Chapter 8

¹In those days when a great crowd had gathered again and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,

²“I pity these people, for they have been staying with me three days now, and they have nothing left to eat. ³And if I send them home hungry they will give out on the way, for some of them come from a distance.”

⁴His disciples replied,

“Where can anyone get bread enough, here in this solitude, to satisfy these people’s hunger?”

⁵“How many loaves have you?” he asked.

“Seven,” they said.

⁶Then he ordered the people to take their places on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and gave thanks and broke them in pieces and gave them to his disciples to pass, and they passed them to the people. ⁷They had a few small fish, and he blessed them and told the disciples to pass them also to the people. ⁸And they ate and satisfied their hunger. And the pieces that they left, that were picked up, filled seven baskets. ⁹There were about four thousand of the people. And he dismissed them. ¹⁰Then he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

¹¹The Pharisees came out and began a discussion with him, testing him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. ¹²And he sighed deeply and said,

“Why do the men of this day ask for a sign? I tell you, no sign will be given them.”

¹³And he left them and got into the boat again and crossed to the other side.

¹⁴Now they had forgotten to bring any bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵And he warned them, saying,

“Look out! Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”

¹⁶They were discussing with one another their being without bread. ¹⁷And he noticed it and said to them,

“Why do you discuss your being without bread? Do you not yet see nor understand? Are your minds so dull? ¹⁸When you have eyes can you not see, and when you have ears can you not hear? Do you not remember ¹⁹how many baskets of pieces you picked up when I broke the five loaves in pieces for those five thousand men?”

They said to him,

“Twelve.”

²⁰“When I broke the seven loaves in pieces for the four thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up?”

They said to him,

“Seven.”

²¹He said to them,

“Do you not understand yet?”

²²And they came to Bethsaida. And people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. ²³He took him by the hand and led him outside of the village, and spitting in his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked him,

“Do you see anything?”

²⁴He looked up and said,

“I can see people, for they look to me like trees, only they are moving about.”

²⁵Then he laid his hands on his eyes again, and he looked steadily and was cured, and saw everything plainly. ²⁶And he sent him home and said to him,

“Do not even go into the village.”

²⁷Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he questioned his disciples and said to them,

“Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They said to him,

“John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets.”

²⁹And he asked them,

“But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered and said to him,

“You are the Christ.”

³⁰And he warned them not to say this about him to anyone.

³¹Then he explained to them for the first time that the Son of Man must go through much suffering, and be refused by the elders and the high priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise again three days after. ³²He told them this plainly. And Peter took him aside, and began to reprove him for it. ³³But turning and seeing his disciples he reproved Peter, and said,

“Get out of my sight, you Satan! for you do not side with God, but with men.”

³⁴And he called the people and his disciples to him and said to them,

“If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself, and take his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to preserve his own life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and for the good news will preserve it. ³⁶For what good does it do a man to gain the whole world and yet part with his life? ³⁷For what can a man give to buy back his life? ³⁸For if anyone is ashamed of me and my teachings in this unfaithful and sinful age, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes back in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”