But the Angel said to him. "Do not be afraid, Zachariah, because your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

"And now you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day the day when this has taken place; because you did not believe my words??ords which will be fulfilled at their appointed time."

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city if Nazareth, into Judea, to David's town of Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

"Because my eyes had seen the salvation,

but Herod, the Tetrarch, when reproved by him because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and because of all the wicked deeds that he had done,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me Because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the prisoners, And recovery of sight to the blind; To set at liberty those that are bruised,

They were deeply impressed by his teaching because his speech was with authority.

Demons also came out of many, screaming and saying, "You are the Son of God." But he rebuked them, and did not permit them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

And behold there came men carrying a paralytic on a bed; and they tried to bring him and lay him before Jesus, but they could not because of the crowd.

The whole crowd were trying to touch him, because power emanated from him and cured them all.

"Blessed are you when men shall hate you, And excommunicate you and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil because of the Son of man.

"He is like a man who is building a house who digged and went deep and laid a foundation upon rock. And, when a flood came, the torrent dashed against that house, but could not move, because it had been founded upon rock.

"Some other seed dropped on the rock, as soon as it grew it withered away, because it had no moisture.

There came to him his mother and his brothers, and they could not reach him because of the crowd.

They began to laugh him to scorn, because they knew well that she was dead.

Now Herod, the Tetrarch, heard of all that was happening; and he was perplexed because of its being said by someone that John was risen from the dead;

"Master," said John, "we saw a man who was casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us."

But they did not receive him because his face was set to go to Jerusalem.

"I tell you that, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunate persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

"The queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them; because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and lo, one greater than Solomon is here!

"Do you suppose," he answered them, "that those Galileans were worse sinners than the rest of the Galileans because they have suffered thus?

"Then you will be blessed, because they have no means to repay you, but you shall be paid in the Resurrection of the Just."

"'Your brother is come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has him safe and sound.'

"And the master praised the unjust steward because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this world are in relation to their own generation wiser than the sons of the light.

"Does he think the slave because he did the things that were commanded?

"'yet because this woman annoys me I will give her justice, lest by her continual coming she wear me out.'

Moreover he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves because they were righteous, and looked down upon the rest.

And he kept trying to see what sort of a man Jesus was; but he could not see because he was short.

As they were listening to his words he added this parable, because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God was immediately to appear.

"And he said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'

"'For I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take what you did not sow.'

"you and your children within you. And they will not leave in you one stone upon the another. Because you knew not the time of your visitation."

Now when Herod saw Jesus he was exceedingly glad. He had long been wanting to see him, because he had heard so much about him, and was hoping to see some miracles performed by him.

Then Pilate spoke to them again, because he wished to release Jesus;