For that reason, Theophilus, and because I have investigated it all carefully from the beginning, I have determined to write a connected account of it for Your Excellency,

They were both upright in the sight of God, blamelessly observing all the Lord's commands and requirements.

while all the throng of people was outside, praying at the hour of the incense offering.

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.

This will bring gladness and delight to you, and many will rejoice over his birth.

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth,

and he will turn many of Israel's descendants to the Lord their God.

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."

Now you will keep silent and be unable to speak until the day when this happens, because you have not believed what I have said, for it will all be fulfilled in due time."

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,

and he will reign over Jacob's house forever; his reign will have no end."

The angel answered, "The holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason your child will be called holy, and the Son of God.

Blessed is she who has believed, For what the Lord has promised her will be fulfilled!"

For he has noticed his slave in her humble station, For from this time all the ages will think me favored!

And they were all amazed. Then his voice and the use of his tongue were immediately restored, and he blessed God aloud.

And all their neighbors were overcome with fear, and all over the hill-country of Judea all these stories were told,

"By the lips of his holy prophets he promised of old to do this??71 To save us from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us,

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

"And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the Lord to make his way ready,

"Because the heart of our God is merciful, And so the day will dawn upon us from on high,

In those days an edict was issued by the Emperor Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken.

While they were there, the time came for her child to be born,

The angel said to them, "Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people,

And this will prove it to you: You will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a manger."

And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,

but Mary treasured up all they had said, and pondered over it.

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.

"Now, Master, you will let your slave go free In peace, as you promised,

Which you have set before all the nations,

And he gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child's mother, "This child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a portent that will be much debated??35 you yourself will be pierced to the heart??nd so the thoughts of many minds will be revealed."

She came up just at that time and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were living in expectation of the liberation of Jerusalem.

And he went back with them to Nazareth and obeyed them. And his mother treasured all these things up in her mind.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod governor of Galilee, while his brother Philip was governor of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the governor of Abilene,

And he went all through the Jordan Valley preaching repentance and baptism in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins,

And all mankind is to see how God can save!"

Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather,' for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones!

As all this aroused people's expectations, and they were all wondering in their hearts whether John was the Christ,

John said to them all, "I am only baptizing you in water, but someone is coming who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire.

He has his winnowing fork in his hand, to clean up his threshing-floor, and store his wheat in his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with inextinguishable fire."

but Herod the governor, whom he condemned because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the wicked things Herod had done,

crowned them all by putting John in prison.

Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also after his baptism was praying, heaven opened

Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his work. He was the son, it was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Eli,

for forty days by the Spirit, and was tempted by the devil. In all those days he ate nothing, and when they were over he was famished.

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.

If you will do homage before me, it shall all be yours."

for the Scripture says, 'He will give his angels orders about you, to protect you,'

and, 'They will lift you up with their hands, so that you may never strike your foot against a stone.' "

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

And he taught in their synagogues, and was honored by them all.

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?"

He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: 'Doctor, cure yourself! Do the things here in your own country that we hear you did at Capernaum.'

But, I tell you, there were plenty of widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was closed for three years and a half, and there was a great famine all over the land,

And when the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all very angry,

And they were all amazed and said to one another, "What is the meaning of this teaching? For he gives orders authoritatively and effectually to the foul spirits, and they come out."

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.

Simon answered, "Master, we worked all night and caught nothing, but as you tell me to do it, I will put down the nets."

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

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

They were all seized with astonishment, and praised God, and filled with awe they said, "We have seen something wonderful today!"

Jesus answered them, "It is not well people but the sick who have to have the doctor.

Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

But other days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, in those days they will fast."

He used this figure also in speaking to them: "No one tears a piece from a new coat and sews it on an old one, or if he does, he will both tear the new one and the piece from the new one will not match the old one.

And nobody puts new wine into old wine-skins, or if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and run out, and the skins will be spoiled.

And he looked around at them all and said to the man, "Hold out your hand!" And he did so, and his hand was restored.

It was in those days that he went up on the mountain to pray, and passed the whole night in prayer to God.

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.

"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied! "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh!

Be glad when that happens, and leap for joy, for you will be richly rewarded in heaven, for that is the way their forefathers treated the prophets.

"Alas for you who have plenty to eat now, for you will be hungry! "Alas for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep!

"Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is the way their forefathers treated the false prophets!

"But I tell you who hear me, love your enemies, treat those who hate you well,

But love your enemies, and help them and lend to them, never despairing, and you will be richly rewarded, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Do not judge others, and they will not judge you. Do not condemn them, and they will not condemn you. Excuse others and they will excuse you.

Give, and they will give to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will pour into your lap. For the measure you use with others they in turn will use with you."

And he used a figure saying, "Can one blind man lead another? Will they not both fall into a hole?

A pupil is not better than his teacher, but every pupil when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

If anyone comes to me and listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it, I will show you whom he is like.

He is like a man who was building a house, who dug deep and laid his foundation upon the rock, and when there was a flood the torrent burst upon that house and could not shake it, because it was well built.

When he had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum.

And when the messengers went back to the house, they found the slave well.

And they were all overcome with awe, and they praised God, and said, "A great prophet has appeared among us!" and "God has not forgotten his people!"

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

John's disciples told him of all this,

This is the man of whom the Scripture says, " 'Here I send my messenger on before you, He will prepare the road ahead of you!'

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

So wisdom is vindicated by all who are really wise."

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

You did not put any oil upon my head, but she has put perfume upon my feet.

The ones on the rock are those who receive the message joyfully when they first hear it, but it takes no real root. They believe for a little while, and then in the time of trial they draw back.

So take care how you listen. For people who have will have more given to them, and from people who have nothing, even what they think they have will be taken away."

Then all the people of the neighborhood of Gerasa asked him to go away from them, for they were terribly frightened. And he got into a boat and went back.

"Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you." And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

When Jesus returned, the people welcomed him, for they were all watching for him.

Jesus said, "Who was it who touched me?" And as everyone denied having done so, Peter said, "Master, the people are all around you and they are crowding you."

When the woman saw that she had not escaped his notice, she came forward trembling, and fell down before him, and before all the people told why she had touched him, and how she had been cured at once.