A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

⁷lJesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ma great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea ⁸and Jerusalem and nIdumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around oTyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. ⁹And he told his disciples to phave a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they qcrush him, ¹⁰for rhe had healed many, so that all who had sdiseases pressed around him tto touch him. ¹¹uAnd whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they vfell down before him and cried out, “You are wthe Son of God.” ¹²And xhe strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

¹³yAnd he went up on the mountain and called to him those zwhom he desired, and they came to him. ¹⁴yAnd he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach ¹⁵yand have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶He appointed the twelve: aSimon (to whom bhe gave the name Peter); ¹⁷cJames the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and dMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,2 ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

²⁰Then he went ehome, and the crowd gathered again, fso that they could not even eat. ²¹gAnd when hhis family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He iis out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

²²And jthe scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, k“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” ²³lAnd he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. ²⁷But mno one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. nThen indeed he may plunder his house.

²⁸o“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹but whoever pblasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

³¹qAnd his mother and his rbrothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ³²And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers3 are outside, seeking you.” ³³And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴And slooking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵tFor whoever udoes the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

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The Parable of the Sower

¹Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ²And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³“Listen! Behold, ya sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold.” ⁹And he said, d“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, f“To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, ¹²iso that

“‘they jmay indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.’”

¹³lAnd he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴mThe sower sows nthe word. ¹⁵And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. ¹⁷And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 ¹⁸And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

A Lamp Under a Basket

²¹wAnd he said to them, x“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? ²²yFor nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. ²³zIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: awith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. ²⁵bFor to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The Parable of the Seed Growing

²⁶And he said, c“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. ²⁷He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; dhe knows not how. ²⁸The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰fAnd he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹It is like ga grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

³³hWith many such parables he spoke ithe word to them, jas they were able to hear it. ³⁴He did not speak to them kwithout a parable, but lprivately to his own disciples he mexplained everything.

Jesus Calms a Storm

³⁵nOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷And a great windstorm arose, and the waves owere breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹And he awoke and prebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and qthere was a great calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you rso afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, s“Who then is this, that even tthe wind and the sea obey him?”

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Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

¹uThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.1 ²And when Jesus2 had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³vHe lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. ⁶And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and wfell down before him. ⁷And xcrying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ySon of zthe Most High God? aI adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is bLegion, for we are many.” ¹⁰And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹²and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

¹⁴The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed3 man, the one who had had cthe legion, sitting there, dclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ¹⁶And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. ¹⁷And ethey began to beg Jesus4 to depart from their region. ¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and ftell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰And he went away and began to proclaim in gthe Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter

²¹And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ²²hThen came one of ithe rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and jlay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴And he went with him.

And a great crowd followed him and kthronged about him. ²⁵And there was a woman lwho had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹mAnd immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ndisease. ³⁰And Jesus, perceiving in himself that opower had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³²And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴And he said to her, “Daughter, pyour faith has made you well; pgo in peace, and be healed of your ndisease.”

³⁵While he was still speaking, there came from qthe ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why rtrouble sthe Teacher any further?” ³⁶But overhearing5 what they said, Jesus said to qthe ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷And he allowed no one to follow him except tPeter and James and uJohn the brother of James. ³⁸They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus6 saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹And when he had entered, he said to them, v“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but wsleeping.” ⁴⁰And they laughed at him. But he xput them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹yTaking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, zarise.” ⁴²And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³And ahe strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

¹bHe went away from there and came to chis hometown, and his disciples followed him. ²And don the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and emany who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³fIs not this gthe carpenter, the son of Mary and hbrother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And ithey took offense at him. ⁴And Jesus said to them, j“A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” ⁵And khe could do no mighty work there, except that lhe laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶And mhe marveled because of their unbelief.

nAnd he went about among the villages teaching.

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