This is an old book written by someone we call Mark, though the writer is not known for sure. It is the oldest book that tells the story of the life of Jesus from Nazareth. (There are older letters that we have about Jesus, but this is the oldest story.) It was probably written four tens of years after the events it talks about.
This book was written in the Greek language. I have changed it to be written with the ten hundred most used words in English, along with names. The set of ten hundred words comes from Randall Munroe (who wrote Thing Explainer). I do not know much Greek, so I have worked mostly from English writings of this book. Sometimes, I used words that don’t mean exactly what Mark wrote, so that I did not have to stop the story to explain what a thing is. Sometimes, I was not sure what Mark meant by a word or a couple words. Both of these things sometimes happen even to people who know Greek, even when they can use all the words in a language.
I have added notes to try to make some things clear, if they would have been understood by people in the place and time that this was written.
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Saver, son of God.
Just like what Isaiah (who spoke God’s truth) said:
Look! I am sending someone with a message in front of you who will prepare your way.
A voice crying out in the wild places:
“Prepare the owner’s way! Make his paths straight!”
John came, washing people The Jews (Jesus’s people) follow many laws. If you wanted to go to God’s house, you had to let a God-worker put you under water first; then you would be clean enough. Other people who wrote about Jesus say that John’s father was a God-worker. Sons of God-workers were God-workers, but John was not a normal one. in a wild place, and told people about being washed to change to get rid of bad acts. People from all over Judea (even from Jerusalem) went out to him, and he washed them in the Jordan and they admitted what they had done wrong. John wore clothing made from animal hair, an animal-skin ring around his middle, and he ate big flies and wild yellow sweet stuff. He said “A stronger person than me is coming after me, and I am not good enough to tie his shoes. I washed you in water, but he will wash you in God’s Spirit.”
In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and John washed him in the Jordan. Immediately when he came out of the water, he saw the sky open, and the Spirit came down on him like a bird, and a voice from the sky said “You are my son, you are loved, and I think you are good.”
Immediately, the Spirit made Jesus go to a wild place. He stayed there for many days, and Satan The name Satan just means “The One Against Us” in Hebrew. There is a spirit called Satan that shows up two times in the main books about God that the Jews read. tried to make him do bad things. He was with the wild animals, and message-holders from God helped him.
Now, after John was locked up, Jesus came to Galilee, talking about the good news of God, and saying “The time is right, and God’s country is getting close. Change your life, and trust the good news.”
When Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew, who were putting fish screens in the little sea, because they were fish-catchers. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you person-catchers!” They immediately dropped their fish screens and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James (son of Zebedee), and his brother John, who were in their boat, fixing their fish screens. Immediately, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the workers and followed him.
They went to Capernaum, and when the resting day One of the laws that Jews follow says that they have to rest on Saturdays. came, he entered the church and taught. They were surprised by his teaching, because he taught them like someone who had power, not like the people who thought about the law. Just then, there was someone in the church who had a sick spirit, and he yelled, “What’s your business with us, Jesus from Nazareth? Have you come to wipe us out? I know who you are, God’s special person!” But Jesus yelled at him, saying “Shut up and come out of him!” And making him shake and cry with a loud voice, the sick spirit came out of him. They were surprised, and kept asking each other, “What is this? A new teaching, but with power? He orders the sick spirits around and they do what he says.” And word about this spread through the whole space around Galilee.
As soon as they left the church, they went to Simon and Andrew’s house, with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed, and they immediately told Jesus about her. He came and took her hand and lifted her up, and she got well right away, and got up and gave them food. When it was getting dark, they brought him everyone who was sick or who had a bad spirit. The whole town was at the door! And Jesus helped many people who were sick with different things, and he sent away many sick spirits, which he didn’t allow to speak, since they knew him.
In the morning, when it was still very dark, he got up and went away from town and talked to God. Simon and his friends looked around for him. When they found him, they said “Everyone is searching for you!” He answered, “Let’s go to towns that are near so that I may give them my message also, since that’s what I came out to do.” And he went around, talking in churches around there, and getting rid of sick spirits.
