1 The beginning of the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God:

² It is written in the prophet Yesha‘yahu,

⁴ So it was that Yochanan the Immerser appeared in the desert, proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven. ⁵ People went out to him from all over Y’hudah, as did all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. Confessing their sins, they were immersed by him in the Yarden River. ⁶ Yochanan wore clothes of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ He proclaimed: “After me is coming someone who is more powerful than I — I’m not worthy even to bend down and untie his sandals. ⁸ I have immersed you in water, but he will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh.”

⁹ Shortly thereafter, Yeshua came from Natzeret in the Galil and was immersed in the Yarden by Yochanan. ¹⁰ Immediately upon coming up out of the water, he saw heaven torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; ¹¹ then a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; I am well pleased with you.”

¹² Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by the Adversary. He was with the wild animals, and the angels took care of him.

¹⁴ After Yochanan had been arrested, Yeshua came into the Galil proclaiming the Good News from God:

¹⁶ As he walked beside Lake Kinneret, he saw Shim‘on and Andrew, Shim‘on’s brother, casting a net into the lake; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ Yeshua said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers for men!” ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹ Going on a little farther, he saw Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan, his brother, in their boat, repairing their nets. ²⁰ Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zavdai in the boat with the hired men and went after Yeshua.

²¹ They entered K’far-Nachum, and on Shabbat Yeshua went into the synagogue and began teaching. ²² They were amazed at the way he taught, for he did not instruct them like the Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.

²³ In their synagogue just then was a man with an unclean spirit in him, who shouted, ²⁴ “What do you want with us, Yeshua from Natzeret? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” ²⁵ But Yeshua rebuked the unclean spirit, “Be quiet and come out of him!” ²⁶ Throwing the man into a convulsion, it gave a loud shriek and came out of him. ²⁷ They were all so astounded that they began asking each other, “What is this? A new teaching, one with authority behind it! He gives orders even to the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” ²⁸ And the news about him spread quickly through the whole region of the Galil.

²⁹ They left the synagogue and went with Ya‘akov and Yochanan to the home of Shim‘on and Andrew. ³⁰ Shim‘on’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and they told Yeshua about her. ³¹ He came, took her by the hand and lifted her onto her feet. The fever left her, and she began helping them.

³² That evening after sundown, they brought to Yeshua all who were ill or held in the power of demons, ³³ and the whole town came crowding around the door. ³⁴ He healed many who were ill with various diseases and expelled many demons, but he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.

³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Yeshua got up, left, went away to a lonely spot and stayed there praying. ³⁶ But Shim‘on and those with him went after him; ³⁷ and when they found him, they said, “Everybody is looking for you.” ³⁸ He answered, “Let’s go somewhere else — to the other villages around here. I have to proclaim the message there too — in fact this is why I came out.” ³⁹ So he traveled all through the Galil, preaching in their synagogues and expelling demons.

⁴⁰ A man afflicted with tzara‘at came to Yeshua and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” ⁴¹ Moved with pity, Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said to him, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” ⁴² Instantly the tzara‘at left him, and he was cleansed. ⁴³ Yeshua sent him away with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “See to it that you tell no one; instead, as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer for your cleansing what Moshe commanded.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began spreading the news, talking freely about it; so that Yeshua could no longer enter a town openly but stayed out in the country, where people continued coming to him from all around.

2 After a while, Yeshua returned to K’far-Nachum. The word spread that he was back, ² and so many people gathered around the house that there was no longer any room, not even in front of the door. While he was preaching the message to them, ³ four men came to him carrying a paralyzed man. ⁴ They could not get near Yeshua because of the crowd, so they stripped the roof over the place where he was, made an opening, and lowered the stretcher with the paralytic lying on it. ⁵ Seeing their trust, Yeshua said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Some Torah-teachers sitting there thought to themselves, ⁷ “How can this fellow say such a thing? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God?” ⁸ But immediately Yeshua, perceiving in his spirit what they were thinking, said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man? ‘Your sins are forgiven’? or ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk’? ¹⁰ But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you: get up, pick up your stretcher and go home!” ¹² In front of everyone the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and left. They were all utterly amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³ Yeshua went out again by the lake. All the crowd came to him, and he began teaching them. ¹⁴ As he passed on from there, he saw Levi Ben-Halfai sitting in his tax-collection booth and said to him, “Follow me!” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵ As Yeshua was in Levi’s house eating, many tax-collectors and sinners were sitting with Yeshua and his talmidim, for there were many of them among his followers. ¹⁶ When the Torah-teachers and the P’rushim saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his talmidim, “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ But, hearing the question, Yeshua answered them, “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. I didn’t come to call the ‘righteous’ but sinners!”

