Bible in 90 Days
57 Then the mob led him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, where all the Jewish leaders were gathering. 58 Meanwhile, Peter was following far to the rear, and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s house and went in and sat with the soldiers, and waited to see what was going to be done to Jesus.
59 The chief priests and, in fact, the entire Jewish Supreme Court assembled there and looked for witnesses who would lie about Jesus, in order to build a case against him that would result in a death sentence. 60-61 But even though they found many who agreed to be false witnesses, these always contradicted each other.
Finally two men were found who declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”
62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Well, what about it? Did you say that, or didn’t you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent.
Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God that you tell us whether you claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God.”
64 “Yes,” Jesus said, “I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah,[a] sitting at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven.”
65-66 Then the high priest tore at his own clothing, shouting, “Blasphemy! What need have we for other witnesses? You have all heard him say it! What is your verdict?”
They shouted, “Death!—Death!—Death!”
67 Then they spat in his face and struck him and some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who struck you that time?”
69 Meanwhile, as Peter was sitting in the courtyard, a girl came over and said to him, “You were with Jesus, for both of you are from Galilee.”[b]
70 But Peter denied it loudly. “I don’t even know what you are talking about,” he angrily declared.
71 Later, out by the gate, another girl noticed him and said to those standing around, “This man was with Jesus—from Nazareth.”
72 Again Peter denied it, this time with an oath. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.
73 But after a while the men who had been standing there came over to him and said, “We know you are one of his disciples, for we can tell by your Galilean[c] accent.”
74 Peter began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.
And immediately the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went away, crying bitterly.
27 When it was morning, the chief priests and Jewish leaders met again to discuss how to induce the Roman government to sentence Jesus to death.[d] 2 Then they sent him in chains to Pilate, the Roman governor.
3 About that time Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus had been condemned to die, changed his mind and deeply regretted what he had done,[e] and brought back the money to the chief priests and other Jewish leaders.
4 “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”
“That’s your problem,” they retorted.
5 Then he threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests picked the money up. “We can’t put it in the collection,” they said, “since it’s against our laws to accept money paid for murder.”
7 They talked it over and finally decided to buy a certain field where the clay was used by potters, and to make it into a cemetery for foreigners who died in Jerusalem. 8 That is why the cemetery is still called “The Field of Blood.”
9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah which says,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver—the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel— 10 and purchased a field from the potters as the Lord directed me.”
11 Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the Jews’ Messiah?”[f] the governor asked him.
“Yes,” Jesus replied.
12 But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders made their many accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.
13 “Don’t you hear what they are saying?” Pilate demanded.
14 But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor’s surprise.
15 Now the governor’s custom was to release one Jewish prisoner each year during the Passover celebration—anyone they wanted. 16 This year there was a particularly notorious criminal in jail named Barabbas, 17 and as the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning he asked them, “Which shall I release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus your Messiah?”[g] 18 For he knew very well that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy because of his popularity with the people.
19 Just then, as he was presiding over the court, Pilate’s wife sent him this message: “Leave that good man alone; for I had a terrible nightmare concerning him last night.”
20 Meanwhile the chief priests and Jewish officials persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas’s release, and for Jesus’ death. 21 So when the governor asked again,[h] “Which of these two shall I release to you?” the crowd shouted back their reply: “Barabbas!”
22 “Then what shall I do with Jesus, your Messiah?” Pilate asked.
And they shouted, “Crucify him!”
23 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What has he done wrong?” But they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify!”
24 When Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing, he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this good man. The responsibility is yours!”
25 And the mob yelled back, “His blood be on us and on our children!”
26 Then Pilate released Barabbas to them. And after he had whipped Jesus, he gave him to the Roman soldiers to be taken away and crucified. 27 But first they took him into the armory and called out the entire contingent. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and made a crown from long thorns and put it on his head, and placed a stick in his right hand as a scepter and knelt before him in mockery. “Hail, King of the Jews,” they yelled. 30 And they spat on him and grabbed the stick and beat him on the head with it.
31 After the mockery, they took off the robe and put his own garment on him again, and took him out to crucify him.
32 As they were on the way to the execution grounds they came across a man from Cyrene, in Africa—Simon was his name—and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. 33 Then they went out to an area known as Golgotha, that is, “Skull Hill,” 34 where the soldiers gave him drugged wine to drink; but when he had tasted it, he refused.
