Chapter 8

¹Soon afterward he went about among the villages and towns preaching and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve went with him, ²and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and sickness—Mary, who was called Mary of Magdala, out of whom seven demons had been driven, ³and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them with their means.

⁴When a great throng was gathering and people were coming to him from one town after another, he said in his figurative way,

⁵“A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up. ⁶And some of it fell upon the rock, and when it sprang up it withered, because it had no moisture. ⁷And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. ⁸And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!”

As he said this he called out,

“Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!”

⁹His disciples asked him what this figure meant. ¹⁰And he said,

“You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but they are given to others in the form of figures, so that they may look and yet not see, and hear and yet not understand. ¹¹This is what the figure means. The seed is God’s message. ¹²The ones by the path are those who hear, and then the devil comes and carries off the message from their hearts, so that they may not believe it and be saved. ¹³The ones on the rock are those who receive the message joyfully when they first hear it, but it takes no real root. They believe for a little while, and then in the time of trial they draw back. ¹⁴And what falls among the thorns means those who listen and pass on, and the worries and wealth and pleasures of life stifle them and they yield nothing. ¹⁵But the seed in the good soil means those who listen to the message and keep it in good, true hearts, and yield unfailingly.

¹⁶“Nobody lights a lamp and then covers it with a dish or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that shall not be disclosed, nor kept secret that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸So take care how you listen. For people who have will have more given to them, and from people who have nothing, even what they think they have will be taken away.”

¹⁹His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him, on account of the crowd. ²⁰And the word came to him,

“Your mother and your brothers are standing outside; they want to see you.”

²¹He answered,

“My mother and my brothers are those who listen to God’s message and obey it!”

²²It happened one day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and said to them,

“Let us cross to the other side of the lake.”

²³So they set sail. As they sailed along, he fell asleep. And a squall of wind came down upon the lake, and they were being swamped and were in peril. ²⁴And they went to him and woke him up, and said to him,

“Master! Master! We are lost!”

Then he awoke and reproved the wind and the rough water, and they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵And he said to them,

“Where is your faith?”

But they were frightened and amazed, and said to one another,

“Who can he be? For he gives orders even to the winds and the water, and they obey him!”

²⁶They made a landing in the neighborhood of Gerasa, which is just across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷And when he landed, he met a man possessed by demons, who was coming out of the town. He had worn no clothing for a long time, and did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus he cried out and threw himself down before him, and said in a loud voice,

“What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!”

²⁹For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert. ³⁰And Jesus asked him,

“What is your name?”

He said,

“Legion!” For many demons had gone into him. ³¹And they begged him not to order them off to the bottomless pit. ³²Now there was a large drove of pigs feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to give them leave to go into them. And he did so. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the drove rushed over the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. ³⁴When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran away and spread the news in the town and in the country around. ³⁵And the people came out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the demons had gone sitting there, at Jesus’ feet, with his clothes on and in his right mind, and they were frightened. ³⁶And those who had seen it told them how the man who had been possessed was cured. ³⁷Then all the people of the neighborhood of Gerasa asked him to go away from them, for they were terribly frightened. And he got into a boat and went back. ³⁸The man out of whom the demons had gone begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, and said,

³⁹“Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.”

And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

⁴⁰When Jesus returned, the people welcomed him, for they were all watching for him. ⁴¹And a man named Jairus came up—he was leader of the synagogue—and he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his house, ⁴²because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. As he was going, the crowds of people almost crushed him. ⁴³And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and whom nobody had been able to cure, ⁴⁴came up behind him and touched the tassel of his cloak, and the hemorrhage stopped at once. ⁴⁵Jesus said,

“Who was it who touched me?” And as everyone denied having done so, Peter said,

“Master, the people are all around you and they are crowding you.”

⁴⁶But Jesus said,

“Somebody touched me, for I know that power passed from me.”

⁴⁷When the woman saw that she had not escaped his notice, she came forward trembling, and fell down before him, and before all the people told why she had touched him, and how she had been cured at once. ⁴⁸And he said to her,

“My daughter, it is your faith that has cured you. Go in peace.”

⁴⁹Even as he spoke someone came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said,

“Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Master any more.”

⁵⁰But Jesus heard it and said to him,

“Do not be afraid; just have faith, and she will get well.”

⁵¹When he got to the house, he let no one go in with him but Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵²And they were all wailing and beating their breasts for her. But he said,

“Stop wailing! For she is not dead, she is asleep.”

⁵³And they laughed at him, for they knew that she was dead. ⁵⁴But he grasped her hand and called out,

“Get up, my child!”

⁵⁵And her spirit returned and she stood up immediately, and he directed them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶And her parents were amazed, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.