Someone with bad skin People with bad skin had to live away from everyone else. came to Jesus, got on his knees, and said “If you want, you can make me clean.” Jesus felt bad for him, and touched him, saying “I do want to: be clean.” Immediately, his skin got better, and he was clean. Jesus sent him away, saying in a serious tone, “Make sure not to say anything to anyone, but show the God-worker and kill the animals for God, the way that Moses said you should when you become clean.” But the man went off and talked very much and spread the word, so Jesus could no longer go to town if people knew about it, but he had to stay in the open spaces. People came to him from every direction!
Jesus came back to Capernaum, and after some days, people heard that he was at home. There were so many people around him, that there was no room in the house, or even near the front door. Four people came, bringing a man who could not move. They couldn’t get to Jesus through the crowd, so they made a hole in the roof above him, and let the man down on the little bed they carried him with. Seeing how much they trusted him, Jesus said, “Child, the bad things you have done are gone.” But some of the people who thought about the law were sitting there, and they thought: “Why does he talk like this? He lies; who can get rid of bad acts but God?”. At once, Jesus knew that they were talking about these questions, and he said to them, “Which is easier to say to someone who can’t move: ‘The bad things you have done are gone’, or ‘Stand, take your bed, and walk’? But so you can know that The Human Jesus used “The Human” to talk about himself. Probably, when people heard it, they would remember a time when Daniel (a great old Jewish person) said he saw God (on fire) on a big chair (also on fire) give the world to “one who looked like a human”. has the right to get rid of bad acts on earth—” he said to the man who could not move, “I tell you, stand up, take your bed, and go to your home!” And he got up, and immediately took his little bed, and went out in front of everyone. They were surprised and said God was great, and said “We’ve never seen anything like this!”
Jesus went out again beside the little sea, and the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting in his fee-taker’s office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
And as he ate dinner at Levi’s, many fee-takers and bad-thing-doers were also sitting with Jesus and his students – because many people followed him. When some of the Pharisees Some Jews were Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that it was important for the Jews to keep following the laws that made them Jewish, and to avoid becoming like the Romans who now owned their land. They were liked by lower-class people. Many people probably saw Jesus as a Pharisee because he was very much like them. That is probably why Jesus talks to them so much. who thought about the law saw that he was eating with the fee-takers and bad-thing-doers, they said to his students, “Why does he eat with them?”. When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “People who are well don’t need a doctor, only people who are sick; I didn’t come to call the good people, but the bad-thing-doers.”
Now John’s students and the Pharisees were not eating. The Pharisees didn’t eat on Mondays and Thursdays. Not eating was a sign of being sad. People said to Jesus, “Why is it that John’s students and the Pharisees do not eat, but your students do?”. Jesus said to them, “The wedding party eats while the husband-to-be is with them, don’t they? As long as he is with them, they cannot avoid eating. But days will come when he is taken away from them, and on that day, they will not eat.”
“No one fixes an old piece of clothing with new clothing-pieces that have not gotten smaller from washing it yet; if they did, the new piece would pull away from it, and leave a worse hole. And no one puts new wine into old wine bags; if they did, the wine will break the wine bag, and the wine will be lost. Instead, one puts new wine into new wine bags.”
On the resting day, Jesus was walking through the fields of growing food, and as they walked, his students took bits of the food. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing something against the law on the resting day?” And he said to them, “Didn’t you read what David did when he and the people with him needed food? He entered God’s house (when Abiathar was the highest God-worker), and ate the food that was in front of God, which may not be eaten, except by the God-workers. He even gave some to the people with him.” Then he said, “The resting day was made for people, not people for the resting day. So the The Human is owner of the resting day, even!”
Jesus went back to church, and there was a man with a bad hand. They watched to see if Jesus would fix him on the resting day, so that they could say that he broke the law. To the man with the bad hand, he said, “Stand up in the middle.” Then he said, “Is it okay with the law to do good or to do bad things on the resting day? To save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked at them and was mad; he was sad about their hard hearts. He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was fixed. The Pharisees went out and immediately talked with Herod’s Herod was the leader of the land Jesus was from; his father had built God’s house (after it had been torn down). Herod was allowed to be the leader by the Romans. He didn’t seem to care much about the Jewish laws. people about how to kill him.
Jesus went with his students to the little sea, and a lot of people from Galilee followed him, along with many people (who heard what he was doing) from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the other side of the Jordan River, and the places around Tyre and Sidon. He told his students to have a boat ready, so that they wouldn’t crowd around him, because he had fixed many sick people, so everyone who was sick wanted to touch him. When the sick spirits saw him, they fell down in front of him, and said, “You are the Son of God!” But he told them in a serious tone to not tell about him.
