The Holy Bible

[1:40] A man suffering from a dreaded skin disease came to Jesus, knelt down, and begged him for help. “If you want to,” he said, “you can make me clean.”

[1:41] Jesus was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him. “I do want to,” he answered. “Be clean!”

[1:42] At once the disease left the man, and he was clean.

[1:43] Then Jesus spoke sternly to him and sent him away at once,

[1:44] after saying to him, “Listen, don't tell anyone about this. But go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then in order to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice that Moses ordered.”

[1:45] But the man went away and began to spread the news everywhere. Indeed, he talked so much that Jesus could not go into a town publicly. Instead, he stayed out in lonely places, and people came to him from everywhere.

[2:1] A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum, and the news spread that he was at home.

[2:2] So many people came together that there was no room left, not even out in front of the door. Jesus was preaching the message to them

[2:3] when four men arrived, carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus.

[2:4] Because of the crowd, however, they could not get the man to him. So they made a hole in the roof right above the place where Jesus was. When they had made an opening, they let the man down, lying on his mat.

[2:5] Seeing how much faith they had, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

[2:6] Some teachers of the Law who were sitting there thought to themselves,

[2:7] “How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

[2:8] At once Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Why do you think such things?

[2:9] Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?

[2:10] I will prove to you, then, that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man,

[2:11] “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

[2:12] While they all watched, the man got up, picked up his mat, and hurried away. They were all completely amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

[2:13] Jesus went back again to the shore of Lake Galilee. A crowd came to him, and he started teaching them.

[2:14] As he walked along, he saw a tax collector, Levi son of Alphaeus, sitting in his office. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Levi got up and followed him.

[2:15] Later on Jesus was having a meal in Levi's house. A large number of tax collectors and other outcasts was following Jesus, and many of them joined him and his disciples at the table.

[2:16] Some teachers of the Law, who were Pharisees, saw that Jesus was eating with these outcasts and tax collectors, so they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such people?”

[2:17] Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”

[2:18] On one occasion the followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came to Jesus and asked him, “Why is it that the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but yours do not?”

[2:19] Jesus answered, “Do you expect the guests at a wedding party to go without food? Of course not! As long as the bridegroom is with them, they will not do that.

[2:20] But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

[2:21] “No one uses a piece of new cloth to patch up an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear off some of the old cloth, making an even bigger hole.

[2:22] Nor does anyone pour new wine into used wineskins, because the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.”

[2:23] Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of wheat.

[2:24] So the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do that on the Sabbath!”

[2:25] Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry,

[2:26] so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God. This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. According to our Law only the priests may eat this bread—but David ate it and even gave it to his men.”

[2:27] And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath.

[2:28] So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

[3:1] Then Jesus went back to the synagogue, where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand.

[3:2] Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong; so they watched him closely to see whether he would cure the man on the Sabbath.

[3:3] Jesus said to the man, “Come up here to the front.”

[3:4] Then he asked the people, “What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or to destroy it?” But they did not say a thing.

[3:5] Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again.

[3:6] So the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of Herod's party, and they made plans to kill Jesus.

[3:7] Jesus and his disciples went away to Lake Galilee, and a large crowd followed him. They had come from Galilee, from Judea,

[3:8] from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came to Jesus because they had heard of the things he was doing.

[3:9] The crowd was so large that Jesus told his disciples to get a boat ready for him, so that the people would not crush him.

[3:10] He had healed many people, and all the sick kept pushing their way to him in order to touch him.

[3:11] And whenever the people who had evil spirits in them saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, “You are the Son of God!”

[3:12] Jesus sternly ordered the evil spirits not to tell anyone who he was.

[3:13] Then Jesus went up a hill and called to himself the men he wanted. They came to him,

[3:14] and he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. “I have chosen you to be with me,” he told them. “I will also send you out to preach,

[3:15] and you will have authority to drive out demons.”

[3:16] These are the twelve he chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter);

[3:17] James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “Men of Thunder”);

[3:18] Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Patriot,

[3:19] and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

[3:20] Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat.

[3:21] When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, “He's gone mad!”

[3:22] Some teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He has Beelzebul in him! It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out.”

[3:23] So Jesus called them to him and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

[3:24] If a country divides itself into groups which fight each other, that country will fall apart.

[3:25] If a family divides itself into groups which fight each other, that family will fall apart.

[3:26] So if Satan's kingdom divides into groups, it cannot last, but will fall apart and come to an end.

[3:27] “No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

[3:28] “I assure you that people can be forgiven all their sins and all the evil things they may say.

[3:29] But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, because he has committed an eternal sin.” (

[3:30] Jesus said this because some people were saying, “He has an evil spirit in him.”)

[3:31] Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent in a message, asking for him.

[3:32] A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you.”

[3:33] Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

[3:34] He looked at the people sitting around him and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers!

[3:35] Whoever does what God wants is my brother, my sister, my mother.”