Mark 3:1-25 ▼

1 Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there.

2 In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath.

3 Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up among us.”

4 And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.

5 Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other.

6 At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

7 So Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, accompanied by a large crowd from Galilee, Judea,

8 Jerusalem, Idumea, the region beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to Him when they heard what great things He was doing.

9 Jesus asked His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that the crowd would not crush Him.

10 For He had healed so many that all who had diseases were pressing forward to touch Him.

11 And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”

12 But He warned them sternly not to make Him known.

13 Then Jesus went up on the mountain and called for those He wanted, and they came to Him.

14 He appointed twelve of them to accompany Him, to be sent out to preach,

15 and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to drive out demons:

16 Simon (whom He named Peter),

17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),

18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot,

19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

20 Then they went into a house, and once again a crowd gathered, so that they could not even eat.

21 When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind.”

22 And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons.”

23 So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.

25 If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.