Mark 2:18-3:35

English Standard Version

A Question About Fasting

¹⁸Now ^(A)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(B)“Why do John's disciples and ^(C)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹And Jesus said to them, ^(D)“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰^(E)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(F)then they will fast in that day. ²¹No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²²And no one puts new wine into old ^(G)wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”^[a]

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

²³^(H)One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples ^(I)began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, ^(J)why are they doing ^(K)what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵And he said to them, ^(L)“Have you never read ^(M)what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: ²⁶how he entered the house of God, in the time of^[b] ^(N)Abiathar the high priest, and ate ^(O)the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” ²⁷And he said to them, ^(P)“The Sabbath was made for man, ^(Q)not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸So ^(R)the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

3 ^(S)Again ^(T)he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. ²And ^(U)they watched Jesus,^[c] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” ⁴And he said to them, ^(V)“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵And he ^(W)looked around at them with anger, grieved at ^(X)their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” ^(Y)He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶^(Z)The Pharisees went out and immediately ^(AA)held counsel with ^(AB)the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A Great Crowd Follows Jesus

⁷^(AC)Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ^(AD)a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea ⁸and Jerusalem and ^(AE)Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around ^(AF)Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. ⁹And he told his disciples to ^(AG)have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they ^(AH)crush him, ¹⁰for ^(AI)he had healed many, so that all who had ^(AJ)diseases pressed around him ^(AK)to touch him. ¹¹^(AL)And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they ^(AM)fell down before him and cried out, “You are ^(AN)the Son of God.” ¹²And ^(AO)he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The Twelve Apostles

¹³^(AP)And he went up on the mountain and called to him those ^(AQ)whom he desired, and they came to him. ¹⁴^(AR)And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach ¹⁵^(AS)and have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶He appointed the twelve: ^(AT)Simon (to whom ^(AU)he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷^(AV)James 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 ^(AW)Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,^[d] ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

²⁰Then he went ^(AX)home, and the crowd gathered again, ^(AY)so that they could not even eat. ²¹^(AZ)And when ^(BA)his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He ^(BB)is out of his mind.”

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

²²And ^(BC)the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ^(BD)“He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” ²³^(BE)And 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 ^(BF)no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. ^(BG)Then indeed he may plunder his house.

²⁸^(BH)“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹but whoever ^(BI)blasphemes 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

³¹^(BJ)And his mother and his ^(BK)brothers 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 brothers^[e] are outside, seeking you.” ³³And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴And ^(BL)looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵^(BM)For whoever ^(BN)does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”