PREFACE

The New Testament was written not in classical Greek, nor in the “biblical” Greek of the Greek version of the Old Testament, nor even in the literary Greek of its own day, but in the common language of everyday life. This fact has been fully established by the Greek papyrus discoveries and the grammatical researches of the last twenty-five years. It follows that the most appropriate English form for the New Testament is the simple, straightforward English of everyday expression.

The invitation of the University Press to provide such a translation was accepted by the present translator in the hope that it might result in a version with something of the ease, boldness, and unpretending vigor which mark the original Greek. The writers of the New Testament had for the most part little use for literary art. The principal figure among them, the apostle Paul, said this in so many words. They put their message in the simplest and most direct terms they could command, so that it spoke directly to the common life of their day. The great passages in the New Testament owe their greatness more to the trenchant vigor of their thought, or the moral sublimity of their ideas, than to the graces of rhetoric.

The translation of such a book demands first, the understanding of what the several writers meant to say, and second, the casting of their thought in the simplest and clearest of present-day English. It is the meaning, not the dress, of the New Testament that is of principal importance. For many of us the familiar expressions of the Authorized Version are richly freighted with memories and associations. But few indeed sit down and read the New Testament in that version continuously and understandingly, a book at a time, as it was written to be read. The antique diction, the mechanical method of translation, and the disturbing verse division retard and discourage the reader. The aim of the present translation has been to present the meaning of the different books as faithfully as possible, without bias or prejudice, in English of the same kind as the Greek of the original, so that they may be continuously and understandingly read. There is no book in the New Testament that cannot easily be read at a sitting. For American readers, especially, who have had to depend so long upon versions made in Great Britain, there is room for a New Testament free from expressions which, however familiar in England or Scotland, are strange to American ears.

The progress of recent years in the study of the text, grammar, lexicography, and interpretation of the New Testament, together with the discoveries of Greek papyri made chiefly since 1897, offers a wealth of material to the translator. The grammatical works of Blass, Burton, Moulton, and Robertson, and the new lexicons of Preuschen (1910), Zorell (1911), Ebeling (1913), Souter (1916), and Abbott-Smith (1922), with the lexical studies of Moulton and Milligan (1914--) greatly facilitate the work of the interpreter.

I have closely followed the Greek text of Westcott and Hort, now generally accepted. Every scholar knows its great superiority to the late and faulty Greek texts from which the early English translations from Tyndale to the Authorized Version were made. In a few instances, I have accepted the emendations suggested by Dr. Hort himself in his Notes on Select Readings. Under the influence of more recent investigations, I have departed from Westcott and Hort in John 19:29 ; Acts 6:9 ; Acts 19:28, 34 ; James 1:17 ; and Revelation 13:1; and I have adopted the striking suggestion of Rendel Harris, that by an error of the eye the name of Enoch has dropped out of the text in I Peter 3:19. The passages marked by Westcott and Hort as interpolations have been omitted from this translation, as being no part of the original text.

The generous co-operation of the University Press has made it possible to print the translation as one would a modern book, with all those aids of quotation marks and paragraphing which make an open and inviting page, and so facilitate reading, reference, and understanding. The translator has not interspersed the text with footnotes or captions of his own devising, preferring to leave it to make its own impression upon the reader. Nor has he prefaced the several books with historical introductions, which might aid in their understanding. For such aids, he would refer to his Story of the New Testament, which the studious reader may find a helpful companion to the present translation.

It has been truly said that any translation of a masterpiece must be a failure, but if this translation can in any measure bring home the great, living messages of the New Testament a little more widely and forcibly to the life of our time, the translator will be well content.

EDGAR J. GOODSPEED

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

August 31, 1923

New Testament

The Gospel According to Matthew

Chapter 1

¹The ancestry of Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, who was descended from Abraham.

²Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, and Jacob of Judah and his brothers, ³and Judah of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. And Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram, ⁴and Aram of Aminadab, and Aminadab of Nahshon, and Nahshon of Salmon, ⁵and Salmon of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. And Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. And Obed was the father of Jesse, ⁶and Jesse of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Uriah’s wife. ⁷And Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam of Abijah, and Abijah of Asa, ⁸and Asa of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat of Joram, and Joram of Uzziah, ⁹and Uzziah of Jotham, and Jotham of Ahaz, and Ahaz of Hezekiah, ¹⁰and Hezekiah of Manasseh, and Manasseh of Amon, and Amon of Josiah, ¹¹and Josiah of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the period of the Babylonian Exile.

¹²After the Babylonian Exile, Jeconiah had a son named Shealtiel, and Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³and Zerubbabel of Abiud, and Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor, ¹⁴and Azor of Zadok, and Zadok of Achim, and Achim of Eliud, ¹⁵and Eliud of Eleazar, and Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob, ¹⁶and Jacob of Joseph, the husband of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus called Christ.

¹⁷So the whole number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen, and from David to the Babylonian Exile, fourteen, and from the Babylonian Exile to the Christ, fourteen.

¹⁸Now these were the circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ. Mary, his mother, was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married it was found that she was about to become a mother through the influence of the holy Spirit. ¹⁹But her husband, Joseph, was an upright man and did not wish to disgrace her, and he decided to break off the engagement privately. ²⁰But while he was thinking of doing this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said,

“Joseph, descendant of David, do not fear to take Mary, your wife, to your home, for it is through the influence of the holy Spirit that she is to become a mother. ²¹She will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for it is he who is to save his people from their sins.”

²²All this happened in fulfilment of what the Lord said through the prophet,

²³“The maiden will be pregnant and will have a son,

And they will name him Immanuel.”

—a word which means “God with us.” ²⁴So when Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had directed him, and took his wife to his home. ²⁵But he did not live with her as a husband until she had had a son, and he named the child Jesus.

Chapter 2

¹Now after the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem in Judea, in the days of King Herod, astrologers from the east arrived at Jerusalem, ²and asked,

“Where is the newly born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star rise and we have come to do homage to him.”

³When King Herod heard of this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴So he called together all the high priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They said,

“At Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

⁶“ ‘And you, Bethlehem in Judah’s land,

You are by no means least important among the leading places of Judah,

For from you will come a leader

Who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ ”

⁷Then Herod secretly sent for the astrologers, and found out from them the exact time when the star appeared. ⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said to them,

“Go and inquire particularly about the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I may go and do homage to him too.”

⁹So they obeyed the king and went, and the star which they had seen rise led them on until it reached the place where the child was, and stopped above it. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were very glad, ¹¹and they went into the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they threw themselves down and did homage to him. They opened their treasure boxes and presented the child with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²Then, as they had been divinely warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another way.

¹³When they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said,

“Wake up! Take the child and his mother and make your escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave. For Herod is going to look for the child in order to make away with him.”

¹⁴Then he awoke and took the child and his mother by night and took refuge in Egypt, ¹⁵to fulfil what the Lord said by the prophet, “I called my son from Egypt.”

¹⁶Then Herod saw that he had been tricked by the astrologers, and he was very angry, and he sent and made away with all the boys in Bethlehem and in all that neighborhood who were two years old or under, for that was the tune he had learned from the astrologers by his inquiries. ¹⁷Then the saying was fulfilled which was uttered by the prophet Jeremiah,

¹⁸“A cry was heard in Ramah!

Weeping and great lamenting!

Rachel weeping for her children,

And inconsolable because they were gone.”

¹⁹But when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said,

“Wake up! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

²¹Then he awoke, and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But hearing that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to return there; and being warned in a dream, he took refuge in the region of Galilee, ²³and he went and settled in a town called Nazareth, in fulfilment of the saying of the prophets,

“He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Chapter 3

¹In those days John the Baptist appeared, and preached in the desert of Judea.

²“Repent!” he said, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is coming!”

³It was he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, when he said,

“Hark! Someone is shouting in the desert,

‘Get the Lord’s way ready!

Make his paths straight!’ ”

⁴John wore clothing made of hair cloth, and he had a leather belt around his waist, and he lived on dried locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole Jordan valley went out to him, ⁶and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, in acknowledgment of their sins. ⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them,

“You brood of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the wrath that is coming? ⁸Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! ⁹Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our forefather,’ for I tell you God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones! ¹⁰But the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹I am baptizing you in water in token of your repentance, but he who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not fit to carry his shoes. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing-floor, and store his wheat in his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with inextinguishable fire.”

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴But John dissuaded him, and said,

“I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵But Jesus answered,

“Let it be so this time, for it is right for us to do everything that God requires.”

Then John consented. ¹⁶And when Jesus was baptized, he went right up out of the water, and the heavens opened, and he saw the Spirit of God come down like a dove and light upon him, ¹⁷and a voice from heaven said,

“This is my Son, my Beloved! This is my Chosen.”

Chapter 4

¹Then Jesus was guided by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. ²And he fasted forty days and nights, and after it he was famished. ³And the tempter came up and said to him,

“If you are God’s son, tell these stones to turn into bread!”

⁴But he answered,

“The Scripture says, ‘Not on bread alone is man to live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God!’ ”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the summit of the Temple, ⁶and said to him,

“If you are God’s son, throw yourself down, for the Scripture says,

“ ‘He will give his angels orders about you,

And they will lift you up with their hands

So that you may never strike your foot against a stone!’ ”

⁷Jesus said to him,

“The Scripture also says, ‘You shall not try the Lord your God.’ ”

⁸Again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, ⁹and said to him,

“I will give all this to you, if you will fall on your knees and do homage to me.”

¹⁰Then Jesus said to him,

“Begone, Satan! For the Scripture says, ‘You must do homage to the Lord your God, and worship him alone!’ ”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and waited on him.

¹²But when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he retreated to Galilee. ¹³And he left Nazareth and went and settled in Capernaum, by the sea, in the district of Zebulon and Naphtali, ¹⁴in fulfilment of what was said by the prophet Isaiah,

¹⁵“Zebulon’s land, and Naphtali’s land,

Along the road to the sea, across the Jordan,

Galilee of the nations!

¹⁶The people that were living in darkness

Have seen a great light,

And on those who were living in the land of the shadow of death

A light has dawned!”

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to preach and say,

“Repent! for the Kingdom of Heaven is coming!”

¹⁸As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was afterward called Peter, and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹He said to them,

“Come and follow me, and I will make you fish for men!”

²⁰They immediately dropped their nets and went with him. ²¹And he went on a little farther and saw two other men who were brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother, John, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, putting their nets in order, and he called them. ²²And they immediately left the boat and their father, and went with him.

²³Then he went all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing any disease or sickness among the people. ²⁴Word went all through Syria about him, and people brought to him all who were suffering with any kind of disease, or who were in great pain—demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics—and he cured them. ²⁵Great crowds followed him about, from Galilee and the Ten Towns and Jerusalem and Judea and from the other side of the Jordan.

Chapter 5

¹When he saw the crowds of people he went up on the mountain. There he seated himself, and when his disciples had come up to him, ²he opened his lips to teach them. And he said,

³“Blessed are those who feel their spiritual need, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them!

⁴“Blessed are the mourners, for they will be consoled!

⁵“Blessed are the humble-minded, for they will possess the land!

⁶“Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for uprightness, for they will be satisfied!

⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy!

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God!

⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called God’s sons!

¹⁰“Blessed are those who have endured persecution for their uprightness, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them!

¹¹“Blessed are you when people abuse you, and persecute you, and falsely say everything bad of you, on my account. ¹²Be glad and exult over it, for you will be richly rewarded in heaven, for that is the way they persecuted the prophets who went before you!

¹³“You are the salt of the earth! But if salt loses its strength, how can it be made salt again? It is good for nothing but to be thrown away and trodden underfoot. ¹⁴You are the light of the world! A city that is built upon a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵People do not light a lamp and put it under a peck-measure; they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶Your light must burn in that way among men so that they will see the good you do, and praise your Father in heaven.

¹⁷“Do not suppose that I have come to do away with the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to do away with them but to enforce them. ¹⁸For I tell you, as long as heaven and earth endure, not one dotting of an i or crossing of a t will be dropped from the Law until it is all observed. ¹⁹Anyone, therefore, who weakens one of the slightest of these commands, and teaches others to do so, will be ranked lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven; but anyone who observes them and teaches others to do so will be ranked high in the Kingdom of Heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your uprightness is far superior to that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never even enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

²¹“You have heard that the men of old were told ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘Whoever murders will have to answer to the court.’ ²²But I tell you that anyone who gets angry with his brother will have to answer to the court, and anyone who speaks contemptuously to his brother will have to answer to the great council, and anyone who says to his brother ‘You cursed fool!’ will have to answer for it in the fiery pit! ²³So when you are presenting your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother has any grievance against you, ²⁴leave your gift right there before the altar and go and make up with your brother; then come back and present your gift. ²⁵Be quick and come to terms with your opponent while you are on the way to court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶I tell you, you will never get out again until you have paid the last penny!

²⁷“You have heard that men were told ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹But if your right eye makes you fall, tear it out and throw it away, for you might better lose one part of your body than have it all thrown into the pit! ³⁰If your right hand makes you fall, cut it off and throw it away, for you might better lose one part of your body than have it all go down to the pit!

³¹“They were told, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife on any ground, except unfaithfulness, makes her commit adultery, and anyone who marries her after she is divorced commits adultery.

³³“Again, you have heard that the men of old were told, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but you must fulfil your oaths to the Lord.’ ³⁴But I tell you not to swear at all, either by heaven, for it is God’s throne, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. ³⁶You must not swear by your own head, for you cannot make one single hair white or black. ³⁷But your way of speaking must be ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ Anything that goes beyond that comes from the evil one.

³⁸“You have heard that they were told, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you not to resist injury, but if anyone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him too; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat too. ⁴¹And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go two miles with him. ⁴²If anyone begs from you, give to him, and when anyone wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

⁴³“You have heard that they were told, ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, ⁴⁵so that you may show yourselves true sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on bad and good alike, and makes the rain fall on the upright and the wrongdoers. ⁴⁶For if you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Do not the very tax-collectors do that? ⁴⁷And if you are polite to your brothers and no one else, what is there remarkable in that? Do not the very heathen do that? ⁴⁸So you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is.

Chapter 6

¹“But take care not to do your good deeds in public for people to see, for, if you do, you will get no reward from your Father in heaven. ²So when you are going to give to charity, do not blow a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues and the streets, to make people praise them. I tell you, that is all the reward they will get! ³But when you give to charity, your own left hand must not know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your charity may be secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

⁵“When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they like to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the squares, to let people see them. I tell you, that is the only reward they will get! ⁶But when you pray, go into your own room, and shut the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you. ⁷And when you pray, do not repeat empty phrases as the heathen do, for they imagine that their prayers will be heard if they use words enough. ⁸You must not be like them. For God, who is your Father, knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹This, therefore, is the way you are to pray:

‘Our Father in heaven,

Your name be revered!

¹⁰Your kingdom come!

Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven!

¹¹Give us today bread for the day,

¹²And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.

¹³And do not subject us to temptation,

But save us from the evil one.’

¹⁴For if you forgive others when they offend you, your heavenly Father will forgive you too. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive others when they offend you, your heavenly Father will not forgive you for your offenses.

¹⁶“When you fast, do not put on a gloomy look, like the hypocrites, for they neglect their personal appearance to let people see that they are fasting. I tell you, that is all the reward they will get. ¹⁷But when you fast, perfume your hair and wash your face, ¹⁸so that no one may see that you are fasting, except your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret, will reward you.

¹⁹“Do not store up your riches on earth, where moths and rust destroy them, and where thieves break in and steal them, ²⁰but store up your riches in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. ²¹For wherever your treasure is, your heart will be also. ²²The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is sound, your whole body will be light, ²³but if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be dark. If, therefore, your very light is darkness, how deep the darkness will be! ²⁴No slave can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money. ²⁵Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about life, wondering what you will have to eat or drink, or about your body, wondering what you will have to wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body than clothes? ²⁶Look at the wild birds. They do not sow or reap, or store their food in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more account than they? ²⁷But which of you with all his worry can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸Why should you worry about clothing? See how the wild flowers grow. They do not toil or spin, ²⁹and yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendor was never dressed like one of them. ³⁰But if God so beautifully dresses the wild grass, which is alive today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more surely clothe you, you who have so little faith? ³¹So do not worry and say, ‘What shall we have to eat?’ or ‘What shall we have to drink?’ or ‘What shall we have to wear?’ ³²For these are all things the heathen are in pursuit of, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need all this. ³³But you must make his kingdom, and uprightness before him, your greatest care, and you will have all these other things besides. ³⁴So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries of its own. Let each day be content with its own ills.

Chapter 7

¹“Pass no more judgments upon other people, so that you may not have judgment passed upon you. ²For you will be judged by the standard you judge by, and men will pay you back with the same measure you have used with them. ³Why do you keep looking at the speck in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the beam that is in your own? ⁴How can you say to your brother, ‘Just let me get that speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a beam in your own? ⁵You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get the speck out of your brother’s eye.

⁶“Do not give what is sacred to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. ⁷Ask, and what you ask will be given you. Search, and you will find what you search for. Knock, and the door will open to you. ⁸For it is always the one who asks who receives, and the one who searches who finds, and the one who knocks to whom the door opens. ⁹Which of you men when his son asks him for some bread will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? ¹¹So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask him for it! ¹²Therefore, you must always treat other people as you would like to have them treat you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

¹³“Go in at the narrow gate. For the road that leads to destruction is broad and spacious, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴But the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that find it.

¹⁵“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you disguised as sheep but are ravenous wolves underneath. ¹⁶You can tell them by their fruit. Do people pick grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles? ¹⁷Just so any sound tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸No sound tree can bear bad fruit, and no poor tree can bear good fruit. ¹⁹Any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and burned. ²⁰So you can tell them by their fruit. ²¹It is not everyone who says to me ‘Lord! Lord!’ who will get into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that Day, ‘Lord! Lord! Was it not in your name that we prophesied, and by your name that we drove out demons, and by your name that we did many mighty acts?’ ²³Then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you! Go away from me, you who do wrong!’

²⁴“Everyone, therefore, who listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it, will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. ²⁵And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew, and beat about that house, and it did not go down, for its foundations were on rock. ²⁶And anyone who listens to this teaching of mine and does not act upon it, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat about that house, and it went down, and its downfall was complete.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished this discourse, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

Chapter 8

¹When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds of people followed him. ²And a leper came up to him and fell on his knees before him, saying,

“If you only choose, sir, you can cure me!”

³So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying,

“I do choose! Be cured!”

And his leprosy was immediately cured. ⁴Then Jesus said to him,

“See that you tell nobody, but go! Show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure, offer the gift that Moses prescribed.”

⁵When he got back to Capernaum, a Roman captain came up and appealed to him, ⁶saying,

“My servant, sir, is lying sick with paralysis at my house, in great distress.”

⁷He said to him,

“I will come and cure him.”

⁸But the captain answered,

“I am not a suitable person, sir, to have you come under my roof, but simply say the word, and my servant will be cured. ⁹For I am myself under the orders of others and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this he was astonished, and said to his followers,

“I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such faith as this. ¹¹And I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven, ¹²while the heirs to the kingdom will be driven into the darkness outside, there to weep and grind their teeth!”

¹³Then Jesus said to the captain,

“Go! You shall find it just as you believe!”

And the servant was immediately cured.

¹⁴Jesus went into Peter’s house, and there he found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with fever. ¹⁵And he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and waited on him.

¹⁶In the evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove the spirits out with a word, and cured all who were sick, ¹⁷in fulfilment of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “He took our sickness and carried away our diseases.”

¹⁸Then Jesus, seeing a crowd about him, gave orders to cross to the other side. ¹⁹And a scribe came up and said to him,

“Master, I will follow you wherever you are going!”

²⁰And Jesus said to him,

“Foxes have holes and wild birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head!”

²¹And another of his disciples said to him,

“Let me first go, sir, and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus said to him,

“Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead!”

²³And he got into the boat, and his disciples went with him. ²⁴And suddenly a terrific storm came up on the sea, so that the waves broke over the boat, but he remained asleep. ²⁵And they came and woke him up, saying,

“Save us, sir! We are lost!”

²⁶And he said to them,

“Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!”

Then he got up and reproved the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷And the men were amazed and said,

“What kind of man is this? For the very winds and sea obey him!”

²⁸When he reached the other side, in the region of Gadara, two men possessed by demons came out of the tombs and confronted him; they were so extremely violent that nobody could go along that road. ²⁹And they suddenly screamed out,

“What do you want of us, you Son of God? Have you come here before the appointed time to torture us?”

³⁰Now at some distance from them there was a great drove of pigs feeding. ³¹And the demons entreated him, saying,

“If you are going to drive us out, send us into the drove of pigs.”

³²And he said to them,

“Begone!”

And they came out and went into the pigs. And suddenly the whole drove rushed over the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the water. ³³And the men who tended them ran away and went off to the town and told it all, and the news about the men possessed by demons. ³⁴And the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to go away from their district.

Chapter 9

¹So he got into the boat and crossed the sea, and returned to his own city.

²Some people came bringing to him on a bed a man who was paralyzed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man,

“Courage, my son! Your sins are forgiven.”

³Some of the scribes said to themselves,

“This man is talking blasphemy!”

⁴Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said,

“Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts? ⁵For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ⁶But I would have you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.” Then he said to the paralytic,

“Get up, pick up your bed and go home!”

⁷And he got up and went home. ⁸And when the crowd saw it, they were filled with awe, and praised God for giving such power to men.

⁹Afterward, as Jesus was passing along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tollhouse, and he said to him,

“Follow me!”

And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰While Jesus was at home at table, a number of tax-collectors and irreligious people came in and joined Jesus and his disciples at table. ¹¹And the Pharisees observed it, and they said to his disciples,

“Why does your master eat with tax-collectors and irreligious people?”

¹²But he heard it, and said,

“It is not well people but the sick who have to have the doctor! ¹³You must go and learn what the saying means, ‘It is mercy, not sacrifice, that I care for.’ I did not come to invite the pious but the irreligious.”

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came up to him and said,

“Why is it that we and the Pharisees are keeping the fast, while your disciples are not keeping it?”

¹⁵Jesus said to them,

“Can wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and they will fast then. ¹⁶But no one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old coat, for the patch will tear away from the coat, and make the hole worse than ever. ¹⁷And people do not put new wine into old wine-skins, or if they do, the skins burst, and the wine runs out and the skins are spoiled. But people put new wine into fresh wine-skins, and so both are saved.”

¹⁸Just as he said this to them, an official came up and bowing low before him said to him,

“My daughter has just died. But come! Lay your hand on her and she will come to life!”

¹⁹And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. ²⁰And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel of his cloak. ²¹For she said to herself, “If I can just touch his cloak, I will get well.” ²²And Jesus turned and saw her, and he said,

“Courage, my daughter! Your faith has cured you!” And from that time the woman was well.

²³When Jesus reached the official’s house, and saw the flute-players and the disturbance the crowd was making, ²⁴he said,

“You must go away, for the girl is not dead; she is asleep.” And they laughed at him. ²⁵But when he had driven the people out, he went in and grasped her hand, and the girl got up. ²⁶And the news of this spread all over that part of the country.

²⁷As Jesus was passing along from there, two blind men followed him, calling out,

“Take pity on us, you Son of David!”

²⁸When he had gone indoors, the blind men came up to him, and he said to them,

“Do you believe that I can do this?” They said to him,

“Yes, sir.”

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said,

“You shall have what your faith expects.”

³⁰And their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly not to let anyone hear of it. ³¹But they went out and spread the news about him all over that part of the country.

³²But just as they were going out, some people brought to him a dumb man who was possessed by a demon, ³³and as soon as the demon was driven out, the dumb man was able to speak. And the crowds were amazed, and said,

“Nothing like this was ever seen in Israel!”

³⁴But the Pharisees said,

“It is by the aid of the prince of the demons that he drives them out.”