35 After the crucifixion, the soldiers threw dice to divide up his clothes among themselves. 36 Then they sat around and watched him as he hung there. 37 And they put a sign above his head, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
38 Two robbers were also crucified there that morning, one on either side of him. 39 And the people passing by hurled abuse, shaking their heads at him and saying, 40 “So! You can destroy the Temple and build it again in three days, can you? Well, then, come on down from the cross if you are the Son of God!”
41-43 And the chief priests and Jewish leaders also mocked him. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So you are the King of Israel, are you? Come down from the cross and we’ll believe you! He trusted God—let God show his approval by delivering him! Didn’t he say, ‘I am God’s Son’?”
44 And the robbers also threw the same in his teeth.
45 That afternoon, the whole earth[i] was covered with darkness for three hours, from noon until three o’clock.
46 About three o’clock, Jesus shouted, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
47 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for Elijah. 48 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a stick and held it up to him to drink. 49 But the rest said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see whether Elijah will come and save him.”
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, dismissed his spirit, and died.
51 And look! The curtain secluding the Holiest Place[j] in the Temple was split apart from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and rocks broke, 52 and tombs opened, and many godly men and women who had died came back to life again. 53 After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the cemetery and went into Jerusalem, and appeared to many people there.
54 The soldiers at the crucifixion and their sergeant were terribly frightened by the earthquake and all that happened. They exclaimed, “Surely this was God’s Son.”[k]
55 And many women who had come down from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John (the sons of Zebedee).
57 When evening came, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, one of Jesus’ followers, 58 went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. 59 Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new rock-hewn tomb, and rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left. 61 Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting nearby watching.
62 The next day—at the close of the first day of the Passover ceremonies[l]—the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate, 63 and told him, “Sir, that liar once said, ‘After three days I will come back to life again.’ 64 So we request an order from you sealing the tomb until the third day, to prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he came back to life! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”
65 “Use your own Temple police,” Pilate told them. “They can guard it safely enough.”
66 So they sealed the stone[m] and posted guards to protect it from intrusion.
28 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to the tomb.
2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning and his clothing was a brilliant white. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and fell into a dead faint.
5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be frightened!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified, 6 but he isn’t here! For he has come back to life again, just as he said he would. Come in and see where his body was lying. . . . 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and that he is going to Galilee to meet them there. That is my message to them.”
8 The women ran from the tomb, badly frightened, but also filled with joy, and rushed to find the disciples to give them the angel’s message. 9 And as they were running, suddenly Jesus was there in front of them!
“Good morning!”[n] he said. And they fell to the ground before him, holding his feet and worshiping him.
10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be frightened! Go tell my brothers to leave at once for Galilee, to meet me there.”
11 As the women were on the way into the city, some of the Temple police who had been guarding the tomb went to the chief priests and told them what had happened. 12-13 A meeting of all the Jewish leaders was called, and it was decided to bribe the police to say they had all been asleep when Jesus’ disciples came during the night and stole his body.
14 “If the governor hears about it,” the Council promised, “we’ll stand up for you and everything will be all right.”
15 So the police accepted the bribe and said what they were told to. Their story spread widely among the Jews and is still believed by them to this very day.
16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had said they would find him. 17 There they met him and worshiped him—but some of them weren’t sure it really was Jesus!
18 He told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. 19 Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations,[o] baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”[p]
1 Here begins the wonderful story of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
2 In the book written by the prophet Isaiah, God announced that he would send his Son[q] to earth, and that a special messenger would arrive first to prepare the world for his coming.
3 “This messenger will live out in the barren wilderness,” Isaiah said,[r] “and will proclaim that everyone must straighten out his life to be ready for the Lord’s arrival.”
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and taught that all should be baptized as a public announcement of their decision to turn their backs on sin, so that God could forgive them.[s] 5 People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the Judean wastelands to see and hear John, and when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt; locusts and wild honey were his food. 7 Here is a sample of his preaching:
“Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am, so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave.[t] 8 I baptize you with water[u] but he will baptize you with God’s Holy Spirit!”
9 Then one day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John there in the Jordan River. 10 The moment Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on him, 11 and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son; you are my Delight.”
12-13 Immediately the Holy Spirit urged Jesus into the desert. There, for forty days, alone except for desert animals, he was subjected to Satan’s temptations to sin. And afterwards[v] the angels came and cared for him.
14 Later on, after John was arrested by King Herod,[w] Jesus went to Galilee to preach God’s Good News.
15 “At last the time has come!” he announced. “God’s Kingdom is near! Turn from your sins and act on this glorious news!”
