The whole of Judea, as well as all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, went out to him; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

As Jesus was going along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the Sea, for they were fishermen.

Going on a little further, he saw James, Zebediah's son, and his brother John, who also were in their boat mending the nets.

The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught them like one who had authority, and not like the Teachers of the Law.

"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

And they were all so amazed that they kept asking: "What is this? Strange teaching indeed! He gives his commands with authority even to the foul spirits, and they obey him!"

In the evening, after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who were ill or possessed by demons;

Jesus cured many who were ill with various diseases, and drove out many demons, and would not permit them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ.

One day a leper came to Jesus and, falling on his knees, begged him for help. "If only you are willing," he said, "you are able to make me clean."

"Be careful not to say anything to any one; but go and show yourself to the Priest, and make the offerings for your cleansing directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure."

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: "Child, your sins are forgiven."

But some of the Teachers of the Law who were sitting there were debating in their minds:

Jesus, at once intuitively aware that they wee debating with themselves in this way, said to them: "Why are you debating in your minds about this?

Which is easier?--to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven'? or to say 'Get up, and take up your mat, and walk about'?

"To you I say, Get up, take up your mat, and return to your home."

The man got up, and immediately took up his mat, and went out before them all; at which they were amazed, and, as they praised God, they said: "We have never seen anything like this!"

And later on he was in his house at table, and a number of tax-gatherers and outcasts took their places at table with Jesus and his disciples; for many of them were following him.

Hearing this, Jesus said: "It is not those who are in health that need a doctor, but those who are ill. I did not come to call the religious, but the outcast."

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, and people came and asked Jesus: "Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, while yours do not?"

And no man ever puts new wine into old wine-skins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are lost. But new wine is put into fresh skins."

"Look!" the Pharisees said to him, "why are they doing what is not allowed on the Sabbath?"

How he went into the House of God, in the time of Abiathar the High Priest, and ate 'the consecrated bread,' which only the priests are allowed to eat, and gave some to his comrades as well?"

On another occasion Jesus went in to a Synagogue, where they was a man whose hand was withered.

And to the people he said: "Is it allowable to do good on the Sabbath--or harm? to save a life, or destroy it?"

As they remained silent, Jesus looked round at them in anger, grieving at the hardness of their hearts, and said to the man: "Stretch out your hand." The man stretched it out; and his hand had become sound.

For he had cured many of them, and so people kept crowding upon him, that all who were afflicted might touch him.

The foul spirits, too, whenever they caught sight of him, flung themselves down before him, and screamed out: "You are the Son of God"!

Jesus went into a house; and again a crowd collected, so that they were not able even to eat their food.

There was a crowd sitting round Jesus, and some of them said to him: "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you."

Then he looked around on the people sitting in a circle round him, and said: "Here are my mother and my brothers!

Jesus again began to teach by the Sea; and, as an immense crowd was gathering round him, he got into a boat, and sat in it on the Sea, while all the people were on the shore at the water's edge.

Some fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and, having no depth of soil, sprang up at once;

And he said: "To you the hidden truth of the Kingdom of God has been imparted; but to those who are outside it all teaching takes the form of parables, that--

The People meant by the seed that falls along the path are these--where the Message is sown, but, as soon as they have heard it, Satan immediately comes and carries away the Message that has been sown in them.

So, too, those meant by the seed sown on the rocky places are the people who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully;

But, as they have no root, they stand only for a short time; and so, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Message, they fall away at once.

Those meant by the seed sown among the brambles are different; they are the people who hear the Message,

But the people meant by the seed sown on the good ground are those who hear the Message, and welcome it, and yield a return, thirty, sixty, and even a hundred fold."

And Jesus said to them: "Is a lamp brought to be put under the corn-measure or under the couch, instead of being put on the lampstand?

The ground bears the crop of itself--first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear;

With many such parables Jesus used to speak to the people of his Message, as far as they were able to receive it;

So, leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.

Jesus was in the stern asleep upon the cushion; and the disciples roused him and cried: "Teacher! is it nothing to you that we are lost?"

"Why are you so timid?" he exclaimed. "Have you no faith yet?"

But they were struck with great awe, and said to one another: "Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

And he asked him: "What is your name?" "My name," he said, "is Legion, for there are many of us;"

Jesus gave them leave. They came out, and entered into the pigs; and the drove--about two thousand in number--rushed down the steep slope into the Sea and were drowned in the Sea.

When they came to Jesus, they found the possessed man sitting there, clothed and in his right mind--the very man who had had the 'Legion' in him--and they were awe-struck.

But Jesus refused. "Go back to your home, to your own people," he said, "and tell them of all that the Lord has done for you, and how he took pity on you."

By the time Jesus had re-crossed in the boat to the opposite shore, a great number of people had gathered to meet him, and were standing by the Sea.

"My little daughter," he said, "is at the point of death; I beg you to come and place your hands on her, that her life may be spared."

"Daughter," he said, "your faith has delivered you. Go, and peace be with you; be free from your complaint."

Before he had finished speaking, some people from the house of the President of the Synagogue came and said: "Your daughter is dead! Why should you trouble the Teacher further?"

But Jesus, overhearing what they were saying, said to the President of the Synagogue: "Do not be afraid; only have faith."

Presently they reached the President's house, where Jesus saw a scene of confusion--people weeping and wailing incessantly.

They began to laugh at him; but he sent them all out, and then, with the child's father and mother and his companions, went into the room where she was lying.

The little girl stood up at once, and began to walk about; for she was twelve years old. And, as soon as they saw it, they were overwhelmed with amazement;

When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the Synagogue; and the people, as they listened, were deeply impressed. "Where did he get this?" they said, "and what is this wisdom that has been given him? and these miracles which he is doing?

Is not he the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters, too, living here among us?" This proved a hindrance to their believing in him;

He instructed them to take nothing but a staff for the journey- -not even bread, or a bag, or pence in their purse;

But they were to wear sandals, and not to put on a second coat.

And if a place does not welcome you, or listen to you, as you go out of it shake off the dust that is on the soles of your feet, as a protest against them."

They drove out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were infirm, and cured them.

Now King Herod heard of Jesus; for his name had become well known. People were saying--"John the Baptizer must have risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are active in him."

For John had said to Herod--'You have no right to be living with your brother's wife.'

And when his daughter--that is, the daughter of Herodias--came in and danced, she delighted Herod and those who were dining with him. 'Ask me for whatever you like,' the King said to the girl, 'and I will give it to you';

"Come by yourselves privately to some lonely spot," he said, "and rest for a while"--for there were so many people coming and going that they had not time even to eat.

On getting out of the boat, Jesus saw a great crowd, and his heart was moved at the sight of them, because they were 'like sheep without a shepherd'; and he began to teach them many things.

But Jesus answered: "It is for you to give them something to eat." "Are we to go and buy twenty pounds' worth of bread," they asked, "to give them to eat?"

The men who ate the bread were five thousand in number.

For all of them saw him, and were terrified. But Jesus at once spoke to them. "Courage!" he said, "it is I; do not be afraid!"

Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. The disciples were utterly amazed,

Hurried over the whole country-side, and began to carry about upon mats those who were ill, wherever they heard he was.

So wherever he went--to villages, or towns, or farms--they would lay their sick in the market-places, begging him to let them touch only the tassel of his cloak; and all who touched were made well.

When they come from market, they will not eat without first sprinkling themselves; and there are many other customs which they have inherited and hold to, such as the ceremonial washing of cups, and jugs, and copper pans).

So the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law asked Jesus this question--"How is it that your disciples do not follow the traditions of our ancestors, but eat their food with defiled hands?"

His answer was: "It was well said by Isaiah when he prophesied about you hypocrites in the words--'This is a people that honor me with their lips, While their hearts are far removed from me;

Wisely do you set aside God's commandments," he exclaimed, "to keep your own traditions!

For while Moses said 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' and 'Let him who reviles his father or mother suffer death,'

You say 'If a man says to his father or mother "Whatever of mine might have been of service to you is Korban"' (which means 'Given to God')--

Why, then you do not allow him to do anything further for his father or mother!

In this way you nullify the words of God by your traditions, which you hand down; and you do many similar things."

There is nothing external to a man, which by going into him can 'defile' him; but the things that come out from a man are the things that defile him."

"For saying that," he answered, "you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

The man's ears were opened, the string of his tongue was freed, and he began to talk plainly.

"Where will it be possible," his disciples answered, "to get sufficient bread for these people in this lonely place?"

The people had sufficient to eat, and they picked up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left.

There were about four thousand people. Then Jesus dismissed them.

And, noticing this, Jesus said to them: "Why are you talking about your being short of bread? Do not you yet see or understand? Are your minds still so slow or comprehension?

"But you," he asked, "who do you say that I am?" To this Peter replied: "You are the Christ."

"I tell you," he added, "that some of those who are standing here will not know death till they have seen the Kingdom of God come in power."

And Elijah appeared to them, in company with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.

For he did not know what to say, because they were much afraid.

As they were going down the mountain-side, Jesus cautioned them not to relate what they had seen to any one, till after the Son of Man should have risen again from the dead.

"How is it," they asked Jesus, "that our Teachers of the Law say that Elijah has to come first?"

"What are you arguing about with them?" Jesus asked.

And, wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he is pining away. I asked your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they failed."

But the disciples did not understand his meaning and were afraid to question him.

They came to Capernaum. When Jesus had gone into the house, he asked them: "What were you discussing on the way?"

But they were silent; for on the way they had been arguing with one another which was the greatest.