As it is written in Isaiah the Prophet, "See, I am sending My messenger before Thee, Who will prepare Thy way";

As for John, his garment was of camel's hair, and he wore a loincloth of leather; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

His announcement was, "There is One coming after me mightier than I--One whose sandal-strap I am unworthy to stoop down and unfasten.

and a voice came from the sky, saying, "Thou art My Son dearly loved: in Thee is My delight."

"The time has fully come," He said, "and the Kingdom of God is close at hand: repent, and believe this Good News.

"What have you to do with us, Jesus the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--God's Holy One."

And all were amazed and awe-struck, so they began to ask one another, "What does this mean? Here is a new sort of teaching--and a tone of authority! And even to foul spirits he issues orders and they obey him!"

When they found Him they said, "Every one is looking for you."

"Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns," He replied, "that I may proclaim my Message there also; because for that purpose I came from God."

and saying, "Be careful not to tell any one, but go and show yourself to the Priest, and for your purification present the offerings that Moses appointed as evidence for them."

"Why does this man use such words?" they said; "he is blaspheming. Who can pardon sins but One--that is, God?"

Which is easier?--to say to this paralytic, 'Your sins are pardoned,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your mat, and walk?'

And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the Toll Office, and said to him, "Follow me." So he rose and followed Him.

But when the Scribes of the Pharisee sect saw Him eating with the sinners and the tax-gatherers, they said to His disciples, "He is eating and drinking with the tax-gatherers and sinners!"

Jesus heard the words, and He said, "It is not the healthy who require a doctor, but the sick: I did not come to appeal to the righteous, but to sinners."

"Can a wedding party fast while the bridegroom is among them?" replied Jesus. "So long as they have the bridegroom with them, fasting is impossible.

One Sabbath He was walking through the wheatfields when His disciples began to pluck the ears of wheat as they went.

So the Pharisees said to Him, "Look! why are they doing what on the Sabbath is unlawful?"

so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

They closely watched Him to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath--so as to have a charge to bring against Him.

James the son of Zabdi and John the brother of James (these two He surnamed Boanerges, that is 'Sons of Thunder')

Hearing of this, His relatives came to seize Him by force, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

The Scribes, too, who had come down from Jerusalem said, "He has Baal-zebul in him; and it is by the power of the Prince of the demons that he expels the demons."

So He called them to Him, and using figurative language He appealed to them, saying, "How is it possible for Satan to expel Satan?

but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he remains for ever unabsolved: he is guilty of a sin of the Ages."

This was because they said, "He is possessed by a foul spirit."

"Here are my mother and my brothers. For wherever there is one who has been obedient to God, there is my brother--my sister--and my mother."

As he sows, some of the seed falls by the way-side, and the birds come and peck it up.

but when the sun is risen, it is scorched, and through having no root it withers away.

"To you," He replied, "has been entrusted the secret truth concerning the Kingdom of God; but to those others outside your number all this is spoken in figurative language;

"What the sower sows is the Message.

Those who receive the seed by the way-side are those in whom the Message is sown, but, when they have heard it, Satan comes at once and carries away the Message sown in them.

He went on to say, "Is the lamp brought in in order to be put under the bushel or under the bed? Is it not rather in order that it may be placed on the lampstand?

Why, there is nothing hidden except with a view to its being ultimately disclosed, nor has anything been made a secret but that it may at last come to light.

Another saying of His was this: "The Kingdom of God is as if a man scattered seed over the ground:

Of itself the land produces the crop-- first the blade, then the ear; afterwards the perfect grain is seen in the ear.

But no sooner is the crop ripe, than he sends the reapers, because the time of harvest has come."

It is like a mustard-seed, which, when sown in the earth, is the smallest of all the seeds in the world;

The same day, in the evening, He said to them, "Let us cross to the other side."

So they got away from the crowd, and took Him--as He was--in the boat; and other boats accompanied Him.

But He Himself was in the stern asleep, with His head on the cushion: so they woke Him. "Rabbi," they cried, "is it nothing to you that we are drowning?"

Then they were filled with terror, and began to say to one another, "Who is this, then? For even wind and sea obey Him."

Jesus also questioned him. "What is your name?" He said. "Legion," he replied, "for there are a host of us."

So they besought Jesus. "Send us to the swine," they said, "so that we may enter into them."

As He was embarking, the man who had been possessed asked permission to accompany Him.

and besought Him with many entreaties. "My little daughter," he said, "is at the point of death: I pray you come and lay your hands upon her, that she may recover and live."

While He is yet speaking, men come from the house to the Warden, and say, "Your daughter is dead: why trouble the Rabbi further?"

He goes in. "Why all this outcry and loud weeping?" He asks; "the child is asleep, not dead."

To this their reply is a scornful laugh. He, however, puts them all out, takes the child's father and mother and those He has brought with Him, and enters the room where the child lies.

Then, taking her by the hand, He says to her, "Talitha, koum;" that is to say, "Little girl, I command you to wake!"

