The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?

When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.”

And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” “The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied.

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.

He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.”

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”