Beginning

8 It was during that time that another large crowd gathered, and they had nothing to eat. Yeshua called his talmidim to him and said to them, ² “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me three days, and now they have nothing to eat. ³ If I send them off to their homes hungry, they will collapse on the way; some of them have come a long distance.” ⁴ His talmidim said to him, “How can anyone find enough bread to satisfy these people in a remote place like this?” ⁵ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked them. They answered, “Seven.” ⁶ He then told the crowd to sit down on the ground, took the seven loaves, made a b’rakhah, broke the loaves and gave them to his talmidim to serve to the people. ⁷ They also had a few fish; making a b’rakhah over them he also ordered these to be served. ⁸ The people ate their fill; and the talmidim took up the leftover pieces, seven large basketsful. ⁹ About four thousand were there. ¹⁰ After sending them away, Yeshua got into the boat with his talmidim and went off to the district of Dalmanuta.

¹¹ The P’rushim came and began arguing with him; they wanted him to give them a sign from Heaven, because they were out to trap him. ¹² With a sigh that came straight from his heart, he said, “Why does this generation want a sign? Yes! I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation!” ¹³ With that, he left them, got into the boat again and went off to the other side of the lake.

¹⁴ Now the talmidim had forgotten to bring bread and had with them in the boat only one loaf. ¹⁵ So when Yeshua said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves from the hametz of the P’rushim and the hametz of Herod,” ¹⁶ they thought he had said it because they had no bread. ¹⁷ But, aware of this, he said, “Why are you talking with each other about having no bread? Don’t you see or understand yet? Have your hearts been made like stone? ¹⁸ You have eyes — don’t you see? You have ears — don’t you hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” “Twelve,” they answered him. ²⁰ “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” “Seven,” they answered. ²¹ He said to them, “And you still don’t understand?”

²² They came to Beit-Tzaidah. Some people brought him a blind man and begged Yeshua to touch him. ²³ Taking the blind man’s hand, he led him outside the town. He spit in his eyes, put his hands on him and asked him, “Do you see anything?” ²⁴ He looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like walking trees.” ²⁵ Then he put his hands on the blind man’s eyes again. He peered intently, and his eyesight was restored, so that he could see everything distinctly. ²⁶ Yeshua sent him home with the words, “Don’t go into town.”

²⁷ Yeshua and his talmidim went on to the towns of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked his talmidim, “Who are people saying I am?” ²⁸ “Some say you are Yochanan the Immerser,” they told him, “others say Eliyahu, and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ “But you,” he asked, “who do you say I am?” Kefa answered, “You are the Mashiach.” ³⁰ Then Yeshua warned them not to tell anyone about him. ³¹ He began teaching them that the Son of Man had to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and that he had to be put to death; but that after three days, he had to rise again. ³² He spoke very plainly about it. Kefa took him aside and began rebuking him. ³³ But, turning around and looking at his talmidim, he rebuked Kefa. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said, “For your thinking is from a human perspective, not from God’s perspective!”

³⁴ Then Yeshua called the crowd and his talmidim to him and told them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake, and keep following me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it. ³⁶ Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? ³⁷ What could a person give in exchange for his life? ³⁸ For if someone is ashamed of me and of what I say in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. 9 Yes!” he went on, “I tell you that there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they see the Kingdom of God come in a powerful way!”

² Six days later, Yeshua took Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately. As they watched, he began to change form, ³ and his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than anyone in the world could possibly bleach them. ⁴ Then they saw Eliyahu and Moshe speaking with Yeshua. ⁵ Kefa said to Yeshua, “It’s good that we’re here, Rabbi! Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu.” ⁶ (He didn’t know what to say, they were so frightened.) ⁷ Then a cloud enveloped them; and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” ⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua.

⁹ As they came down the mountain, he warned them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ So they kept the matter to themselves; but they continued asking each other, “What is this ‘rising from the dead’?” ¹¹ They also asked him, “Why do the Torah-teachers say that Eliyahu has to come first?” ¹² “Eliyahu will indeed come first,” he answered, “and he will restore everything. Nevertheless, why is it written in the Tanakh that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? ¹³ There’s more to it: I tell you that Eliyahu has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as the Tanakh says about him.”

¹⁴ When they got back to the talmidim, they saw a large crowd around them and some Torah-teachers arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as the crowd saw him, they were surprised and ran out to greet him. ¹⁶ He asked them, “What’s the discussion about?” ¹⁷ One of the crowd gave him the answer: “Rabbi, I brought my son to you because he has an evil spirit in him that makes him unable to talk. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground — he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked your talmidim to drive the spirit out, but they couldn’t do it.” ¹⁹ “People without any trust!” he responded. “How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me!” ²⁰ They brought the boy to him; and as soon as the spirit saw him, it threw the boy into a convulsion. ²¹ Yeshua asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?” “Ever since childhood,” he said; ²² “and it often tries to kill him by throwing him into the fire or into the water. But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us!” ²³ Yeshua said to him, “What do you mean, ‘if you can’? Everything is possible to someone who has trust!” ²⁴ Instantly the father of the child exclaimed, “I do trust — help my lack of trust!” ²⁵ When Yeshua saw that the crowd was closing in on them, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and dumb spirit! I command you: come out of him, and never go back into him again!” ²⁶ Shrieking and throwing the boy into a violent fit, it came out. The boy lay there like a corpse, so that most of the people said he was dead. ²⁷ But Yeshua took him by the hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up.

²⁸ After Yeshua had gone indoors, his talmidim asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” ²⁹ He said to them “This is the kind of spirit that can be driven out only by prayer.”

³⁰ After leaving that place, they went on through the Galil. Yeshua didn’t want anyone to know, ³¹ because he was teaching his talmidim. He told them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men who will put him to death; but after he has been killed, three days later he will rise.” ³² But they didn’t understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him.

³³ They arrived at K’far-Nachum. When Yeshua was inside the house, he asked them, “What were you discussing as we were traveling?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet; because on the way, they had been arguing with each other about who was the greatest. ³⁵ He sat down, summoned the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ He took a child and stood him among them. Then he put his arms around him and said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the One who sent me.”

³⁸ Yochanan said to him, “Rabbi, we saw a man expelling demons in your name; and because he wasn’t one of us, we told him to stop.” ³⁹ But Yeshua said, “Don’t stop him, because no one who works a miracle in my name will soon after be able to say something bad about me. ⁴⁰ For whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ Indeed, whoever gives you even a cup of water to drink because you come in the name of the Messiah — yes! I tell you that he will certainly not lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever ensnares one of these little ones who trust me — it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown in the sea. ⁴³ If your hand makes you sin, cut it off! Better that you should be maimed but obtain eternal life, rather than keep both hands and go to Gei-Hinnom, to unquenchable fire! ^{44 [a] 45} And if your foot makes you sin, cut it off! Better that you should be lame but obtain eternal life, rather than keep both feet and be thrown into Gei-Hinnom! ^{46 [b] 47} And if your eye makes you sin, pluck it out! Better that you should be one-eyed but enter the Kingdom of God, rather than keep both eyes and be thrown into Gei-Hinnom,

⁴⁹ Indeed, everyone is going to be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is excellent, but if it loses its saltiness, how will you season it? So have salt in yourselves — that is, be at peace with each other.”