Mark 1-5

New American Standard Bible 1995

Preaching of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ^(A)the Son of God.

^2 (B)As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

⁴ John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness ^[b](E)preaching a baptism of repentance for the ^(F)forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. ⁶ John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore ^(G)a leather belt around his waist, and ^[c]his diet was locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he was ^[d]preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. ⁸ I baptized you ^[e]with water; but He will baptize you ^[f]with the Holy Spirit.”

The Baptism of Jesus

^9 (H)In those days Jesus ^(I)came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens ^[g]opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; ¹¹ and a voice came out of the heavens: “^(J)You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

^12 (K)Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. ¹³ And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by ^(L)Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

^14 (M)Now after John had been ^[h]taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, ^[i](N)preaching the gospel of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “^(O)The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God ^[j]is at hand; ^(P)repent and ^[k]believe in the gospel.”

^16 (Q)As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” ¹⁸ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ¹⁹ Going on a little farther, He saw ^[l]James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. ²⁰ Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away ^[m]to follow Him.

^21 (R)They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath ^(S)He entered the synagogue and began to teach. ^22 (T)They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ²³ Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, ²⁴ saying, “^(U)What ^[n]business do we have with each other, Jesus ^[o]of ^(V)Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—^(W)the Holy One of God!” ²⁵ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” ²⁶ Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. ²⁷ They were all ^(X)amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” ²⁸ Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.

Crowds Healed

^29 (Y)And immediately after they came ^(Z)out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with ^[p]James and John. ³⁰ Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they *spoke to ^[q]Jesus about her. ³¹ And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she ^[r]waited on them.

^32 (AA)When evening came, ^(AB)after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were ^(AC)demon-possessed. ³³ And the whole ^(AD)city had gathered at the door. ³⁴ And He ^(AE)healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

^35 (AF)In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and ^(AG)was praying there. ³⁶ Simon and his companions searched for Him; ³⁷ they found Him, and *said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” ³⁸ He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may ^[s]preach there also; for that is what I came for.” ^39 (AH)And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, ^[t]preaching and casting out the demons.

^40 (AI)And a leper *came to Jesus, beseeching Him and ^(AJ)falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. ⁴³ And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, ⁴⁴ and He *said to him, “^(AK)See that you say nothing to anyone; but ^(AL)go, show yourself to the priest and ^(AM)offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to ^(AN)proclaim it freely and to ^(AO)spread the news around, to such an extent that ^[u]Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but ^[v]stayed out in unpopulated areas; and ^(AP)they were coming to Him from everywhere.

The Paralytic Healed

2 When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. ² And ^(AQ)many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them. ^3 (AR)And they *came, bringing to Him a ^(AS)paralytic, carried by four men. ⁴ Being unable to ^[w]get to Him because of the crowd, they ^(AT)removed the roof ^[x]above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the ^(AU)paralytic was lying. ⁵ And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, “^[y]Son, ^(AV)your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; ^(AW)who can forgive sins ^[z]but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus, aware ^[aa]in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, *said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the ^(AX)paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” ¹² And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and ^(AY)were glorifying God, saying, “^(AZ)We have never seen anything like this.”

¹³ And He went out again by the seashore; and ^(BA)all the ^[ab]people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.

Levi (Matthew) Called

^14 (BB)As He passed by, He saw ^[ac](BC)Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He *said to him, “^(BD)Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁵ And it *^[ad]happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and ^[ae]sinners ^[af]were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. ¹⁶ When ^(BE)the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “^(BF)Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and ^[ag]sinners?” ¹⁷ And hearing this, Jesus *said to them, “^(BG)It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

^18 (BH)John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “While the bridegroom is with them, ^[ah]the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the ^(BI)days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

²¹ “No one sews ^[ai]a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise ^[aj]the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. ²² No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

Question of the Sabbath

^23 (BJ)And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while ^(BK)picking the heads of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, ^(BL)why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; ²⁶ how he entered the house of God in the time of ^(BM)Abiathar the high priest, and ate the ^[ak]consecrated bread, which ^(BN)is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” ²⁷ Jesus said to them, “^(BO)The Sabbath ^[al]was made ^[am]for man, and ^(BP)not man ^[an]for the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

3 ^(BQ)He ^(BR)entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. ^2 (BS)They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, ^(BT)so that they might accuse Him. ³ He *said to the man with the withered hand, “^[ao]Get up and come forward!” ⁴ And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. ⁵ After ^(BU)looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately began ^[ap]conspiring with the ^(BV)Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

^7 (BW)Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and ^(BX)a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from ^(BY)Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of ^(BZ)Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. ^9 (CA)And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; ¹⁰ for He had ^(CB)healed many, with the result that all those who had ^(CC)afflictions pressed around Him in order to ^(CD)touch Him. ¹¹ Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are ^(CE)the Son of God!” ¹² And He ^(CF)earnestly warned them not to ^[aq]tell who He was.

