The preaching of John the Baptist

1 This is where the good news starts—the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son.

² Isaiah the prophet put it like this (“Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of me; he will clear the way for you!”):

³ “A shout goes up in the desert: Make way for the Lord! Clear a straight path for him!”

⁴ John the Baptizer appeared in the desert. He was announcing a baptism of repentance, to forgive sins. ⁵ The whole of Judaea, and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, went out to him; they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. ⁶ John wore camel-hair clothes, with a leather belt round his waist. He used to eat locusts and wild honey.

⁷ “Someone a lot stronger than me is coming close behind,” John used to tell them. “I don’t deserve to squat down and undo his sandals. ⁸ I’ve plunged you in the water; he’s going to plunge you in the holy spirit.”

Jesus’ baptism

⁹ This is how it happened. Around that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. ¹⁰ That very moment, as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit coming down like a dove onto him. ¹¹ Then there came a voice out of the heavens: “You are my son! You are the one I love! You make me very glad.”

¹² All at once the spirit pushed him out into the desert. ¹³ He was in the desert forty days, and the satan tested him there. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.

The calling of the disciples

¹⁴ After John’s arrest, Jesus came into Galilee, announcing God’s good news.

¹⁵ “The time is fulfilled!” he said; “God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back, and believe the good news!”

¹⁶ As he went along beside the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen, and were casting nets into the sea.

¹⁷ “Follow me!” said Jesus to them. “I’ll have you fishing for people!”

¹⁸ Straight away they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ He went on a bit, and saw James, Zebedee’s son, and John his brother. They were in the boat mending their nets, ²⁰ and he called them then and there. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went off after him.

Exorcism and healings

²¹ They went to Capernaum. At once, on the sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught. ²² They were astonished at his teaching. He wasn’t like the legal teachers; he said things on his own authority.

²³ All at once, in their synagogue, there was a man with an unclean spirit.

²⁴ “What business have you got with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” he yelled. “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: you’re God’s Holy One!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” ordered Jesus. “And come out of him!”

²⁶ The unclean spirit convulsed the man, gave a great shout, and came out of him. ²⁷ Everyone was astonished.

“What’s this?” they started to say to each other. “New teaching—with real authority! He even tells the unclean spirits what to do, and they do it!”

²⁸ Word about Jesus spread at once, all over the surrounding district of Galilee.

²⁹ They came out of the synagogue, and went at once (with James and John) into Simon and Andrew’s house. ³⁰ Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her right away. ³¹ He went in, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she waited on them.

³² When the sun went down and evening came, they brought to Jesus everyone who was ill, including the demon-possessed. ³³ The whole town was gathered around the door. ³⁴ Jesus healed many people suffering from all kinds of diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

The healing of a man with a skin disease

³⁵ Very early—in the middle of the night, actually—Jesus got up and went out, off to a lonely place, and prayed. ³⁶ Simon, and those with him, followed. ³⁷ When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸ “Let’s go off to the other towns around here,” Jesus replied, “so that I can tell the news to people there too. That’s why I came out.”

³⁹ So he went into their synagogues, throughout the whole of Galilee, telling the news and casting out demons.

⁴⁰ A man with a virulent skin disease came up to him. He knelt down and begged him, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”

⁴¹ Jesus was deeply moved. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do want to: be clean!” ⁴² The disease left him at once, and he was clean.

⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once, with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “Mind you don’t say anything to anyone! Just go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering Moses commanded, to purify yourself and to give them a sign.”

⁴⁵ But the man went out and began to spread the news far and wide. He did this so effectively that Jesus couldn’t any longer go publicly into a town. He stayed out in the open country, and people came to him from all around.

The healing of the paralytic

2 Jesus went back again to Capernaum, where, after a few days, word got round that he was at home. ² A crowd gathered, so that people couldn’t even get near the door as he was telling them the message.

³ A party arrived: four people carrying a paralyzed man, bringing him to Jesus. ⁴ They couldn’t get through to him because of the crowd, so they opened up the roof above where he was. When they had dug through it, they used ropes to let down the stretcher on which the paralyzed man was lying.

⁵ Jesus saw their faith, and said to the paralyzed man, “Child, your sins are forgiven!”

