Mark 1.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. As is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Look! I send My angel before your face,
who will prepare your way –
a voice shouting in the desert:
get the Lord’s road ready!
Make his streets straight!”
John was in the desert, baptizing and preaching a baptism of repentance to sins’ remission, and all Judea’s region went out to him, and all the Jerusalemites. They were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. John was dressed in camel hair and a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He preached saying, “Mightier-than-me comes after me, to whom I am not worthy, bending down, to untie his sandal lace. I baptized you by water. He indeed will baptize you by Holy Spirit.”
It happened in those days Jesus came from Galilean Nazareth, and was baptized in the Jordan by John. Immediately, going up from the water, he saw skies open and Spirit, like a dove, coming down and staying in him. A voice came from the skies, “You are my beloved Son. I have been pleased in you.”
Immediately Spirit drives him to the desert, and he was in the desert forty days and forty nights. He was tested by Satan, and was with beasts, and angels ministered to him.
After John was handed over, Jesus comes to Galilee, preaching the good news of God’s kingdom, and saying that, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s kingdom has come near. Repent, and believe the good news!”
Passing by along Galilee’s sea, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother throwing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you be fishers of men.”
Leaving their nets at once, they followed him. Going on from there a little, he saw Jacob of Zebedee and John his brother, and them in boats, mending nets. Immediately he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired help, they followed him.
They went into Capernaum. Immediately on the Sabbaths, going into the synagogue, he taught them. They were astounded over his teaching, for he was teaching them like one having power, and not like the writers. A man was in their synagogue in an unclean spirit. He cried out, saying, “What to us and to you, Jesus Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you may be – God’s Holy one.”
Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be quiet, and come out of the man!”
The unclean spirit, tearing him and shouting in a great voice, went out of him. All were amazed, so that they sought out among themselves, saying, “What is this? What is this new teaching, for he commands even unclean spirits in power, and they obey him!”
His reputation went out at once to all Galilee’s region.
At once going out of the synagogue, they came to Simon and Andrew’s house with Jacob and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay down fevering, and immediately they tell him about her. Coming near he lifted her up, taking her hand. Just then the fever released her, and she ministered to them. Evening come, when the sun set, they carried to him all having harm and having demons, and all the city was gathered at the door. He cared for many who were afflicted by various weaknesses, and he threw out many demons, and he didn’t allow them to speak because they knew him.
Getting up very early, going out, he went into a desert place, and he prayed there. Simon pursued him, and those who were with him. When they found him, they said to him that, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He said to them, “Let’s go to the next towns and cities, so I can preach there too – for I came to do this.”
He began preaching in their synagogues too in all Galilee, and throwing out demons.
A leper comes to him, begging him, and, knee bent, he said, “If you want, you can make me clean.”
Jesus, pitying him, stretches out his hand and, touching him, said to him, “I want. Be clean!”
When he had spoken, the leprosy immediately withdrew from him, and he was cleansed. Sternly warning him, he immediately threw him out. He says to him, “Look! Say nothing, but go show yourself to the priests’ prince, and give for your cleansing what Moses commanded in his testimony.”
Going out, he begins to preach and spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into a city, but had to be outside in a desert place –and they came to him from everywhere.
Mark 2.
Again after several days, he went into Capernaum. It was heard that he was in the house, and many came together, so that it couldn’t hold them, not even at the door. He spoke a word to them, and they came, bringing a paralytic to him who was carried by four. When they couldn’t offer him to him because of the crowd, they stripped off the roof where he was. Opening it, they lowered the cot on which the paralytic was placed.
When Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Some were sitting there from the writers, and thinking in their hearts,“Why does this man speak so? He blasphemes. Who can forgive sins except God alone?”
Jesus, knowing at once by his spirit that they thought so among themselves, says to them, “Why do you think this in your hearts? What is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and take your cot, and walk?’ So you can know that man’s Son has power on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, take your cot, and go to your house.”
At once he got up and, taking the cot, went out before all, so that all were stunned. They honored God, saying that, “We’ve never seen such.”
He went out again to the sea, and all the crowd came to him, and he taught them. When he passed by, he saw Levi of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me!” Getting up, he followed him. It happened when he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners reclined at table together with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many also who followed him.
The writers and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus, hearing this, said to them, “The healthy don’t need a doctor, but those who have harm. I’ve not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. They come and say to him, “Why are John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasting, but your disciples aren’t fasting?”
Jesus said to them, “The wedding’s sons can’t fast while the groom is with them, can they?However long they have the groom with them, they can’t fast. Days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast – on that day. No one, taking uncut cloth, sews it to an old shirt. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old, and a worse tear happens. And no one puts new wine in old skins. Otherwise, the wine bursts the skins, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined. New wine must be put into new skins.”
Again it happened when he was walking through a grain field on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to go before and pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look! Why are they doing what isn’t legal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those who were with him? How he went into God’s house under Abiathar, the priests’ prince, and ate the loaves of propositions, which is not legal to eat except for priests? And he gave to those who were with him.”
He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man’s sake, not man for the Sabbath’s sake. So also man’s Son is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 3.
Again he went into a synagogue, and a man having a dried-up hand was there. They watched him, whether he would heal on a Sabbath, so they could accuse him. He said to the man having the dried-up hand, “Stand up in the middle.”
He says to them, “Is it legal on the Sabbath to do good or harm, to save a soul or destroy it?”
They were silent. Looking around at them with anger, saddened over their hearts’ blindness, he says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out, and the hand was restored to him. Going out at once, the Pharisees worked counsel with the Herodians against him, how they could destroy him.
Jesus with his disciples withdrew to the sea, and a large crowd followed him from Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and across the Jordan. Those around Tyre and Sidon came to him, a great multitude hearing what he did. He told his disciples that they should prepare him a little boat because of the crowd, so they wouldn’t crush him – for he healed many, so that they rushed in to him – so as many as had sicknesses could touch him. Unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and shouted, saying, “You are God’s Son!”
He fiercely warned them that they not make him known.
Going up onto a mountain, he called to him those he himself wanted, and they came to him. He made it that twelve were with him, and that he could send them to preach. He gave them power to care for weaknesses and to throw out demons, and he placed on Simon the name Peter. On Jacob of Zebedee and John, Jacob’s brother, he also placed on them the name Boanerges – that is, thunder’s Sons – and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and Jacob of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Scarioth, who also betrayed him.