³⁵Jesus went round among all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing any disease or illness.

³⁶But the sight of the crowds of people filled him with pity for them, because they were bewildered and dejected, like sheep that have no shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples,

“The harvest is abundant enough, but the reapers are few. ³⁸So pray to the owner of the harvest to send reapers to gather it.”

Chapter 10

¹Then he called his twelve disciples to him, and gave them power over the foul spirits so that they could drive them out, and so that they could heal any disease or illness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, ³Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector, James the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus, ⁴Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot who afterward betrayed him.

⁵Jesus sent these twelve out, after giving them these directions:

“Do not go among the heathen, or to any Samaritan town, ⁶but proceed instead to the lost sheep of Israel’s house. ⁷And as you go about, preach and say, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ ⁸Cure the sick, raise the dead, heal lepers, drive out demons. Give without payment, just as you received without payment. ⁹Do not accept gold or silver or copper money to put in your pockets, ¹⁰and do not take a bag for your journey, nor two shirts, nor shoes, nor a staff, for the workman deserves his food! ¹¹Whatever town or village you come to, inquire for some suitable person, and stay with him till you leave the place. ¹²And as you go into his house, wish it well. ¹³If the house deserves it, the peace you wish it will come over it, but if it does not deserve it, your blessing will come back upon yourselves. ¹⁴And where no one will welcome you, or listen to you, leave that house or town and shake off its very dust from your feet. ¹⁵I tell you, the land of Sodom and Gomorrah will fare better on the Day of Judgment than that town.

¹⁶“Here I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So you must be wise like serpents, and guileless like doves. ¹⁷But be on your guard against men, for they will give you up to their courts, and have you flogged in their synagogues, ¹⁸and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to bear your testimony before them and the heathen. ¹⁹But when they give you up, you must have no anxiety about how to speak or what to say, for you will be told at the very moment what you ought to say, ²⁰for it is not you who will speak, it is the Spirit of your Father that will speak through you. ²¹One brother will give up another to death, and a father his child, and children will turn against their parents, and have them put to death. ²²You will be hated by everybody on my account, but the man who holds out to the very end will be saved. ²³But when they persecute you in one town, make your escape to another, for I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man arrives. ²⁴A pupil is not better than his teacher, nor a slave better than his master. ²⁵A pupil should be satisfied to come to be like his teacher, or a slave, to come to be like his master. If men have called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much worse names will they give to the members of his household! ²⁶So do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing covered up that is not going to be uncovered, nor secret that is not going to be known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark you must say in the light, and what you hear whispered in your ear, you must proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸Have no fear of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. You had better be afraid of one who can destroy both soul and body in the pit. ²⁹Do not sparrows sell two for a cent? And yet not one of them can fall to the ground against your Father’s will! ³⁰But the very hairs on your heads are all counted. ³¹You must not be afraid; you are worth more than a great many sparrows! ³²Therefore everyone who will acknowledge me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, ³³but anyone who disowns me before men, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, ³⁶and a man’s enemies will be in his own household. ³⁷No one who loves father or mother more than he loves me is worthy of me, and no one who loves son or daughter more than he loves me is worthy of me, ³⁸and no one who will not take up his cross and follow me is worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever gains his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it.

⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who has sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have the same reward as a prophet, and whoever welcomes an upright man because he is upright will have the same reward as an upright man. ⁴²And no one who will give the humblest of my disciples even a cup of cold water because he is my disciple, I tell you, can ever fail of his reward.”

Chapter 11

¹When Jesus had finished giving his twelve disciples these instructions, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

²Now when John heard in prison of what the Christ was doing, he sent by his disciples ³and said to him,

“Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

⁴Jesus answered,

“Go and report to John what you hear and see. ⁵The blind are regaining their sight and the lame can walk, the lepers are being cured and the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised and good news is being preached to the poor. ⁶And blessed is the man who finds nothing that repels him in me.”

⁷But as they were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.

“What was it that you went out into the desert to look at? A reed swaying in the wind? ⁸Then what did you go out there to see? A man luxuriously dressed? Men who dress in that way you find in the palaces of kings. ⁹Then why did you go out there? Was it to see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet! ¹⁰This is the man of whom the Scripture says,

“ ‘Here I send my messenger on before you;

He will prepare the road ahead of you.’

¹¹“I tell you, among men born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has ever appeared. And yet those who are of little importance in the Kingdom of Heaven are greater than he. ¹²But from the time of John the Baptist until now men have been taking the Kingdom of Heaven by storm and impetuously crowding into it. ¹³For up to the time of John all the Prophets and the Law itself prophesied about it, ¹⁴and, if you are ready to accept the idea, he is himself Elijah who was to come. ¹⁵Let him who has ears listen! ¹⁶But to what can I compare this present age? It is like children sitting about in the bazaars and calling out to their playmates,

¹⁷“ ‘We have played the flute for you, and you would not dance!

We have wailed and you would not beat your breasts!’

¹⁸For when John came, he neither ate nor drank, and people said, ‘He has a demon!’ ¹⁹Now that the Son of Man has come, he does eat and drink, and people say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drinker, the companion of tax-collectors and irreligious people!’ And yet Wisdom is vindicated by her actions!”

²⁰Then he began to reproach the towns in which his numerous wonders had been done, because they did not repent.

²¹“Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago! ²²But I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will fare better on the Day of Judgment than you will! ²³And you, Capernaum! Are you to be exalted to the skies? You will go down among the dead! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have stood until today. ²⁴But I tell you that the land of Sodom will fare better on the Day of Judgment than you will!”

²⁵At that same time Jesus said,

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent and revealing it to children. ²⁶Yes, I thank you, Father, for choosing to have it so. ²⁷Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one understands the Son but the Father, nor does anyone understand the Father but the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ²⁸Come to me, all of you who toil and are burdened, and I will let you rest. ²⁹Let my yoke be put upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble-minded, and your hearts will find rest, ³⁰for the yoke I offer you is a kindly one, and the load I ask you to bear is light.”

Chapter 12

¹At that same time Jesus walked one Sabbath through the wheat fields, and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of wheat and eat them. ²But the Pharisees saw it and said to him,

“Look! Your disciples are doing something which it is against the Law to do on the Sabbath!”

³But he said to them,

“Did you never read what David did, when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴How is it that he went into the House of God and that they ate the Presentation Loaves which it was against the Law for him and his companions to eat, or for anyone except the priests? ⁵Or did you never read in the Law how the priests in the Temple are not guilty when they break the Sabbath? ⁶But I tell you, there is something greater than the Temple here! ⁷But if you knew what the saying means, ‘It is mercy, not sacrifice, that I care for,’ you would not have condemned men who are not guilty. ⁸For the Son of Man is master of the Sabbath.”

⁹And he left the place and went into their synagogue. ¹⁰There was a man there with one hand withered. And in order to get a charge to bring against him, they asked him,

“Is it right to cure people on the Sabbath?”

¹¹But he said to them,

“Who among you if he has even a single sheep and it falls into a hole on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹²And how much more a man is worth than a sheep! Therefore, it is right to do people good on the Sabbath.”

¹³Then he said to the man,

“Hold out your hand!”

And he held it out, and it was restored and became as well as the other. ¹⁴But the Pharisees left the synagogue and consulted about him, with a view to putting him to death.

¹⁵But Jesus knew of this, and he left that place. And numbers of people followed him about, and he cured them all, ¹⁶and warned them not to say anything about him ¹⁷—in fulfilment of what was said by the prophet Isaiah,

¹⁸“Here is my servant whom I have selected,

My beloved, who delights my heart!

I will endow him with my Spirit,

And he will announce a judgment to the heathen.

¹⁹He will not wrangle or make an outcry,

And no one will hear his voice in the streets;

²⁰He will not break off a bent reed,

And he will not put out a smoldering wick,

Until he carries his judgment to success.

²¹The heathen will rest their hopes on his name!”

²²At that time some people brought to him a man blind and dumb, who was possessed by a demon, and he cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see. ²³And all the crowds of people were astounded, and said,

“Can this be the Son of David?”

²⁴But when the Pharisees heard of it they said,

“This man cannot drive out demons except by the aid of Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.”

²⁵But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to them,

“Any kingdom that is disunited is on the way to destruction, and any city or household that is disunited cannot last. ²⁶If Satan is driving Satan out, he is disunited, and so how can his kingdom last? ²⁷And if I am driving the demons out by Beelzebub’s aid, by whose aid do your sons drive them out? Therefore let them be your judges. ²⁸But if I am driving the demons out by the aid of God’s Spirit, then the Kingdom of God has overtaken you. ²⁹How can anyone get into a strong man’s house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man? After that he can plunder his house. ³⁰Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not join me in gathering, scatters. ³¹Therefore, I tell you, men will be forgiven for any sin or abusive speech, but abusive speech about the Spirit cannot be forgiven. ³²And whoever speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven for it, but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit cannot be forgiven for it, either in this world or in the world to come.

³³“You must either make the tree sound and its fruit sound, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; a tree is judged by its fruit. ³⁴You brood of snakes! how can you, bad as you are, utter anything good? For the mouth says only what the heart is full of. ³⁵A good man, out of the good he has accumulated, brings out things that are good, and a bad man, out of what he has accumulated that is bad, brings out things that are bad. ³⁶But I tell you, for every careless word that men utter they will have to answer on the Day of Judgment. ³⁷For it is by your words that you will be acquitted, or by your words that you will be condemned.”

³⁸Then some of the scribes and Pharisees addressed him, saying,

“Master, we would like to have you show us some sign.”

³⁹But he answered,

“Only a wicked and faithless age insists upon a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For just as Jonah was in the maw of the whale for three days and nights, the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹Men of Nineveh will rise with this age at the judgment and condemn it, for when Jonah preached they repented, and there is more than Jonah here! ⁴²The queen of the south will rise with this age at the judgment and condemn it, for she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here!

⁴³“When a foul spirit goes out of a man, it roams through deserts in search of rest and can find none. ⁴⁴Then it says, ‘I will go back to my house that I left,’ and it goes and finds it unoccupied, cleaned, and all in order. ⁴⁵Then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there, and in the end the man is worse off than he was before. That is the way it will be with this present wicked age.”

⁴⁶While he was still speaking, his mother and his brothers came up and stood outside the crowd, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁸But he said to the man who told him,

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”

⁴⁹And he pointed to his disciples and said,

“Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

Chapter 13

¹That same day Jesus went out of his house and was sitting on the seashore. ²And such great crowds gathered about him that he got into a boat and sat down in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³And he told them many things in figures, and said to them,

“A sower went out to sow, ⁴and as he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and the birds came and ate it up, ⁵and some fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil and it sprang up at once, because the soil was not deep, ⁶but when the sun came up it was scorched and withered up, because it had no root. ⁷And some of it fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it out. ⁸And some fell on good soil, and yielded some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty-fold. ⁹Let him who has ears listen!”

¹⁰His disciples came up and said to him,

“Why do you speak to them in figures?”

¹¹He answered,

“You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but they are not. ¹²For people who have will have more given to them, and will be plentifully supplied, and from people who have nothing even what they have will be taken away. ¹³This is why I speak to them in figures, because though they look they do not see, and though they listen they do not hear or understand. ¹⁴They are a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy,

“ ‘You will listen and listen, and never understand,

And you will look and look, and never see!

¹⁵For this nation’s mind has grown dull,

And they hear faintly with their ears,

And they have shut their eyes,

So as never to see with their eyes,

And hear with their ears,

And understand with their minds, and turn back,

And let me cure them!’

¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they do see, and your ears, for they do hear. ¹⁷For I tell you, many prophets and upright men have longed to see what you see, and could not see it, and to hear what you hear, and could not hear it.

¹⁸“You must listen closely then to the figure of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the teaching of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and robs him of the seed that has been sown in his mind. That is what was sown along the path. ²⁰And what was sown upon the rocky soil means the man who hears the message and at once accepts it joyfully, ²¹but it takes no real root in him, and lasts only a little while, and when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, he gives it up at once. ²²And what was sown among the thorns means the man who listens to the message, and then the worries of the time and the pleasure of being rich choke the message out, and it yields nothing. ²³And what was sown in good ground means the man who listens to the message and understands it, and yields one a hundred, and another sixty, and another thirty-fold.”

²⁴Another figure which he used in speaking to them was this:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but while people were asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶And when the wheat came up and ripened, the weeds appeared too. ²⁷And the owner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Was not the seed good that you sowed in your field, sir? So where did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘This is some enemy’s doing.’ And they said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹But he said, ‘No, for in gathering up the weeds you may uproot the wheat. ³⁰Let them both grow together until harvest time, and when we harvest I will direct the reapers to gather up the weeds first and tie them up in bundles to burn, but get the wheat into my barn.’ ”

³¹Another figure which he used in speaking to them was this:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. ³²It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the largest of plants and grows into a tree, so that the wild birds come and roost in its branches.”

³³Another figure which he used with them was this:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and buried in a bushel of flour until it had all risen.”

³⁴Jesus said all this to the crowds in figures, and told them nothing except in figures, ³⁵to fulfil what was said by the prophet,

“I will open my mouth in figures,

I will utter things that have been hidden since the creation.”

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into his house. And his disciples came up to him and said,

“Explain to us the figure of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He answered,

“The sower who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world. The good seed is the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the wicked. ³⁹The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰So just as the weeds are gathered up and burned, this is what will happen at the close of the age; ⁴¹the Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather up out of his kingdom all the causes of sin and the wrongdoers ⁴²and throw them into the blazing furnace; there they will wail and grind their teeth. ⁴³Then the upright will shine out like the sun, in their Father’s kingdom. Let him who has ears listen!

⁴⁴“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a hoard of money, buried in a field, which a man found, and buried again. And he was overjoyed, and went and sold everything he had and bought the field.

⁴⁵“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dealer in search of fine pearls. ⁴⁶He found one costly pearl, and went and sold everything he had, and bought it.

⁴⁷“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was let down into the sea, and inclosed fish of all kinds. ⁴⁸When it was full, they dragged it up on the beach, and sat down and sorted the good fish into baskets and threw the bad away. ⁴⁹That is what will happen at the close of the age. The angels will go out and remove the wicked from among the upright, ⁵⁰and throw them into the blazing furnace. There they will wail and grind their teeth.

⁵¹“Do you understand all this?” They said to him,

“Yes.”

⁵²He said to them,

“Then remember that every scribe who has become a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven must be like a householder who can supply from his storeroom new things as well as old.”

⁵³When Jesus had finished these figures, he left that place, ⁵⁴and went to his own part of the country. And he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished, and said,

“Where did he get this wisdom, and the power to do these wonders? ⁵⁵Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary, and are not his brothers named James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶And do not all his sisters live here among us? Then where did he get all this?”

⁵⁷And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them,

“A prophet is treated with honor everywhere except in his native place and at his home.”

⁵⁸And he did not do many wonders there, because of their want of faith.

Chapter 14

¹At that time, Herod the governor heard the reports about Jesus, ²and he said to his attendants,

“This man must be John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead, and that is why wonderful powers are working through him.”

³For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, ⁴for John said to him,

“It is not right for you to be living with her.”

⁵And while he wanted him killed, he was afraid of the people; for they considered him a prophet. ⁶But when Herod’s birthday came, Herodias’ daughter danced before the company. And Herod was delighted with her, ⁷and swore that he would give her anything she asked for. ⁸But she, at her mother’s instigation, said,

“Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter!”

⁹And the king was sorry, but because he had sworn to do it, and because of the guests who were present, he ordered it to be given to her. ¹⁰And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. ¹¹And his head was brought back on a platter and given to the girl, and she took it to her mother. ¹²John’s disciples came and took his body away, and buried him, and then they went and reported it to Jesus.

¹³When Jesus heard it, he quietly retired by boat to a secluded place. And the crowds heard of it and followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴So when he got out of the boat he found a great crowd gathered, and his heart was touched at the sight of them, and he cured those of them that were sick. ¹⁵And when it was evening, the disciples came up to him and said,

“This is a lonely place and the day is over. Send the crowds off to the villages to buy themselves food.”

¹⁶But Jesus said to them,

“They do not need to go away. Give them food yourselves.”

¹⁷They said to him,

“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”

¹⁸He said,

“Bring them here to me.”

¹⁹Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and he took the five loaves and the two fish and looked up to heaven and blessed them, and he broke the loaves in pieces and gave them to the disciples and they gave them to the people. ²⁰And they all ate and had enough. And the pieces left over that they gathered up filled twelve baskets. ²¹There were about five thousand men who were fed, besides women and children.

²²And he immediately made his disciples get into the boat and cross before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. ²³After he had dismissed them he went up the hill by himself to pray. And when evening came on he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was by this time a long way from shore, struggling with the waves, for the wind was against them. ²⁵Toward morning he went out to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶And the disciples saw him walking on the sea, and they were terrified and said,

“It is a ghost!”

And they screamed with fear. ²⁷But Jesus immediately spoke to them and said,

“Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.”

²⁸Peter answered,

“If it is you, Master, order me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹And he said,

“Come!”

And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and went to Jesus. ³⁰But when he felt the wind he was frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out,

“Master, save me!”

³¹Jesus immediately stretched out his hand and caught hold of him, and said to him,

“Why did you waver? You have so little faith!”

³²When they got into the boat, the wind went down. ³³And the men in the boat fell down before him and said,

“You are certainly God’s Son!”

³⁴And they crossed over to the other side and came to Gennesaret. ³⁵And the men of the place recognized him, and sent all over that district and brought to him all who were sick, ³⁶and they begged him to let them touch just the tassel of his cloak, and all who touched it were cured.

Chapter 15

¹Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, and said to him,

²“Why do your disciples break the rules handed down by our ancestors? For they eat their bread without first washing their hands.”

³But he answered,

“Why do you too break God’s command for the sake of what has been handed down to you? ⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘He who abuses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁵But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Anything of mine that might have been of use to you is given to God,” ⁶does not have to provide for his father.’ So you have nullified what God has said, for the sake of what has been handed down to you. ⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied finely about you when he said,

⁸“ ‘This people honor me with their lips,

Yet their hearts are far away from me.

⁹But their worship of me is all in vain,

For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.’ ”

¹⁰And he called the people to him and said to them,

¹¹“Listen to this, and grasp it! It is not what goes into a man’s mouth that pollutes him; it is what comes out of his mouth that pollutes a man.”

¹²Then his disciples came up to him and said to him,

“Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked to hear you say that?”

¹³But he answered,

“Any plant that my heavenly Father did not plant must be uprooted! ¹⁴Leave them alone. They are blind guides! But if one blind man leads another, they will both fall into the ditch!”

¹⁵Peter said to him,

“Explain the figure for us.”

¹⁶He said,

“Have even you no understanding yet? ¹⁷Can you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then is disposed of? ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they pollute a man. ¹⁹For out of the heart come wicked designs, murder, adultery, immorality, stealing, false witness, impious speech. ²⁰It is these things that pollute a man, but not eating with unwashed hands!”

²¹And Jesus left that place and retired to the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. ²²And a Canaanite woman of that district came out and screamed,

“Son of David, take pity on me, sir! My daughter is dreadfully possessed by a demon!”

²³But he would not answer her a word. And his disciples came up and urged him, saying,

“Send her away, for she keeps screaming after us.”

²⁴But he answered,

“I am sent only to the lost sheep of Israel’s house.”

²⁵And she came and fell down before him, and said,

“Help me, sir!”

²⁶He said,

“It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs!”

²⁷But she said,

“O yes, sir! For even dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters’ table!”

²⁸Then Jesus answered,

“You have great faith! You shall have what you want.”

And her daughter was cured from that time.

²⁹Jesus left that place and went along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the hillside and sat down there. ³⁰Then great crowds came to him bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, or dumb, and many others. And they laid them down at his feet, and he cured them, ³¹so that the people were astonished to see the dumb speak, the lame walk, and the blind see. And they praised the God of Israel.

³²Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them,

“I pity these people for they have been staying with me three days now and they have nothing left to eat, and I do not mean to send them away hungry, for they may give out on the way.”

³³The disciples said to him,

“Where can we get bread enough in this solitude to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴Jesus said to them,

“How many loaves have you?”

They said,

“Seven, and a few small fish.”

³⁵Then he ordered the people to take their places on the ground, ³⁶and he took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks and he broke them in pieces and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ³⁷And they all ate and satisfied their hunger. And the pieces that they left that were picked up filled seven baskets. ³⁸There were four thousand men who were fed, besides women and children. ³⁹And he dismissed the people and got into the boat and went to the district of Magadan.

Chapter 16

¹The Pharisees and Sadducees came up and to test him asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ²He answered,

⁴“It is a wicked and faithless age that insists on a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah.”

And he left them and went away.

⁵When the disciples went across the lake, they forgot to take any bread. ⁶And Jesus said to them,

“Look out, and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”

⁷But they were discussing something with one another, and saying,

“We have not brought any bread!”

⁸Jesus noticed it and said,

“Why are you discussing with one another your being without bread? You have so little faith! ⁹Do you not understand yet? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets full you gathered up? ¹⁰Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets full you gathered up? ¹¹Why do you not see that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”

¹²Then they understood that he was warning them not against yeast but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³When Jesus reached the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴They said,

“Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵He said to them,

“But who do you say that I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered,

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

¹⁷Jesus answered,

“Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for human nature has not disclosed this to you, but my Father in heaven! ¹⁸But I tell you, your name is Peter, a rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not subdue it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you forbid on earth will be held in heaven to be forbidden, and whatever you permit on earth will be held in heaven to be permitted.”

²⁰Then he warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

²¹It was then that Jesus Christ for the first time explained to his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and endure great suffering there at the hands of the elders, high priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised to life on the third day. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to reprove him for it, saying,

“God bless you, Master! that can never happen to you!”

²³But he turned and said to Peter,

“Get out of my sight, you Satan! You hinder me, for you do not side with God, but with men!”

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples,

“If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself and take his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to preserve his own life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶For what good will it do a man if he gains the whole world but parts with his life? What can a man give to buy back his life? ²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone for what he has done. ²⁸I tell you, some of you who stand here will certainly live to see the Son of Man come to reign!”

Chapter 17

¹Six days after this, Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John, and led them up on a high mountain, by themselves. ²And his appearance underwent a change in their presence and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. ³And Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. ⁴And Peter spoke, and said to Jesus,

“Master, how good it is that we are here! If you wish, I will make three huts here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵As he spoke a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said,

“This is my Son, my Beloved. He is my Chosen. Listen to him!”

⁶When the disciples heard it, they were dreadfully frightened and fell upon their faces. ⁷And Jesus came and touched them, and said,

“Get up and do not be afraid.”

⁸When they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus himself. ⁹And as they were going down the mountain, Jesus cautioned them, saying,

“Do not tell anyone of the vision you have seen until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

¹⁰The disciples asked him,

“Then why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?”

¹¹He answered,

“Elijah does come and is to reform everything, ¹²but I tell you, Elijah has come already, and they would not recognize him, but treated him just as they pleased. It is in just that way that the Son of Man is going to be treated by them!”

¹³Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

¹⁴When they came to the people again, a man came up to him and fell on his knees, saying,

¹⁵“Master, take pity on my son, for he has epilepsy, and is very wretched; he often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶And I brought him to your disciples and they have not been able to cure him.”

¹⁷Jesus answered,

“O you unbelieving, obstinate people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me!”

¹⁸And Jesus reproved the demon and it came out of him, and from that moment the boy was cured. ¹⁹Afterward, when he was alone, the disciples went to Jesus and said to him,

“Why could we not drive it out?”

²⁰He said to them,

“Because you have so little faith. For I tell you, if you have faith the size of a grain of mustard, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here over to there!’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

²²As they were going about in Galilee, Jesus said to them,

“The Son of Man is going to be handed over to men, ²³and they will kill him, but on the third day he will be raised to life again.” And they were greatly distressed.

