But just as this thought occurred to him, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said, "Joseph, descendant of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for it is through the influence of the Holy Spirit that she has become an expectant mother.

Now all this occurred to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

They told him, "At Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

So he sent them to Bethlehem with this order, "Go and carefully search for the child, and when you find Him, bring back word to me, and I too may come and do Him homage."

This is he who was mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, when he said: "Here is a voice of one who shouts in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord; Make the paths straight for him.'"

This very John had his clothing made of camel's hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist; his food was dried locusts and wild honey.

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for this is the fitting way for both of us to do our full duty to God." Then he yielded to Him.

and a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am delighted!"

and said to Him, "Every bit of this I will give to you, if you will fall on your knees and worship me."

Keep on rejoicing and leaping for ecstasy, for your reward will be rich in heaven; for this is the way they persecuted the prophets who lived before you.

But your way of speaking must be a simple 'Yes' or 'No.' Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

So this is the way you must pray: Our Father in heaven, Your name be revered.

Then you must practice dealing with others as you would like for them to deal with you, for this is the summing up of the law and the prophets.

When Jesus had closed this address, the result was that the crowds were dumbfounded at His teaching,

For I, too, am under authority of others, and have soldiers under me, and I order this one to go, and he goes, another to come, and he comes, my slave-boy to do this, and he does it."

When Jesus heard it, He was astounded, and said to His followers, "I solemnly say to you, I have not found, in a single case among the Jews, so great faith as this.

And the men were dumbfounded, and said, "What sort of man is this, for even the winds and the sea obey Him!"

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Go, learn what this means, 'It is mercy and not sacrifice that I want.' It is not upright but sinful people that I have come to invite."

After He had gone into the house, and the blind men had gone up to Him, Jesus said to them, "Do you really believe that I can do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord."

and after the demon had been driven out, the dumb man could talk. So the crowds were dumbfounded, saying, "Never before among the Jews was anything like this?

When Jesus had closed this charge to His disciples, He left there to teach and preach in their towns.

Now when John in prison heard of the doings of the Christ, he sent this message by his disciples:

This is the man of whom the Scripture says, "'Attention! I am sending my messenger on before you; He will prepare the road ahead of you.'

"But to what can I compare the leaders of this age? They are like little children sitting in the market places and calling to their fellows in the game,

and in this way fulfilled the saying spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man is not driving out demons except by the help of Beelzebub, the prince of the demons."

And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven for it, but whoever speaks abusively against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven for it, either in this world or in the world to come.

The men of Nineveh will rise with the leaders of this age at the judgment and condemn them, for they turned to the message preached by Jonah, and there is more than Jonah here!

The queen of the south will rise with the leaders of this age at the judgment and condemn them, for she came from the farthest limits of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here!

"Then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and make their home there, and so the end of that man is worse than the beginning. This is the way it will be with the wicked leaders of this age."

This is why I am speaking to them in stories, because they look but do not see, they listen but do not really hear or understand.

For this people's soul has grown dull, and with their ears they can scarcely hear, and they have shut tight their eyes, so that they will never see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn to me, so that I may cure them!'

When anyone hears the message of the kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and carries off the seed that was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' Then they said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them?'

He told them this story, as follows: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.

Jesus told the crowds all this in stories, and without a story He told them nothing,

He went to His own home town, and kept teaching in their synagogue in such a way that they were dumbfounded, and said, "Where did He get this wisdom and this power to do such wonder-works?

and said to his attendants, "This is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead, and that is why the powers are at work through him."

But when it was evening, His disciples came to Him and said, "This is a destitute place, and the day is over; send the crowds off to the villages to buy themselves food."

"'This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far, far away from me;

And He called the people to Him and said, "Listen to this and learn it!

The disciples said to Him, "Where in this destitute place can we get bread enough to satisfy such a crowd?"

Then Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for it is not man that made this known to you, but my Father in heaven.

And I, yes I, tell you, your name from now on is to be Peter, Rock, and on a massive rock like this I will build my church, and the powers of the underworld shall never overthrow it.

And Peter took Him aside and began to chide Him, as he said, "Heaven shield you, my Lord! This must never be your lot!"

But He turned and said to Peter, "Get out of my way, you Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for this view of yours is not from God but from men."

Six days after this, Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John, and led them up on a high mountain, by themselves.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud cast its shadow over them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am delighted. Keep on listening to Him!"

