just as the original eye-witnesses who became teachers of the message have handed it down to us.

"This is what the Lord has done for me," she said, "now that he has deigned to remove the disgrace I have endured."

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

And the angel went into the town and said to her, "Good morning, favored woman! The Lord be with you!"

In those days Mary set out and hurried to the hill-country, to a town in Judah,

"For the Almighty has done wonders for me, How holy his name is!

"He has done mighty deeds with his arm, He has routed the proud-minded,

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

So everyone went to his own town to register.

And Joseph went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and family of David,

for today, in the town of David, a Savior for you has been born who is your Messiah and Lord.

When they had done everything that the Law of the Lord required, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

But the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire."

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

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 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,

"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, For he has consecrated me to preach the good news to the poor, He has sent me to announce to the prisoners their release and to the blind the recovery of their sight, To set the down-trodden at liberty,

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 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.

And he came down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee. And he taught them on the Sabbath,

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.

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.

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.

When he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Push out into deep water, and then put down your nets for a haul."

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

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' feet and said, "Leave me, Master, for I am a sinful man."

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 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.

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.

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."

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

As he came up to the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out; he was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A crowd of the townspeople was with her.

Now there was a woman in the town who was leading a sinful life, and when she learned that he was having dinner at the Pharisee's house, she got an alabaster flask of perfume,

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

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

So they set sail. As they sailed along, he fell asleep. And a squall of wind came down upon the lake, and they were being swamped and were in peril.

And when he landed, he met a man possessed by demons, who was coming out of the town. He had worn no clothing for a long time, and did not live in a house but in the tombs.

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!"

When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran away and spread the news in the town and in the country around.

"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.

And a man named Jairus came up??e was leader of the synagogue??nd he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house,

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.

And where they will not welcome you, leave that town and shake off the very dust from your feet as a protest against them."

Then the apostles came back and told Jesus what they had done. And he took them and quietly retired to a town called Bethsaida.

For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each."

And they did so, and made them all sit down.

The next day, when they had come down from the mountain, it happened that a great crowd met him.

Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him, but Jesus reproved the foul spirit and cured the boy and gave him back to his father.

When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Master, will you have us order fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

After this the Master appointed seventy-two others, and sent them on before him, two by two, to every town or place to which he intended to come.

Whenever you come to a town and they welcome you, eat what is offered you,

But whenever you come to a town and they do not welcome you, go out into the open streets and say,

'The very dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off in protest. But understand this: the Kingdom of God is at hand!'

I tell you, on that Day Sodom will fare better than that town!

Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes!

And you, Capernaum! Are you to be exalted to the skies? You will go down among the dead!

Jesus replied, "A man was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went off leaving him half dead.

Then he said, 'This is what I will do; I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and in them I will store all my grain and my goods.

I have come to bring fire down to the earth, and how I wish it were kindled already!

And he said to the gardener, 'Here I have come three years to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the ground?'

perhaps it will bear fruit next year. But if it does not, you can have it cut down.' "

And the slave said, 'What you ordered, sir, has been done, and there is still room.'

What man among you if he wishes to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost of it, to see whether he has enough to complete it?

Or what king, if he is going to meet another king in battle, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the other who is coming against him with twenty thousand?

Or what woman who has ten silver coins and loses one, does not light the lamp and sweep the house and look carefully until she finds it?

He said, 'Eight hundred gallons of oil.' And he said to him, 'Here is your agreement; sit right down and write four hundred!'

And a beggar named Lazarus was put down at his gate covered with sores

"What man among you, if he has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at the table,'

So you also, when you do all you have been ordered to do, must say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves! We have done only what we ought to have done!' "

And as he was going into one village he met ten lepers, and they stood at some distance from him,

And Jesus said, "Were not all ten cured? Where are the other nine?

A man who is on the roof of his house that day, with his goods in the house, must not go down to get them, and a man in the field, too, must not turn back.

But when he heard that, he was much cast down, for he was very rich.

When Jesus reached the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, come down quickly! for I must stay at your house today."

And he came down quickly and welcomed him gladly.

And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone.

And he said to him, 'Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.'

for I was afraid of you, for you are a stern man. You pick up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.'

He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will convict you, you wretched slave! You knew, did you, that I was a stern man, and that I pick up what I did not lay down, and harvest what I did not sow?

Just as he was coming down the Mount of Olives and approaching the city, the whole throng of his disciples began to praise God loudly and joyfully, for all the wonders they had seen,

and he said to them, "The Scripture says, 'And my house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"

"As for all this that you are looking at, the time is coming when not one stone will be left here upon another that will not be torn down!"

But take care that your hearts are not loaded down with self-indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares, and that day takes you by surprise, like a trap.

And he withdrew about a stone's throw from them, and kneeling down he prayed

and said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. But not my will but yours be done!"

And they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat about it, and Peter sat down among them.

When Herod saw Jesus he was delighted, for he had wanted for a long time to see him, because he had heard about him and he hoped to see some wonder done by him.

Neither has Herod, for he has sent him back to us. You see he has done nothing to call for his death.

And he said to them a third time, "Why, what has he done that is wrong? For I have found nothing about him to call for his death. So I will teach him a lesson and let him go."

And Pilate pronounced sentence that what they asked for should be done.

And we are suffering it justly, for we are only getting our deserts, but this man has done nothing wrong."

who had not voted for the plan or action of the council. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and lived in expectation of the Kingdom of God.

Then he took it down from the cross and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb hewn in the rock, where no one had yet been laid.

but on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking spices they had prepared.

and said to them, "The Scriptures said that Christ should suffer as he has done, and rise from the dead on the third day,

And I will send down upon you what my Father has promised. Wait here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."