1 He was praying at a certain place, and when he stopped one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, thy name be revered, thy Reign begin;
3 give us our bread for the morrow day by day,
4 and forgive us our sins for we do forgive everyone who has offended us; and lead us not into temptation."
5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, let me have three loaves;
6 for a friend of mine travelling has come to my house and I have nothing to set before him.'
7 And suppose he answers from the inside, 'Don't bother me; the door is locked by this time, and my children are in bed with me. I can't get up and give you anything.'
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give you anything because you are a friend of his, he will at least rise and give you whatever you want, because you persist.
9 So I tell you, ask and the gift will be yours, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open to you;
10 for everyone who asks receives, the seeker finds, the door is opened to anyone who knocks.
11 What father among you, if asked by his son for a loaf, will hand him a stone? Or, if asked for a fish, will hand him a serpent instead of a fish?
12 Or, if asked for an egg, will he hand him a scorpion?
13 Well, if for all your evil you know to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father give the holy Spirit from heaven to those who ask him?"
14 He was casting out a dumb daemon, and when the daemon had gone out the dumb man spoke. The crowds marvelled,
15 but some of them said, "It is by Beelzebul the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons."
16 Others by way of tempting him demanded he should give them a Sign from heaven.
17 He knew what they were thinking about, so he said to them, "Any realm divided against itself comes to ruin, house after house falls down;
18 and if Satan is divided against himself, how can his realm stand? You say I am casting out daemons by Beelzebul?
19 If I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges.
20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast daemons out, then the Reign of God has reached you already.
21 When the strong man in armour guards his homestead, his property is undisturbed;
22 but when a stronger man attacks and conquers him, he seizes the panoply on which he relied and divides up the spoil.
23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
24 When an unclean spirit leaves a man, it roams through dry places in search of refreshment. As it finds none, then it says, 'I will go back to the house I left,'
25 and when it comes it finds the house clean and in order.
26 Then it goes off to fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first."
27 While he was saying this, a woman shouted to him out of the crowd, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts you sucked!"
29 As the crowds were thronging to him, he proceeded to say, "This is an evil generation: it demands a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of Jonah;
30 for as Jonah was a Sign to the Ninivites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation.
31 The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.
32 The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah.
33 No one lights a lamp to put it in a cellar or under a bowl, but on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.
34 Your eye is the lamp of the body: when your eye is sound, then the whole of your body has light, but if your eye is diseased, then your body is darkened.
35 (Look! perhaps your very light is dark.)
36 So if your whole body has light, without any corner of it in darkness, it will be lit up entirely, as when a lamp lights you with its rays."
37 When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table.
38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not washed before the meal,
39 but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice.
40 Foolish men! did not He who made the outside make the inside of things too?
41 Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you.
42 But woe to you Pharisees! you tithe mint and rue and every vegetable, but justice and the love of God you disregard; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omitting the former.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! you love the front bench in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplaces.
46 He said, "And woe to you jurists! you load men with irksome burdens, and you will not put a single finger to their burdens.
47 Woe to you! you build tombs for the prophets whom your own fathers killed:
48 thus you testify and consent to what your fathers did, for they killed and you build.
49 This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some they will kill and some they will persecute';
50 it was that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world might be charged upon this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zechariah who was slain between the altar and the House of God ??yes, I tell you, it will all be charged upon this generation.
52 Woe to you jurists! you have taken the key that unlocks the door of knowledge; you have not entered yourselves, and you have stopped those who were entering."