Chapter Three
And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there with a withered hand, and they were watching him if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he says to the man who had the withered hand,
“Get up into the middle!”
And he says to them,
“Is it lawful on the Sabbaths to do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill?”
But they were silent.
And having looked around on them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their heart, he says to the man,
“Stretch out your hand!”
vAnd he stretched out, and his hand was restored, healthy like the other.
And the Pharisees, having gone out, at once consulted with the Herodians against him, as to how they might destroy him.
And Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea and a very great number from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and they around Tyre and Sidon, a very great number, having heard how much he was doing, came to him.
And he told his disciples that a boat might serve them well because of the crowd so that they would not press upon him. For he healed many, so that they rushed upon him so that they much touch him, as many as had diseases.
And the unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and cried out saying,
“You are the Son of God!”
And he strictly instructed them that they should not make him obvious.
And he goes up into the mountain and calls whom he would, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them to preach, and to have authority to heal the diseases and to cast out the demons. And he added to Simon the name ‘Peter’; and James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, also he added names to them: ‘Boanerges’ which is ‘Sons of Thunder’; and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
And they come into a house. And a crowd comes together again so that they are not able so much as to eat bread. And, having heard, his relatives went out to lay hold on him,
“For,” they said, “he is beside himself!”
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said,
“He has Beelzebub, and by the prince of the demons he casts out the demons!”
And having called to them he said to them in parables,
“How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand, and if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand, and if Satan has risen against himself and has been divided, he cannot stand but has an end. No one, having entered his house, can plunder the goods of the strong man unless he first binds the strong man, and then he’ll plunder his house. Truly I’m telling you that all the sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they’ve blasphemed, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness to eternity, but is liable to everlasting condemnation” - because they said, ‘he has an unclean spirit!’
Then come his brothers and his sisters and his mother, and standing outside sent to him, calling him. And a crowd was sitting around him and they said to him,
“Look! Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside looking for you!”
And he answered them saying,
“Who is my mother or my brothers and sisters?”
And having looked round in turn on those who were sitting around him, he says,
“Look! My mother and my brothers and sisters! For whoever does the will of God, this is my brother and my sister, and mother!”
