In this world, he’ll receive more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields. Besides that, he’ll also be persecuted. And in the end he’ll also receive a huge reward in the world to come, that is eternal life. ³¹ But many people who have a high status now, will have a low status in days to come. And people who have a low status now, will have a high status in days to come.

Jesus tells about His Death

³² Jesus and His disciples and several other people went to Jerusalem. Jesus walked in front of them. His disciples were amazed, but the crowd who followed them from behind were afraid because they knew that there were people in the city who were angry at Jesus. Then Jesus gathered His twelve disciples together again privately and told them what would happen to Him. ³³ “Listen carefully! We’re heading to Jerusalem. I, who am the Son of Man, will be turned over to the chief priests and Law experts. They’ll pronounce the death sentence on Me, then they’ll turn Me over to the high officials who aren’t Jewish. ³⁴ The non-Jewish people will mock Me, spit on Me, beat Me, and kill Me. But on the third day after I die, I’ll come back to life.”

Request of James and John

³⁵ After that, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to ask You to do something for us.”

³⁶ Then Jesus asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

³⁷ They answered, “When You become King later on and sit on the throne of Your kingdom, allow the two of us to sit at Your right side and at Your left side in Your glory.”

³⁸ But Jesus answered, “You don’t understand what you’re asking. Are you ready to receive the suffering that I’m going to experience? Can you bear the great trouble that I’m going to experience later on?” ^[2]

³⁹ They answered, “We can.”

Then Jesus said, “You will suffer and have great trouble just like I’m going to experience, for sure. ⁴⁰ But I don’t have the right to choose who will sit at My right or left side, because those two seats have been prepared for people who’ve been chosen by God.”

⁴¹ When the other ten disciples heard James and John’s request, they were very angry with the two brothers. ⁴² Then Jesus called all of His disciples and said, “You already know that the leaders of non-Jewish people groups, and everyone who considers himself to be a leader, govern the people harshly and trample on their rights. ⁴³ But you can’t be like them. If one of you wants to be the most important person, he has to take the lowliest place and become your servant. ⁴⁴ And whoever wants to become number one has to become your slave. ⁴⁵ You must follow My example, because I, the Son of Man, didn’t come to this earth to be served by other people but to serve them and to give My life to save many people.”

Jesus makes a blind man able to see

⁴⁶ Then Jesus arrived in Jericho with His disciples and the crowd. And when they left the city, there was a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, who always sat by the roadside to beg. ⁴⁷ He heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, so he cried out saying, “Jesus, Descendant of David, ^[3] have pity on me.”

⁴⁸ Many people were angry with him and ordered him to be quiet. But he shouted even louder, “Jesus, Descendant of David, have pity on me.”

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped and said, “Bring him here.” Then they called the blind man and said to him, “Be joyful! Get up! Jesus is calling you.” ⁵⁰ The blind man quickly stood up, took off his outer robe and came to Jesus.

⁵¹ Jesus asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

The blind man answered, “Teacher, help me be able see again.”

⁵² Jesus said to him, “Go. Because you believed in Me you can see now.” At that very moment he could see and he followed Jesus as He went on His way.

Chapter 11

Jesus is welcomed in Jerusalem like a king

¹ When Jesus and His disciples were almost to Jerusalem, they arrived at the villages of Bethphage and Bethany below the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus told two of His disciples to walk ahead of them. ² And He said to them, “Go to the village that’s up ahead. As soon as you enter it, you’ll see a young donkey that hasn’t been ridden on yet. It’s tied up near a house. Untie its rope and bring it here. ³ And if someone asks, ‘Why are you taking that donkey?’ answer, ‘The Lord needs it. He’ll return it soon.’”

⁴ Then the two disciples went and found the young donkey tied up near the door of a house on the road. So they untied its rope. ⁵ Some people standing there asked, “Why are you untying that donkey?” ⁶ So they answered just the way Jesus told them to, and the people let them take the donkey away. ⁷ The donkey was brought to Jesus, and they covered the back of the donkey with their robes. Then Jesus got up and sat on it. ⁸ The crowd who had gathered took off their robes and spread them on the road that Jesus was going to travel on. There were also some who covered the road with leafy branches that they had cut down near the road. ⁹ The people who walked in front of and behind Jesus all shouted,

     “Hosanna! Praise the Lord! ^[1] May God bless our King who comes to represent the Lord.

     ¹⁰ May God bless this descendant of King David so that He rules us well. Praise the Most High God!”

¹¹ When Jesus reached Jerusalem, He entered God’s Temple and saw all that was happening there. Because it was almost night already, He and His twelve disciples went to the village of Bethany.

Jesus curses the fig tree that didn’t bear fruit

¹² The next day when they were walking back from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus felt hungry. ¹³ From a distance He saw a fig tree that had many leaves on it. Then He went closer to see if the tree had any fruit, but there was obviously no fruit. There were just leaves of course, as it wasn’t the season for figs yet. ^{[2] 14} Then Jesus said to the tree, “From now on, people won’t ever eat your fruit again.” And His disciples heard Him say that.