²⁴When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple-tax came and said to Peter,

“Does not your Master pay the temple-tax?”

²⁵He said,

“Yes.”

But when he went home, Jesus spoke of it first and said,

“What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect duties and taxes? From their own people, or from aliens?”

²⁶He said,

“From aliens.”

Jesus said to him,

“Then their own people are exempt. ²⁷But rather than give offense to them, go down to the sea and throw in a hook. Take the first fish that comes up, open its mouth and you will find in it a dollar. Take that and pay the tax for us both.”

Chapter 18

¹Just at that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus,

“Who is really greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”

²He called a child to him and had him stand among them, ³and he said,

“I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven at all. ⁴Anyone, therefore, who is as unassuming as this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, ⁵and anyone who welcomes one child like this on my account welcomes me. ⁶But whoever hinders one of these children who believe in me might better have a great millstone hung around his neck and be sunk in the open sea. ⁷Alas for the world for such hindrances! They have to come, but alas for the man who causes them!

⁸“But if your own hand or your own foot makes you fall, cut it off and throw it away. You might better enter upon life maimed or crippled than keep both hands and feet but be thrown into the everlasting fire. ⁹And if your own eye makes you fall, dig it out and throw it away. You might better enter upon life with only one eye than be thrown with both eyes into the fiery pit.

¹⁰“Beware of feeling scornful of one single little child, for I tell you that in heaven their angels have continual access to my Father in heaven. ¹²What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills, and go in search of the one that is astray? ¹³And if he happens to find it, I tell you he rejoices more over it than he does over the ninety-nine that did not stray. ¹⁴In just that way, it is the will of my Father in heaven that not a single one of these children be lost.

¹⁵“But if your brother wrongs you go to him and show him his fault while you are alone with him. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. ¹⁶But if he will not listen, take one or two others with you, so that everything may be supported by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell the congregation. And if he refuses to listen to it, treat him as a heathen or a tax-collector.

¹⁸“I tell you, whatever you forbid on earth will be held in heaven to be forbidden, and whatever you permit on earth will be held in heaven to be permitted. ¹⁹Again, I tell you, if even two of you here on earth agree about what they shall pray for, it will be given them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For wherever two or three are gathered as my followers, I am there among them.”

²¹Then Peter came to him and said,

“Master, how many times am I to forgive my brother when he wrongs me? Seven times over?”

²²Jesus said to him,

“Not seven times over, I tell you, but seventy-seven times over! ²³For this reason the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king, who resolved to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴And when he set about doing so, a man was brought in who owed him ten million dollars. ²⁵And as he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all he had, in payment of the debt. ²⁶So the slave threw himself down before him and implored him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you all of it.’ ²⁷And his master’s heart was touched, and he let the slave go and canceled the debt. ²⁸But when the slave went out he met a fellow-slave of his who owed him twenty dollars, and he caught him by the throat and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ ²⁹So his fellow-slave threw himself down before him, and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused and went and had him put in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went to their master and reported the whole matter to him. ³²Then his master called him in and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I canceled all that debt of yours when you entreated me. ³³Ought you not to have taken pity on your fellow-slave, as I did on you?’ ³⁴So his master in his anger handed him over to the jailers, until he should pay all he owed him. ³⁵That is what my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not each forgive your brothers from your hearts!”

Chapter 19

¹When Jesus had finished this discourse, he left Galilee and went to the part of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan. ²Great crowds followed him about and he cured them there.

³And some Pharisees came up to him to test him, and they said,

“Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

⁴But he answered,

“Did you never read that the Creator at the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two of them shall become one’? So they are no longer two but one. ⁶Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not try to separate.”

⁷They said to him,

“Then why did Moses command us to draw up a written divorce-notice and give it to her?”

⁸He said to them,

“It was on account of your perversity that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but it was not so at the beginning. ⁹I tell you that whoever divorces his wife on any ground but her unfaithfulness, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”

¹⁰The disciples said to him,

“If that is a man’s relation to his wife, it is better not to marry!”

¹¹He said to them,

“It is not everyone who can accept that, but only those who have a special gift. ¹²For some are incapable of marriage from their birth, and some have been made so by men, and some have made themselves so for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let him accept it who can.”

¹³Then some children were brought up to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray, but his disciples reproved the people for it. ¹⁴But Jesus said,

“Let the children alone, and do not try to keep them from coming to me, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as they are.”

¹⁵And he laid his hands on them and went on.

¹⁶A man came up to him and said,

“Master, what good deed must I do to obtain eternal life?”

¹⁷But he said to him,

“Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.

But if you want to enter that life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸He said to him,

“Which ones?”

Jesus said,

“These: ‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as you do yourself.’ ”

²⁰The young man said to him,

“I have obeyed all these commandments. What do I still lack?”

²¹Jesus said to him,

“If you want to be perfect, go! Sell your property and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come back and be a follower of mine.”

²²But when the young man heard that, he went away much cast down, for he had a great deal of property.

²³Jesus said to his disciples,

“I tell you, it will be hard for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven! ²⁴And again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to get through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of God!”

²⁵But when the disciples heard this, they were completely astounded and said,

“Then who can be saved?”

²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said,

“For men it is impossible, but anything is possible for God!”

²⁷Then Peter spoke and said to him, “Here we have left all we had and followed you. What are we to have?”

²⁸Jesus said to them,

“In the new world, I tell you, when the Son of Man takes his seat on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit upon twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel!

²⁹And anyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or land for my sake will receive many times as much, and share eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first now will be last then, and many who are now last will be first.

Chapter 20

¹For the Kingdom of Heaven is like an employer who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²He agreed with the laborers to pay them a dollar a day, and sent them to his vineyard. ³He went out about nine o’clock and saw others standing in the bazaar with nothing to do. ⁴And he said to them, ‘You go to my vineyard, too, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. ⁵He went out again about twelve and about three, and did the same. ⁶About five he went out and found others standing about and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing about here all day doing nothing?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because nobody has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go to my vineyard, too.’ ⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ ⁹When those who were hired about five o’clock came they received a dollar apiece. ¹⁰And when those who were hired first came they expected to get more, but they too got a dollar apiece. ¹¹And when they received it they grumbled at their employer, ¹²and said, ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have put them on the same footing with us who have done the heavy work of the day and have stood the midday heat.’ ¹³But he answered one of them, ‘My friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me on a dollar? ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go. I wish to give the last man hired as much as I give you. ¹⁵Have I no right to do what I please with what is mine? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ ¹⁶So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

¹⁷When Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve off by themselves, and said to them as they were on the way,

¹⁸“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the high priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, ¹⁹and hand him over to the heathen to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”

²⁰Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came up to him with her sons, bowing low, to ask a favor of him. ²¹He said to her,

“What do you want?”

She said to him,

“Give orders that these two sons of mine sit one at your right and one at your left, when you are king!”

²²But Jesus answered,

“You do not know what you are asking for! Can you drink what I am going to drink?”

They answered,

“Yes, we can.”

²³He said to them,

“Then what I drink you shall drink, but as for sitting at my right or my left, that is not mine to give, but belongs to those for whom it is destined by my Father.”

²⁴When the other ten heard of this, they were very indignant at the two brothers. ²⁵But Jesus called them to him and said,

“You know that the rulers of the heathen lord it over them, and their great men tyrannize over them. ²⁶It is not to be so among you, but whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to hold the first place among you must be your slave, ²⁸just as the Son of Man has come not to be waited on, but to wait on other people, and to give his life to ransom many others.”

²⁹As they were going out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. ³⁰And two blind men sitting by the roadside, hearing that it was Jesus who was passing, called out,

“You Son of David! Take pity on us, sir!”

³¹The crowd told them to be still, but they called all the louder,

“You Son of David! Take pity on us, sir!”

³²And Jesus stopped and called them, and said,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

³³They said to him,

“Sir, have our eyes opened!”

³⁴And Jesus took pity on them and touched their eyes, and they immediately regained their sight, and followed him.

Chapter 21

¹When they were near Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples on ahead, ²saying to them,

“Go to the village that lies in front of you, and you will at once find an ass tied there, and a colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Master needs them’; then he will send them at once.”

⁴Now this happened in fulfilment of what was said by the prophet,

⁵“Tell the daughter of Zion,

‘Here is your king coming to you,

Gentle, and riding on an ass,

And on the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

⁶So the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the ass and the colt, and laid their coats upon them, and Jesus seated himself upon them. ⁸And most of the crowd spread their coats in his way, and others cut branches from the trees and scattered them before him. ⁹And the crowds that went in front of him and that followed him shouted,

“God bless the Son of David!

Blessed be he who comes in the Lord’s name.

God bless him from on high!”

¹⁰When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and everyone asked,

“Who is he?”

¹¹The crowd answered,

“It is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee!”

¹²And Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all who were buying or selling things in it, and he upset the money-changers’ tables and the pigeon-dealers’ seats, ¹³and he said to them,

“The Scripture says, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a robbers’ cave.”

¹⁴And blind and lame people came up to him in the Temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵But when the high priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and saw the boys shouting in the Temple, “God bless the Son of David!” they were indignant, ¹⁶and said to him,

“Do you hear what they are saying?”

Jesus said to them,

“Yes. Did you never read, ‘You have drawn praise from the mouths of children and infants’?”

¹⁷And he left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

¹⁸In the morning as he went back to the city, he grew hungry, ¹⁹and seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it, but found nothing on it but leaves. And he said to it,

“No more fruit shall ever grow on you!”

And the fig tree withered up at once. ²⁰When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said,

“How did the fig tree come to wither up immediately?”

²¹Jesus answered,

“I tell you, if you have faith and have no doubt, you will not only do what I have 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. ²²And everything that you pray for with faith, you will obtain.”

²³When he had entered the Temple, and was teaching, the high priests and the elders of the people came up to him, and said,

“What authority have you for doing as you do, and who gave you this authority?”

²⁴Jesus answered,

“Let me ask you one question, and if you answer it, I will tell you what authority I have for doing as I do. ²⁵Where did John’s baptism come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”

And they argued with one another,

“If we say, ‘It was from heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ²⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ we have the people to fear, for they all consider John a prophet.”

²⁷And they answered Jesus,

“We do not know.”

He said to them,

“Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do. ²⁸But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹And he answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. ³⁰Then the man went to the second son, and told him the same thing. And he answered, ‘I will not!’ But afterward he changed his mind and went. ³¹Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

They said,

“The second one.”

Jesus said to them,

“I tell you, the tax-collectors and prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. ³²For John came to you with a way of uprightness, and you would not believe him. The tax-collectors and prostitutes believed him, but even after seeing that, you would not change your minds and believe him!

³³“Listen to another figure. There was a land owner who planted a vineyard and fenced it in, and hewed out a wine-vat in it, and built a watch-tower, and leased it to tenants, and left the neighborhood. ³⁴When the time for the vintage approached he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his share. ³⁵But the tenants took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves and more of them than he had sent at first, and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw his son, they said to one another. ‘This is his heir! Come on, let us kill him, and get his inheritance!’ ³⁹So they took him and drove him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰When the owner of the vineyard comes back, therefore, what will he do to these tenants?”

⁴¹They said to him,

“He will put the wretches to a miserable death, and let the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the vintage when it is due.”

⁴²Jesus said to them,

“Did you never read in the Scriptures,

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone;

This came from the Lord,

And seems marvelous to us’?

⁴³“That, I tell you, is why the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its proper fruit. ⁴⁴Whoever falls on that stone will be shattered, but whoever it falls upon will be pulverized.”

⁴⁵When the high priests and the Pharisees heard his figures, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶and they wanted to have him arrested, but they were afraid of the people, for the people considered him a prophet.

Chapter 22

¹And Jesus spoke to them again in figures, and said,

²“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king, who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³And he sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, and they would not come. ⁴He sent other slaves a second time, and said to them, ‘Tell those who have been asked, “Here I have my banquet all ready, my bullocks and fat cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!” ’ ⁵But they took no notice of it, and went off, one to his estate, and another to his business, ⁶and the rest seized his slaves, and ill treated them and killed them. ⁷This made the king angry, and he sent his troops and put those murderers to death and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited have proved unworthy of it. ⁹So go out where the roads leave the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ ¹⁰So his slaves went out on the roads, and got together all the people they could find, good or bad, and the hall was filled with guests. ¹¹But when the king came in to view the guests, he saw among them a man who did not have on wedding clothes. ¹²And he said to him, ‘My friend, how did you happen to come here without wedding clothes?’ But he had nothing to say. ¹³Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the darkness, there to weep and grind his teeth.’ ¹⁴For many are invited but few chosen.”

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and made a plot to entrap him in argument. ¹⁶So they sent their disciples to him with the Herodians, to say to him,

“Master, we know that you tell the truth, and teach the way of God with sincerity, regardless of the consequences, for you are impartial. ¹⁷So give us your opinion: Is it right to pay the poll-tax to the emperor, or not?”

¹⁸But he saw their malice, and said,

¹⁹“Why do you put me to such a test, you hypocrites? Show me the poll-tax coin!”

And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰And he said to them,

“Whose head and title is this?”

²¹They answered,

“The emperor’s.”

Then he said to them,

“Then pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and pay God what belongs to God!”

²²And when they heard it they were amazed, and they went away and left him.

²³On the same day some Sadducees came up to him, claiming that there is no resurrection, and they asked him this question:

²⁴“Master, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children his brother shall marry his widow, and raise up a family for him.’ ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first of them married and died, and as he had no children, he left his wife to his brother; ²⁶so did the second, and the third, and the rest of the seven. ²⁷After them all the woman died. ²⁸At the resurrection which one’s wife will she be? For they all married her.”

²⁹Jesus answered them,

“You are wrong, because you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰For after the resurrection there is no marrying or being married, but they live as angels do in heaven. ³¹But as to the resurrection of the dead, did you never read what was said to you by God, ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of dead men but of living!”

³³When the crowd heard this, they were astounded at his teaching.

³⁴And when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵and one of them, an expert in the Law, to test him, asked,

³⁶“Master, what command is greatest in the Law?”

³⁷And he said to him,

“ ‘You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.’ ³⁸That is the great, first command. ³⁹There is a second like it: ‘You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.’ ⁴⁰These two commands sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were still gathered there, Jesus asked them,

⁴²“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

They said to him,

“David’s.”

⁴³He said to them,

“How is it then that David under the Spirit’s influence calls him lord, and says,

⁴⁴“ ‘The Lord has said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand,

Until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?

⁴⁵So if David calls him lord, how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶And no one could make him any answer, and from that day no one ventured to ask him any more questions.

Chapter 23

¹Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,

²“The scribes and Pharisees have taken Moses’ seat. ³So do everything they tell you, and observe it all, but do not do as they do, for they talk but do not act. ⁴They tie up heavy loads and have them put on men’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. ⁵They do everything they do to have men see it. They wear wide Scripture texts as charms, and they wear large tassels, ⁶and they like the best places at dinners and the front seats in the synagogues, ⁷and to be saluted with respect in public places, and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’ ⁸But you must not let people call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹And you must not call anyone on earth your father, for you have only one father, your heavenly Father. ¹⁰And you must not let men call you master, for you have only one master, the Christ. ¹¹But he who is greatest among you must be your servant. ¹²Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³“But alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you lock the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces, for you will neither go in yourselves nor let those enter who are trying to do so. ¹⁵Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you scour land and sea to make one convert, and when he is converted you make him twice as fit for the pit as you are. ¹⁶Alas for you, you blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the sanctuary, it does not matter, but if anyone swears by the gold of the sanctuary, it is binding.’ ¹⁷Blind fools! which is greater, the gold, or the sanctuary that makes the gold sacred? ¹⁸You say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it does not matter, but if anyone swears by the offering that is on it, it is binding.’ ¹⁹You blind men! Which is greater, the offering, or the altar that makes the offering sacred? ²⁰Anyone who swears by the altar is swearing by it and by everything that is on it, ²¹and anyone who swears by the sanctuary is swearing by it and by him who dwells in it; ²²and anyone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

²³“Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you pay tithes on mint, dill, and cummin, and you have let the weightier matters of the Law go—justice, mercy, and integrity. But you should have observed these, without overlooking the others. ²⁴You blind guides! straining out the gnat, and yet swallowing the camel! ²⁵Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶You blind Pharisee! You must first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may be clean too. ²⁷Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you are like white-washed tombs! They look well on the outside, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead, and all that is unclean. ²⁸So you outwardly appear to men to be upright, but within you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹“Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you build tombs for the prophets, and decorate the monuments of the upright, ³⁰and say, ‘If we had been living in the times of our fathers, we would not have joined them in the murder of the prophets.’ ³¹So you bear witness against yourselves that you are descended from the murderers of the prophets. ³²Go on and fill up the measure of your forefathers’ guilt. ³³You serpents! You brood of snakes! How can you escape being sentenced to the pit? ³⁴This is why I am going to send you prophets, wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and hunt from one town to another; ³⁵it is that on your heads may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of Abel the upright to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar! ³⁶I tell you, all this will come upon this age!

³⁷“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused! ³⁸Now I leave you to yourselves. ³⁹For I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessed be he who comes in the Lord’s name!’ ”

Chapter 24

¹And Jesus left the Temple and was going away, when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to the Temple buildings. ²But he answered,

“Do you see all this? I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another but shall be torn down.”

³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to him by themselves, and said to him,

“Tell us when this is to happen, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the close of the age.”

⁴Jesus answered,

“Take care that no one misleads you about this. ⁵For many will come under my name, and say, ‘I am the Christ,’ and many will be misled by them. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of war; do not let yourselves be alarmed. They have to come, but that is not the end. ⁷For nation will rise in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes here and there. ⁸All this is only the beginning of the sufferings. ⁹Then they will hand you over to persecution and they will put you to death, and you will be hated by all the heathen because you bear my name. ¹⁰Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹Many false prophets will appear, and many will be misled by them, ¹²and because of the increase of wickedness, most men’s love will grow cold. ¹³But he who holds out to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this good news of the kingdom will be preached all over the world, to testify to all the heathen, and then the end will come.

¹⁵“So when you see the dreadful desecration, of which the prophet Daniel spoke, set up in the Holy Place”—the reader must take note of this— ¹⁶“then those who are in Judea must fly to the hills; ¹⁷a man on the roof of his house must not go down to get things out of it, ¹⁸and a man in the field must not turn back to get his coat. ¹⁹But alas for women who are with child at that time or who have babies! ²⁰And pray that you may not have to fly in winter or on the Sabbath, ²¹for there will be greater misery then than there has ever been from the beginning of creation until now, or ever will be again. ²²If those days had not been cut short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of God’s people those days will be cut short.

²³“If anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it, ²⁴for false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show great signs and wonders to mislead God’s chosen people if they can. ²⁵Here I have told you beforehand. ²⁶So if they say to you, ‘There he is, in the desert!’ do not go out there; ‘Here he is, in a room in here!’ do not believe it. ²⁷For just as the lightning starts in the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. ²⁸Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will flock.

²⁹“But immediately after the misery of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the forces of the sky will shake. ³⁰Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will lament when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, in all his power and splendor. ³¹And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet-call, and they will gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

³²“Let the fig tree teach you the lesson. As soon as its branches grow soft and put forth leaves, you know that summer is coming. ³³So when you see all these things, you must know that he is just at the door. ³⁴I tell you, these things will all happen before the present age passes away. ³⁵Earth and sky will pass away but my words will never pass away. ³⁶But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷For just as it was in the time of Noah, it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For just as in those days before the flood people were eating and drinking, marrying and being married, until the very day Noah entered the ark, ³⁹and knew nothing about it until the flood came and destroyed them all, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding with the handmill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴²So you must be on the watch, for you do not know on what day your Master is coming. ⁴³But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴Therefore you must be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at a time when you do not expect him.

⁴⁵“Who then will be the faithful, thoughtful slave whom his master put in charge of his household, to give the members of it their supplies at the proper time? ⁴⁶Blessed is that slave if his master when he returns finds him doing it. ⁴⁷I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his property. ⁴⁸But if he is a bad slave and says to himself, ‘My master is going to stay a long time,’ ⁴⁹and begins to beat the other slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, ⁵⁰that slave’s master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know ⁵¹and will cut him in two, and put him with the hypocrites, to weep and gnash his teeth.

Chapter 25

¹“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Now five of them were foolish and five were sensible. ³For the foolish ones brought their lamps but brought no oil with them, ⁴but the sensible ones with their lamps brought oil in their flasks. ⁵As the bridegroom was slow in coming, they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. ⁶But in the middle of the night there was a shout ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out and meet him!’ ⁷Then all the bridesmaids awoke, and trimmed their lamps. ⁸And the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹But the sensible ones answered, ‘There may not be enough for us and you. You had better go to the dealers and buy yourselves some.’ ¹⁰But while they were gone to buy it, the bridegroom arrived, and the ones that were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was closed. ¹¹Afterward the other bridesmaids came and said, ‘Sir! Sir! Open the door for us!’ ¹²But he answered, ‘I tell you, I do not know you!’ ¹³So you must be on the watch, for you do not know either the day or the hour.

¹⁴“For it is just like a man who was going on a journey, and called in his slaves, and put his property in their hands. ¹⁵He gave one five thousand dollars, and another two thousand, and another one thousand; to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The man who had received the five thousand dollars immediately went into business with the money, and made five thousand more. ¹⁷In the same way the man who had received the two thousand made two thousand more. ¹⁸But the man who had received the one thousand went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹Long afterward, their master came back and settled accounts with them. ²⁰And the man who had received the five thousand dollars came up bringing him five thousand more, and said, ‘Sir, you put five thousand dollars in my hands; here I have made five thousand more.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, my excellent, faithful slave! you have been faithful about a small amount; I will put a large one into your hands. Come, share your master’s enjoyment!’ ²²And the man who had received the two thousand came up and said, ‘Sir, you put two thousand dollars into my hands; here I have made two thousand more.’ ²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, my excellent, faithful slave! you have been faithful about a small amount; I will put a large one into your hands. Come! share your master’s enjoyment.’ ²⁴And the man who had received the one thousand came up and said, ‘Sir, I knew you were a hard man, who reaped where you had not sown, and gathered where you had not threshed, ²⁵and I was frightened, and I went and hid your thousand dollars in the ground. Here is your money!’ ²⁶His master answered, ‘You wicked, idle slave! You knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had not threshed? ²⁷Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and then when I came back I would have gotten my property with interest. ²⁸So take the thousand dollars away from him, and give it to the man who has the ten thousand, ²⁹for the man who has will have more given him, and will be plentifully supplied, and from the man who has nothing even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰And put the good-for-nothing slave out into the darkness outside, to weep and grind his teeth there.’

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his splendor, with all his angels with him, he will take his seat on his glorious throne, ³²and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates his sheep from his goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take possession of the kingdom which has been destined for you from the creation of the world. ³⁵For when I was hungry, you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me something to drink, when I was a stranger, you invited me to your homes, ³⁶when I had no clothes, you gave me clothes, when I was sick, you looked after me, when I was in prison, you came to see me.’ ³⁷Then the upright will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food, or thirsty, and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger, and invite you home, or without clothing, and supply you with it? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison, and go to see you?’ ⁴⁰The king will answer, ‘I tell you, in so far as you did it to one of the humblest of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left, ‘Begone, you accursed people, to the everlasting fire destined for the devil and his angels! ⁴²For when I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat, and when I was thirsty you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³when I was a stranger, you did not invite me home, when I had no clothes, you did not supply me, when I was sick and in prison, you did not look after me.’ ⁴⁴Then they in their turn will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or in need of clothes, or sick, or in prison, and did not wait upon you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer, ‘I tell you, in so far as you failed to do it for one of these people who are humblest, you failed to do it for me.’ ⁴⁶Then they will go away to everlasting punishment, and the upright to everlasting life.”

