Josiah, of Jechoniah and his brethren, at the time of the carrying away to Babylon.

But when John saw that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming for baptism, he said: "O brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

"Come to terms with your opponent quickly, while you are yet with him on the way [to the court], to prevent your opponent from handing you over to the judge, and the judge to the jailer, and so you be thrown into prison.

And if your eye, your right eye, entices you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to lose one of your bodily organs, than to have your whole body go down into the pit.

And if your right hand entices you into sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of your bodily organs, than to have your whole body go down into the pit.

"Whoever impresses you to go one mile, go two miles with him.

"You Son of God," they shouted, "what have you to do with us? Are you come to torment us before the time?"

"but rather be on your way to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

"Are you the Coming One, or are we to look for someone else?"

because John kept telling him, "It is not right for you to have her."

"If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, than to keep both hands or both feet and be cast into the everlasting burning.

"If your eye keeps causing you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with only one eye, than to keep both eyes and be cast into the Gehenna of fire.

"Moses," said Jesus, "permitted you to divorce your wives on account of the hardness of your hearts, but from the beginning it was not so.

Then they will deliver you up to suffer affliction, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

"And while they were going away to buy, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding-feast. And the door was shut.

"The Son of man is indeed to go as it is written concerning him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed. It were good for that man if he had never been born."

Then all his disciples forsook him and fled; but those who had apprehended Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had assembled.

At last, when they had finished their mocking, they took the robe off, and put his own garments on him, and led him away to crucify him.

But the eleven disciples went away to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

so Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."

For John had often told Herod, "It is not right for you to live with your brother's wife."

In answer he said to them, "You yourselves are to give them food." "Are we to go and buy fifty dollars worth of bread," they said, "and give them food?"

Then he left them, and getting into the boat again, went away to the other side,

"If your hand cause you to stumble, cut it off! It is better to be maimed and to enter into life than to have two hands and go away into hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.

If your foot cause you to stumble, cut it off! It is better to enter into the life a cripple, than to have two feet and be cast into hell.

If your eye cause you to stumble, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God one-eyed that to keep both your eyes and be cast into hell,

Now Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went away to the high priests to betray Jesus to them;

And the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, the day for killing the paschal lamb, his disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparation for you to eat the Passover?"

For the Son of man is going his way, as the Scripture says, but woe to that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! It were good for that man if he had never been born."

Now when the angels had left them, and gone away to heaven, the shepherds said to one to another, "Let us go now even to Bethlehem, and see this saying which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."

So John used to say to the crowd of those who were going out to be baptized by him. "You breed of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

And when it was daybreak he left the town, and went away to a solitary place; and the crowd kept seeking him. Coming at length upon him, they attempted to detain him so that he should not leave them.

And instantly he arose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and went away to his house, glorifying God.

"But woe to you rich! For you already have received your consolation.

"Woe unto you who are full now! For you shall suffer hunger. "Woe to you who are laughing now! For you shall wail and weep.

"Woe to you when all men shall speak well of you! For even so did their fathers to the false prophets.

And he came near and touched the bier; the bearer stopped and he said, "Young man, I bid you to rise."

"But what went you to see? A prophet?

When he saw Jesus he cried out, and fell down before him, and in a loud voice exclaimed. "What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God Most High? I implore you to torment me not!"

and a man called out of the crowd saying. "Teacher, I beg you to look upon my son; for he is my only boy,

"Which then of these three seems to you to have behaved like a neighbor to the man who fell among bandits?"

"Woe to you! for you are building the tombs of the prophets whom you ancestors killed.

"Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge!' You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who are trying to enter."

"The second said: 'I have bought five yolk of oxen and am on my way to try them. I pray that you will have me excused.'

"And to you I say, Use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make yourselves friends, so that when it shall fail they will welcome you to the eternal tabernacles.

"But besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who want to cross from here to you cannot, nor can those who would cross from you to us.'

Jesus said to his disciples. "It is not possible but that occasions of stumbling should occur, but woe to him through whom they come!

Now it happened that as he went his way to Jerusalem, he passed between Samaria and Galilee.

Then he took the twelve aside and told them. "See, we are on our way to Jerusalem, and all prophets regarding the son of Man will be fulfilled.

"The time will come for you when your enemies will throw ramparts around you, and encompass you, and shut you in on every side, and raze you to the ground,

"But before all these things happen, they will apprehend you and persecute you and deliver you to the synagogues and to prisons, and bring you before kings and governors for the sake of my name.

