Chapter 8

¹When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds of people followed him. ²And a leper came up to him and fell on his knees before him, saying,

“If you only choose, sir, you can cure me!”

³So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying,

“I do choose! Be cured!”

And his leprosy was immediately cured. ⁴Then Jesus said to him,

“See that you tell nobody, but go! Show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure, offer the gift that Moses prescribed.”

⁵When he got back to Capernaum, a Roman captain came up and appealed to him, ⁶saying,

“My servant, sir, is lying sick with paralysis at my house, in great distress.”

⁷He said to him,

“I will come and cure him.”

⁸But the captain answered,

“I am not a suitable person, sir, to have you come under my roof, but simply say the word, and my servant will be cured. ⁹For I am myself under the orders of others and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this he was astonished, and said to his followers,

“I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such faith as this. ¹¹And I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven, ¹²while the heirs to the kingdom will be driven into the darkness outside, there to weep and grind their teeth!”

¹³Then Jesus said to the captain,

“Go! You shall find it just as you believe!”

And the servant was immediately cured.

¹⁴Jesus went into Peter’s house, and there he found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with fever. ¹⁵And he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and waited on him.

¹⁶In the evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove the spirits out with a word, and cured all who were sick, ¹⁷in fulfilment of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “He took our sickness and carried away our diseases.”

¹⁸Then Jesus, seeing a crowd about him, gave orders to cross to the other side. ¹⁹And a scribe came up and said to him,

“Master, I will follow you wherever you are going!”

²⁰And Jesus said to him,

“Foxes have holes and wild birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head!”

²¹And another of his disciples said to him,

“Let me first go, sir, and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus said to him,

“Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead!”

²³And he got into the boat, and his disciples went with him. ²⁴And suddenly a terrific storm came up on the sea, so that the waves broke over the boat, but he remained asleep. ²⁵And they came and woke him up, saying,

“Save us, sir! We are lost!”

²⁶And he said to them,

“Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!”

Then he got up and reproved the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷And the men were amazed and said,

“What kind of man is this? For the very winds and sea obey him!”

²⁸When he reached the other side, in the region of Gadara, two men possessed by demons came out of the tombs and confronted him; they were so extremely violent that nobody could go along that road. ²⁹And they suddenly screamed out,

“What do you want of us, you Son of God? Have you come here before the appointed time to torture us?”

³⁰Now at some distance from them there was a great drove of pigs feeding. ³¹And the demons entreated him, saying,

“If you are going to drive us out, send us into the drove of pigs.”

³²And he said to them,

“Begone!”

And they came out and went into the pigs. And suddenly the whole drove rushed over the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the water. ³³And the men who tended them ran away and went off to the town and told it all, and the news about the men possessed by demons. ³⁴And the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to go away from their district.