Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense;

and Zechariah on seeing him was agitated and terrified.

But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your petition has been heard: and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call his name John.

He will be great and He will be called 'Son of the Most High.' And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His forefather David;

And His compassion is, generation after generation, Upon those who fear Him.

And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and were going to call him Zechariah, after his father.

They asked his father by signs what he wished him to be called.

All who heard the story treasured it in their memories. "What then will this child be?" they said. For the lord's hand was indeed with him.

To grant us to be rescued from the power of our foes And so render worship to Him free from fear,

In piety and uprightness before Him all our days.

And you moreover, O child, shall be called Prophet of the Most High; For you shall go on in front before the Lord to prepare the way for Him,

And the child grew and became strong in character, and lived in the Desert till the time came for him to appear publicly to Israel.

to have himself registered together with Mary, who was betrothed to him and was with child.

and she gave birth to her first-born son, and wrapped Him round, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

"Glory be to God in the highest Heavens, And on earth peace among men who please Him!"

And when they saw the child, they told what had been said to them about Him;

When eight days had passed and the time for circumcising Him had come, He was called JESUS, the name given Him by the angel before His conception in the womb.

And when the days for their purification appointed by the Law of Moses had passed, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord--

Now there was a man in Jerusalem of the name of Symeon, an upright and God-fearing man, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

To him it had been revealed by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord's Anointed One.

Led by the Spirit he came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do with regard to Him according to the custom of the Law,

he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

And while the child's father and mother were wondering at the words of Symeon concerning Him,

And the child grew and became strong and full of wisdom, and the favour of God rested upon Him.

but supposing Him to be in the travelling company, they proceeded a day's journey. Then they searched up and down for Him among their relatives and acquaintances;

but being unable to find Him they returned to Jerusalem, making anxious inquiry for Him.

On the third day they found Him in the Temple sitting among the Rabbis, both listening to them and asking them questions,

while all who heard Him were astonished at His intelligence and at the answers He gave.

When they saw Him, they were smitten with amazement, and His mother said to Him, "My child, why have you behaved thus to us? Your father and I have been searching for you in anguish."

Accordingly John used to say to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, "O vipers' brood, who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

The crowds repeatedly asked him, "What then are we to do?"

There came also a party of tax-gatherers to be baptized, and they asked him, "Rabbi, what are we to do?"

The soldiers also once and again inquired of him, "And we, what are we to do?" His answer was, "Neither intimidate any one nor lay false charges; and be content with your pay."

But Herod the Tetrarch, being repeatedly rebuked by him about Herodias his brother's wife, and about all the wicked deeds that he had done,

and the Holy Spirit came down in bodily shape, like a dove, upon Him, and a voice came from Heaven, which said, "Thou art My Son, dearly loved: in Thee is My delight."

Then the Devil said to Him, "If you are God's Son, tell this stone to become bread."

The Devil next led Him up and caused Him to see at a glance all the kingdoms of the world.

And the Devil said to Him, "To you will I give all this authority and this splendour; for it has been handed over to me, and on whomsoever I will I bestow it.

Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'To the Lord thy God thou shalt do homage, and to Him alone shalt thou render worship.'"

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem and caused Him to stand on the roof of the Temple, and said to Him, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down from here; for it is written,

So the Devil, having fully tried every kind of temptation on Him, left Him for a time.

And there was handed to Him the book of the Prophet Isaiah, and, opening the book, He found the place where it was written,

And rolling up the book, He returned it to the attendant, and sat down--to speak. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

And they all spoke well of Him, wondering at the sweet words of kindness which fell from His lips, while they asked one another, "Is not this Joseph's son?"

They rose, hurried Him outside the town, and brought Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, to throw Him down the cliff;

But Jesus rebuked the demon. "Silence!" He exclaimed; "come out of him." Upon this, the demon hurled the man into the midst of them, and came out of him without doing him any harm.

And the talk about Him spread into every part of the neighbouring country.

Now when He rose and left the synagogue He went to Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from an acute attack of fever; and they consulted Him about her.

At sunset all who had friends suffering from any illness brought them to Him, and He laid His hands on them all, one by one, and cured them.

Demons also came out of many, loudly calling out, "You are the Son of God." But He rebuked them and forbad them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ.

Next morning, at daybreak, He left the town and went away to a solitary place; but the people flocked out to find Him, and, coming to the place where He was, they endeavoured to detain Him that He might not leave them.

On one occasion the crowd was pressing on Him and listening to God's Message, while He was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

and going on board one of them, which was Simon's He asked him to push out a little from land. Then He sat down and taught the crowd of people from the boat.

