but after he had planned this, there appeared an angel of the Lord to him in a dream saying, "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary your wife home, for what is begotten in her comes from the holy Spirit.

All this happened for the fulfilment of what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

So on waking from sleep Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him; he took his wife home,

The magicians listened to the king and then went their way. And the star they had seen rise went in front of them till it stopped over the place where the child was.

Then, as they had been divinely warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by a different road.

After they had gone, there appeared an angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt; stay there till I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child and destroy him."

where he stayed until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had said by the prophet: I called my Son from Egypt.

Then Herod saw the magicians had trifled with him, and he was furiously angry; he sent and slew all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the neighbourhood who were two years old or under, calculating by the time he had ascertained from the magicians.

Then the saying was fulfilled which had been uttered by the prophet Jeremiah:

He went and settled in a town called Nazaret, so that what had been said by the prophets might be fulfilled: 'He shall be called a Nazarene.'

This John had his clothes made of camel's hair, with a leather girdle round his loins; his food was locusts and wild honey.

Now when Jesus had been baptized, the moment he rose out of the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove upon him.

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee; ??13 he left Nazaret and settled at Capharnahum beside the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali

for the fulfilment of what had been said by the prophet Isaiah:

nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

You have heard the saying, 'You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy.'

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other ??you cannot serve both God and Mammon.

Which of you can add an ell to his height by troubling about it?

Then Jesus said to the captain, "Go; as you have had faith, your prayer is granted." And the servant was cured at that very hour.

Jesus said to him, "The foxes have their holes, the wild birds have their nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."

Jesus was at table indoors, and many taxgatherers and sinners had come to be guests with him and his disciples.

Now a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel of his robe;

But after the crowd had been put out, he went in and took her hand, and the girl rose up.

and when the daemon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke. Then the crowd marvelled; they said, "Such a thing has never been seen in Israel!"

The very hairs on your head are all numbered;

Then he proceeded to upbraid the towns where his many miracles had been performed, because they would not repent.

"Woe to you, Khorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Had the miracles performed in you been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

And you, O Capharnahum! Exalted to heaven? No, you will sink to Hades! ??for if the miracles performed in you had been performed in Sodom, Sodom would have lasted to this day.

Besides, if you had known what this meant, I care for mercy not for sacrifice, you would not have condemned men who are not guilty.

charging them strictly not to make him known ??17 it was for the fulfilment of what had been said by the prophet Isaiah,

Some other seeds fell on stony soil where they had not much earth, and shot up at once because they had no depth of soil;

but when the sun rose they got scorched and withered away because they had no root.

Jesus said all this to the crowds in parables; he never spoke to them except in a parable ??35 to fulfil what had been said by the prophet, I will open my mouth in parables, I will speak out what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

Now when Jesus had finished these parables he set out from there,

For Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias the wife of his brother Philip,

since John had told him, "You have no right to her."

And she, at the instigation of her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head this moment on a dish."

he sent and had John beheaded in the prison,

his head was brought on a dish and given to the girl, and she took it to her mother.

They all ate and had enough; besides, they picked up the fragments left over and filled twelve baskets with them.

after he had dismissed the crowds he went up the hill by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone,

When the disciples reached the opposite side, they found they had forgotten to bring any bread.

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to leave for Jerusalem and endure great suffering at the hands of the elders and high priests and scribes, and be killed and raised on the third day.

He said to them, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you truly, if you had faith the size of a grain of mustard-seed, you could say to this hill, 'Move from here to there,' and remove it would; nothing would be impossible for you."

as he was unable to pay, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he had, in payment of the sum.

But he refused; he went and had him thrown into prison, till he should pay the debt.

Now when his fellow-servants saw what had happened they were greatly distressed, and they went and explained to their master all that had happened.

Ought you not to have had mercy on your fellow-servant, as I had on you?'

And in hot anger his master handed him over to the torturers, till he should pay him all the debt.

