He is a voice of one who shouts in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord; make the paths straight for Him.'"

And people from all over Judea and everybody in Jerusalem kept on going out to him and being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

And just as soon as He started to come up out of the water, He saw the heavens split open and the Spirit coming down like a dove to enter Him.

Then the Spirit at once drove Him out into the desert.

And He stayed in the desert forty days, while He was being tempted by Satan; yea, He was with the wild beasts, but the angels continued to wait upon Him.

And at once they forsook their nets and followed Him.

He at once called them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and went after Him.

Jesus reproved him, saying, "Hush up, get out of him!"

Then the foul spirit convulsed him and with a deafening shriek got out of him.

They were all so dumbfounded that they kept discussing it among themselves, and asking, "What does this mean? It is a new teaching. He gives orders with authority even to foul spirits, and they obey Him."

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went home with Simon and Andrew, in company with James and John.

And Simon's mother-in-law was confined to her bed with a fever. So they at once told Him about her.

In the evening, when the sun had gone down, they kept on bringing to Him all the people who were sick or under the power of demons,

And Simon and his companions diligently searched for Him

and found Him, and said to Him, "Everybody is looking for you."

There came to Him a leper, begging Him on his knees, saying to Him, "If you want to, you can cure me."

And His heart was moved with pity for him, so He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said, "I do want to! Be cured!"

And the leprosy at once left him, and he was cured.

But Jesus at once drove him out of their presence, and gave him this stringent charge:

But he went out and began to publish it so much and to spread the story so far, that Jesus could not any more go into any town openly, but had to stay out in thinly settled places. But the people kept coming to Him from every quarter.

After some days He came back to Capernaum, and it was reported that He was at home,

Then four men came bringing to Him a paralyzed man.

And as they could not get him near to Jesus, on account of the crowd, they dug through the roof over the spot where He was standing and let the pallet down that the paralyzed man was lying on.

Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say to him, 'Get up, pick up your pallet and start walking!"

"I tell you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home."

He went out of the town again and along the seashore, and all the people kept coming to Him and He kept teaching them.

And as He was passing by, He saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting in the tax-collector's office, and He said to him, "Follow me." Then he got up and followed Him.

Levi was at table in his house, and he had many tax-collectors and notorious sinners as guests, along with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many of them, and they began to follow Him.

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. So some people came and asked Him, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples practice fasting, but yours never do?"

So the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Just look! Why are they doing on the Sabbath what it is against the law to do?"

And they kept closely watching Him, to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, to get a charge to bring against Him.

Then the Pharisees went out and held a consultation with the Herodians against Him, to put Him to death.

So Jesus retired with His disciples to the sea, and a vast throng of people followed Him from Galilee, and from Judea,

and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from the other side of the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon -- yes, a vast throng of people, as they kept hearing of the great things that He was doing, came to Him.

So He told His disciples to keep a little boat ready for Him all the time, to prevent the crowds from crushing Him.

For He cured so many people that all who had ailments kept crowding up against Him to touch Him.

And whenever the foul spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and screamed, "You are the Son of God."

Then He went up on the hillside and summoned to Him those whom He wanted, and they went to Him.

And He appointed the Twelve, to whom He gave the title, apostles, to be with Him, to send them forth to preach,

and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Then He went home.

His kinsmen heard of it and came over to get hold of Him, for they kept saying, "He has gone crazy."

So He called them to Him, and continued speaking to them in short stories, as follows: "How can Satan drive out Satan?

Then His mother and His brothers came. They were standing outside and sent word to call Him.

And a crowd was sitting around Him when they told Him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you."

Then looking around at the people sitting about Him, He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.

Then He began again to teach by the seashore. And a crowd gathered around Him so great that He got into a boat and was sitting in it, just off the shore, while all the people were on the land close to the sea.

And He said, "Let him who has ears listen!"

When He was by Himself, those who stayed about Him with the Twelve began to ask Him about the stories.

If anyone has ears let him listen!"

For whoever has will have more given to him, but whoever has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."

So they left the crowd and took Him in the boat in which he was sitting. And there were other boats with Him.

