In the days of Herod, king of Judaea, there was a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the order of Abijah; and he had a wife of the family of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

Now it came about that in his turn he was acting as priest before God,

And as was the way of the priests, he had to go into the Temple to see to the burning of perfumes.

And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear came on him.

And the people were waiting for Zacharias and were surprised because he was in the Temple for such a long time.

And when he came out he was not able to say anything, and they saw that he had seen a vision in the Temple; and he was making signs to them without words.

After that time, Elisabeth, being certain that she was to become a mother, kept herself from men's eyes for five months, saying,

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee, named Nazareth,

To a virgin who was to be married to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary.

But she was greatly troubled at his words, and said to herself, What may be the purpose of these words?

Even now Elisabeth, who is of your family, is to be a mother, though she is old: and this is the sixth month with her who was without children.

And when the voice of Mary came to the ears of Elisabeth, the baby made a sudden move inside her; then Elisabeth was full of the Holy Spirit,

And Mary was with her for about three months and then went back to her house.

Now it was time for Elisabeth to give birth, and she had a son.

And they made signs to his father, to say what name was to be given to him.

And straight away his mouth was open and his tongue was free and he gave praise to God.

And fear came on all those who were living round about them: and there was much talk about all these things in all the hill-country of Judaea.

And all who had word of them kept them in their minds and said, What will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.

And his father, Zacharias, was full of the Holy Spirit, and with the voice of a prophet said these words:

And the child became tall, and strong in spirit; and he was living in the waste land till the day when he came before the eyes of Israel.

Now it came about in those days that an order went out from Caesar Augustus that there was to be a numbering of all the world.

This was the first numbering, which was made when Quirinius was ruler of Syria.

And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judaea, to Beth-lehem, the town of David, because he was of the house and family of David,

To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother.

And she had her first son; and folding him in linen, she put him to rest in the place where the cattle had their food, because there was no room for them in the house.

And an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining round about them: and fear came on them.

And suddenly there was with the angel a great band of spirits from heaven, giving praise to God, and saying,

And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth.

And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him.

And full of the Spirit he came into the Temple; and when the father and mother came in with the child Jesus, to do with him what was ordered by the law,

And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life

She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.

And the child became tall and strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

And when he was twelve years old, they went up, as their way was, to the feast;

And when the days of the feast came to an end and they were going back, the boy Jesus was still in Jerusalem, but they had no knowledge of it:

And in the belief that he was with some of their number, they went a day's journey; and after looking for him among their relations and friends,

And seeing that he was not there, they went back to Jerusalem, to make search for him.

And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? was it not clear to you that my right place was in my Father's house?

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth; and did as he was ordered: and his mother kept all these words in her heart.

And Jesus was increasing in wisdom and in years, and in grace before God and men.

And while the people were waiting, and all men were questioning in their hearts about John, if he was the Christ or not,

Now it came about that when all the people had been given baptism, Jesus, having had baptism with them, was in prayer, when, the heaven being open,

And Jesus at this time was about thirty years old, being the son (as it seemed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan, and was guided by the Spirit in the waste land

For forty days, being tested by the Evil One. And he had no food in those days; and when they came to an end, he was in need of food.

And he was teaching in their Synagogues and all men gave him praise.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been as a child, and he went, as his way was, into the Synagogue on the Sabbath, and got up to give a reading.

And the book of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and, opening the book, he came on the place where it is said,

Truly I say to you, There were a number of widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months and there was no food in the land;

But Elijah was not sent to one of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And there were a number of lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and not one of them was made clean, but only Naaman the Syrian.

And they got up and took him out of the town to the edge of the mountain on which their town was, so that they might send him down to his death.

And he came down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee; and he was giving them teaching on the Sabbath.

And they were surprised at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

And there was a man in the Synagogue who had an unclean spirit; and he gave a loud cry and said,

And there was much talk about him in all the places round about.

And he got up and went out of the Synagogue and went into the house of Simon. And Simon's wife's mother was very ill with a burning heat; and in answer to their prayers for her

And evil spirits came out of a number of them, crying out and saying, You are the Son of God. But he gave them sharp orders not to say a word, because they had knowledge that he was the Christ.

And when it was day, he came out and went to a waste place; and great numbers of people came looking for him, and they came to him and would have kept him from going away.

But he said to them, I have to give the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns, because that is why I was sent.

And he was teaching in the Synagogues of Galilee.

