Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him again, and as he always did, he taught them.[1]
2 Some Pharisees came up and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” They were testing him.
3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”[2]
5 Jesus said to them, “He wrote this command for you because your hearts are hard. 6 But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 What God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 Back in the house, the disciples asked him about this again. 11 He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus so he could touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was angry and said to them, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them — the kingdom of God belongs to people like these. 15 Amen, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
17 As Jesus was setting out on the road, a man ran up and knelt before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not cheat, honor your father and mother.”
20 The man said, “Teacher, I have kept all these since I was young.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At these words the man’s face fell, and he went away upset, because he had many possessions.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were stunned at his words. But Jesus spoke again: “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”[3]
26 They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.”
28 Peter began to speak up: “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”
29 Jesus said, “Amen, I tell you, no one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this present time — houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecutions —[4] and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
32 They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, with Jesus walking ahead of them. The disciples were bewildered, and those who followed were afraid. He took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was about to happen to him: 33 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles. 34 They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 They answered, “Let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.”
38 Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”[5]
39 “We can,” they said.
Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. 40 But to sit at my right or my left is not mine to give. It belongs to those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the other ten heard this, they became angry with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones throw their weight around. 43 But it is not that way among you. Whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
46 They came to Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.[6] 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many people warned him sharply to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man. “Take heart,” they said. “Get up. He’s calling you.”
50 Throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and came to Jesus.
51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man said, “Rabboni, let me see again.”
52 Jesus said to him, “Go. Your faith has saved you.” And right away he could see, and he followed Jesus on the road.
Notes
Note 1. Travelers from Galilee heading to Judea often crossed to the east bank of the Jordan into Perea, a region with Jewish communities, then recrossed near Jericho. This longer route let pilgrims avoid Samaria, whose hostility toward Galileans could make passage dangerous. This is the road that brings Jesus down to Jericho in verse 46. ↩
Note 2. The question was a live controversy between two rabbinic schools, set out in the Mishnah (Gittin 9:10). Shammai’s followers allowed divorce only over “a matter of forbidden sexual intercourse”; Hillel’s more permissive reading let a man divorce for a minor fault, the Mishnah’s example being a wife who burned or over-salted his dish. Hillel’s view largely prevailed in later Jewish law. ↩
Note 3. A popular explanation holds that the “eye of the needle” was a low gate in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through on its knees. There is no evidence for such a gate; the idea appears only in medieval commentary. A camel was the largest animal in common use in the region; a needle’s eye, among the smallest openings in daily life. ↩
Note 4. The unsettling phrase is in the Greek (meta diōgmōn, “with persecutions”) and sits exactly where it sits here — tacked onto the end of the list of hundredfold blessings, with eternal life held back for the age to come. Only Mark has it; Matthew and Luke both drop the phrase from their parallels (Matthew 19:29; Luke 18:30). Notice too that the returned list omits fathers: you leave “mother or father,” but receive back only houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields. ↩
Note 5. In the Hebrew Scriptures the “cup” is a recurring image for a portion handed to someone — often a cup of suffering or divine judgment, as when Isaiah pictures Jerusalem draining “the cup of wrath.” ↩
Note 6. The name already means “son of Timaeus” — “bar” is Aramaic for “son” — yet Mark spells it out a second time in Greek. He does this elsewhere too, translating Aramaic terms for readers who wouldn’t know the language. ↩