16 One day as Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing with nets, for they were commercial fishermen.
17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me! And I will make you fishermen for the souls of men!” 18 At once they left their nets and went along with him.
19 A little farther up the beach, he saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat mending their nets. 20 He called them too, and immediately they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with him.
21 Jesus and his companions now arrived at the town of Capernaum and on Saturday morning went into the Jewish place of worship—the synagogue—where he preached. 22 The congregation was surprised at his sermon because he spoke as an authority and didn’t try to prove his points by quoting others—quite unlike what they were used to hearing![x]
23 A man possessed by a demon was present and began shouting, 24 “Why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth—have you come to destroy us demons? I know who you are—the holy Son of God!”
25 Jesus curtly commanded the demon to say no more and to come out of the man. 26 At that the evil spirit screamed and convulsed the man violently and left him. 27 Amazement gripped the audience and they began discussing what had happened.
“What sort of new religion is this?” they asked excitedly. “Why, even evil spirits obey his orders!”
28 The news of what he had done spread quickly through that entire area of Galilee.
29-30 Then, leaving the synagogue, he and his disciples went over to Simon and Andrew’s home, where they found Simon’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. 31 He went to her bedside, and as he took her by the hand and helped her to sit up, the fever suddenly left, and she got up and prepared dinner for them!
32-33 By sunset the courtyard was filled with the sick and demon-possessed, brought to him for healing; and a huge crowd of people from all over the city of Capernaum gathered outside the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed great numbers of sick folk that evening and ordered many demons to come out of their victims. (But he refused to allow the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.)
35 The next morning he was up long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.
36-37 Later, Simon and the others went out to find him, and told him, “Everyone is asking for you.”
38 But he replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and give my message to them too, for that is why I came.”
39 So he traveled throughout the province of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and releasing many from the power of demons.
40 Once a leper came and knelt in front of him and begged to be healed. “If you want to, you can make me well again,” he pled.
41 And Jesus, moved with pity, touched him and said, “I want to! Be healed!” 42 Immediately the leprosy was gone—the man was healed!
43-44 Jesus then told him sternly, “Go and be examined immediately by the Jewish priest. Don’t stop to speak to anyone along the way. Take along the offering prescribed by Moses for a leper who is healed, so that everyone will have proof that you are well again.”
45 But as the man went on his way he began to shout the good news that he was healed; as a result, such throngs soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn’t publicly enter a city anywhere, but had to stay out in the barren wastelands. And people from everywhere came to him there.
2 Several days later he returned to Capernaum, and the news of his arrival spread quickly through the city. 2 Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there wasn’t room for a single person more, not even outside the door. And he preached the Word to them. 3 Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. 4 They couldn’t get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head and lowered the sick man on his stretcher, right down in front of Jesus.[y]
5 When Jesus saw how strongly they believed that he would help, Jesus said to the sick man, “Son, your sins are forgiven!”
6 But some of the Jewish religious leaders[z] said to themselves as they sat there, 7 “What? This is blasphemy! Does he think he is God? For only God can forgive sins.”
8 Jesus could read their minds and said to them at once, “Why does this bother you? 9-11 I, the Messiah,[aa] have the authority on earth to forgive sins. But talk is cheap—anybody could say that. So I’ll prove it to you by healing this man.” Then, turning to the paralyzed man, he commanded, “Pick up your stretcher and go on home, for you are healed!”
12 The man jumped up, took the stretcher, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers! Then how they praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” they all exclaimed.
13 Then Jesus went out to the seashore again and preached to the crowds that gathered around him. 14 As he was walking up the beach he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at his tax collection booth. “Come with me,” Jesus told him. “Come be my disciple.”
And Levi jumped to his feet and went along.
15 That night Levi invited his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners to be his dinner guests so that they could meet Jesus and his disciples. (There were many men of this type among the crowds that followed him.) 16 But when some of the Jewish religious leaders[ab] saw him eating with these men of ill repute, they said to his disciples, “How can he stand it, to eat with such scum?”
17 When Jesus heard what they were saying, he told them, “Sick people need the doctor, not healthy ones! I haven’t come to tell good people to repent, but the bad ones.”
18 John’s disciples and the Jewish leaders sometimes fasted, that is, went without food as part of their religion. One day some people came to Jesus and asked why his disciples didn’t do this too.