They come to the house, and again a crowd comes together so that they couldn’t even eat bread. When his own heard, they went out to seize him, for they said that he was turned to madness. The writers who had come down from Jerusalem said that, “He has Beelzebub,” and that, “He throws out demons by the demons’ prince.”
Calling them together, he spoke to them in comparisons, “How can Satan throw out Satan? If a kingdom is divided in itself, that kingdom can’t stand. If a house is scattered over itself, that house can’t stand. If Satan has risen against himself, he is destroyed and can’t stand, but has an end. No one, going into a mighty one’s house, can take away the vessels, unless he first binds the mighty one – and then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you that all sins will be forgiven men’s children, and whichever blasphemies they blaspheme. But who blasphemes in the Holy Spirit does not have remission in eternity, yet will be guilty of an eternal offense” – for they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
His mother and brothers come and, standing outside, sent to him, calling him. He was sitting, the crowd around him, and they say to him, “Look! Your mother and your brothers are outside. They are looking for you.”
Answering them, he said, “Who is my mother and my brothers?”
Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Look! My mother and my brothers. Who does God’s will, this one is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”
Mark 4.
Again he began to teach by the sea and a great crowd gathered to him, so that, going into a boat, he sat on the sea, and all the crowd was on the land around the sea. He taught them in many comparisons, and he said to them in his teaching, “Listen! Look! A sower went out to sow. While he sows, some fell along the path, and birds came and ate it. Other, indeed, fell on rocky soil, where it didn’t have much soil. It sprung up quickly, because it didn’t have depth of soil. When the sun rose it got hot, and, because it didn’t have a root, it dried up. Other fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it gave no fruit. Other fell in good soil and gave fruit, climbing up and growing. One bore thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.”
He said, “Who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
When he was alone, those who were with him with the twelve asked him about the comparisons. He said to them, “The mystery of God’s kingdom is given to you, but to those who are outside, all will happen by comparisons – so seeing, they may see and not see, and hearing, they may hear and not understand, unless they be converted and sins be forgiven them.”
He said to them, “Don’t you understand this comparison? How will you understand all the comparisons? Who sows, sows the word. These are those who are along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in their heart. These likewise are those who are sown on rocky soil, who, when they hear the word, accept it immediately with joy. They have no root in themselves, yet are worldly. When trouble and persecution spring up for the word’s sake, they are scandalized at once. Others are those who are sown among thorns. These are those who hear the word, and the time’s tasks, and the deception of riches, and lust’s remaining concerns, entering in, suffocate the word, and it grows up without fruit. These are those who were sown on good soil, who hear the word, and receive it, and bear fruit: one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.”
He said to them, “A light doesn’t come so it can be put under a bucket or under a bed, does it? Isn’t it placed on a lamp stand? There is nothing hidden that will not be made known, nor is anything made hidden, yet that it may come into the open. If one has ears to hear, let him hear!”
He said to them, “Watch what you hear! In what measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and will be added to you. Who has, it will be given to him, and who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
He said, “God’s kingdom is like this: as if man sows seed in the ground. He sleeps and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, while he does not know. The soil bears fruit unaided: first the grass, then the head, then the full grain in the head. When the fruit has produced itself, he sends in the sickle at once because the harvest is at hand.”
He said, “What will we compare God’s kingdom to, or what comparison will we make to it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is less than all the seeds that are in the ground. When it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all greens. It makes great branches, so that the sky’s birds can make nests to live in under its shade.”
He spoke the word to them by many such comparisons, just as they could hear. But he spoke nothing to them without a comparison. Yet apart, with his disciples, he unlocked all.
He said to them that day when evening had come, “Let’s go across.”
Dismissing the crowd, they take him up so that he was in a boat, and other boats were with him. A great wind storm came up, and a wave crashed into the boat so that it filled the boat. He was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They wake him up and say to him, “Teacher, doesn’t it matter to you that we’re dying?”
Getting up, he admonished the wind and said to the sea, “Calm down! Be quiet!”
The wind ceased and a great calm came about. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Don’t you have faith yet?”
They feared with a great fear, and said to each other, “Who do you think he is, because even wind and sea obey him?”
Mark 5.
They went across the sea’s strait to the Gerasenes’ region. While he was coming out of the boat, a man in an unclean spirit immediately met him from the tombs, who had a dwelling among the tombs, and no one could still bind him, not even with chains. For, often bound with fetters and chains, he had broken the chains and smashed the fetters, and no one could control him. Always, night and day, he was shouting and cutting himself with stones, among the tombs and in the mountains.
Seeing Jesus from far away, he ran and worshiped him. Shouting in a great voice, he says, “What to me and to you, Jesus, Son of the highest God? I adjure you by God that you not torture me!” – for Jesus was saying to him, “Come out from the man, unclean spirit!”
Jesus asked him, “What name is yours?”
He says to him, “Legion is a name to me, because we are many.”
He pleaded with him much that he not be expelled outside the region. A great herd of pigs was there, feeding around the mountain, and the spirits pleaded with him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, so we can go into them!”
Jesus conceded to them at once. The unclean spirits, going out, went into the pigs, and the herd threw itself into the sea with great force – some two thousand – and they drowned in the sea. Those who shepherded them fled and told it in the city and in the fields, and they went out to see what had happened. They come to Jesus, and saw him who was afflicted by the demon sitting, clothed and with a sound mind, and they were afraid. Those who saw told them how it happened to him who had the demons, and about the pigs. They began to pray him that he leave their borders.
When he went up into the boat, the one who was afflicted by the demon began to plead with him that he might be with him. He didn’t admit him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your people, and tell them how much the Lord did for you, and He may have mercy on you!”
He went out and began to preach in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all were astounded.
When Jesus had crossed the sea’s strait again in the boat, a large crowd came together to him, and he was beside the sea. A certain man named Jairus, from the synagogue’s rulers, came and, seeing him, fell at his feet. He pleaded much with him, saying that “My daughter is at the end. Come! Lay hands on her, so she may be saved and live!”
He went out with him, and the large crowd followed him, and they pressed him. A woman who was in a flow of blood for twelve years, and had endured much from many doctors, and spent all she had, nor did anything help, yet she had it even worse, when she heard of Jesus, comes behind in the crowd, and touched his clothing, for she said that “If I touch even his clothing, I will be whole.”
