And will flog him severely, and assign him his place among the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.

Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.

And the foolish said to the prudent 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

But while they were on their way to buy it, the bridegroom came; and the bridesmaids who were ready went in with him to the banquet, and the door was shut.

'Well done, good, trustworthy servant!' said his master. 'You have been trustworthy with a small sum; now I will place a large one in your hands; come and share your master's joy!'

'Well done, good, trustworthy servant!' said his master. 'You have been trustworthy with a small sum; now I will place a large one in your hands; come and share your master's joy!'

The man who had received the six hundred pounds came up, too, and said 'Sir, I knew that you were a hard man; you reap where you have not sown, and gather up where you have not winnowed;

And, in my fear, I went and hid your money in the ground; look, here is what belongs to you!'

'You lazy, worthless servant!' was his master's reply. 'You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather up where I have not winnowed?

As for the useless servant, 'put him out into the darkness' outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.'

Then the King will say to those on his right 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, enter upon possession of the Kingdom prepared for you ever since the beginning of the world.

For, when I was hungry, you gave me food; when I was thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was a stranger, you took me to your homes;

Then the Righteous will answer 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you? Or thirsty, and give you a drink?

When did we see you a stranger, and take you to our homes? Or naked, and clothe you?

When did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you?'

When I was a stranger, you did not take me to your homes; when I was naked, you did not clothe me; and, when I was ill and in prison, you did not visit me.'

Then they, in their turn, will answer 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or ill, or in prison, and did not supply your wants?'

The disciples were indignant at seeing this. "What is this waste for?" they exclaimed.

"Why are you troubling the woman?" Jesus said, when he noticed it. "For this is a beautiful deed that she has done to me.

And said "What are you willing to give me, if I betray Jesus to you?" The Priests 'weighed him out thirty pieces of silver' as payment.

On the first day of the Festival of the Unleavened Bread, the disciples came up to Jesus, and said: "Where do you wish us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

"Go into the city to a certain man," he answered, "and say to him 'The Teacher says--My time is near. I will keep the Passover with my disciples at your house.'"

And, while they were eating, he said: "I tell you that one of you will betray me."

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and, after saying the blessing, broke it and, as he gave it to his disciples, said: "Take it and eat it; this is my body."

And coming back again he found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy.

Suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and striking the High Priest's servant, cut off his ear.

"Sheathe your sword," Jesus said, "for all who draw the sword will be put to the sword.

Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the High Priest, where the Teachers of the Law and the Councillors had assembled.

Meanwhile the Chief Priests and the whole of the High Council were trying to get such false evidence against Jesus, as would warrant putting him to death,

Then the High Priest stood up, and said to Jesus: "Have you no answer? What is this evidence which these men are giving against you?"

But Jesus remained silent. On this the High Priest said to him: "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God."

What is your decision?" They answered: "He deserves death."

Peter, meanwhile, was sitting outside in the courtyard; and a maidservant came up to him, and exclaimed: "Why, you were with Jesus the Galilean!"

When he had gone out into the gateway, another maid saw him, and said to those who were there: "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth!"

But soon afterwards those who were standing by came up and said to Peter: "You also are certainly one of them; why, your very way of speaking proves it!"

The Chief Priests took the pieces of silver, but they said: "We must not put them into the Temple treasury, because they are blood-money."

Then it was that these words spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled-- 'They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was valued, whom some of the people of Israel valued,

Meanwhile Jesus was brought before the Roman Governor. "Are you the King of the Jews?" asked the Governor. "It is true," answered Jesus.

While charges were being brought against him by the Chief Priests and Councillors, Jesus made no reply.

Then Pilate said to him: "Do not you hear how many accusations they are making against you?"

So, when the people had collected, Pilate said to them: "Which do you wish me to release for you? Barabbas? Or Jesus who is called 'Christ'?"

When Pilate saw that his efforts were unavailing, but that, on the contrary, a riot was beginning, he took some water, and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying as he did so: "I am not answerable for this bloodshed; you must see to it yourselves."

And all the people answered: "His blood be on our heads and on our children's!"

As they were on their way out, they came upon a man from Cyrene of the name of Simon; and they compelled him to go with them to carry the cross.

At the same time two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right, the other on the left.

"You who 'destroy the Temple and build one in three days,' save yourself! If you are God's Son, come down from the cross!"

Even the robbers, who were crucified with him, reviled him in the same way.

Suddenly the Temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks were torn asunder,

The Roman Captain, and the men with him who were watching Jesus, on seeing the earthquake and all that was happening, became greatly frightened and exclaimed: "This must indeed have been God's Son!"

There were many women there, watching from a distance, who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee and had been attending on him.

Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebediah's sons.

But the angel, addressing the women, said; "You need not be afraid. I now that it is Jesus, who was crucified, for whom you are looking.

He is not here; for he has risen, as he said he would. Come, and see the place where he was lying;

While they were still on their way, some of the guard came into the city, and reported to the Chief Priests everything that had happened.

And told them to say that his disciples came in the night, and stole him while they were asleep;

So the soldiers took the money, and did as they were instructed. And this story has been current among the Jews from that day to this.

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to meet him;

The whole of Judea, as well as all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, went out to him; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

As Jesus was going along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the Sea, for they were fishermen.

Going on a little further, he saw James, Zebediah's son, and his brother John, who also were in their boat mending the nets.

The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught them like one who had authority, and not like the Teachers of the Law.

"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

And they were all so amazed that they kept asking: "What is this? Strange teaching indeed! He gives his commands with authority even to the foul spirits, and they obey him!"

In the evening, after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who were ill or possessed by demons;

Jesus cured many who were ill with various diseases, and drove out many demons, and would not permit them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ.

One day a leper came to Jesus and, falling on his knees, begged him for help. "If only you are willing," he said, "you are able to make me clean."

"Be careful not to say anything to any one; but go and show yourself to the Priest, and make the offerings for your cleansing directed by Moses, as evidence of your cure."

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man: "Child, your sins are forgiven."

But some of the Teachers of the Law who were sitting there were debating in their minds:

Jesus, at once intuitively aware that they wee debating with themselves in this way, said to them: "Why are you debating in your minds about this?

Which is easier?--to say to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven'? or to say 'Get up, and take up your mat, and walk about'?

"To you I say, Get up, take up your mat, and return to your home."

The man got up, and immediately took up his mat, and went out before them all; at which they were amazed, and, as they praised God, they said: "We have never seen anything like this!"

And later on he was in his house at table, and a number of tax-gatherers and outcasts took their places at table with Jesus and his disciples; for many of them were following him.

Hearing this, Jesus said: "It is not those who are in health that need a doctor, but those who are ill. I did not come to call the religious, but the outcast."

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, and people came and asked Jesus: "Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, while yours do not?"

And no man ever puts new wine into old wine-skins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are lost. But new wine is put into fresh skins."

"Look!" the Pharisees said to him, "why are they doing what is not allowed on the Sabbath?"

How he went into the House of God, in the time of Abiathar the High Priest, and ate 'the consecrated bread,' which only the priests are allowed to eat, and gave some to his comrades as well?"

On another occasion Jesus went in to a Synagogue, where they was a man whose hand was withered.

And to the people he said: "Is it allowable to do good on the Sabbath--or harm? to save a life, or destroy it?"

As they remained silent, Jesus looked round at them in anger, grieving at the hardness of their hearts, and said to the man: "Stretch out your hand." The man stretched it out; and his hand had become sound.

For he had cured many of them, and so people kept crowding upon him, that all who were afflicted might touch him.

The foul spirits, too, whenever they caught sight of him, flung themselves down before him, and screamed out: "You are the Son of God"!

Jesus went into a house; and again a crowd collected, so that they were not able even to eat their food.

There was a crowd sitting round Jesus, and some of them said to him: "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you."

Then he looked around on the people sitting in a circle round him, and said: "Here are my mother and my brothers!

Jesus again began to teach by the Sea; and, as an immense crowd was gathering round him, he got into a boat, and sat in it on the Sea, while all the people were on the shore at the water's edge.

Some fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and, having no depth of soil, sprang up at once;

And he said: "To you the hidden truth of the Kingdom of God has been imparted; but to those who are outside it all teaching takes the form of parables, that--

The People meant by the seed that falls along the path are these--where the Message is sown, but, as soon as they have heard it, Satan immediately comes and carries away the Message that has been sown in them.

So, too, those meant by the seed sown on the rocky places are the people who, when they have heard the Message, at once accept it joyfully;

But, as they have no root, they stand only for a short time; and so, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Message, they fall away at once.

Those meant by the seed sown among the brambles are different; they are the people who hear the Message,

But the people meant by the seed sown on the good ground are those who hear the Message, and welcome it, and yield a return, thirty, sixty, and even a hundred fold."

And Jesus said to them: "Is a lamp brought to be put under the corn-measure or under the couch, instead of being put on the lampstand?

The ground bears the crop of itself--first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear;

With many such parables Jesus used to speak to the people of his Message, as far as they were able to receive it;

So, leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.

Jesus was in the stern asleep upon the cushion; and the disciples roused him and cried: "Teacher! is it nothing to you that we are lost?"