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The First Followers of Isa

1 One day, Isa was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret,* while the crowd was packed around him to listen to the word of Allah. 2 He saw two boats on the shore; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing the nets. 3 So he got into one of the boats, which [belonged] to Simon, and asked him to move it away from the land a little. Then he sat down and began to teach the crowd from the boat.

The Miracle of Many Fish

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Go on to the deep [water], and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon replied, “Teacher, we worked hard the whole night and didn't catch a thing; but in accordance with your command, I'll let the nets down.” 6 When they did this, they caught so many fish that their nets began to tear. 7 They gestured to their partners in the other boat to come over and help them. They came, and they filled both boats, until they were almost sinking.

Isa Heals a Man with Leprosy

12 One time, Isa was in one of the towns, and a man covered with leprosy saw him. [The man] bowed down to him and pleaded with him, saying, “Master, if you want to, you are able to heal me.” 13 So Isa extended his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do want to. Be healed!” And at once the leprosy disappeared from him. 14 Then Isa commanded him, “Do not tell anyone, but rather go to the priest, show yourself to him, and offer up what Musa required as confirmation to people that you have been healed.”*

15 But the news about Isa spread even more, and crowds of people were coming to hear him and to receive healing from their diseases. 16 However, he often withdrew to uninhabited places to pray.

He Forgives the Sins of a Paralyzed Man and Heals Him

17 One day, while Isa was teaching, some Pharisees* and religious scholars* were in attendance. They had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And he was healing the sick by the power of Allah. 18 Some people came carrying a paralyzed man on some bedding. They tried to take him into the house to place him in front of Isa, 19 but because of the dense crowd, they could not find a way to bring him in. So they went up to the housetop and lowered him down on his bedding through an opening in the tiles of the roof*, into the middle in front of Isa.

20 When Isa saw their faith, he said to the man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven you.” 21 So the scholars and the Pharisees began to say to themselves, “Who is this who speaks such blasphemy! Who is able to forgive sins except Allah alone?” 22 Now Isa discerned their thoughts, so he asked them, “Why are you thinking this within yourselves? 23 Which is easier: for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I'll prove to you that the One Who Became Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.”* Then he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, pick up your bedding, and go home!” 25 At once the man stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home praising Allah. 26 Everyone was astonished and praised Allah. They felt awe and said, “We have seen wonders today!”

Levi

27 Afterwards, Isa went out, and he saw a tax collector named Levi* sitting at the tax desk,* and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 So he left everything, and he got up and followed him.

29 Then Levi made a large banquet for [Isa] in his home. A huge crowd of tax collectors and others were sitting and eating with them. 30 So the Pharisees and their scholars grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and nonobservant [Jews]?”* 31 Isa answered them, “[It's] not the healthy [who] need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have come, not to call righteous people to repentance, but those who sin.”

A New Life, Not Old Traditions

33 They said to him, “Yahya's disciples* fast and pray quite often,* and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, whereas your disciples are [continually] eating and drinking!” 34 Isa said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But when the time comes and the bridegroom is taken from them, in those days they will fast.”

36 Then he told them this parable: “No one tears a patch out of a new garment to put it on an old one; otherwise, the new one would be torn, and the patch itself would not suit the old one. 37 And no one puts grape juice* into an old waterskin;* otherwise, when it ferments, the waterskin will split open; the wine will spill out, and the waterskin will be ruined. 38 Rather, new juice is put into a new waterskin. 39 No one, after he has been drinking aged wine, wants the new, because he says, ‘The aged is better.’”

 *5:14 According to the Taurat at Leviticus 14, a person who was healed of leprosy was required to be examined by a priest. The priest would then declare the person to be healed and ritually clean. Then the person would go to the Temple in Jerusalem and make an offering of thanks to Allah.

 *5:19 roof: the top surface of a building. At that time most buildings had flat roofs, with a stairway to the roof on the outside. A larger house could have a room with a tile roof for entertaining guests. So the men evidently climbed the stairs, stood on the flat roof next to the tile roof, and removed some of the tiles to make an opening. See the drawing of a house with a flat roof and a tiled roof.

 *5:24 the One Who Became Man: the Messiah. This title is based on a vision from Allah recorded in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (7:13-14). In this vision, Daniel sees a person coming on the clouds of heaven with authority as king to rule all people forever. He describes him as “one like a son of mankind,” meaning a young man. For that reason most English translations use the expression the Son of Man. But since this phrase is often misunderstood, it has been translated here as the One Who Became Man, since he is the Word of Allah who was born of Maryam as the Messiah.

 *5:30 These tax collectors were social outcasts because they collected taxes to benefit Herod and the Romans, as well as themselves.

 *5:33 quite often: The Pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday, even though this was not required in the Taurat.

 *5:37 grape juice: Or new wine. The grape juice soon begins to ferment. The sugar in the juice changes into alcohol, and the alcohol then changes into vinegar. This process produces gas, which stretches a new waterskin but causes an old one to split open.