It seemed good to me, having made observation, with great care, of the direction of events in their order, to put the facts in writing for you, most noble Theophilus;

And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear came on him.

But the angel said, Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John.

For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord; he will not take wine or strong drink; and he will be full of the Spirit of God from his birth.

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 people were waiting for Zacharias and were surprised because he was in the Temple for such a long time.

After that time, Elisabeth, being certain that she was to become a mother, kept herself from men's eyes for five months, saying,

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

And the angel said to her, Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval.

He will have rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

For there is nothing which God is not able to do.

For, truly, when the sound of your voice came to my ears, the baby in my body made a sudden move for joy.

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.

For he who is strong has done great things for me; and holy is his name.

His mercy is for all generations in whom is the fear of him.

His help he has given to Israel, his servant, so that he might keep in mind his mercy to Abraham and his seed for ever,

And Mary was with her for about three months and then went back to her house.

Now it was time for Elisabeth to give birth, and she had a son.

And he sent for writing materials and put down: His name is John; and they were all surprised.

And straight away his mouth was open and his tongue was free and he gave praise to God.

And fear came on all those who were living round about them: and there was much talk about all these things in all the hill-country of Judaea.

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.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and made them free,

Lifting up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

Salvation from those who are against us, and from the hands of those who have hate for us;

That we, being made free from the fear of those who are against us, might give him worship,

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

And she had her first son; and folding him in linen, she put him to rest in the place where the cattle had their food, because there was no room for them in the house.

And an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining round about them: and fear came on them.

And the angel said, Have no fear; for truly, I give you good news of great joy which will be for all the people:

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

Then the keepers of the sheep went back, giving glory and praise to God for all the things which had come to their ears and which they had seen, as it had been said to them.

And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth.

And when the necessary days for making them clean by the law of Moses had come to an end, they took him to Jerusalem to give him to the Lord

And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.

And coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, talking of him to all those who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem.

And in the belief that he was with some of their number, they went a day's journey; and after looking for him among their relations and friends,

And seeing that he was not there, they went back to Jerusalem, to make search for him.

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.

And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? was it not clear to you that my right place was in my Father's house?

And he came into all the country round about Jordan, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed.

So he said to the people who went out to him for baptism: You offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come?

Make clear by your acts that your hearts have been changed; and do not say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children of Abraham.

And even now the axe is put to the root of the trees; and every tree which does not have good fruit will be cut down and put into the fire.

Then tax-farmers came to him for baptism and said to him, Master, what have we to do?

And men of the army put questions to him, saying, And what have we to do? And he said to them, Do no violent acts to any man, and do not take anything without right, and let your payment be enough for you.

John made answer, saying to them all, Truly, I give you baptism with water, but one is coming who is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit, and with fire:

In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned in the fire which will never be put out.

For forty days, being tested by the Evil One. And he had no food in those days; and when they came to an end, he was in need of food.

And the Evil One said, I will give you authority over all these, and the glory of them, for it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone at my pleasure.

And he took him to Jerusalem and put him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, let yourself go down from here; for it is said in the Writings,

And when all these tests were ended the Evil One went away from him for a time.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make well those who are broken-hearted; to say that the prisoners will be let go, and the blind will see, and to make the wounded free from their chains,

Truly I say to you, There were a number of widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months and there was no food in the land;

And they were surprised at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

And wonder came on them all and they said to one another, What are these words? for with authority and power he gives orders to the evil spirits and they come out.

And he got up and went out of the Synagogue and went into the house of Simon. And Simon's wife's mother was very ill with a burning heat; and in answer to their prayers for her

And when it was day, he came out and went to a waste place; and great numbers of people came looking for him, and they came to him and would have kept him from going away.

And when his talk was ended, he said to Simon, Go out into deep water, and let down your nets for fish.

But Simon, when he saw it, went down at the knees of Jesus and said, Go away from me, O Lord, for I am a sinner.

For he was full of wonder and so were all those who were with him, at the number of fish which they had taken;

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 he gave him orders: Say nothing to any man, but let the priest see you and give an offering so that you may be made clean, as the law of Moses says, and for a witness to them.

But he went away by himself to a waste place for prayer.

And it came about that on one of these days he was teaching; and some Pharisees and teachers of the law were seated there, who had come from every town of Galilee and Judaea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him, to make those who were ill free from their diseases.

And seeing their faith he said, Man, you have forgiveness for your sins.

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?

Which is the simpler: to say, You have forgiveness for your sins; or to say, Get up and go?

But so that you may see that on earth the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins, (he said to the man who was ill,) I say to you, Get up, and take up your bed, and go into your house.

And wonder overcame them all, and they gave glory to God; and they were full of fear, saying, We have seen strange things today.

And Levi made a great feast for him in his house: and a great number of tax-farmers and others were seated at table with them.

And he said to them, in a story, No man takes a bit of cloth from a new coat and puts it on to an old coat, for so the new coat would be damaged and the bit from the new would not go well with the old.

And no man puts new wine into old wine-skins, for fear that the skins will be burst by the new wine, and the wine be let out, and the skins come to destruction.

And no man, having had old wine, has any desire for new, for he says, The old is better.

Now it came about that on the Sabbath he was going through the fields of grain, and his disciples took the heads of the grain for food, crushing them in their hands.

How he went into the house of God and took for food the holy bread, which only the priests may take, and gave it to those who were with him?

And it came about in those days that he went out to the mountain for prayer; and he was all night in prayer to God.

And all the people were desiring to be touched by him, for power came from him and made them all well.

And turning his eyes to his disciples he said, Happy are you who are poor: for the kingdom of God is yours.

Happy are you who are in need of food now: for you will be made full. Happy are you who are weeping now; for you will be glad.

Happy are you, when men have hate for you, and put you away from among them and say angry words to you, turning away in disgust at your name, because of the Son of man.

Be glad in that day, and be lifted up for joy, for your reward in heaven will be great: for their fathers did these same things to the prophets.

But unhappy are you who have wealth: for you have been comforted now.

Unhappy are you who are full of food now: for you will be in need. Unhappy are you who are laughing now: for you will be crying in sorrow.

Unhappy are you when all men give you their approval: for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

But I say to you who give ear to me, Have love for those who are against you, do good to those who have hate for you,

Give blessing to those who give you curses, say prayers for those who are cruel to you.

If you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners have love for those who have love for them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners do the same.

But be loving to those who are against you and do them good, and give them your money, not giving up hope, and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High: for he is kind to evil men, and to those who have hard hearts.

Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged: do not give punishment to others, and you will not get punishment yourselves: make others free, and you will be made free:

Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, crushed down, full and running over, they will give to you. For in the same measure as you give, it will be given to you again.

And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, Is it possible for one blind man to be guide to another? will they not go falling together into a hole?

For no good tree gives bad fruit, and no bad tree gives good fruit.

For every tree is judged by its fruit. Men do not get figs from thorns, or grapes from blackberry plants.

The good man, out of the good store of his heart, gives good things; and the evil man, out of his evil store, gives evil: for out of the full store of the heart come the words of the mouth.

But he who gives hearing, without doing, is like a man building a house on the earth without a base for it; and when the force of the river came against it, straight away it came down; and the destruction of that house was great.

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.