Mark 3

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¹Again Jesus walked into the synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand.

²Some people watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they could accuse him.

³Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and stand here in the middle of everyone.”

⁴Then he said to the people, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do harm; to save a life or to kill?” But they were silent.

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

⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately began to plot with the Herodians as to how they might put him to death.

⁷Then Jesus, with his disciples, went to the sea, and a great crowd of people followed from Galilee and from Judea

⁸and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. When they heard about the things he was doing, a great crowd came to him.

⁹He asked his disciples to have a small boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.

¹⁰For he healed many, so that everyone who had afflictions eagerly approached him in order to touch him.

¹¹Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, and they said, “You are the Son of God.”

¹²He strictly ordered them not to make him known.

¹³He went up on the mountain, and he called for those he wanted, and they came to him.

¹⁴He appointed the twelve (whom he named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them to proclaim the message,

¹⁵and to have authority to cast out demons.

¹⁶Then he appointed the twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter;

¹⁷James son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;

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

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who would betray him.

²⁰Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat bread.

²¹When his family heard about it, they went out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

²²The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul” and “By the ruler of the demons he drives out demons.”

²³Jesus called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

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

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

²⁶If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand, but has come to an end.

²⁷But no one can enter into the house of a strong man and steal his belongings without tying up the strong man first, and then he will plunder his house.

²⁸Truly I say to you, all sins of the sons of men will be forgiven, even all the blasphemies which they utter,

²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”

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

³¹Then his mother and his brothers came and stood outside. They sent for him, summoning him.

³²A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they are looking for you.”

³³He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴He looked around at those who were sitting in a circle around him and said, “See, here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵For whoever does the will of God, that person is my brother, and sister, and mother.”