Immediately, her bloody flow dried up, and she sensed in the body that she was healed of the illness. Jesus, at once knowing in himself the power that had gone out of him, turned to the crowd, saying, “Who touched my clothes?”
His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
He was looking around to see her who had done this. The woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, and be healed of your sickness!”
While he was still speaking, they come from the synagogue ruler, saying that “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher further?”
Jesus, hearing the word that they said, said to the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid! Only believe!”
He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter and Jacob and John, Jacob’s brother. They come to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he sees the tumult and those weeping and wailing much. Going in, he said to them, “Why are you troubled and weeping? The girl isn’t dead, yet she sleeps.”
They mocked him. Yet he, throwing all of them out, took the girl’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the girl was laid. Taking the girl’s hand, he said to her, “Talitha, cumi!” (that is, interpreted, “Girl, I say to you, get up!”)
The girl got up at once and walked around (she was twelve years old). They were astounded by the greatest amazement. He commanded them fiercely that no one might know it, and he said to give her something to eat.
Mark 6.
Going out from there, he went into his home country, and his disciples followed him. The Sabbath come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many, hearing, admired his teaching, saying, “Where did he get all this, and what is the wisdom that was given to him, and such powers that are brought about through his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, Mary’s son, Jacob and Joseph and Judah and Simon’s brother? Aren’t his sisters here with us?”
They were scandalized by him. Jesus said to them that “A prophet isn’t without honor except in his home country, and among his clan, and in his own house.”
He couldn’t work any power there, except he healed a few sick, laying on hands, and he was astounded at their disbelief.
He went through the villages around, teaching, and called the twelve together. He began to send them by twos, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them that they take nothing on the road except a staff only: not a bag, not bread, nor coins in the belt, yet be shoed in sandals, and they not put on two tunics.
He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whoever won’t receive you or listen to you, shake the dust from your feet going out from there as a testimony to them.”
Going out, they preached that people should act out penance. They threw out many demons, and anointed many sick with oil, and healed them.
King Herod heard, for his name was made known, and he said that “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and for this reason powers are at work in him.”
Others said that he is Elijah. Others, indeed, said he is a prophet like one of the prophets. Herod, when he heard, said, “John, whom I beheaded – he has risen from the dead.”
Herod himself sent, and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her For John said to Herod, “It isn’t legal for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias plotted against him and wanted to kill him, yet couldn’t, for Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. He kept him, and, hearing him, did many things, and he heard him freely.
When an opportune day occurred, Herod made a feast on his birthday for Galilee’s princes and tribunes and leading citizens. When Herodias’s daughter had come in and danced and pleased Herod and all those reclining at table together, the king said to the girl, “Ask from me what you want, and I will give it to you.”
He swore to her that “Whatever you ask I will give you, even half my kingdom.”
She, when she had gone out, said to her mother, “What will I ask?”
She said, “John the Baptist’s head.”
When she had come in at once with haste to the king, she asked, saying, “I want that you give me at once John the Baptist’s head on a plate.”
The king, saddened because of the oath and because of those reclining at table with him, didn’t want to disappoint her. Sending a scout, he commanded him to bring his head on a plate, and he cut his head off in the prison. He brought his head on a plate, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
John’s disciples, when they heard, came and took his body, and placed it in a tomb.
The apostles, coming together to Jesus, told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place and rest a little.”
There were many who were coming and going, and they didn’t even have space to eat. Going up into a boat, they went away to a deserted place. They saw them going, and many knew, and they ran together there on foot from all the cities, and came there before them.
Going out, Jesus saw the large crowd and had pity on them, for they were like sheep not having a shepherd. He began to teach them many things. When a late hour had already come, his disciples came to him, saying, “This is a deserted place and the hour has already passed. Dismiss them so, going to the nearby villages and towns, they can buy themselves food which they will eat.”
Answering, he said to them, “Give them something to eat!”
They said to him, “Will we go out and buy two hundred days’ worth of bread, and give them something to eat?”
He says to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
When they checked, they say, “Five, and two fish.”
He commanded them that they make all sit down by companies on the green grass, and they sat down in parts, by hundreds and by fifties. Taking the five loaves and two fish, looking to the sky, he blessed and broke bread, and gave it to his disciples, so they could put it in front of them. He divided the two fish among all, and all ate and were full. They took up what remained – twelve baskets full of fragments and of fish. Those who ate were five thousand men.
At once he gathered his disciples to go up into the boat, so they could go before him across the strait to Bethsaida while he dismissed the people. When he dismissed them, he went out onto the mountain to pray.
When it was late, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. Seeing them working hard in rowing – for the wind was against them – and around the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. He wanted to pass them by.
As they saw him walking on the sea, they considered him to be a ghost, and they cried out, for all saw him and were troubled. Immediately he spoke with them, and said to them, “Be faithful! I am. Don’t be afraid!”
He went up to them in the boat, and the wind ceased, and they were astounded even more among themselves – for they had not understood about the loaves, for their heart was blinded.
When they crossed over, they came through to Gennesareth land and put ashore. When they came out of the boat, they recognized him at once. Running through all that region, they began to bring on cots those who had harms, wherever they heard him to be. Wherever he entered, in towns or in villages or in cities, they put the sick in the streets and begged him that they might touch the fringe of his clothing – and as many as touched him were made whole.
Mark 7.
The Pharisees and some of the writers come together to him, coming from Jerusalem. When they saw some of his disciples eating bread with common hands – that is, not washed – they disrespected him – for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they frequently wash hands, holding to the elders’ tradition. They do not eat foods from outside unless they are immersed, and there are many other practices that are handed down to them – to observe washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots and beds.
The Pharisees and writers asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the elders’ tradition, yet they eat bread with common hands?”
Answering, he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied well about you hypocrites, as is written:
‘This people honors Me with lips,
but their heart is far from Me.’
"They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commandments. Letting go God’s commandment, you hold on to human tradition: the washings of pitchers and cups. You do many other similar things.”
He said to them, “You make God’s commandment well void so you can serve your tradition – for Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Let who curses father or mother surely die.’ But you say if a man says to father or mother, ‘Whatever gift from me would have benefitted you, that is Corban’ – you do not allow him to do anything more for his father or mother, annulling God’s word through your tradition which you handed on. You do many similar things.”
