Mark 6; Mark 7

Mark 6

1 Jesus left that place and went back to his hometown, followed by his disciples.

2 On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. Many people were there; and when they heard him, they were all amazed. "Where did he get all this?" they asked. "What wisdom is this that has been given him? How does he perform miracles?

3 Isn't he the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters living here?" And so they rejected him.

4 Jesus said to them, "Prophets are respected everywhere except in their own hometown and by their relatives and their family."

5 He was not able to perform any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

6 He was greatly surprised, because the people did not have faith. Then Jesus went to the villages around there, teaching the people.

7 He called the twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two. He gave them authority over the evil spirits

8 and ordered them, "Don't take anything with you on the trip except a walking stick - no bread, no beggar's bag, no money in your pockets.

9 Wear sandals, but don't carry an extra shirt."

10 He also told them, "Wherever you are welcomed, stay in the same house until you leave that place.

11 If you come to a town where people do not welcome you or will not listen to you, leave it and shake the dust off your feet. That will be a warning to them!"

12 So they went out and preached that people should turn away from their sins.

13 They drove out many demons, and rubbed olive oil on many sick people and healed them.

14 Now King Herod heard about all this, because Jesus' reputation had spread everywhere. Some people were saying, "John the Baptist has come back to life! That is why he has this power to perform miracles."

15 Others, however, said, "He is Elijah." Others said, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago."

16 When Herod heard it, he said, "He is John the Baptist! I had his head cut off, but he has come back to life!"

17 Herod himself had ordered John's arrest, and he had him tied up and put in prison. Herod did this because of Herodias, whom he had married, even though she was the wife of his brother Philip.

18 John the Baptist kept telling Herod, "It isn't right for you to marry your brother's wife!"

19 So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not because of Herod.

20 Herod was afraid of John because he knew that John was a good and holy man, and so he kept him safe. He liked to listen to him, even though he became greatly disturbed every time he heard him.

21 Finally Herodias got her chance. It was on Herod's birthday, when he gave a feast for all the top government officials, the military chiefs, and the leading citizens of Galilee.

22 The daughter of Herodias came in and danced, and pleased Herod and his guests. So the king said to the girl, "What would you like to have? I will give you anything you want."

23 With many vows he said to her, "I swear that I will give you anything you ask for, even as much as half my kingdom!"

24 So the girl went out and asked her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered.

25 The girl hurried back at once to the king and demanded, "I want you to give me here and now the head of John the Baptist on a plate!"

26 This made the king very sad, but he could not refuse her because of the vows he had made in front of all his guests.

27 So he sent off a guard at once with orders to bring John's head. The guard left, went to the prison, and cut John's head off;

28 then he brought it on a plate and gave it to the girl, who gave it to her mother.

29 When John's disciples heard about this, they came and got his body, and buried it.

30 The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught.

31 There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, "Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while."

32 So they started out in a boat by themselves to a lonely place.

33 Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples.

34 When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

35 When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, "It is already very late, and this is a lonely place.

36 Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat."

37 "You yourselves give them something to eat," Jesus answered. They asked, "Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins on bread in order to feed them?"

38 So Jesus asked them, "How much bread do you have? Go and see." When they found out, they told him, "Five loaves and also two fish."

39 Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass.

40 So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.

41 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

42 Everyone ate and had enough.

43 Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish.

44 The number of men who were fed was five thousand.

45 At once Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to Bethsaida, on the other side of the lake, while he sent the crowd away.

46 After saying good-bye to the people, he went away to a hill to pray.

47 When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, while Jesus was alone on land.

48 He saw that his disciples were straining at the oars, because they were rowing against the wind; so sometime between three and six o'clock in the morning, he came to them, walking on the water. He was going to pass them by,

49 but they saw him walking on the water. "It's a ghost!" they thought, and screamed.

50 They were all terrified when they saw him. Jesus spoke to them at once, "Courage!" he said. "It is I. Don't be afraid!"

51 Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind died down. The disciples were completely amazed,

52 because they had not understood the real meaning of the feeding of the five thousand; their minds could not grasp it.

53 They crossed the lake and came to land at Gennesaret, where they tied up the boat.

54 As they left the boat, people recognized Jesus at once.

55 So they ran throughout the whole region; and wherever they heard he was, they brought to him the sick lying on their mats.

56 And everywhere Jesus went, to villages, towns, or farms, people would take their sick to the marketplaces and beg him to let the sick at least touch the edge of his cloak. And all who touched it were made well.

Mark 7

1 Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.

2 They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean - that is, they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should.

3 (For the Pharisees, as well as the rest of the Jews, follow the teaching they received from their ancestors: they do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper way;

4 nor do they eat anything that comes from the market unless they wash it first. And they follow many other rules which they have received, such as the proper way to wash cups, pots, copper bowls, and beds. )

5 So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, "Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?"

6 Jesus answered them, "How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: "These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me.

7 It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!'

8 "You put aside God's command and obey human teachings."

9 And Jesus continued, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching.

10 For Moses commanded, "Respect your father and your mother,' and, "If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.'

11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, "This is Corban' (which means, it belongs to God),

12 they are excused from helping their father or mother.

13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do."

14 Then Jesus called the crowd to him once more and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

15 There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean."

17 When he left the crowd and went into the house, his disciples asked him to explain this saying.

18 "You are no more intelligent than the others," Jesus said to them. "Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into you from the outside can really make you unclean,

19 because it does not go into your heart but into your stomach and then goes on out of the body." (In saying this, Jesus declared that all foods are fit to be eaten.)

20 And he went on to say, "It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.

21 For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill,

22 commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly -

23 all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean."

24 Then Jesus left and went away to the territory near the city of Tyre. He went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not stay hidden.

25 A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet.

26 The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27 But Jesus answered, "Let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."

28 "Sir," she answered, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers!"

29 So Jesus said to her, "Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!"

30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed; the demon had indeed gone out of her.

31 Jesus then left the neighborhood of Tyre and went on through Sidon to Lake Galilee, going by way of the territory of the Ten Towns.

32 Some people brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged Jesus to place his hands on him.

33 So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue.

34 Then Jesus looked up to heaven, gave a deep groan, and said to the man, ["Ephphatha,"] which means, "Open up!"

35 At once the man was able to hear, his speech impediment was removed, and he began to talk without any trouble.

36 Then Jesus ordered the people not to speak of it to anyone; but the more he ordered them not to, the more they told it.

37 And all who heard were completely amazed. "How well he does everything!" they exclaimed. "He even causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!"