¹⁸ Also Yochanan’s talmidim and the P’rushim were fasting; and they came and asked Yeshua, “Why is it that Yochanan’s talmidim and the talmidim of the P’rushim fast, but your talmidim don’t fast?” ¹⁹ Yeshua answered them, “Can wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, fasting is out of the question. ²⁰ But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; and when that day comes, they will fast. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old coat; if he does, the new patch tears away from the old cloth and leaves a worse hole. ²² And no one puts new wine in old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is for freshly prepared wineskins.”

²³ One Shabbat Yeshua was passing through some wheat fields; and as they went along, his talmidim began picking heads of grain. ²⁴ The P’rushim said to him, “Look! Why are they violating Shabbat?” ²⁵ He said to them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and those with him were hungry and needed food? ²⁶ He entered the House of God when Evyatar was cohen gadol and ate the Bread of the Presence,” — which is forbidden for anyone to eat but the cohanim — “and even gave some to his companions.” ²⁷ Then he said to them, “Shabbat was made for mankind, not mankind for Shabbat; ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord even of Shabbat.”

3 Yeshua went again into a synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. ² Looking for a reason to accuse him of something, people watched him carefully to see if he would heal him on Shabbat. ³ He said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Come up where we can see you!” ⁴ Then to them he said, “What is permitted on Shabbat? Doing good or doing evil? Saving life or killing?” But they said nothing. ⁵ Then, looking them over and feeling both anger with them and sympathy for them at the stoniness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” As he held it out, it became restored. ⁶ The P’rushim went out and immediately began plotting with some members of Herod’s party how to do away with him.

⁷ Yeshua went off with his talmidim to the lake, and great numbers followed him from the Galil. ⁸ When they heard what he was doing, great numbers also followed him from Y’hudah, Yerushalayim, Idumea, the territory beyond the Yarden, and the Tzor-Tzidon area. ⁹ He told his talmidim to have a boat ready for him, so that he could escape the crush of the crowd if necessary, ¹⁰ for he had healed many people, and all the sick kept pressing forward to touch him. ¹¹ Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and scream, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But he warned them strictly not to make him known.

¹³ Then he went up into the hill country and summoned to himself those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve to be with him, to be sent out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to expel demons:

¹⁶ Shim‘on, to whom he gave another name, “Kefa”;

¹⁷ Ya‘akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan, Ya‘akov’s brother — to them he gave the name “B’nei-Regesh” (that is, “Thunderers”);

¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bar-Talmai, Mattityahu, T’oma, Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai, Taddai, Shim‘on the Zealot,

¹⁹ and Y’hudah from K’riot, the one who betrayed him.

Then he entered a house; ²⁰ and once more, such a crowd came together that they couldn’t even eat. ²¹ When his family heard about this, they set out to take charge of him; for they said, “He’s out of his mind!”

²² The Torah-teachers who came down from Yerushalayim said, “He has Ba‘al-Zibbul in him,” and “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.” ²³ But he called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan expel Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can’t survive; ²⁵ and if a household is divided against itself, that household can’t survive. ²⁶ So if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he can’t survive either; and that’s the end of him. ²⁷ Furthermore, no one can break into a strong man’s house and make off with his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. After that, he can ransack his house. ²⁸ Yes! I tell you that people will be forgiven all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹ however, someone who blasphemes against the Ruach HaKodesh never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰ For they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit in him.”

³¹ Then his mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent a message asking for him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” ³³ He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ Looking at those seated in a circle around him, he said, “See! Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does what God wants is my brother, sister and mother!”

4 Again Yeshua began to teach by the lake, but the crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the crowd remained on shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things in parables. In the course of his teaching, he said to them: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; ⁶ but when the sun rose, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked it; so that it yielded no grain. ⁸ But other seed fell into rich soil and produced grain; it sprouted, and grew, and yielded a crop — thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown.” ⁹ And he concluded, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”

¹⁰ When Yeshua was alone, the people around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He answered them, “To you the secret of the Kingdom of God has been given; but to those outside, everything is in parables, ¹² so that

¹³ Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you be able to understand any parable? ¹⁴ The sower sows the message. ¹⁵ Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them. ¹⁶ Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; ¹⁷ but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸ Others are those sown among thorns — they hear the message; ¹⁹ but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing. ²⁰ But those sown on rich soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit — thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.”