Jesus drives out the people who made God’s Temple a marketplace

¹⁵ Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the courtyard of God’s Temple and began to drive out the people who were selling there. He turned over the tables used by the money changers. ^[3] And He also upset the benches used by the people who sold doves. ¹⁶ He forbid people to bring things through the courtyard of God’s Temple too, because it wasn’t a road. ¹⁷ And Jesus taught them like this, “You already know, of course, that in the Holy Bible God says,

     ‘My House will be called a house of prayer for all people groups.’ ^[12]

But you’ve changed it to become ‘a hiding place for thieves!’ ” ^[13]

¹⁸ When the chief priests and the Law experts heard that Jesus had done this, they began to look for a way to destroy Him. But they were afraid of Jesus because many people liked his teaching and were amazed at it.

¹⁹ When it was getting dark, Jesus and His disciples left the city.

Jesus teaches about the fig tree that He cursed

²⁰ The next morning, when Jesus and His disciples were walking and passed near the fig tree, they saw that the tree had died and had dried up to the roots. ²¹ Then Peter remembered what had happened the day before and said, “Teacher, look! The tree that You cursed yesterday is already dry.”

²² Then Jesus answered him, “Believe in God completely. ²³ I’m telling you the truth. If each of you believes completely, you can also do miracles like this. For example, you can ask God, ‘Let this mountain be moved into the sea.’ But you must believe completely and not doubt that God will definitely do what you ask. ²⁴ For that reason, I’m advising all of you that when you pray and ask for something, believe like this, ‘God has already given me what I asked of Him.’ Then God will give it to you. ^25-26 When you ask for something in prayer, examine yourself to see if you’re bitter with another person. Forgive that person, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive all of your wrongs.

Jesus is asked who gave Him the right to teach and change traditions

²⁷ When Jesus and His disciples had returned to Jerusalem and He was walking around in the courtyard of God’s House, the chief priests, the Law experts and Jewish leaders came to Him. ²⁸ Then they asked, “Who gave you the right to teach and change our traditions like what you did yesterday?! In whose name did you do that?”

²⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I want to ask you something too. And if you answer Me, then I’ll tell you Who gave Me that right. ³⁰ Please answer My question. Who gave John the Baptist the right to baptize people? Did God ^[4] give it to him, or did he do it of his own will? ^[5]

³¹ Then they said to each other, “If we answer ‘God is the one who gave it to him,’ we will be defeated in the sight of this crowd when he says, ‘If so, why didn’t you believe in John?’ ^32-33 But it wouldn’t be good for us to answer, ‘He did it of his own will’ either, because then this crowd will get angry at us!” So in the end they answered, “We don’t know.” They answered like that because they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone who had gathered there believed that John was a prophet.

Then Jesus said to them, “If so, I won’t tell you Who gave Me the right to do the things that I did yesterday either.”

Chapter 12

A Parable: The Jews always reject God’s messengers

¹ Then Jesus began to teach the Jewish religious leaders by using some parables. This was one of the parables: “There was a landowner who ordered his servants to make a large vineyard, complete with a fence around it. Then they dug a pit as a place to press grapes, and built a high guard post to guard the vineyard from thieves and animals. When everything was finished, he rented out the vineyard to some tenant farmers. Then he and all of his servants went to another land. ² When harvest time came, he ordered a servant to go back to the tenant farmers to get his share of the vineyard’s produce. ³ But the farmers captured his servant and beat him. Then they ordered him to go home empty-handed. ⁴ Then the owner of the vineyard told another of his servants to go to them. But they verbally abused him and beat him on the head until he was wounded. ⁵ After that, the owner of the vineyard sent another servant again, but the farmers killed him. They continued to treat every servant who came to collect the produce like that. They beat some and they killed some. ⁶ Finally, there was no one else that he could send except the only son whom he really loved. So he ordered his son to go too, because he thought, ‘They’ll honor my own son, for sure.’

⁷ “But when they saw the son coming, they said to each other, ‘Look! The one who’s coming is his own son. He’s the one who’ll become the owner of the vineyard later on after his father dies. Let’s kill him so that the vineyard becomes our property.’ ⁸ Then they captured him and killed him. After that they threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹ “So just think, if that’s so, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He himself will come and kill those tenants, of course. Then he’ll rent out the vineyard to other people.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them again, “How long will it take before you understand God’s Word? Because it was written like this,

     ‘God made the stone which the builders considered to be useless

     to become the most important foundation stone.

     ¹¹ What God did is really amazing to us.’” ^[14]

¹² The leaders of the Jews who were listening to that parable knew that they were the ones Jesus meant by the evil tenants. So they looked for a way to arrest Jesus. But they were afraid of the crowd that was present there, so they went away and left Him.

The Jewish leaders want to trick Jesus into opposing the Roman government

¹³ Then the Jewish leaders ordered some people from the Pharisee group and some of King Herod’s friends to go to Jesus. They went with the purpose of tricking Jesus to persuade Him to speak against the government and be overheard by Herod’s friends. ¹⁴ When they came, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that you're an honest man who truly teaches according to God’s will and you don’t take notice of other people’s opinions. You don’t change your teaching in order to be praised by people who have a high position. So we want to ask, according to the Law, are we allowed to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”

¹⁵ But Jesus knew that they were just pretending to ask. So He answered, “You think you can trap Me with a question like that! Show Me a silver coin that’s usually used to pay the tax.” ¹⁶ So they showed Him a coin, and He asked, “Whose face is engraved here, and whose name is written here?”

They answered, “The king of Rome.”

¹⁷ Then He said to them, “If that’s so, give back to the king what the king must possess, and give back to God what God must possess.”

When they heard this answer they were utterly amazed.

People from the Sadducee group ask Jesus about coming back to life after death

¹⁸ After that, people from the Sadducee group ^[1] also came to Jesus. (The Sadducee group believed that no one who died would live again.) ¹⁹ They said to Jesus, “Teacher, Moses wrote a rule for us like this, ‘If a man dies before he has children, then his brother is obligated to marry the widow in order to continue the family line for the brother who died.’ ^{[15] 20} So there were seven brothers. The first one married a young woman, but the man died and didn’t yet have a child from his wife. ²¹ Then the second brother married the widow, but he died without having any children either. And the same thing happened to his next brother. ²² The same thing kept happening until the seven brothers died. They all died without having children by the widow, and finally the widow died too. ²³ So if it’s true that people are raised up after death, then whose wife will the widow be called later on? For the seven brothers had all been the husband of that woman.”

²⁴ Then Jesus answered, “You’re really mistaken because you don’t know what’s written in the Holy Bible and you don’t know the power of God. ²⁵ For when dead people come back to life later on, they won’t marry again. They’ll live like the angels in heaven who never marry.

²⁶ But in regard to coming back to life after death, how long will it be until you understand what’s written in the Book of Moses?! For when God showed Himself to Moses in the burning bush, He said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ ^{[16] 27} God spoke of our three forefathers as men who still live and worship Him. Even though by Moses’ time they had died and were no longer on earth, they're still alive before God. So you’re really mistaken!”

Jesus tells about God’s most important command

²⁸ While Jesus was still arguing with the Sadducees, a Law expert came and heard them talking. When he noticed that Jesus had answered their question well, he also asked Jesus, “In your opinion, which command is the most important of all the laws?”

²⁹ Then Jesus answered them, “This is the most important one:

     ‘All people of Israel, listen! The Lord your God is the One and only Lord.

     ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your breath, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ^[2]

³¹ And there’s also a second command, which is,

     ‘Love your fellow man just like you love yourself.’ ^[17]

No other commands are more important than these two commands.”

³² Then the Law expert said to Jesus, “Very true, Teacher. Of course there’s only one God, and there’s no other god besides Him. ³³ And we must love God with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength. And we also have to love everyone like we love ourselves. These two commands are more important than all the rules about sacrificing animals or other things to God.”

³⁴ When Jesus saw that the man answered wisely, He said to him, “You’ve almost become a citizen of God’s kingdom.” After that, everyone from the Jewish religious groups was ashamed and didn’t dare ask Jesus any more questions.

Jesus shows that He’s not just a descendant of David

³⁵ While Jesus was still teaching in God’s House, He said, “Why do the Law experts teach that the Christ ^[3] will come as a descendant of David? ³⁶ Whereas David, when empowered by God’s Spirit said,

     ‘The Lord God said to my Lord,

     “Sit at My right side and rule as King,

         and I will defeat all Your enemies and make them Your slaves.”’ ^[18]

³⁷ So David himself really respected the Christ by calling Him ‘my Lord.’ If so, why do the Law experts say that the King of Salvation is just a descendant of David?”

The crowd that was there really enjoyed hearing Jesus teach.

Jesus teaches not to copy the Law experts

³⁸ While Jesus was still teaching there, He said, “Watch out! Don’t imitate the Law experts. They like to walk around and show off in public places by wearing beautiful clothes. And when they walk around in the market, they’re happy when people greet them with complete respect. ³⁹ And they also like to sit in the front row seats in the synagogues or at dinner parties. ⁴⁰ They usually deceive widows too, by using excuses like this, ‘I’ll help you manage the property of your husband who died.’ But they actually only pretend to help because they want to steal some of the property. And to cover up their evil, they pray lengthy prayers in the synagogues so that people will think they’re good people. As a result of those deeds, God will give them a very harsh punishment for sure.”

A poor widow who gave all her money to God

⁴¹ While Jesus was still in the courtyard of God’s House, He sat facing the offering box while watching the people who put money into the box. Many rich people put in a lot of money. ⁴² Then a poor widow came and put in two coins of the least value.

⁴³ So Jesus called His disciples and said, “I’m telling you the truth. The value of this poor widow’s offering was greater than everyone else’s offerings here, even the rich people. ⁴⁴ For they gave a little of their abundant wealth. Whereas the widow who is very poor gave everything she owned, which was all the money she had to live on.”

Chapter 13

Jesus teaches about the end of the age

¹ As Jesus was leaving God’s House, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look! God’s House is so awesome! The stones are so huge!”