He answered them, "Because you have so little faith! For I solemnly say to you, if you have the faith that is living like a grain of mustard, you can say to this mountain, 'Move over from here to yonder,' and it will move over, and nothing will be impossible for you to do."

So then, whoever becomes as lowly as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,

and whoever welcomes one little child like this for my sake welcomes me.

This is the way my heavenly Father too will deal with you, if you do not, each one, heartily forgive your brother."

When Jesus had finished this discourse, He left Galilee and went into the district of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan.

and said, 'For this reason a man must leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two of them must be one!'

Then they asked Him, "Why did Moses command us to give a written divorce charge, and in this way to divorce a wife?"

He said to them, "It is not every man who has the capacity to carry out this saying, but it is for those to whom the capacity has been given.

But when the disciples heard this, they were dumbfounded, and asked, "Who then can be saved!"

But Jesus looked at them and said, "This is impossible for men, but anything is possible for God."

Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give this man hired last as much as I do you.

Now this occurred to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:

and asked Him, "Do you hear what they are saying?" Jesus answered them, "Yes. Did you never read this, 'Out of the mouths of little children, yea, of infants, you have perfect praise'?"

And Jesus answered them, "I solemnly say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt at all, you will not only do the sort of wonder done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Get up and throw yourself into the sea,' it will be done.

And when He had come into the temple, the high priests and elders of the people came up to Him while He was teaching, and asked, "What sort of authority have you for doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"

Where did John's baptism come from? From heaven, or from men?" They argued it out among themselves in this way, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is his heir, come on, let us kill him, and get all that is coming to him!'

Then Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: 'That stone which the builders threw away has become the cornerstone; this is the work of the Lord and seems wonderful to us!'

"This, I tell you, is why the kingdom will be taken away from you, and given to a people who will pay a fair rent for it.

And He asked them, "Whose likeness and title is this?"

On the same day some Sadducees, who claim that there is no resurrection, came up to Him, and asked this question:

And when the crowds heard this, they were dumbfounded at His teaching.

This is the greatest command, and is first in importance.

I solemnly say to you, all this will come upon this age!

While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to Him by themselves, and said, "Tell us when this is to take place, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age."

But all this is but the beginning of the agonies.

And this good news of the kingdom must be preached all over the inhabited world, for a testimony to all the heathen, and then the end will come.

I solemnly say to you, the present age will not pass away before all this takes place.

But be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known in exactly what part of the night the thief would come, he would have been on guard and would not have let his house be broken into.

When Jesus had ended this discourse, He said to His disciples,

For in putting this perfume on my body she has done it to prepare me for my burial.

I solemnly say to you, all over the world wherever this good news is proclaimed, the good deed that she has done will be told, in memory of her."

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf and blessed it; then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take this and eat it; this is my body."

for this is my blood which ratifies the covenant, the blood which is to be poured out for many for the forgiveness of their sins.

Jesus said to him, "I solemnly say to you, this very night, before a cock crows, you will disown me three times."

Then He walked on a few steps and threw Himself upon His face, and in this attitude continued to pray, and say, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me; and yet, I pray, not what I want but what you want."

How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, for they say this is the way it must be?"

But this has all taken place so that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled." Then the disciples all forsook Him and made their escape.

and said, "This man said, 'I can tear down the temple of God, and build it again in three days.'"

Then he went out into the gateway, and another waiting girl saw him, and said to those there, "This fellow was with Jesus the Nazarene."

Now this piece of ground has ever since been called "The Field of Blood."

So when they met for this purpose, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to set free, Barabbas, or Jesus, the so-called Christ?"

Now while he was on the bench, his wife sent him this word, "Do not have anything to do with that righteous man, for I have this morning suffered excruciating pain in a dream caused by Him."

So Pilate, since he saw that he was making no headway with them, but that a riot was about to break out instead, took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, and said, "I am not responsible for this man's death; you must see to it yourselves."

They put above His head the charge against Him, which read: "THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

And the army captain and his men, who were keeping guard over Jesus, who felt the earthquake and saw all that was taking place, were terribly frightened, and said, "Surely this was God's Son."

Then run and tell His disciples, 'He has risen from the dead, and is going back to Galilee ahead of you; you will see Him there.' This is my message to you."

So they took the money and did as they were told. And this story has been told among the Jews down to the present time.

They were all so dumbfounded that they kept discussing it among themselves, and asking, "What does this mean? It is a new teaching. He gives orders with authority even to foul spirits, and they obey Him."

But Jesus at once drove him out of their presence, and gave him this stringent charge:

"Why is He talking this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?"