Chapter 26

¹When Jesus had finished this discourse he said to his disciples,

²“You know that in two days the Passover Festival will come, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

³Then the high priests and the elders of the people gathered in the house of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴and plotted to arrest Jesus by stealth and put him to death. ⁵But they said,

“It must not be during the festival, or there may be a riot.”

⁶When Jesus got back to Bethany, to the house of Simon the leper, ⁷a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive perfume and poured it upon his head, while he was at table. ⁸When his disciples saw it, they said indignantly,

“What was the use of wasting it like that? ⁹It might have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.”

¹⁰But Jesus observed this and said to them,

“Why do you bother the woman? It is a fine thing that she has done to me. ¹¹For you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. ¹²In pouring this perfume on me she has done something to prepare me for burial. ¹³I tell you, wherever this good news is preached all over the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁴Then one of the Twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the high priests, ¹⁵and said,

“What will you give me if I hand him over to you?”

And they counted him out thirty silver pieces. ¹⁶And from that time he watched for a good opportunity to hand him over to them.

¹⁷On the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said,

“Where do you wish us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover supper?”

¹⁸And he said,

“Go into the city, to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Master says, “My time is near. I am going to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.*#“)”

¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus directed them, and prepared the Passover supper.

²⁰When evening came, he took his place at table with the twelve disciples. ²¹And as they were eating, he said,

“I tell you, one of you will betray me!”

²²They were deeply hurt and began to say to him one after another,

“Can it be I, Master?”

²³He answered,

“The man who just dipped his hand in the same dish with me is going to betray me. ²⁴The Son of Man is to go away as the Scriptures say of him, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!”

²⁵Judas, who betrayed him, said,

“Can it be I, Master?”

He said to him,

“You are right!”

²⁶As they were eating Jesus took a loaf and blessed it, and he broke it in pieces and gave it to his disciples, saying,

“Take this and eat it. It is my body!”

²⁷And he took the wine-cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying,

²⁸“You must all drink from it, for this is my blood which ratifies the agreement, and is to be poured out for many people, for the forgiveness of their sins. ²⁹And I tell you I will never drink this product of the vine again till the day when I shall drink the new wine with you in my Father’s kingdom!”

³⁰After singing the hymn, they went out of the city and up the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus said to them,

“You will all desert me tonight, for the Scriptures say, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ³²But after I am raised to life again, I will go back to Galilee before you.”

³³Peter answered,

“If they all desert you, I will never do it!”

³⁴Jesus said to him,

“I tell you, tonight, before a cock crows, you will disown me three times!”

³⁵Peter said to him,

“Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!” All the disciples said so too.

³⁶Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples,

“Sit down here while I go over yonder and pray.”

³⁷And he took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons with him, and he began to show grief and distress of mind. ³⁸Then he said to them,

“My heart is almost breaking. You must stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹And he went on a little way, and threw himself on his face, and prayed, saying,

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me. Yet not as I please but as you do!”

⁴⁰When he went back to the disciples he found them asleep. And he said to Peter,

“Then were you not able to watch with me for one hour? ⁴¹You must all watch, and pray that you may not be exposed to trial! One’s spirit is eager, but flesh and blood are weak!”

⁴²He went away again a second time and prayed, saying,

“My Father, if it cannot pass by me without my drinking it, your will be done!”

⁴³When he came back he found them asleep again, for they could hardly keep their eyes open. ⁴⁴And he left them and went away again and prayed a third time, in the same words as before. ⁴⁵Then he came back to the disciples and said to them,

“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the time has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to wicked men! ⁴⁶Get up! Let us be going! Look! Here comes my betrayer!”

⁴⁷Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came up, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the high priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸Now the man who betrayed him gave them a signal, saying,

“The one I kiss is the man. Seize him!”

⁴⁹And he went straight up to Jesus and said,

“Good evening, Master!” and kissed him affectionately.

⁵⁰Jesus said to him,

“My friend, what are you here for?”

Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and secured him. ⁵¹One of the men with Jesus put out his hand and drew his sword, and striking at the high priest’s slave, cut his ear off. ⁵²Then Jesus said to him,

“Put your sword back where it belongs! For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. ⁵³Do you suppose I cannot appeal to my Father, and he would at once furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴But then how are the Scriptures to be fulfilled, which say that this must happen?”

⁵⁵At that same time Jesus said to the crowd,

“Have you come out to arrest me with swords and clubs, as though I were a robber? Day after day I have sat in the Temple preaching, and you never seized me. ⁵⁶But this has all taken place in fulfilment of the writings of the prophets.”

Then all the disciples left him and made their escape.

⁵⁷The men who had seized Jesus took him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, at whose house the scribes and elders had gathered. ⁵⁸And Peter followed him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest’s house, and he went inside and sat down among the attendants to see how it came out. ⁵⁹Now the high priests and the whole council were trying to get false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put him to death. ⁶⁰And they could not, although many false witnesses presented themselves. But finally two came forward ⁶¹and said,

“This man said, ‘I can tear down the sanctuary of God, and build it up in three days.’ ”

⁶²And the high priest got up and said to him,

“Have you no answer to make? What about their evidence against you?”

⁶³But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him,

“I charge you, on your oath, by the living God, tell us whether you are the Christ, the son of God.”

⁶⁴Jesus said to him,

“It is true. But I tell you you will soon see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming upon the clouds of the sky!”

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothing and said,

“He has uttered blasphemy! What do we want of witnesses now? Here you have heard his blasphemy! ⁶⁶What is your decision?”

They answered,

“He deserves death.”

⁶⁷Then they spat in his face and struck him, and others slapped him, ⁶⁸saying,

“Show us you are a prophet, you Christ! Who was it that struck you?”

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a maid came up to him, and said,

“You were with Jesus the Galilean, too!”

⁷⁰But he denied it before them all, and said,

“I do not know what you mean.”

⁷¹And he went out into the gateway, and another maid saw him, and said to the men there,

“This fellow was with Jesus the Nazarene!”

⁷²He denied it again, with an oath, and said,

“I do not know the man!”

⁷³A little while after the bystanders came up to Peter and said,

“You are certainly one of them too, for your accent shows it!”

⁷⁴Then he started to swear with the strongest oaths,

“I do not know the man!”

And at that moment a cock crowed.

⁷⁵And Peter remembered Jesus’ words when he had said,

“Before a cock crows, you will disown me three times!” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Chapter 27

¹When it was morning, all the high priests and elders of the people held a consultation about Jesus, with a view to putting him to death. ²And they bound him and led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

³Then Judas who had betrayed him, when he saw that he had been condemned, in his remorse brought back the thirty silver pieces to the high priests and elders, ⁴and said,

“I did wrong when I handed an innocent man over to death!”

They said,

“What is that to us? You see to it yourself.”

⁵And he threw down the silver and left the Temple and went off and hung himself. ⁶The high priests gathered up the money, and they said,

“It is not legal to put this into the Temple treasury, for it is blood money.”

⁷So after consultation they bought with it the Potter’s Field as a burial ground for strangers. ⁸For this reason that piece of ground has ever since been called the Field of Blood. ⁹So the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver pieces, the price of the one whose price had been fixed, on whom some of the Israelites had set a price, ¹⁰and gave them for the Potter’s Field as the Lord directed me.”

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus said,

“Yes.”

¹²And while the high priests and elders were making their charges against him, he made no answer. ¹³Then Pilate said to him,

“Do you not hear what evidence they are bringing against you?”

¹⁴And he made him no reply to even a single accusation, so that the governor was greatly surprised. ¹⁵Now at festival time the governor was accustomed to release for the people any prisoner whom they chose, ¹⁶and at this time there was a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. ¹⁷So when they gathered to ask this, Pilate said to them,

“Which one do you want me to release for you, Barabbas, or Jesus, the so-called Christ?”

¹⁸For he knew that they had handed him over to him out of envy. ¹⁹Now while he was on the bench his wife sent to him to say,

“Do not have anything to do with that upright man, for I have just had a painful experience in a dream about him.”

²⁰But the high priests and the elders prevailed on the crowd to ask for Barabbas, and to have Jesus put to death. ²¹And the governor answered,

“Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”

They said,

“Barabbas!”

²²Pilate said to them,

“Then what am I to do with Jesus, the so-called Christ?”

They all said,

“Have him crucified!”

²³He said,

“Why, what has he done that is wrong?”

But they shouted all the louder,

“Have him crucified!”

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but that a riot was beginning instead, he took some water and washed his hands in the presence of the crowd, saying,

“I am not responsible for this man’s death; you must see to it yourselves.”

²⁵And all the people answered,

“His blood be on us and on our children!”

²⁶Then he released Barabbas for them, and he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the barracks, and got the whole battalion together about him. ²⁸And they stripped him and put a red cloak on him, ²⁹and made a wreath of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a stick in his hand, and knelt down before him in mockery, saying,

“Long live the king of the Jews!”

³⁰And they spat at him, and took the stick and struck him on the head. ³¹And when they had finished making sport of him, they took off the cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

³²As they went out of the city they came upon a Cyrenian named Simon, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. ³³When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull, ³⁴they offered him a drink of wine mixed with gall, and when he tasted it he would not drink it. ³⁵And they crucified him and divided up his clothes among them by drawing lots, ³⁶and sat down there to keep watch of him. ³⁷They put above his head the charge against him, which read,

“This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.”

³⁸There were two robbers crucified with him at the time, one at his right and one at his left. ³⁹And the passers-by jeered at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰and saying,

“You who would tear down the sanctuary, and build one in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

⁴¹And the high priests, too, made sport of him with the scribes and elders, and said,

⁴²“He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God; let God deliver him if he cares for him, for he said he was God’s son.”

⁴⁴Even the robbers who were crucified with him abused him in the same way.

⁴⁵Now from noon there was darkness over the whole country until three o’clock. ⁴⁶And about three, Jesus called out loudly,

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

⁴⁷Some of the bystanders when they heard it said,

“The man is calling for Elijah!”

⁴⁸And one of them ran off at once and got a sponge and soaked it in sour wine and put it on the end of a stick and held it up to him to drink. ⁴⁹But the others said,

“Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”

⁵⁰But Jesus cried out again loudly, and gave up his spirit. ⁵¹And at once the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split, ⁵²the tombs opened, and many of the saints who had fallen asleep rose ⁵³and left their tombs and after his resurrection went into the holy city and showed themselves to many people. ⁵⁴And the captain and the men with him who were watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, were dreadfully frightened and said,

“He surely must have been a son of God!”

⁵⁵There were several women there watching from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee to wait upon him, ⁵⁶among them Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

⁵⁷In the evening a rich man named Joseph, from Arimathea, who had himself been a disciple of Jesus, came. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked him for Jesus’ body. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a piece of clean linen, ⁶⁰and laid it in a new tomb that belonged to him, that he had cut in the rock, and he rolled a great stone over the doorway of the tomb, and went away. ⁶¹And Mary of Magdala and the other Mary remained there, sitting before the tomb.

⁶²On the next day, that is, the day after the Preparation Day, the high priests and Pharisees went in a body to Pilate ⁶³and said,

“Sir, we remember that when this impostor was alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again!’ ⁶⁴Give orders, therefore, to have the tomb closely guarded till the third day, so that his disciples cannot come and steal him, and then tell the people that he is risen from the dead, and that delusion be worse than the other was.”

⁶⁵Pilate said to them,

“Take a guard of soldiers, and go and make it as secure as you can.”

⁶⁶And they went and set the guard and put a seal on the stone.

Chapter 28

¹After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. ²And there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and went and rolled the stone back and sat upon it. ³His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was as white as snow. ⁴The men on guard trembled with fear of him, and became like dead men. ⁵And the angel said to the women,

“You need not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here, he has risen, as he said he would do. Come and see the place where he was lying. ⁷Now go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead, and is going back to Galilee before you. You will see him there.’ Now I have given you my message.”

⁸And they hurried away from the tomb frightened and yet overjoyed, and ran to tell the news to his disciples. ⁹And Jesus himself met them, and said,

“Good morning!”

And they went up to him and clasped his feet, and bowed to the ground before him. ¹⁰Jesus said to them,

“You need not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and they will see me there.”

¹¹While they were on their way, some of the guard went into the city and reported to the high priests all that had happened. ¹²And they got together and consulted with the elders, and gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³and said to them,

“Tell people that his disciples came in the night and stole him away while you were asleep. ¹⁴And if news of it reaches the governor, we will satisfy him, and see that you do not get into trouble.”

¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were told. And this story has been current among the Jews ever since.

¹⁶And the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷There they saw him and bowed down before him, though some were in doubt about it.

¹⁸And Jesus came up to them and said, “Full authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to me.

¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all the heathen, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit, ²⁰and teach them to observe all the commands that I have given you. I will always be with you, to the very close of the age.”

The Gospel According to Mark

Chapter 1

¹The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

²As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“Here I send my messenger on before you;

He will prepare your way;

³Hark! Someone is shouting in the desert,

‘Get the Lord’s way ready,

Make his paths straight,’ ”

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the desert, and preached repentance and baptism in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And all Judea and everybody in Jerusalem went out to him there, and accepted baptism from him in the Jordan River, acknowledging their sins. ⁶John’s clothing was made of hair cloth, and the belt around his waist was leather, and he lived on dried locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message:

“After me there is coming one stronger than I am, one whose shoes I am not fit to stoop down and untie. ⁸I have baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the holy Spirit.”

⁹It was in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water he saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit coming down like a dove to enter into him, ¹¹and out of the heavens came a voice:

“You are my Son, my Beloved! You are my Chosen!”

¹²The spirit immediately drove him out into the desert. ¹³And he remained in the desert for forty days, and Satan tried to tempt him there; and he was among the wild animals; but the angels waited on him.

¹⁴After John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news from God, ¹⁵saying,

“The time has come and the reign of God is near; repent, and believe this good news.”

¹⁶As he was passing along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets in the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷Jesus said to them,

“Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for men.”

¹⁸They immediately abandoned their nets and followed him. ¹⁹He went on a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; they too were in their boat putting their nets in order. ²⁰He immediately called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went off after him.

²¹They proceeded to Capernaum, and on the very first Sabbath he went to the synagogue and taught. ²²And they were amazed at his teaching, for he taught them like one who had authority, and not like the scribes. ²³Just then there was in their synagogue a man under the control of a foul spirit, and he cried out,

²⁴“What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, you are God’s holy One!”

²⁵Jesus reproved him, and said,

“Silence! Get out of him!”

²⁶The foul spirit convulsed the man and gave a loud cry and went out of him. ²⁷And they were all so amazed that they discussed it with one another, and said,

“What does this mean? It is a new teaching! He gives orders with authority even to the foul spirits, and they obey him!”

²⁸And his fame immediately spread in all directions through the whole neighborhood of Galilee.

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew.

³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they immediately told him about her. ³¹And he went up to her, and grasping her hand, he made her rise. And the fever left her, and she waited on them.

³²In the evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed by demons, ³³and the whole town was gathered at the door. ³⁴And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and drove out many demons, and he would not let the demons speak, because they knew that he was Christ.

³⁵Early in the morning, long before daylight, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely spot, and prayed there. ³⁶And Simon and his companions sought him out ³⁷and found him, and said to him,

“They are all looking for you!”

³⁸He said to them,

“Let us go somewhere else, to the neighboring country towns, so that I may preach in them, too, for that is why I came out here.”

³⁹So he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out the demons.

⁴⁰There came to him a leper appealing to him on his knees, saying to him,

“If you only choose, you can cure me.”

⁴¹And he pitied him and stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him,

“I do choose! Be cured!”

⁴²And the leprosy immediately left him, and he was cured. ⁴³And Jesus immediately drove him away with stern injunctions, ⁴⁴saying to him,

“See that you say nothing about this to anybody, but begone! show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure make the offerings for your purification which Moses prescribed.”

⁴⁵But he went off and began to talk so much about it, and to spread the story so widely, that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in unfrequented places, and people came to him from every direction.

Chapter 2

¹Some days later he came back to Capernaum, and people heard that he was at home, ²and such a crowd gathered that after a while there was no room even around the door, and he was telling them his message. ³And some people came bringing to him a man who was paralyzed, four of them carrying him. ⁴As they could not get him near Jesus on account of the crowd, they broke open the roof just over his head, and through the opening they lowered the mat with the paralytic lying on it. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,

“My son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶There were some scribes sitting there pondering and saying to themselves,

⁷“Why does this man talk so? This is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸Jesus, at once perceiving by his spirit that they were pondering over this, said to them,

“Why do you ponder over this in your minds? ⁹Which is easier, to say to this paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say to him, “Get up and pick up your mat and walk’? ¹⁰But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth,” turning to the paralytic he said, ¹¹“I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

¹²And he got up, and immediately picked up his mat and went out before them all, so that they were all astonished and acknowledged the power of God, saying,

“We never saw anything like this before.”

¹³He went out of the town again and along the shore, and all the people came to him and he taught them.

¹⁴And as he was passing along he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the tollhouse, and he said to him,

“Follow me.”

And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵He was at table in his house, with many tax-collectors and irreligious people who were at table with him and his disciples, for there were many of them among his followers. ¹⁶And when the scribes who were of the Pharisees’ party saw that he was eating with irreligious people and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples,

“Why does he eat with tax-collectors and irreligious people?”

¹⁷Jesus heard it, and said to them,

“It is not well people but the sick who have to have the doctor. I did not come to invite the pious but the irreligious.”

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. And people came and asked him,

“Why is it that when John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are keeping the fast, yours are not keeping it?”

¹⁹Jesus said to them,

“Can wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. ²⁰But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and when that day comes, they will fast. ²¹No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old coat; or if he does, the patch tears away, the new from the old, and makes the hole worse than ever. ²²And no one pours new wine into old wine-skins; or if he does, the wine bursts the skins, and the wine is lost, and the skins too. New wine has to be put into fresh skins.”

²³He happened to be passing through the wheat fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick the heads of wheat as they made their way through. ²⁴And the Pharisees said to him,

“Look! Why are they doing what it is against the law to do on the Sabbath?”

²⁵He said to them,

“Did you never read what David did, when he was in need and hungry, he and his men? ²⁶How is it that he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the Presentation Loaves, which it is against the law for anyone but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions too?”

²⁷And he said to them,

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, ²⁸and so the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath.”

Chapter 3

¹He went again to a synagogue, and there was a man there with one hand withered. ²And they were watching him closely, to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, in order to get a charge to bring against him. ³He said to the man with the withered hand,

“Get up and come forward.”

⁴And he said to them,

“Is it allowable to do people good on the Sabbath, or to do them harm? To save life or kill?” But they made no answer. ⁵And he looked around at them with anger, hurt by their obstinacy, and he said to the man,

“Hold out your hand!”

And he held it out, and his hand was cured. ⁶Then the Pharisees left the synagogue and immediately consulted with the Herodians about Jesus, with a view to putting him to death.

⁷So Jesus retired with his disciples to the seashore, and a great many people from Galilee followed him, and from Judea ⁸and Jerusalem and Idumea and from the other side of the Jordan and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon a great many who had heard of the things he was doing came to him. ⁹He told his disciples to have a boat always ready for his use, to prevent his being crushed by the crowd. ¹⁰For he cured so many people that all who had any ailments pressed up to him to touch him. ¹¹And whenever the foul spirits saw him, they fell down before him and screamed out,

“You are the Son of God!” ¹²And he warned them repeatedly not to tell who he was.

¹³And he went up the hillside and summoned to him those whom he wanted, and they went to him. ¹⁴He appointed twelve of them, whom he called apostles, to be with him and to be sent out to preach, ¹⁵with power to drive out the demons. These were the twelve he appointed: ¹⁶Peter, which was the name he gave to Simon, ¹⁷James the son of Zebedee, and John, James’s brother (he named them Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), ¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Then he went home. ²⁰And again the crowd gathered in such numbers that there was no chance for them even to have their meals. ²¹His relatives heard of it and came over to stop him, for they said that he was out of his mind. ²²And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said that he was possessed by Beelzebub and drove out demons by the help of the prince of demons. ²³So he called them to him and spoke to them in figures, saying,

“How can Satan drive Satan out? ²⁴If a kingdom is disunited, that kingdom cannot last. ²⁵And if a household is disunited, that household cannot last. ²⁶And if Satan has rebelled against himself and become disunited, he cannot last but is coming to his end. ²⁷But no one can go into a strong man’s house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man; after that he can plunder his house. ²⁸I tell you, men will be forgiven for everything, for all their sins and all the abusive things they say. ²⁹But whoever reviles the holy Spirit can never be forgiven, but is guilty of an unending sin.”

³⁰This was because they said, “He is possessed by a foul spirit.”

³¹And his mother and his brothers came. And they stood outside the house and sent word in to him to come outside to them. ³²There was a crowd sitting around him when they told him,

“Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”

³³He answered,

“Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴And looking around at the people sitting about him, he said,

“Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Chapter 4

¹Then he began again to teach by the seashore. And a crowd gathered around him so great that he got into a boat and sat in it, a little way from the shore, while all the people were on the land close to the water. ²He taught them many lessons in figures, and said to them in the course of his teaching,

³“Listen: A sower went out to sow, ⁴and as he was sowing, some of the seed chanced to fall by the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some of it fell on rocky ground, and where there was not much soil, and it sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, ⁶but when the sun came up, it was scorched, and withered up, because it had no root. ⁷Some of the seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it out, and it yielded no grain. ⁸And some fell on good soil, and came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.”

⁹And he said,

“Let him who has ears be sure to listen!”

¹⁰When he was by himself, those who stayed about him with the Twelve asked him about the figures he had used. ¹¹And he said to them,

“To you has been intrusted the secret of the reign of God, but to those outsiders, everything is offered in figures, ¹²so that

“ ‘They may look and look and yet not see,

And listen and listen and yet not understand,

Lest possibly they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”,

¹³And Jesus said,

“If you do not understand this figure, then how will you understand my other figures? ¹⁴What the sower sows is the message. ¹⁵The ones by the path are those into whose hearts the message falls, and as soon as they hear it Satan comes and carries off the message that has been sown in their hearts. ¹⁶It is so too with the ones sown on the rocky ground; they gladly accept the message as soon as they hear it, ¹⁷but it takes no real root in them and they last only a little while; then when trouble or persecution comes because of the message they give it up at once. ¹⁸It is different with those sown among the thorns. They are people who listen to the message, ¹⁹but the worries of the time and the pleasure of being rich and passions for other things creep in and choke the message out and it yields nothing. ²⁰And the ones sown in good ground are the people who listen to the message and welcome it and yield thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.

²¹“Do people get out the lamp,” he said to them, “and then put it under the peck-measure, or under the bed, instead of putting it up where it belongs? ²²For no one hides anything except for the purpose of sometime bringing it to light again, and people keep things secret only to reveal them some day. ²³If anyone has ears let him be sure to listen.

²⁴“Take care what you hear,” he said to them. “The measure you give will be given to you, and even more besides. ²⁵For people who have will have more given them, and from people who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

²⁶“The reign of God,” he said, “is like a man scattering seed on the ground, ²⁷and then sleeping at night and getting up by day, while the seed sprouts and comes up, without his knowing it. ²⁸The ground of itself is productive, putting forth first a blade, then a head, then fully developed wheat in the head. ²⁹But as soon as the crop will let him, the man goes in with his sickle, for the harvest time has come.

³⁰“How can we find any comparison,” he said, “for the reign of God, or what figure can we use to describe it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the world, ³²yet once sown, comes up and grows to be the largest of all the plants, and produces branches so large that the wild birds can roost under the shelter of it.”

³³With many such figures he told them the message, as far as they were able to receive it. ³⁴He said nothing to them except in figures, but in private he explained everything to his own disciples.

³⁵That same day when it was evening he said to them,

“Let us cross to the other side.”

