Now John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he used to live on dried locusts and wild honey.

And just as soon as He started to come up out of the water, He saw the heavens split open and the Spirit coming down like a dove to enter Him.

As He was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets in the sea, for they were fishermen.

So Jesus said to them, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishermen for catching men."

He walked on a little farther and saw James, the Son of Zebedee, and his brother John; they too were in their boats getting their nets in order.

Just at that moment there was a man in their synagogue who was under the spell of a foul spirit, and so he screamed,

"What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, God's Holy One!"

They were all so dumbfounded that they kept discussing it among themselves, and asking, "What does this mean? It is a new teaching. He gives orders with authority even to foul spirits, and they obey Him."

And Simon's mother-in-law was confined to her bed with a fever. So they at once told Him about her.

So He went all over Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

And His heart was moved with pity for him, so He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said, "I do want to! Be cured!"

"See that you tell nobody a single word about it. Be gone, show yourself to the priest, and to prove it to the people, make the offering for your purification which Moses prescribed."

But he went out and began to publish it so much and to spread the story so far, that Jesus could not any more go into any town openly, but had to stay out in thinly settled places. But the people kept coming to Him from every quarter.

and so many people gathered there that there was no longer any room even around the door. He was telling them His message.

When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, "My son, your sins are forgiven."

Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say to him, 'Get up, pick up your pallet and start walking!"

Then he got up and at once picked up his pallet, and went out before them all. The result was that they were all dumbfounded and began to praise God and say, "We have never seen anything like this before."

And as He was passing by, He saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting in the tax-collector's office, and He said to him, "Follow me." Then he got up and followed Him.

And when the scribes who belonged to the Pharisees' party saw that He was eating with notorious sinners and tax-collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why does He eat with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. So some people came and asked Him, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples practice fasting, but yours never do?"

So the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Just look! Why are they doing on the Sabbath what it is against the law to do?"

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

And they kept closely watching Him, to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, to get a charge to bring against Him.

Then He asked them, "Is it right to do people good on the Sabbath, or to do them evil, to save life or to take it?" But they had nothing to say.

So Jesus looked around at them in anger, because He was pained over their stubbornness of mind, and said to the man, "Hold out your hand." And he held it out, and his hand was cured.

So Jesus retired with His disciples to the sea, and a vast throng of people followed Him from Galilee, and from Judea,

So He told His disciples to keep a little boat ready for Him all the time, to prevent the crowds from crushing Him.

For He cured so many people that all who had ailments kept crowding up against Him to touch Him.

And whenever the foul spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and screamed, "You are the Son of God."

James the son of Zebedee, and John, James's brother (He named them Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder),

And again the crowds gathered so that it was not possible for them even to take their meals.

So He called them to Him, and continued speaking to them in short stories, as follows: "How can Satan drive out Satan?

But no one can get into a giant's house and carry off his goods, unless he first binds the giant; after that he can make a clean sweep of his house.

I solemnly say to you, men will be forgiven for all their sins and all the abusive things they say.

He said so, because they kept saying, "He is under the spell of a foul spirit."

Then He began again to teach by the seashore. And a crowd gathered around Him so great that He got into a boat and was sitting in it, just off the shore, while all the people were on the land close to the sea.

"Listen! A sower went out to sow.

Then He said to them, "To you the secret of the kingdom of God has been entrusted, but to those who are on the outside everything is presented in stories, so that

'They may look and look and yet not see, And listen and listen and yet not understand, Lest, perchance, they should turn and be forgiven.'"

but it does not take real root in them, and so they last only a little while; then when trouble or persecution comes on account of the truth, they at once fall by the way.

but when it is properly sown, it comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under its shade."

So they left the crowd and took Him in the boat in which he was sitting. And there were other boats with Him.

But a furious squall of wind came up, and the waves were dashing over into the boat, so that it was fast filling.

He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, "Teacher, is it no concern to you that we are going down?"

Then He aroused Himself and reproved the wind, and said to the sea, "Hush! Be still." And the wind lulled, and there was a great calm.

They were very much frightened, and said to one another, "Who can He be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

So they landed on the other side of the sea in the region of Gerasa.

and screamed aloud, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name, I beg you, do not torture me."

And they begged Him, "Send us among the hogs, so that we can get into them."

So He let them do so. And the foul spirits came out of the man and got into the hogs, and the drove of about two thousand rushed over the cliff and into the sea and were drowned.