The Twelve Are Chosen

¹³ And He *went up on ^(CG)the mountain and *^(CH)summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. ¹⁴ And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, ¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out the demons. ¹⁶ And He appointed the twelve: ^(CI)Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ and ^[ar]James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of ^[as]James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); ¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and ^[at]James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the ^[au]Zealot; ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

²⁰ And He *came ^[av](CJ)home, and the ^(CK)crowd *gathered again, ^(CL)to such an extent that they could not even eat ^[aw]a meal. ²¹ When ^(CM)His own ^[ax]people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “^(CN)He has lost His senses.” ²² The scribes who came down ^(CO)from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by ^[ay](CP)Beelzebul,” and “^(CQ)He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.” ^23 (CR)And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in ^(CS)parables, “How can ^(CT)Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶ If ^(CU)Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but ^[az]he is finished! ^27 (CV)But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

²⁸ “^(CW)Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ but ^(CX)whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

^31 (CY)Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. ³² A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” ³³ Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” ³⁴ Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “^(CZ)Behold My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever ^(DA)does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Parable of the Sower and Soils

4 ^(DB)He began to teach again ^(DC)by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^(DD)He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. ² And He was teaching them many things in ^(DE)parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³ “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴ as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” ⁹ And He was saying, “^(DF)He who has ears to hear, ^[ba]let him hear.”

¹⁰ As soon as He was alone, ^[bb]His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. ¹¹ And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but ^(DG)those who are outside get everything ^(DH)in parables, ¹² so that ^(DI)while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”

Explanation

^13 (DJ)And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately ^(DK)Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶ In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they ^[bc]fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of ^(DL)the ^[bd]world, and the ^(DM)deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and ^(DN)bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

²¹ And He was saying to them, “^(DO)A lamp is not brought to be put under a ^[be]basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? ^22 (DP)For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. ^23 (DQ)If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. ^[bf](DR)By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. ^25 (DS)For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Parable of the Seed

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷ and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸ The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the crop permits, he immediately ^[bg](DT)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (DU)And He said, “How shall we ^[bh](DV)picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that ^(DW)the birds of the ^[bi]air can nest under its shade.”

³³ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them ^(DX)without a parable; but He was ^(DY)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35 (DZ)On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ^36 [bj]Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^(EA)in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸ Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And He got up and ^(EB)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[bk]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[bl]afraid? ^(EC)Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

The Gerasene Demoniac

5 ^(ED)They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. ² When He got out of ^(EE)the boat, immediately a man from the tombs ^(EF)with an unclean spirit met Him, ³ and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; ⁴ because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. ⁶ Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; ⁷ and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, “^[bm](EG)What business do we have with each other, Jesus, ^(EH)Son of ^(EI)the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” ⁸ For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is ^(EJ)Legion; for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now there was a large herd of swine feeding ^[bn]nearby on the mountain. ¹² The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” ¹³ Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ They *came to Jesus and *observed the man who had been ^(EK)demon-possessed sitting down, ^(EL)clothed and ^(EM)in his right mind, the very man who had had the “^(EN)legion”; and they became frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the ^(EO)demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. ¹⁷ And they began to ^(EP)implore Him to leave their region. ^18 (EQ)As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been ^(ER)demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might ^[bo]accompany Him. ¹⁹ And He did not let him, but He *said to him, “^(ES)Go home to your people and report to them ^[bp]what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to ^(ET)proclaim in ^(EU)Decapolis ^[bq]what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

Miracles and Healing

^21 (EV)When Jesus had crossed over again in ^(EW)the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He ^[br]stayed ^(EX)by the seashore. ^22 (EY)One of ^(EZ)the synagogue ^[bs]officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell at His feet ²³ and *implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and ^(FA)lay Your hands on her, so that she will ^[bt]get well and live.” ²⁴ And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

²⁵ A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶ and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse— ²⁷ after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His ^[bu]cloak. ²⁸ For she ^[bv]thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will ^[bw]get well.” ²⁹ Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ^(FB)affliction. ³⁰ Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that ^(FC)the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” ³¹ And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³² And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. ³³ But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, ^(FD)your faith has ^[bx]made you well; ^(FE)go in peace and be healed of your ^(FF)affliction.”

³⁵ While He was still speaking, they *came from the house of the ^(FG)synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” ³⁶ But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, *said to the ^(FH)synagogue official, “^(FI)Do not be afraid any longer, only ^[by]believe.” ³⁷ And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except ^(FJ)Peter and ^[bz]James and John the brother of ^[ca]James. ³⁸ They *came to the house of the ^(FK)synagogue official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. ³⁹ And entering in, He *said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.” ⁴⁰ They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He *took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and *entered the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, ^(FL)I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. ⁴³ And He ^(FM)gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.