In the days when Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the division of Abijah. His wife was also a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

They had no children, for Elizabeth was barren; and they were both advanced in life.

Once when he was acting as priest before God, when his division was on duty,

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

When Zechariah saw him he was startled and overcome with fear.

And when his period of service was over, he went back to his home.

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

to a maiden there who was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The maiden's name was Mary.

But she was startled at what he said, and wondered what this greeting meant.

And your relative, Elizabeth, although she is old, is going to give birth to a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was said to be barren.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the babe stirred within her. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit

and everyone who heard them kept them in mind, and said, "What is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him.

And his father Zechariah was filled with the holy Spirit and he uttered a divine message, saying,

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

It was the first census, taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

to register with Mary, who was engaged to him and who was soon to become a mother.

and she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped him up, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.

When he was eight days old and it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, as the angel had named him, before his birth was first expected.

When their purification period under the Law of Moses was over, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,

Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Symeon, an upright, devout man, who was living in expectation of the comforting of Israel, and under the influence of the holy Spirit.

There was also a prophetess there named Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old, for after her girlhood she had been married for seven years,

and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer.

And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual to the festival and made their customary stay.

They supposed that he was somewhere in the party, and traveled until the end of the first day's journey, and then they looked everywhere for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

and everyone who heard him was astonished at his intelligence and at the answers he made.

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,

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

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,

Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the holy Spirit, and he was led about in the desert

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

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath he went to the synagogue, as he was accustomed to do, and stood up to read the Scriptures.

And the roll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled it and found the place where it says,

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 Elijah was not sent to one of them, but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

And there were plenty of lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cured, but Naaman the Syrian."

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.

There was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by the spirit of a foul demon and he cried out loudly,

When he got up and left the synagogue, he went to Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was suffering with a severe attack of fever, and they asked him about her.

And demons came out of many people, crying out, "You are the Son of God!" But he reproved them and forbade them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

When it was day, he left the house and made his way to a lonely spot, and crowds of people went in search of him, and overtook him and tried to keep him from leaving them.

But he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do."

Once as the crowd was pressing about him to hear God's message, he happened to be standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

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!"

One day as he was teaching, there were some Pharisees and experts in the Law sitting near by, who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was there, so that he might cure people.

Some men came up carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to get him in and lay him before Jesus.

But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"??urning to the man who was paralyzed he said to him??"I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!"

Then Levi gave a great entertainment for him in his house, and there was a great throng of tax-collectors and others who were at table with them.

How he went into the house of God and took the Presentation Loaves, which it was against the Law for anyone but the priests to eat, and ate them with his companions?"

On another Sabbath he happened to go to the synagogue and teach. There was a man there whose right hand was withered.

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.

Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon, who was called the Zealot,

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.

But the man who listens to it, and does not act upon it, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation. The torrent burst upon it, and it collapsed at once, and the wreck of that house was complete."

A Roman captain had a slave whom he thought a great deal of, and the slave was sick and at the point of death.

for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue."

So Jesus went with them. But when he was not far from the house, the captain sent some friends to him, to say to him, "Master, do not take any more trouble, for I am not a suitable person to have you under my roof.

That is why I did not think I was fit to come to you. But simply say the word, and have my servant cured.

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished at him, and turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such faith as this even in Israel!"

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.

and he called two of them to him, and sent them to the Master to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?"

And the men went to him and said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?' "

When John's messengers were gone, he began to speak to the crowds about John. "What was it that you went out into the desert to look at? A reed swaying in the wind?

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,

and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and sickness??ary, who was called Mary of Magdala, out of whom seven demons had been driven,

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

"A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up.

And they went to him and woke him up, and said to him, "Master! Master! We are lost!" Then he awoke and reproved the wind and the rough water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.

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.

For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert.

Now there was a large drove of pigs feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to give them leave to go into them. And he did so.

And those who had seen it told them how the man who had been possessed was cured.

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,

because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. As he was going, the crowds of people almost crushed 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."

And they laughed at him, for they knew that she was dead.

Herod the governor heard of all that was happening, and he was perplexed because some people said that John had risen from the dead,

Once when he was praying by himself, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?"

It was about eight days after Jesus said this that he took Peter, John, and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.

And as he was praying, the look of his face changed and his clothes turned dazzling white.

and they appeared in glory and spoke of his departure which he was to go through with at Jerusalem.

Just as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, how good it is that we are here! Let us put up three huts, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!" For he did not know what he was saying.

At the sound of the voice, they saw that Jesus was alone. And they kept silence, and said nothing about it to anyone at that time.

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.

And they were all amazed at the power of God. While everybody was full of wonder at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,

But they did not understand what he meant, indeed it was concealed from them, in order that they might not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.

But Jesus knew the question that was in their minds and he took a child and made him stand by his side,

As the time approached when he was to be taken up to heaven, he set his face toward Jerusalem,

And the people there would not receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem.

At that moment he was inspired with joy, and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent, and revealing it to children! Yes, I thank you, Father, for choosing to have it so!

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.

But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon him, and when he saw him he pitied him,

She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Master's feet, and listened to what he was saying.

But Martha was worried with all she had to do for them, and she came up and said, "Master, does it make no difference to you that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me."

Once as he was praying in a certain place, when he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, "Master, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

Once he was driving out a dumb demon, and when the demon was gone the dumb man spoke. And the people were amazed.

Then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there, and in the end the man is worse off than he was before."

The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised.