And while they were going to buy it, the bridegroom came, and the bridesmaids that were ready went in with him to the wedding reception; and the door was closed.

His master answered him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had not threshed.

So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, so that when I came back I could have collected my principal with interest.

"You know that in two days the Passover Feast will take place, and the Son of Man will be turned over to be crucified."

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."

So from that time he kept looking for a good opportunity to turn Him over to them.

The Son of Man is going away as the Scriptures say of Him, but a curse will be on that man by whom He is betrayed. It would have been better for that man, if he had never been born!"

You must all keep watching and praying that you may not be exposed to temptation. Man's spirit is willing but human nature is weak."

After that He came back to the disciples and said to them: "Still sleeping! Still resting! See! The time has come for the Son of Man to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men!

Do you suppose that I am unable to appeal to my Father and have Him furnish me on the spot one hundred thousand angels?

At that time Jesus said to the crowds: "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me, as though I were a robber? Day after day I used to sit teaching in the temple, and you never laid hands on me.

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.

Then the high priest arose and said to Him, "Have you no answer to make? What do you say to the evidence that they bring against you?"

After that they spit in His face and hit Him with their fists, and others boxed His ears,

and said, "I did wrong in turning an innocent man over to death." But they said, "What is that to us? You must see to that yourself."

In that way the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been fixed by some Israelites,

But He did not answer him a single word, so that the governor was dumbfounded beyond expression.

At that time they had a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.

For he knew that they had turned Him over to the court out of envy.

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."

He asked, "Why, what has He done that is wrong?" But they kept on shouting louder and louder, "Have Him crucified!"

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."

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."

and said, "Sir, we remember that that pretender said while He was living, 'After three days I will rise again.'

Issue an order then to have the tomb closely guarded, so that His disciples cannot come and steal Him and tell the people that He rose from the dead, and the last deception be worse than the first."

And the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

While they were on their way, some members of the guard went into the city and told the high priests everything that had taken place.

and said to them, "Tell the people that His disciples came by night, while we were sleeping, and stole Him away.

and teach them to practice all the commands that I have given you. And I myself will surely be with you all the days, down to the very close of an age."

He kept preaching the following message, "After me there is coming One who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to stoop down and untie.

Just at that moment there was a man in their synagogue who was under the spell of a foul spirit, and so he screamed,

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."

And His fame at once spread in all directions all over that part of Galilee.

And He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else, to the neighboring towns, to preach in them, too, for that is why I came out here."

"See that you tell nobody a single word about it. Be gone, show yourself to the priest, and to prove it to the people, make the offering for your purification which Moses prescribed."

But he went out and began to publish it so much and to spread the story so far, that Jesus could not any more go into any town openly, but had to stay out in thinly settled places. But the people kept coming to Him from every quarter.

After some days He came back to Capernaum, and it was reported that He was at home,

and so many people gathered there that there was no longer any room even around the door. He was telling them His message.

And as they could not get him near to Jesus, on account of the crowd, they dug through the roof over the spot where He was standing and let the pallet down that the paralyzed man was lying on.

Now Jesus at once felt in His spirit that they were arguing about this, and said, "Why are you arguing to yourselves about this?

But to show you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth," turning to the paralyzed man He said,

Then he got up and at once picked up his pallet, and went out before them all. The result was that they were all dumbfounded and began to praise God and say, "We have never seen anything like this before."

And when the scribes who belonged to the Pharisees' party saw that He was eating with notorious sinners and tax-collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why does He eat with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Jesus heard it, and said to them, "Not well but sick people have to send for the doctor. It is not upright but sinful people that I have come to invite."

No one sews a patch of brand-new goods on an old coat; or, if he does, the patch tears away, the new from the old, and the hole becomes bigger than ever.

How is it that he went into the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the sacred loaves, which it is against the law for anyone except the priests to eat, and gave part of them to his soldiers, too?"

and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from the other side of the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon -- yes, a vast throng of people, as they kept hearing of the great things that He was doing, came to Him.

For He cured so many people that all who had ailments kept crowding up against Him to touch Him.

And again the crowds gathered so that it was not possible for them even to take their meals.

If a kingdom is disunited, that kingdom cannot last.

And if a household is disunited, that household cannot last.

But no one can get into a giant's house and carry off his goods, unless he first binds the giant; after that he can make a clean sweep of his house.

But whoever speaks abusively against the Holy Spirit can never get forgiveness, but is guilty of a sin that has no end."

