Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife;

Now the birth of Christ Jesus occurred under these conditions: After His mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, but before they had lived together, she was found to be an expectant mother through the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Now all this occurred to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

but he did not live with her as a husband until she had had a son; and he named Him Jesus.

After listening to the king, they started on their journey, and the star which they had seen rise led them on until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

Then, as they had been divinely warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they set out to their own country by another route.

After they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Wake up! Tenderly take the child and His mother, and escape to Egypt; stay there until I further direct you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy Him."

he stayed there until Herod's death, so as to fulfill what the Lord had said by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my Son."

Then Herod, because he saw that a trick had been played on him by the stargazers, was very angry, and sent and slaughtered all the boy babies in Bethlehem and in all that neighborhood, from two years down, in accordance with the time which he had found out from the stargazers.

This very John had his clothing made of camel's hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist; his food was dried locusts and wild honey.

Then the devil took Him into the holy city, and had Him stand on the tip-top turret of the temple,

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, He set out for Galilee.

When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain. After He had taken His seat, His disciples came up to Him.

Never swear by your own head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

But whenever you, follower of mine, fast, perfume your head and wash your face,

No one can be a slave to two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and money.

And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall, for its pillars had been laid on a rocky foundation.

When Jesus had closed this address, the result was that the crowds were dumbfounded at His teaching,

for He was teaching them as one who had authority to teach, and not as their scribes did.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were under the power of demons, and at a mere word He drove the spirits out, and cured all who were sick,

And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, even wild birds have roosts, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years came up and touched the tassel on His coat.

But when the crowd had been driven out, He went in and took hold of her hand, and the girl got up.

After He had gone into the house, and the blind men had gone up to Him, Jesus said to them, "Do you really believe that I can do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord."

and after the demon had been driven out, the dumb man could talk. So the crowds were dumbfounded, saying, "Never before among the Jews was anything like this?

The pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and the slave should be satisfied to become like his master. If men have called the Head of the house Beelzebub, how much worse names will they heap upon the members of His family!

Even the very hairs on your head have all been counted by God.

When Jesus had closed this charge to His disciples, He left there to teach and preach in their towns.

Then He began to censure the cities in which His many, many wonder-works had been done, because they did not repent.

"A curse on you, Chorazin! A curse on you, Bethsaida! For if the wonder-works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, long ago they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

And you, Capernaum, are you to be exalted to heaven? No, you belong to the regions of the dead! For if the wonder-works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued until today.

While He was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and His brothers had taken their stand outside, trying hard to get to speak to Him.

and when the sun was up they were scorched and dried up, because they had no root.

He told another story: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to yeast which a woman took and worked into a bushel of flour until it all had risen."

"The kingdom of heaven is like a pot of gold which was buried in a field, which a man found and buried again; and for joy over it he went and sold all he had and bought that field.

One day he found a very costly pearl, and he went and sold all he had and bought it.

When Jesus had finished these stories, He left there.

For Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him out of the way by putting him in prison, just to please Herodias, his brother Philip's wife,

for John had said to him, "It is not right for you to have her as wife."

And she, prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head right here on a platter."

And he sent and had John beheaded in prison.

And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she took it to her mother.

And they all ate and had aplenty. Then they took up the pieces left over, which made twelve basketfuls.

And He at once had the disciples get into the boat and cross to the other side ahead of Him, while He dismissed the crowds.

After He had dismissed the crowds, He went up the hill alone to pray. And after the evening came on, He was there alone,

And they all ate and had aplenty, and they took up the pieces left over, which made seven hamper-basketfuls.

It was just after that that Jesus Christ for the first time clearly taught His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem and submit to many forms of suffering at the hands of the elders, high priests, and scribes, and be killed, but be raised to life on the third day.

And He called a little child to Him, and had him stand in the midst of them,

But whoever leads one of these little ones, who believe in me, to do wrong, had better have a great millstone hung around his neck to sink him to the bottom of the sea.

And because he could not pay it, his master ordered him to be sold, yea, even his wife and children and all he had, and payment to be made.

But he refused and went out and had him put in jail until he should pay the debt.

"When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly troubled, and went and reported all that happened to their master.

Ought you not to have shown mercy to your fellow-slave, as I too had done for you?'

When Jesus had finished this discourse, He left Galilee and went into the district of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan.

Then Peter answered Him, "We have left everything we had and followed you. What then are we to get?"

When he had contracted with the laborers at twenty cents a day, he sent them off to his vineyard.

And they who had been hired at five o'clock came and received twenty cents each.

and say, 'These last worked only one hour, and yet you have put them on the same footing with us who have borne the heavy burdens and scorching heat of the day.'

When they were near Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead,

So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

And when He had come into the temple, the high priests and elders of the people came up to Him while He was teaching, and asked, "What sort of authority have you for doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"

"But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons, He came to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in my vineyard today.'

And he sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the wedding reception, but they refused to come.

Now the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, and so they had a meeting.

and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have been sharers with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'

Then many will fall by the way, and will betray one another and hate one another.

And if those days had not been cut short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of God's chosen people those days will be cut short.

But be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known in exactly what part of the night the thief would come, he would have been on guard and would not have let his house be broken into.

The man who had received the five thousand dollars at once went out and invested it, and made five thousand more.

In the same way the man who had received the two thousand made two thousand more.

But the man who had received the one thousand went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money.

The man who had received the five thousand dollars came up and brought him five thousand more, saying, 'You turned over to me five thousand dollars; here are five thousand more I made.'

Then the man who had received the two thousand came up and said, 'Master, you turned over to me two thousand dollars; here are two thousand more I made.'

Then the man who had received the one thousand came up and said, 'Master, I knew you were a hard man, who reaped where you had not sown, who gathered where you had not threshed.

His master answered him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had not threshed.

When Jesus had ended this discourse, He said to His disciples,

a woman with an alabaster bottle of very costly perfume came up to Him while He was at table and poured it upon His head.

The Son of Man is going away as the Scriptures say of Him, but a curse will be on that man by whom He is betrayed. It would have been better for that man, if he had never been born!"

Now His betrayer had given them a signal by saying, "The one I kiss is He. Seize Him!"

The men who had laid hands on Jesus took Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, at whose home the scribes and elders had met.

After that they spit in His face and hit Him with their fists, and others boxed His ears,

Then Judas, who had betrayed Him, as he felt condemned, in remorse brought back the thirty pieces to the high priests and elders,

In that way the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been fixed by some Israelites,

At that time they had a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.

For he knew that they had turned Him over to the court out of envy.

So Pilate, since he saw that he was making no headway with them, but that a riot was about to break out instead, took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, and said, "I am not responsible for this man's death; you must see to it yourselves."

Then he set Barabbas free for them, but had Jesus flogged and turned over to be crucified.

and made a crown of thorns and set it on His head, and they put a stick in His hand, and kneeling before Him they made sport of Him, saying, "All hail, you king of the Jews!"

And they spit on Him, and took the stick and kept hitting Him on the head.

And when they had finished making sport of Him, they took off the cloak, and put His own clothes back on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

They put above His head the charge against Him, which read: "THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

and laid it in a tomb of his, which he had cut out of the rock, and he rolled a big boulder over the doorway of the tomb, and went away.

Now there had been a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and went and rolled the boulder back and remained sitting upon it.

While they were on their way, some members of the guard went into the city and told the high priests everything that had taken place.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them,