Mark 3 – 4 1143 should stand ready for Him because of the crowd , so that they would not crowd Him ;
10 for He had healed many , with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him .
11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him , they would fall down before Him and shout , “ You are the Son of God !”
12 And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was .
The Twelve Are Chosen
13 And He * went up on the mountain and * summoned those whom He Himself wanted , and they came to Him .
14 And He appointed twelve , so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach ,
15 and to have authority to cast out the demons .
16 And He appointed the twelve : Simon ( to whom He gave the name Peter ),
17 and James , the son of Zebedee , and John the brother of James ( to them He gave the name Boanerges , which means , “ Sons of Thunder ”);
18 and Andrew , and Philip , and Bartholomew , and Matthew , and Thomas , and James the son of Alphaeus , and Thaddaeus , and Simon the Zealot ;
19 and Judas Iscariot , who betrayed Him .
20 And He * came a home , and the crowd * gathered again , to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal .
21 When His own b people heard of this , they went out to take custody of Him ; for they were saying , “ He has lost His senses .”
22 The 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 .”
23 And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables , “ How can Satan cast out Satan ?
24 “ If a kingdom is divided against itself , that kingdom cannot stand .
25 “ If a house is divided against itself , that house will not be able to stand .
26 “ If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided , he cannot stand , but he is finished !
27 “ But no one can enter the strong man ’ s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man , and then he will plunder his house . forgiven the sons of men , and whatever blasphemies they utter ;
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness , but is guilty of an eternal sin ”—
30 because they were saying , “ He has an unclean spirit .”
31 Then His mother and His brothers * arrived , and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him .
32 A crowd was sitting around Him , and they * said to Him , “ Behold , Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You .”
33 Answering them , He * said , “ Who are My mother and My brothers ?”
34 Looking about at those who were sitting around Him , He * said , “ Behold My mother and My brothers !
35 “ For whoever does the will of God , he is My brother and sister and mother .”
Parable of the Sower and Soils
4
He began to teach again by the sea .
And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down ; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land .
2 And He was teaching them many things in parables , and was saying to them in His teaching ,
3 “ Listen to this ! Behold , the sower went out to sow ;
4 as he was sowing , some seed fell beside the road , and the birds came and ate it up .
5 “ Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil ; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil .
6 “ And after the sun had risen , it was scorched ; and because it had no root , it withered away .
7 “ Other seed fell among the thorns , and the thorns came up and choked it , and it yielded no crop .
8 “ Other seeds fell into the good soil , and as they grew up and increased , they yielded a crop and produced thirty , sixty , and a hundredfold .”
9 And He was saying , “ He who has ears to hear , let him hear .”
10 As soon as He was alone , His followers , along with the twelve , began asking Him about the parables .
11 And He was saying to them , “ To you
28 “ Truly I say to you , all sins shall be a Lit into a house b Or kinsmen