² Then Jesus answered, “Yes, pay attention to all these great buildings! The time is coming when everything you see will be demolished so that there won’t be even one stone stacked on top of another.”

³ After that, Jesus and His disciples went to the Mount of Olives. Jesus sat there by Himself and faced God’s House. Then Peter, James, John and Andrew came to Him and asked, ⁴ “Teacher, please tell us when those things will happen? And what signs will we see before all of that happens?”

⁵ Then Jesus answered, “Be careful, so that you aren’t deceived by other people. ⁶ Many people will appear and say, ‘I’m the Christ that you’re waiting for’, and they’ll lead many people astray. ⁷ When you hear about wars that are going on, or will happen, don’t worry, because it isn’t a sign that it’s the end of the age! Those things must happen according to God’s plan, of course. ⁸ There’ll be wars between ethnic groups and between countries. There’ll be earthquakes and famines everywhere. But all of that is just the beginning. Those things can be compared with a pregnant woman who beings to feel pain as a sign of giving birth. And then the pains will increase even more until the child is born.

⁹ “Guard yourselves well! For those who oppose Me will arrest many of you and bring you to the council of religious leaders. And some of you will be beaten in their synagogues. And they’ll also bring you to face kings or government heads. At that time they’ll report you like this, ‘He’s a follower of Jesus, too.’ But all that will happen according to God’s will, so that you can witness to them about Me. ¹⁰ God has determined that before the end of the world, the Good News about Me must be told to every ethnic group in the whole world. ¹¹ When you’re arrested and brought to court, you don’t need to worry about how you’ll answer. For when they’re questioning you, at that very moment God’s Spirit will tell you what you must answer. It won’t actually be you speaking at the time, but the Holy Spirit will speak through you.

¹² Later on there will be people who will turn their own brothers over to the religious leaders to be killed. And there will also be fathers who turn their own children over to be killed. And there will be children who oppose their parents and turn them over to the religious leaders to be killed too. ¹³ Everyone will hate you because you believe in Me. But whoever continues to believe in Me and follow Me until the end will be saved.

¹⁴ “I’m giving you this sign. You’ll see a king who will establish ‘something in God’s House that’s really spiritually unholy and is a sign of destruction.’ ^[19] When you see that disaster, you people who are in Jerusalem and the province of Judea must run away to the mountains.”

     I, Mark, ask the person reading this book to other people, please explain Jesus' words to the listeners. Then Jesus continued to teach,

¹⁵ “At that time, if any of you are on the terrace of your house, ^[1] don’t go into the house to take anything. Just run away immediately! ¹⁶ The same is true if you’re working in your garden. Don’t go home to get your outer robe. ¹⁷ At the time of that disaster, pity pregnant and nursing mothers. They’ll really suffer because it’ll be difficult for them to run away. ¹⁸ Ask in prayer that this disaster won’t happen in winter. If it does, it’ll be even more difficult. ¹⁹ For great trouble will happen in those days. Trouble like that has never happened since God created the world until now. And after that, trouble like that won’t ever happen again. ^{[20] 20} But because of God’s compassion on His chosen people who will still be living on earth at that time, He has decided that this most terrifying disaster can’t be long. If it was too long, no one would be able to endure life on this earth.’

²¹ At that time, if someone says, ‘Look! The Christ whom we’re waiting for is here now,’ or, ‘He’s there,’ don’t believe it. ²² For in the days to come, many people will come and do all kinds of miracles in order to lead you astray. They’ll claim that they are prophets who have news from God. And there will also be those who claim, ‘I’m the Christ whom you’re waiting for.’ Their deception will be so extraordinary, that even God’s chosen people will almost be led astray. ²³ So guard yourself! Remember that I’ve told you all of this before it happens.

Jesus teaches about His return

²⁴ “But when that great trouble is over,

     ‘The sun will become dark,

     and the moon won’t shine anymore.

     ²⁵ The stars will even fall from the sky.

     And all of the authorities of the powers of darkness who are in the heavens will be brought down.’ ^[2]

²⁶ “At that time, everyone will see Me, the Son of Man, come from heaven in the clouds with power and great radiance. ²⁷ Then I’ll order My angels to gather the people who’ve been chosen by God. They’ll be gathered from every place on earth, from east to west, and from north to south.

²⁸ “We can illustrate the signs of the end of the age with a fig tree. If its branches become soft and shoots begin to be seen, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ In the same way, if you see those signs start to happen, you should know that the time for My return is near. ³⁰ I’m telling you the truth. All of those signs will happen while people of this age are still living. ³¹ All of those things will definitely happen. It’s more likely that the sky and earth will disappear, than that this teaching of Mine won’t happen.

Advice to be on guard

³² “But no one knows the day or the hour that I’ll return to this earth. The angels in heaven don’t know, and I, God’s Son, don’t know either. Only the Father Himself knows when that will happen. ³³ So you must be careful and be on guard, because you don’t know when I’ll return. ³⁴ The situation is like a land owner who wants to go to a distant place. Before leaving home, he divides the duties to each of his servants and explains each one’s responsibility and duty. Then he says to the doorkeeper, ‘Do a good job guarding until I return!’ ³⁵ They stay ready and on guard, because they don’t know when the master of the house will return, whether in the afternoon, at midnight, at the time the rooster crows, or in the morning. In the same way, you must always be on guard too. ³⁶ Don’t let Me arrive suddenly and find you aren’t alert, but sleeping! ³⁷ What I’m saying is not just for you who are listening but for everyone, always be ready and on guard!”