Jesus went up to the mountain and called the people he wanted, and they came to him. He picked ten and two, whom he called message-carriers, to be with him, and to be sent out to tell people the message, and to throw out bad spirits. So he picked the ten and two: Simon (whom he called Peter The name Peter just means “Rock”. ), James (son of Zebedee) and John the brother of James (whom he called Boanerges, which means “Sons of Loud Sky Sounds”), and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James (son of Alphaeus), and Thaddaeus, and Simon (from Cana), and Judas Iscariot, who would sell Jesus out.
Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they couldn’t even eat. When his family heard about it, they went to hold him back, because people were saying, “He has lost his mind.” And the people who think about the law who came from Jerusalem said “He has Beelzebul, and with the power of the leader of bad spirits, he throws the bad spirits out.” And he called out to them, and spoke to them in word pictures, saying, “How can the Satan throw itself out? And if a country fights itself, that country cannot stand. And if a house fights itself, it will not be possible for that house to stand. And if Satan stood up against itself and is broken into two, it will not stand, but it has come to an end. But no one can come into a strong man’s house and steal his things, without first tying up the strong man; then the house can be stolen from.
“This is the truth: all the bad things humans have done and all the bad lies tell will be wiped away. But anyone who lies against the God’s Special Spirit will keep their bad acts, and has done a bad thing that does not end.” — this was because they were saying he had a sick spirit.
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came and stood outside and sent for him. And the crowd sitting around him said, “You mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking around at the people who sat around him in a circle, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Anyone who does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Again, Jesus began to teach next to the little sea. Such a huge crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, and the crowd was near the sea on land. He taught them with word pictures, like this one, “Listen! A person who grows food went out to throw some tiny starters to the ground to grow into food. As the starters were thrown, some of them fell on a foot path, and were eaten by birds. Others fell on not-very-deep dirt with rocks. The starters grew up a little very quickly because the dirt was not deep. But they burned under the hot sun, and died because they didn’t go deep into the ground. Others fell in pointy things that grew and crowded them before they got strong so they made no food. Still others fell on good earth and gave thirty or twice that or even a hundred times as much food.” Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should hear!”
When Jesus was alone, the ten and two, along with the people around him, asked about the word pictures. He replied, “You are allowed to know the hidden things about God’s country, but to outside people, everything becomes word pictures. You know, ‘when they see, they will see but not understand, and when they hear, they will hear but not understand — if they did, they might change, and their bad acts would be gone!’” People listening to this would have been reminded of a time that Isaiah said something like this.
Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this word picture? Then how will you understand all the word pictures? The person who grows food is growing the word. The starters that fell beside the path: where the word is thrown to grow, when those people who hear it, Satan comes immediately and takes the word that they got. The starters that were thrown on dirt with rocks: those are the people who immediately receive the word and are happy about it, but they don’t have any hold on the ground; then when bad things happen to them or they get into trouble because of the word, they immediately fall away.
“And others are the ones that got thrown among pointy things: these are the ones that heard the word, but the worries of the world and the wanting of money and for everything else come around and press around the word and it makes no food. And there are the starters that were thrown on good earth, who hear the word and take it and give food: thirty or twice that or one hundred times as much food.”
And Jesus said to them, “Is a light brought to be put under a big cup or under a bed, and not on a table? There isn’t anything hidden that won’t be revealed, and nothing hidden away that won’t come into the open. Anyone with ears to hear should hear!”
And he also said, “God’s country is like someone throwing starters onto the earth, who sleeps and wakes up night and day while the starters come out of the earth and grow, but they don’t understand how. On its own, the earth gives first the thin part, then the big part, then the grass food in the big part. But when the field is ready, they get out the field-knife, because it is time to bring the food in.”
And he also said, “What should we say God’s country is like? What word picture should we use for it? It is like a food starter thrown on the earth. Even though it’s the smallest of them all, when it is thrown on the ground, it grows up and becomes the biggest grown food, and makes branches so the birds of the air can make their homes where it blocks the sun.”
With many word pictures like that, he told them the word, as they could hear it. He didn’t say anything except in word pictures, but alone with his students, he explained everything.