Calling the crowd together again, he said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand! Nothing is outside a man that, going into him, can make him unclean. What comes out of a man, those are what make a man unclean. If one has ears to hear, let him hear!”
When he had gone into a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the comparison. He said to them, “So, are you imprudent too? Don’t you understand that nothing external going into a man can make him unclean, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into the gut? It goes out into the waste, purging all foods.”
He said that, “What things come out of a man, those make a man unclean. From inside, from man’s heart, harmful thoughts come out: adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, greed, wickedness, deceit, sexual impurity, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these harms come out from inside, and they make a man unclean.”
Going up from there, he went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. Going into a house, he wanted no one to know, yet he couldn’t be hidden. A woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit, as soon as she heard about him, came in and threw herself down at his feet. The woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenican nationality, and she pleaded with him that he throw the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Allow the sons to be filled first, for it isn’t good to take the children’s bread and throw it to dogs.”
She answered him and says to him, “Of course, Lord. Yet even the puppies under the table eat from the boys’ crumbs.”
He said to her, “Because of this word, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When she came to her house, she found the girl lying on the bed, and the demon gone out.
Going out again from Tyre’s borders, he came through Sidon to Galilee’s Sea, into the middle of the Decapolis’s borders. They bring him a deaf and mute, and they plead with him that he lay hands on him. Taking him apart from the crowd, he put his fingers in his ears and, spitting, he touched his tongue. Looking up into the sky, he groaned and said to him, “Ep-pheta,” which is, “Be opened!”
His ears were opened at once, and his tongue’s chain was broken, and he spoke rightly. He commanded them that they not tell anyone, but the more he commanded, the more they preached it. They were astonished even more at him, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Mark 8.
Again in those days, when the crowd was large, nor did they have what they could eat, calling the disciples, Jesus said to them, “I have pity on the crowd because, look! Already they sustain me three days, nor do they have what they can eat. If I send them out hungry to their houses, they will falter on the way – for some of them have come from far away.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can one fill these with bread here in the wasteland?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They said, “Seven.”
He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples, so they give them out – and they placed them before the crowd. They had a few small fish, and he blessed them, and commanded them to be given.
They ate and were full, and they took what remained from the fragments: seven baskets. Those who ate were like four thousand, and he dismissed them.
Going up at once onto a boat with his disciples, he comes to Dalmanutha’s portions. The Pharisees went out and began to investigate with him, seeking from him a sign from the sky – testing him. Groaning in spirit, he said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you whether a sign will be given to this generation.”
Dismissing them, going aboard again, he went across the strait. They forgot to take bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat. He commanded them, saying, “Look! Beware of the Pharisees’ leaven, and Herod’s leaven!”
They considered with each other, saying that “We have no bread.”
Knowing this, Jesus said to them, “Why do you think that you have no bread? Don’t you recognize or understand yet? Do you still have your hearts blinded? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? Don’t you remember? When I broke five loaves among five thousand, how many containers full of fragments did you take up?”
They say to him, “Twelve.”
“When also seven loaves among four thousand, how many baskets did you take up?”
They say to him, “Seven.”
He said to them, “How do you still not understand?”
They come to Bethsaida, and they bring him a blind man, and plead with him that he touch him. Taking the blind man’s hand, he led him outside the town. Spitting in his eyes, laying on his hands, he asked him if he saw anything. Looking, he said, “I see men like trees walking.”
Then again he laid hands on his eyes, and he began to see and was restored, so that he could see all clearly. He sent him to his house, saying, “Go to your house and, if you go into town, you will tell no one.”
Jesus went out, and his disciples, to the strongholds of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples on the way, saying to them, “Who do men claim me to be?”
They answered him, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others like one of the prophets.”
Then he says to them, “But you, who do you claim me to be?”
Answering, Peter said to him, “You are Christ.”
He sternly warned them that they say nothing to anyone about him.
He began to teach them that man’s Son must suffer much, and be rejected by the elders and the high priests and the writers – and be killed and, after three days, rise again. The word was spoken openly and Peter, taking him, began to rebuke him. Turning and seeing his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, “Go behind me, Satan, because you aren’t tasting what are God’s, but what are men’s.”
Calling together the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, “If someone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me – for who wants to save his soul will lose her, but who loses his soul for my sake and the gospel’s will save her. What does it benefit man if he makes a profit from the whole world, yet works harm to his soul? Or what will man give in exchange for his soul? Who will be upset by me and my word in this adulterous and sinful generation, man’s Son will be upset by him when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
He said to them, “Amen, I say to you that some are standing here who will not taste death until they see God’s kingdom coming in power.”
Mark 9.
After six days, Jesus took Peter and Jacob and John, and led them apart onto a high mountain alone. He was transfigured before them. His clothes became radiant, overwhelmingly white like snow, what sort no cloth dyer on earth can make white. Elijah appeared to him with Moses, and they were speaking with Jesus.
Peter, answering, said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here – and let us make three tents: one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah, ” for he didn’t know what he should say, for they were terrified by fear.
A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice comes from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, most beloved. Listen to him!”
Looking around at once, they saw no one further with them except Jesus alone.
While they climbed down from the mountain, he commanded them that they not tell anyone what they had seen, except when man’s Son should rise from the dead. They kept the word with them, asking together what was, “When he should rise from the dead.”
They asked him, saying, “Why, then, do the Pharisees and writers say that Elijah must come first?”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “When he comes first, Elijah will restore all. How is it written about man’s Son that he may suffer many things and be condemned? Yet I say to you that Elijah came, and they did whatever they wanted to him – as is written about him.”
Coming to his disciples, he sees a great crowd around them, and the writers talking with them. Immediately, all the people seeing him were astounded. Running together, they greeted him. He asked them, “What are you talking about among yourselves?”
One from the crowd, answering, said, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, having a deaf spirit who, wherever he seizes him, crushes him. He foams, and grinds his teeth, and dries up. I said to your disciples that they throw him out, and they couldn’t.”
Answering them, Jesus says, “O unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me!”
They brought him and, when he had seen him, the spirit immediately troubled him. Striking him to the ground, he writhed, foaming. He asked his father, “How much time is it since this has happened to him?”
He answered, “Since infancy – and it often throws him into fire and into water so it can destroy him. If you can do anything, help us! Have mercy on us!”
