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New Living Translation

Tyndale House
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  Chapter 3

 Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

1 aHe bentered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.

  2 aThey were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, bso that they might accuse Him.

  3 He *said to the man with the withered hand, 1Get up and come forward!”

  4 And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.

  5 After alooking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

  6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began 1conspiring with the aHerodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

  7 aJesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and ba great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea,

  8 and from Jerusalem, and from aIdumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of bTyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him.

  9 aAnd He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him;

  10 for He had ahealed many, with the result that all those who had bafflictions pressed around Him in order to ctouch Him.

  11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are athe Son of God!”

  12 And He aearnestly warned them not to 1tell who He was.

 The Twelve Are Chosen

13 And He *went up on athe mountain and *bsummoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.

  14 And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,

  15 and to have authority to cast out the demons.

  16 And He appointed the twelve: aSimon (to whom He gave the name Peter),

  17 and 1James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of 1James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”);

  18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and 1James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the 2Zealot;

  19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

  20 And He *came 1ahome, and the bcrowd *gathered again, cto such an extent that they could not even eat 2a meal.

  21 When aHis own 1people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “bHe has lost His senses.”

  22 The scribes who came down afrom Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by 1bBeelzebul,” and “cHe casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

  23 aAnd He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in bparables, How can cSatan cast out Satan?

  24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

  25 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

  26 If aSatan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but 1he is finished!

  27 aBut no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

  28 aTruly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;

  29 but awhoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin

  30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

  31 aThen His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.

  32 A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”

  33 Answering them, He *said, Who are My mother and My brothers?”

  34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, aBehold My mother and My brothers!

  35 “For whoever adoes the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

  Chapter 4

 Parable of the Sower and Soils

1 aHe began to teach again bby the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that cHe got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

  2 And He was teaching them many things in aparables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

  3 Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;

  4 as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

  5 Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

  6 “And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

  7 Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

  8 Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

  9 And He was saying, aHe who has ears to hear, 1let him hear.”

  10 As soon as He was alone, 1His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables.

  11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but athose who are outside get everything bin parables,

  12 so that awhile seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”

 Explanation

13 aAnd He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

  14 “The sower sows the word.

  15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately aSatan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

  16 “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;

  17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they 1fall away.

  18 “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,

  19 but the worries of athe 1world, and the bdeceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

  20 “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and abear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

  21 And He was saying to them, aA lamp is not brought to be put under a 1basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?

  22 aFor nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.

  23 aIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

  24 And He was saying to them, Take care what you listen to. 1aBy your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

  25 aFor whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

 Parable of the Seed

26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

  27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and growshow, he himself does not know.

  28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

  29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately 1aputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

 Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 aAnd He said, How shall we 1bpicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

  31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,

  32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that athe birds of the 1air can nest under its shade.”

  33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;

  34 and He did not speak to them awithout a parable; but He was bexplaining everything privately to His own disciples.

 Jesus Stills the Sea

35 aOn that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”

  36 1Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them ain the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.

  37 And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.

  38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

  39 And He got up and arebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and 1it became perfectly calm.

  40 And He said to them, Why are you 1afraid? aHow is it that you have no faith?”

  41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

  Chapter 5

 The Gerasene Demoniac

1 aThey came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.

  2 When He got out of athe boat, immediately a man from the tombs bwith an unclean spirit met Him,

  3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain;

  4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

  5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.

  6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;

  7 and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, “1aWhat business do we have with each other, Jesus, bSon of cthe Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”

  8 For He had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

  9 And He was asking him, What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is aLegion; for we are many.”

  10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

  11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding 1nearby on the mountain.

  12 The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”

  13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

  14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

  15 They *came to Jesus and *observed the man who had been ademon-possessed sitting down, bclothed and cin his right mind, the very man who had had the “dlegion”; and they became frightened.

  16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the ademon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

  17 And they began to aimplore Him to leave their region.

  18 aAs He was getting into the boat, the man who had been bdemon-possessed was imploring Him that he might 1accompany Him.

  19 And He did not let him, but He *said to him, aGo home to your people and report to them 1what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

  20 And he went away and began to aproclaim in bDecapolis 1what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

 Miracles and Healing

21 aWhen Jesus had crossed over again in bthe boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He 1stayed cby the seashore.

  22 aOne of bthe synagogue 1officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell at His feet

  23 and *implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and alay Your hands on her, so that she will 1get well and live.”

  24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

  25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,

  26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—

  27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His 1cloak.

  28 For she 1thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will 2get well.”

  29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her aaffliction.

  30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that athe power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched My garments?”

  31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

  32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.

  33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

  34 And He said to her, Daughter, ayour faith has 1made you well; bgo in peace and be healed of your caffliction.”

  35 While He was still speaking, they *came from the house of the asynagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”

  36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, *said to the asynagogue official, bDo not be afraid any longer, only 1believe.”

  37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except aPeter and 1James and John the brother of 1James.

  38 They *came to the house of the asynagogue official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing.

  39 And entering in, He *said to them, Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.”

  40 They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He *took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and *entered the room where the child was.

  41 Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, Talitha kum!” (which translated means, Little girl, aI say to you, get up!”).

  42 Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.

  43 And He agave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.