19 Jesus replied, “Do friends of the bridegroom refuse to eat at the wedding feast? Should they be sad while he is with them? 20 But some day he will be taken away from them, and then they will mourn. 21 Besides, going without food is part of the old way of doing things.[ac] It is like patching an old garment with unshrunk cloth! What happens? The patch pulls away and leaves the hole worse than before. 22 You know better than to put new wine into old wineskins. They would burst. The wine would be spilled out and the wineskins ruined. New wine needs fresh wineskins.”
23 Another time, on a Sabbath day as Jesus and his disciples were walking through the fields, the disciples were breaking off heads of wheat and eating the grain.[ad]
24 Some of the Jewish religious leaders said to Jesus, “They shouldn’t be doing that! It’s against our laws to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.”
25-26 But Jesus replied, “Didn’t you ever hear about the time King David and his companions were hungry, and he went into the house of God—Abiathar was high priest then—and they ate the special bread[ae] only priests were allowed to eat? That was against the law too. 27 But the Sabbath was made to benefit man, and not man to benefit the Sabbath. 28 And I, the Messiah,[af] have authority even to decide what men can do on Sabbath days!”
3 While in Capernaum Jesus went over to the synagogue again, and noticed a man there with a deformed hand.
2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. Would he heal the man’s hand? If he did, they planned to arrest him!
3 Jesus asked the man to come and stand in front of the congregation. 4 Then turning to his enemies he asked, “Is it all right to do kind deeds on Sabbath days? Or is this a day for doing harm? Is it a day to save lives or to destroy them?” But they wouldn’t answer him. 5 Looking around at them angrily, for he was deeply disturbed by their indifference to human need, he said to the man, “Reach out your hand.” He did, and instantly his hand was healed!
6 At once the Pharisees[ag] went away and met with the Herodians to discuss plans for killing Jesus.
7-8 Meanwhile, Jesus and his disciples withdrew to the beach, followed by a huge crowd from all over Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from beyond the Jordan River, and even from as far away as Tyre and Sidon. For the news about his miracles had spread far and wide and vast numbers came to see him for themselves.
9 He instructed his disciples to bring around a boat and to have it standing ready to rescue him in case he was crowded off the beach. 10 For there had been many healings that day and as a result great numbers of sick people were crowding around him, trying to touch him.
11 And whenever those possessed by demons caught sight of him they would fall down before him shrieking, “You are the Son of God!” 12 But he strictly warned them not to make him known.
13 Afterwards he went up into the hills and summoned certain ones he chose, inviting them to come and join him there; and they did. 14-15 Then he selected twelve of them to be his regular companions and to go out to preach and to cast out demons. 16-19 These are the names of the twelve he chose: Simon (he renamed him “Peter”), James and John (the sons of Zebedee, but Jesus called them “Sons of Thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon (a member of a political party advocating violent overthrow of the Roman government), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).
20 When he returned to the house where he was staying, the crowds began to gather again, and soon it was so full of visitors that he couldn’t even find time to eat. 21 When his friends heard what was happening, they came to try to take him home with them.
“He’s out of his mind,” they said.
22 But the Jewish teachers of religion who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “His trouble is that he’s possessed by Satan, king of demons. That’s why demons obey him.”
23 Jesus summoned these men and asked them (using proverbs they all understood), “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 A kingdom divided against itself will collapse. 25 A home filled with strife and division destroys itself. 26 And if Satan is fighting against himself, how can he accomplish anything? He would never survive. 27 Satan must be bound before his demons are cast out,[ah] just as a strong man must be tied up before his house can be ransacked and his property robbed.
28 “I solemnly declare that any sin of man can be forgiven, even blasphemy against me; 29 but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven. It is an eternal sin.”
30 He told them this because they were saying he did his miracles by Satan’s power instead of acknowledging it was by the Holy Spirit’s power.[ai]
31-32 Now his mother and brothers arrived at the crowded house where he was teaching, and they sent word for him to come out and talk with them. “Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you,” he was told.
33 He replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 34 Looking at those around him he said, “These are my mother and brothers! 35 Anyone who does God’s will is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.”
4 Once again an immense crowd gathered around him on the beach as he was teaching, so he got into a boat and sat down and talked from there. 2 His usual method of teaching was to tell the people stories. One of them went like this:
3 “Listen! A farmer decided to sow some grain. As he scattered it across his field, 4 some of it fell on a path, and the birds came and picked it off the hard ground and ate it. 5-6 Some fell on thin soil with underlying rock. It grew up quickly enough, but soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and crowded the young plants so that they produced no grain. 8 But some of the seeds fell into good soil and yielded thirty times as much as he had planted—some of it even sixty or a hundred times as much! 9 If you have ears, listen!”
