The Gospel According to Mark

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Mark 10

1: Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2: Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3: "What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4: They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
5: "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied.
6: "But at the beginning of creation God `made them male and female.' ^[1]
7: `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, ^[2]
8: and the two will become one flesh.' ^[3] So they are no longer two, but one.
9: Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10: When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.
11: He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
12: And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
13: People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.
14: When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15: I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
16: And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
17: As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18: "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
19: You know the commandments: `Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' ^[4]"
20: "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21: But Jesus ^[5] said to him, "One thing you lack: Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22: At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
24: Again I tell you - ^[6]
25: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26: The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27: Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
28: Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
29: "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
30: will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.
31: But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
32: They were on their way up to Jerusalem. ^[7] Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.
33: "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles,
34: who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. After three days he will be raised." ^[8]
35: Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
36: "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37: They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38: "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink^[9]?"
39: "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink,
40: but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41: When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
42: Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
43: Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
44: and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
46: ^[10] As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving < Jericho > a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging.
47: When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
48: Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
49: Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you."
50: Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51: "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52: "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Mark 11

This chapter - the Entry into Jerusalem - has not been changed by Canonical Mark.

Mark 12

1: He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.
2: At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3: But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
4: Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.
5: He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6: "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, `They will respect my son.'
7: "But the tenants said to one another, `This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
8: So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9: "What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
10: Haven't you read this scripture: "`The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone ^[11];
11: the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes' ^[12]?"
12: Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
13: Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
14: They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
15: Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it."
16: They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied.
17: Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.
18: Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
19: "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.
20: Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.
21: The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third.
22: In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.
23: At the resurrection ^[13] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
24: Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
25: When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
26: Now about the dead rising--have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ^[14]?
27: He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"
28: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29: "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `^[15]
30: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31: The second is this: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' ^[16] There is no commandment greater than these." ^[17]
35: While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ ^[18] is the son of David?
36: David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' ^[19]
37: David himself calls him `Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight.
38: As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces,
39: and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
40: They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."
41: Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42: But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, ^[20] worth only a fraction of a penny. ^[21]
43: Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44: They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."

6 Gen. 1:27
7 Some early manuscripts do not have and be united to his wife.
8 Gen. 2:24
19 Exodus 20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20
21 Canonical Mark adds: looked at him and loved him, and
24 Canonical Mark has instead: And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered and said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!"
32 Canonical Mark adds: and Jesus was going ahead of them, and they were amazed and those following were terrified
34 Canonical Mark has instead: rise. This incidentally was the reading Clement of Alexandria assumed Theodore knew. This shows the normative text at the time was Canonical Mark, not original Mark. Secret Mark further adds the infamous "Secret Marcan Lazarus Story" here.
[38, 39] Canonical Mark adds: and be baptised with the baptism I was baptised with to both sayings.
46 Canonical Mark (ours and Theodore's) adds: Then they came to Jericho. Secret Mark added a tale about the man Jesus loved, his family, and Salome - at least, so claimed the Carpocratians. Clement of Alexandria denied this: he insisted the missing passage read And the sister of the youth whom Jesus loved and his mother and Salome were there, and Jesus did not receive them.
Matthew agreed with Mark that the story of the blind beggar followed Jesus's exit from Jericho; he also included Mark's "crowd". But while Luke agreed with Mark and Matthew that the story followed the Third Prophecy of the Passion (Mark 10:32-34 = Luke 18:31-34 = Matt 21:17-19), he was more free with the tradition. Luke placed this story before the entrance into Jericho because he had another story/parable to share (Luke 19:1-27), and felt that Jericho would be a good setting for it; it was the last narrative stop on the way to Jerusalem. Luke also left out the crowd - and the presumption of James and John (Mark 10:35-45 = Matt 21:20-28). Instead, he spread the blame throughout the disciples and moved the story to the end (Luke 22:24-26).
10 Or cornerstone
11 Psalm 118:22,23
23 Some manuscripts resurrection, when men rise from the dead,
26 Exodus 3:6
29 Canonical Mark adds: Hear o Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord (Deut. 6:4,5)
31 Lev. 19:18
[32-34] Canonical Mark adds: The scribe said to him, "Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice." Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And after that no-one dared to question him any more. This is Hellenistic propaganda (Koester p. 277), possibly dependent on Luke's tradition that one of the lawyers "answered rightly" (Luke 10:28).
35 Or Messiah
36 Psalm 110:1
42 Greek two lepta
42 Greek kodrantes