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all of these are possible to those who believe.”
Immediately crying out, the boy’s father began saying with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw the crowd coming together, he threatened the unclean spirit, saying to him “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you to come out of him, and you may never go into him again!”
Shouting and tearing him much, he went out of him, and he became like the dead, so that many said that, “He is dead.”
Jesus, taking his hand, lifted him up, and he rose.
When he had gone into a house, his disciples asked him in secret, “Why couldn’t we throw him out?”
He said to them, “This kind can go out in no way, except by prayer and fasting.”
Setting out from there, they went again into Galilee, nor did he want anyone to know. He taught his disciples, and said to them that, “Man’s Son will be handed over into man’s hands. They will kill him and, once killed, he will rise the third day.”
They did not understand the word, and were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you talking about on the road?”
They were silent, since they had been arguing among themselves on the way who of them was the greatest. Sitting down again, he called the twelve and said to them, “If someone wants to be first, he will be last of all, and minister of all.”
Taking a boy, he stood him in their midst – whom, when he hugged him, he said to them, “Whoever receives one of such children in my name, receives me, and whoever supports me does not support me, but Him who sent me.”
John answered him, saying, “Teacher, we saw one who doesn’t follow us throwing out demons in your name, and we stopped him.”
Jesus said, “Don’t stop him – for there is no one who can work power in my name and quickly speak harm about me – for who is not against you is for you! Anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name, because you are of Christ – Amen, I say to you he will not lose his reward.
“Whoever scandalizes one of these little ones believing in me, it is better for him if a millstone is draped around his neck and he is thrown into the sea. If your hand scandalizes you, cut it off! It is good for you to enter into life disabled than, having two hands, to go to Gehenna, to inextinguishable fire, where their worm does not die, and fire is not put out.
“If your foot scandalizes you, amputate it! It is better to you to enter into eternal life lame than, having two feet, to be thrown into the Gehenna of unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and fire is not put out.
“If your eye scandalizes you, pluck it out! It is good for you to go one-eyed into God’s kingdom than, having two eyes, to be thrown into the Gehenna of fire, where their worm does not die, and fire is not put out.
“Each one will be salted by fire, and every victim will be salted. Salt is good, yet if salt becomes tasteless, in what can it be seasoned? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace among you!”
Mark 10.
Going out of there, he came to Judea’s borders, beyond Jordan. Again crowds come together to him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. Pharisees, coming near, questioned him whether it was legal for a husband to divorce a wife, testing him.
Answering, he said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a letter of repudiation, and to let her go.”
Answering them, Jesus said, “He wrote this commandment to you because of your hearts’ hardness, but from the creature’s beginning, God made them male and female. Because of this,
‘A man will leave his father and mother,
and cling to his wife,
and they will be two in one flesh’,
"so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God joined, then, let man not separate.”
Again, in the house, some of his disciples asked him. He says to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
They offered him little children so he could touch them, but the disciples sternly warned those offering them. When Jesus had seen it, he took offense, and said to them, “Let little ones come to me, and don’t stop them – of such is God’s kingdom! Amen, I say to you, whoever won’t receive God’s kingdom like a little one won’t enter it.”
Embracing them and laying hands on them, he blessed them. When he had gone back out on the road, someone running up to him, bowing the knee before him, asked him, “Good master, what can I do so I can achieve eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one – God. You’ve known the commandments:
You will not commit adultery.
You will not kill.
You will not steal.
You will not speak false testimony.
You will not work fraud.
Honor your father and mother.”
Answering, he said to him, “Teacher, I’ve kept all these since my youth.”
Jesus, knowing him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing is lacking to you. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor – and you’ll have treasure in the sky. Then come follow me!”
Saddened at the word, he went out grieving, for he was holding on to many possessions. Looking around, Jesus said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who hold on to money to go into God’s kingdom!”
The disciples were astounded at his words. Answering again, Jesus said to them, “Little children, how hard it is for those trusting in wealth to go into God’s kingdom! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to go into God’s kingdom.”
They were astounded all the more, saying to each other, “Who can be safe?”
Knowing them, Jesus said, “It’s impossible with men, but not with God. All of these are possible with God.”
Peter began to say to him, “Look! We’ve left all and followed you.”
Answering, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who leaves house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or fields – for my sake, and for the gospel – who may not receive a hundred times as much, not only now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with troubles – and in a future age eternal life. But many first ones will be last, and last ones first.”
They were going up to Jerusalem on the road, and Jesus went before them. They were astounded and fearful, following him. Again taking up the twelve, he began to say to them what was to happen to him – that, “Look! We’ll go up to Jerusalem, and man’s Son will be handed over to the priests’ princes and writers and elders. They will damn him to death, and hand him over to the nations, and they will mock him, and spit on him, and beat him, and kill him – and the third day he will rise again.”
Jacob and John, Zebedee’s sons, come to him, saying, “Teacher, we want that whatever we ask, you’ll do it for us.”
He said to them, “What do you want that I can do for you?”
They said to him, “Give to us that we can sit, one at your right and the other at your left – in your glory.”
Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup that I’m drinking, or be baptized in the baptism I’m baptized in?”
They said to him, “We can.”
Jesus said to them, “You’ll indeed drink the cup that I’m drinking, and you’ll be baptized in the baptism I’m baptized in. But to sit at my right or at my left isn’t mine to give – yet to those for whom it’s readied.”
Hearing this, the ten began to be indignant at Jacob and John. Jesus, calling them, said to them, “You know that those who seem to be princes among nations dominate them, and their princes have power over them. It isn’t like that with you, but whoever wants to be great will be your minister, and whoever wants to be first among you will be slave of all. Man’s Son also did not come so he could be ministered to, yet so he could minister – and give his soul as a buying back of many.”
They come to Jericho. He was setting out from there with both the disciples and a large crowd. Timeus’s son, Bar-timeus, a blind man, sat begging alongside the road – who, when he’d heard that it was Jesus Nazarene, began to shout and say, “David’s Son, Jesus, have mercy on me!”
They sternly warned him much that he shut up, and he shouted even more, “David’s Son, have mercy on me!”
Jesus, stopping, commanded him to be called. They call the blind man, saying to him, “Calm down! Get up! He’s calling you.”
The blind man, throwing off his coat, jumping up, came to him. Answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want that I can do for you?”