10 Afterwards, when he was alone with the Twelve and with his other disciples, they asked him, “What does your story mean?”
11-12 He replied, “You are permitted to know some truths about the Kingdom of God that are hidden to those outside the Kingdom:
‘Though they see and hear, they will not understand or turn to God, or be forgiven for their sins.’
13
14 “The farmer I talked about is anyone who brings God’s message to others, trying to plant good seed within their lives. 15 The hard pathway, where some of the seed fell, represents the hard hearts of some of those who hear God’s message; Satan comes at once to try to make them forget it. 16 The rocky soil represents the hearts of those who hear the message with joy, 17 but, like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep, and though at first they get along fine, as soon as persecution begins, they wilt.
18 “The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it, 19 but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced.
20 “But the good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God’s message and produce a plentiful harvest for God—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as was planted in their hearts.” 21 Then he asked them, “When someone lights a lamp, does he put a box over it to shut out the light? Of course not! The light couldn’t be seen or used. A lamp is placed on a stand to shine and be useful.
22 “All that is now hidden will someday come to light. 23 If you have ears, listen! 24 And be sure to put into practice what you hear. The more you do this, the more you will understand what I tell you. 25 To him who has shall be given; from him who has not shall be taken away even what he has.
26 “Here is another story illustrating what the Kingdom of God is like:
“A farmer sowed his field 27 and went away, and as the days went by, the seeds grew and grew without his help. 28 For the soil made the seeds grow. First a leaf blade pushed through, and later the heads of wheat formed, and finally the grain ripened, 29 and then the farmer came at once with his sickle and harvested it.”
30 Jesus asked, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story shall I use to illustrate it? 31-32 It is like a tiny mustard seed! Though this is one of the smallest of seeds, yet it grows to become one of the largest of plants, with long branches where birds can build their nests and be sheltered.”
33 He used many such illustrations to teach the people as much as they were ready to understand.[aj] 34 In fact, he taught only by illustrations in his public teaching, but afterwards, when he was alone with his disciples, he would explain his meaning to them.
35 As evening fell, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” 36 So they took him just as he was and started out, leaving the crowds behind (though other boats followed). 37 But soon a terrible storm arose. High waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water and about to sink. 38 Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they wakened him, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are all about to drown?”
39 Then he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Quiet down!” And the wind fell, and there was a great calm!
40 And he asked them, “Why were you so fearful? Don’t you even yet have confidence in me?”
41 And they were filled with awe and said among themselves, “Who is this man, that even the winds and seas obey him?”
5 1-2 When they arrived at the other side of the lake, a demon-possessed man ran out from a graveyard, just as Jesus was climbing from the boat.
3-4 This man lived among the gravestones and had such strength that whenever he was put into handcuffs and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the handcuffs from his wrists and smashed the shackles and walked away. No one was strong enough to control him. 5 All day long and through the night he would wander among the tombs and in the wild hills, screaming and cutting himself with sharp pieces of stone.
6 When Jesus was still far out on the water, the man had seen him and had run to meet him, and fell down before him.
7-8 Then Jesus spoke to the demon within the man and said, “Come out, you evil spirit.”
It gave a terrible scream, shrieking, “What are you going to do to me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!”
9 “What is your name?” Jesus asked, and the demon replied, “Legion, for there are many of us here within this man.”
10 Then the demons begged him again and again not to send them to some distant land.
11 Now as it happened there was a huge herd of hogs rooting around on the hill above the lake. 12 “Send us into those hogs,” the demons begged.
13 And Jesus gave them permission. Then the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the hogs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
14 The herdsmen fled to the nearby towns and countryside, spreading the news as they ran. Everyone rushed out to see for themselves. 15 And a large crowd soon gathered where Jesus was; but as they saw the man sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane, they were frightened. 16 Those who saw what happened were telling everyone about it, 17 and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone! 18 So he got back into the boat. The man who had been possessed by the demons begged Jesus to let him go along. 19 But Jesus said no.
“Go home to your friends,” he told him, “and tell them what wonderful things God has done for you; and how merciful he has been.”
20 So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns[ak] of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and they were awestruck by his story.
21 When Jesus had gone across by boat to the other side of the lake, a vast crowd gathered around him on the shore.
22 The leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, came and fell down before him, 23 pleading with him to heal his little daughter.
“She is at the point of death,” he said in desperation. “Please come and place your hands on her and make her live.”
