Mark 8:1-38
8 In those days, when there was again a great crowd and they did not have anything to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them
2 “I feel for the crowd, because it is now three days they have been staying with me and not had anything to eat;
3 and if I dismiss them fasting, they will grow faint on the road; and some of them are from a long way off.”
4 And his disciples answered him “Where can one get these their fill of bread here in the wilderness?”
5 and he asked them “How much bread have you?” and they said “Seven cakes.”
6 And he instructed the crowd to take their places on the ground, and took the seven cakes and gave thanks and broke them and gave them to the disciples to put around; and they set them before the crowd.
7 And they had a few little fish; and he blessed these too and told them to put them around.
8 And they all ate and had their fill; and they took up surplus fragments, seven hampers.
9 And there were about four thousand of them. And he dismissed them,
10 and at once got into the boat with his disciples and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.
11 And the Pharisees went out and began to debate with him, seeking from him a token from heaven, by way of testing him.
12 * And he heaved a sigh and said “Why does this generation seek a token? I tell you verily this generation shall not be given a token”;
13 and he left them and went on board again and went off to the other side.
14 And they forgot to take bread, and had not but one cake with them in the boat.
15 And he was charging them “See that you keep clear of Pharisee yeast and Herod’s yeast”;
16 * and they questioned together, saying that they had not bread.
17 And, finding it out, he said to them “Why are you questioning because you have not bread? do you not yet see the point nor understand? are your hearts caked into lumps?
18 having eyes, do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? and do you not remember
19 * when I broke the five cakes of bread to be given out to the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments you took up?” They told him “Twelve.”
20 “When I broke the seven to be given out to the four thousand, how many hamperfuls of fragments did you take up?” and they said “Seven,”
21 And he said to them “Do you not understand yet?”
22 And they came to Bethsaida; and they brought him a blind man, and appealed to him to touch him.
23 And he took hold of the blind man’s hand and took him outside the village, and, spitting into his eyes and laying his hands on him, put the question to him “Can you see anything?”
24 and he looked up and said “I can see men, because I see creatures like trees walking.”
25 Then he laid his hands on his eyes again, and his eyesight was good, and he was restored and was able to see everything distinctly.
26 And he sent him home, saying “Do not even go into the village.”
27 And Jesus and his disciples went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road he questioned his disciples, asking them “Who do people say I am?”
28 And they told him “John the Baptist; and others Elijah; and others one of the prophets.”
29 And he put the question to them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answered him “You are the Messiah.”
30 And he told them peremptorily not to tell anybody about him.
31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer a great deal, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days;
32 and he made the statement openly. And Peter took him in hand and began to rebuke him;
33 but he, turning back and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter and said “Go behind me, Satan, because you do not have God’s ideas but men’s.”
34 And he called the crowd to him, with his disciples, and said to them “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him disown himself and take up his cross and follow me.
35 For whoever wishes to save his self will lose it, but whoever loses his self on my account and the gospel’s will save it.
36 For what good does it do a man to make a profit of the whole world and a loss of his self?
37 for what should a man give as an equivalent for his self?
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man too will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Footnotes
^ 8:12 Lit. sighed in his spirit
^ 8:16 Lit. questioned to each other that they had
^ 8:19-20 Lit. bread for the five . . . seven for the four
