1098 Mark 3 – 4
Zeb e dee and his broth er John ( to them he gave the name Bo a ner ges , which means “ sons of thun der ”), 18 An drew , Phil ip , Barthol o mew , Mat thew , Thom as , James son of Al phae us , Thad dae us , Si mon the Zeal ot
19 and Ju das Is car i ot , who be trayed him .
Jesus Accused by His Family and by Teachers of the Law
20 Then Jesus en tered a house , and again
a crowd gath ered , so that he and his dis ciples were not even able to eat . 21 When his fam i ly a heard about this , they went to take charge of him , for they said , “ He is out of his mind .”
22 And the teach ers of the law who came
down from Je ru sa lem said , “ He is possessed by Be el ze bul ! By the prince of demons he is driv ing out de mons .”
23 So Jesus called them over to him and
be gan to speak to them in par a bles : “ How can Sa tan drive out Sa tan ? 24 If a king dom is di vid ed against it self , that king dom cannot stand . 25 If a house is di vid ed against it self , that house can not stand . 26 And if Sa tan op pos es him self and is di vid ed , he can not stand ; his end has come . 27 In fact , no one can en ter a strong man ’ s house without first ty ing him up . Then he can plunder the strong man ’ s house . 28 Tru ly I tell you , peo ple can be for giv en all their sins and every slan der they ut ter , 29 but who ever blas phemes against the Holy Spir it will nev er be for giv en ; they are guilty of an eter nal sin .”
30 He said this be cause they were say ing ,
“ He has an im pure spir it .”
31 Then Jesus ’ moth er and broth ers arrived . Stand ing out side , they sent some one in to call him . 32 A crowd was sit ting around him , and they told him , “ Your moth er and broth ers are out side look ing for you .”
33 “ Who are my moth er and my brothers ?” he asked .
34 Then he looked at those seat ed in a
cir cle around him and said , “ Here are my moth er and my broth ers ! 35 Who ev er does God ’ s will is my broth er and sis ter and moth er .”
The Parable of the Sower
4
Again Jesus be gan to teach by the lake .
The crowd that gath ered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake , while all the peo ple were along the shore at the wa ter ’ s edge .
2 He taught them many things by par a bles ,
and in his teach ing said : 3 “ Lis ten ! A farm er went out to sow his seed . 4 As he was scatter ing the seed , some fell along the path , and the birds came and ate it up . 5 Some fell on rocky plac es , where it did not have much soil . It sprang up quick ly , be cause the soil was shal low . 6 But when the sun came up , the plants were scorched , and they with-
a 21 Or his associates
Sowing Seeds
Farmers in the first century didn ’ t use machines to plant , or sow , their fields with seed . They took handfuls of seed and , with a sweeping motion , threw it on the ground they had plowed . A skillful sower could spread grain seeds very evenly .