A Mitzvah on Shabbat

3 Yeshua entered the synagogue again, and a man with a withered hand was there. ² Now some were carefully watching Him, to see if He would heal him on Shabbat, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up here in the center.” ⁴ Then He said to them, “Is it permitted on Shabbat to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?”^[a] But they kept silent.

⁵ After looking around at them with anger, grieved by their hardness of heart, He says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out right away with the Herodians and began plotting against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Crowds Clamor for Yeshua

⁷ Yeshua withdrew to the sea with His disciples, and a large crowd from the Galilee followed. From Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing all He was doing, came to Him. ⁹ He told His disciples to have a small boat ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn’t mob Him.

¹⁰ For He had healed many, so that all those afflicted fell down before Him in order to touch Him. ¹¹ And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, would fall down before Him and cry out, “You are Ben-Elohim!” ¹² But Yeshua strictly ordered them not to make Him known.

Appointing the Twelve

¹³ Now He climbs up on the mountain and calls those He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve (whom He also named emissaries), so that they might be with Him and He might send them to proclaim the Good News, ¹⁵ and to have power to drive out demons. ¹⁶ And He appointed the Twelve: to Simon He gave the name Peter; ¹⁷ to Jacob and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, He gave the name Boanerges, which is Sons of Thunder; ¹⁸ and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Jacob the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot; ^{[b] 19} and Judah from Kriot, who also betrayed Him.

Binding the Strong Man

²⁰ Then He comes into a house, and again a crowd gathers so they couldn’t even eat. ²¹ When His family heard about this, they went out to take hold of Him; for they were saying, “He’s out of His mind!”

²² The Torah scholars who came down from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by beelzebul,” and, “By the ruler of demons He drives out demons.”

²³ He called them and began speaking to them in parables: “How can satan drive out satan? 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 to ransack his property, unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he will thoroughly plunder his house. ²⁸ Amen, I tell you, all things will be forgiven the sons of men, the sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ but whoever slanders^[c] the Ruach ha-Kodesh never has release, but is guilty of an eternal sin!” ³⁰ For they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

A Spiritual Family Begins

³¹ Then His mother and brothers come. Standing outside, they sent word to Him, summoning Him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Him, and they tell Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” ³³ Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking at those sitting in a circle around Him, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”