Now it came about that while the people came pushing to be near him, and to have knowledge of the word of God, he was by a wide stretch of water named Gennesaret;

And when his talk was ended, he said to Simon, Go out into deep water, and let down your nets for fish.

For he was full of wonder and so were all those who were with him, at the number of fish which they had taken;

And it came about that while he was in one of the towns, there was a leper there: and when he saw Jesus he went down on his face in prayer to him, saying, Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have power to make me clean.

And it came about that on one of these days he was teaching; and some Pharisees and teachers of the law were seated there, who had come from every town of Galilee and Judaea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him, to make those who were ill free from their diseases.

And some men had with them, on a bed, a man who was ill, without power of moving; and they made attempts to get him in and put him before Jesus.

And because of the mass of people, there was no way to get him in; so they went up on the top of the house and let him down through the roof, on his bed, into the middle in front of Jesus.

But so that you may see that on earth the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins, (he said to the man who was ill,) I say to you, Get up, and take up your bed, and go into your house.

Now it came about that on the Sabbath he was going through the fields of grain, and his disciples took the heads of the grain for food, crushing them in their hands.

And Jesus said, Have you not seen in the Writings what David did when he was in need of food, he, and those who were with him;

And it came about, on another Sabbath, that he went into the Synagogue and was teaching there. And a man was there whose right hand was dead.

But he had knowledge of their thoughts; and he said to the man whose hand was dead, Get up and come into the middle. And he got up and came forward.

And looking round on all of them, he said to him, Put out your hand. And he did so: and his hand was made well.

And it came about in those days that he went out to the mountain for prayer; and he was all night in prayer to God.

And Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was named the Zealot,

And Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, he who was false to him.

He is like a man building a house, who went deep and put the base of it on a rock; and when the water came up and the river was driving against that house, it was not moved, because the building was good.

But he who gives hearing, without doing, is like a man building a house on the earth without a base for it; and when the force of the river came against it, straight away it came down; and the destruction of that house was great.

And a certain captain had a servant who was very dear to him; this servant was ill and near to death.

And Jesus went with them. And when he was not far from the house, the man sent friends to him, saying, Lord, do not give yourself trouble: for I am not important enough for you to come into my house:

And I had the feeling that I was not even good enough to come to you: but say the word only, and my servant will be well.

And when these things were said to Jesus, he was surprised, and, turning to the mass of people coming after him, said, I have not seen such great faith, no, not in Israel.

And when those who were sent came back to the house they saw that the servant was well.

Now when he came near the door of the town, a dead man was being taken out, the only son of his mother, who was a widow: and a great number of people from the town were with her.

And he came near, and put his hand on the stretcher where the dead man was: and those who were moving it came to a stop. And he said, Young man, I say to you, Get up.

And there was a woman in the town who was a sinner; and when she had news that he was a guest in the Pharisee's house, she took a bottle of perfume,

Now when the Pharisee in whose house he was saw it, he said to himself, This man, if he was a prophet, would be conscious what sort of woman this is who has put her hands on him, that she is a sinner.

Simon, in answer, said, It seems he whose debt was greater. And he said, Your decision is right.

A man went out to put in seed, and while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside and it was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of heaven.

Then they came to him and, awaking him out of his sleep, said, Master, Master, destruction is near. And he, when he was awake, gave orders to the wind and the rolling waves, and the storm came to an end, and all was calm.

And when he had come to the land, there came to him a certain man from the town who had evil spirits; and for a long time he had had no clothing on, and was not living in a house but in the place of the dead.

For he gave an order to the evil spirit to come out of the man. For frequently it would take a grip of him: and he was kept under control, and prisoned with chains; but parting the chains in two, he would be sent by the driving of the evil spirit into waste places.

Now there was a great herd of pigs in that place, getting food on the mountain: and the evil spirits made a request to him that he would let them go into the pigs, and he let them.

And those who had seen it gave them an account of how the man who had the evil spirits was made well.

Then there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler in the Synagogue: and he went down at the feet of Jesus, desiring him to come to his house;

For he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was near to death. But while he was on his way, the people were pushing to be near him.

And a woman, who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had given all her money to medical men, and not one of them was able to make her well,

Came after him and put her hand on the edge of his robe, and straight away the flowing of her blood was stopped.

And Jesus said, Who was touching me? And when they all said, It is not I, Peter and those who were with him said, Master, the people are pushing round you on every side.