Mark Chapter 2
March Chapter 2, as translated by the Conservative Bible Project:
Difficult words for beginning readers are used repetitively in Chapter 1, which is helpful for learning them well:
It is also a good passage for teaching the proper use of capitalization, include capitalized pronouns to refer to Jesus.
March Chapter 2
He [referring to Jesus] returned to Capernaum after several days, and the news spread that He was at home. A large crowd immediately filled the room to capacity, so many that the door was blocked to access by others, as He was speaking the Truth to them.
They brought him a paralyzed man, carried by four men. Finding they could not reach Him, because the crowd was so thick, they removed the roof above Him and, when they had done so, lowered the paralytic in his bed. Seeing their faith in Him, He told the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
Some scribes were sitting in the crowd. They thought to themselves, "Why is this Man speaking such blasphemy? Who can forgive our sins but God Himself?"
Jesus immediately perceived in His spirit what they were thinking, and he asked them, "Why are you so hostile to this? Is it easier to tell a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven, or to pick up his bed and walk? But to remove any doubt about the power on earth of the Son, a man, to forgive sins," he next said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, carry your bed, and go home!"
And he got up, carried his bed, and left, in plain sight of the crowd. Amazed, they all praised God, saying, "We've never seen such a thing before."
Jesus continued along the seaside, and all the crowds thronged around Him, and He taught them. He passed Levi, son of Alphaeus, at a tax office and told him, "Follow me." Levi arose and followed.
As it happened, Jesus then dined at His house with a great many tax collectors and sinners who chose to follow Him. Seeing him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees and scribes demanded of His students, "Why does he eat and drink with these tax collectors and sinners?"
Hearing this, Jesus replied, "It is not the healthy but the sick that need a doctor. I did not come to call the just to change their hearts, but instead the sinners."
The students of John and of the Pharisees used to fast. And so they came and asked Him, "Why do the students of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your students do not?"
To this Jesus replied, "Why should the members of the wedding party fast, so long as the bridegroom is among them? While he remains, they have no cause to fast. Soon it will be that the bridegroom will be taken from them, and only then will they fast. No man patches old clothing with a new piece of cloth, as it will pull apart as it ages, making the tear worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles. The new wine will burst the bottles, spilling the wine and damaging the bottles. New wine must be put into new bottles."
On one Sabbath day, He traveled through the corn fields, and His students started to pluck the ears of corn as they passed.
The Pharisees cried, "Look! You're breaking Sabbath regulations!"
To this Jesus replied, "Haven't you read what David and his allies did, when he was hungry and in need? How he went into God's temple, in the times of the High Priest Abiathar, and ate the blessed bread - the bread which only priests are allowed to eat - and fed his allies with it?"
Jesus told them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, and therefore the Son, a man, is also Lord of the Sabbath."
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