Jesus Heals a Man on the Sabbath

1And He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there with a withered hand. 2And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3And He said to the man with the withered hand, “[†]Get up and come forward!” 4And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel together with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

7And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and from Judea, 8and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. 9And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; 10for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. 11And whenever the unclean spirits were seeing Him, they would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, “You are the Son of God!” 12And He earnestly warned them not to [†]tell who He was.

Jesus Appoints the Twelve

13And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. 14And He appointed twelve [†](whom He also named apostles) to be with Him and to send them out to preach, 15and to have authority to cast out the demons. 16And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), 17and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); 18and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the [†]Zealot; 19and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

20And He came [†]home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat [†]a meal. 21And when His own [†]people heard this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” 22And 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.” 23And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but [†]he is finished! 27But 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.

28“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him, calling Him. 32And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” 33And answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” 34And looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 35For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”