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

When Zechariah saw him, he was agitated, even overwhelmed with fear.

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

He will go before Him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the upright, to make ready for the Lord a people perfectly prepared."

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

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

So the angel came to her home and said, "Congratulations, you highly favored woman! The Lord be with you!"

Listen! You will become pregnant and bear a son, and you must 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,

and she went to Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

He shows His mercy from age to age to those who fear him.

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

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

So they began to make signs to his father to find out what he might wish him to be named.

and all who heard them kept them in their hearts, and said, "What then is this child to be?" for the hand of the Lord was with him.

to grant us deliverance from the dreaded hand of our foes, so that we could serve Him

to register with Mary who was engaged to be married to him and who was an expectant mother.

and she bore her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him up and laid Him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.

"Glory to God in highest heaven! And peace on earth to men who please him."

When He was eight days old and it was time to circumcise Him, He was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before Mary had conceived Him.

Now when the period of their purification ended, in accordance with the law of Moses, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, to do as it is written in the law of the Lord,

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

So under the Spirit's guidance he went into the temple, and when the parents brought the child Jesus there to do for Him as the custom of the law required,

Symeon also took Him in his arms and blessed God, and said:

And His father and mother kept wondering at the things spoken by Symeon about Him.

And the child continued to grow and gain in strength; He continued to increase in wisdom, and the spiritual blessing of God was on Him.

They supposed that He was somewhere in the caravan, and so they traveled a whole day before they began to make an anxious search for Him among His relatives and acquaintances.

As they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem in anxious search for Him.

And after three days they finally found Him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

Now everyone who was listening to Him was showing astonishment at His intelligence and at His answers.

When His parents saw Him, they were utterly amazed, and yet His mother said to Him, "My child, why did you treat us so? Just see how your father and I, in agony of mind, have been searching for you!"

as it is written in the sermon-book of the prophet Isaiah: "Here is a voice of one shouting in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord, make the paths straight for Him.

So he used to say to the crowds that continued to come out there to be baptized by him: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to escape from the wrath that is coming?

So the crowds were asking him this question, "What then ought we to do?"

He answered them, "The man who has two shirts must share with him who has none, and the man who has food must do the same."

Then even the tax-collectors came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what ought we to do?"

Then some soldiers too were asking him, "What ought we too to do?" So he said to them, "Never extort money from anyone, never make a false accusation, and always be satisfied with your wages."

But Herod the governor, because he was repeatedly reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the wicked deeds that Herod had done,

and the Holy Spirit came down upon Him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, "You are my Son, my Beloved! In you I am delighted!"

Then the devil said to Him, "If you are God's Son, order this stone to turn to a loaf of bread."

But Jesus answered him, "The Scripture says, 'Not on bread alone does man live.'"

Then he took Him up and in a second of time he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world.

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

But Jesus answered him, "The Scripture says, 'You must worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone.'"

Then he took Him to Jerusalem, and had Him stand on the tip-top turret of the temple, and said to Him, "If you are God's Son, throw yourself down from here,

And Jesus answered him, "It has been said, 'You must not try the Lord your God.'"

After the devil had finished every sort of temptation, he left Him till another time.

Then Jesus in the power of the Spirit returned to Galilee, and news of Him spread all over the surrounding country.

The roll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him, and He unrolled it and found the place where it was written:

Then He rolled up the roll and gave it back to the attendant and took His seat. Now the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were gazing at Him.

So they all began to speak well of Him and to wonder at the gracious words that fell from His lips, and yet they continued to say, "Is He not Joseph's son?"

and they rose up and drove Him out of town and took Him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, to hurl Him down the cliff.

But Jesus reproved him, saying "Be quiet! Get out of him at once!" So the demon threw the man down in the midst of them and came out of him without doing him any harm.

And so news of Him continued to spread to every place in the surrounding region.

Then He rose to leave the synagogue, and He went to Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a burning fever; so they asked Him about her.

As the sun was setting, all who had friends sick with various diseases brought them to Him. Then He continued to lay His hands upon them one by one and cured them.

As day broke He left the house and went to a lonely spot, and the crowds continued to look for Him; they overtook Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them.

Once as the crowd was pressing against Him to hear the message of God, He found Himself standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret.

So 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 continued to teach the crowds from the boat.

For at the haul of fish that they had made, bewildering amazement had seized him and all his men,

So after they had brought the boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

Now while He was in one of the towns, a man covered with leprosy saw Jesus and fell on his face and begged Him, saying, "Lord, if you choose to, you can cure me."

So He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, "I do choose to; be cured." And at once the leprosy left him.

Then He warned him not to tell anybody, but rather He said, "Go, show yourself to the priest, and, to prove it to the people, make the offering for your purification, just as Moses prescribed."

But the news about Him continued to spread, and great crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be cured of their diseases.

One day as He was teaching, there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Him to cure people.

Now some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were trying to get him in and lay him before Jesus.

And as they could not find a way because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his pallet through the tiles, among the people right in front of Jesus.

But to show you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth" -- turning to the man who was paralyzed, He said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet, and go home."

Then at once he got up before them all, picked up the pallet on which he had been lying, and went off home, giving praise to God.

After this He went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi in his seat at the tax-collector's desk, and He said to him, "Follow me."

So he left everything behind, got up and followed Him.

Then Levi gave a great reception for Him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others who were at table with them.

After that they said to Him, "John's disciples rigidly practice fasting and offering up prayers; so do the Pharisees, but your disciples keep right on eating and drinking."

And the scribes and the Pharisees were closely watching Him to see whether He would cure him on the Sabbath, in order to get a charge against Him.

Then He glanced around at them all and said to him, "Put out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was at once completely restored.

When day came, He called His disciples to Him, and selected from them twelve whom He also named apostles:

Then He came down with them and took His stand on a level place, where there was a great throng of His disciples and a vast crowd 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.

So all the people were trying to touch Him, because power continued to go forth from Him and to cure them all.

To the man who strikes you on one cheek, offer him the other too; and from the man who takes away your coat, do not keep back your shirt either,

Practice giving to everyone who asks of you, and stop demanding back your goods from him who takes them away.

There was a Roman captain who had a slave that was very dear to him, and he was sick and at the point of death,

When the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to Him, to ask Him to come and bring his slave safe through the illness.

So they went to Jesus and continued to urge Him earnestly, saying, "He deserves that you do this for him,

Then Jesus started to go with them. But when He was not far from the house, the captain sent friends to say to Him, "My Lord, stop troubling yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

When Jesus heard this, He was astounded at him, and turning to the crowd that was following Him He said, "I tell you, I have not found, in a single case among the Jews, so great faith as this!"

Soon afterwards He chanced to go to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great throng of people were going along with Him.

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

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

Now John's disciples told him about all these things.

So John called two of them to him and sent them to the Lord, to ask, "Are you the One who was to come, or should we continue to look for someone else?"

So 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 continue to look for someone else?'"

And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, vindicated the righteous requirements of God by submitting to John's baptism,

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

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking with others, and yet you say, 'Just look at Him! A glutton and a wine-drinker, an intimate friend of tax-collectors and notorious sinners!'

Now one of the Pharisees invited Him to take dinner with him. So He came to the Pharisee's house and took His place at the table.

and took her stand behind Him at His feet, continually weeping. Then she began to wet His feet with her tears, but she continued to wipe them off with the hair of her head, and she kept right on kissing His feet with affection and anointing them with the perfume.

So when the Pharisee who invited Him saw it, he said to himself, "If He were really a prophet, He would know who and of what character the woman is who is clinging to Him -- that she is a social outcast."

Then Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," said he, "go on and say it."

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