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¹The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

²just as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “BEHOLD, I AM SENDING MY MESSENGER BEFORE YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY;

³THE VOICE OF ONE CALLING OUT IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!’ ”

⁴John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁵And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

⁶John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.

⁷And he was preaching, saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to bend down and untie the straps of His sandals.

⁸I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

¹⁰And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him;

¹¹and a voice came from the heavens: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

¹²And immediately the Spirit *brought Him out into the wilderness.

¹³And He was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving Him.

¹⁴Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,

¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Godis at hand; repent andbelieve in the gospel.”

¹⁶As He was going along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.

¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will have you become fishers of people.”

¹⁸Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

¹⁹And going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who were also in the boat mending the nets.

²⁰Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and went away to follow Him.

²¹They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach.

²²And they were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

²³Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,

²⁴saying, “What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are: the Holy One of God!”

²⁵And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”

²⁶After throwing him into convulsions and crying out with a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him.

²⁷And they were all amazed, so they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

²⁸Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding region of Galilee.

²⁹And immediately after they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

³⁰Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and they immediately *spoke to Jesus about her.

³¹And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she served them.

³²Now when evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed.

³³And the whole city had gathered at the door.

³⁴And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

³⁵And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and prayed there for a time.

³⁶Simon and his companions eagerly searched for Him;

³⁷and they found Him and *said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

³⁸He *said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may alsopreach there; for this is why I came.”

³⁹And He went into their synagogues preaching throughout Galilee, and casting out the demons.

⁴⁰And a man with leprosy *came to Jesus, imploring Him and kneeling down, and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”

⁴¹Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

⁴²And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.

⁴³And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away,

⁴⁴and He *said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.

¹When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that He was at home.

²And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer space, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.

³And some people *came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men.

⁴And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying.

⁵And Jesus, seeing their faith, *said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts,

⁷“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

⁸Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were thinking that way within themselves, *said to them, “Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralyzed man,

¹¹“I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.”

¹²And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.

¹⁴As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁵And it *happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷And hearing this, Jesus *said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them,the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

²¹“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.

²²And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

²³And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

²⁵And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;

²⁶how he entered the house of God in thetime of Abiathar the high priest, and ate theconsecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”

²⁷Jesus said to them, “The Sabbathwas madefor man, and not manfor the Sabbath.

²⁸So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”

¹He entered a synagogue again; and a man was there whose hand was withered.

²And they were watching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.

³He *said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!”

⁴And He *said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.

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

⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might put Him to death.

⁷Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a large multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea,

⁸and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard about everything that He was doing and came to Him.

⁹And He told His disciples to see that a boat would be ready for Him because of the masses, so that they would not crowd Him;

¹⁰for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had diseases pushed in around Him in order to touch Him.

¹¹And whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”

¹²And He strongly warned them not to reveal who He was.

¹³And He *went up on the mountain and *summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.

¹⁴And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach,

¹⁵and to have authority to cast out the demons.

¹⁶And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter),

¹⁷James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”);

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

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

²⁰And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal.

²¹And when His own people heard about this, they came out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

²²The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

²³And so He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan?

²⁴And if 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.

²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, buthe is finished!

²⁷But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

²⁸“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and daughters of men, and whatever blasphemies they commit;

²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

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

³¹Then His mother and His brothers *came, and while standing outside they sent word to Him, calling for Him.

³²And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”

³³Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?”

³⁴And looking around at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Here are My mother and My brothers!

³⁵For whoever does the will of God, this is My brother, and sister, and mother.”