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Mark
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1
The be­gin­ning of the good news a
­ bout
Jesus the Mes­si­ah,  a the Son of God,  b 2 as
it is writ­ten in Isa­iah the proph­et:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”  c  — ​
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ ”  d
4 And so John the Bap­tist ap­peared in the
wil­der­ness, preach­ing a bap­tism of re­
pen­tance for the for­give­ness of sins. 5 The
whole Ju­de­an coun­try­side and all the peo­
ple of Je­ru­sa­lem went out to him. Con­fess­
ing ­their sins, they were bap­tized by him
in the Jor­dan Riv­er. 6   John wore cloth­ing
made of cam­el’s hair, with a leath­er belt
around his ­waist, and he ate lo­custs and
wild hon­ey. 7 And this was his mes­sage: “Af­
ter me ­comes the one more pow­er­ful than
I, the s ­ traps of ­whose san­dals I am not wor­
thy to ­stoop down and un­tie. 8  I bap­tize you
with  e wa­ter, but he will bap­tize you with  e
the Holy Spir­it.”
The Baptism and Testing of ­Jesus
9 At that time ­Jesus came from Naz­a­reth
in Gal­i­lee and was bap­tized by John in the
Jor­dan. 10 Just as ­Jesus was com­ing up out
of the wa­ter, he saw heav­en be­ing torn
open and the Spir­it de­scend­ing on him like
a dove. 11 And a ­voice came from heav­en:
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I
am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spir­it sent him out into
the wil­der­ness, 13 and he was in the wil­der­
ness for­ty days, be­ing tempt­ed  f by Sa­tan.
He was with the wild an­i m
­ als, and an­gels
at­tend­ed him.
Jesus Announces the Good News
14   Af­ter John was put in pris­on, ­Jesus
went into Gal­i­lee, pro­claim­ing the good
news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he
said. “The king­dom of God has come near.
Re­pent and be­lieve the good news!”
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
16 As ­Jesus ­walked be­side the Sea of Gal­i­
lee, he saw Si­mon and his broth­er An­drew
cast­ing a net into the lake, for they were
fish­er­men. 17 “Come, fol­low me,” ­Jesus said,
“and I will send you out to fish for peo­ple.”
18 At once they left ­their nets and fol­lowed
him.
19 When he had gone a lit­tle far­ther, he
saw ­James son of Zeb­e­dee and his broth­
er John in a boat, pre­par­ing t ­ heir nets.
20 With­out de­lay he c ­ alled them, and they
left ­their fa­ther Zeb­e­dee in the boat with
the ­hired men and fol­lowed him.
Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
21   They went to Ca­per­na­um, and when
the Sab­bath came, ­Jesus went into the
syn­a­gogue and be­gan to ­teach. 22 The peo­
ple were a
­ mazed at his teach­ing, be­cause
he ­taught them as one who had au­thor­i­ty,
not as the teach­ers of the law. 23 Just then a
man in t ­ heir syn­a­gogue who was pos­sessed
by an im­pure spir­it ­cried out, 24 “What do
you want with us, ­Jesus of Naz­a­reth? Have
you come to de­stroy us? I know who you
are — ​the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be qui­et!” said ­Jesus stern­ly. “Come
out of him!” 26 The im­pure spir­it s ­ hook the
man vi­o l ­ ent­ly and came out of him with
a shriek.
27 The peo­ple were all so ­amazed that
they ­asked each oth­er, “What is this? A
new teach­ing  — ​and with au­thor­i­ty! He
even g
­ ives or­ders to im­pure spir­its and
they obey him.” 28 News a
­ bout him s ­ pread
quick­ly over the ­whole re­gion of Gal­i­lee.
Jesus Heals Many
29 As soon as they left the syn­a­gogue,
they went with J
­ ames and John to the
home of Si­mon and An­drew. 30   Si­mon’s
moth­er-in-law was in bed with a fe­ver, and
they im­me­di­ate­ly told ­Jesus ­about her. 31 So
he went to her, took her hand and ­helped
her up. The fe­ver left her and she be­gan to
wait on them.
32 That eve­ning af­ter sun­set the peo­ple
brought to ­Jesus all the sick and de­mon-
pos­sessed. 33 The ­whole town gath­ered at
a  1 Or ­Jesus Christ. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ
(Greek) both mean Anointed One.    b  1 Some
manuscripts do not have the Son of God.   
c  2 Mal. 3:1    d  3 Isaiah 40:3    e  8 Or in   
f  13  The Greek for tempted can also mean tested.