As they were handed down to us by those who saw them from the first and were preachers of the word,

To a virgin who was to be married to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary.

And the angel came in to her and said, Peace be with you, to whom special grace has been given; the Lord is with you.

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.

Happy will she be who had faith that the things which the Lord has said to her will be done.

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.

With his arm he has done acts of power; he has put to flight those who have pride in their hearts.

Those who had no food he made full of good things; the men of wealth he sent away with nothing in their hands;

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.

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,

To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother.

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

Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased.

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.

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?

And he made answer and said to them, He who has two coats, let him give to him who has not even one; and he who has food, let him do the same.

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:

The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

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,

But Elijah was not sent to one of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And all who were in the Synagogue were very angry when these things were said to them.

And there was a man in the Synagogue who had an unclean spirit; and he gave a loud cry and said,

Let us be! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to put an end to us? I have knowledge who you are, the Holy One of God.

And at sundown all those who had anyone ill with any sort of disease, took them to him, and he put his hands on every one of them and made them well.

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 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 some men had with them, on a bed, a man who was ill, without power of moving; and they made attempts to get him in and put him before Jesus.

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?

But Jesus, who had knowledge of their thoughts, said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts?

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 Jesus, answering, said to them, Those who are well have no need of a medical man, but those who are ill.

And Jesus said, Have you not seen in the Writings what David did when he was in need of food, he, and those who were with him;

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 the day came and, turning to his disciples, he made a selection from among them of twelve, to whom he gave the name of Apostles;

Simon, to whom he gave the name of Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew

And Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was named the Zealot,

And Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, he who was false to him.

And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were made 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.

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.

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 a man gives you a blow on one side of your face, then let the other side be turned to him; from him who takes away your coat, do not keep back your robe.

Give to everyone who comes with a request, and if a man takes away your property, make no attempt to get it back again.

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.

And if you let those have the use of your money, from whom you are hoping to get it back, what credit is it to you? even sinners do so to sinners, hoping to get back as much as they gave.

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.

Everyone who comes to me and gives ear to my words and does them, I will make clear to you what he is like:

He is like a man building a house, who went deep and put the base of it on a rock; and when the water came up and the river was driving against that house, it was not moved, because the building was good.

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.

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

And when those who were sent came back to the house they saw that the servant was well.

Now when he came near the door of the town, a dead man was being taken out, the only son of his mother, who was a widow: and a great number of people from the town were with her.

And he came near, and put his hand on the stretcher where the dead man was: and those who were moving it came to a stop. And he said, Young man, I say to you, Get up.

Then John sent two of his disciples to the Lord, saying, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another?

And when the men came to him they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another?

At that time, he made a number of people free from their diseases and their pains, and from evil spirits; and to others who were blind he gave back the use of their eyes.

And answering them he said, Go back and give news to John of what you have seen, and the things which have come to your ears; the blind now see, those who had no power in their legs are walking, lepers are made clean, those who had no hearing now have their ears open, dead men come to life again, and the poor have the good news given to them.

And a blessing will be on him who has no doubts about me.

And when the men who were sent by John had gone away, he said to the people, about John, What did you go out into the waste land to see? a tall stem moving in the wind?

But what did you go out to see? a man in soft clothing? See now, those who have beautiful clothing and delicate food are in kings' houses.

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.

I say to you, Among all the sons of women, not one is greater than John: but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

(And all the people, and the tax-farmers, to whom John had given baptism, when they had knowledge of these things, gave glory to God.

They are like children who are seated in the market-place, crying out to one another, and saying, We made music for you, but you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow, but you were not sad.

And there was a woman in the town who was a sinner; and when she had news that he was a guest in the Pharisee's house, she took a bottle of perfume,

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 so I say to you, She will have forgiveness for her sins which are great in number, because of her great love: but he who has small need of forgiveness gives little love.

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

And certain women who had been made free from evil spirits and diseases, Mary named Magdalene, from whom seven evil spirits had gone out,

And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's chief house-servant, and Susanna and a number of others, who gave him of their wealth for his needs.

And some falling on good earth, came up and gave fruit a hundred times as much. And with these words he said in a loud voice, He who has ears, let him give ear.

Those by the side of the road are those who have given hearing; then the Evil One comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not have faith and get salvation.

And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up.

And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit.

And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit.

No man, when the light is lighted, puts a cover over it, or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on its table, so that those who come in may see the light.

So take care how you give hearing, for to him who has will be given, and from him who has not will be taken even what he seems to have.

But he said to them in answer, My mother and my brothers are those who have knowledge of the word of God and do it.

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 when he had come to the land, there came to him a certain man from the town who had evil spirits; and for a long time he had had no clothing on, and was not living in a house but in the place of the dead.

And when the men who took care of them saw what had come about, they went quickly and gave news of it in the town and the country.

And they went out to see what had taken place, and they came to Jesus and saw the man out of whom the evil spirits had gone, seated, clothed and with full use of his senses, at the feet of Jesus; and fear came on them.

And those who had seen it gave them an account of how the man who had the evil spirits was made well.

But the man from whom the evil spirits had gone out had a great desire to be with him, but he sent him away, saying,

Then there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler in the Synagogue: and he went down at the feet of Jesus, desiring him to come to his house;

And a woman, who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had given all her money to medical men, and not one of them was able to make her well,

And Jesus said, Who was touching me? And when they all said, It is not I, Peter and those who were with him said, Master, the people are pushing round you on every side.

And he sent them out to be preachers of the kingdom of God, and to make well those who were ill.

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 the people, getting news of it, went after him: and he was pleased to see them, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God, and made those well who were in need of it.

And it came about that when he was in prayer, by himself, and the disciples were with him, he put a question to them, saying, Who do the people say I am?

And he said, But who do you say that I am? And Peter, answering, said, The Christ of God.