Chapter 14

The Jewish leaders look for a way to kill Jesus

¹ Two days before the Passover, ^[1] without the crowd knowing it, members of the chief priests and the Law experts began to look for a way to arrest Jesus so that they could kill Him. ² Then they said, “We can’t arrest him while the feast is going on. Then the crowd would get angry at us and there could be a riot.”

A woman pours fragrant oil on Jesus’ head

³ After that, Jesus and His disciples went to Bethany. They ate at the house of Simon, who was also called The Leper. ^[2] While Jesus and some other people were eating, a woman entered bringing some expensive fragrant oil. The oil was made of pure nard and was in a bottle made of white stone. The bottle was intentionally made without a stopper. So the woman approached Jesus and broke the neck of the bottle, then poured the oil on Jesus’ head.

⁴ But when some people saw that, they were angry and said to each other, “Why was that oil just wasted?! ⁵ If we had sold that oil, we would have gotten a lot of money, for sure. ^[3] Then we could have distributed the money to poor people.”

⁶ But Jesus said to them, “Just leave her alone! Don’t rebuke her. For this woman has done a good deed for Me. ⁷ Poor people will always be around you, and you can help them any time. But I won’t always be with you. ⁸ And actually, by pouring the fragrant oil on My head, she has prepared My body to be buried. ^[4] This was all that she could do for Me. ⁹ I’m telling you the truth. “When the Good News about Me is spread throughout the whole world, what this woman did to Me will continue to be told, so that she’ll never be forgotten.”

Judas sells Jesus

¹⁰ Then Judas, from the village of Cariot, ^[5] one of His twelve disciples, went to the chief priests to tell them that he was ready to sell Jesus to them. ¹¹ When they heard that, they were really glad, and promised to give him money. Then Judas began to look for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them.

Jesus eats the Passover meal with His twelve disciples

¹² The first day of the Passover celebration came, ^[6] which was the day when all the Passover lambs were killed. Then Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Teacher, where will we eat the Passover meal, so we can go there to prepare it?”

¹³ Then Jesus told two of His disciples, “The two of you go into Jerusalem. You’ll meet a male servant carrying a container of water. Follow him. ¹⁴ When he enters a house, go in with him and say to the owner of the house, ‘Our Teacher wants to ask you where there is a place for Him and we disciples of His to eat the Passover meal.’ ¹⁵ Then that man will show you a large room upstairs which is eqipped with a table and everything that’s needed. Prepare the Passover food for us there.” ¹⁶ Then the two disciples went to Jerusalem, and they found it exactly as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal there.

¹⁷ That evening Jesus came with His disciples. ¹⁸ While they were eating, He said to them, “I’m telling you the truth. One of you will hand Me over to those who oppose Me. That person is eating with us.”

¹⁹ When they heard that, they became really sad. And one by one they began to say to Him, “Lord, it certainly isn’t me!”

²⁰ Then Jesus said again, “One of you twelve men will hand Me over to be arrested. He will soon dip his bread into the same plate with Me, as if he was still My close friend. ^{[7] 21} For just as it’s written in the Holy Bible, I, the Son of Man, ^[8] have been appointed to be killed, of course. But what a pity for the one who hands Me over to My enemies! He’ll be punished so harshly that he’ll think it would be better if he hadn’t ever been born.”

Jesus gives food that becomes a reminder of His body and blood

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He tore the bread, and when he gave it to each of them to eat He said, “Take this bread and eat it. This is My body.

^23-24 After that, Jesus took a cup that was filled with wine. Then He gave thanks to God. When He gave it to them so that each one drank from the cup, He said, “This is my blood which will be poured out for many people. This blood from my death is the sign that a new promise between God and man is now official.” Then they all drank. ²⁵ And Jesus said again. “I’m telling you the truth. I won’t drink wine like this until the kingdom that God promised is obvious. At that time, I’ll drink new wine.”

²⁶ Then they sang a praise song to God, and after that they went to the Mount of Olives.

Peter will deny Jesus is his teacher

²⁷ While they were walking, Jesus said to His disciples, “Tonight you’ll all run away and leave Me. Because God has determined that it will happen to Me according to what’s written in the Holy Bible,

     ‘I’ll strike and kill the Shepherd.

     At that time, His sheep will scatter here and there.’ ^[21]

²⁸ But after God raises Me up again from death, I’ll go first to the region of Galilee.”

²⁹ Then Peter said, “Even if all Your other friends run away and leave You, I won’t!”

³⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “I’m telling you the truth. Tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you’ll deny three times that I’m your teacher.’”

³¹ But Peter answered again emphatically, “If I really have to die with You, I’m ready, because I won’t say that I don’t know You!” And all the other disciples said the same thing.

