Mark 8

₁There was a crowd of people who came to Jesus again. They did not have any food. Jesus called his disciples to Him and He said to them: ₂‘I feel sorry for these people because they have been with Me for 3 days and they have no food. ₃If I tell them to go home now and they are too hungry, they will faint and fall down before they get home. Some of them must walk very far to their homes.’

₄The disciples asked Jesus: ‘Where will we get enough bread for all these people? We are far from a town. No one lives here.’ ₅Jesus asked them: ‘How much bread do you have?’ They said to Him: ‘We have 7 loaves of bread.’

₆Jesus told all the people to sit down to eat. Then Jesus took the 7 loaves of bread and He thanked God for it. Then He broke the bread in pieces and He gave it to his disciples and they gave it to the people. ₇The disciples also had a few fish. Jesus took them and He thanked God again. Then He told his disciples to give the fish to the people.

₈All the people had enough food to eat. His disciples picked up all the food that the people had not eaten. There were 7 big baskets full. ₉There were about 4 000 men who had eaten. Then Jesus told everyone to go home. ₁₀Jesus and his disciples immediately got into a boat and they went to the places near Dalmanutha.

₁₁Some Pharisees came to Jesus and they started to argue with Him. They wanted to test Him and see what He could do. So they asked Him to show them a miracle that came from God. ₁₂Jesus sighed and said: ‘Why do you people always want to see a miracle from God? I tell you this and it is sure: God will not show you a miracle.’ ₁₃Jesus went away from the Pharisees. He got back into the boat and they went to the other side of Lake Galilee.

₁₄The disciples did not take enough food with them. They had only one loaf of bread in the boat. ₁₅Jesus warned his disciples and He said to them: ‘You must be careful. You must beware of the yeast_of_the_Pharisees and the yeast_of_King_Herod.’

₁₆The disciples talked to each other. They thought Jesus said this because they did not have enough bread. ₁₇Jesus knew what they were thinking and He asked them: ‘Why do you talk about the bread that you do not have? Do you still not see or understand what I am teaching you?

Don't you remember? ₁₉When I gave the 5 loaves of bread to the 5 000 people, how many baskets full of pieces of bread did you pick up after the people had finished eating?’ The disciples said: ‘12 baskets.’ ₂₀Jesus asked again: ‘And when I gave the 7 loaves of bread to the 4 000 people, how many baskets full of pieces of bread did you pick up?’ The disciples answered: ‘7 baskets.’ ₂₁Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Don't you understand what I taught you?’

₂₂Jesus and his disciples went to the town of Bethsaida. There was a blind man and people begged Jesus to touch the man. ₂₃Jesus took the blind man's hand and He walked with him out of the town. Then Jesus spat into the man's eyes and He put his hands on the man and He asked him: ‘What do you see?’ ₂₄The blind man looked and he said to Jesus: ‘I think I see people. They walk like trees.’ ₂₅Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes again. Then he opened his eyes and he could see everything clearly. ₂₆Jesus said to the man: ‘Go home now. Do not go into the town.’

₂₇Jesus and his disciples went to places near the city of Caesarea-Philippi. While they were walking to the city, Jesus asked his disciples: ‘What do the people say about who I am?’ ₂₈The disciples said to Jesus: ‘Some people say You are John the Baptist and some people say You are Elijah. Some people say You are one of the prophets.’

₂₉Then Jesus asked them: ‘But you, what do you say? Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered Him and said: ‘You are the Christ.’

₃₀Jesus told his disciples not to tell other people that He was the Christ.

₃₁From that time Jesus started to tell his disciples what would happen to Him. He explained to them that the elders, the chief_priests and the teachers_of_the_Laws would do very bad things to Him, the Son of man. They would not accept Him and they would kill Him, but after 3 days He would live again. ₃₂Then Jesus explained clearly what He meant. He told them everything. When Peter heard this, he took Jesus away from the other disciples and he told Jesus that He must not say those things. ₃₃Jesus turned_around and He looked at the other disciples. He rebuked Peter and said: ‘Go away from Me, Satan. You do not think what God wants. You think what people want.’

₃₄Jesus then talked to all the people who were there with the disciples. He said to them: