it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus;

so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

“This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.”

And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.

And Mary said:
“My soul exalts the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.

“For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.

For my eyes have seen Your salvation,

and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”

John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.”

After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”

Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:

Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof;

for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

This is the one about whom it is written,
‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You,
Who will prepare Your way before You.’

Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet.

You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume.

And He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

“Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.

But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”

And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.”

But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.”

Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place.”

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy,

and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”

And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”

“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;

for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;

and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.

“When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’

“No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

“I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.

“And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God;

but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’

Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.

But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk;

For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.

and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’

And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’

Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.

And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.

But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’

Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’

And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’

When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’

The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them.

But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!

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

I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’

But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;

And he said to him, ‘Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.

The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.

I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’

And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’

And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—