24 Jesus went with him, and the crowd thronged behind. 25 In the crowd was a woman who had been sick for twelve years with a hemorrhage. 26 She had suffered much from many doctors through the years and had become poor from paying them, and was no better but, in fact, was worse. 27 She had heard all about the wonderful miracles Jesus did, and that is why she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his clothes.
28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.” 29 And sure enough, as soon as she had touched him, the bleeding stopped and she knew she was well!
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples said to him, “All this crowd pressing around you, and you ask who touched you?”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who it was who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still talking to her, messengers arrived from Jairus’s home with the news that it was too late—his daughter was dead and there was no point in Jesus’ coming now. 36 But Jesus ignored their comments and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.”
37 Then Jesus halted the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go on with him to Jairus’s home except Peter and James and John. 38 When they arrived, Jesus saw that all was in great confusion, with unrestrained weeping and wailing. 39 He went inside and spoke to the people.
“Why all this weeping and commotion?” he asked. “The child isn’t dead; she is only asleep!”
40 They laughed at him in bitter derision, but he told them all to leave, and taking the little girl’s father and mother and his three disciples, he went into the room where she was lying.
41-42 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Get up, little girl!” (She was twelve years old.) And she jumped up and walked around! Her parents just couldn’t get over it. 43 Jesus instructed them very earnestly not to tell what had happened and told them to give her something to eat.
6 Soon afterwards he left that section of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. 2-3 The next Sabbath he went to the synagogue to teach, and the people were astonished at his wisdom and his miracles because he was just a local man like themselves.
“He’s no better than we are,” they said. “He’s just a carpenter, Mary’s boy, and a brother of James and Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” And they were offended!
4 Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and by his own family.” 5 And because of their unbelief he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he could hardly accept the fact that they wouldn’t believe in him.
Then he went out among the villages, teaching.
7 And he called his twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two, with power to cast out demons. 8-9 He told them to take nothing with them except their walking sticks—no food, no knapsack, no money, not even an extra pair of shoes or a change of clothes.
10 “Stay at one home in each village—don’t shift around from house to house while you are there,” he said. 11 “And whenever a village won’t accept you or listen to you, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave; it is a sign that you have abandoned it to its fate.”
12 So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to turn from sin. 13 And they cast out many demons and healed many sick people, anointing them with olive oil.
14 King Herod soon heard about Jesus, for his miracles were talked about everywhere. The king thought Jesus was John the Baptist come back to life again. So the people were saying, “No wonder he can do such miracles.” 15 Others thought Jesus was Elijah the ancient prophet, now returned to life again; still others claimed he was a new prophet like the great ones of the past.
16 “No,” Herod said, “it is John, the man I beheaded. He has come back from the dead.”
17-18 For Herod had sent soldiers to arrest and imprison John because he kept saying it was wrong for the king to marry Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. 19 Herodias wanted John killed in revenge, but without Herod’s approval she was powerless. 20 And Herod respected John, knowing that he was a good and holy man, and so he kept him under his protection. Herod was disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so he liked to listen to him.
21 Herodias’s chance finally came. It was Herod’s birthday and he gave a stag party for his palace aides, army officers, and the leading citizens of Galilee. 22-23 Then Herodias’s daughter came in and danced before them and greatly pleased them all.
“Ask me for anything you like,” the king vowed, “even half of my kingdom, and I will give it to you!”
24 She went out and consulted her mother, who told her, “Ask for John the Baptist’s head!”
25 So she hurried back to the king and told him, “I want the head of John the Baptist—right now—on a tray!”
26 Then the king was sorry, but he was embarrassed to break his oath in front of his guests. 27 So he sent one of his bodyguards to the prison to cut off John’s head and bring it to him. The soldier killed John in the prison, 28 and brought back his head on a tray, and gave it to the girl and she took it to her mother.
29 When John’s disciples heard what had happened, they came for his body and buried it in a tomb.
30 The apostles now returned to Jesus from their tour and told him all they had done and what they had said to the people they visited.
31 Then Jesus suggested, “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” For so many people were coming and going that they scarcely had time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quieter spot. 33 But many people saw them leaving and ran on ahead along the shore and met them as they landed. 34 So the usual vast crowd was there as he stepped from the boat; and he had pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he taught them many things they needed to know.
35-36 Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “Tell the people to go away to the nearby villages and farms and buy themselves some food, for there is nothing to eat here in this desolate spot, and it is getting late.”
37 But Jesus said,
“With what?” they asked. “It would take a fortune[al] to buy food for all this crowd!”
38 “How much food do we have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”
They came back to report that there were five loaves of bread and two fish. 39-40 Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down, and soon colorful groups of fifty or a hundred each were sitting on the green grass.
41 He took the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, gave thanks for the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave some of the bread and fish to each disciple to place before the people. 42 And the crowd ate until they could hold no more!
43-44 There were about 5,000 men there for that meal, and afterwards twelve basketfuls of scraps were picked up off the grass!
45 Immediately after this Jesus instructed his disciples to get back into the boat and strike out across the lake to Bethsaida, where he would join them later. He himself would stay and tell the crowds good-bye and get them started home.
46 Afterwards he went up into the hills to pray. 47 During the night, as the disciples in their boat were out in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land, 48 he saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves.
About three o’clock in the morning he walked out to them on the water. He started past them, 49 but when they saw something walking along beside them, they screamed in terror, thinking it was a ghost, 50 for they all saw him.
But he spoke to them at once. “It’s all right,” he said. “It is I! Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat and the wind stopped!
They just sat there, unable to take it in! 52 For they still didn’t realize who he was, even after the miracle the evening before! For they didn’t want to believe![am]
53 When they arrived at Gennesaret on the other side of the lake, they moored the boat 54 and climbed out.
The people standing around there recognized him at once, 55 and ran throughout the whole area to spread the news of his arrival, and began carrying sick folks to him on mats and stretchers. 56 Wherever he went—in villages and cities, and out on the farms—they laid the sick in the market plazas and streets, and begged him to let them at least touch the fringes of his clothes; and as many as touched him were healed.
7 One day some Jewish religious leaders arrived from Jerusalem to investigate him, 2 and noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the usual Jewish rituals before eating. 3 (For the Jews, especially the Pharisees, will never eat until they have sprinkled their arms to the elbows,[an] as required by their ancient traditions. 4 So when they come home from the market, they must always sprinkle themselves in this way before touching any food. This is but one of many examples of laws and regulations they have clung to for centuries, and still follow, such as their ceremony of cleansing for pots, pans, and dishes.)
5 So the religious leaders asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old customs? For they eat without first performing the washing ceremony.”
6-7 Jesus replied, “You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, ‘These people speak very prettily about the Lord but they have no love for him at all. Their worship is a farce, for they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.’ How right Isaiah was! 8 For you ignore God’s specific orders and substitute your own traditions. 9 You are simply rejecting God’s laws and trampling them under your feet for the sake of tradition.
10 “For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother.’ And he said that anyone who speaks against his father or mother must die. 11 But you say it is perfectly all right for a man to disregard his needy parents, telling them, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you! For I have given to God what I could have given to you.’ 12-13 And so you break the law of God in order to protect your man-made tradition. And this is only one example. There are many, many others.”
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15-16 [ao]Your souls aren’t harmed by what you eat, but by what you think and say!”
17 Then he went into a house to get away from the crowds, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the statement he had just made.
18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that what you eat won’t harm your soul? 19 For food doesn’t come in contact with your heart, but only passes through the digestive system.” (By saying this he showed that every kind of food is kosher.)
20 And then he added, “It is the thought-life that pollutes. 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, 22 wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God.”
24 Then he left Galilee and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon,[ap] and tried to keep it a secret that he was there, but couldn’t. For as usual the news of his arrival spread fast.
25 Right away a woman came to him whose little girl was possessed by a demon. She had heard about Jesus and now she came and fell at his feet, 26 and pled with him to release her child from the demon’s control. (But she was Syrophoenician—a “despised Gentile”!)
27 Jesus told her, “First I should help my own family—the Jews.[aq] It isn’t right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
28 She replied, “That’s true, sir, but even the puppies under the table are given some scraps from the children’s plates.”
29 “Good!” he said. “You have answered well—so well that I have healed your little girl. Go on home, for the demon has left her!”
30 And when she arrived home, her little girl was lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.
31 From Tyre he went to Sidon, then back to the Sea of Galilee by way of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and everyone begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man and heal him.
33 Jesus led him away from the crowd and put his fingers into the man’s ears, then spat and touched the man’s tongue with the spittle. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed and commanded, “Open!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly and speak plainly!
36 Jesus told the crowd not to spread the news, but the more he forbade them, the more they made it known, 37 for they were overcome with utter amazement. Again and again they said, “Everything he does is wonderful; he even corrects deafness and stammering!”
8 1-2 One day about this time as another great crowd gathered, the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples to discuss the situation.
