it fell to him by lot, as was the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense,

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him he was troubled, and fear fell on him;

but the angel said to him, "Fear not, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard; your wife Elizabeth will bear a son to you, and you must call his name John.

he will go in front of Him with the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make a people ready and prepared for the Lord."

He will be great, he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father;

his mercy is on generation after generation, for those who reverence him.

All who heard of it bore it in mind; they said, "Whatever will this child become?" For the hand of the Lord was indeed with him.

that freed from fear and from the hand of our foes we should worship him

she gave birth to her firstborn son, and as there was no room for them inside the khan she wrapped him up and laid him in a stall for cattle.

When the days for their purification in terms of the Mosaic law had elapsed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Symeon, an upright and devout man, who was on the outlook for the Consolation of Israel. The holy Spirit was upon him;

indeed it had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he was not to see death before he had seen the Lord messiah.

By an inspiration of the Spirit he came to the temple, and when the parents of the child Jesus carried him in to perform the customary regulations of the law for him,

then Symeon took him in his arms, blessed God, and said,

His father and mother were astonished at these words about him,

Now at that very hour she came up, and she offered praise to God and spoke of him to all who were on the outlook for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was on him.

they supposed he was in the caravan and travelled on for a day, searching for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances.

Then, as they failed to find him, they came back to Jerusalem in search of him.

Three days later they found him in the temple, seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,

When his parents saw him they were astounded, and his mother said to him, "My son, why have you behaved like this to us? Here have your father and I been looking for you anxiously!"

Then he went down along with them to Nazaret, and did as they told him. His mother treasured up everything in her heart.

and he went into all the Jordan-district preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ??4 as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one who cries in the desert, 'Make the way ready for the Lord, level the paths for him.

To the crowds who came out to get baptized by him John said, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath?

The crowds asked him, "Then what are we to do?"

He replied, "Let everyone who possesses two shirts share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Taxgatherers also came to get baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what are we to do?"

Soldiers also asked him, "And what are we to do?" He said to them, "Never extort money, never lay a false charge, but be content with your pay."

But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife as well as for all the wickedness that he, Herod, had committed,

and the holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him; and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my son, the Beloved, to-day have I become thy father."

and for forty days he was led by the Spirit in the desert, while the devil tempted him. During these days he ate nothing, and when they were over he felt hungry.

The devil said to him, "If you are God's son, tell this stone to become a loaf."

Jesus replied to him, "It is written, Man is not to live on bread alone."

Then he lifted Jesus up and showed him all the realms of the universe in a single instant;

and the devil said to him, "I will give you all their power and grandeur, for it has been made over to me and I can give it to anyone I choose.

Jesus answered him, "It is written, You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone."

Then he brought him to Jerusalem and placing him on the pinnacle of the temple said to him, "If you are God's son, throw yourself down from this;

Jesus answered him, "It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

And after exhausting every kind of temptation the devil left him till a fit opportunity arrived.

Then Jesus came back in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and the news of him spread over all the surrounding country.

Then, folding up the book, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him,

All spoke well of him and marvelled at the gracious words that came from his lips; they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"

they rose up, put him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to hurl him down.

But Jesus checked it, saying, "Be quiet, come out of him." And after throwing him down before them the daemon did come out of him without doing him any harm.

And a report of him spread over all the surrounding country.

When he got up to leave the synagogue he went to the house of Simon. Simon's mother-in-law was laid up with a severe attack of fever, so they asked him about her;

At sunset all who had any people ill with any sort of disease brought them to him; he laid his hands on everyone and healed them.

When day broke he went away out to a lonely spot, but the crowds made inquiries about him, came to where he was, and tried to keep him from leaving them.

Now as the crowd were pressing on him to listen to the word of God, he saw, as he stood beside the lake of Gennesaret,

So he entered one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the land. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

For amazement had seized him and all his companions at the take of fish they had caught;

Then they brought the boats to land, and leaving all they followed him.

When he was in one of their towns, there was a man full of leprosy who, on seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, "If you only choose, sir, you can cleanse me."

So he stretched his hand out and touched him, with the words, "I do choose, be cleansed." And the leprosy at once left him.

Jesus ordered him not to say a word to anybody, but to "Go off and show yourself to the priest, and offer whatever Moses prescribed for your cleansing, to notify men."

