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

When Zechariah saw him he was startled and overcome with fear.

And the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

He will go before him with the spirit and the power of Elijah, to reconcile fathers to their children, and to bring the disobedient back to the wisdom of upright men, to make a people perfectly ready for the Lord."

And when his period of service was over, he went back to his home.

You are to become a mother and you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his forefather David,

He shows his mercy age after age To those who fear him.

So Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned home.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father.

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

and everyone who heard them kept them in mind, and said, "What is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

And should serve him in holiness and uprightness, unafraid, In his own presence all our lives.

to register with Mary, who was engaged to him and who was soon to become a mother.

and she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped him up, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.

And the shepherds went back glorifying God and praising him for all that they had heard and seen in fulfilment of what they had been told.

When he was eight days old and it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, as the angel had named him, before his birth was first expected.

When their purification period under the Law of Moses was over, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,

It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not die without seeing the Lord's Messiah.

And under the Spirit's influence he went into the Temple, and when Jesus' parents brought him there to do for him what the Law required,

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

And the child grew up and became strong and thoughtful, with God's blessing resting on him.

They supposed that he was somewhere in the party, and traveled until the end of the first day's journey, and then they looked everywhere for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

As they could not find him, they went back to Jerusalem in search of him.

And on the third day they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions,

and everyone who heard him was astonished at his intelligence and at the answers he made.

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."

So he would say to the crowds that came out there to be baptized by him, "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to fly from the wrath that is coming?

The crowds would ask him, "Then what ought we to do?"

Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Master, what ought we to do?"

And soldiers would ask him, "And what ought we to do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money or make false charges against people, but be satisfied with your pay."

and the holy Spirit came down upon him in the material shape of a dove, and there came a voice from heaven, "You are my Son, my Beloved! You are my Chosen!"

And the devil said to him, "If you are God's son, tell this stone to turn into bread!"

And he took him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And the devil said to him, "I will give you all this power and their splendor, for it has been turned over to me, and I can give it to anyone I please.

Jesus answered, "The Scripture says, 'You must do homage before the Lord your God, and worship him alone.' "

And he took him to Jerusalem, and made him stand on the summit of the Temple, and said to him, "If you are God's son, throw yourself down from here,

When the devil had tried every kind of temptation he left him till another time.

Under the power of the Spirit Jesus returned to Galilee, and news of him went all over that region.

And the roll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled it and found the place where it says,

And he rolled up the roll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed upon him.

And they all spoke well of him and were astonished at the winning words that fell from his lips, and they said, "Is he not Joseph's son?"

and they got up and drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, intending to throw him down from it.

Jesus reproved him and said, "Silence! Get out of him!" And the demon threw the man down in the midst of them, and came out of him, without doing him any harm.

And news of him spread to every place in that region.

When he got up and left the synagogue, he went to Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was suffering with a severe attack of fever, and they asked him about her.

As the sun went down all who had friends sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and cured them.

When it was day, he left the house and made his way to a lonely spot, and crowds of people went in search of him, and overtook him and tried to keep him from leaving them.

Once as the crowd was pressing about him to hear God's message, he happened to be standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

And he got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds of people from the boat.

For he and all the men with him were perfectly amazed at the haul of fish they had made,

And they brought the boats to land and left everything and followed him.

When he was in one of the towns, he came upon a man covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus he fell down on his face, and begged him, saying, "If you only choose, sir, you can cure me!"

And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I do choose! Be cured!" And the leprosy immediately left him,

Then he warned him to tell nobody, "But go," he said, "show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure make the offerings for your purification, just as Moses prescribed."

Yet the news about him spread more and more, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.

Some men came up carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to get him in and lay him before Jesus.

And as they could find no way to get him in, on account of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his mat through the tiles, among the people in front of Jesus.

But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"??urning to the man who was paralyzed he said to him??"I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

And he got up at once before them all, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, praising God.

After this he went out, and he saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting at the tollhouse, and he said to him, "Follow me!"

And he left everything and got up and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great entertainment for him in his house, and there was a great throng of tax-collectors and others who were at table with them.

They said to him, "John's disciples observe frequent fasts and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples eat and drink."

And the scribes and the Pharisees were on the watch to see whether he would cure people on the Sabbath, in order to find a charge to bring against him.

When day came, he called his disciples to him, and chose twelve of them whom he named apostles:

And he came down with them and took his stand on a level place with a great throng of his disciples, and a large number of people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and the seacoast district of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.

And all the people tried to touch him, because power went forth from him and cured them all.

When the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and save his slave's life.

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.

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!"

Soon afterward he happened to go to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great throng of people were with him.

And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him back to his mother.

This story about him spread all over Judea and the surrounding country.

John's disciples told him of all this,

and he called two of them to him, and sent them to the Master to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?"

And the men went to him and said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?' "

And blessed is the man who finds nothing that repels him in me."

And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, acknowledged the justice of God's demands, by accepting baptism from John,

but the Pharisees and experts in the Law thwarted God's purpose for themselves, by refusing to be baptized by him.

Now that the Son of Man has come, he does eat and drink, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drinker, the companion of tax-collectors and irreligious people!'

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.

and came and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with her hair, and kissed them, and put the perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were really a prophet, he would know who and what the woman is who is touching him, for she leads a wicked life."

Jesus answered him, and said to him, "Simon, there is something I want to say to you." He said, "Proceed, Master."

"Two men were in debt to a money-lender. One owed him a hundred dollars and the other ten.

As they could not pay him, he canceled what they owed him. Now which of them will be more attached to him?"

The men at table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this man, who even forgives sins?"

Soon afterward he went about among the villages and towns preaching and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve went with him,

When a great throng was gathering and people were coming to him from one town after another, he said in his figurative way,

And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!" As he said this he called out, "Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!"

His disciples asked him what this figure meant.

His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him, on account of the crowd.

And the word came to him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside; they want to see you."

And they went to him and woke him up, and said to him, "Master! Master! We are lost!" Then he awoke and reproved the wind and the rough water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.

And he said to them, "Where is your faith?" But they were frightened and amazed, and said to one another, "Who can he be? For he gives orders even to the winds and the water, and they obey him!"

When he saw Jesus he cried out and threw himself down before him, and said in a loud voice, "What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!"

For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert.

And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion!" For many demons had gone into him.