He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, "Teacher, is it no concern to you that we are going down?"

They were very much frightened, and said to one another, "Who can He be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

As soon as He got out of the boat, a man under the power of a foul spirit and from the tombs met Him.

This man lived among the tombs, and no one could any longer subdue him even with a chain,

for he had often been fastened with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one was strong enough to overpower him.

On catching a glimpse of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell down on his knees before Him,

For Jesus was saying to him, "You foul spirit, come out of him."

He asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

And they kept on earnestly begging Him not to send them out of that country.

And they begged Him, "Send us among the hogs, so that we can get into them."

And as He was getting into the boat, the once insane man kept begging Him to let him go with Him.

However, He did not let him, but said to him, "Go home to your folks, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and has taken pity on you."

And so he went away and began to tell everybody in the Ten Cities how much Jesus had done for him; and everybody was dumbfounded.

When Jesus again had crossed in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him, as He was standing on the seashore.

and kept earnestly begging Him, saying, "My dear little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live."

So He went off with him, and a great crowd kept following Him, and jostling Him.

heard the reports about Jesus. So she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His coat,

Jesus at once perceived that power had gone out of Him, and so He turned around in the crowd, and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

But the disciples kept saying to Him, "You see the crowd jostling you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"

So the woman, as she knew what had taken place for her, though frightened and trembling, came forward and fell on her knees before His feet, and told Him the whole truth.

He let no one go with Him but Peter, James, and James's brother John.

They came to the home of the leader of the synagogue, and there He saw confusion, and people weeping and wailing without restraint.

Then they began to laugh in His face. But He drove them all out, and took the little girl's father and mother and the men with Him, and went into the room where the little girl was.

He left there and went back to His hometown, and His disciples followed Him.

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue. And the people were dumbfounded when they heard Him, and said, "Where did He get all these things? What sort of wisdom is it that has been given Him? And such mighty deeds are done by Him!

Is He not the carpenter, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And do not His sisters live here among us?" And so they found a cause for stumbling over him.

But Jesus said to them, "A prophet never fails to be honored except in his native neighborhood, among his kinsmen, and in his own home."

And He wondered at their lack of faith in Him. Then He made a circle of the villages and continued teaching.

And He called the Twelve to Him and sent them out two by two, and gave them power over the foul spirits.

King Herod heard of Him, for His name was now on everybody's lips, and people were saying that John the Baptist had risen from the dead, and that this was why such mighty powers were working in Him.

But when Herod heard of Him, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has risen from the dead."

For this very Herod had sent and seized John and bound him and put him in prison, just to please Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

So Herodias had it in for him and wanted to have him killed. But she could not have it done,

for Herod stood in awe of John, because he knew that he was an upright and holy man, and so he protected him. When he heard him speak, he was very much disturbed, and yet he liked to hear him.

She left the room and asked her mother, "What shall I ask him for?" And she answered, "The head of John the Baptist."

The apostles returned and met Jesus and reported to Him everything, how many things they had done and taught.

When it grew late, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a destitute place and it is already late.

But He answered them, "Give them something to eat yourselves." Then they said to Him, "Shall we go and buy forty dollars' worth of bread and give it to them to eat?"

Then He asked them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." They found out and told Him, "Five, and two fish."

Then He insisted that the disciples at once get into their boat and cross ahead of Him toward Bethsaida, while He was sending the crowd away.

But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost and screamed aloud,

for they all saw Him and were terrified. But He at once spoke to them and said, "Keep up courage! It is I; stop being afraid."

As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Him

and hurried all over the countryside and began to bring the sick to Him on their pallets, wherever they heard He was.

And whatever villages or towns or country places He came to, they would lay the sick in the market-places and beg Him to let them touch just the tassel of His coat, and everybody that touched it was cured.

The Pharisees met about Him, and also some scribes who had come from Jerusalem.

And so the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why is it that your disciples do not practice the customs handed down from our forefathers, but eat their meals without purifying their hands?"

you let him off from doing anything more for his father or mother;

Again He called the people to Him and said, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand.