Mark 6

New American Standard Bible

Teaching at Nazareth

6 ^(A)Jesus went out from there and *came into ^[a](B)His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. ² And when the Sabbath came, He began ^(C)to teach in the synagogue; and ^[b]the ^(D)many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man learn these things, and what is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and such ^[c]miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is this not ^(E)the carpenter, ^(F)the son of Mary and brother of ^[d]James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are ^(G)His sisters not here with us?” And they took ^(H)offense at Him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “^(I)A prophet is not dishonored except in ^[e](J)his hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could not do any ^[f]miracle there except that He ^(K)laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He was amazed at their unbelief.

^(L)And He was going around the villages, teaching.

The Twelve Sent Out

^7 (M)And ^(N)He *summoned the twelve and began to send them out ^(O)in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits; ^8 (P)and He instructed them that they were to take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no ^[g]bag, no money in their belt— ⁹ but ^[h]to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not wear two ^[i]tunics.” ¹⁰ And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you ^[j]leave town. ¹¹ Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, ^(Q)shake the dust ^[k]off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.” ^12 (R)And they went out and ^[l]preached that people are to repent. ¹³ And they were casting out many demons and ^(S)were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

John’s Fate Recalled

^14 (T)And King Herod heard about it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “^(U)John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” ¹⁵ But others were saying, “He is ^(V)Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is ^(W)a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” ¹⁶ But when Herod heard about it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

¹⁷ For Herod himself had sent men and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of ^(X)Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. ¹⁸ For John had been saying to Herod, “^(Y)It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹ And ^(Z)Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, and could not do so; ²⁰ for ^(AA)Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he had been protecting him. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; and yet he ^[m]used to enjoy listening to him. ²¹ An opportune day came when Herod, on his birthday, ^(AB)held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders, and the leading people ^(AC)of Galilee; ²² and when the daughter of ^(AD)Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and ^[n]his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” ²³ And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you, up to ^(AE)half of my kingdom.” ²⁴ And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” ²⁵ Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” ²⁶ And although the king was very sorry, because of his oaths and ^[o]his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. ²⁷ Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison, ²⁸ and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹ When his disciples heard about this, they came and carried away his body, and laid it in a tomb.

^30 (AF)The ^(AG)apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and ^(AH)they did not even have time to eat.) ^32 (AI)And they went away in ^(AJ)the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Men Fed

³³ The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went ^[p]ashore, He ^(AK)saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because ^(AL)they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵ And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “^[q]This place is secluded and it is already late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves ^[r]something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” ^(AM)And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^[s](AN)denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ But He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He ^(AO)blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied; ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full ^(AP)baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were ^(AQ)five thousand ^[t]men who ate the loaves.

Jesus Walks on the Water

^45 (AR)And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into ^(AS)the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to ^(AT)Bethsaida, while He Himself *dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ And after ^(AU)saying goodbye to them, He left ^(AV)for the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷ When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ Seeing them ^[u]straining at the oars—for the wind was against them—at about the ^[v](AW)fourth watch of the night, He *came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. ⁴⁹ But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out; ⁵⁰ for they all saw Him and were ^[w]terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and *said to them, “^(AX)Take courage; it is I, ^(AY)do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then He got into ^(AZ)the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, ⁵² for ^(BA)they ^[x]had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but ^[y]their hearts ^(BB)were hardened.

Healing at Gennesaret

^53 (BC)When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored at the shore. ⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, ⁵⁵ and ran about that entire country and began carrying here and there on their pallets those who were sick, ^[z]to wherever they heard He was. ⁵⁶ And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or a countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him that they might just ^(BD)touch ^(BE)the fringe of His cloak; and all who touched it were being ^[aa]healed.