He presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom from heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field.

He told them another parable: "The kingdom from heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

All these things Jesus said to the people in the form of stories; and without a story he said nothing to them:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Then he went away from the people, and went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Make clear to us the story of the evil plants in the field.

The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness.

'Again, the reign of the heavens is like to treasure hid in the field, which a man having found did hide, and from his joy goeth, and all, as much as he hath, he selleth, and buyeth that field.

"Again, the kingdom from heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.

"Again, the kingdom from heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea that gathered all kinds of fish.

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

And he said to them, For this reason every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house, who gives out from his store things new and old.

And it happened that when Jesus had finished these parables he went away from there.

And he came to his hometown [and] began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were amazed and said, "From where did this man [get] this wisdom and these miracles?

And are not all his sisters with us? From where then did this man [get] all these [things]?"

And they took offense at Him [refusing to believe in Him]. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”

And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.

Now when Jesus heard it , he withdrew from thence in a boat, to a desert place apart: and when the multitudes heard thereof, they followed him on foot from the cities.

They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces.

and those eating were about five thousand men, apart from women and children.

But the boat [by this time] was already a long distance from land, tossed and battered by the waves; for the wind was against them.

and the disciples having seen him walking upon the sea, were troubled saying -- 'It is an apparition,' and from the fear they cried out;

And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus.

But when he saw [the effects of] the wind, he was frightened, and he began to sink, and he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were saved from danger.

Then there come to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying,

But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever it be by which received from me thou wouldest be profited:

he shall be absolved from honouring his father'; and so you have abrogated God's Word for the sake of your tradition.

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

not that which is coming into the mouth doth defile the man, but that which is coming forth from the mouth, this defileth the man.'

Do you not understand that whatever enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is afterwards ejected from the body?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

For from the heart come evil plans, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, abusive speech.

And Jesus, going forth from thence, went away into the parts of Tyre and Sidon;

And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.

And He answered [her], "It is not proper to take bread away from the children and throw it to the dogs."

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.

And his disciples said unto him, From where should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

and those eating were four thousand men, apart from women and children.

The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

And when the sky is reddish and overcast in the morning, you predict [that it will be] bad weather that day. You know how to interpret [weather] conditions from the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times [i.e., what will happen in the spiritual realm]"]}]}.

An evil and false generation is searching after a sign; and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. And he went away from them.

Then Jesus said to them, Beware and abstain from the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

upon which they said to one another, this comes from our not taking any bread.

How is it that you do not see that I was not talking to you about bread, but about keeping away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

Then understood they, that he spake about abstaining not from the leaven in the bread, but from the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And Jesus made answer and said to him, A blessing on you, Simon Bar-jonah: because this knowledge has not come to you from flesh and blood, but from my Father in heaven.

And I, yes I, tell you, your name from now on is to be Peter, Rock, and on a massive rock like this I will build my church, and the powers of the underworld shall never overthrow it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom from heaven. Whatever you prohibit on earth will have been prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven."

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on things of man.”

Because whoever has a desire to keep his life safe will have it taken from him; but whoever gives up his life because of me, will have it given back to him.

There in their presence His form underwent a change; His face shone like the sun, and His raiment became as white as the light.

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased and delighted! Listen to Him!”

And lifting up their eyes, they saw no man, but Jesus only. And as they came down from the mountain,

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

But I say unto you that Elias has already come, and they have not known him, but have done unto him whatever they would. Thus also the Son of man is about to suffer from them.

So shall also the Son of man suffer from them. Then the disciples understood, that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.

And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

He answered, “Because of your little faith [your lack of trust and confidence in the power of God]; for I assure you and most solemnly say to you, if you have [living] faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and [if it is God’s will] it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

As they continued going from place to place in Galilee, Jesus said to them. "The Son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men;

And they will put him to death, and the third day he will come again from the dead. And they were very sad.

When Jesus and His disciples came to Capernaum, the collectors of the tax [Note: This was the annual tax used for meeting the expenses of the Temple service and consisted of two days' worth of a farm laborer's pay, or about $140 in 1994] came to Peter and said, "Does not your teacher [also] pay the [Temple] tax?"

He saith, Yea. And when he came into the house, Jesus spake first to him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? the kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or tribute? from their sons, or from strangers?

And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said unto him, Therefore the sons are free.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom from heaven?"

Then he said, "I tell all of you with certainty, unless you change and become like little children, you will never get into the kingdom from heaven.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom from heaven,

But that person who causes one of these little ones [i.e., humble followers of the Lord] who believes in me to be led astray [from God], he would have been better off to have had a huge millstone tied around his neck and dumped into a deep ocean [Note: This "millstone" was a heavy circular stone rolled over grain to crush it and was moved by an animal walking in a circle].

'Woe to the world from the stumbling-blocks! for there is a necessity for the stumbling-blocks to come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling-block doth come!

Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

[For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]

How, to you, doth it seem? If a certain man come to have a hundred sheep and one from among them go astray, Will he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains, and going, seek the straying one?

Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens.

"That is why the kingdom from heaven may be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

And the master of that servant felt deep pity [for him], so released him [from custody] and canceled his debt.

But that [same] servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants who owed him a small sum of money [Note: The amount was about days of a farm laborer's pay or about $7,000 in 1994]. He grabbed him by the throat, saying, 'Pay [me] what you owe.'

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;

And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,

For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh?

They say to him, Why then did Moses give orders that a husband might give her a statement in writing and be free from her?

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and do not hinder them from coming to me; for the kingdom of the heavens is of such:

And he laid his hands on them [and] traveled on from there.

The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

Then Jesus told his disciples, "I tell all of you with certainty, it will be hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom from heaven.

When the disciples heard this, they were completely astonished and bewildered, saying, “Then who can be saved [from the wrath of God]?”

"The kingdom from heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

When he had agreed with the workers [on wages] for the usual farm laborer's pay for a day's work, he [then] sent them to work in his vineyard. [Note: The coin mentioned here would amount to $60-$84 in 1994, based on $5-$7 an hour for a twelve hour day. This coin also forms the basis for calculating all other monetary references in the New Testament].

And having gone out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the forum:

So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

And will give him up to the Gentiles to be made sport of and to be whipped and to be put to death on the cross: and the third day he will come back again from the dead.

Then came near to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, bowing and asking something from him,

"None of you know what you are asking for," said Jesus; "can you drink out of the cup from which I am about to drink?" "We can," they replied.

He told them, "You will indeed drink from my cup. But it's not up to me to grant you a seat at my right hand or at my left. These positions have already been prepared for others by my Father."