⁶ “How dare the fellow speak like this?” grumbled some of the legal experts among themselves. ⁷ “It’s blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except God?”

⁸ Jesus knew at once, in his spirit, that thoughts like this were in the air. “Why do your hearts tell you to think that?” he asked. ⁹ “Answer me this,” he went on. “Is it easier to say to this cripple, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher, and walk’?

¹⁰ “You want to know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins?” He turned to the paralytic. ¹¹ “I tell you,” he said, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” ¹² He got up, picked up the stretcher in a flash, and went out before them all.

Everyone was astonished, and they praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this!” they said.

The calling of Levi

¹³ Once more Jesus went out beside the sea. All the crowd came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴ As he went along he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the toll booth. “Follow me!” he said. And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵ That’s how Jesus came to be sitting at home with lots of tax-collectors and sinners. There they were, plenty of them, sitting with Jesus and his disciples; they had become his followers.

¹⁶ When the legal experts from the Pharisees saw him eating with tax-collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “It’s sick people who need the doctor, not healthy ones. I came to call the bad people, not the good ones.”

Questions about fasting

¹⁸ John’s disciples, and the Pharisees’ disciples, were fasting. People came and said to Jesus, “Look here: John’s disciples are fasting, and so are the Pharisees’ disciples; why aren’t yours?”

¹⁹ “How can the wedding guests fast,” Jesus replied, “if the bridegroom is there with them? As long as they’ve got the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.

²⁰ “Mind you, the time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. They’ll fast then all right.

²¹ “No one sews unshrunk cloth onto an old cloak. If they do, the new patch will tear the old cloth, and they’ll end up with a worse hole. ²² Nor does anyone put new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and they’ll lose the wine and the skins together. New wine needs fresh skins.”

Teachings on the sabbath

²³ One sabbath, Jesus was walking through the cornfields. His disciples made their way along, plucking corn as they went.

²⁴ “Look here,” said the Pharisees to him, “why are they doing something illegal on the sabbath?”

²⁵ “Haven’t you ever read what David did,” replied Jesus, “when he was in difficulties, and he and his men got hungry? ²⁶ He went into God’s house (this was when Abiathar was high priest), and ate the ‘bread of the presence,’ which only the priests were allowed to eat—and he gave it to the people with him.

²⁷ “The sabbath was made for humans,” he said, “not humans for the sabbath; ²⁸ so the son of man is master even of the sabbath.”

Healing of the man with the withered hand

3 Once more Jesus went to the synagogue. There was a man there with a withered hand. ² People were watching to see if Jesus would heal him on the sabbath, so that they could frame a charge against him.

³ “Stand up,” said Jesus to the man with the withered hand, “and come out here.” And he said to them, ⁴ “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath, or to do evil? To save life or to kill?” They stayed quiet.

⁵ He was deeply upset at their hard-heartedness, and looked round at them angrily. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out—and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out right away and began to plot with the Herodians against Jesus, trying to find a way to destroy him.

The Twelve are appointed

⁷ Jesus went off towards the sea with his disciples, and a large crowd from Galilee followed him. A great company, too, from Judaea, ⁸ Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordan, and the region of Tyre and Sidon, heard what he was doing and came to him.

⁹ There was a real danger that he might be crushed by the crowd, so he told his disciples to get a boat ready for him. ¹⁰ He healed large numbers, and sick people were pushing towards him to touch him. ¹¹ Whenever unclean spirits saw him, they fell down in front of him and yelled out, “You are the son of God!” ¹² He gave them strict orders not to reveal his identity.

¹³ Jesus went up the mountain, and summoned the people he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve (naming them “apostles”) to be with him and to be sent out as heralds, ¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ In appointing the Twelve, he named Simon “Peter”; ¹⁷ James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, he named “Boanerges,” which means “sons of thunder.” The others were ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananaean, ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot (the one who handed him over).

Jesus and Beelzebul

²⁰ He went into the house. A crowd gathered again, so that they couldn’t even have a meal. ²¹ When his family heard it, they came to restrain him. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.

²² Experts who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! He casts out demons by the prince of demons!”