²¹ He said to them, “A lamp isn’t brought in to be put under a bowl or under the bed, is it? Wouldn’t you put it on a lampstand? ²² Indeed, nothing is hidden, except to be disclosed; and nothing is covered up, except to come out into the open. ²³ Those who have ears to hear with, let them hear!”

²⁴ He also said to them, “Pay attention to what you are hearing! The measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you — and more besides! ²⁵ For anyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away.”

²⁶ And he said, “The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Nights he sleeps, days he’s awake; and meanwhile the seeds sprout and grow — how, he doesn’t know. ²⁸ By itself the soil produces a crop — first the stalk, then the head, and finally the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But as soon as the crop is ready, the man comes with his sickle, because it’s harvest-time.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God? What illustration should we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when planted, is the smallest of all the seeds in the field; ³² but after it has been planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the plants, with such big branches that the birds flying about can build nests in its shade.”

³³ With many parables like these he spoke the message to them, to the extent that they were capable of hearing it. ³⁴ He did not say a thing to them without using a parable; when he was alone with his own talmidim he explained everything to them.

³⁵ That day, when evening had come, Yeshua said to them, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ So, leaving the crowd behind, they took him just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious windstorm arose, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was close to being swamped. ³⁸ But he was in the stern on a cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, “Rabbi, doesn’t it matter to you that we’re about to be killed?” ³⁹ He awoke, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind subsided, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no trust even now?” ⁴¹ But they were terrified and asked each other, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

5 Yeshua and his talmidim arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gerasenes’ territory. ² As soon as he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the burial caves to meet him. ³ He lived in the burial caves; and no one could keep him tied up, not even with a chain. ⁴ He had often been chained hand and foot, but he would snap the chains and break the irons off his feet, and no one was strong enough to control him. ⁵ Night and day he wandered among the graves and through the hills, howling and gashing himself with stones.

⁶ Seeing Yeshua from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him ⁷ and screamed at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Yeshua, Son of God Ha‘Elyon? I implore you in God’s name! Don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Yeshua had already begun saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of this man!” ⁹ Yeshua asked him, “What’s your name?” “My name is Legion,” he answered, “there are so many of us”; ¹⁰ and he kept begging Yeshua not to send them out of that region.

¹¹ Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding near the hill, ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs, so we can go into them.” ¹³ Yeshua gave them permission. They came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering around two thousand, rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned. ¹⁴ The swineherds fled and told it in the town and in the surrounding country, and the people went to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Yeshua and saw the man who had had the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told what had happened to the man controlled by demons and to the pigs; ¹⁷ and the people began begging Yeshua to leave their district.

¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized begged him to be allowed to go with him. ¹⁹ But Yeshua would not permit it. Instead, he said to him, “Go home to your people, and tell them how much Adonai in his mercy has done for you.” ²⁰ He went off and began proclaiming in the Ten Towns how much Yeshua had done for him, and everyone was amazed.

²¹ Yeshua crossed in the boat to the other side of the lake, and a great crowd gathered around him. ²² There came to him a synagogue official, Ya’ir by name, who fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded desperately with him, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please! Come and lay your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!”

²⁴ He went with him; and a large crowd followed, pressing all around him. ²⁵ Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years ²⁶ and had suffered a great deal under many physicians. She had spent her life savings; yet instead of improving, she had grown worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Yeshua, so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe; ²⁸ for she said, “If I touch even his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Instantly the hemorrhaging stopped, and she felt in her body that she had been healed from the disease. ³⁰ At the same time, Yeshua, aware that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ His talmidim responded, “You see the people pressing in on you; and still you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² But he kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ The woman, frightened and trembling, because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ “Daughter,” he said to her, “your trust has healed you. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house came, saying, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the rabbi any longer?” ³⁶ Ignoring what they had said, Yeshua told the synagogue official, “Don’t be afraid, just keep trusting.” ³⁷ He let no one follow him except Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Ya‘akov’s brother. ³⁸ When they came to the synagogue official’s house, he found a great commotion, with people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ On entering, he said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead, she’s just asleep!” ⁴⁰ And they jeered at him. But he put them all outside, took the child’s father and mother and those with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her by the hand, he said to her, “Talita, kumi!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² At once the girl got up and began walking around; she was twelve years old. Everybody was utterly amazed. ⁴³ He gave them strict orders to say nothing about this to anyone, and told them to give her something to eat.