³⁶So they left the crowd and took him away in the boat in which he was sitting. There were other boats with him. ³⁷And a heavy squall of wind came on and the waves dashed into the boat, so that it was beginning to fill. ³⁸He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him up and said to him,

“Master, does it make no difference to you that we are sinking?”

³⁹Then he awoke and reproved the wind, and said to the sea,

“Hush! Silence!”

And the wind went down and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰And he said to them,

“Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

⁴¹And they were very much frightened, and said to one another,

“Who can he be? For even the wind and the sea obey him.”

Chapter 5

¹So they reached the other side of the sea, and landed in the region of Gerasa. ²As soon as he got out of the boat, a man possessed by a foul spirit came out of the burial places near by to meet him. ³This man lived among the tombs, and no one could any longer secure him even with a chain, ⁴for he had often been fastened with fetters and chains and had snapped the chains and broken the fetters; and there was no one strong enough to master him, ⁵and night and day he was always shrieking among the tombs and on the hills and cutting himself with stones. ⁶And catching sight of Jesus in the distance he ran up and made obeisance to him ⁷and screamed out,

“What do you want of me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God’s name, I implore you, do not torture me.” ⁸For he was saying to him,

“You foul spirit, come out of this man.”

⁹He asked him,

“What is your name?”

He said,

“My name is Legion, for there are many of us.”

¹⁰And they begged him earnestly not to send them out of that country.

¹¹Now there was a great drove of pigs feeding there on the hillside. ¹²And they implored him,

“Send us among the pigs, let us go into them.”

¹³So he gave them permission. And the foul spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the drove of about two thousand rushed over the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned. ¹⁴And the men who tended them ran away and spread the news in the town and in the country around, and the people came to see what had happened. ¹⁵When they came to Jesus and found the demoniac sitting quietly with his clothes on and in his right mind—the same man who had been possessed by Legion—they were frightened. ¹⁶And those who had seen it told them what had happened to the demoniac, and all about the pigs. ¹⁷And they began to beg him to leave their district. ¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to go with him. ¹⁹And he would not permit it, but said to him,

“Go home to your own people, and tell them all the Lord has done for you and how he took pity on you.” ²⁰And he went off and began to tell everybody in the Ten Towns all Jesus had done for him; and they were all astonished.

²¹When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him as he stood on the shore. ²²And a man named Jairus, the leader of a synagogue, came up and seeing him threw himself at his feet, ²³and appealed to him, saying,

“My little daughter is at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, so that she may get well and live!”

²⁴So he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and pressed around him. ²⁵And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶and had had a great deal of treatment from various doctors and had spent all that she had and had not been benefited at all but had actually grown worse, ²⁷had heard about Jesus. And she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his coat, ²⁸for she said,

“If I can only touch his clothes, I shall get well.”

²⁹The hemorrhage stopped at once, and she felt in her body that she was cured. ³⁰Jesus instantly perceived that healing power had passed from him, and he turned around in the crowd and said,

“Who touched my clothes?”

³¹His disciples said to him,

“You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³²But he still looked around to see the person who had done it. ³³The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward frightened and trembling, and threw herself down at his feet and told him the whole truth. ³⁴And he said to her,

“My daughter, it is your faith that has cured you. Go in peace and be free from your disease.”

³⁵Even as he spoke people came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said,

“Your daughter is dead. Why should you trouble the Master any further?”

³⁶But Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but said to the leader of the synagogue,

“Do not be afraid, just have faith.”

³⁷He let no one go with him but Peter, James, and James’s brother John. ³⁸They came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, and there he found everything in confusion, and people weeping and wailing. ³⁹And he went into the house and said to them,

“What is the meaning of all this confusion and crying? The child is not dead, she is asleep.” ⁴⁰And they laughed at him. But he drove them all out, and took the child’s father and mother and the men who were with him and went into the room where the child was lying. ⁴¹And he grasped her hand and said to her,

“Taleitha, koum!”—that is to say, “Little girl, I tell you, get up!”

⁴²And the little girl immediately got up and walked about, for she was twelve years old. The moment they saw it they were utterly amazed. ⁴³And he strictly forbade them to let anyone know of it, and told them to give her something to eat.

Chapter 6

¹Leaving there he went, followed by his disciples, to his own part of the country. ²When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue. And the people were astonished when they heard him, and said,

“Where did he get all this? How does he come to have such wisdom? How are such marvelous things done through him? ³Is he not the carpenter, Mary’s son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And do not his sisters live here among us?”

⁴And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them,

“A prophet is treated with honor everywhere except in his native place and among his relatives and at his home.”

⁵He could not do any wonder there, except that he put his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶And he wondered at their want of faith.

Then he went around among the villages teaching. ⁷And he called the Twelve to him and sent them off two by two, giving them power over the foul spirits. ⁸He forbade them to take anything for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no small change even in their girdles; ⁹they were to go in sandals, and not to wear two shirts. ¹⁰And he said to them,

“Whenever you go to stay at a house, remain in it till you leave that place. ¹¹If any place refuses to receive you or to listen to you, when you leave it shake off the very dust from the soles of your feet as a warning to them.”

¹²So they went out and preached that men should repent, ¹³and drove out many demons, and cured many sick people by anointing them with oil.

¹⁴King Herod heard of him, for his name was now well known, and people were saying that John the baptizer had risen from the dead, and that that was why he was endowed with these extraordinary powers. ¹⁵But others said he was Elijah, and still others that he was a prophet of the old prophetic kind. ¹⁶But when Herod heard of him he said,

“John, whom I beheaded, has risen from the dead.”

¹⁷For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him and put him in prison, on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. ¹⁸John said to Herod,

“It is not right for you to be living with your brother’s wife.”

¹⁹Herodias felt bitterly toward him and wanted him killed. But she could not bring it about, ²⁰for Herod stood in awe of John, knowing that he was an upright and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him talk he was very much disturbed, and yet he liked to hear him. ²¹When a holiday came and Herod on his birthday gave a banquet to his courtiers and officers and to the leading men of Galilee, ²²Herodias’ own daughter came in and danced for them. And Herod and his guests were delighted, and the king said to the girl,

²³“Ask me for anything you like and I will give it to you.” And he made oath to her,

“I will give you whatever you ask me for, up to half my kingdom.”

²⁴When she had left the room she said to her mother,

“What shall I ask him for?”

But she said,

“The head of John the baptizer.”

²⁵And she hurried back at once to the king and asked him for it, saying,

“I want you right away to give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter.”

²⁶The king was exceedingly sorry, but on account of his oath and his guests he did not like to break his word to her, ²⁷and he immediately sent one of his guard with orders to get John’s head. ²⁸And he went off and beheaded him in the prison and brought back his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹When his disciples heard of it they came and took his body away and put it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles rejoined Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹And he said to them,

“Come away by yourselves to some quiet place, and rest a little while.”

For people were coming and going in large numbers, and they had no time even for meals. ³²So they set off by themselves in their boat for a secluded place. ³³And many people saw them start and knew of it, and hurried around by land from all the neighboring towns, and got ahead of them. ³⁴So when he got out of the boat, he found a great crowd gathered, and his heart was touched at the sight of them, because they were like sheep that have no shepherd; and he proceeded to teach them a great deal. ³⁵When it grew late his disciples came up to him and said,

“This is a lonely place and it is getting late. ³⁶Send the people off to the farms and villages around to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷But he answered,

“Give them food yourselves.”

They said to him,

“Can we go and buy forty dollars’ worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”

³⁸But he said to them,

“How many loaves have you? Go and see.”

They looked, and told him.

“Five, and two fish.”

³⁹And he directed them all to sit down in parties on the fresh grass. ⁴⁰And they threw themselves down in groups, in hundreds and in fifties. ⁴¹Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looked up to heaven and blessed the loaves and broke them in pieces and gave them to the disciples to pass to the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²And they all ate and had enough. ⁴³And the pieces they gathered up filled twelve baskets, besides the pieces of the fish. ⁴⁴There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

⁴⁵He immediately had his disciples get into the boat and cross before him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he was dismissing the crowd. ⁴⁶When he had taken leave of the people he went up the hill to pray. ⁴⁷When evening came on, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on shore. ⁴⁸And he saw that they were straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, and toward morning he went out to them, walking on the sea, and was going to join them. ⁴⁹They saw him walking on the sea, and thought it was a ghost and screamed aloud, ⁵⁰for they all saw him and were terrified. But he immediately spoke to them and said,

“Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

⁵¹Then he went up to them and got into the boat. And the wind fell. And they were perfectly beside themselves, ⁵²for they had not understood about the loaves, but their minds were blinded.

⁵³They crossed over to the other side and came to Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴As soon as they came ashore, the people recognized Jesus, ⁵⁵and they hurried all over the countryside and began to bring the sick to him on their mats, wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And whatever village or town or farm he went to, they would lay their sick in the market-place and beg him to let them touch just the tassel of his cloak, and all who touched it were cured.

Chapter 7

¹The Pharisees gathered about him with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem. ²They had noticed that some of his disciples ate their food without first giving their hands a ceremonial washing to purify them. ³For the Pharisees and all the Jews observe the rules handed down from their ancestors, and will not eat until they have washed their hands in a particular way, ⁴and they will not eat anything from the market without first purifying it by sprinkling it, and they have a number of other observances which have come down to them, in the way of washing cups, pitchers, and basins. ⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him,

“Why do your disciples not observe the rules handed down by our ancestors, but eat food without purifying their hands?”

⁶But he said to them,

“It was about you hypocrites that Isaiah prophesied so finely, in the words,

“ ‘This people honor me with their lips,

Yet their hearts are far away from me.

⁷But their worship of me is all in vain,

For the lessons they teach are but human precepts.’

⁸“You give up what God has commanded and hold fast to what men have handed down.

⁹“How skilful you are,” he said to them, “in nullifying what God has commanded in order to observe what has been handed down to you. ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and again, ‘Whoever abuses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ¹¹But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Anything of mine that might have been of use to you is Korban,*#“) that is, consecrated to God, ¹²you let him off from doing anything more for his father or mother, ¹³and so you nullify what God has said by what you have handed down. You have many such practices.”

¹⁴He called the people to him again and said to them,

“Listen to me, all of you, and understand this. ¹⁵Nothing that goes into a man from outside can pollute him. It is what comes out of a man that pollutes him.”

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples asked him what he meant by this figure. ¹⁸And he said to them,

“Have not even you any understanding then? Do you not see that nothing that goes into a man from outside can pollute him, ¹⁹since it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and then is disposed of?” So he declared all food clean. ²⁰He went on to say,

“It is what comes out of a man that pollutes him. ²¹For it is from inside, from men’s hearts, that designs of evil come; immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, abusiveness, arrogance, folly— ²³all these evils come from inside, and they pollute a man.”

²⁴He left that place and went to the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. And he went into a certain house, and wanted no one to know of it. And he could not keep it secret, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter was possessed by a foul spirit immediately heard about him and came and threw herself at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician birth. And she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her,

“Let the children first eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered,

“True, sir! and still the dogs under the table eat what the children leave!” ²⁹He said to her,

“If you can say that, go home; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰And she went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹He left the neighborhood of Tyre again and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, crossing the district of the Ten Towns. ³²And they brought to him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him off by himself away from the crowd, and put his fingers in the man’s ears, and touched his tongue with saliva. ³⁴And he looked up to heaven and sighed, and said to him,

“Ephphatha!”—which means “Open.”

³⁵And his ears were opened and his tongue was released and he talked plainly. ³⁶And Jesus forbade them to tell anyone about it, but the more he forbade them the more they spread the news far and wide. ³⁷And people were utterly amazed, and said,

“How well he has done everything! He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!”

Chapter 8

¹In those days when a great crowd had gathered again and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,

²“I pity these people, for they have been staying with me three days now, and they have nothing left to eat. ³And if I send them home hungry they will give out on the way, for some of them come from a distance.”

⁴His disciples replied,

“Where can anyone get bread enough, here in this solitude, to satisfy these people’s hunger?”

⁵“How many loaves have you?” he asked.

“Seven,” they said.

⁶Then he ordered the people to take their places on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and gave thanks and broke them in pieces and gave them to his disciples to pass, and they passed them to the people. ⁷They had a few small fish, and he blessed them and told the disciples to pass them also to the people. ⁸And they ate and satisfied their hunger. And the pieces that they left, that were picked up, filled seven baskets. ⁹There were about four thousand of the people. And he dismissed them. ¹⁰Then he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

¹¹The Pharisees came out and began a discussion with him, testing him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. ¹²And he sighed deeply and said,

“Why do the men of this day ask for a sign? I tell you, no sign will be given them.”

¹³And he left them and got into the boat again and crossed to the other side.

¹⁴Now they had forgotten to bring any bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵And he warned them, saying,

“Look out! Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!”

¹⁶They were discussing with one another their being without bread. ¹⁷And he noticed it and said to them,

“Why do you discuss your being without bread? Do you not yet see nor understand? Are your minds so dull? ¹⁸When you have eyes can you not see, and when you have ears can you not hear? Do you not remember ¹⁹how many baskets of pieces you picked up when I broke the five loaves in pieces for those five thousand men?”

They said to him,

“Twelve.”

²⁰“When I broke the seven loaves in pieces for the four thousand, how many baskets of pieces did you pick up?”

They said to him,

“Seven.”

²¹He said to them,

“Do you not understand yet?”

²²And they came to Bethsaida. And people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. ²³He took him by the hand and led him outside of the village, and spitting in his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked him,

“Do you see anything?”

²⁴He looked up and said,

“I can see people, for they look to me like trees, only they are moving about.”

²⁵Then he laid his hands on his eyes again, and he looked steadily and was cured, and saw everything plainly. ²⁶And he sent him home and said to him,

“Do not even go into the village.”

²⁷Then Jesus and his disciples went away to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he questioned his disciples and said to them,

“Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They said to him,

“John the Baptist; others say Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets.”

²⁹And he asked them,

“But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered and said to him,

“You are the Christ.”

³⁰And he warned them not to say this about him to anyone.

³¹Then he explained to them for the first time that the Son of Man must go through much suffering, and be refused by the elders and the high priests and the scribes, and be killed, and rise again three days after. ³²He told them this plainly. And Peter took him aside, and began to reprove him for it. ³³But turning and seeing his disciples he reproved Peter, and said,

“Get out of my sight, you Satan! for you do not side with God, but with men.”

³⁴And he called the people and his disciples to him and said to them,

“If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself, and take his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to preserve his own life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and for the good news will preserve it. ³⁶For what good does it do a man to gain the whole world and yet part with his life? ³⁷For what can a man give to buy back his life? ³⁸For if anyone is ashamed of me and my teachings in this unfaithful and sinful age, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes back in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”

Chapter 9

¹And he said to them, “I tell you, some of you who stand here will certainly live to see the reign of God come in its might.”

²Six days after this Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him, and led them up on a high mountain, off by themselves. And his appearance underwent a change in their presence, ³and his clothes shone whiter than any earthly bleaching could make them. ⁴And Elijah appeared to them, accompanied by Moses, and they talked with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter spoke, and said to Jesus,

“Master, how good it is that we are here! Let us put up three huts, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶For he did not know what to say, they were so frightened. ⁷And a cloud came and overshadowed them, and from the cloud came a voice,

“This is my Son, my Beloved. Listen to him,”

⁸And suddenly, on looking around, they saw that there was now no one with them but Jesus alone. ⁹As they were going down the mountain, he cautioned them to let no one know what they had seen, until the Son of Man should rise from the dead. ¹⁰And they did not forget what he said, but discussed with one another what he meant by the rising from the dead. ¹¹And they asked him,

“Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?”

¹²He said to them,

“Elijah does come first, and reforms everything, and does not the Scripture say of the Son of Man that he will suffer much and be refused? ¹³Why, I tell you, not only has Elijah come, but people have treated him just as they pleased, as the Scripture says about him.”

¹⁴When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵And all the people were amazed when they saw him, and they ran up to him and greeted him. ¹⁶And he asked them,

“What are you discussing with them?”

¹⁷One of the crowd answered,

“Master, I brought my son to you, for he is possessed by a dumb spirit, ¹⁸and wherever it seizes him it convulses him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth; and he is wasting away. I told your disciples to drive it out, and they could not do it.”

¹⁹He answered them and said,

“O you unbelieving people, how long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me!”

²⁰And they brought the boy to him. As soon as the spirit saw him, it convulsed the boy, and he fell down on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. ²¹Jesus asked the boy’s father,

“How long has he been like this?”

And he said,

²²“From his childhood, and many a time it has thrown him into the fire or into the water, to put an end to him. But if there is anything you can do, take pity on us and help us!”

²³Jesus said to him,

“ ‘If there is anything I can do!’ Everything is possible for one who has faith!”

²⁴The boy’s father immediately cried out,

“I have faith! Help my want of faith!”

²⁵Then Jesus, seeing that a crowd was rapidly gathering, reproved the foul spirit and said to it,

“You deaf and dumb spirit, get out of him, I charge you, and never enter him again!”

²⁶And it gave a cry and convulsed him terribly, and went out of him.

And the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said that he was dead. ²⁷But Jesus grasped his hand and made him rise, and he stood up. ²⁸When he had gone home, and his disciples were alone with him, they asked him,

“Why could not we drive it out?”

²⁹He said to them,

“This kind of thing can be driven out only by prayer.”

³⁰And they left that place and made their way through Galilee, and he did not wish anyone to know it; ³¹for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them,

“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and three days after he is killed he will rise again.”

³²But they did not understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

³³And they reached Capernaum. When he reached home, he asked them,

“What was it that you were discussing on the way?”

³⁴But they made no answer, for on the way they had been discussing with one another which of them was the greatest. ³⁵And he sat down and called the Twelve in, and said to them,

“If anyone wishes to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.”

³⁶And he took a child and made him stand among them, and he put his arms around him, and said to them,

³⁷“Whoever welcomes one child like this on my account is welcoming me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but him who has sent me.”

³⁸John said to him,

“Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he was not one of our followers.”

³⁹But Jesus said,

“Do not tell him not to do so, for there is no one who will use my name to do a mighty act, and be able soon after to abuse me. ⁴⁰For the man who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, on the ground that you belong to Christ, I tell you, will certainly not fail to be repaid. ⁴²And whoever causes one of these humble believers to fall might better have a great millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the sea. ⁴³If your hand makes you fall, cut it off. You might better enter upon life maimed, than go with both your hands to the pit, into the fire that cannot be put out. ⁴⁵And if your foot makes you fall, cut it off. You might better enter upon life crippled, than be thrown with both your feet into the pit. ⁴⁷And if your eye makes you fall, tear it out. You might better get into the Kingdom of God with only one eye than be thrown with both your eyes into the pit, ⁴⁸where the worm that feeds upon them never dies and the fire is never put out. ⁴⁹Everyone must be seasoned with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is a good thing, but if salt loses its strength, what will you use to season it? You must have salt within you, and live in peace with one another.”

Chapter 10

¹And he left that place and went into the district of Judea and crossed the Jordan, and crowds of people again gathered about him, and again he taught them as he was accustomed to do. ²Some Pharisees came up, and in order to test him asked him whether a man should be allowed to divorce his wife. ³But he answered,

“What has Moses commanded you to do?”

⁴They said,

“Moses permits a man to divorce his wife by drawing up a written divorce-notice.”

⁵But Jesus said to them,

“It was on account of your perversity that he laid down that law for you. ⁶But from the beginning of the creation, ‘God made them male and female. ⁷Therefore a man must leave his father and mother, and he and his wife must become one,’ ⁸and so they are no longer two but one. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together man must not try to separate.”

¹⁰When they reached the house the disciples asked him about this again. ¹¹And he said to them,

“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his former wife, ¹²and if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she is an adulteress.”

¹³And people brought children to him to have him touch them, but the disciples reproved them for it. ¹⁴When Jesus saw it, he was indignant, and said to them,

“Let the children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. ¹⁵I tell you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.”

¹⁶And he took the children in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them.

¹⁷As he was starting again on his journey, a man came running up to him, and knelt at his feet and asked him,

“Good master, what must I do to make sure of eternal life?”

¹⁸But Jesus said to him,

“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God himself. ¹⁹You know the commandments—‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’

²⁰But he said to him,

“Master, I have obeyed all these commandments ever since I was a child.”

²¹And Jesus looked at him and loved him, and he said to him,

“There is one thing that you lack. Go, sell all you have, and give the money to the poor, and then you will have riches in heaven; and come back and be a follower of mine.”

²²But his face fell at Jesus’ words, and he went away much cast down, for he had a great deal of property.

²³And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,

“How hard it will be for those who have money to enter the Kingdom of God!”

²⁴But the disciples were amazed at what he said. And Jesus said to them again,

“My children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of God!”

²⁶They were perfectly astounded and said to him,

“Then who can be saved?”

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said,

“For men it is impossible, but not for God, for anything is possible for God.”

²⁸Peter started to say to him,

“Well, we have left all we had, and have followed you.”

²⁹Jesus said,

“I tell you, there is no one who has given up home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the good news, ³⁰but will receive now in this life a hundred times as much in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands, though not without persecution—and in the coming age eternal life. ³¹But many who are first now will be last then, and the last will be first.”

³²As they went on their way up to Jerusalem, Jesus walked ahead of them, and they were in dismay, and those who still followed were afraid. And he took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him.

³³“See!” he said, “we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the high priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the heathen ³⁴and they will ridicule him and spit on him and flog him and kill him; and three days after he will rise again.”

³⁵And Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, came up to him and said,

“Master, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶He said to them,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

³⁷They said to him,

“Let us sit one at your right hand and one at your left, in your triumph.”

³⁸Jesus said to them,

“You do not know what you are asking for. Can you drink what I am drinking, or undergo the baptism that I am undergoing?”

³⁹They said to him,

“Yes, we can.”

Jesus said to them,

“Then you shall drink what I am drinking, and you shall undergo the baptism that I am undergoing; ⁴⁰but as for sitting at my right or at my left, that is not mine to give, but belongs to those for whom it is destined.”

⁴¹When the other ten heard of this they were at first very indignant at James and John. ⁴²And Jesus called them to him, and said to them,

“You know that those who are supposed to rule the heathen lord it over them, and their great men tyrannize over them; ⁴³but it is not to be so among you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to hold the first place among you must be everybody’s slave. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man himself has not come to be waited on, but to wait on other people, and to give his life to free many others.”

⁴⁶And they came to Jericho. As he was leaving the town with his disciples and a great crowd, Timaeus’ son Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting at the roadside. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out,

“Jesus, you son of David, take pity on me!”

⁴⁸Many of the people rebuked him and told him to be still. But he cried out all the louder,

“You son of David, take pity on me!”

⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said,

“Call him here.”

And they called the blind man and said to him,

“Courage now! Get up, he is calling you!”

⁵⁰And he threw off his coat and sprang to his feet and went up to Jesus. ⁵¹Jesus spoke to him and said,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man said to him,

“Master, let me regain my sight!”

⁵²Jesus said to him,

“Go your way. Your faith has cured you.”

And he immediately regained his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Chapter 11

¹When they were getting near Jerusalem, and had come to Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples on ahead, ²and said to them,

“Go to the village that lies in front of you, and as soon as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³And if anybody says to you, ‘Why are you doing that?’ say, ‘The Master needs it, and will send it back here directly.’ ”

⁴And they set off and found a colt tied in the street at the door of a house, and they untied it. ⁵Some of the bystanders said to them,

“What are you doing, untying the colt?”

⁶But they answered them as Jesus had told them to do, and the men let them take it. ⁷So they brought the colt to Jesus, and they threw their coats over it and Jesus mounted it. ⁸And many of the people spread their coats in the road, and others cut straw from the fields and scattered it in his path. ⁹And those in front and those behind shouted,

“God bless him!

Blessed be he who comes in the Lord’s name!

¹⁰Blessed be the reign of our father David which is coming!

God bless him from on high!”