"Woe to women with child and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For sore anguish will come upon the land, and wrath upon all his people.

"The Son of man indeed goes on his way, as it has been determined; but woe to that man by who he is betrayed."

"Woman," said Jesus, "what have you to do with me? My time is not yet come."

His mother said to the attendants, "Whatever he may tell you to do, do it."

"Sir!" exclaimed the woman, "give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty, nor come all this way to draw water."

I sent you to reap a crop on which you have not toiled. Others have toiled, and you have reaped the benefit of their toil."

so the Jews kept saying to the man who had been cured. "It is the Sabbath Day; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."

"Do not imagine that I shall accuse you to the Father. Moses is your accuser, on whom you build your hopes.

"What are we to do habitually," they asked him, "that we may keep working the words of God?"

Then Jesus said to them. "Still for a little longer I am with you, and then I am going my way to him who sent me.

"You are not acquainted with him; I know him. Were I to say, 'I do not know him,' I should be like you, a liar. But I do know him, and I obey his teaching.

So there was a difference of opinion among them. Accordingly they said to the blind man, "What have you to say about him, now that he has opened your eyes?" "He is a prophet," he answered.

With these words she went away to call her sister Mary, saying privately, "The Teacher is here and is asking for you."

but some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

I will return and will take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be also.

"and you to shall bear witness because you have been with me from the first.

"But now I go my way to Him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'

He answered. "It is not for you to know times and occasions which the Father has fixed in his own authority;

"This Moses whom they refused when they said, Who made you to be a ruler and a judge? that same Moses we find God sending as a ruler and a redeemer by the hand in the bush.

"Cornelius," they answered, "a captain, a devout man, and God-fearing, of whom the whole, Jewish nation speaks well, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to listen to your message."

"So I sent for you without delay, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to listen to what the Lord has commanded you to speak."

So there arose a sharp irritation, so that they parted company; Barnabas taking Mark with him, sailed away to Cyprus;

"for I am with you, and no one shall set upon you to injure you; for I have very many people in this city."

And Paul after remaining in Corinth some time longer, took leave of the brothers, and sailed away to Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. As Paul was under a vow, he had his head shaved at Cenchrea.

Now after these things were ended, Paul resolved in his spirit to travel through Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. "After I get there," he said, "I must see Rome, too."

"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. He is able to build you up, and to give you your inheritance among all those who are consecrated.

"To this the high priest and all the council of elders are witnesses. It was from them that I received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I was already on my way to bring those also who were there back to Jerusalem, in bonds, for punishment.

"Then he said: "'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to know his will; and to see the righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

But when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing near, "If a man is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned, is it lawful for you to scourge him?"

"The Jews," he answered, "have agreed to ask you to bring down Paul tomorrow to the Sanhedrin, as though they wish to examine his case in detail.

"We all fell to the ground; and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew. "'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.'

"'I will deliver you from the Jewish people, and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes

when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it, and let her drive.

"So I beg you to take some food, for this is for your safety. For there shall not a hair perish from the head of any one of you."

This is the reason why I begged you to see and speak with me. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain."

I want you to know, brothers, that many a time I have planned to come to you??hough until now I have been hindered??o as to have some harvest-fruit among you also, even as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and long patience? Do you not know that the kindness of God is leading you to repentance?

Therefore let not sin rule as king in your mortal body, compelling you to obey its lusts.

But I say, Did Israel not know? First Moses says. I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation; Against a Gentile nation, void of understanding, will I anger you.

Carry out these injunctions because you know the crisis that we are in, that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.

Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be in full sympathy with one another, in accordance with the example of Jesus Christ;

I beg you to give her a Christian welcome, as the saints should; and to assist her in any matter in which she may have need of you. For she herself has been made an overseer to many people, including myself.

I say this, for the tidings of your obedience have been told throughout the world. On your own behalf, then, I rejoice; but I want you to be wise unto the good, but innocents in evil.

Now I commend you to Him who is able to keep you stedfast, according to my gospel, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, whereby is unveiled the secret truth which was kept secret through immemorial ages,

For the message of the Cross is indeed for those on their way to destruction, foolishness; but for us who are on our way to salvation it is the power of God.

Which do you want? Am I to come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender spirit?

What have I to do with the judging of outsiders? Must not you judge those who are within the church, while God judges outsiders?

Do not refuse one another, unless it is only temporary and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, lest through your lack of self-control Satan begin to tempt you to sin.

So I want you to be free from all anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the Lord's business, how he may please the Lord;