Study Desk

So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not because of Herod.

Herod was afraid of John because he knew that John was a good and holy man, and so he kept him safe. He liked to listen to him, even though he became greatly disturbed every time he heard him.

The daughter of Herodias came in and danced, and pleased Herod and his guests. So the king said to the girl, "What would you like to have? I will give you anything you want."

So the girl went out and asked her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered.

So he sent off a guard at once with orders to bring John's head. The guard left, went to the prison, and cut John's head off;

There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, "Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while."

So they started out in a boat by themselves to a lonely place.

Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples.

When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

So Jesus asked them, "How much bread do you have? Go and see." When they found out, they told him, "Five loaves and also two fish."

So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.

He saw that his disciples were straining at the oars, because they were rowing against the wind; so sometime between three and six o'clock in the morning, he came to them, walking on the water. He was going to pass them by,

So they ran throughout the whole region; and wherever they heard he was, they brought to him the sick lying on their mats.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, "Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?"

So Jesus said to her, "Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!"

So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue.

He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, gave thanks to God, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the crowd; and the disciples did so.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and started to argue with him. They wanted to trap him, so they asked him to perform a miracle to show that God approved of him.

Jesus knew what they were saying, so he asked them, "Why are you discussing about not having any bread? Don't you know or understand yet? Are your minds so dull?

He made this very clear to them. So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.