And Zacharias said to the angel, How may I be certain of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is far on in years.

And the angel, answering, said, I am Gabriel, whose place is before God; I have been sent to say these words to you and to give you this good news.

The Lord has done this to me, for his eyes were on me, to take away my shame in the eyes of men.

And Mary said to the angel, How may this be, because I have had no knowledge of a man?

Even now Elisabeth, who is of your family, is to be a mother, though she is old: and this is the sixth month with her who was without children.

For he has had pity on his servant, though she is poor and lowly placed: and from this hour will all generations give witness to the blessing which has come to me.

And all who had word of them kept them in their minds and said, What will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.

This was the first numbering, which was made when Quirinius was ruler of Syria.

For on this day, in the town of David, a Saviour has come to birth, who is Christ the Lord.

And this is the sign to you: you will see a young child folded in linen, in the place where the cattle have their food.

And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the keepers of the sheep said to one another, Let us go now to Beth-lehem, and see this thing which has come about, which the Lord has made clear to us.

And Simeon gave them his blessing and said to Mary, his mother, See, this child will be the cause of the downfall and the lifting up of great numbers of people in Israel, and he will be a sign against which hard words will be said;

And when they saw him they were surprised, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? see, your father and I have been looking for you with sorrow.

Did this most evil thing of all, and had John shut up in prison.

And Jesus at this time was about thirty years old, being the son (as it seemed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,

And the Evil One said to him, If you are the Son of God, give orders to this stone to become bread.

Then he said to them, Today this word has come true in your hearing.

And they were all giving witness, with wonder, to the words of grace which came from his mouth: and they said, Is not this the son of Joseph?

And when they had done this, they got such a great number of fish that it seemed as if their nets would be broken;

And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were working with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Have no fear; from this time forward you will be a fisher of men.

And the scribes and Pharisees were having an argument, saying, Who is this, who has no respect for God? who is able to give forgiveness for sins, but God only?

And a certain captain had a servant who was very dear to him; this servant was ill and near to death.

It is right for you to do this for him, because he is a friend to our nation, and himself has put up a Synagogue for us.

For I, myself, am a man under authority, having men under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.

And this story about him went through all Judaea and the places round about.

This is he of whom it has been said, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way before you.

What comparison am I to make of the men of this generation? what are they like?

Now when the Pharisee in whose house he was saw it, he said to himself, This man, if he was a prophet, would be conscious what sort of woman this is who has put her hands on him, that she is a sinner.

And turning to the woman he said to Simon, You see this woman? I came into your house; you did not give me water for my feet: but she has been washing my feet with the drops from her eyes, and drying them with her hair.

And those who were seated at table with him said to themselves, Who is this who even gives forgiveness of sins?

Now this is the point of the story: The seed is the word of God.

And he said to them, Where is your faith? And fear and wonder overcame them, and they said to one another, Who then is this, who gives orders even to the winds and the water and they do what he says?

And Herod said, I put John to death: but who is this, of whom such stories are given to me? And he had a desire to see him.

But he gave them special orders, not to say this to any man;

And there was a voice from the cloud saying, This is my Son, the man of my selection; give ear to him.

But this saying was not clear to them and its sense was kept secret from them so that they were not able to see it: and they had fear of questioning him about it.

And said to them, Whoever gives honour to this child in my name, gives honour to me: and whoever gives honour to me, gives honour to him who sent me: for whoever is least among you all, that man is great.

And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, may we send fire from heaven and put an end to them?

And whenever you go into a house, first say, Peace be to this house.

Even the dust of your town, which is on our feet, we put off as a witness against you; but be certain of this, that the kingdom of God is near.

And he said, You have given the right answer: do this and you will have life.

And the day after he took two pennies and gave them to the owner of the house and said, Take care of him; and if this money is not enough, when I come again I will give you whatever more is needed.

And when a great number of people came together to him, he said, This generation is an evil generation: it is looking for a sign and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of man be to this generation.

The queen of the South will come up on the day of judging and give her decision against the men of this generation: for she came from the ends of the earth to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon; and now something greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will come up in the day of judging and give their decision against this generation: for they were turned away from their sins at the preaching of Jonah; but now something greater than Jonah is here.

And one of the teachers of the law, answering, said to him, Master, in saying this, you give a bad name to us as to them.

For this reason the wisdom of God has said, I will send them prophets and teachers, and to some of them they will give death and cruel pains;

So that punishment may come on this generation for the blood of all the prophets which was given from the earliest days;

From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who was put to death between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I say to you, It will come on this generation.

And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods.

And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about what food you will take, or for your body, how it may be clothed.

But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into.

For from this time, a family of five in one house will be on opposite sides, three against two and two against three.

And he made up this story for them: A certain man had a fig-tree in his garden, and he came to get fruit from it, and there was no fruit.

And he said to the gardener, See, for three years I have been looking for fruit from this tree, and I have not had any: let it be cut down; why is it taking up space?

And he said, Lord, let it be for this year, and I will have the earth turned up round it, and put animal waste on it, to make it fertile:

And is it not right for this daughter of Abraham, who has been in the power of Satan for eighteen years, to be made free on the Sabbath?

At that time, certain Pharisees came to him and said, Go away from this place, because Herod's purpose is to put you to death.

And then the giver of the feast will come to you and say, Give your place to this man; and you, with shame, will have to take the lowest seat.

And saying, This man made a start at building and is not able to make it complete.

And the Pharisees and scribes were angry, saying, This man gives approval to sinners, and takes food with them.

For this, my son, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away from me, and has come back. And they were full of joy.

But when this your son came, who has been wasting your property with bad women, you put to death the fat young ox for him.

But it was right to be glad and to have a feast; for this your brother, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away and has come back.

And another time he said to the disciples, There was a certain man of great wealth who had a servant; and it was said to him that this servant was wasting his goods.

And he sent for him and said, What is this which is said about you? give me an account of all you have done, for you will no longer be the manager of my property.

And his lord was pleased with the false servant, because he had been wise; for the sons of this world are wiser in relation to their generation than the sons of light.

And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves through the wealth of this life, so that when it comes to an end, you may be taken into the eternal resting-places.

If, then, you have not been true in your use of the wealth of this life, who will give into your care the true wealth?

And he gave a cry and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may put the end of his finger in water and put it on my tongue, for I am cruelly burning in this flame.

For I have five brothers; and let him give them an account of these things, so that they may not come to this place of pain.

And the Lord said, If your faith was only as great as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this tree, Be rooted up and planted in the sea; and it would be done.

Have not any of them come back to give glory to God, but only this one from a strange land?

But first, he will have to undergo much and be put on one side by this generation.

Because this widow is a trouble to me, I will give her her right; for if not, I will be completely tired out by her frequent coming.

And he made this story for some people who were certain that they were good, and had a low opinion of others:

The Pharisee, taking up his position, said to himself these words: God, I give you praise because I am not like other men, who take more than their right, who are evil-doers, who are untrue to their wives, or even like this tax-farmer.

I say to you, This man went back to his house with God's approval, and not the other: for everyone who makes himself high will be made low and whoever makes himself low will be made high.

Who will not get much more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life.

And hearing the sound of a great number of people going by, he said, What is this?

And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, for even he is a son of Abraham.

And he sent for ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds and said to them, Do business with this till I come.

But his people had no love for him, and sent representatives after him, saying, We will not have this man for our ruler.

And when he had said this, he went on in front of them, going up to Jerusalem.

That the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people came to him and said, Make clear to us by what authority you do these things and who gave you this authority.

And he gave the people this story: A man made a vine-garden and gave the use of it to some field-workers and went into another country for a long time.

But when the workmen saw him, they said to one another, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property: let us put him to death and the heritage will be ours.

He will come and put them to destruction and give the garden to others. And when he said this, they said, May it not be so.

And the chief priests and the scribes made attempts to get their hands on him in that very hour; and they were in fear of the people, for they saw that he had made up this story against them.

And Jesus said to them, The sons of this world are married and have wives;

And some of the scribes, in answer to this, said, Master, you have said well.

And he said, Truly I say to you, This poor widow has given more than all of them:

But before all this, they will take you and be very cruel to you, giving you up to the Synagogues and to prisons, taking you before kings and rulers, because of my name.

It will be hard for women who are with child, and for her with a baby at the breast, in those days. For great trouble will come on the land, and wrath on this people.

Truly I say to you, This generation will not come to an end till all things are complete.

But give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net:

And he said, I have had a great desire to keep this Passover with you before I come to my death;

And he took a cup and, having given praise, he said, Make division of this among yourselves;

And he took bread and, having given praise, he gave it to them when it had been broken, saying, This is my body, which is given for you: do this in memory of me.