¹¹And he came into Jerusalem and into the Temple, and looked it all over; then, as it was already late, he went out with the Twelve to Bethany.

¹²On the next day, after they had left Bethany, he felt hungry. ¹³And he saw in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, and he went up to it to see if he could find any figs on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the time for figs. ¹⁴And he spoke to the tree and said to it,

“May no one ever eat fruit from you any more!”

And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵When they reached Jerusalem, he went into the Temple, and began to drive out of it those who were buying or selling things in it, and he upset the money-changers’ tables and the pigeon-dealers’ seats, ¹⁶and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. ¹⁷And he taught them, and said,

“Does not the Scripture say, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ cave.”

¹⁸The high priests and the scribes heard of this, and they cast about for a way of destroying him, for they were afraid of him, for all the people were amazed at what he taught. ¹⁹So when evening came, he and his disciples used to go out of the city.

²⁰In the morning as they were passing along, they saw that the fig tree was withered, to its very roots. ²¹And Peter remembered about it and said to him,

“Look, Master! The fig tree that you cursed is withered up!”

²²Jesus answered and said to them,

“Have faith in God! ²³I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea!’ and has no doubt in his mind, but has faith that what he says will happen, shall have it. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whenever you pray or ask for anything, have faith that it has been granted you, and you shall have it. ²⁵And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have a grievance against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven too may forgive you your offenses.”

²⁷Then they went into Jerusalem again. And as Jesus was walking about in the Temple, the high priests, scribes, and elders came up ²⁸and said to him,

“What authority have you for doing as you do? And who gave you a right to do as you are doing?”

²⁹Jesus said to them,

“Let me ask you one question, and if you answer me, I will tell you what authority I have for doing as I do. ³⁰Was John’s baptism from heaven or from men? Answer me.”

³¹And they argued with one another,

“If we say, ‘It was from heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ³²Yet can we say, ‘It was from men’?” For they were afraid of the people, because all the people thought John was really a prophet. ³³So they answered Jesus,

“We do not know.”

Jesus said to them,

“Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.”

Chapter 12

¹Then he began to speak to them in figures.

“A man once planted a vineyard and fenced it in and hewed out a wine-vat and built a watch tower, and he leased it to tenants and left the neighborhood. ²At the proper time he sent a slave to the tenants to get from them a share of the vintage. ³And they took him and beat him and sent him back empty-handed. ⁴And again he sent another slave to them. And they beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵And he sent another; and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. ⁶He still had one left to send, a dearly loved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is his heir! Come on, let us kill him, and the property will belong to us!’ ⁸So they took him and killed him, and threw his body outside of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come back and put the tenants to death and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Did you never read this passage of Scripture:

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone;

¹¹This came from the Lord

And seems marvelous to us’?”

¹²And they tried to have him arrested, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that the illustration was aimed at them. And they left him and went away.

¹³They sent some Pharisees and Herodians to him to entrap him in argument. ¹⁴And they came up and said to him,

“Master, we know that you tell the truth regardless of the consequences, for you are not guided by personal considerations, but teach the way of God with sincerity. Is it right to pay the poll tax to the emperor or not? ¹⁵Should we pay it, or refuse to pay it?”

But he saw through their pretense, and said to them,

“Why do you put me to such a test? Bring me a denarius to look at.”

¹⁶And they brought him one. He said to them,

“Whose head and title is this?”

And they told him,

“The emperor’s.”

¹⁷And Jesus said,

“Pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and pay God what belongs to God!”

And they were astonished at him.

¹⁸Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question.

¹⁹“Master,” they said, “Moses made us a law that if a man’s brother died, leaving a wife but no child, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother. ²⁰There were once seven brothers. And the eldest married a wife and died, leaving no child. ²¹And the second married her, and died without leaving any child, and so did the third. ²²And none of the seven left any child. Finally, the woman died too. ²³At the resurrection, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven of them married her.”

²⁴Jesus said to them,

“Does not this show that you are wrong, and do not understand either the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵For when people rise from the dead, there is no marrying or being married, but they live as angels do in heaven. ²⁶But as to the dead being raised, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷He is not God of dead men but of living! You are entirely wrong.”

²⁸One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing. He saw that Jesus had answered them well, and he asked him,

“Which is the first of all the commands?”

²⁹Jesus answered,

“The first one is, ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord our God is one lord, ³⁰and you must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and your whole strength.’ ³¹And this is the second: ‘You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.’ No other command is greater than these.”

³²The scribe said to him,

“Really, Master, you have finely said that he stands alone, and there is none but he, ³³and to love him with one’s whole heart, one’s whole understanding, and one’s whole strength, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is far more than all these burnt-offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴And Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully, and he said to him,

“You are not far from the Kingdom of God!”

And no one ventured to ask him any more questions.

³⁵As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he answered them and said,

“How can the scribes say that the Christ is a son of David? ³⁶David himself, under the influence of the holy Spirit, said,

“ ‘The Lord has said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand

Until I put your enemies under your feet.*#“)

³⁷David himself calls him lord, and how can he be his son?”

The mass of the people liked to hear him. ³⁸And in the course of his teaching he said to them,

“Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes and to be saluted with respect in public places, ³⁹and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at dinners— ⁴⁰men that eat up widows’ houses and to cover it up make long prayers! They will get a far heavier sentence!”

⁴¹And he sat down facing the treasury and watched the people dropping money into it; and many rich people were putting in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came up and dropped in two little copper coins which make a cent. ⁴³And he called his disciples to him and said,

“I tell you that this poor widow has put in more than all these others who have been putting money into the treasury. ⁴⁴For they all gave of what they had to spare, but she in her want has put in everything she possessed—all she had to live on.”

Chapter 13

¹As he was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples said to him,

“Look, Master! What wonderful stones and buildings!”

²Jesus said to him,

“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be torn down.”

³As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him, apart from the others,

⁴“Tell us when this is to happen, and what the sign will be when it is all just going to be carried out.”

⁵And Jesus said to them,

“Take care that no one misleads you about this. ⁶Many will come under my name and say ‘I am he,’ and many will be misled by them. ⁷But when you hear of wars and rumors of war, you must not be alarmed. They have to come, but it is not yet the end. ⁸For nation will rise in arms against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes here and there, there will be famines. This is only the beginning of the sufferings. ⁹But you must be on your guard; they will hand you over to courts and you will be taken into synagogues and beaten, and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to testify to them. ¹⁰For before the end the good news must be preached to all the heathen. ¹¹When they are taking you off to trial do not worry beforehand about what you ought to say, but say whatever is given you when the time comes, for it is not you that will speak, but the holy Spirit. ¹²Brother will give up brother to be put to death, and the father his child, and children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³You will be hated by everyone, because you bear my name. But he who holds out to the end will be saved. ¹⁴But as soon as you see the dreadful desecration standing where he has no right to stand” (the reader must take note of this), “then those who are in Judea must fly to the hills; ¹⁵a man on the roof of his house must not go down or go into the house to get anything out of it, ¹⁶and a man in the field must not turn back to get his coat. ¹⁷Alas for women who are with child at that time, or who have babies! ¹⁸Pray that it may not be winter when it comes, ¹⁹for there will be such misery in those days as there has never been since the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never will be again. ²⁰If the Lord had not cut those days short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of his own chosen people he has cut the days short. ²¹If anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ do not believe it. ²²For false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show signs and wonders to mislead God’s chosen people if they can. ²³But you must be on your guard; I have told you all about it beforehand. ²⁴But in those days, when that misery is over, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not shed its light ²⁵and the stars will fall from the sky and the forces in the sky will shake. ²⁶Then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory, ²⁷and then he will send out the angels and gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the world to the other.

²⁸“Let the fig tree teach you the lesson. As soon as its branches grow soft and put forth leaves you know that summer is coming. ²⁹So when you see these things happening, you must know that he is just at the door. ³⁰I tell you, these things will all happen before the present age passes away. ³¹Earth and sky will pass away, but my words will not. ³²But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son; only the Father. ³³You must look out and be on the alert, for you do not know when it will be time; ³⁴just as a man when he leaves home to go on a journey, and puts his slaves in charge, each with his duties, gives orders to the watchman to keep watch. ³⁵So you must be on the watch, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening or at midnight or toward daybreak or early in the morning— ³⁶for fear he should come unexpectedly and find you asleep. ³⁷And what I am telling you I mean for all—Be on the watch!”

Chapter 14

¹It was now two days before the festival of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread. And the high priests and scribes were casting about for a way to arrest him by stealth and put him to death, ²for they said,

“It must not be during the festival, or there may be a riot.”

³Jesus was in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper, and as he was at table, a woman came in, with an alabaster flask of pure nard perfume, very expensive; she broke the flask and poured the perfume on his head. ⁴But there were some who said indignantly to themselves,

“What was the use of wasting the perfume like that? ⁵It might have been sold for more than sixty dollars, and the money have been given to the poor.”

⁶And they grumbled at her. But Jesus said,

“Leave her alone. Why do you bother her? It is a fine thing that she has done to me. ⁷For you always have the poor among you, and whenever you please you can do for them, but you will not always have me. ⁸She has done all she could; she has perfumed my body in preparation for my burial. ⁹I tell you, wherever the good news is preached all over the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

¹⁰Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the high priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹They were delighted to hear it and promised to pay him for it. So he was watching for an opportunity to betray him to them.

¹²On the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread, on which it was customary to kill the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him,

“Where do you wish us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover supper?”

¹³So he sent away two of his disciples, saying to them,

“Go into the city, and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him, ¹⁴and whatever house he goes into, say to the man of the house, ‘The Master says, “Where is my room where I can eat the Passover supper with my disciples?” ’ ¹⁵And he will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make your preparations for us there.”

¹⁶So the disciples started and went into the city, and found everything just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover supper.

¹⁷When it was evening he came with the Twelve. ¹⁸And when they were at the table eating, Jesus said,

“I tell you, one of you is going to betray me—one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹And they were hurt, and said to him one after another,

“Can it be I?”

²⁰He said to them,

“It is one of the Twelve, who is dipping his bread in the same dish with me. ²¹For the Son of Man is indeed to go away as the Scriptures say of him, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.”

²²As they were eating, he took a loaf and blessed it, and he broke it in pieces and gave it to them saying,

“Take this. It is my body.”

²³And he took the wine cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and they all drank from it. ²⁴And he said to them,

“This is my blood which ratifies the agreement, and is to be poured out for many people. ²⁵I tell you, I will never drink the product of the vine again till the day when I shall drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God.”

²⁶After singing the hymn they went out of the city and up the Mount of Olives. ²⁷And Jesus said to them,

“You will all desert me, for the Scriptures say, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ ²⁸But after I am raised to life again I will go back to Galilee before you.”

²⁹But Peter said to him,

“Even if they all desert you, I will not!”

³⁰Jesus said to him,

“I tell you, this very night before the cock crows twice you yourself will disown me three times!”

³¹But he persisted vehemently,

“If I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

And they all said the same thing.

³²They came to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples,

“Sit down here while I pray.”

³³And he took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to feel distress and dread, ³⁴and he said to them,

“My heart is almost breaking. You must stay here and keep watch.” ³⁵And he went on a little way and threw himself on the ground and prayed that if it were possible he might be spared the hour of trial, ³⁶and he said,

“Abba!” that is, Father, “anything is possible for you! Take this cup away from me! Yet not what I please but what you do!”

³⁷When he went back he found them asleep and he said to Peter,

“Simon, are you asleep? Were you not able to watch for one hour? ³⁸You must all watch, and pray that you may not be subjected to trial. One’s spirit is eager, but human nature is weak.”

³⁹He went away again and prayed in the same words as before. ⁴⁰When he came back he found them asleep again, for they could hardly keep their eyes open; and they did not know what answer to make to him. ⁴¹When he came back for the third time, he said to them,

“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough of this! The time has come. See! the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of wicked men. ⁴²Get up, let us be going. Look, here comes my betrayer!”

⁴³Just at that moment, while he was still speaking, Judas, who was one of the Twelve, came up, and with him a crowd of men with swords and clubs, from the high priests, scribes, and elders. ⁴⁴Now the man who betrayed him had given them a signal, saying,

“The one I kiss is the man. Seize him and take him safely away.”

⁴⁵So when he came he went straight up to Jesus and said, “Master!” and kissed him affectionately.

⁴⁶And they laid hands on him and seized him. ⁴⁷But one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck at the high priest’s slave and cut his ear off. ⁴⁸And Jesus spoke and said to them,

“Have you come out to arrest me with swords and clubs, as though I were a robber? ⁴⁹I have been among you day after day in the Temple teaching, and you never seized me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled!”

⁵⁰Then all the disciples left him and made their escape.

⁵¹And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, ⁵²but he left the cloth behind and ran away naked.

⁵³They took Jesus away to the high priest, and all the high priests, elders, and scribes came together. ⁵⁴And Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest and sat down with the attendants and warmed himself at the fire. ⁵⁵The high priests and the whole council tried to get evidence against Jesus in order to put him to death, and they could find none, ⁵⁶for while many gave false testimony against him their evidence did not agree. ⁵⁷Some got up and gave false testimony against him to this effect:

⁵⁸“We ourselves have heard him say, ‘I will tear down this sanctuary built by men’s hands, and in three days I will build another, made without hands.’ ”

⁵⁹And even then their evidence did not agree. ⁶⁰Then the high priest got up and came forward into the center and asked Jesus,

“Have you no answer to make? What about their evidence against you?”

⁶¹But Jesus was silent and made no answer. The high priest again questioned him and said to him,

“Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?”

⁶²But Jesus said,

“I am! and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming in the clouds of the sky!”

⁶³Then the high priest tore his clothing, and said,

“What do we want of witnesses now? ⁶⁴Did you hear his blasphemy? What is your decision?”

And they all condemned him as deserving to be put to death. ⁶⁵And some started to spit at him and to blindfold him and strike him, and say to him,

“Now show that you are a prophet!”

And the attendants slapped him as they took charge of him.

⁶⁶While Peter was down in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came up, ⁶⁷and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said,

“You were with this Jesus of Nazareth too!”

⁶⁸But he denied it, saying,

“I do not know or understand what you mean.”

He went out into the gateway. ⁶⁹And the maid saw him there and began again to tell the bystanders,

“This fellow is one of them!”

⁷⁰But he denied it again. And again a little while after, the bystanders said to Peter,

“You certainly are one of them, for you are a Galilean!”

⁷¹But he began to swear with the strongest oaths,

“I do not know this man that you are talking about!”

⁷²At that moment for the second time a cock crowed. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will disown me three times!” And at that, he wept aloud.

Chapter 15

¹As soon as it was daylight, the high priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes, and they and the whole council bound Jesus and took him away and handed him over to Pilate. ²Pilate asked him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

He answered,

“Yes.”

³And the high priests kept heaping accusations upon him. ⁴But Pilate again asked him,

“Have you no answer to make? See what charges they are making against you.”

⁵But Jesus made no further answer at all, so that Pilate wondered. ⁶Now at festival time he used to set free for them one prisoner, whom they petitioned for. ⁷There was in prison a man called Barabbas, among some revolutionaries who in their outbreak had committed murder. ⁸And a crowd of people came up and started to ask him for the usual favor. ⁹Pilate asked them,

“Do you want me to set the king of the Jews free for you?”

¹⁰For he knew that the high priests had handed him over to him out of envy. ¹¹But the high priests stirred up the crowd to get him to set Barabbas free for them instead. ¹²And Pilate again said to them,

“Then what shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews?”

¹³They shouted back,

“Crucify him!”

¹⁴And Pilate said to them,

“Why, what has he done that is wrong?”

But they shouted all the louder,

“Crucify him!”

¹⁵And as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he set Barabbas free for them, and after having Jesus flogged handed him over to be crucified.

¹⁶Then the soldiers took him inside the courtyard, that is, of the governor’s residence, and they called the whole battalion together. ¹⁷And they dressed him up in a purple cloak, and made a wreath of thorns and crowned him with it, ¹⁸and they began to acclaim him,

“Long live the king of the Jews!”

¹⁹And they struck him on the head with a stick and spat at him, and they knelt down and did homage to him. ²⁰When they had finished making sport of him, they took off the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him.

Then they took him out of the city to crucify him. ²¹And they forced a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross—one Simon, a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus. ²²And they took him to the place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull. ²³They offered him drugged wine, but he would not take it. ²⁴Then they crucified him, and divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to see what each of them should have. ²⁵It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶And the notice of the charge against him read, “The king of the Jews.” ²⁷They crucified two robbers along with him, one at his right and one at his left. ²⁹And the passers-by jeered at him, shaking their heads and saying,

“Aha! you who would tear down the sanctuary and build one in three days! ³⁰Come down from the cross and save yourself!”

³¹The high priests too made sport of him to one another with the scribes and said,

“He saved others, but he cannot save himself! ³²Let this Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see it and believe!” And the men who were crucified with him abused him.

³³At noon darkness spread over the whole country, and lasted until three in the afternoon. ³⁴And at three o’clock Jesus called out loudly,

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

³⁵Some of the bystanders, when they heard it, said,

“See! He is calling for Elijah!”

³⁶One man ran off and soaked a sponge in common wine, and put it on the end of a stick and held it up to him to drink, saying,

“Let us see whether Elijah does come to take him down!”

³⁷But Jesus gave a loud cry, and expired. ³⁸And the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁹And when the captain who stood facing him saw how he expired he said,

“This man was certainly a son of God!”

⁴⁰There were some women also watching from a distance, among them Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome, ⁴¹who used to accompany him and wait on him when he was in Galilee—besides many other women who had come up to Jerusalem with him.

⁴²Although it was now evening, yet since it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, ⁴³Joseph of Arimathea, a highly respected member of the council, who was himself living in expectation of the reign of God, made bold to go to Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. ⁴⁴Pilate wondered whether he was dead already, and he sent for the captain and asked whether he was dead yet, ⁴⁵and when he learned from the captain that he was, he gave Joseph permission to take the body. ⁴⁶And he bought a linen sheet and took him down from the cross and wrapped him in the sheet, and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the doorway of the tomb. ⁴⁷And Mary of Magdala and Mary, Joses’ mother, were looking on and saw where he was put.

Chapter 16

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary, James’s mother, and Salome bought spices, in order to go and anoint him. ²Then very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb, when the sun had just risen. ³And they said to one another,

“Who will roll the stone back from the doorway of the tomb for us?”

⁴And they looked up and saw that the stone had been rolled back, for it was very large. ⁵And when they went into the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe sitting at the right, and they were utterly amazed. ⁶But he said to them,

“You must not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. See! This is where they laid him. ⁷But go and say to his disciples and to Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; you will see him there, just as he told you.’ ”

⁸And they fled out of the tomb, for they were all trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing about it to anyone, for they were afraid to do so.

⁹Now after he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom he had driven out seven evil spirits. ¹⁰She went and told it to his old companions, while they were mourning and weeping. ¹¹When they heard that he was alive and that she had seen him, they would not believe it. ¹²Afterward he showed himself in a different form to two of them as they were walking along, on their way into the country. ¹³They went back and told the rest, but they would not believe them. ¹⁴Still later he appeared to the Eleven themselves when they were at table, and reproached them for their obstinacy and want of faith, because they had not believed those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead. ¹⁵And he said to them,

“Go to the whole world and proclaim the good news to all the creation. ¹⁶He who believes it and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe it will be condemned. ¹⁷And signs like these will attend those who believe: with my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in foreign tongues; ¹⁸they will take snakes in their hands, and if they drink poison it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

¹⁹So the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was caught up into heaven and took his seat at God’s right hand. ²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed their message by the signs that attended it.

The Gospel According to Luke

Chapter 1

¹Many writers have undertaken to compose accounts of the movement which has developed among us, ²just as the original eye-witnesses who became teachers of the message have handed it down to us. ³For that reason, Theophilus, and because I have investigated it all carefully from the beginning, I have determined to write a connected account of it for Your Excellency, ⁴so that you may be reliably informed about the things you have been taught.

⁵In the days when Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the division of Abijah. His wife was also a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶They were both upright in the sight of God, blamelessly observing all the Lord’s commands and requirements. ⁷They had no children, for Elizabeth was barren; and they were both advanced in life.

⁸Once when he was acting as priest before God, when his division was on duty, ⁹ it fell to his lot, according to the priests’ practice, to go into the sanctuary of the Lord and burn the incense, ¹⁰while all the throng of people was outside, praying at the hour of the incense offering. ¹¹And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him he was startled and overcome with fear. ¹³And the angel said to him,

“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John. ¹⁴This will bring gladness and delight to you, and many will rejoice over his birth. ¹⁵For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the holy Spirit from his very birth, ¹⁶and he will turn many of Israel’s descendants to the Lord their God. ¹⁷He will go before him with the spirit and the power of Elijah, to reconcile fathers to their children, and to bring the disobedient back to the wisdom of upright men, to make a people perfectly ready for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah said to the angel,

“How am I to know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in life.”

¹⁹The angel answered,

“I am Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰Now you will keep silent and be unable to speak until the day when this happens, because you have not believed what I have said, for it will all be fulfilled in due time.”

²¹The people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondering that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. ²²But when he came out he could not speak to them, and they knew that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. For his part, he kept making signs to them, and remained dumb. ²³And when his period of service was over, he went back to his home.

²⁴Soon afterward his wife Elizabeth began to expect a child, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months.

²⁵“This is what the Lord has done for me,” she said, “now that he has deigned to remove the disgrace I have endured.”

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a maiden there who was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The maiden’s name was Mary. ²⁸And the angel went into the town and said to her,

“Good morning, favored woman! The Lord be with you!”

²⁹But she was startled at what he said, and wondered what this greeting meant. ³⁰And the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have gained God’s approval. ³¹You are to become a mother and you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his forefather David, ³³and he will reign over Jacob’s house forever; his reign will have no end.”

³⁴Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be, when I have no husband?”

³⁵The angel answered,

“The holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason your child will be called holy, and the Son of God. ³⁶And your relative, Elizabeth, although she is old, is going to give birth to a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing is ever impossible for God.”

³⁸And Mary said,

“I am the Lord’s slave. Let it be as you say.”

Then the angel left her.

³⁹In those days Mary set out and hurried to the hill-country, to a town in Judah, ⁴⁰and she went to Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the babe stirred within her. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit ⁴²and she gave a great cry, and said,

“You are the most favored of women,

And blessed is your child!

⁴³Who am I,

To have the mother of my Lord come to me?

⁴⁴“For the moment your greeting reached my ears,

The child stirred with joy within me!

⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed,

For what the Lord has promised her will be fulfilled!”

⁴⁶And Mary said,

“My heart extols the Lord,

⁴⁷My spirit exults in God my Savior.

⁴⁸For he has noticed his slave in her humble station,

For from this time all the ages will think me favored!

⁴⁹“For the Almighty has done wonders for me,

How holy his name is!

⁵⁰He shows his mercy age after age

To those who fear him.

⁵¹“He has done mighty deeds with his arm,

He has routed the proud-minded,

⁵²He has dethroned monarchs and exalted the poor,

⁵³He has satisfied the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed.

⁵⁴“He has helped his servant Israel,

Remembering his mercy,

⁵⁵As he promised our forefathers

To have mercy on Abraham and his descendants forever!”

⁵⁶So Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned home.

⁵⁷Now the time came for Elizabeth’s child to be born, and she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard of the great mercy the Lord had shown her, and they came and congratulated her. ⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father. ⁶⁰But his mother said,

“No! He is to be named John.”

⁶¹They said to her,

“There is no one among your relatives who bears that name.”

⁶²But they made signs to the child’s father and asked him what he wished to have the child named. ⁶³He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote,

“His name is John.”