On that day, when it was close to night, he said “Let’s go to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him in the boat, just the way he was. Other boats were with him. And there was a huge wind and the waves hit the boat so that it was already getting full of water. But Jesus was sleeping on a soft thing in the back of the boat. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to die?” And, waking up, he told the wind off and said to the little sea, “Be still! Be silent!” Then the wind died away and everything was calm. And Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still not have trust?” And they were struck with wonder and fear and said to each other, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea follow his orders?”
Jesus and his students arrived at the other side of the little sea, in the country of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, he immediately was met by a man with a sick spirit, who lived near the dead bodies, and who nobody could keep down, even with a metal puller. When people tried to keep him in metal pullers and holders, he would break them, and nobody was strong enough to control him. All the time, on the hill or among the dead bodies, he would scream and hurt himself with rocks. When he saw Jesus, he ran up and got on his knees in front of him, and yelled “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, son of God, the highest? Please, by God, don’t hurt me!”, because Jesus had said “Get out of that man, sick spirit!”. Then Jesus asked “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Big-Group-of-Soldiers, This was the same kind of big group of soldiers that the Romans used to keep control over the Jews. because we are many.” He asked Jesus not to send them out of the country.
On the hill, there was a huge group of animals (a kind that the Jews wouldn’t touch) eating, and they asked Jesus to send them into those animals. He let them do it. The sick spirits entered the animals, and the whole group (twenty hundred of them) ran down the hill and into the little sea and died.
The people who kept the animals ran and told everyone in the area. Those people came to Jesus and saw the man who had been held by the many sick spirits, wearing clothes and with an okay mind, and they were afraid. They told other people what had happened with the man and the animals, and they asked Jesus to go away.
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who the sick spirits had controlled asked with all his heart for Jesus to be with him. But Jesus refused and said “Go to your own peoples’ house, and tell them everything the owner has done for you, and how he helped you when you were low.” He left and told people in the Ten Cities everything that Jesus had done for him, and everyone was surprised.
When Jesus had crossed back to the other side of the little sea, a large crowd was gathered around him beside the sea. One of the church leaders, named Jarius, came and fell in front of Jesus’s feet, and asked him over and over, saying “My daughter is about to die; if you come and put your hand on her, she will get better, and will live.” So he went with him.
A large crowd followed, pressing against Jesus. There was a woman whose blood had been coming out Blood, especially from a woman, was very much not clean, and she would not have been able to live a normal life being sick in this way. for ten and two years, and who had been put through much pain from doctors and spent all her money, but only got sicker. When she heard about Jesus, she pushed through the crowd and grabbed his clothing, Women were not supposed to touch men. thinking “If I can grab even his clothing, I will be get better.”. Immediately, the river of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was no longer sick. Immediately knowing that power had reached out of him, he turned around and said “Who grabbed my clothes?”. His students said “You see this crowd pressing against you? And you say ‘Who grabbed me?’!”. But Jesus looked around to find the person who did it. The woman was afraid and shaking, knowing what had happened to her, and fell in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said, “Daughter, your trust has made you well. Go without fear and don’t be sick anymore.”.
While Jesus was still talking, people came from the church leader’s home and said to him “You daughter died. Why are you still bothering the teacher?” But Jesus heard, and said to the church leader, “Don’t be afraid, just trust.” He didn’t let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and James’s brother John. They came to the church leader’s house, and he heard the noise and crying and asked “Why are you crying and so sad? The child did not die, but is sleeping.”. They laughed at him, but he put everyone outside, and took the child’s parents and the ones with him inside to the child. He grabbed her hand and said “Little girl, get up!” in Aramaic. She immediately got up and walked around (she was about ten and two years old). They were very surprised. Jesus ordered them to let nobody know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Jesus left, and went to the town he was from, with his students following him. Since it was the resting day, he started to teach in the church. Many people were listening to him and were surprised, saying “Where did this one learn these things? What is it that he knows so that he can do acts of power? Isn’t this the wood worker, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? These are probably different people from Jesus’s students with the same names. Aren’t his sisters here with us?” This is all to say that they knew Jesus’s standing in life because they knew where he came from. Men who worked with things like wood often had to go from place to place to find work, so they could not stay home with their women; this made them especially low-standing. Their sense of standing was hurt by him. Jesus said to them “Speakers of God’s truth have standing except in the town they are from, and among their family, and in their own house.” He couldn’t do any acts of power there, except that he put his hands on a few sick people and made them better. He was surprised at how they didn’t have trust.