Then the hog-feeders fled and spread the news in the town and in the country around; and the people came to see what had taken place.

When they came to Jesus and saw the man who had once been insane under the power of many demons, sitting, with his clothes on, and in his right mind, they were frightened.

And so he went away and began to tell everybody in the Ten Cities how much Jesus had done for him; and everybody was dumbfounded.

And a man named Jairus, a leader of a synagogue, came up, and when he saw Jesus he flung himself at His feet

and kept earnestly begging Him, saying, "My dear little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live."

So He went off with him, and a great crowd kept following Him, and jostling Him.

heard the reports about Jesus. So she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His coat,

Jesus at once perceived that power had gone out of Him, and so He turned around in the crowd, and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

But the disciples kept saying to Him, "You see the crowd jostling you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

Still He kept looking around to see her who had done it.

So the woman, as she knew what had taken place for her, though frightened and trembling, came forward and fell on her knees before His feet, and told Him the whole truth.

He let no one go with Him but Peter, James, and James's brother John.

They came to the home of the leader of the synagogue, and there He saw confusion, and people weeping and wailing without restraint.

Then they began to laugh in His face. But He drove them all out, and took the little girl's father and mother and the men with Him, and went into the room where the little girl was.

Is He not the carpenter, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And do not His sisters live here among us?" And so they found a cause for stumbling over him.

And He continued to say to them, "Whenever you put up at a house, stay there until you leave that place.

So they went out and preached that men should repent,

King Herod heard of Him, for His name was now on everybody's lips, and people were saying that John the Baptist had risen from the dead, and that this was why such mighty powers were working in Him.

For this very Herod had sent and seized John and bound him and put him in prison, just to please Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

For John kept saying to Herod, "It is not right for you to be living with your brother's wife."

So Herodias had it in for him and wanted to have him killed. But she could not have it done,

for Herod stood in awe of John, because he knew that he was an upright and holy man, and so he protected him. When he heard him speak, he was very much disturbed, and yet he liked to hear him.

Herodias' daughter came in and danced for them, and fascinated Herod and his guests. So the king said to the girl, "Ask me for anything you want, and I will give it to you."

Then she rushed at once before the king, and made this request, "I want you this very minute to give me John the Baptist's head on a platter."

and so at once ordered a soldier of his guard to bring his head. The soldier went off and beheaded John in the prison

So they got off in their boat to be by themselves in a quiet place.

But many people saw them start and knew of it and ran around the lake from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

So when He got out of the boat, He saw a great crowd waiting, and His heart was moved with pity at the sight of them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and so He proceeded to teach them a number of things.

Then He asked them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." They found out and told Him, "Five, and two fish."

And so they tumbled down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

Now when evening had come, the boat was in the middle of the sea, while He was alone on land.

And because He saw that they were struggling at the oars, for the wind was against them, a while before daybreak He started toward them walking on the sea, and He meant to go right up beside them.

But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost and screamed aloud,

for they all saw Him and were terrified. But He at once spoke to them and said, "Keep up courage! It is I; stop being afraid."

And so the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why is it that your disciples do not practice the customs handed down from our forefathers, but eat their meals without purifying their hands?"

Their worship of me is but an empty show; the things they teach are but men's precepts.'

but you say if a man tells his father or mother, 'Everything I have that may be of use to you is Corban,' that is, consecrated to God,

and so you set aside what God has said by what you have handed down. You have many other practices like these."

But He was saying to her, "Let the children first eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it out to the house dogs."

He left the neighborhood of Tyre and went by way of Sidon through the district of the Ten Cities down to the Sea of Galilee.

So He took him off from the crowd by himself and put His fingers in his ears and touched his tongue with saliva.

So the people were overwhelmingly dumbfounded, and kept saying, "How wonderfully He has done everything! He even makes deaf people hear and dumb people talk."

So He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then He took the seven loaves and gave thanks and broke them in pieces and gave them to His disciples to pass, and they passed them to the people.

But He sighed in spirit and said, "Why do the people of these times ask for a spectacular sign? I solemnly say, no sign at all will be given them."

So they were discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

And as He noticed it He said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Are your minds so dull?

Since you have eyes can you not see with them? Since you have ears can you not hear with them?

He took him by the hand and led him outside the village, then spit in his eyes, laid His hands upon him, and asked him, "Do you see anything?"

He looked up and answered, "I see the people, but they look to me like trees moving around."

Then He laid His hands upon his eyes again, and he looked the best he could and was cured, and saw everything distinctly.