⁶⁴And they were all amazed. Then his voice and the use of his tongue were immediately restored, and he blessed God aloud. ⁶⁵And all their neighbors were overcome with fear, and all over the hill-country of Judea all these stories were told, ⁶⁶and everyone who heard them kept them in mind, and said,

“What is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

⁶⁷And his father Zechariah was filled with the holy Spirit and he uttered a divine message, saying,

⁶⁸“Blessings on the Lord, the God of Israel,

Because he has turned his attention to his people, and brought about their deliverance,

⁶⁹And he has produced a mighty Savior for us

In the house of his servant David.

⁷⁰“By the lips of his holy prophets he promised of old to do this—

⁷¹To save us from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us,

⁷²Thus showing mercy to our forefathers,

And keeping his sacred agreement,

⁷³“And the oath that he swore to our forefather Abraham,

⁷⁴That we should be delivered from the hands of our enemies,

⁷⁵And should serve him in holiness and uprightness, unafraid,

In his own presence all our lives.

⁷⁶“And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,

For you will go before the Lord to make his way ready,

⁷⁷Bringing his people the knowledge of salvation

Through the forgiveness of their sins.

⁷⁸“Because the heart of our God is merciful,

And so the day will dawn upon us from on high,

⁷⁹To shine on men who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,

And guide our feet into the way of peace.”

⁸⁰And the child grew up and became strong in the Spirit, and he lived in the desert until the day when he proclaimed himself to Israel.

Chapter 2

¹In those days an edict was issued by the Emperor Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken. ²It was the first census, taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³So everyone went to his own town to register. ⁴And Joseph went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and family of David, ⁵to register with Mary, who was engaged to him and who was soon to become a mother. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her child to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped him up, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.

⁸There were some shepherds in that neighborhood keeping watch through the night over their flock in the open fields. ⁹And an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰The angel said to them,

“Do not be frightened, for I bring you good news of a great joy that is to be felt by all the people, ¹¹for today, in the town of David, a Savior for you has been born who is your Messiah and Lord. ¹²And this will prove it to you: You will find a baby wrapped up and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly there appeared with the angel a throng of the heavenly army, praising God, saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in heaven and on earth!

Peace to the men he favors!”

¹⁵When the angels left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another,

“Come! Let us go over to Bethlehem, and see this thing that has happened, that the Lord has told us of!”

¹⁶And they hurried there, and found Mary and Joseph, with the baby lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they told what had been said to them about this child. ¹⁸And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, ¹⁹but Mary treasured up all they had said, and pondered over it. ²⁰And the shepherds went back glorifying God and praising him for all that they had heard and seen in fulfilment of what they had been told.

²¹When he was eight days old and it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, as the angel had named him, before his birth was first expected.

²²When their purification period under the Law of Moses was over, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, ²³in fulfilment of the requirement of the Law of the Lord, “Every first-born male shall be considered consecrated to the Lord,” ²⁴and to offer the sacrifice prescribed in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Symeon, an upright, devout man, who was living in expectation of the comforting of Israel, and under the influence of the holy Spirit. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not die without seeing the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷And under the Spirit’s influence he went into the Temple, and when Jesus’ parents brought him there to do for him what the Law required, ²⁸Symeon also took him in his arms and blessed God, and said,

²⁹“Now, Master, you will let your slave go free

In peace, as you promised,

³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation

³¹Which you have set before all the nations,

³²A light of revelation for the heathen,

And a glory to your people Israel!”

³³The child’s father and mother were astonished at what Symeon said. ³⁴And he gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child’s mother,

“This child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a portent that will be much debated— ³⁵you yourself will be pierced to the heart—and so the thoughts of many minds will be revealed.”

³⁶There was also a prophetess there named Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old, for after her girlhood she had been married for seven years, ³⁷and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer. ³⁸She came up just at that time and gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were living in expectation of the liberation of Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had done everything that the Law of the Lord required, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

⁴⁰And the child grew up and became strong and thoughtful, with God’s blessing resting on him.

⁴¹His parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Passover Festival. ⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual to the festival and made their customary stay. ⁴³When they started back the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents’ knowledge. ⁴⁴They supposed that he was somewhere in the party, and traveled until the end of the first day’s journey, and then they looked everywhere for him among their relatives and acquaintances. ⁴⁵As they could not find him, they went back to Jerusalem in search of him. ⁴⁶And on the third day they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, ⁴⁷and everyone who heard him was astonished at his intelligence and at the answers he made. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him they were amazed, and his mother said to him.

“My child, why did you treat us like this? Here your father and I have been looking for you, and have been very anxious.”

⁴⁹He said to them,

“How did you come to look for me? Did you not know that I must be at my Father’s house?”

⁵⁰But they did not understand what he told them. ⁵¹And he went back with them to Nazareth and obeyed them. And his mother treasured all these things up in her mind.

⁵²As Jesus grew older he gained in wisdom and won the approval of God and men.

Chapter 3

¹In the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod governor of Galilee, while his brother Philip was governor of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the governor of Abilene, ²in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, a message from God came to Zechariah’s son John in the desert. ³And he went all through the Jordan Valley preaching repentance and baptism in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as the book of the sermons of the prophet Isaiah says,

“Hark! Someone is shouting in the desert,

Get the Lord’s way ready!

Make his paths straight.

⁵Every hollow must be filled up,

And every mountain and hill leveled.

What is crooked is to be made straight,

And the rough roads are to be made smooth,

⁶And all mankind is to see how God can save!”

⁷So he would say to the crowds that came out there to be baptized by him,

“You brood of snakes! Who warned you to fly from the wrath that is coming? ⁸Then produce fruit that will be consistent with your professed repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our forefather,’ for I tell you, God can produce descendants for Abraham right out of these stones! ⁹But the axe is already lying at the roots of the trees. Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰The crowds would ask him,

“Then what ought we to do?”

¹¹And he answered,

“The man who has two shirts must share with the man who has none, and the man who has food must do the same.”

¹²Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him,

“Master, what ought we to do?”

¹³He said to them,

“Do not collect any more than you are authorized to.”

¹⁴And soldiers would ask him,

“And what ought we to do?”

He said to them,

“Do not extort money or make false charges against people, but be satisfied with your pay.”

¹⁵As all this aroused people’s expectations, and they were all wondering in their hearts whether John was the Christ, ¹⁶John said to them all,

“I am only baptizing you in water, but someone is coming who is stronger than I am, whose shoes I am not fit to untie. He will baptize you in the holy Spirit and in fire. ¹⁷He has his winnowing fork in his hand, to clean up his threshing-floor, and store his wheat in his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with inextinguishable fire.”

¹⁸So with many varied exhortations he would preach the good news to the people, ¹⁹but Herod the governor, whom he condemned because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the wicked things Herod had done, ²⁰crowned them all by putting John in prison.

²¹Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also after his baptism was praying, heaven opened ²²and the holy Spirit came down upon him in the material shape of a dove, and there came a voice from heaven,

“You are my Son, my Beloved! You are my Chosen!”

²³Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his work. He was the son, it was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Eli, ²⁴the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, ²⁵the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, ²⁷the son of Johanan, the son of Resa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, ²⁹the son of Jesus, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰the son of Symeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, ³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³²the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, ³³the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵the son of Serug, the son of Ragau, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Maleleel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Chapter 4

¹Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the holy Spirit, and he was led about in the desert ²for forty days by the Spirit, and was tempted by the devil. In all those days he ate nothing, and when they were over he was famished. ³And the devil said to him,

“If you are God’s son, tell this stone to turn into bread!”

⁴Jesus answered,

“The Scripture says, ‘Not on bread alone is man to live!’ ”

⁵And he took him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And the devil said to him,

“I will give you all this power and their splendor, for it has been turned over to me, and I can give it to anyone I please. ⁷If you will do homage before me, it shall all be yours.”

⁸Jesus answered,

“The Scripture says, ‘You must do homage before the Lord your God, and worship him alone.’ ”

⁹And he took him to Jerusalem, and made him stand on the summit of the Temple, and said to him,

“If you are God’s son, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰for the Scripture says, ‘He will give his angels orders about you, to protect you,’ ¹¹and, ‘They will lift you up with their hands, so that you may never strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

¹²Jesus answered,

“We have been told, ‘You shall not try the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³When the devil had tried every kind of temptation he left him till another time.

¹⁴Under the power of the Spirit Jesus returned to Galilee, and news of him went all over that region. ¹⁵And he taught in their synagogues, and was honored by them all.

¹⁶And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath he went to the synagogue, as he was accustomed to do, and stood up to read the Scriptures. ¹⁷And the roll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he unrolled it and found the place where it says,

¹⁸“The spirit of the Lord is upon me,

For he has consecrated me to preach the good news to the poor,

He has sent me to announce to the prisoners their release and to the blind the recovery of their sight,

To set the down-trodden at liberty,

¹⁹To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor!”

²⁰And he rolled up the roll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed upon him. ²¹And he began by saying to them,

“This passage of Scripture has been fulfilled here in your hearing today!”

²²And they all spoke well of him and were astonished at the winning words that fell from his lips, and they said,

“Is he not Joseph’s son?”

²³He said to them,

“No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Doctor, cure yourself! Do the things here in your own country that we hear you did at Capernaum.’ ²⁴I tell you,” said he, “no prophet is welcome in his own country. ²⁵But, I tell you, there were plenty of widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was closed for three years and a half, and there was a great famine all over the land, ²⁶and Elijah was not sent to one of them, but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷And there were plenty of lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cured, but Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸And when the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all very angry, ²⁹and they got up and drove him out of the town and took him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, intending to throw him down from it. ³⁰But he made his way through the midst of them and went on.

³¹And he came down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee. And he taught them on the Sabbath, ³²and they were amazed at his teaching, for he spoke with authority. ³³There was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by the spirit of a foul demon and he cried out loudly,

³⁴“Ha! What do you want of us, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are! You are God’s Holy One!”

³⁵Jesus reproved him and said,

“Silence! Get out of him!”

And the demon threw the man down in the midst of them, and came out of him, without doing him any harm. ³⁶And they were all amazed and said to one another,

“What is the meaning of this teaching? For he gives orders authoritatively and effectually to the foul spirits, and they come out.” ³⁷And news of him spread to every place in that region.

³⁸When he got up and left the synagogue, he went to Simon’s house. And Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering with a severe attack of fever, and they asked him about her. ³⁹And he stood over her and reproved the fever and it left her, and she got up and waited on them.

⁴⁰As the sun went down all who had friends sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and cured them. ⁴¹And demons came out of many people, crying out,

“You are the Son of God!”

But he reproved them and forbade them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

⁴²When it was day, he left the house and made his way to a lonely spot, and crowds of people went in search of him, and overtook him and tried to keep him from leaving them. ⁴³But he said to them,

“I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do.”

⁴⁴So he went about Judea, preaching in the synagogues.

Chapter 5

¹Once as the crowd was pressing about him to hear God’s message, he happened to be standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, ²and he saw two boats on the shore of the lake, for the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. ³And he got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds of people from the boat. ⁴When he stopped speaking, he said to Simon,

“Push out into deep water, and then put down your nets for a haul.”

⁵Simon answered,

“Master, we worked all night and caught nothing, but as you tell me to do it, I will put down the nets.”

⁶So they did so, and inclosed such a shoal of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷And they signaled to their comrades in the other boat to come and help them. And they came, and they filled both boats so full that they began to sink. ⁸When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ feet and said,

“Leave me, Master, for I am a sinful man.”

⁹For he and all the men with him were perfectly amazed at the haul of fish they had made, ¹⁰and so were Zebedee’s sons, James and John, who were Simon’s partners. Jesus said to Simon,

“Do not be afraid. From now on you are to catch men!”

¹¹And they brought the boats to land and left everything and followed him.

¹²When he was in one of the towns, he came upon a man covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus he fell down on his face, and begged him, saying,

“If you only choose, sir, you can cure me!”

¹³And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying,

“I do choose! Be cured!”

And the leprosy immediately left him, ¹⁴Then he warned him to tell nobody,

“But go,” he said, “show yourself to the priest, and in proof of your cure make the offerings for your purification, just as Moses prescribed.”

¹⁵Yet the news about him spread more and more, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. ¹⁶But Jesus himself would retire into the desert and pray.

¹⁷One day as he was teaching, there were some Pharisees and experts in the Law sitting near by, who had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was there, so that he might cure people. ¹⁸Some men came up carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they tried to get him in and lay him before Jesus. ¹⁹And as they could find no way to get him in, on account of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his mat through the tiles, among the people in front of Jesus. ²⁰When he saw their faith, he said,

“Friend, your sins are forgiven!”

²¹And the scribes and the Pharisees began to debate and say,

“Who is this man who talks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

²²But Jesus saw what they were discussing, and said to them,

“What are you pondering over in your minds? ²³Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴But to let you know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—turning to the man who was paralyzed he said to him—“I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

²⁵And he got up at once before them all, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, praising God. ²⁶They were all seized with astonishment, and praised God, and filled with awe they said,

“We have seen something wonderful today!”

²⁷After this he went out, and he saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting at the tollhouse, and he said to him,

“Follow me!”

²⁸And he left everything and got up and followed him. ²⁹Then Levi gave a great entertainment for him in his house, and there was a great throng of tax-collectors and others who were at table with them. ³⁰And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled about it to his disciples, and said,

“Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and irreligious people?” ³¹Jesus answered them,

“It is not well people but the sick who have to have the doctor. ³²I have not come to invite the pious but the irreligious to repentance!”

³³They said to him,

“John’s disciples observe frequent fasts and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples eat and drink.”

³⁴Jesus said to them,

“Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ³⁵But other days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, in those days they will fast.”

³⁶He used this figure also in speaking to them:

“No one tears a piece from a new coat and sews it on an old one, or if he does, he will both tear the new one and the piece from the new one will not match the old one. ³⁷And nobody puts new wine into old wine-skins, or if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and run out, and the skins will be spoiled. ³⁸New wine has to be put into fresh skins. ³⁹No one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better!’ ”

Chapter 6

¹One Sabbath he happened to be passing through the wheat fields, and his disciples were picking the heads of wheat, and eating them, rubbing them in their hands. ²And some of the Pharisees said,

“Why do you do what it is against the Law to do on the Sabbath?”

³Jesus answered,

“Have you not read even what David did, when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴How he went into the house of God and took the Presentation Loaves, which it was against the Law for anyone but the priests to eat, and ate them with his companions?” ⁵And he said to them, “The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath.”

⁶On another Sabbath he happened to go to the synagogue and teach. There was a man there whose right hand was withered. ⁷And the scribes and the Pharisees were on the watch to see whether he would cure people on the Sabbath, in order to find a charge to bring against him. ⁸But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to the man with the withered hand,

“Get up and stand in front.”

And he got up and stood there. ⁹Jesus said to them,

“I want to ask you, Is it allowable on the Sabbath to do people good or to do them harm? to save life or to destroy it?”

¹⁰And he looked around at them all and said to the man,

“Hold out your hand!”

And he did so, and his hand was restored.

¹¹But they were perfectly furious, and discussed with one another what they could do to Jesus.

¹²It was in those days that he went up on the mountain to pray, and passed the whole night in prayer to God. ¹³When day came, he called his disciples to him, and chose twelve of them whom he named apostles: ¹⁴Simon, whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ¹⁵Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon, who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who turned out a traitor. ¹⁷And he came down with them and took his stand on a level place with a great throng of his disciples, and a large number of people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and the seacoast district of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. ¹⁸And those who were troubled with foul spirits were cured. ¹⁹And all the people tried to touch him, because power went forth from him and cured them all. ²⁰Then he fixed his eyes on his disciples, and said,

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours!

²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied!

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh!

²²“Blessed are you when people hate you and exclude you and denounce you and spurn the name you bear as evil, on account of the Son of Man. ²³Be glad when that happens, and leap for joy, for you will be richly rewarded in heaven, for that is the way their forefathers treated the prophets.

²⁴“But alas for you who are rich, for you have had your comfort!

²⁵“Alas for you who have plenty to eat now, for you will be hungry!

“Alas for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep!

²⁶“Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is the way their forefathers treated the false prophets!

²⁷“But I tell you who hear me, love your enemies, treat those who hate you well, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹To the man that strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from the man who takes away your coat, do not keep back your shirt either. ³⁰Give to everyone that asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹And treat men just as you wish them to treat you. ³²If you love only those who love you, what merit is there in that? For even godless people love those who love them. ³³And if you help only those who help you, what merit is there in that? Even godless people act in that way. ³⁴And if you lend only to people from whom you expect to get something, what merit is there in that? Even godless people lend to godless people, meaning to get it back again in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, and help them and lend to them, never despairing, and you will be richly rewarded, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind even to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶You must be merciful, just as your Father is. ³⁷Do not judge others, and they will not judge you. Do not condemn them, and they will not condemn you. Excuse others and they will excuse you. ³⁸Give, and they will give to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will pour into your lap. For the measure you use with others they in turn will use with you.”

³⁹And he used a figure saying,

“Can one blind man lead another? Will they not both fall into a hole? ⁴⁰A pupil is not better than his teacher, but every pupil when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹Why do you keep looking at the speck in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the beam that is in your own? ⁴²How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, just let me get that speck out of your eye,’ when you cannot see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get out the speck in your brother’s eye. ⁴³For sound trees do not bear bad fruit, nor bad trees sound fruit. ⁴⁴Every tree is known by its fruit. They do not pick figs off thorns, or gather grapes from brambles. ⁴⁵A good man, out of the good he has accumulated in his heart, produces good, and a bad man, out of what he has accumulated that is bad, produces what is bad. For his mouth says only what his heart is full of. ⁴⁶Why do you call me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷If anyone comes to me and listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it, I will show you whom he is like. ⁴⁸He is like a man who was building a house, who dug deep and laid his foundation upon the rock, and when there was a flood the torrent burst upon that house and could not shake it, because it was well built. ⁴⁹But the man who listens to it, and does not act upon it, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation. The torrent burst upon it, and it collapsed at once, and the wreck of that house was complete.”

Chapter 7

¹When he had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum.

²A Roman captain had a slave whom he thought a great deal of, and the slave was sick and at the point of death. ³When the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and save his slave’s life. ⁴And they went to Jesus and urged him strongly to do it, and said,

“He deserves to have you do this for him, ⁵for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue.”

⁶So Jesus went with them. But when he was not far from the house, the captain sent some friends to him, to say to him,

“Master, do not take any more trouble, for I am not a suitable person to have you under my roof. ⁷That is why I did not think I was fit to come to you. But simply say the word, and have my servant cured. ⁸For I am myself under the orders of others, and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it.”

⁹When Jesus heard this, he was astonished at him, and turning to the crowd that was following him, he said,

“I tell you, I have not found such faith as this even in Israel!”

¹⁰And when the messengers went back to the house, they found the slave well.

¹¹Soon afterward he happened to go to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great throng of people were with him. ¹²As he came up to the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out; he was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. A crowd of the townspeople was with her. ¹³And when the Master saw her, he pitied her, and said to her,

“Do not weep.”

¹⁴And he went up and touched the bier, and the bearers stopped. And he said,

“Young man, I tell you, wake up!”

¹⁵And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him back to his mother. ¹⁶And they were all overcome with awe, and they praised God, and said,

“A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has not forgotten his people!”

¹⁷This story about him spread all over Judea and the surrounding country.

¹⁸John’s disciples told him of all this, ¹⁹and he called two of them to him, and sent them to the Master to ask him,

“Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

²⁰And the men went to him and said,

“John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for someone else?’ ”

²¹Just then he cured many of diseases and ailments and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many who were blind. ²²And he answered them,

“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind are regaining their sight, the lame can walk, the lepers are being cured and the deaf can hear, the dead are being raised and good news is being preached to the poor. ²³And blessed is the man who finds nothing that repels him in me.”

²⁴When John’s messengers were gone, he began to speak to the crowds about John.

“What was it that you went out into the desert to look at? A reed swaying in the wind? ²⁵Then what did you go out there to see? A man luxuriously dressed? Men who wear fine clothes and live in luxury you find in palaces. ²⁶Then what did you go out there to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and far more than a prophet! ²⁷This is the man of whom the Scripture says,

“ ‘Here I send my messenger on before you,

He will prepare the road ahead of you!’

²⁸“I tell you, among men born of women there is none greater than John; and yet those who are of little importance in the Kingdom of God are greater than he. ²⁹And all the people, even the tax-collectors, when they heard him, acknowledged the justice of God’s demands, by accepting baptism from John, ³⁰but the Pharisees and experts in the Law thwarted God’s purpose for themselves, by refusing to be baptized by him. ³¹So what is there to which I can compare the men of this age? What are they like? ³²They are like children sitting about in the bazaar and calling out to one another,

“ ‘We have played the flute for you, and you would not dance!

We have wailed and you would not weep!’

³³“For when John the Baptist came, he did not eat any bread or drink any wine, and you said, ‘He has a demon!’ ³⁴Now that the Son of Man has come, he does eat and drink, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drinker, the companion of tax-collectors and irreligious people!’ ³⁵So wisdom is vindicated by all who are really wise.”

³⁶One of the Pharisees asked him to have dinner with him, and he went to the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷Now there was a woman in the town who was leading a sinful life, and when she learned that he was having dinner at the Pharisee’s house, she got an alabaster flask of perfume, ³⁸and came and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with her hair, and kissed them, and put the perfume on them. ³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,

“If this man were really a prophet, he would know who and what the woman is who is touching him, for she leads a wicked life.”

⁴⁰Jesus answered him, and said to him,

“Simon, there is something I want to say to you.”

He said,

“Proceed, Master.”

⁴¹“Two men were in debt to a money-lender. One owed him a hundred dollars and the other ten. ⁴²As they could not pay him, he canceled what they owed him. Now which of them will be more attached to him?”

⁴³Simon answered,

“The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled most.”

“You are right,” he said. ⁴⁴And turning to the woman, he said to Simon,

“Do you see this woman? I came to your house; you did not give me any water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but from the moment I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not put any oil upon my head, but she has put perfume upon my feet. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, many as they are, are forgiven, for she has loved me so much. But the man with little to be forgiven loves me but little.”

⁴⁸And he said to her,

“Your sins are forgiven!”

⁴⁹The men at table with him began to say to themselves,

“Who is this man, who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰But he said to the woman,

“It is your faith that has saved you. Go in peace.”

Chapter 8

¹Soon afterward he went about among the villages and towns preaching and telling the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve went with him, ²and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and sickness—Mary, who was called Mary of Magdala, out of whom seven demons had been driven, ³and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them with their means.

⁴When a great throng was gathering and people were coming to him from one town after another, he said in his figurative way,

⁵“A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up. ⁶And some of it fell upon the rock, and when it sprang up it withered, because it had no moisture. ⁷And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. ⁸And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold!”

As he said this he called out,

“Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!”

⁹His disciples asked him what this figure meant. ¹⁰And he said,

“You are permitted to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but they are given to others in the form of figures, so that they may look and yet not see, and hear and yet not understand. ¹¹This is what the figure means. The seed is God’s message. ¹²The ones by the path are those who hear, and then the devil comes and carries off the message from their hearts, so that they may not believe it and be saved. ¹³The ones on the rock are those who receive the message joyfully when they first hear it, but it takes no real root. They believe for a little while, and then in the time of trial they draw back. ¹⁴And what falls among the thorns means those who listen and pass on, and the worries and wealth and pleasures of life stifle them and they yield nothing. ¹⁵But the seed in the good soil means those who listen to the message and keep it in good, true hearts, and yield unfailingly.

¹⁶“Nobody lights a lamp and then covers it with a dish or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. ¹⁷For there is nothing hidden that shall not be disclosed, nor kept secret that shall not be known and come to light. ¹⁸So take care how you listen. For people who have will have more given to them, and from people who have nothing, even what they think they have will be taken away.”

¹⁹His mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him, on account of the crowd. ²⁰And the word came to him,

“Your mother and your brothers are standing outside; they want to see you.”

²¹He answered,

“My mother and my brothers are those who listen to God’s message and obey it!”