But the news of him spread abroad more and more; large crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their complaints,

One day he was teaching, and near him sat Pharisees and doctors of the Law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judaea as well as from Jerusalem. Now the power of the Lord was present for the work of healing.

Some men came up carrying a man who was paralysed; they tried to carry him inside and lay him in front of Jesus,

but when they could not find any means of getting him in, on account of the crowd, they climbed to the top of the house and let him down through the tiles, mattress and all among the people in front of Jesus.

On going outside after this he noticed a taxgatherer called Levi sitting at the tax-office and said to him, "Follow me";

he rose, left everything and followed him.

Levi held a great banquet for him in his house; there was a large company present of taxgatherers and others who were guests along with them.

They said to him, "The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, as do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your adherents eat and drink."

and the scribes and Pharisees watched to see if he would heal on the sabbath, so as to discover some charge against him.

With them he came down the hill and stood on a level spot. There was a great company of his disciples with him, and a large multitude of people from all Judaea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to get cured of their diseases.

Indeed the whole of the crowd made efforts to touch him, for power issued from him and cured everybody.

If a man strikes you on the one cheek, offer him the other as well: if anyone takes your coat, do not deny him your shirt as well;

so, when the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and make his servant well.

When they reached Jesus they asked him earnestly to do this. "He deserves to have this favour from you," they said,

So Jesus went with them. But he was not far from the house when the captain sent some friends to tell him, "Do not trouble yourself, sir, I am not fit to have you under my roof,

When Jesus heard this he marvelled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed he said, "I tell you, I have never met faith like this anywhere even in Israel."

Then the corpse sat up and began to speak; and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

John's disciples reported all this to him.

One of the Pharisees asked him to dinner, and entering the house of the Pharisee he reclined at table.

and stood behind him at his feet in tears; her tears began to wet his feet, so she wiped them with the hair of her head, pressed kisses on them, and anointed them with the perfume.

When his host the Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, "If he was a prophet he would know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him; for she is a sinner."

Then Jesus addressed him. "Simon," he said, "I have something to say to you." "Speak, teacher," he said.

"There was a moneylender who had two debtors; one owed him fifty pounds, the other five.

As they were unable to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, now, which of them will love him most?"

Joanna the wife of Chuza the chancellor of Herod, Susanna, and a number of others, who ministered to him out of their means.

As a large crowd was gathering and as people were resorting to him from town after town, he addressed them in a parable.

some other seed fell on sound soil, and springing up bore a crop, a hundredfold." When he said this he called out, "He who has an ear, let him listen to this."

The disciples questioned him about the meaning of the parable;

So take care how you listen; for he who has, to him shall more be given, while as for him who has not, from him shall be taken even what he thinks he has."

His mother and brothers reached him but they were unable to join him for the crowd.

Word was brought to him that "your mother and brothers are standing outside; they wish to see you."

they went and woke him up. "Master, master," they cried, "we are drowning!" So he woke up and checked the wind and the surf; they ceased and there was a calm.

Then he said to them, "Where is your faith?" They marvelled in awe, saying to one another, "Whatever can he be? He gives orders to the very winds and water, and they obey him!"

As he stepped out on land he was met by a man from the town who had daemons in him; for a long while he had worn no clothing, and he stayed not in a house but among the tombs.

On catching sight of Jesus he shrieked aloud and prayed him with a loud cry, "Jesus, son of God most High, what business have you with me? Do not torture me, I beg of you."

(For he had charged the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many a time when it had seized hold of him, he had been fastened secure in fetters and chains, but he would snap his bonds and be driven by the daemon into the desert.)

So Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he said, for a number of daemons had entered him.

And they begged him not to order them off to the abyss.

Now a considerable drove of swine was grazing there on the hillside, so the daemons begged him for leave to enter them. He gave them leave,

and then all the inhabitants of the surrounding country of the Gergesenes asked him to leave them, they were so seized with terror. He embarked in the boat and went back.

The man whom the daemons had left begged that he might accompany him. Jesus, however, sent him away, saying,

"Go home and describe all that God has done for you." So he went off to proclaim through the whole town all that Jesus had done for him.

On his return Jesus was welcomed by the crowd; they were all looking out for him.

A man called Jairus came, who was a president of the synagogue, and falling at the feet of Jesus entreated him to come to his house,