Many writers have undertaken to compose accounts of the movement which has developed among us,

just as the original eye-witnesses who became teachers of the message have handed it down to us.

For that reason, Theophilus, and because I have investigated it all carefully from the beginning, I have determined to write a connected account of it for Your Excellency,

so that you may be reliably informed about the things you have been taught.

The angel answered, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.

Now you will keep silent and be unable to speak until the day when this happens, because you have not believed what I have said, for it will all be fulfilled in due time."

"This is what the Lord has done for me," she said, "now that he has deigned to remove the disgrace I have endured."

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have gained God's approval.

and he will reign over Jacob's house forever; his reign will have no end."

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, when I have no husband?"

Who am I, To have the mother of my Lord come to me?

As he promised our forefathers To have mercy on Abraham and his descendants forever!"

But they made signs to the child's father and asked him what he wished to have the child named.

For my eyes have seen your salvation

Which you have set before all the nations,

When his parents saw him they were amazed, and his mother said to him. "My child, why did you treat us like this? Here your father and I have been looking for you, and have been very anxious."

Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

Jesus answered, "We have been told, 'You shall not try the Lord your God.' "

"Ha! What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are! You are God's Holy One!"

They were all seized with astonishment, and praised God, and filled with awe they said, "We have seen something wonderful today!"

Jesus answered them, "It is not well people but the sick who have to have the doctor.

I have not come to invite the pious but the irreligious to repentance!"

Jesus answered, "Have you not read even what David did, when he and his companions were hungry?

"But alas for you who are rich, for you have had your comfort!

"Alas for you who have plenty to eat now, for you will be hungry! "Alas for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep!

And they went to Jesus and urged him strongly to do it, and said, "He deserves to have you do this for him,

So Jesus went with them. But when he was not far from the house, the captain sent some friends to him, to say to him, "Master, do not take any more trouble, for I am not a suitable person to have you under my roof.

That is why I did not think I was fit to come to you. But simply say the word, and have my servant cured.

For I am myself under the orders of others, and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it."

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished at him, and turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such faith as this even in Israel!"

And he answered them, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind are regaining their sight, the lame can walk, the lepers are being cured and the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised and good news is being preached to the poor.

They are like children sitting about in the bazaar and calling out to one another, " 'We have played the flute for you, and you would not dance! We have wailed and you would not weep!'

One of the Pharisees asked him to have dinner with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.

So take care how you listen. For people who have will have more given to them, and from people who have nothing, even what they think they have will be taken away."

But Jesus heard it and said to him, "Do not be afraid; just have faith, and she will get well."

But Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who can this be about whom I hear such reports?" And he endeavored to see him.

But he said to them, "Give them food yourselves!" And they said, "We have only five loaves and two fish, unless we go ourselves and buy food for all these people."

For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each."

When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Master, will you have us order fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and wild birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head!"

Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes!

Here I have given you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and to trample on all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you at all.

At that moment he was inspired with joy, and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent, and revealing it to children! Yes, I thank you, Father, for choosing to have it so!

For I tell you, many prophets and kings have wished to see what you see, and could not see it, and to hear what you hear, and could not hear it!"

for a friend of mine has just come to my house after a journey, and I have nothing for him to eat,'

and he answers from inside, 'Do not bother me; the door is now fastened, and my children and I have gone to bed; I cannot get up and give you any.'

But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others.

Alas for you Pharisees! For you love to have the front seat in the synagogues and to be saluted with respect in public places.

Alas for you experts in the Law! For you have taken the key to the door of knowledge, but you have not entered it yourselves, and you have kept out those who tried to enter."

I tell you, who are my friends, have no fear of those who kill the body, and after that can do no more.

When they bring you before the synagogues or the magistrates or the authorities, you must have no anxiety about how to defend yourselves or what to say,

And he said to himself, 'What am I going to do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'

And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have great wealth stored up for years to come. Now take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself." '

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will have all you have prepared?'

And he said to his disciples, "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about life, wondering what you will have to eat, or about your body, wondering what you will have to wear.

Think of the crows! They do not sow or reap, and they have no storehouses or barns, and God feeds them. How much more you are worth than the birds!

But if God so dresses the wild grass, which is alive today, and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more surely will he clothe you, who have so little faith?

So you must not ask what you are to have to eat or drink, and you must not be anxious about it.

But you must strive to find his kingdom, and you will have these other things besides.

But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.

But one who does wrong without knowing them will be lightly punished. From anyone who has been given much, much will be required, and of the man to whom people have intrusted much, they will demand even more.

I have come to bring fire down to the earth, and how I wish it were kindled already!

I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am till it is over!

Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? Not peace, I tell you, but discord!

I tell you, you will never get out again until you have paid the last cent!"

And he said to the gardener, 'Here I have come three years to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the ground?'

perhaps it will bear fruit next year. But if it does not, you can have it cut down.' "

And did not this woman, who is a descendant of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen years, have to be released from those bonds on the Sabbath day?"

Then you will go on to say, 'We have been entertained with you, and you have taught in our streets!'

O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused!

"When someone invites you to a wedding supper, do not take the best place, for someone more distinguished than you are may have been invited,

And they all immediately began to excuse themselves. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land, and I must go and look at it. Please have me excused.'

Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. Please have me excused.'

Another said, 'I have married, and so I cannot come.'

For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall have any of my dinner!' "

and when he reaches home, he calls in his friends and neighbors, and says to them, 'Congratulate me, for I have found my lost sheep!'

And when she finds it, she calls in her friends and neighbors, and says to them, 'Congratulate me, for I have found the coin that I lost!'

When he came to himself he said, 'How many hired men my father has, who have more than enough to eat, and here I am, dying of hunger!

I will get up, and go to my father, and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your eyes;

His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your eyes; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired men!'

And he said to his father, 'Here I have served you all these years, and have never disobeyed an order of yours, and you have never given me a kid, so that I could entertain my friends.

But when your son here came, who has eaten up your property with women of the street, for him you killed the calf you have been fattening!'

But he said to him, 'My child, you have been with me all the time, and everything I have is yours.

So if you have proved untrustworthy in using your ill-gotten wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

And if you have been untrustworthy about what belonged to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you?

for I have five brothers; let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torture.'

Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.'

He might better have a millstone hung around his neck, and be thrown into the sea, than be a hindrance to one of these humble people.

And the Master said, "If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you might have said to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea,' and it would have obeyed you!

So you also, when you do all you have been ordered to do, must say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves! We have done only what we ought to have done!' "

And he would not for a time, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God nor respect for men,

But the tax-collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, and said, 'O God, have mercy on a sinner like me!'

People brought babies to him to have him touch them, but the disciples, when they saw it, reproved them for it.

And he said, "I have obeyed all these commandments ever since I was a child."

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "There is one thing that you still lack. Sell all that you have, and divide the money among the poor, and then you will have riches in heaven; and come back and be a follower of mine."

And when Jesus saw it, he said, "How hard it will be for those who have money to get into the Kingdom of God!

Peter said, "Here we have left home and followed you."

But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Master, "See, Master! I will give half my property to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay him four times as much."

And he said to him, 'Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.'

And the other one came in and said, 'Here is your twenty dollars, sir. I have kept it put away in a handkerchief,