²³ Jesus summoned them and spoke to them in pictures. “How can the Accuser cast out the Accuser? ²⁴ If a kingdom splits into two factions, it can’t last; ²⁵ if a household splits into two factions, it can’t last. ²⁶ So if the Accuser revolts against himself and splits into two, he can’t last—his time is up! ²⁷ But remember: no one can get into a strong man’s house and steal his property unless first they tie up the strong man; then they can plunder his house.

²⁸ “I’m telling you the truth: people will be forgiven all sins, and all blasphemies of whatever sort. ²⁹ But people who blaspheme the holy spirit will never find forgiveness. They will be guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰ That was his response to their claim that he had an unclean spirit.

Jesus’ family

³¹ Jesus’ mother and brothers appeared. They waited outside the house, and sent in a message, asking for him.

³² “Look!” said the crowd sitting around Jesus. “Your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside! They’re searching for you!”

³³ “Who is my mother?” replied Jesus. “Who are my brothers?”

³⁴ He looked around him at the people sitting there in a ring. “Here is my mother!” he said. “Here are my brothers! ³⁵ Anybody who does God’s will is my brother! And my sister! And my mother!”

Parable of the sower

4 Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. A huge crowd gathered; so he got into a boat and stationed himself on the sea, with all the crowd on the shore looking out to sea. ² He taught them lots of things in parables. This is how his teaching went.

³ “Listen!” he said. “Once upon a time there was a sower who went out sowing. ⁴ As he was sowing, some seed fell beside the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on the rock, where it didn’t have much soil. There was no depth to the ground, so it shot up at once; ⁶ but when the sun came up it was scorched, and withered away, because it hadn’t got any root. ⁷ Other seed fell in among thorns; the thorns grew up and choked it, and it didn’t give any crop. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil, and gave a harvest, which grew up and increased, and bore a yield, in some cases thirtyfold, in some sixtyfold, and in some a hundredfold.”

⁹ And he added, “If you’ve got ears, then listen!”

¹⁰ When they were alone, the people who were around Jesus, with the Twelve, asked him about the parables.

¹¹ “The mystery of God’s kingdom is given to you,” he replied, “but for the people outside it’s all in parables, ¹² so that ‘they may look and look but never see, and hear and hear but never understand; otherwise they would turn and be forgiven.’

¹³ “Don’t you understand the parable?” he said to them. “How are you going to understand all the parables?

¹⁴ “The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ The ones by the path are people who hear the word, but immediately the Accuser comes and takes away the word that has been sown in them. ¹⁶ The ones sown on the rock are those who hear the word and accept it with excitement, ¹⁷ but don’t have any root in themselves. They are short-term enthusiasts. When the word brings them trouble or hostility they quickly become disillusioned. ¹⁸ The others—the ones sown among thorns—are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ and the worries of the present age, and the deceit of riches, and desire for other kinds of things, come in and choke the word, so that it produces no fruit. ²⁰ But the ones sown on good soil are the people who hear the word and receive it, and produce fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold.”

A lamp on its stand

²¹ Jesus said to them, “When you bring a lamp into a room, do you put it under a bucket, or under a bed? Of course not! It goes on a lampstand. ²² No: nothing is secret except what’s meant to be revealed, and nothing is covered up except what’s meant to be uncovered. ²³ If you have ears, then listen!

²⁴ “Be careful with what you hear,” he went on. “The scales you use will be used for you, and more so. ²⁵ If you have something, you’ll be given more; but if you have nothing, even what you have will be taken away.”

More seed parables

²⁶ “This is what God’s kingdom is like,” said Jesus. “Once upon a time a man sowed seed on the ground. ²⁷ Every night he went to bed; every day he got up; and the seed sprouted and grew without him knowing how it did it. ²⁸ The ground produces crops by itself: first the stalk, then the ear, then the complete corn in the ear. ²⁹ But when the crop is ready, in goes the sickle at once, because harvest has arrived.

³⁰ “What shall we say God’s kingdom is like?” he said. “What picture shall we give of it? ³¹ It’s like a grain of mustard seed. When it’s sown on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. ³² But when it’s sown, it springs up and becomes the biggest of all shrubs. It grows large branches, so that ‘the birds of the air make their nests’ within its shade.”

³³ He used to tell them a lot of parables like this, speaking the word as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He never spoke except in parables. But he explained everything to his own disciples in private.

