The Man with a Withered Hand

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

A Multitude at the Seaside

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

Jesus Appoints the Twelve

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

Jesus and Beelzebul

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

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

The True Kindred of Jesus

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