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¹Jesus went out from there and *came into His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him.

²And when the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man learn these things, and what is this wisdom that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

³Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are His sisters not here with us?” And they took offense at Him.

⁴Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonored except inhis hometown and among his own relatives, and in his own household.”

⁵And He could not do any miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.

⁶And He was amazed at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages, teaching.

⁷And He *summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits;

⁸and He instructed them that they were to take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—

⁹but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not wear twotunics.”

¹⁰And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until youleave town.

¹¹Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dustoff the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹²And they went out and preached that people are to repent.

¹³And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

¹⁴And King Herod heard about it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.”

¹⁵But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”

¹⁶But when Herod heard about it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

¹⁷For Herod himself had sent men and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her.

¹⁸For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

¹⁹And Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, and could not do so;

²⁰for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he had been protecting him. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; and yet he used to enjoy listening to him.

²¹An opportune day came when Herod, on his birthday, held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders, and the leading people of Galilee;

²²and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

²³And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you, up to half of my kingdom.”

²⁴And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

²⁵Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶And although the king was very sorry, because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her.

²⁷Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison,

²⁸and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.

²⁹When his disciples heard about this, they came and carried away his body, and laid it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.

³¹And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

³²And they went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

³³The people saw them going, and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

³⁴When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.

³⁵And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “This place is secluded and it is already late;

³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸But He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.”

³⁹And He ordered them all to recline by groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰They reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties.

⁴¹And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²And they all ate and were satisfied;

⁴³and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces of bread, and of the fish.

⁴⁴There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

⁴⁵And immediately Jesus had His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He Himself *dismissed the crowd.

⁴⁶And after saying goodbye to them, He left for the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land.

⁴⁸Seeing them straining at the oars—for the wind was against them—at about the fourth watch of the night, He *came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.

⁴⁹But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out;

⁵⁰for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and *said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.”

⁵¹Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished,

⁵²for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored at the shore.

⁵⁴And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him,

⁵⁵and ran about that entire country and began carrying here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to wherever they heard He was.

⁵⁶And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or a countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and all who touched it were being healed.

¹The Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered to Him after they came from Jerusalem,

²and saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unholy hands, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the other Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thereby holding firmly to the tradition of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they completely cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received as traditions to firmly hold, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and copper pots.)

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk in accordance with the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unholy hands?”

⁶But He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

⁷AND IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.’

⁸Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘THE ONE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, ISCERTAINLY TO BE PUT TO DEATH’;

¹¹but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is, given to God),’

¹²you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother;

¹³thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

¹⁴After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person.”

¹⁶

¹⁷And when He later entered a house, away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He *said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, andis eliminated?” (Thereby He declared all foods clean.)

²⁰And He was saying, “That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person.

²¹For from within, out of thehearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery,

²²deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior,envy, slander,pride, and foolishness.

²³All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”

²⁴Now Jesus got up and went from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know about it; and yet He could not escape notice.

²⁵But after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician descent. And she repeatedly asked Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is notgood to take the children’s bread and throw it to thedogs.”

²⁸But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹And He said to her, “Because of thisanswer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And after going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.

³²And they *brought to Him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they *begged Him to lay His hand on him.

³³And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers in his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;

³⁴and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

³⁵And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

³⁶And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

³⁷And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even those who are deaf hear, and those who are unable to talk, speak.”