Jesus prays alone in the garden of Gethsemane

³² After Jesus and His disciples arrived at the garden called Gethsemane, He said to them, “Sit here, because I want to go pray.” ³³ Then He invited Peter, James and John to follow Him. At that time, Jesus felt very sad and His heart was very distressed. ³⁴ Then He said to them, “My heart is so sad that it feels like I'm dying. Stay here. Keep watching while you pray.”

³⁵ Then Jesus went a little farther away from them, and He knelt down and prayed that if God was willing— He would be released from the trouble that was soon coming. ³⁶ He prayed like this, “Abba, ^[9] Father, You’re able to do anything. Please release Me from this trouble! But I’m not asking that My will be done, but may Your will alone be done, Father.”

³⁷ After praying, He returned to His three disciples, and He found they had fallen asleep. Then He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Obviously you can’t keep watching while you pray for just one hour!” ³⁸ Then Jesus said again, “Stay alert while praying so that none of you will fall into sin when the devil tempts you. Your spirit wants to do what’s good, of course, but you’re physically weak.”

³⁹ Then Jesus returned to the same place to pray, and He prayed for the same thing. ⁴⁰ When He finished praying, He returned and found they had fallen asleep again, because they were so sleepy. When He rebuked them, they said nothing. They were so ashamed and couldn’t find a reason to give Him that made sense.

⁴¹ After that, Jesus went to pray again for the third time. And when He returned to them, He said, “You’re still sleeping and resting, huh! That’s enough! The time has come. Look! I, the Son of Man, will be turned over into the hands of sinners. ⁴² Get up! Let’s go now. Look! The one who’s handing Me over to My enemies has already come.”

Jesus is arrested

⁴³ While Jesus was still speaking, suddenly Judas, who was one of His twelve disciples, came with a crowd. They were carrying swords and wooden clubs. These were the people sent by the chief priests, the Law experts, and the Jewish leaders. ⁴⁴ Judas had told them ahead of time, “The person I hug is Jesus. Arrest him, and guard him well.” ⁴⁵ When Judas arrived, he immediately approached Jesus and said, “Teacher.” Then he hugged Jesus. ^[10]

⁴⁶ And those people immediately arrested Jesus. ⁴⁷ But one of Jesus’ disciples drew his sword and attacked the high priest’s slave. However he only succeeded in cutting off his ear.

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to them, “Do you think I’m a criminal so that you have to bring swords and wooden clubs here?! ⁴⁹ However, I’ve been with you everyday in the courtyard of God's House giving My teaching! So why didn’t you arrest Me there? But this was appointed to happen to Me according to what was written in the Holy Bible.”

⁵⁰ At that time, all of His disciples ran away and left Him.

⁵¹ A young man ^[11] tried to follow Jesus from behind. He was wearing just a fine linen cloth, and they almost caught him by grabbing that cloth. ⁵² So he left the cloth in their hands and ran away naked.

Jesus is brought before the council of the Jewish Religious Court

⁵³ After that, they brought Jesus to the high priest’s house. The whole Jewish Religious Court council was gathering there, that is the chief priests, Jewish leaders, and Law experts. ⁵⁴ But Peter followed Jesus from a distance up to the yard of the high priest’s house. He sat there with the high priest’s guards, warming himself along with them near a fire.

^55-56 At the time, the chief priests and all the members of the Religious Court council were looking for a way to prove that Jesus was guilty, so they could give Him the death sentence. Some men had secretly been bribed so that they would give false testimonies about Jesus. But even though many people gave false testimonies, the testimonies of any two of them weren’t even the same. For that reason, they didn’t succeed in proving any fault in Jesus at all.

⁵⁷ Then some people stood up and gave a false testimony against Him, ⁵⁸ “We heard Him say, ‘I’ll demolish God’s House that was made by human hands, and in three days time I’ll rebuild a new one that isn’t made by human hands.’” ⁵⁹ But the testimonies of any two of them about that claim weren’t even the same.

⁶⁰ Then the high priest stood in front of them and said to Jesus, “Why don’t you answer something, because many people have already testified about your false teachings?!” ⁶¹ But Jesus just kept silent and didn’t answer anything.

Then the high priest asked Him again, “Are you the Son of God, and the Christ?” ^[12]

⁶² And Jesus answered, “Yes, that’s true. And you’ll see Me, the Son of Man, ^[13] sitting in the most honored place at the right side of The Almighty. And when I come from heaven, you’ll see Me coming in the clouds too.”

⁶³ When he heard that, the high priest tore the thin tunic ^[14] he was wearing to show his anger, and said, “Why do we need to look for any more witnesses?! ⁶⁴ You've heard for yourselves that he insulted God! So what’s your opinion?”

Then they all decided to give Him the death sentence.

⁶⁵ After that, there were some of them who began to spit on Him. They also covered His eyes with a piece of cloth, and while hitting Him they said, “If you’re a prophet, try to guess the name of the person who just hit you!” Then the high priest’s guards also beat Jesus and took Him outside.