“I pity these people,” he said, “for they have been here three days and have nothing left to eat. 3 And if I send them home without feeding them, they will faint along the road! For some of them have come a long distance.”
4 “Are we supposed to find food for them here in the desert?” his disciples scoffed.
5 “How many loaves of bread do you have?” he asked.
“Seven,” they replied. 6 So he told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, broke them into pieces and passed them to his disciples; and the disciples placed them before the people. 7 A few small fish were found, too, so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to serve them.
8-9 And the whole crowd ate until they were full, and afterwards he sent them home. There were about 4,000 people in the crowd that day and when the scraps were picked up after the meal, there were seven very large basketfuls left over!
10 Immediately after this he got into a boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
11 When the local Jewish leaders learned of his arrival, they came to argue with him.[ar]
“Do a miracle for us,” they said. “Make something happen in the sky. Then we will believe in you.”
12 He sighed deeply when he heard this and he said, “Certainly not. How many more miracles do you people need?”[as]
13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and crossed to the other side of the lake. 14 But the disciples had forgotten to stock up on food before they left and had only one loaf of bread in the boat.
15 As they were crossing, Jesus said to them very solemnly, “Beware of the yeast of King Herod and of the Pharisees.”
16 “What does he mean?” the disciples asked each other. They finally decided that he must be talking about their forgetting to bring bread.
17 Jesus realized what they were discussing and said, “No, that isn’t it at all! Can’t you understand? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘Your eyes are to see with—why don’t you look? Why don’t you open your ears and listen?’ Don’t you remember anything at all?
19 “What about the 5,000 men I fed with five loaves of bread? How many basketfuls of scraps did you pick up afterwards?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how much was left?”
“Seven basketfuls,” they said.
21 “And yet you think I’m worried that we have no bread?”[at]
22 When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch and heal him. 23 Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and spat upon his eyes, and laid his hands over them.
“Can you see anything now?” Jesus asked him.
24 The man looked around. “Yes!” he said, “I see men! But I can’t see them very clearly; they look like tree trunks walking around!”
25 Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again and as the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he saw everything clearly, drinking in the sights around him.
26 Jesus sent him home to his family. “Don’t even go back to the village first,” he said.
27 Jesus and his disciples now left Galilee and went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along he asked them, “Who do the people think I am? What are they saying about me?”
28 “Some of them think you are John the Baptist,” the disciples replied, “and others say you are Elijah or some other ancient prophet come back to life again.”
29 Then he asked, “Who do you think I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.” 30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone!
31 Then he began to tell them about the terrible things he would suffer,[au] and that he would be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the other Jewish leaders—and be killed, and that he would rise again three days afterwards. 32 He talked about it quite frankly with them, so Peter took him aside and chided him.[av] “You shouldn’t say things like that,” he told Jesus.
33 Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then said to Peter very sternly, “Satan, get behind me! You are looking at this only from a human point of view and not from God’s.”
34 Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. “If any of you wants to be my follower,” he told them, “you must put aside your own pleasures and shoulder your cross, and follow me closely. 35 If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.
36 “And how does a man benefit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process? 37 For is anything worth more than his soul? 38 And anyone who is ashamed of me and my message in these days of unbelief and sin, I, the Messiah,[aw] will be ashamed of him when I return in the glory of my Father, with the holy angels.”
9 Jesus went on to say to his disciples, “Some of you who are standing here right now will live to see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power!”
2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain. No one else was there.
Suddenly his face began to shine with glory, 3 and his clothing became dazzling white, far more glorious than any earthly process could ever make it! 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus!
5 “Teacher, this is wonderful!” Peter exclaimed. “We will make three shelters here, one for each of you. . . . ”
6 He said this just to be talking, for he didn’t know what else to say and they were all terribly frightened.
7 But while he was still speaking these words, a cloud covered them, blotting out the sun, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
8 Then suddenly they looked around and Moses and Elijah were gone, and only Jesus was with them.
9 As they descended the mountainside he told them never to mention what they had seen until after he had risen[ax] from the dead. 10 So they kept it to themselves, but often talked about it, and wondered what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
11 Now they began asking him about something the Jewish religious leaders often spoke of, that Elijah must return before the Messiah could come.[ay] 12-13 Jesus agreed that Elijah must come first and prepare the way—and that he had, in fact, already come! And that he had been terribly mistreated, just as the prophets had predicted. Then Jesus asked them what the prophets could have been talking about when they predicted that the Messiah[az] would suffer and be treated with utter contempt.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.