and inasmuch as I have gone carefully over them all myself from the very beginning, I have decided, O Theophilus, to write them out in order for your excellency,

but they had no child, for Elizabeth was barren. Both of them were advanced in years.

When Zechariah saw him he was troubled, and fear fell on him;

but the angel said to him, "Fear not, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard; your wife Elizabeth will bear a son to you, and you must call his name John.

It will be joy and gladness for you, and many will rejoice over his birth:

for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, he will drink neither wine nor strong drink, he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth;

he will go in front of Him with the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make a people ready and prepared for the Lord."

But you will be silent and unable to speak till the day this happens, because you have not believed what I told you; it will be accomplished, for all that, in due time."

Now the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering that he stayed so long inside the sanctuary.

After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and for five months she concealed herself.

"The Lord has done this for me," she said, "he has now deigned to remove my reproach among men."

But the angel said to her, "Fear not, Mary, you have found favour with God.

for with God nothing is ever impossible."

In those days Mary started with haste for the hill-country, for a town of Judah;

Why, as soon as the sound of your salutation reached my ears, the babe leapt for joy within my womb.

for he has considered the humiliation of his servant. From this time forth all generations will call me blessed,

for He who is Mighty has done great things for me. His name is holy,

his mercy is on generation after generation, for those who reverence him.

as he promised our fathers, to have mercy on Abraham and his offspring for ever."

Now the time for Elizabeth's delivery had elapsed, and she gave birth to a son.

and he asked for a writing-tablet and wrote down, "His name is John," to the astonishment of all.

Then fear fell on all their neighbours, and all these events were talked of through the whole of the hill-country of Judaea.

All who heard of it bore it in mind; they said, "Whatever will this child become?" For the hand of the Lord was indeed with him.

"Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, for he has cared for his people and wrought them redemption;

he has raised up a strong saviour for us in the house of his servant David

that freed from fear and from the hand of our foes we should worship him

And you, my child, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go in front of the Lord to make his ways ready,

Now in those days an edict was issued by Caesar Augustus for a census of the whole world.

and while they were there the days elapsed for her delivery;

she gave birth to her firstborn son, and as there was no room for them inside the khan she wrapped him up and laid him in a stall for cattle.

but the angel said to them, "Have no fear. This is good news I am bringing you, news of a great joy that is meant for all the People.

And here is a proof for you: you will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a stall for cattle."

"Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth for men whom he favours!"

So they made haste and discovered Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the stall for cattle.

and as for Mary, she treasured it all up and mused upon it.

Then the shepherds went away back, glorifying and extolling God for all they had heard and seen as they had been told they would.

When the eight days had passed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus ??the name given by the angel before he had been conceived in the womb.

When the days for their purification in terms of the Mosaic law had elapsed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Symeon, an upright and devout man, who was on the outlook for the Consolation of Israel. The holy Spirit was upon him;

By an inspiration of the Spirit he came to the temple, and when the parents of the child Jesus carried him in to perform the customary regulations of the law for him,

for mine eyes have seen thy saving power

to be a light of revelation for the Gentiles and a glory to thy people Israel."

but Symeon blessed them, and to his mother Mary he said, "This child is destined for the downfall as well as for the rise of many a one in Israel; destined to be a Sign for man's attack ??35 to bring out the secret aims of many a heart. And your own soul will be pierced by a spear."

and having been a widow for eighty-four years. She was never away from the temple; night and day she worshipped, fasting and praying.

Now at that very hour she came up, and she offered praise to God and spoke of him to all who were on the outlook for the redemption of Jerusalem.

they supposed he was in the caravan and travelled on for a day, searching for him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances.

When his parents saw him they were astounded, and his mother said to him, "My son, why have you behaved like this to us? Here have your father and I been looking for you anxiously!"

"Why did you look for me?" he said, "Did you not know I had to be at my Father's house?"

and he went into all the Jordan-district preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ??4 as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah, The voice of one who cries in the desert, 'Make the way ready for the Lord, level the paths for him.

Now, produce fruits that answer to your repentance, instead of beginning to say to yourselves, 'We have a father in Abraham.' I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

The axe is lying all ready at the root of the trees; any tree that is not producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

John said to them all, "I baptize you with water, but after me one who is mightier will come, and I am not fit to untie the string of his sandals; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing-fan is in his hand to purge his threshing-floor, to gather the wheat into his granary and burn the straw with fire unquenchable."

But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife as well as for all the wickedness that he, Herod, had committed,

and for forty days he was led by the Spirit in the desert, while the devil tempted him. During these days he ate nothing, and when they were over he felt hungry.

and the devil said to him, "I will give you all their power and grandeur, for it has been made over to me and I can give it to anyone I choose.

for it is written, He will give his angels charge of you,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: for he has consecrated me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release for captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to set free the oppressed,

I tell you for a fact, In Israel there were many widows during the days of Elijah, when the sky was closed for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land:

they were astounded at his teaching, for his word came with authority.

He answered them, "I must preach the glad news of the Reign of God to the other towns as well, for that is what I was sent to do."

When he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Push out to the deep water and lower your nets for a take."

For amazement had seized him and all his companions at the take of fish they had caught;

as was the case with James and John, the sons of Zebedaeus, who were partners of Simon. Then said Jesus to Simon, "Have no fear; from now your catch will be men."

Jesus ordered him not to say a word to anybody, but to "Go off and show yourself to the priest, and offer whatever Moses prescribed for your cleansing, to notify men."

One day he was teaching, and near him sat Pharisees and doctors of the Law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judaea as well as from Jerusalem. Now the power of the Lord was present for the work of healing.

Levi held a great banquet for him in his house; there was a large company present of taxgatherers and others who were guests along with them.

Indeed the whole of the crowd made efforts to touch him, for power issued from him and cured everybody.

rejoice on that day and leap for joy! rich is your reward in heaven for their fathers did the very same to the prophets.

bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

If you only lend to those from whom you hope to get something, what credit is that to you? Even sinful men lend to one another, so as to get a fair return.

No, you must love your enemies and help them, you must lend to them without expecting any return; then you will have a rich reward, you will be sons of the Most High for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the evil.

give, and you will have ample measure given you ??they will pour into your lap measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over; for the measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to yourselves."

The good man produces good from the good stored in his heart, and the evil man evil from his evil: for a man's mouth utters what his heart is full of.

He is like a man engaged in building a house, who dug deep down and laid his foundation on the rock; when a flood came, the river dashed against that house but could not shake it, for it had been well built.

"for he is a lover of our nation; it was he who built our synagogue."

So Jesus went with them. But he was not far from the house when the captain sent some friends to tell him, "Do not trouble yourself, sir, I am not fit to have you under my roof,

For though I am a man under authority myself, I have soldiers under me; I tell one man to go, and he goes, I tell another to come, and he comes, I tell my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

And when the Lord saw her, he felt pity for her and said to her, "Do not weep."

So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to ask the Lord, "Are you the Coming One? Or are we to look out for someone else?"

When the men reached Jesus they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask if you are the Coming One or if we are to look out for someone else?"

Come, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet.

This is he of whom it is written, Here I send my messenger before your face, to prepare the way for you.

but the Pharisees and jurists, who had refused his baptism, frustrated God's purpose for themselves.)

For John the Baptist has come, eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a devil';

When his host the Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, "If he was a prophet he would know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him; for she is a sinner."

Then turning to the woman he said to Simon, "You see this woman? When I came into your house, you never gave me water for my feet, while she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair;

Therefore I tell you, many as her sins are, they are forgiven, for her love is great; whereas he to whom little is forgiven has but little love."

so he said, "It is granted you to understand the open secrets of the Reign of God, but the others get it in parables, so that for all their seeing they may not see, and for all their hearing they may not understand.

Those 'on the rock' are people who on hearing the word welcome it with enthusiasm, but they have no root; they believe for a while and fall away in the hour of trial.

As for the seed that fell among thorns, that means people who hear but who go and get choked with worries and money and the pleasures of life, so that they never ripen.

As for the seed in the good soil, that means those who hear and hold fast the word in a good and sound heart and so bear fruit stedfastly.

For nothing is hidden that shall not be disclosed, nothing concealed that shall not be known and revealed.

So take care how you listen; for he who has, to him shall more be given, while as for him who has not, from him shall be taken even what he thinks he has."

His mother and brothers reached him but they were unable to join him for the crowd.

As he stepped out on land he was met by a man from the town who had daemons in him; for a long while he had worn no clothing, and he stayed not in a house but among the tombs.

(For he had charged the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many a time when it had seized hold of him, he had been fastened secure in fetters and chains, but he would snap his bonds and be driven by the daemon into the desert.)

So Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he said, for a number of daemons had entered him.

Now a considerable drove of swine was grazing there on the hillside, so the daemons begged him for leave to enter them. He gave them leave,

"Go home and describe all that God has done for you." So he went off to proclaim through the whole town all that Jesus had done for him.