NIV Heart of Gold Holy Bible NIV Heart of Gold Holy Bible - Sampler | Page 3

859  l   Mark 2:21
­ ealed many who had
the door, 34 and ­Jesus h
var­i o
­ us dis­eas­es. He also ­drove out many
de­mons, but he ­would not let the de­mons
speak be­cause they knew who he was.
Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place
35 Very ear­ly in the morn­ing, ­while it
was ­still dark, ­Jesus got up, left the ­house
and went off to a sol­i t ­ ary p
­ lace, ­where he
prayed. 36  Si­mon and his com­pan­ions went
to look for him, 37 and when they ­found
him, they ex­claimed: “Ev­ery­one is look­ing
for you!”
38 ­Jesus re­plied, “Let us go some­where
else — ​to the near­by vil­lag­es — ​so I can
preach ­
­
there also. That is why I have
come.” 39  So he trav­eled through­out Gal­i­lee,
preach­ing in ­their syn­a­gogues and driv­ing
out de­mons.
Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy
phem­ing! Who can for­give sins but God
alone?”
8   Im­me­di­ate­ly ­Jesus knew in his spir­it
that this was what they were think­ing in
their h
­ earts, and he said to them, “Why
are you think­ing ­these ­things? 9 Which is
eas­i e
­ r: to say to this par­a l ­ yzed man, ‘Your
sins are for­giv­en,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take
your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to
know that the Son of Man has au­thor­i­ty
on ­earth to for­give sins.” So he said to the
man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and
go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and
walked out in full view of them all. This
amazed ev­ery­one and they p
­ raised God,
say­ing, “We have nev­er seen any­thing like
this!”
J ­ esus Calls Levi and Eats
With Sinners
40  A man with lep­ro­sy  a came to him and
­ nees, “If you are will­
begged him on his k
ing, you can make me clean.”
41 ­Jesus was in­dig­nant.  b He r ­ eached out
his hand and ­touched the man. “I am will­
ing,” he said. “Be ­clean!” 42  Im­me­di­ate­ly the
lep­ro­sy left him and he was cleansed.
43 ­Jesus sent him away at once with a
­strong warn­ing: 44 “See that you ­don’t tell
this to any­one. But go, show your­self to the
­priest and of­fer the sac­ri­fic­es that Mo­ses
com­mand­ed for your cleans­ing, as a tes­ti­
mo­ny to them.” 45 In­stead he went out and
be­gan to talk free­ly, spread­ing the news. As
a re­sult, ­Jesus c ­ ould no lon­ger en­ter a town
open­ly but ­stayed out­side in lone­ly plac­es.
Yet the peo­ple ­still came to him from ev­
ery­where. 13 Once ­again ­Jesus went out be­side the
lake. A ­large ­crowd came to him, and he be­
gan to t ­ each them. 14 As he ­walked ­along, he
saw Levi son of Al­phae­us sit­ting at the tax
col­lec­tor’s ­booth. “Fol­low me,” ­Jesus told
him, and Levi got up and fol­lowed him.
15 While ­Jesus was hav­ing din­ner at Le­
vi’s ­house, many tax col­lec­tors and sin­ners
were eat­ing with him and his dis­ci­ples,
for ­there were many who fol­lowed him.
16 When the teach­ers of the law who were
Phar­i s ­ ees saw him eat­ing with the sin­ners
and tax col­lec­tors, they ­asked his dis­ci­ples:
“Why does he eat with tax col­lec­tors and
sin­ners?”
17 On hear­ing this, ­Jesus said to them, “It
is not the h
­ ealthy who need a doc­tor, but
the sick. I have not come to call the righ­
teous, but sin­ners.”
J ­ esus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed
Man Jesus Questioned About Fasting
2
A few days lat­er, when ­Jesus ­again en­
tered Ca­per­na­um, the peo­ple ­heard
that he had come home. 2   They gath­ered
in such ­large num­bers that ­there was no
room left, not even out­side the door, and
he ­preached the word to them. 3 Some men
came, bring­ing to him a par­a­lyzed man,
car­ried by four of them. 4 Since they ­could
not get him to ­Jesus be­cause of the c ­ rowd,
they made an open­ing in the roof ­above
Jesus by dig­ging t ­ hrough it and then low­
ered the mat the man was ly­ing on. 5 When
Jesus saw t ­ heir f ­ aith, he said to the par­a­
lyzed man, “Son, your sins are for­giv­en.”
6 Now some teach­ers of the law were sit­
ting ­there, think­ing to them­selves, 7 “Why
does this fel­low talk like that? He’s blas­
18  Now ­John’s dis­ci­ples and the Phar­i­sees
were fast­ing. Some peo­ple came and a
­ sked
Jesus, “How is it that ­John’s dis­ci­ples and
the dis­ci­ples of the Phar­i­sees are fast­ing,
but ­yours are not?”
19 ­Jesus an­swered, “How can the ­guests
of the bride­groom fast ­while he is with
them? They can­not, so long as they have
him with them. 20 But the time will come
when the bride­groom will be tak­en from
them, and on that day they will fast.
21 “No one sews a p
­ atch of un­shrunk
cloth on an old gar­ment. Other­wise, the
a  40  The Greek word traditionally translated
leprosy was used for various diseases affecting
the skin.    b  41  Many manuscripts ­Jesus was
filled with compassion