Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the Babylonian Exile.

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.

And she will have a son, and you must name Him Jesus, for it is He who is to save His people from their sins."

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

Now when Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judea in the days of King Herod, stargazers came from the East to Jerusalem

and asked, "Where is He that is born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him."

Now when King Herod heard of it, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

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

'And you, Bethlehem in Judah's land, You are not at all the least among the leading places of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly sent for the stargazers, and found out from them exactly the time the star appeared.

After listening to the king, they started on their journey, and the star which they had seen rise led them on until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

and went into the house and saw the child with His mother, Mary; and they fell at His feet and worshiped Him. They opened up their treasure sacks and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Then, as they had been divinely warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they set out to their own country by another route.

he stayed there until Herod's death, so as to fulfill what the Lord had said by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my Son."

Then Herod, because he saw that a trick had been played on him by the stargazers, was very angry, and sent and slaughtered all the boy babies in Bethlehem and in all that neighborhood, from two years down, in accordance with the time which he had found out from the stargazers.

But because he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there; and because he was divinely warned in a dream, he set out for the region of Galilee.

Then Jerusalem and all Judea, even the whole Jordan district, continued to go out to him

and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our forefather? For I tell you, God can raise up descendants for Abraham even out of these stones.

Now the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Every tree then that fails to bear good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

His winnowing-fork is in His hand, and He will clean out His threshing-floor and store His wheat in His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with fire that never can be put out."

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 as soon as Jesus was baptized, He at once went up out of the water, and look! the heavens opened, and John saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove upon Him,

After fasting forty days and forty nights, He at last felt hungry.

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and continued to wait upon Him.

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, He set out for Galilee.

to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

And at once they left the nets and followed Him.

And at once they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its strength, what can make it salt again? It is good for nothing but to be thrown away and trodden under foot.

People do not light a lamp and put it under a peck-measure but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all that are in the house.

I have not come to set them aside but to fill them up to the brim. For I solemnly say to you, heaven and earth would sooner pass away than the dotting of an 'i' or the crossing of a 't' from the law, until it all becomes in force.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven at all.

"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You must not murder,' and 'Whoever murders will have to answer to the court.'

So if, in the very act of presenting your gift at the altar, you remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your grit right there at the altar, and first go and make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.

I solemnly say to you, you will never get out at all until you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard it was said, 'You must not commit adultery.'

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman so as to have an evil desire for her at once has already committed adultery with her in his heart,

So if your right eye causes you to do wrong, pluck it out of your way; for it is better to have one part of your body suffer loss than to have your whole body go down to the pit.

And if your right hand causes you to do wrong, cut it off and put it out of your way, for it is better to have one part of your body suffer loss than to have your whole body go down to the pit.

"It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.'

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You must not swear falsely, but you must perform your oaths as a religious duty.'

But I tell you not to swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne,

or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.

Never swear by your own head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'

"You have heard that it was said, 'You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

For if you practice loving only those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax-collectors practice that?

And if you say 'Good morning' to your brothers only, what more than others are you doing?

But whenever you, a follower of mine, do a deed of charity, never let your own left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that your deed of charity may be secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

But whenever you, follower of mine, pray, you must go to your most private place, shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

So then you must not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

so that your fasting may be seen, not by men but by your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

So I tell you, stop worrying about your life, as to what you will have to eat or drink, or about your body, as to what you will have to wear. Is not life worth more than food and the body worth more than clothes?

Take a good look at the wild birds, for they do not sow or reap, or store up food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps on feeding them. Are you not worth more than they?

But which of you by worrying can add a single minute to his life?

And why should you worry about clothes? Look at the wild lilies and learn how they grow. They do not toil or spin;

So never worry and say, 'What are we going to have to eat? What are we going to have to drink? What are we going to have to wear?'

For exactly as you criticize others, you will be criticized, and in accordance with the measure that you give to others, it will be measured back to you.

How can you say to your brother, 'Let me get that tiny speck out of your eye,' while all the time there is a girder in your own?

You hypocrite, first get the girder out of your own eye, and then you can see well enough to get the tiny speck out of your brother's eye.

What human father among you, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

So if you, in spite of your being bad, know how to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your heavenly Father give what is good to those who keep on asking Him?

"Go in by the narrow gate, for broad and roomy is the road that leads to destruction, and many are going in by it.

But narrow is the gate and hard is the road that leads to life, and few are they that find it.

"Look out for false prophets, who come to you under the guise of sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves.

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, was it not in your name that we prophesied, and in your name that we drove out demons, and in your name that we did many wonder-works?'

And then I will say to them openly, 'I never knew you at all. Go away from me, you who practiced doing wrong.'

And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not fall, for its pillars had been laid on a rocky foundation.

And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed, and the wreck of it was complete."

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

Then He put out His hand and touched him, and said, "I do choose to; be cured." And at once his leprosy was cured.

"Lord, my servant-boy is at home bedridden with paralysis and suffering terrible tortures!"

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.

I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and take their seats at the feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, 'in the kingdom of heaven,

while the heirs of the kingdom will be turned out into the darkness outside, where they will be weeping and grinding their teeth."

Then Jesus said to the captain, "Go; it must be done for you as you have believed." And his servant-boy was cured that very hour.

He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on Him.

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were under the power of demons, and at a mere word He drove the spirits out, and cured all who were sick,

and so fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, "He took our sicknesses and bore away our diseases."

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

When He reached the other side, in the district of Gadara, there faced Him two men, who were under the power of demons, who were just coming out from the tombs. They were such terrors that nobody could pass that way.

And they suddenly screamed, "What do you want of us, you Son of God? Have you come here before the appointed time to torture us?"

And the demons kept begging Him and saying, "If you are going to drive us out, send us into the drove of hogs."

And He said to them, "Be gone!" And they went out of the men and got into the hogs, and suddenly the whole drove, in a stampede, rushed over the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.

And the men who fed them fled, and went off to the town, and told it all, and what occurred to the two men who were under the power of demons.

And suddenly all the town turned out to meet Jesus, and as soon as they saw Him, they begged Him to move on and leave their neighborhood.

And all at once some men were bringing to Him a paralyzed man, lying on a couch. And because He saw their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Cheer up, my child, your sins are forgiven."

And the crowds saw it, and were stricken with awe, and gave praise to God for giving such power to men.

And as He was passing along from there, He saw a man named Matthew in his seat at the tax-collector's desk, and He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed Him.

While He was at table in the house many tax-collectors and notorious sinners came in and took their seats at table with Jesus and His disciples.

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

And when He heard it, He said, "It is not well, but sick people that have to send for a doctor.

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."

Nobody pours new wine into old wine-bottles; or, if they do, the bottles burst, the wine runs out, and the bottles are ruined. But people pour new wine into new wine-bottles, and so both are preserved."

But when the crowd had been driven out, He went in and took hold of her hand, and the girl got up.

Then He touched their eyes, and said, "In accordance with your faith it must be done for you."