Jesus calms the storm

³⁵ That day, when it was evening, Jesus said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

³⁶ They left the crowd, and took him with them in the boat he’d been in. There were other boats with him too.

³⁷ A big windstorm blew up. The waves beat on the boat, and it quickly began to fill. ³⁸ Jesus, however, was asleep on a cushion in the stern. They woke him up.

“Teacher!” they said to him, “We’re going down! Don’t you care?”

³⁹ He got up, scolded the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Shut up!”

The wind died, and there was a flat calm. ⁴⁰ Then he said to them, “Why are you scared? Don’t you believe yet?”

⁴¹ Great fear stole over them. “Who is this?” they said to each other. “Even the wind and the sea do what he says!”

The healing of the demoniac

5 So they came over the sea to the land of the Gerasenes. ² When they got out of the boat, they were suddenly confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He was emerging from a graveyard, which was where he lived. Nobody had been able to tie him up, not even with a chain; ⁴ he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he used to tear up the chains and snap the shackles. No one had the strength to tame him. ⁵ On and on, night and day, he used to shout out in the graveyard and on the hillside, and slash himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus a long way away, he ran and threw himself down in front of him.

⁷ “Why you and me, Jesus?” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Why you and me, son of the High God? By God, stop torturing me!”— ⁸ this last, because Jesus was saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of him!”

⁹ “What’s your name?” Jesus asked him.

“Legion,” he replied. “That’s my name—there are lots of us!” ¹⁰ And he implored Jesus not to send them out of the country.

¹¹ It so happened that right there, near the hillside, was a sizable herd of pigs. They were grazing.

¹² “Send us to the pigs,” begged the spirits, “so that we can enter them.”

¹³ So Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea—about two thousand of them!—and were drowned.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled. They told it in the town, they told it in the countryside, and people came to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus; and there they saw the man who had been demon-possessed, who had had the “legion,” seated, clothed and stone-cold sober. They were afraid. ¹⁶ The people who had seen it all told them what had happened to the man—and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to leave their district.

¹⁸ Jesus was getting back into the boat, when the man asked if he could go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus wouldn’t let him.

“Go back home,” he said. “Go to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you. Tell them how he had pity on you.”

²⁰ He went off, and began to announce in the Ten Towns what Jesus had done for him. Everyone was astonished.

Jairus’s daughter and the woman with chronic bleeding

²¹ Jesus crossed over once more in the boat to the other side. There a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the seashore.

²² One of the synagogue presidents, a man named Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus he fell down at his feet.

²³ “My daughter’s going to die! My daughter’s going to die!” he pleaded. “Please come—lay your hands on her—rescue her and let her live!”

²⁴ Jesus went off with him. A large crowd followed, and pressed in on him.

²⁵ A woman who had had internal bleeding for twelve years heard about Jesus. ²⁶ (She’d had a rough time at the hands of one doctor after another; she’d spent all she had on treatment, and had got worse rather than better.) ²⁷ She came up in the crowd behind him and touched his clothes. ²⁸ “If I can just touch his clothes,” she said to herself, “I’ll be rescued.” ²⁹ At once her flow of blood dried up. She knew, in her body, that her illness was cured.

³⁰ Jesus knew at once, inside himself, that power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see this crowd crushing you,” said the disciples, “and you say ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² He looked round to see who had done it. ³³ The woman came up; she was afraid and trembling, but she knew what had happened to her. She fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth.

³⁴ “My daughter,” Jesus said to her, “your faith has rescued you. Go in peace. Be healed from your illness.”

The raising of Jairus’s daughter

³⁵ As he said this, some people arrived from the synagogue president’s house.

“Your daughter’s dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Jesus overheard the message. “Don’t be afraid!” he said to the synagogue president. “Just believe!”

³⁷ He didn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James and James’s brother John. ³⁸ They arrived at the synagogue president’s house, and saw a commotion, with a lot of weeping and wailing. ³⁹ Jesus went inside.

“Why are you making such a fuss?” he said. “Why all this weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s asleep.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him.

He put them all out. Then he took the child’s father and mother, and his companions, and they went in to where the child was. ⁴¹ He took hold of her hand, and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Time to get up, little girl!” ⁴² At once the girl got up and walked about. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished out of their wits. ⁴³ Then he commanded them over and over not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.