| 2:1 | Now* after some days, when he returned to Capernaum,* the news spread* that he was at home. |
| 2:2 | So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by* the door, and he preached the word to them. |
| 2:3 | Some people* came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.* |
| 2:4 | When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof* above Jesus.* Then,* after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on. |
| 2:5 | When Jesus saw their* faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”* |
| 2:6 | Now some of the experts in the law* were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds:* |
| 2:7 | “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming!* Who can forgive sins but God alone?” |
| 2:8 | Now* immediately, when Jesus realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such thoughts,* he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?* |
| 2:9 | Which is easier,* to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? |
| 2:10 | But so that you may know* that the Son of Man* has authority on earth to forgive sins,” – he said to the paralytic* – |
| 2:11 | “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.”* |
| 2:12 | And immediately the man* stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” |
| 2:13 | Jesus* went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. |
| 2:14 | As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.* “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. |
| 2:15 | As Jesus* was having a meal* in Levi’s* home, many tax collectors* and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. |
| 2:16 | When the experts in the law* and the Pharisees* saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”* |
| 2:17 | When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.* I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” |
| 2:18 | Now* John’s* disciples and the Pharisees* were fasting.* So* they came to Jesus* and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” |
| 2:19 | Jesus* said to them, “The wedding guests* cannot fast while the bridegroom* is with them, can they?* As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. |
| 2:20 | But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them,* and at that time* they will fast. |
| 2:21 | No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. |
| 2:22 | And no one pours new wine into old wineskins;* otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.”* |
| 2:23 | Jesus* was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat* as they made their way. |
| 2:24 | So* the Pharisees* said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” |
| 2:25 | He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry – |
| 2:26 | how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest* and ate the sacred bread,* which is against the law* for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?”* |
| 2:27 | Then* he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people,* not people for the Sabbath. |
| 2:28 | For this reason the Son of Man is lord* even of the Sabbath.” |
Mark 2 - NET Bible [draft]