Then He began again to teach by the seashore. And a crowd gathered around Him so great that He got into a boat and was sitting in it, just off the shore, while all the people were on the land close to the sea.

Then He said to them, "To you the secret of the kingdom of God has been entrusted, but to those who are on the outside everything is presented in stories, so that

The ones along the path are those who have the message sown in their hearts, but as soon as it is sown there, Satan comes and carries off the message that has been sown in their hearts.

but when it is properly sown, it comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under its shade."

That same day when it was evening, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other Side."

But a furious squall of wind came up, and the waves were dashing over into the boat, so that it was fast filling.

He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, "Teacher, is it no concern to you that we are going down?"

They were very much frightened, and said to one another, "Who can He be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

And they kept on earnestly begging Him not to send them out of that country.

And they begged Him, "Send us among the hogs, so that we can get into them."

and kept earnestly begging Him, saying, "My dear little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live."

Her hemorrhage stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was cured.

Jesus at once perceived that power had gone out of Him, and so He turned around in the crowd, and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue. And the people were dumbfounded when they heard Him, and said, "Where did He get all these things? What sort of wisdom is it that has been given Him? And such mighty deeds are done by Him!

He could not do any mighty deeds there, except that He put His hands on a few ailing people and cured them.

And He continued to say to them, "Whenever you put up at a house, stay there until you leave that place.

So they went out and preached that men should repent,

King Herod heard of Him, for His name was now on everybody's lips, and people were saying that John the Baptist had risen from the dead, and that this was why such mighty powers were working in Him.

But others were saying that He was Elijah, and still others that He was a prophet like the prophets of old.

for Herod stood in awe of John, because he knew that he was an upright and holy man, and so he protected him. When he heard him speak, he was very much disturbed, and yet he liked to hear him.

Then He insisted that the disciples at once get into their boat and cross ahead of Him toward Bethsaida, while He was sending the crowd away.

And because He saw that they were struggling at the oars, for the wind was against them, a while before daybreak He started toward them walking on the sea, and He meant to go right up beside them.

But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost and screamed aloud,

And whatever villages or towns or country places He came to, they would lay the sick in the market-places and beg Him to let them touch just the tassel of His coat, and everybody that touched it was cured.

They had noticed that some of His disciples were in the habit of eating their meals without first giving their hands a ceremonial washing to make them clean.

And so the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why is it that your disciples do not practice the customs handed down from our forefathers, but eat their meals without purifying their hands?"

but you say if a man tells his father or mother, 'Everything I have that may be of use to you is Corban,' that is, consecrated to God,

Nothing that goes into a man from the outside can make him foul, but the things that come from the inside of a man are the things that make him foul."

And He answered them, "Are you too without understanding yet? Do you not know that nothing from the outside that goes into a man can make him foul,

He kept on saying, "The thing that comes from the inside of a man is the thing that makes him foul,

for from the inside, that is, from the hearts of men, designs for doing evil come, sexual immorality, stealing, murder,

Then He left there and went into the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wanted no one to know that He was there. But He could not escape public notice.

Now they had forgotten to bring any bread; that is, they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

So they were discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

And as He noticed it He said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet know nor understand? Are your minds so dull?

He said to them, "How is it that you do not understand?"

Then Jesus and His disciples left Galilee and went to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way there He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

They answered Him, "John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets."

Then He began to ask them, "Who do you yourselves say that I am?" Peter answered Him, "You are the Christ."

Then He instructed them for the first time that the Son of Man had to endure great suffering and be disowned by the elders and the high priests and the scribes, and be killed but rise again after three days.

and His clothes were shining as white as white could be, yea, whiter than any earthly bleacher could bleach them.

And they held that caution fast in their minds, as they continued to discuss among themselves what rising from the dead meant.

Then they asked Him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?"

He answered them, "Elijah does come first and gets everything ready, but how is it that the Scripture says about the Son of Man that He will suffer much and be rejected?

Then Jesus, because He saw that a crowd was rushing up to Him, reproved the foul spirit and said to it, "You deaf and dumb spirit, get out of him, I charge you, and never get into him again."

Then it gave a shriek and violently convulsed the boy, and got out of him. And the boy looked like a corpse, so much so that the people said that he was dead.

for He was now teaching His disciples, and saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be turned over into men's hands, and they will kill Him, but three days after that He will rise again."