The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, that I can see!”
Jesus said to him, “Go! Your faith has made you well.”
At once he sees, and follows him on the road.
Mark 11.
When they came near Jerusalem and Bethany, to the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his disciples. He said to them, “Go into the town that is across, and, as soon as you enter it, you’ll find a colt tied up, which no one has sat on yet. Untie him, and bring him. If someone asks you,
‘What are you doing?’ – say that, ‘It is necessary to the Lord,’ and he will send him here at once.”
Going out, they found the colt tied before a door, outside at a crossroad, and they untie him. Some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing untying the colt?”
They spoke to them as Jesus commanded them, and the others let the colt go with them. They led the colt to Jesus, and put their coats on him, and he sat on him. Many lay their coats on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and placed them on the road. Those who went before and those who followed shouted, saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord’s name! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David, which is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”
He went into Jerusalem, to the temple. Looking around at all, when it was already the hour of evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
The next day when he left from Bethany, he was hungry. When he had seen from far off a fig tree having leaves, he comes to see if perhaps he can find something on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves, for it wasn’t the season for figs. Answering, he said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you any more in eternity.”
His disciples heard this. They come to Jerusalem, and when he had gone into the temple, he began to throw out the sellers and buyers in the temple. He overturned the money changers’ tables, and the seats of those selling doves. He didn’t permit that anyone could carry a vessel through the temple.
He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written that ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ Yet you’ve made her ‘a cave for thieves.’”
Hearing this, the priests’ princes and the writers sought how they could kill him, for they were afraid of him – because the whole crowd admired his teaching. When evening came, he went out of the city. When they passed through early, they saw the fig tree made dry from the roots. Peter, remembering, says to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed dried up.”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “Have God’s faith! Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and doesn’t hesitate in his heart, but believes that whatever he said can be done – it will be done for him!
“For this reason I’m saying to you, believe that you will receive all – whatever you ask, praying – and they will come to you! When you will stand to pray, forgive, if you have something against anyone, so your Father also, who is in the skies, may forgive your sins for you! Yet if you won’t forgive, neither will your Father who is in the skies forgive your sins for you.”
They come again to Jerusalem and, while he walked in the temple, the high priests and writers and elders come to him. They say to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority so you do them?”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “I will question you, too, one word, and you respond to me, and I’ll say to you by what authority I’m doing these. Was John’s baptism from heaven or from men? Answer me!”
They thought to themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him, then?’ Yet can we say from men?”
They were afraid of the people, for all held that John was truly a prophet. Answering, they say to Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these.”
Mark 12
He began to talk to them in comparisons. “A man prepared a vineyard, and made a hedge around it, and dug a pit, and built a tower. He placed workers in it, and set out to go abroad. He sent a slave to the workers at the season, so he could receive some of the vineyard’s fruit from the workers – who, seizing him, struck him and sent him away empty. Again, he sent another slave to them, and him they wounded in the head and harmed by abuses. Again he sent another, and him they killed – and many others, some of whom they beat, and others they killed.
“Therefore, still having one, a most beloved son, he sent him also to them at the end, saying that, ‘They will reverence my son.’ But the tenants said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ Seizing him, they killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
“What, then, will the vineyard’s lord do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this scripture?
‘The stone that the builders rejected,
this has been made into the corner’s head.
This came from the Lord,
and it is wonderful in our eyes.’”
They wanted to seize him, yet they feared the crowd, for they recognized that he spoke this comparison about them. Leaving him, they went out.
They send some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him so they could capture him in word – who, coming, say to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true, and you don’t favor anyone – for you don’t look on a man’s face, but you teach God’s way in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or will we not give?”
Jesus, knowing their deceit, said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius so I can see it.”
They brought it, and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
They say to him, “Caesar’s.”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “Then, give what are Caesar’s to Caesar, and what are God’s to God.”
They were amazed at him.
Sadducees came to him, who say there is no resurrection. They asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote us that if a brother should die and leave a wife, yet not leave sons, his brother should receive his wife and raise up seed to his brother. There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died, not leaving seed. The second took her and died, and neither did he leave seed, and the third likewise. The seven likewise took her, and didn’t leave seed. Last of all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, when they are raised, whose wife will she be – for seven had her as wife?”
Answering, Jesus said to them, “Isn’t this why you are wrong, knowing neither scriptures nor God’s power? When they are raised from the dead, they neither marry nor are married, but are like angels in the sky. But that they rise from the dead, haven’t you read in Moses’ book, about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, ‘I am Abraham’s God, and Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God’?
“He is not God of the dead but of the living. You therefore err greatly.”
One of the writers came, who heard them questioning him. Seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “What was the first commandment of all?”
Jesus answered him that, “The first commandment of all is, ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is one God.’ You will love the Lord your God from all your heart, and from all your soul, and from all your mind, and from all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
“The second is like it: ‘You will love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
The writer said to him, “Well, teacher! You’ve said in truth that He is one, and there is no other before Him, and that to delight from all the heart, and from all the intellect, and from all the soul, and from all the strength, and to love neighbor as oneself – this is greater than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Jesus, seeing that he answered wisely, said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.”
Thereafter no one dared to question him.
Answering, Jesus spoke while teaching in the temple, “How do the writers say Christ is David’s Son? David himself says in the Holy Spirit,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I place your enemies as your footstool.’
“So David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How is he his son?”
The great crowd heard him freely.
He said to them in his teaching, “Beware of the writers, who want to walk around in formal dress, and be greeted in the street, and to sit in the first seats in the synagogues, and the first places at dinners – who devour widows’ houses under the pretext of wordy prayers. These will receive wordy judgment.”
Jesus, sitting across from the treasury, watched how the crowd threw coins into the treasury. Many rich people put in much. When a poor widow came, she threw in two small coins – that is, a quarter. Calling together his disciples, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all those who put into the treasury. All of them put in out of what was abundant to them, but she from her poverty put in all that she had – all her living.”
Mark 13.
When they went out from the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, see what stones and what structures!”
Answering, Jesus said to him,“You see all these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another which won’t be destroyed.”
When he sat on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter and Jacob and John and Andrew asked him separately, “Tell us when these things will happen, and what sign will be when all these begin to take place?”
