Mark 3

₁Jesus went into the synagogue again. There was a man with a crippled hand. ₂The people looked at Jesus to see if He would heal the man on the Sabbath day. ₃Jesus said to the man with the crippled hand: ‘Come and stand here where all the people can see you.’ ₄Jesus asked the people: ‘What is the right thing that a person must do on the Sabbath day? Must he do good or bad things? Is it right to save the life of a person or must you kill a person?’ But the people did not say a word. ₅Jesus looked at the people around Him. He was angry but He also felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn. Then Jesus said to the man: ‘Put out your hand.’ The man put out his hand and his hand was healed. ₆The Pharisees went out and they immediately went to the Herodians and made plans to kill Jesus.

₇Jesus and his disciples went back to Lake Galilee and a big crowd of people came to Him. They were from the province of Galilee. There were also many people from the province of Judea ₈and from the city of Jerusalem. Some people came from the land of Idumea and also from places on the other side of the Jordan River. There were also people of the towns of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came because someone had told them of the things that Jesus did. ₉When Jesus saw how many people there were, He told his disciples to get a small boat. He wanted to get into the boat so that the people would not push against Him. ₁₀Jesus did this because He had healed many people and all the people who were sick wanted to come to Jesus and touch Him. ₁₁There were also people who had evil_spirits in them. Every time they saw Jesus, these people fell down on the ground and shouted: ‘You are the Son of God,’ ₁₂but Jesus told them not to say who He was.

₁₃Jesus went up a hill and He called the men that He wanted to come with Him. They came to Him and ₁₄He chose 12 men to be his apostles, so that they could be with Him. Jesus also wanted to send them to go out and preach. ₁₅He gave them the power to chase_demons out of people. ₁₆Jesus chose 12 apostles. He gave Simon a new name. He said his name would be Peter. ₁₇James and John were the sons of Zebedee. Jesus named them Boanerges. This means: ‘Sons of the thunder’. ₁₈The other apostles were: Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the patriot ₁₉and Judas Iscariot who later betrayed Jesus.

₂₀Then Jesus went home. Again there was a big crowd of people who came to Him, so big that Jesus and his disciples did not have time to eat. ₂₁When they told the family of Jesus about it, they went to Him to take Him away because some people said: ‘Jesus is mad.’

₂₂The teachers_of_the_Laws from Jerusalem said: ‘Beelzebul, the leader of the demons, is in Him. Beelzebul helps Jesus to chase_out_the_demons.’ ₂₃Jesus called the people to come to Him and He told them a parable. He said:

₃₀Jesus said this because they said that He had an evil_spirit in Him.

₃₁Jesus' mother and his brothers came to Him. They stood outside and they sent a message to Him and said He must go to them. ₃₂There were many people around Jesus. They said to Him: ‘Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside and they are looking for You.’

₃₃But Jesus asked them: ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ ₃₄Then He looked at the people sitting around Him and said: ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. ₃₅Any person who does what God wants is my brother or my sister or my mother.’