Then, after bringing their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

On another occasion, when He was in one of the towns, there was a man there covered with leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, threw himself at His feet and implored Him, saying, "Sir, if only you are willing, you are able to make me clean."

Reaching out His hand and touching him, Jesus said, "I am willing; be cleansed!" And instantly the leprosy left him.

He ordered him to tell no one. "But go," He said, "show yourself to the Priest, and make the offering for your purification which Moses appointed, as evidence for them."

But all the more the report about Him spread abroad, and great multitudes crowded to hear Him and to be cured of their diseases;

One day He was teaching, and there were Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village in Galilee and Judaea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present for Him to cure people.

And a party of men came carrying a palsied man on a bed, and they endeavoured to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

But when they could find no way of doing so because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiling--bed and all--into the midst, in front of Jesus.

He saw their faith and said to him, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

After this He went out and noticed a tax-gatherer, Levi by name, sitting at the Toll office; and He said to him, "Follow me."

He rose, left everything, and followed Him.

Again they said to Him, "John's disciples fast often and pray, as do also those of the pharisees; but yours eat and drink."

The Scribes and the Pharisees were on the watch to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath that they might be able to bring an accusation against Him.

With these He came down till He reached a level place, where there was a great crowd of His disciples, and a multitude of people from every part of Judaea, from Jerusalem, and from the sea-side district of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be cured of their diseases;

The whole crowd were eager to touch Him, because power went forth from him and cured every one.

To him who gives you a blow on one side of the face offer the other side also; and to him who is robbing you of your outer garment refuse not the under one also.

To every one who asks, give; and from him who takes away your property, do not demand it back.

and the Captain, hearing about Jesus, sent to Him some of the Jewish Elders, begging Him to come and restore his servant to health.

And they, when they came to Jesus, earnestly entreated Him, pleading, "He deserves to have this favour granted him,

Then Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the Captain sent friends to Him with the message: "Sir, do not trouble to come. I am not worthy of having you come under my roof;

Jesus listened to the Captain's message and was astonished at him, and He turned and said to the crowd that followed Him, "I tell you that not even in Israel have I found faith like that."

The dead man sat up and began to speak; and He restored him to his mother.

John's disciples brought him an account of all these things;

And all the people, including the tax-gatherers, when they listened to him upheld the righteousness of God, by being baptized with John's baptism.

Now one of the Pharisees repeatedly invited Him to a meal at his house; so He entered the house and reclined at the table.

Noticing this, the Pharisee, His host, said to himself, "This man, if he were really a Prophet, would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him--and would know that she is an immoral woman."

In answer to his thoughts Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have a word to say to you." "Rabbi, say on," he replied.

"There were once two men in debt to one money-lender," said Jesus; "one owed him five hundred shillings and the other fifty.

But neither of them could pay anything; so he freely forgave them both. Tell me, then, which of them will love him most?"

Shortly after this He visited town after town, and village after village, proclaiming His Message and telling the Good News of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him,

The disciples proceeded to ask Him what this parable meant.

Be careful, therefore, how you hear; for whoever has anything, to him more shall be given, and whoever has nothing, even that which he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."

Then came to Him His mother and His brothers, but could not get near Him for the crowd.

So they came and woke Him, crying, "Rabbi, Rabbi, we are drowning." Then He roused Himself and rebuked the wind and the surging of the water, and they ceased and there was a calm.

"Where is your faith?" He asked them. But they were filled with terror and amazement, and said to one another, "Who then is this? for He gives orders both to wind and waves, and they obey Him."

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, and said in a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of God Most High? Do not torture me, I beseech you."

For already He had been commanding the foul spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized and held him, and they had repeatedly put him in chains and fetters and kept guard over him, but he used to break the chains to pieces, and, impelled by the demon, to escape into the Desert.

"What is your name?" Jesus asked him. "Legion," he replied--because a great number of demons had entered into him;

and they besought Him not to command them to be gone into the Bottomless Pit.

Now there was a great herd of swine there feeding on the hill-side; and the demons begged Him to give them leave to go into them, and He gave them leave.

The demons came out of the man and left him, and entered into the swine; and the herd rushed violently over the cliff into the Lake and were drowned.

Then the whole population of the Gerasenes and of the adjacent districts begged Him to depart from them; for their terror was great. So He went on board and returned.

But the man from whom the demons had gone out earnestly asked permission to go with Him; but He sent him away.

"Return home," He said, "and tell there all that God has done for you." So he went and published through the whole town all that Jesus had done for him.

Now when Jesus was returning, the people gave Him a warm welcome; for they had all been looking out for Him.

Just then there came a man named Jair, a Warden of the Synagogue, who threw himself at the feet of Jesus, and entreated Him to come to his house;

for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. And as He went, the dense throng crowded on Him.