Answering, Jesus began to say to them, “Watch out, unless someone seduce you! Many will come in my name, saying that, ‘I am,’ and they will seduce many. But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be afraid – for it must be, yet the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and earthquakes and famines will be in various places. These are the sorrows’ beginning.
“Yet see to yourselves, for they will hand you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings for my sake, in testimony to them. The gospel must first be preached among all nations.
“When they lead you to hand you over, don’t plan in advance what you will say. Yet what will be given to you in that hour, speak that – for you will not be speaking, but the Holy Spirit! Brother will hand over brother to death, and father a son. Children will rise up against parents and cause them death. You will be hated by all because of my name, yet who sustains to the end, he will be saved.
“But when you see a desolating abomination standing where it ought not – let who reads understand! – then, let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let one who is on the roof not come down into the house, nor enter it so he can take something from his house. Let no one who will be in the field turn back to take his clothing.
“Woe to those pregnant and nursing in those days! Pray, indeed, that they not come in winter, for those days will be tribulations, the likes of which have not been since the creature’s beginning which God established, even to now – nor will they come. Had the Lord not shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved. Yet for the chosen ones’ sake, He shortened the days.
“Then, if someone says to you, ‘Look! Christ is here! Look! There!’ – don’t believe it! False Christs and false prophets will rise up, and will give signs and wonders to seducing even the chosen ones – if it can be done. Therefore you keep watch! Look! I’ve told you all beforehand.
“Yet in those days, after that trouble, the sun will be shadowed over and the moon will not give its splendor. The sky’s stars will be falling, and the powers that are in the sky will be moved. Then they will see man’s Son coming in the clouds, with much power and glory. Then he will send his angels, and he will gather his chosen ones together from the four winds, from earth’s summit even to the sky’s summit.
“Learn this comparison from the fig tree. When its branches are already tender, and the leaves are brought forth, you know that summer is near. So also you, when you see these happening, know that it is near, at the gates.
“Amen, I say to you that this generation will not pass away until all these happen. Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
“Yet of that day or hour no one knows: neither angels in the sky nor the Son – only the Father. Look out! Keep watch and pray, for you don’t know when the time may be. As a man who, setting out abroad, left his house and gave his slaves power over the works, and commands the
doorkeeper that he keep watch – therefore, keep watch, for you don’t know when the house’s master may come – at evening, or midnight, or cock-crow, or morning – unless, when he comes suddenly, he find you sleeping!
“What I say to you, I say to all – keep watch!”
Mark 14.
After two days it was Passover and unleavened bread, and the high priests and the writers sought how they could seize him by deceit and kill him, for they said, “Not on a feast day, unless a riot happen among the people.”
When he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper and reclining at table, a woman came to him, having an alabaster jar of costly spikenard ointment. Breaking the alabaster, she poured the ointment over his head. Some spoke indignantly among themselves, and saying that, “Why has this waste of ointment happened? This ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages, and given to the poor.”
They raged at her, but Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She’s done a good work to me. You’ll always have the poor with you, and you can do good for them whenever you want. But you won’t always have me. What she had, she did. She comes before to anoint my body for burial. Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done also will be told – in her memory.”
Judas Scarioth, one of the twelve, went out to the high priests, so he could betray him to them. Hearing, they were happy, and they promised him he would be given money. He sought how he could hand him over conveniently.
On the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lambs were offered, the disciples say to him, “Where do you want that we go and prepare for you, so you can eat the Passover?”
He sends two of his disciples, and he says to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a bottle of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the house’s lord that, ‘The teacher says, Where is my dining room, where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, spread out. Prepare for us there.”
His disciples went out and came into the city. They found things as he said to them, and prepared the Passover. When evening had come, he came with the twelve. Reclining at table with them and eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you that one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me.”
They began to be sad together, and to say to him – each one – “It isn’t me, is it?”
Jesus said to them, “One of the twelve who dips bread in the plate with me. Man’s Son indeed goes as is written about him, but woe to the man through whom man’s Son is betrayed! Better for him if that man had not been born!”
While they were eating, Jesus took bread. Blessing, he broke it and gave it to them, and he said, “Take. This is my body.”
Taking a cup, giving thanks, he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the new testament, who is poured out for many. Amen, I say to you that I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in God’s kingdom.”
Having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Jesus said to them, “All of you will be scandalized on this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ Yet after I rise again, I will go before you to Galilee.”
Peter said to him, “Even if all are scandalized, yet I will not be!”
Jesus said to him, “I say to you that you, today, on this night, before the rooster gives voice twice, you will deny me three times.”
Peter spoke further, “Even if it’s necessary for me to die with you, I won’t deny you.”
They all said the same.
They come to a farm whose name was Gethsemani, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
He takes Peter and Jacob and John with him, and he began to be afraid and tired. He said to them, “My soul is sad, even to death. Wait here and keep watch.”
When he had gone apart a little, he throws himself on the ground and prayed that, if it could be, the hour could pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, all these are possible to you. Take this cup from me! Yet not what I want, yet what you want.”
He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch one hour? Keep watch, and pray that you don’t enter into testing! The spirit indeed is ready, yet the flesh is weak.”
Going away he prayed again, saying the same word. Coming back again, he found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy, and they didn’t know what to say to him. He came a third time, and said to them, “Sleep on, and rest! It’s enough. The hour has come. Look! Man’s Son is betrayed into sinners’ hands. Get up! Let’s go! Look! The one who betrays me is near!”
While he was speaking, Judas Scarioth came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and sticks, from the high priests and writers and elders. The traitor had given his sign to them, saying, “Whomever I kiss, he is the one. Arrest him and take him away.”
When he had come, coming close to him at once, he said, “Rabbi,” and kissed him. They laid hands on him and arrested him. One of those standing around, drawing a sword, struck the high
priest’s slave and cut off his ear.
Answering, Jesus said to them, “Have you come out to arrest me as if to a bandit, with swords and sticks? I was with you daily in the temple teaching, and you didn’t arrest me. Yet so scriptures can be fulfilled . . .”
Then all his disciples, leaving him, ran away. A certain youth followed him, wearing a fine linen cloth over his naked body. They grabbed him, and, throwing off the cloth, he flees from them naked.
