Gospel according to Mark 3

¹ He went again into a synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand.

² And they were watching him to see if he would cure him on the sabbath day, hoping for something to use against him.

³ He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up out in the middle!’

⁴ Then he said to them, ‘Is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?’ But they said nothing.

⁵ Then, grieved to find them so obstinate, he looked angrily round at them, and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’. He stretched it out and his hand was better.

⁶ The Pharisees went out and at once began to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him.

⁷ Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea,

⁸ Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him.

⁹ And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed.

¹⁰ For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.

¹¹ And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’

¹² But he warned them strongly not to make him known.

¹³ He now went up into the hills and summoned those he wanted. So they came to him

¹⁴ and he appointed twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to preach,

¹⁵ with power to cast out devils.

¹⁶ And so he appointed the Twelve: Simon to whom he gave the name Peter,

¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or ‘Sons of Thunder’;

¹⁸ then Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot

¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, the man who was to betray him.

²⁰ He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.

²¹ When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind.

²² The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out’.

²³ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan?

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

²⁵ And if a household is divided against itself, that household can never stand.

²⁶ Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either – it is the end of him.

²⁷ But no one can make his way into a strong man’s house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first. Only then can he burgle his house.

²⁸ ‘I tell you solemnly, all men’s sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies;

²⁹ but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness: he is guilty of an eternal sin.’

³⁰ This was because they were saying, ‘An unclean spirit is in him’.

³¹ His mother and brothers now arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him.

³² A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, ‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you’.

³³ He replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’

³⁴ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers.

³⁵ Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’