Mark 3 (New American Standard)

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

1 ¹He ²entered again into a synagogue ; and a man was there whose hand was withered. 2 ³They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, ⁴so that they might accuse Him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, "^aGet 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 ⁵looking 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 ^bconspiring with the ⁶Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. 7 ⁷Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples ; and ⁸a great multitude from Galilee followed ; and also from Judea, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from ⁹Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of ¹⁰Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. 9 ¹¹And 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 ¹²healed many, with the result that all those who had ¹³afflictions pressed around Him in order to ¹⁴touch Him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, "You are ¹⁵the Son of God !" 12 And He ¹⁶earnestly warned them not to ^ctell who He was.

The Twelve Are Chosen

13 And He went up on ¹⁷the mountain and ¹⁸summoned 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 : ¹⁹Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter ), 17 and ^dJames, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of ^eJames (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, "Sons of Thunder "); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and ^fJames the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the ^gZealot ; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. 20 And He came ^h20home, and the ²¹crowd gathered again, ²²to such an extent that they could not even eat ⁱa meal. 21 When ²³His own ^jpeople heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "²⁴He has lost His senses." 22 The scribes who came down ²⁵from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by ^k26Beelzebul," and "²⁷He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." 23 ²⁸And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in ²⁹parables, "How can ³⁰Satan 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 ³¹Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but ^lhe is finished ! 27 "³²But 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 "³³Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter ; 29 but ³⁴whoever 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 ³⁵Then 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, "³⁶Behold My mother and My brothers ! 35 "For whoever ³⁷does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."