6 Then Yeshua left and went to his home town, and his talmidim followed him. ² On Shabbat he started to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They asked, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom he has been given? What are these miracles worked through him? ³ Isn’t he just the carpenter? the son of Miryam? the brother of Ya‘akov and Yosi and Y’hudah and Shim‘on? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ But Yeshua said to them. “The only place people don’t respect a prophet is in his home town, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” ⁵ So he could do no miracles there, other than lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of trust.

Then he went through the surrounding towns and villages, teaching.

⁷ Yeshua summoned the Twelve and started sending them out in pairs, giving them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He instructed them, “Take nothing for your trip except a walking stick — no bread, no pack, no money in your belt. ⁹ Wear shoes but not an extra shirt. ¹⁰ Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place; ¹¹ and if the people of some place will not welcome you, and they refuse to hear you, then, as you leave, shake the dust off your feet as a warning to them.”

¹² So they set out and preached that people should turn from sin to God, ¹³ they expelled many demons, and they anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

¹⁴ Meanwhile, King Herod heard about this, for Yeshua’s reputation had spread. Some were saying, “Yochanan the Immerser has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” ¹⁵ Others said, “It is Eliyahu!” and still others, “He is a prophet, like one of the old prophets.” ¹⁶ But when Herod heard about it, he said, “Yochanan, whom I had beheaded, has been raised.”

¹⁷ For Herod had sent and had Yochanan arrested and chained in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Herod had married her, ¹⁸ but Yochanan had told him, “It violates the Torah for you to marry your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹ So Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted him put to death. But this she could not accomplish, ²⁰ because Herod stood in awe of Yochanan and protected him, for he knew that he was a tzaddik, a holy man. Whenever he heard him, he became deeply disturbed; yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹ Finally, the opportunity came. Herod gave a banquet on his birthday for his nobles and officers and the leading men of the Galil. ²² The daughter of Herodias came in and danced, and she pleased Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want; I will give it to you”; ²³ and he made a vow to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” ²⁴ So she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She said, “The head of Yochanan the Immerser.” ²⁵ At once the daughter hurried back to the king and announced her request: “I want you to give me right now on a platter the head of Yochanan the Immerser.” ²⁶ Herod was appalled; but out of regard for the oaths he had sworn before his dinner guests, he did not want to break his word to her. ²⁷ So the king immediately sent a soldier from his personal guard with orders to bring Yochanan’s head. The soldier went and beheaded Yochanan in the prison, ²⁸ brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹ When Yochanan’s talmidim heard of it, they came and took the body and laid it in a grave.

³⁰ Those who had been sent out rejoined Yeshua and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹ There were so many people coming and going that they couldn’t even take time to eat, so he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a place where we can be alone, and you can get some rest.” ³² They went off by themselves to an isolated spot; ³³ but many people, seeing them leave and recognizing them, ran ahead on foot from all the towns and got there first. ³⁴ When Yeshua came ashore, he saw a huge crowd. Filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he began teaching them many things.

³⁵ By this time, the hour was late. The talmidim came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s getting late. ³⁶ Send the people away, so that they can go and buy food for themselves in the farms and towns around here.” ³⁷ But he answered them, “Give them something to eat, yourselves!” They replied, “We are to go and spend thousands on bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and check.” When they had found out, they said, “Five. And two fish.” ³⁹ Then he ordered all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred. ⁴¹ Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up toward heaven, made a b’rakhah. Next he broke up the loaves and began giving them to the talmidim to distribute. He also divided up the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate as much as they wanted, ⁴³ and they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces and fish. ⁴⁴ Those who ate the loaves numbered five thousand men.

⁴⁵ Immediately Yeshua had his talmidim get in the boat and go on ahead of him toward the other side of the lake, toward Beit-Tzaidah, while he sent the crowds away. ⁴⁶ After he had left them, he went into the hills to pray. ⁴⁷ When night came, the boat was out on the lake, and he was by himself on land. ⁴⁸ He saw that they were having difficulty rowing, because the wind was against them; so at around four o’clock in the morning he came toward them, walking on the lake! He meant to come alongside them; ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and let out a shriek; ⁵⁰ for they had all seen him and were terrified. However, he spoke to them. “Courage,” he said, “it is I. Stop being afraid!” ⁵¹ He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, ⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves; on the contrary, their hearts had been made stone-like.