Jesus went around the villages teaching, and came back to where he started. He called the ten and two and he sent them out in pairs, giving them power over the sick spirits. He said that they should take nothing but a walking stick, shoes, and a single shirt (not two!); no food, nor a bag, nor money. He said “When you enter a house, live there until you leave the village. If a village doesn’t want you to stay or listen to you, leave and shake the dust off your shoes as a mark against them. Going out, they taught that people should change their ways, they threw out many bad spirits, and they put rich wet food on the heads of sick people, This was something people often did to sick people in those days. making them better.
Herod the country-owner heard about this, because Jesus was becoming well-known. Some people said John, who washed people, had been raised from the dead, and that was why he was acting with power. Other people said that he was Elijah. The Jews think of Elijah as the greatest of the speakers of God’s truth. He had lived almost ten hundred years before. Other people said he was a speaker of God’s truth, like the ones from the old stories. But Herod said “John, whose head I cut off, has been raised.”. See, Herod himself had sent people to take hold of John and tie him up and keep him, because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had been telling Herod, “You are not allowed to have your brother’s wife.”. Herodias was angry at him and wanted to kill him, but could not, since Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a special man who was close to God. He was thrown back by the things that John said, but he liked to listen to him. But then one day, Herod was partying because of the day he was born, and he held a dinner for the higher-ups and the great soldiers and the important people of Galilee. Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, which made Herod and the people at the party happy, so he said, “Ask me for anything, and I will give you it.”. He promised her “I will give you whatever you ask, even half of the country I own.”. She went out and asked her mother, “What should I ask for?”. She replied, “The head of John, who washed people.”. Immediately, she came back and said, “I want, on a plate, the head of John who washed people, right now.”. The country-owner became very sad because of the promise, and because of the people eating with him — he did not want to refuse her. He immediately sent a killer, and told him to bring John’s head. He went and cut off his head, brought it in on a plate, and gave it to the girl, who gave it to her mother. When they heard about it, John’s students came and took his body and put it where dead bodies go.
The ones Jesus had sent out gathered back around him, and told him everything they had done or said. He told them, “Come to a wild place alone and rest a little.”. This was because many people were coming and going, and they didn’t even have a chance to eat. They went by themselves to the wild place. Now lots of people saw them leaving, and knowing where they were going, ran ahead and arrived before them. When Jesus got back on land, he saw a huge crowd, and felt for them, because they were like a group of simple animals without a field-worker to take care of them, and he taught them a lot. It was getting late, and his students came up to him and said “This is in the middle of no place, and it’s getting late! Send them away to the food-growing places and the villages so they can buy some food.” But Jesus said “Give them something to eat yourself!”, and they said “Are we going to go off and spend two hundred pieces of silver A piece of silver was what a worker got for one day’s work. on food and give it to them?”. Jesus said “How many pieces of dry grass food do we have? Go check!”. They went and found out, and said “Five, and two fish.”. Jesus told them to have everyone lie down in groups on the green grass. They lay down In that place and in those days, people would eat lying down. in groups of around a hundred. Taking the five pieces of dry food and two fish, he looked up to the sky and said that the food would be good, and broke the pieces and gave them to the students to put in front of the people, and he handed out the two fish to all of them. Everyone ate and had more than enough, and they picked up ten and two full boxes of food bits and fish. There were about five tens of hundreds of men who ate.
Immediately, Jesus made his students get into a boat and go ahead to Bethsaida, on the other side, while he sent the crowd away. After wishing them well as they went, he went to the mountain to talk to God. When it was getting late, the boat was in the middle of the little sea, and Jesus was alone on land. Seeing them rowing hard (since the wind was against them) early in the morning, Jesus came towards them, walking on the water, and he was about to walk past them. But seeing him walking on the water, the students thought he was a spirit without a body, and screamed. Everyone saw him and was afraid. Immediately, he said “Don’t be afraid; it’s me!”. He went up to them in the boat, and calmed the wind, and they were completely surprised, because they didn’t understand what happened with the pieces of dry grass food; their hearts could not see.
They crossed the water and landed at Gennesaret. When they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him, and ran around the area, bringing sick people on little beds to where ever they heard he was. Every time he entered a village or city or field, they laid the sick in the center area, asking to touch the edge of his clothes, and everyone who did was became well.