They led Jesus to the high priest, and all the priests and writers and elders come together. Peter followed him far off, even into the high priest’s courtyard. He sat with the ministers, and warmed himself at the fire. Indeed, the high priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus, so they could give him over to death – yet they weren’t finding it. Many spoke false testimony against him, and the testimonies weren’t coming together. Certain individuals stood up, bringing false testimony against him, saying that, “We’ve heard him saying, ‘I will dissolve this temple made by hands and, through three days, will build another not made by hands.’”
Their testimony wasn’t coming together. The high priest, standing up in the middle, questioned Jesus, saying, “Aren’t you answering anything to these things that are thrown up against you by them?”
But he kept silent and said nothing. The high priest questioned him again, and he says to him, “Are you Christ, the Blessed One’s Son?”
Jesus said to him, “I am, and you will see man’s Son sitting at Power’s right, and coming with the sky’s clouds.”
The high priest, tearing his clothes, said, “Why do we still want witnesses? You’ve heard the blasphemy. What does it seem like to you?”
They all condemned him to be guilty of death. Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and hit him with fists, and say to him, “Prophesy!”
The ministers slapped him with their hands. While Peter was in the courtyard beneath, one of the high priest’s female slaves came down. When she’d seen Peter warming himself, looking at him, she said, “You were with Jesus Nazarene too.”
He denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understood what you’re saying.”
He went outside in front of the courtyard, and the cock crowed. When the slave girl had seen him again, she began to say to those standing around that, “This is one of them.”
Again he denied it. After a little while, those who stood around said to Peter, “You really are one of them, for you’re Galilean.”
He began to curse and swear that, “I don’t know this man whom you’re talking about!”
Immediately the rooster crowed again. Peter remembered the word that Jesus said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times” – and he began to weep.
Mark 15.
Immediately at morning, the chief priests, working counsel with the elders and writers and the whole council, chaining Jesus, led him and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the Jews’ king?”
Answering, he said to him, “You say.”
The chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate again asked him, saying, “Aren’t you answering anything? See how many things they accuse you of!”
Jesus answered nothing all the more, so that Pilate is amazed.
On the feast day, he was accustomed to set free to them one of the captives, whomever they had chosen. One was there who was called Barabbas, who was chained with the rebels who committed murder in the rebellion. When the crowd came up, it began to ask what he always did for them. Pilate answered them and said, “Do you want that I release the Jews’ king to you?” – for he knew that the high priests had handed him over out of envy.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd more that he release Barabbas to them. Pilate, again answering, said to them, “What do you want that I do to the Jews’ king?”
Again they shouted, “Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Why? What harm has he done?”
They shouted more, “Crucify him!”
Pilate, wanting to satisfy the people, released Barabbas to them. He handed Jesus over to beating by a whip, so he could be crucified. The soldiers led him into the headquarters’ courtyard, and call together the whole detachment. They dress him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him. They began to salute him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”
They struck his head with a cane, and spat on him, and, falling on their knees, they worshiped him. After they mocked him, they took the purple off him, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out so they could crucify him. They forced a certain passerby, Simon Cyrene, coming from the country – Alexander and Rufus’s father – that he carry his cross.
They bring him to the place of Golgotha – that is, interpreted, “place of the Skull” – and gave him wine with myrrh to drink, and he didn’t take it. Crucifying him, they divided his clothes, casting lots over them – who would take what. It was the third hour, and they crucified him. The title of his cause was written, “The Jews’ king.”
They crucified two bandits with him, one at the right, and the other at his left, and scripture was fulfilled that says, “He was considered with the treacherous.”
Passersby blasphemed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! Who destroys the temple and builds it in three days? Save yourself, coming down from the cross!”
The high priests also, joking to each other with the writers, said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself. Let Christ, Israel’s king, come down now from the cross so we can see and believe!”
Those who were crucified with him jeered at him.
When the sixth hour had come, shadows came over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Jesus shouted in a great voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani,” that is, interpreted, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”
Some of those standing around, hearing him, said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!”
One, running and filling a sponge with vinegar and putting it on a stick, gave him a drink, saying, “Let him! Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down!”
Jesus, giving out a great shout, died, and the temple’s curtain was torn in two, from above even to below. The centurion who stood across, seeing that he died shouting so, said, “This man was God’s Son indeed.”
The women too were looking on from far off, among whom also were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of the younger Jacob and of Joseph, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they and many others who came up to Jerusalem together with him followed him and ministered to him.
When evening had come, because it was preparation day – that is, before the Sabbath – Joseph of Arimathea, a nobleman of the government, who himself was waiting for God’s kingdom, came and boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
Pilate wondered whether he had already died. When he had summoned the centurion, he asked him whether Jesus was already dead. When he found out from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. Joseph, buying fine linen cloth and taking him down, wrapped him in the cloth and put him in a tomb that was cut from the rock. He replaced the stone at the tomb’s opening. Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joseph saw where he was placed.
Mark 16.
When the Sabbath had passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Jacob and Salome bought spices so, coming early, they could anoint him. They come to the tomb very early on the first day of the Sabbaths, the sun already risen. They said to each other, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the tomb’s opening?”
Looking, they see the stone rolled back – obviously, it was very large. Going into the tomb, they saw a youth sitting at the right, covered in a white robe, and they were astounded. He says to them, “Don’t be afraid! You’re looking for Jesus Nazarene crucified. He has risen. He isn’t here. Look! This is the place where they put him. Go and say to his disciples and Peter that he’s gone before you to Galilee. You will see him there, as he said to you.”
Going out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and fear had invaded them, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.
Rising up early the first day after the Sabbath, he appeared first to Mary Madgalene, from whom he’d thrown out seven demons. Going back, she told those who were with him, while they were grieving and weeping. Hearing that he was alive and had been seen by her, they didn’t believe. After this, he showed himself in another form to two of them while they were walking, going to the country. Going back, they told the others, yet they didn’t believe. Lastly, he appeared to the eleven while they were reclining at table. He rebuked their disbelief and heart hardness, because they hadn’t believed those who had seen him resurrected.
He said to them, “Going into the whole world, preach good news to every creature. Who believes and is baptized will be saved. Indeed, who doesn’t believe will be condemned. These signs will follow those who believe in my name: they will throw out demons, they will speak new languages; they will take up snakes; and if they drink some death-dealing poison, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will be well.”
The Lord indeed, after he had spoken to them, was taken up to the sky, and sat at God’s right. Setting out, they preached – the Lord working with them everywhere and confirming the words with signs following.