Peter denies that he’s a follower of Jesus

⁶⁶ While all that was happening, Peter was still warming himself near the fire in the high priest’s yard. Then a female servant of the high priest came. ⁶⁷ When she noticed Peter’s face in the light of the fire, she said to him, “You’re one of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth too, right?!”

⁶⁸ But Peter said, “I don’t know, and I don’t understand what you’re saying either.” Then he went to the entry gate, and at that very moment a rooster crowed.

⁶⁹ When the female servant saw Peter again, she began saying to the people who were there, “This man is one of those who follow Jesus too.” ⁷⁰ But Peter denied it again, “Not me.”

Not long after that, the people who were standing there said to Peter, “It’s true! You’re one of them too, because you’re also a Galilean.”

⁷¹ Then Peter began to swear, “I swear by God, I don’t know that man!”

⁷² At that time, a rooster crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him that night, “Before the rooster crows twice, you’ll have denied three times that I’m your teacher.” Peter immediately wept with great sadness.

Chapter 15

Jesus is handed over to Pilate

¹ Very early in the morning, the whole Religious Court council, that is the chief priests, Jewish leaders and Law experts, made a plan to use the Roman government officials to kill Jesus. Then they tied Him up and brought Him to be turned over to Governor Pilate.

² After they reported the accusations to Pilate, he asked Jesus, “Are you really the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “Yes, that’s right.”

³ Then the chief priests reported many accusations about Jesus’ wrong-doings. ⁴ So Pilate asked Jesus again, “Don’t you want to answer them, because they’re saying you’ve done many wrong things.” ⁵ But Jesus still didn’t answer anything. So Pilate was really amazed.

Pilate turns Jesus over to receive the death sentence

⁶ Every year in Jerusalem on Passover Day, the governor always released one person from prison in agreement with the people’s request. ⁷ There was a man in prison at that time, whose name was Barabbas. He was arrested and put in prison together with some other people because they had caused a riot against the Roman government. Barabbas had killed someone in that uproar. ⁸ So it happened that a crowd came to Governor Pilate that morning and asked, “Will you release a prisoner today, like you usually do, Sir?”

⁹ Then Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release the king of the Jews to you?” ¹⁰ Pilate said that on purpose because he knew that the chief priests envied Jesus. He knew that this was the reason they had turned Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests persuaded the crowd to ask Pilate to release Barabbas, not Jesus. ¹² Then Pilate asked them again, “If so, what do you want me to do with this man, the one you call ‘king of the Jews?’”

¹³ But they shouted, “Crucify him!” ^[1]

¹⁴ Then Pilate asked them again, “Why? What has he done wrong?”

But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵ And because Pilate wanted the crowd to be pleased with him, he released Barabbas to them. Then he handed Jesus over to his soldiers so they could whip Him and crucify Him.

The soldiers mock Jesus

¹⁶ Then the soldiers led Jesus into their barracks which was part of the governor’s palace. And they called the other soldiers to gather there. ¹⁷ After whipping Jesus, they began to mock Him. They exchanged the robe Jesus was wearing for a commander’s purple robe, because that color was usually worn by kings too. And from a thorny branch they made a crown and put it on Jesus’ head. ¹⁸ Then they pretended to honor Jesus by shouting, “Greetings, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ After that, they hit Jesus’ head with a club, and some of them spit on Him too. Then some of them pretended to honor Him by kneeling down in front of Jesus, as if giving honor to a king. ²⁰ After they mocked Him like that, they took off the purple robe and exchanged it for His own robe. Then they led Jesus out to be crucified.

Jesus is crucified

²¹ While they were on the way to the place where Jesus would be crucified, they met a man from Cyrene who had just returned from outside the city. The man’s name was Simon, and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then the soldiers forced ^[2] Simon to carry Jesus’ cross. ²² They led Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means “place of the skull” in the Hebrew language. ^{[3] 23} They gave wine to Him there, which was mixed with the sap of the myrrh tree. But Jesus refused it.

²⁴ Then the soldiers crucified Him, and they divided His clothes among them by throwing lots. ^{[4] 25} They crucified Jesus around nine o’clock in the morning. ²⁶ Then they attached a board above His cross with the charge against Jesus, which said, “This is the king of the Jews.” ^27-28 They also crucified two thieves along with Jesus, one on His right side, and the other on His left side. ^[5]

²⁹ The people who passed that place insulted Him. They shook their heads and said, “Hey, you said earlier that you would demolish God’s House and rebuild it in only three days. ³⁰ Save yourself and come down from that cross!”

³¹ It was the same with the chief priests and Law experts who were there. They laughed and mocked Him in loud voices like this, “What a pity! He has saved other people, but he can’t save himself! ³² If he really is the Christ, the King of Salvation for the people of Israel, let him come down from that cross! Then we can believe in him.” And the two criminals who were crucified with Jesus also joined in insulting Him.