When the young man heard that, he went sadly away, for he had great possessions.

When those who had been hired about five o'clock came, they got a shilling each.

'These last,' they said, 'have only worked a single hour, and yet you have ranked them equal to us who have borne the brunt of the day's work and the heat!'

When they came near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage at the Hill of Olives, then Jesus despatched two disciples,

This took place for the fulfilment of what had been spoken by the prophet,

Tell me what you think. A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard to-day';

Once more he sent some other servants, more than he had sent at first, and they did the same to them.

Now there were seven brothers in our number. The first married and died; as he had no children he left his wife to his brother.

Now at the resurrection whose wife will she be? They all had her."

When the Pharisees heard he had silenced the Sadducees, they mustered their forces,

As the Pharisees had mustered, Jesus put a question to them.

and you say 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'

And many will be repelled then, they will betray one another and hate one another.

Had not those days been cut short, not a soul would be saved alive; however, for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

But be sure of this, that if the householder had known at what watch in the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

The servant who had got the twelve hundred pounds went at once and traded with them, making another twelve hundred.

Similarly the servant who had got the five hundred pounds made another five hundred.

But the servant who had got the two hundred and fifty pounds went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

Then the servant who had got the twelve hundred pounds came forward, bringing twelve hundred more; he said, 'You handed me twelve hundred pounds, sir; here I have gained another twelve hundred.'

Then the servant who had got the two hundred and fifty pounds came forward. He said, 'I knew you were a hard man, sir, reaping where you never sowed and gathering where you never winnowed.

So I was afraid; I went and hid your two hundred and fifty pounds in the earth. There's your money!'

Take therefore the two hundred and fifty pounds away from him, give it to the servant who had the twelve hundred.

a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of expensive perfume which she poured over his head as he lay at table.

So the disciples did as Jesus had told them, and prepared the passover.

The Son of man goes the road that the scripture has described for him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better that man had never been born!"

While he was still speaking, up came Judas, one of the twelve, accompanied by a large mob with swords and cudgels who had come from the high priests and the elders of the people.

Now his betrayer had given them a signal; he said, " Whoever I kiss, that is the man."

but those who had seized Jesus took him away to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and elders had gathered.

Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, that 'before the cock crows you will disown me three times.' And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Then the word spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: and I took the thirty silver pieces, the price of him who had been priced, whom they had priced and expelled from the sons of Israel;

and I gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord had bidden me.

At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Jesus Bar-Abbas;

so, when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Who do you want released? Jesus Bar-Abbas or Jesus the so-called 'Christ'?"

(He knew quite well that Jesus had been delivered up out of envy.

Besides, when he was seated on the tribunal, his wife had sent to tell him, "Do nothing with that innocent man, for I have suffered greatly to-day in a dream about him.")

plaited a crown of thorns and set it on his head, put a stick in his hand, and knelt before him in mockery, crying, "Hail, king of the Jews!"

They spat on him, they took the stick and struck him on the head,

They also put over his head his charge in writing, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

There were also a number of women there looking on from a distance, women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and waited on him,

Now when evening came, a rich man from Arimathaea, called Joseph, who had become a disciple of Jesus,

and put it in his new tomb, which he had cut in the rock; then, after rolling a large boulder to the opening of the tomb, he went away.

While they were on their way, some of the sentries went into the city and reported all that had taken place to the high priests,

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the hill where Jesus had arranged to meet them.

After John had been arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the gospel of God;

Now Levi was at table in his own house, and he had many taxgatherers and sinners as guests along with Jesus and his disciples ??for there were many of them among his followers.

Jerusalem, Idumaea, the other side of the Jordan, and the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon, as they had heard of his doings.

for he healed so many that all who had complaints were pressing on him to get a touch of him.

But the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and "It is by the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons."

some other seed fell on stony soil where it had not much earth, and it shot up at once because it had no depth of earth,

but when the sun rose it got scorched and withered away, because it had no root;