On the Sabbath He proceeded to teach in the synagogue; and many, as they heard Him, were astonished. "Where did he acquire all this?" they asked. "What is this wisdom that has been given to him? And what are these marvellous miracles which his hands perform?

Is not this the carpenter, Mary's son, the brother of James and Joses, Jude and Simon? And do not his sisters live here among us?" So they turned angrily away.

But Jesus said to them, "There is no Prophet without honour except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own home."

Others asserted that He was Elijah. Others again said, "He is a Prophet, like one of the great Prophets."

The girl immediately came in, in haste, to the King and made her request. "My desire is," she said, "that you will give me, here and now, on a dish, the head of John the Baptist."

By this time it was late; so His disciples came to Him, and said, "This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late:

for they all saw Him and were terrified. He, however, immediately spoke to them. "There is no danger," He said; "it is I; be not alarmed."

They had noticed that some of His disciples were eating their food with 'unclean' (that is to say, unwashed)

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews--being, as they are, zealous for the traditions of the Elders--never eat without first carefully washing their hands,

and when they come from market they will not eat without bathing first; and they have a good many other customs which they have received traditionally and cling to, such as the rinsing of cups and pots and of bronze utensils, and the washing of beds.)

"Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites," He replied; "as it is written, "'This People honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far away from Me:

But idle is their devotion while they lay down precepts which are mere human rules.'

But *you* say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, It is a Korban (that is, a thing devoted to God)

There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean."

"What comes out of a man," He added, "that it is which makes him unclean.

Forthwith a woman whose little daughter was possessed by a foul spirit heard of Him, and came and flung herself at His feet.

"Let the children first eat all they want," He said; "it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

and looking up to Heaven He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" (that is, "Open!")

"My heart yearns over the people," He said; "for this is now the third day they have remained with me, and they have nothing to eat.

He perceived what they were saying, and He said to them, "What is this discussion of yours about having no bread? Do you not yet see and understand? Are your minds so dull of comprehension?

"John the Baptist," they replied, "but others say Elijah, and others, that it is one of the Prophets."

Then calling to Him the crowd and also His disciples, He said to them, "If any one is desirous of following me, let him ignore self and take up his cross, and so be my follower.

For whoever is bent on securing his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, will secure it.

His garments also became dazzling with brilliant whiteness--such whiteness as no bleaching on earth could give.

when Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, we are thankful to you that we are here. Let us put up three tents--one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Then there came a cloud spreading over them, and a voice issued from the cloud, "This is my Son, dearly loved: listen to Him."

As they were coming down from the mountain, He very strictly forbad them to tell any one what they had seen "until after the Son of Man has risen from among the dead."

They also asked Him, "How is it that the Scribes say that Elijah must first come?"

"Elijah," He replied, "does indeed come first and reforms everything; but how is it that it is written of the Son of Man that He will endure much suffering and be held in contempt?

Yet I tell you that not only has Elijah come, but they have also done to him whatever they chose, as the Scriptures say about him."

As they came to rejoin the disciples, they saw an immense crowd surrounding them and a party of Scribes disputing with them.

"What is the subject you are discussing?" He asked them.

and wherever it comes upon him, it dashes him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he is pining away. I begged your disciples to expel it, but they had not the power."

"and often it has thrown him into the fire or into pools of water to destroy him. But, if you possibly can, have pity on us and help us."

"'If I possibly can!'" replied Jesus; "why, everything is possible to him who believes."

So with a loud cry he threw the boy into fit after fit, and came out. The boy looked as if he were dead, so that most of them said he was dead;

After the return of Jesus to the house His disciples asked Him privately, "How is it that we could not expel the spirit?"

for He was teaching His disciples, and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will put Him to death; and after being put to death, in three days He will rise to life again."

"Whoever for my sake receives one such young child as this, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not so much me as Him who sent me."

"Rabbi," said John to Him, "we saw a man making use of your name to expel demons, and we tried to hinder him, on the ground that he did not follow us."

"You should not have tried to hinder him," replied Jesus, "for there is no one who will use my name to perform a miracle and be able the next minute to speak evil of me.

He who is not against us is for us;

Salt is a good thing, but if the salt should become tasteless, what will you use to give it saltness? Have salt within you and live at peace with one another."

Soon on His feet once more, He enters the district of Judaea and crosses the Jordan: again the people flock to Him, and ere long, as was usual with Him, He was teaching them once more.

As He went out to resume His journey, there came a man running up to Him, who knelt at His feet and asked, "Good Rabbi, what am I to do in order to inherit the Life of the Ages?"

"Why do you call me good?" asked Jesus in reply; "there is no one truly good except One--that is, God.

Then Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said, "One thing is lacking in you: go, sell all you possess and give the proceeds to the poor, and you shall have riches in Heaven; and come and be a follower of mine."

The disciples were amazed at His words. Jesus, however, said again, "Children, how hard a struggle is it for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God!

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

Jesus looking on them said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for everything is possible with God."