⁵³ After they had made the crossing, they landed at Ginosar and anchored. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized him ⁵⁵ and began running around throughout that whole region and bringing sick people on their stretchers to any place where they heard he was. ⁵⁶ Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed.

7 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua ² and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. ³ (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. ⁴ Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)

⁵ The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” ⁶ Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,

⁸ “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. ⁹ Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[e] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’^{[f] 11} But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”

¹⁴ Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!” ^16 [g]

¹⁷ When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He replied to them, “So you too are without understanding? Don’t you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) ²⁰ “It is what comes out of a person,” he went on, “that makes him unclean. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness…. ²³ All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”

²⁴ Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. ²⁵ Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” ²⁸ She answered him, “That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers.” ²⁹ Then he said to her, “For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone.

³¹ Then he left the district of Tzor and went through Tzidon to Lake Kinneret and on to the region of the Ten Towns. ³² They brought him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment and asked Yeshua to lay his hand on him. ³³ Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man’s ears, spat, and touched his tongue; ³⁴ then, looking up to heaven, he gave a deep groan and said to him, “Hippatach!” (that is, “Be opened!”). ³⁵ His ears were opened, his tongue was freed, and he began speaking clearly. ³⁶ Yeshua ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he insisted, the more zealously they spread the news. ³⁷ People were overcome with amazement. “Everything he does, he does well!” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”

8 It was during that time that another large crowd gathered, and they had nothing to eat. Yeshua called his talmidim to him and said to them, ² “I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me three days, and now they have nothing to eat. ³ If I send them off to their homes hungry, they will collapse on the way; some of them have come a long distance.” ⁴ His talmidim said to him, “How can anyone find enough bread to satisfy these people in a remote place like this?” ⁵ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked them. They answered, “Seven.” ⁶ He then told the crowd to sit down on the ground, took the seven loaves, made a b’rakhah, broke the loaves and gave them to his talmidim to serve to the people. ⁷ They also had a few fish; making a b’rakhah over them he also ordered these to be served. ⁸ The people ate their fill; and the talmidim took up the leftover pieces, seven large basketsful. ⁹ About four thousand were there. ¹⁰ After sending them away, Yeshua got into the boat with his talmidim and went off to the district of Dalmanuta.

¹¹ The P’rushim came and began arguing with him; they wanted him to give them a sign from Heaven, because they were out to trap him. ¹² With a sigh that came straight from his heart, he said, “Why does this generation want a sign? Yes! I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation!” ¹³ With that, he left them, got into the boat again and went off to the other side of the lake.

¹⁴ Now the talmidim had forgotten to bring bread and had with them in the boat only one loaf. ¹⁵ So when Yeshua said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves from the hametz of the P’rushim and the hametz of Herod,” ¹⁶ they thought he had said it because they had no bread. ¹⁷ But, aware of this, he said, “Why are you talking with each other about having no bread? Don’t you see or understand yet? Have your hearts been made like stone? ¹⁸ You have eyes — don’t you see? You have ears — don’t you hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” “Twelve,” they answered him. ²⁰ “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” “Seven,” they answered. ²¹ He said to them, “And you still don’t understand?”

²² They came to Beit-Tzaidah. Some people brought him a blind man and begged Yeshua to touch him. ²³ Taking the blind man’s hand, he led him outside the town. He spit in his eyes, put his hands on him and asked him, “Do you see anything?” ²⁴ He looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like walking trees.” ²⁵ Then he put his hands on the blind man’s eyes again. He peered intently, and his eyesight was restored, so that he could see everything distinctly. ²⁶ Yeshua sent him home with the words, “Don’t go into town.”

²⁷ Yeshua and his talmidim went on to the towns of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked his talmidim, “Who are people saying I am?” ²⁸ “Some say you are Yochanan the Immerser,” they told him, “others say Eliyahu, and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹ “But you,” he asked, “who do you say I am?” Kefa answered, “You are the Mashiach.” ³⁰ Then Yeshua warned them not to tell anyone about him. ³¹ He began teaching them that the Son of Man had to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and that he had to be put to death; but that after three days, he had to rise again. ³² He spoke very plainly about it. Kefa took him aside and began rebuking him. ³³ But, turning around and looking at his talmidim, he rebuked Kefa. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said, “For your thinking is from a human perspective, not from God’s perspective!”

³⁴ Then Yeshua called the crowd and his talmidim to him and told them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake, and keep following me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it. ³⁶ Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? ³⁷ What could a person give in exchange for his life? ³⁸ For if someone is ashamed of me and of what I say in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.