Jesus dies

³³ At twelve o’clock noon, that whole area suddenly became dark, until three o’clock in the afternoon. ³⁴ Around three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani”, which means, “My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” ^[22]

³⁵ Then some people who were standing there misheard what Jesus said, and they said, “Listen! He’s calling the Prophet Elijah.” ³⁶ After that, a person ran to get a piece of sponge ^[6] and attached it to the tip of a bamboo stick. Then he dipped the sponge in sour wine ^[7] and gave it to Jesus to drink. While doing that he said, “Let’s wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down from the cross!”

³⁷ Then Jesus cried out and died. ³⁸ When Jesus died, the curtain which always hung in the Holy Room ^[8] in God’s House, tore by itself from top to bottom, into two pieces.

³⁹ When the officer ^[9] who was standing there saw what happened at the moment Jesus died, he immediately said, “It’s really true, this Man was God’s Son!”

⁴⁰ There were also women standing and watching from a distance. They were Salome, Mary who came from the village of Magdala, and Mary the mother of Joseph and the younger James, who were both the younger brothers of Jesus. ^{[10] 41} They were the women who usually followed Jesus and served Him while He was still in the region of Galilee. There were also many other women who had followed Jesus’ group from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Jesus’ body is buried

⁴² At that time, it was almost evening and the Jews had to quickly finish getting ready for the Sabbath Day. ⁴³ For that reason Joseph got bold to face Pilate so he could ask permission for Jesus’ body to be taken down quickly and buried. (This was Joseph from the village of Arimathea, and he was also one of the most respected members of the Jewish Religious Court. He also really longed for the time when God would begin to govern this world as King.) ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus had died before night. So he ordered the head of the troops to come and ask if Jesus was really dead already. ⁴⁵ After Pilate heard the report from the head of the troops that Jesus had already died, he gave Joseph permission to take Jesus’ body. ⁴⁶ Then Joseph bought white cloth to wrap around Jesus’ body. And after Joseph and some people took His body down from the cross, they wrapped it in that cloth, and then carried His body and put it in a tomb that was dug like a cave into a rocky hill. After that, the door of the tomb was closed by rolling a large stone which had been prepared as a cover. ⁴⁷ While they took care of Jesus’ body, the two Mary’s were there and saw the place where they put His body.

Chapter 16

The news that Jesus comes alive again after death

^1-2 Very early on Sunday morning, when the Sabbath day was past and the sun had just risen, Mary from the village of Magdala, Salome and Mary the mother of James went to Jesus’ tomb. Before going, they bought fragrant oil to rub on Jesus’ body. ³ On the way they asked each other, “Who will help us roll that huge stone aside, so that we can enter the tomb?” ⁴ But when they reached the tomb, they saw that the huge stone had already been rolled aside.

⁵ They entered the tomb quickly and saw an angel who looked like a young man. He was wearing white clothes and was sitting on the right side of the tomb. They were very shocked. ⁶ But the angel said to them, “Don’t be shocked! I know you’re looking for Jesus, the Man from Nazareth who was crucified. He isn’t here because God has made Him alive again. Just look at the place where they laid His body. ⁷ So now go and tell His disciples this, especially Peter. Tell them, ‘Jesus has already gone ahead to Galilee and you’ll meet Him there, just like He told you.’ ”

⁸ The women ran away from the tomb trembling because they were very afraid and confused. They didn’t say anything to the people they met on the road because they were still afraid. ^[1]

An ancient addition to Mark’s Gospel: Jesus shows Himself to His disciples

[ ⁹ Jesus came back to life very early on Sunday morning. He first showed Himself to Mary from the village of Magdala. (Jesus had once cast seven evil spirits out of her.) ¹⁰ Then Mary went to tell the people who had followed Jesus in the past. At the time, they were still mourning and weeping because of Jesus’ death. ¹¹ When they heard that Jesus had come back to life and Mary had just seen Him, they didn’t believe it.

¹² Not long after that, Jesus showed Himself with a face like another person to two men who had often been together with His disciples in the past. At the time, they were walking from Jerusalem to another place. ¹³ When the two men became aware that the Person who was with them was Jesus, He suddenly disappeared. Then the two of them returned and told what had happened to His disciples, but they still didn’t believe.

¹⁴ Finally, Jesus showed Himself to His eleven disciples while they were eating. He rebuked them because of their hard-heartedness. Even though several eye-witnesses had told them, they still didn’t believe that He had come alive again. ¹⁵ Then He said to them, “Go into the whole world and tell the Good News to everyone. ¹⁶ Whoever doesn’t believe in Me will be punished. But the person who believes and is baptized will be saved. ¹⁷ And God will give the power to do these miracles to everyone who believes in Me:

     So that I’m glorified

         you’ll drive out demons,

         you will speak in new languages which you’ve never learned,

         ¹⁸ and even though you hold snakes with your bare hands, or drink poison, you won’t get sick or die.

         And you’ll also lay hands on sick people while praying to Me, and the sick person will be healed.”

Jesus is taken up to heaven

¹⁹ After He finished talking like that to His disciples, the Lord Jesus was taken up to heaven where He sits at the right side of God, which is the place of greatest honor. ²⁰ Then His disciples went everywhere telling the news of salvation. And the Spirit of the Lord Jesus was with them, doing many miracles as proof that the news of salvation that they told was true.]