12-13 Immediately after this, the spirit drove him into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days, with wild beasts, while the angels cared for him.
Jesus calls his first disciples
14 After John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee and began to preach, saying,
15 “The end is near. God's kingdom is coming. Repent and believe the gospel.”
16 As he walked by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing.
17 Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.”
18 And they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.
19 After walking a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were mending their nets.
20 Jesus called to them, and they left their father to follow him.
21 On the sabbath day, they went to a synagogue in Capernaum, where Jesus taught.
22 Everyone was impressed with his teaching, since he taught with authority unlike the scribes.
A man with an unclean spirit
23 There was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, who cried out,
24 “Leave us alone, Jesus of Nazareth. I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.”
31 Jesus took her hand and the fever left her. Immediately she began to serve them.
Jesus casts out devils and heals the sick
32-34 Later that evening, everyone in the city gathered at the door of Simon's house, including those who were sick or possessed with devils. Jesus healed many of the sick and cast out many devils, commanding the devils not to speak, because they all knew him.
Jesus cleans a leper
40 A man with leprosy came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
41 Jesus touched him and said, “I’d like to, so be clean.”
21 No one puts a new cloth in an old garment, or new wine into old bottles.”
The disciples pluck grain on the sabbath
23 As Jesus and his disciples walked through fields on the Sabbath, they plucked some of the grain.
24 The Pharisees saw this and said to Jesus, “Why do your disciples do what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
25 Jesus said, “Haven't you read what David did when he and his men were hungry?
26 They went into God's house in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the sacred bread that is unlawful for anyone but priests to eat.
27 The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
A few more words about this episode
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (1:1)
The first verse is not a sentence and was probably a title. The word "gospel" means good news.
The author of the gospel is not named, but his name was almost certainly not Mark. Whoever the author may have been, he was probably a Greek-speaking Jew who lived outside of Palestine.
The author is traditionally said to be John Mark, who, according to the book of Acts, accompanied Paul on his missions. He is sometimes also referred to as "Mark the Evangelist" and is said to have been Peter's interpreter or secretary.
The gospel was written in Greek, around 65-75 CE.
The author refers to Jesus as "Jesus Christ," but Christ wasn't Jesus's last name. "Christ" is just the Greek word for "the anointed one" or
"the messiah."
As the prophets wrote (1:2)
The earliest manuscripts have "as is written by the prophet Isaiah," but this was later changed to "by the prophets" because the scribes knew that Isaiah didn't say what this verse claims that it said. The verse conflates three passages in the Hebrew scriptures Isaiah 40:3, Exodus 23:20 , and Malachi 3:1.
John's clothes were made of camel hair, he wore a leather girdle around his loins. (1:6)
This was to show that John the Baptist was Elijah, who will return before the great day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Elijah was, according to 2 Kings 1:8, a hairy man with a leather belt. And nobody dresses like Elijah!
John baptized people to forgive their sins. Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptized by John. (1:4, 9)
So was Jesus baptized to forgive his sins? Mark doesn't say.