The Pharisees and some people who thought about the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around him. They saw that some of his students were eating with not-clean hands (they hadn’t washed them). See, the Pharisees and all the other Jews keep the way the old people did things and don’t eat without washing their hands carefully. When they come back from buying food, they don’t eat until they’ve washed themselves, and there are many other old ways that they keep, like washing cups and food holders. So the Pharisees and people who thought about the law asked him “Why don’t they follow the old ways? Why do they eat with not-clean hands?”. Jesus replied, “Isaiah was right when he said you’d act as if you were good:
They give lip service, but their heart is far away. They hold me high in an empty way, teaching human ways as if they were God’s.
You ignore God’s law and follow old human ways.”
He said, “You’re good at dropping God’s law to keep your old ways. Moses said ‘Care about your parents.’ and ‘The person who bad-mouths their parents has to die.’. But you say that someone can tell their parents “This is an offering to God,” and they’re not allowed to use it to help them. It empties God’s word for your old ways, and you do a lot of things like this!
Jesus brought the crowd back and said “Listen and understand, all of you: Nothing outside of a person can make them not clean. Things that come out of a person make them not clean.”
Later, when Jesus left the crowd and entered a house, his students asked him about the word picture. He said “Are you also not understanding? Don’t you get that whatever goes into a person goes to their stomach, not their heart, and goes out in the bathroom?” (He was saying that all foods are clean. Some foods were not allowed because they were considered not clean.) He said “The things that come out of a person make them not clean. It’s a person’s heart that bad thoughts come out of: sex for bad reasons, stealing, killing, sex with someone married to someone else, wanting more things, bad acts that make pain, lies to control people, hard hurting acts out in the open, wanting to break other people’s things, bad lies, looking down on others, and being short-sighted. All these bad pain-making things come out from inside and make a person not-clean.”
Jesus rose and went to the area around Tyre. When he entered a house, he wanted no one to know, but he could not hide. Right after hearing about him, a woman whose daughter had a sick spirit came and fell in front of Jesus’ feet. She was not a Jew; she was born Syrian, and she kept asking him to throw the spirit out of her daughter. He said “Let the children eat first; it’s not good to take their food and throw it to dogs.” But she said “Owner, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s dropped food bits.” He said “Because you said that, go; the spirit has gone out of your daughter.” She went home and found her daughter lying in bed, with the spirit gone.
Leaving Tyre, Jesus came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee through the Ten Cities. They brought him a man who could not hear and had trouble speaking, and asked him to put his hand on him. Jesus took him away from the crowd, and, alone, put his fingers in the man’s ears, and put out some mouth water onto the man’s tongue. Jesus looked up to the sky, made a loud sound, and said “Be opened!” in Aramaic. Immediately, his ears were opened and his tongue became not-stuck, and he began to speak like normal. Jesus told them not to tell anyone, but the more he did, the more they told the story. They were struck very much, saying “He does everything well; he makes people hear who couldn’t, and people talk who couldn’t!”
Again in those days, there was a big crowd who had no food. Jesus called his students to him and said, “I feel sorry for the crowd, because they have been following me for three days with nothing to eat. Some of them have come so far that if I send them away without food, they might fall over on the way back.” His students said “Where can anyone get food in this dry place?” He asked them, “How many pieces of dry grass food do you have?”, and they said “Seven.” He told the crowd to lie on the ground, and he took the pieces, thanked God for them, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his students to serve them. They served them to the crowd. They had a few small fish and Jesus gave them good words, and had his students serve them. Everyone ate and was full. They gathered the pieces that were left and they filled seven boxes. The crowd had about four tens of hundreds. Jesus sent them away. Immediately, he got into a boat and went to the place called Dalmanutha.
The Pharisees came out and had words with Jesus, asking him for a sign God to see what he would do. Jesus made a loud sound from his heart and said, “Why do the people these days look for a sign? This is the truth: there won’t be a sign for them.” He left them and went to the other side.
They forgot to bring the food; they had just a single piece with them in the boat. Jesus was teaching them, saying, “Watch out for the lifting stuff This is the kind of living thing that makes dry grass food full of air and big. During the Passover special days, the law says that you must not eat food with lifting stuff in it. of the Pharisees and Herod!” They figured that Jesus was saying that because they didn’t have the food. Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you think it is about not having food? Don’t you understand? Are your hearts hard? With your eyes, don’t you see? With your ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember? When I broke five pieces of food for five tens of hundreds of people, how many boxes of bits did you gather up?” They said, “Ten and two.” “When I broke seven pieces of food for four tens of hundreds, how many boxes of bits did you gather up?” They said, “Seven.” Jesus said “Don’t you understand?”
They came to Bethsaida and they brought him a man who couldn’t see and asked him to touch him. Jesus took his hand and took him out of the village and put mouth water on his eyes and put his hands on him. Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people like trees walking around.” Jesus put his hands on his eyes and and he opened them and could see everything clearly. Jesus sent him home saying, “You may not enter the village.”
Then Jesus and his students went out to the villages of Caesarea and Philippi. On the way, he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” They replied, “Some people say John Who Washed People, other people say Elijah, and others say one of the people who tells God’s truth.” He asked them “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Saver.” The books about God that the Jews read say that there would be a country-owner who would follow the law and make things better by bringing the Jews or the whole world together. This person is called the Saver. Jesus told them seriously not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus taught them that The Human would be hurt very much and that the law-deciders, the best God-workers and the law-writers would see him as bad, and that he would be killed and after three days get up again. He said this in the open. Peter took him to the side and told him he was wrong. Jesus turned and looked at his students and told Peter he was wrong, saying, “Get behind me, Satan; you’re not thinking of God’s things, but people’s things.”
Jesus called the crowd together with his students and said, “If anyone wants to follow me, let them refuse themselves, pick up their cross The cross was a way that Romans killed people., and follow me. Anyone who tries to save their life will lose it, and anyone who loses their life for me and the good news will save it. What good is it for someone to get the whole world, but lose their life? What can someone give to get their life back? Anyone who hopes not to be seen with me and my words by this trust-breaking and wrong-doing family these days; The Human will hope not to be seen with them when he shows up in the good light of his father, with the special message carriers.
He said to them, “This is the truth: some of you standing here will not touch death until they see God’s country come with power.”
After six days, Jesus brought Peter and James and John up a high mountain alone, and he completely changed in front of them and his clothes became very white and made light, more than anyone on earth could wash them. And they saw Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Moses was considered a great person for leading the Jews out of Egypt, where they had been owned and forced to work. Peter spoke to Jesus, “Teacher, it is good for us to be here. We should make three little houses, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (He didn’t know what to say because they were very afraid.) A cloud shadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud: “This is my son, I love him; listen to him!” They looked and only saw Jesus with them.
Coming down from the mountain, Jesus said they shouldn’t tell anyone what they’d seen until The Human was raised from the dead. They held that between themselves, asking what it meant to rise from the dead. Then they asked Jesus, “The law-writers say that Elijah has to come first.” Elijah was another great old Jewish person, and Jews expect Moses and Elijah to return before the world ends. Jesus said “Yes Elijah comes first, fixing everything, but how was it also written that The Human would be hurt in many ways and be seen as having no use? I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did what they wanted to him, like the words say.”
When they came back to the other students, they saw a big crowd around them and law-writers having words with them. Immediately after the crowd saw him, they were excited and ran to him to say hello. He asked them, “What are you having words about?” One person out of the crowd said, “Teacher, I brought my son, who has a not-talking spirit, to you. When it takes him, his mouth water gets full of air, he hits his teeth together, and he is getting thin. I asked your students to throw the spirit out and they didn’t have the power. Jesus said back, “The people these days that doesn’t believe! How long will I be with you? How long will I have to put up with you? Bring him to me.” They brought him to him. Seeing him, the spirit immediately threw him shaking and rolling on the ground with his mouth water full of air. Jesus asked “How long has he had this?”, and he replied, “Since he was a child; it throws him into the fire or water to kill him. If you have the power, please be kind and help us.” Jesus said “If you have power? The believer can do anything.” Immediately, the father shouted “I believe; help my not-belief!” Jesus, seeing that a crowd was gathering, put the sick spirit in its place, saying to it “Not-talking and not-hearing spirit, I order you to leave him and never return!” Shouting and shaking, it came out of him, and he fell like a body, so many people said he had died. Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he got up. When Jesus went into a house, his students got him alone and asked him, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?” Jesus said “This kind won’t come out by anything but asking God.”