Mark 3 — 4
1212
12 disc iples. Simon was one of them.
Jesus gave him the name Peter. 17 T here
were J ames, son of Zebe dee, and his
brother John. J esus gave them the name
Boa nerges. Boa nerges means Sons of
Thunder. 18 T here were also And rew,
Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas,
and James, son of Alphaeus. And t here
were Thaddaeus and Simon the Zealot.
19 Judas Isc ariot was one of them too. He
was the one who was later going to hand
Jesus over to his enemies.
Jesus Is Accused by Teachers
of the Law
20
Jesus entered a h
ouse. A
gain a
c rowd gathe red. It was so large that
Jesus and his disc iples were not even
able to eat. 21 His fam il y heard about
this. So they went to take c harge of him.
They said, “He is out of his mind.”
22 Some teach
e rs of the law were
t here. They had come down from Jer u
salem. They said, “He is cont rolled by
Beelzebul! He is driving out demons by
the power of the p
rince of demons.”
23 So J
esus c alled them over to him.
He began to speak to them using stor ies.
He said, “How can Sat an d
rive out Sat an?
24 If a king
dom fights a gainst its elf,
it c an’t stand. 25 If a fam ily is div ided,
it c an’t s tand. 26 And if Satan f ights
a gainst hims elf, and his helpe rs are
div ided, he c an’t s tand. That is the end
of him. 27 In fact, none of you can enter
a strong m
an’s house unless you tie him
up f irst. Then you can steal things from
his house. 28 What I’m about to tell you
is true. Everyone’s sins and evil words
a gainst God will be forgiven. 29 But who
ever s peaks evil things a gainst the Holy
Spirit will never be forg iven. T heir g uilt
will last forever.”
30 Jesus said this because the teachers
of the law were sayi ng, “He has an evil
spirit.”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
31 Jesus’ mothe r and brothe rs came
and s tood outside. They sent someone in
to get him. 32 A crowd was sitt ing around
Jesus. They told him, “Your mother and
your brothers are outside. They are look
ing for you.”
33 “Who is my mother? Who are my
brothers?” he asked.
34 Then J
esus l ooked at the people
sitt ing in a circle a round him. He said,
“Here is my mother! Here are my broth
ers! 35 Anyone who does what God wants
is my brother or sister or mother.”
The Story of the Farmer
4
A gain Jesus began to teach by the
Sea of Galilee. The crowd that gath
ered a round him was very large. So he
got into a boat. He sat down in it out on
the lake. All the people were a long the
shore at the wat er’s edge. 2 He t aught
them many t hings usi ng stor ies. In his
teaching he said, 3 “List en! A farme r
went out to p
lant his seed. 4 He scattered
the seed on the g
round. Some fell on a
path. B
irds came and ate it up. 5 Some
seed fell on rocky places, where t here
w asn’t much soil. The plants came up
quickly, bec ause the soil w
asn’t deep.
6 When the sun came up, it b
urned the
Planting Seeds
Farmers in Jesus’ time didn’t
use machines to plant, or
sow, their fields with seed.
They took handfuls of seeds
and threw them on the
ground they had plowed. A
skillful farmer could spread
grain seeds very evenly.