Gospel according to Mark 8

¹ And now once again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So he called his disciples to him and said to them,

² ‘I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat.

³ If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.’

⁴ His disciples replied, ‘Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this?’

⁵ He asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ ‘Seven’ they said.

⁶ Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd.

⁷ They had a few small fish as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed also.

⁸ They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over.

⁹ Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away

¹⁰ and immediately, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹ The Pharisees came up and started a discussion with him; they demanded of him a sign from heaven, to test him.

¹² And with a sigh that came straight from the heart he said, ‘Why does this generation demand a sign? I tell you solemnly, no sign shall be given to this generation.’

¹³ And leaving them again and re-embarking he went away to the opposite shore.

¹⁴ The disciples had forgotten to take any food and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

¹⁵ Then he gave them this warning, ‘Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod’.

¹⁶ And they said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread’.

¹⁷ And Jesus knew it, and he said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you not yet understand? Have you no perception? Are your minds closed?

¹⁸ Have you eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear?[*a] Or do you not remember?

¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ They answered, ‘Twelve’.

²⁰ And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?’ And they answered, ‘Seven’.

²¹ Then he said to them, ‘Are you still without perception?’

²² They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man whom they begged him to touch.

²³ He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Then putting spittle on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked, ‘Can you see anything?’

²⁴ The man, who was beginning to see, replied, ‘I can see people; they look like trees to me, but they are walking about’.

²⁵ Then he laid his hands on the man’s eyes again and he saw clearly; he was cured, and he could see everything plainly and distinctly.

²⁶ And Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village’.

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’

²⁸ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’ they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’

²⁹ ‘But you,’ he asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the Christ’.

³⁰ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.

³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again;

³² and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him.

³³ But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

³⁴ He called the people and his disciples to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

³⁵ For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

³⁶ What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his life?

³⁷ And indeed what can a man offer in exchange for his life?

³⁸ For if anyone in this adulterous and sinful generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’