²²It happened one day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and said to them,

“Let us cross to the other side of the lake.”

²³So they set sail. As they sailed along, he fell asleep. And a squall of wind came down upon the lake, and they were being swamped and were in peril. ²⁴And they went to him and woke him up, and said to him,

“Master! Master! We are lost!”

Then he awoke and reproved the wind and the rough water, and they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵And he said to them,

“Where is your faith?”

But they were frightened and amazed, and said to one another,

“Who can he be? For he gives orders even to the winds and the water, and they obey him!”

²⁶They made a landing in the neighborhood of Gerasa, which is just across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷And when he landed, he met a man possessed by demons, who was coming out of the town. He had worn no clothing for a long time, and did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus he cried out and threw himself down before him, and said in a loud voice,

“What do you want of me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!”

²⁹For he was commanding the foul spirit to get out of the man. For it had often seized him, and though he had been fastened with chains and fetters, and was closely watched, he would snap his bonds and the demon would drive him away to the desert. ³⁰And Jesus asked him,

“What is your name?”

He said,

“Legion!” For many demons had gone into him. ³¹And they begged him not to order them off to the bottomless pit. ³²Now there was a large drove of pigs feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to give them leave to go into them. And he did so. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the drove rushed over the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. ³⁴When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran away and spread the news in the town and in the country around. ³⁵And the people came out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the demons had gone sitting there, at Jesus’ feet, with his clothes on and in his right mind, and they were frightened. ³⁶And those who had seen it told them how the man who had been possessed was cured. ³⁷Then all the people of the neighborhood of Gerasa asked him to go away from them, for they were terribly frightened. And he got into a boat and went back. ³⁸The man out of whom the demons had gone begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, and said,

³⁹“Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.”

And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

⁴⁰When Jesus returned, the people welcomed him, for they were all watching for him. ⁴¹And a man named Jairus came up—he was leader of the synagogue—and he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his house, ⁴²because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. As he was going, the crowds of people almost crushed him. ⁴³And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and whom nobody had been able to cure, ⁴⁴came up behind him and touched the tassel of his cloak, and the hemorrhage stopped at once. ⁴⁵Jesus said,

“Who was it who touched me?” And as everyone denied having done so, Peter said,

“Master, the people are all around you and they are crowding you.”

⁴⁶But Jesus said,

“Somebody touched me, for I know that power passed from me.”

⁴⁷When the woman saw that she had not escaped his notice, she came forward trembling, and fell down before him, and before all the people told why she had touched him, and how she had been cured at once. ⁴⁸And he said to her,

“My daughter, it is your faith that has cured you. Go in peace.”

⁴⁹Even as he spoke someone came from the house of the leader of the synagogue and said,

“Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Master any more.”

⁵⁰But Jesus heard it and said to him,

“Do not be afraid; just have faith, and she will get well.”

⁵¹When he got to the house, he let no one go in with him but Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵²And they were all wailing and beating their breasts for her. But he said,

“Stop wailing! For she is not dead, she is asleep.”

⁵³And they laughed at him, for they knew that she was dead. ⁵⁴But he grasped her hand and called out,

“Get up, my child!”

⁵⁵And her spirit returned and she stood up immediately, and he directed them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶And her parents were amazed, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

Chapter 9

¹Then he called the Twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to cure diseases, ²and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to cure the sick. ³He said to them,

“Do not take anything for your journey, no staff nor bag nor bread nor money, nor an extra shirt. ⁴Whatever house you go to stay in, remain there, and start on again from it. ⁵And where they will not welcome you, leave that town and shake off the very dust from your feet as a protest against them.”

⁶And they set forth and went from village to village, telling the good news and curing people everywhere.

⁷Herod the governor heard of all that was happening, and he was perplexed because some people said that John had risen from the dead, ⁸and some that Elijah had appeared, and others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. ⁹But Herod said,

“John I have beheaded, but who can this be about whom I hear such reports?”

And he endeavored to see him.

¹⁰Then the apostles came back and told Jesus what they had done. And he took them and quietly retired to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹But the crowds learned of it and followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and he cured those who needed to be cured. ¹²When the day began to decline, the Twelve came up and said to him,

“Send the crowd away to the villages and farms around to find food and shelter, for we are in a lonely place here.”

¹³But he said to them,

“Give them food yourselves!”

And they said,

“We have only five loaves and two fish, unless we go ourselves and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴For there were about five thousand men.

But he said to his disciples,

“Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”

¹⁵And they did so, and made them all sit down. ¹⁶Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and looked up to heaven and blessed them, and he broke them in pieces and gave them to the disciples to pass to the people. ¹⁷And they all ate and had enough, and the pieces left over that were gathered up filled twelve baskets.

¹⁸Once when he was praying by himself, with only the disciples near him, he asked them,

“Who do the people say that I am?”

¹⁹They answered,

“John the Baptist, though others say Elijah, and others that one of the old prophets has come back to life.”

²⁰And he said to them,

“But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered,

“The Christ of God!”

²¹But he warned them particularly not to tell this to anyone, ²²and said,

“The Son of Man must endure great suffering and be refused by the elders, the high priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and be raised to life on the third day.”

²³And he said to everyone,

“If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself, and take his cross day after day and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to preserve his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will preserve it. ²⁵What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose or forfeit himself? ²⁶For if anyone is ashamed of me and my teaching the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes with all the glory of his Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷I tell you, some of you who stand here will certainly live to see the Kingdom of God!”

²⁸It was about eight days after Jesus said this that he took Peter, John, and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹And as he was praying, the look of his face changed and his clothes turned dazzling white. ³⁰And two men were talking with him. They were Moses and Elijah, ³¹and they appeared in glory and spoke of his departure which he was to go through with at Jerusalem. ³²Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but waking up they saw his glorious appearance and the two men standing by him. ³³Just as they were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus,

“Master, how good it is that we are here! Let us put up three huts, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!” For he did not know what he was saying.

³⁴But as he said it, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were frightened as they passed under the cloud. ³⁵And from the cloud came a voice that said,

“This is my Son, my Chosen! Listen to him!”

³⁶At the sound of the voice, they saw that Jesus was alone. And they kept silence, and said nothing about it to anyone at that time.

³⁷The next day, when they had come down from the mountain, it happened that a great crowd met him. ³⁸And a man in the crowd shouted,

“Master, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child, ³⁹and all at once a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him until he foams at the mouth, and it leaves him, after a struggle, badly bruised. ⁴⁰And I begged your disciples to drive it out, and they could not.”

⁴¹Jesus answered,

“O you unbelieving, obstinate people! How long must I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here!”

⁴²Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him, but Jesus reproved the foul spirit and cured the boy and gave him back to his father. ⁴³And they were all amazed at the power of God.

While everybody was full of wonder at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁴“You must store up these teachings in your minds, for the Son of Man is going to be handed over to men.”

⁴⁵But they did not understand what he meant, indeed it was concealed from them, in order that they might not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.

⁴⁶A discussion arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest. ⁴⁷But Jesus knew the question that was in their minds and he took a child and made him stand by his side, ⁴⁸and said to them,

“Whoever welcomes this child on my account is welcoming me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes him who has sent me. For it is the lowliest among you all who is really great.”

⁴⁹John answered,

“Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he does not go with us.”

⁵⁰Jesus said to him,

“Do not try to stop him, for the man who is not against you is for you.”

⁵¹As the time approached when he was to be taken up to heaven, he set his face toward Jerusalem, ⁵²and sent messengers before him. They started out and went into a Samaritan village, to make preparations for him. ⁵³And the people there would not receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said,

“Master, will you have us order fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

⁵⁵But he turned and reproved them. ⁵⁶And they went on to another village.

⁵⁷As they were going along the road, a man said to him,

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸Jesus said to him,

“Foxes have holes, and wild birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head!”

⁵⁹He said to another,

“Follow me.”

But he said,

“Let me first go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰Jesus said to him,

“Leave the dead to bury their own dead; you must go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God!”

⁶¹Yet another man said to him,

“Master, I am going to follow you, but let me first say goodbye to my people at home.”

⁶²Jesus said to him,

“No one who puts his hand to the plough, and then looks back, is fitted for the Kingdom of God.”

Chapter 10

¹After this the Master appointed seventy-two others, and sent them on before him, two by two, to every town or place to which he intended to come.

²And he said to them,

“The harvest is abundant enough, but the reapers are few. So pray to the owner of the harvest to send reapers to gather it. ³Now go. Here I send you out like lambs among wolves. ⁴Carry no purse nor wallet nor shoes, and do not stop to exchange civilities with anyone on the way. ⁵Whenever you go to stay at a house, first say, ‘Peace to this household!’ ⁶If there is anyone there who loves peace, your blessing will rest upon him, but if there is not, it will come back to you. ⁷Stay at the same house, eating and drinking what they offer you, for the workman deserves his pay. Do not change from one house to another. ⁸Whenever you come to a town and they welcome you, eat what is offered you, ⁹and cure the sick there, and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is close upon you!’ ¹⁰But whenever you come to a town and they do not welcome you, go out into the open streets and say, ¹¹‘The very dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off in protest. But understand this: the Kingdom of God is at hand!’ ¹²I tell you, on that Day Sodom will fare better than that town! ¹³Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes! ¹⁴But Tyre and Sidon will fare better than you at the Judgment! ¹⁵And you, Capernaum! Are you to be exalted to the skies? You will go down among the dead! ¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever disregards you disregards me, and whoever disregards me disregards him who sent me.”

¹⁷The seventy-two came back delighted, and said,

“Master, when we use your name the very demons submit to us!”

¹⁸He said to them,

“I saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning! ¹⁹Here I have given you the power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and to trample on all the power of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you at all. ²⁰But do not be glad that the spirits submit to you, but be glad that your names are enrolled in heaven.”

²¹At that moment he was inspired with joy, and said,

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the learned and intelligent, and revealing it to children! Yes, I thank you, Father, for choosing to have it so! ²²Everything has been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is but the Father, nor who the Father is but the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³And he turned to his disciples when they were alone, and said,

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴For I tell you, many prophets and kings have wished to see what you see, and could not see it, and to hear what you hear, and could not hear it!”

²⁵Then an expert in the Law got up to test him and said,

“Master, what must I do to make sure of eternal life?”

²⁶Jesus said to him,

“What does the Law say? How does it read?”

²⁷He answered,

“ ‘You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, and your whole mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as you do yourself.’ ”

²⁸Jesus said to him,

“You are right. Do that, and you will live.”

²⁹But he, wishing to justify his question, said,

“And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰Jesus replied,

“A man was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went off leaving him half dead. ³¹Now a priest happened to be going that way, and when he saw him, he went by on the other side of the road. ³²And a Levite also came to the place, and when he saw him, he went by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon him, and when he saw him he pitied him, ³⁴and he went up to him and dressed his wounds with oil and wine and bound them up. And he put him on his own mule and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out a dollar and gave it to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend I will refund to you on my way back.’ ³⁶Which of these three do you think proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

³⁷He said,

“The man who took pity on him.”

Jesus said to him,

“Go and do so yourself!”

³⁸As they continued their journey, he came to a certain village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him to her house. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Master’s feet, and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was worried with all she had to do for them, and she came up and said,

“Master, does it make no difference to you that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.”

⁴¹The Master answered,

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and anxious about many things, ⁴²but our wants are few, indeed there is only one thing we need. For Mary has chosen the right thing, and it must not be taken away from her.”

Chapter 11

¹Once as he was praying in a certain place, when he stopped, one of his disciples said to him,

“Master, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

²He said to them,

“When you pray, say, ‘Father, your name be revered! Your kingdom come! ³Give us each day our bread for the day, ⁴and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive anyone who wrongs us; and do not subject us to temptation.’ ”

⁵And he said to them,

“Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him in the middle of the night, and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶for a friend of mine has just come to my house after a journey, and I have nothing for him to eat,’ ⁷and he answers from inside, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now fastened, and my children and I have gone to bed; I cannot get up and give you any.’ ⁸I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him some because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rouse himself and give him all he needs. ⁹So I tell you, ask, and what you ask will be given you. Search, and you will find what you search for. Knock, and the door will open to you. ¹⁰For it is always the one who asks who receives, and the one who searches who finds, and the one who knocks to whom the door opens. ¹¹Which of you fathers, if his son asks him for a fish will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him for it!”

¹⁴Once he was driving out a dumb demon, and when the demon was gone the dumb man spoke. And the people were amazed. ¹⁵But some of them said,

“It is with the aid of Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, that he drives the demons out.”

¹⁶Others to test him asked him for a sign from heaven. ¹⁷But he knew what they were thinking, and he said to them,

“Any kingdom that is disunited is on the way to destruction, and one house falls after another. ¹⁸And if Satan is disunited, how can his kingdom last? Because you say that I drive out demons with Beelzebub’s aid. ¹⁹But if it is with his aid that I drive out demons, by whose do your sons drive them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. ²⁰But if it is with the finger of God that I am driving the demons out, then the Kingdom of God has overtaken you. ²¹When a strong man fully armed guards his own dwelling, his property is undisturbed. ²²But when somebody stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he strips him of the arms that he relied on, and divides up the spoils. ²³Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not join me in gathering, scatters. ²⁴When a foul spirit goes out of a man, it roams through deserts in search of rest, and when it finds none, it says, ‘I will go back to my house that I left.’ ²⁵And it goes and finds it unoccupied, cleaned, and all in order. ²⁶Then it goes and gets seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there, and in the end the man is worse off than he was before.”

²⁷As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him,

“Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you!”

²⁸But he said,

“You might better say, ‘Blessed are those who hear God’s message and observe it!’ ”

²⁹As the crowds pressed a round him, he went on to say,

“This is a wicked age! It demands a sign, and no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this age. ³¹The queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation at the Judgment and will condemn them, for she came from the very ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and there is more than Solomon here! ³²Men of Nineveh will rise with this generation at the Judgment and will condemn it, for they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and there is more than Jonah here. ³³No one lights a lamp and puts it in the cellar or under a peck measure; he puts it on its stand, so that people who come in can see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is light, but when it is unsound, your body is dark. ³⁵So take care! Your very light may be darkness! ³⁶If, therefore, your whole body is light with no darkness in it at all, it will all be as light as a lamp makes things for you by its light.”

³⁷When he said this, a Pharisee asked him to lunch with him, and he went to his house and took his place at table. ³⁸The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised. ³⁹But the Master said to him,

“You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You fools! Did not the Creator of the outside make the inside too? ⁴¹But give your inmost life as charity, and you will immediately find everything clean. ⁴²But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others. ⁴³Alas for you Pharisees! For you love to have the front seat in the synagogues and to be saluted with respect in public places. ⁴⁴Alas for you! For you are like unmarked graves which men tread upon without knowing it.”

⁴⁵At this, one of the experts in the Law said to him,

“Master, when you say that, you affront us too.”

⁴⁶But he said,

“Yes, alas for you experts in the Law too! For you load men with burdens they can hardly carry, and you will not touch them yourselves with a single finger. ⁴⁷Alas for you! For you build monuments for the prophets, whom your forefathers killed. ⁴⁸So you testify to what your fathers did and approve it, for they killed them and you build their monuments. ⁴⁹This is why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute’— ⁵⁰so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you! This age will be charged with it all! ⁵²Alas for you experts in the Law! For you have taken the key to the door of knowledge, but you have not entered it yourselves, and you have kept out those who tried to enter.”

⁵³After he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees began to watch him closely and to try to draw him out on many subjects, ⁵⁴plotting to entrap him in something he might say.

Chapter 12

¹Meanwhile as the people gathered in thousands, until they actually trod on one another, he proceeded to say to his disciples first of all,

“Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy. ²There is nothing covered up that is not going to be uncovered, nor secret that is not going to be known. ³For what you say in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you whisper in someone’s ear, behind closed doors, will be proclaimed from the housetops. ⁴I tell you, who are my friends, have no fear of those who kill the body, and after that can do no more. ⁵I will show you whom to fear: fear him who, after killing you, has power to hurl you into the pit. Yes, fear him, I tell you. ⁶Do not sparrows sell five for two cents? And yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. ⁷But the very hairs on your heads are all counted! You must not be afraid, you are worth more than a great many sparrows! ⁸I tell you, everyone who will acknowledge me before men, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God, ⁹but anyone who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. ¹⁰And anyone who speaks against the Son of Man will be forgiven for it, but no one who reviles the holy Spirit will be forgiven. ¹¹When they bring you before the synagogues or the magistrates or the authorities, you must have no anxiety about how to defend yourselves or what to say, ¹²for at the very moment the holy Spirit will teach you what you ought to say.”

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him,

“Master, tell my brother to give me my share of our inheritance.”

¹⁴But he said to him,

“Who made me a judge or arbitrator of your affairs?”

¹⁵And he said to them,

“Take care! You must be on your guard against any form of greed, for a man’s life does not belong to him, no matter how rich he is.”

¹⁶And he told them this story:

“A certain rich man’s lands yielded heavily. ¹⁷And he said to himself, ‘What am I going to do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then he said, ‘This is what I will do; I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and in them I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have great wealth stored up for years to come. Now take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’ ²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will have all you have prepared?’ ²¹That is the way with the man who lays up money for himself, and is not rich with God.”

²²And he said to his disciples,

“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about life, wondering what you will have to eat, or about your body, wondering what you will have to wear. ²³Life is more important than food, and the body than clothes. ²⁴Think of the crows! They do not sow or reap, and they have no storehouses or barns, and God feeds them. How much more you are worth than the birds! ²⁵Which of you with all his worry can add a single hour to his life? ²⁶So if you cannot do the least good, why should you worry about the rest? ²⁷See how the lilies grow. They do not toil or spin, but, I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendor was never dressed like one of them. ²⁸But if God so dresses the wild grass, which is alive today, and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more surely will he clothe you, who have so little faith? ²⁹So you must not ask what you are to have to eat or drink, and you must not be anxious about it. ³⁰For these are all things the nations of the world are in pursuit of, and your Father knows well that you need them. ³¹But you must strive to find his kingdom, and you will have these other things besides. ³²Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell what belongs to you, and give away the money! Get yourselves purses that will never wear out, inexhaustible riches in heaven, where thieves cannot get near nor moths destroy. ³⁴For wherever your treasure is, your heart will be too. ³⁵You must be ready with your lamps burning, ³⁶like men waiting for their master to come home from a wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. ³⁷Blessed are the slaves whom their master will find on the watch when he comes. I tell you, he will gird up his robe and make them take their places at table, and go around and wait on them. ³⁸Whether he comes late at night or early in the morning and finds them on the watch, they are blessed. ³⁹But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You must be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at a time when you do not expect him.”

⁴¹Peter said to him,

“Master, do you mean this figure for us, or is it for everybody?”

⁴²And the Master said,

“Who then will be the faithful, thoughtful manager, whom his master will put in charge of his household, to give the members of it their supplies at the proper time? ⁴³Blessed is that slave if his master when he returns finds him doing it. ⁴⁴I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his property. ⁴⁵But if the slave says to himself, ‘My master is not coming back for a long time,’ and begins to beat the men and women slaves and to eat and drink and get drunk, ⁴⁶that slave’s master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know, and will cut him in two, and put him with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷The slave who knows his master’s wishes, but does not get ready or act upon them, will be severely punished. ⁴⁸But one who does wrong without knowing them will be lightly punished. From anyone who has been given much, much will be required, and of the man to whom people have intrusted much, they will demand even more. ⁴⁹I have come to bring fire down to the earth, and how I wish it were kindled already! ⁵⁰I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am till it is over! ⁵¹Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? Not peace, I tell you, but discord! ⁵²For from now on if there are five people in a house they will be divided three against two and two against three. ⁵³Father will be against son, and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴And he said to the crowds,

“When you see a cloud rise in the west, you say at once, ‘It is going to rain,’ and it does. ⁵⁵And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘It is going to be very hot,’ and it is. ⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the look of the earth and sky; and why can you not interpret this present time? ⁵⁷Why do you not decide what is right yourselves? ⁵⁸For when you are going before the magistrate with your opponent, do your best on the way to get rid of him, or he may hurry you off to the judge and the judge hand you over to the constable and the constable throw you into prison. ⁵⁹I tell you, you will never get out again until you have paid the last cent!”

Chapter 13

¹Just then some people came up to bring him word of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. ²And he answered,

“Do you think, because this happened to them, that these Galileans were worse sinners than any other Galileans? ³No, I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish as they did! ⁴Or those eighteen people at Siloam who were killed when the tower fell upon them—do you think they were worse offenders than all the other people who live in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!”

⁶He used this figure:

“A man had a fig tree growing in his garden, and he went to look for fruit on it, and could not find any. ⁷And he said to the gardener, ‘Here I have come three years to look for fruit on this fig tree, without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the ground?’ ⁸He answered, ‘Let it stand this one year more, sir, till I dig around it and manure it; ⁹perhaps it will bear fruit next year. But if it does not, you can have it cut down.’ ”

¹⁰One Sabbath he was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and there was a woman there who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit. She was bent double and could not straighten herself up at all. ¹²When Jesus saw her he called to her,

“You are freed from your sickness!”

¹³And he laid his hands on her, and she instantly became erect, and praised God. ¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, in his vexation because Jesus had cured her on the Sabbath, spoke out and said to the crowd,

“There are six days on which it is right to work. Come on them and be cured, but not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵But the Master answered,

“You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to water him? ¹⁶And did not this woman, who is a descendant of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen years, have to be released from those bonds on the Sabbath day?”

¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, and all the people were delighted at all the splendid things that he did.

¹⁸He said, therefore,

“What is the Kingdom of God like, and to what can I compare it? ¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that a man took and dropped in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted on its branches.”

²⁰And he went on,

“To what can I compare the Kingdom of God? ²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a bushel of flour, till it all rose.”

²²So he went about among the towns and villages, teaching and making his way toward Jerusalem. ²³And someone said to him,

“Are only a few to be saved, Master?”

He said to them,

²⁴“You must strain every nerve to get in through the narrow door, for I tell you many will try to get in, and will not succeed, ²⁵when the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock on the door, and say, ‘Open it for us, sir!’ Then he will answer you and say, ‘I do not know where you come from,’ ²⁶Then you will go on to say, ‘We have been entertained with you, and you have taught in our streets!’ ²⁷And he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from. Get away from me, all you wrongdoers!’ ²⁸There you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, while you are put outside. ²⁹People will come from the east and west and the north and south, and take their places in the Kingdom of God. ³⁰There are those now last who will then be first, and there are those now first who will be last.”

³¹Just then some Pharisees came up and said to him,

“Go! Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!”

³²He said to them,

“Go and say to that fox, ‘Here I am, driving out demons and performing cures, today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be through. ³³But I must go on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem.’ ³⁴O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused! ³⁵Now I leave you to yourselves. And I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessed be he who comes in the Lord’s name!’ ”

Chapter 14

¹One Sabbath, when he went to take a meal at the house of a member of the council who was a Pharisee, they were watching him closely. ²There was a man in front of him who had dropsy. ³And Jesus said to the Pharisees and the experts in the Law,

“Is it right to cure people on the Sabbath or not?”

⁴But they made no answer. And he took hold of the man and cured him and sent him away. ⁵Then he said to them,

“Who among you, if his child or his ox falls into a well, will not pull him out at once on the Sabbath?” ⁶And they could make no reply to this.

⁷He noticed that the guests picked out the best places, and he gave them this illustration:

⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding supper, do not take the best place, for someone more distinguished than you are may have been invited, ⁹and your host will come and say to you ‘Make room for this man,’ and then you will proceed in confusion to take the poorest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited anywhere, go and take the poorest place, so that when your host comes in, he will say to you, ‘My friend, come to a better place.’ So you will be shown consideration before all the other guests. ¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²And he said to the man who had invited him,

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, for then they will invite you in return and you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give an entertainment, invite people who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. ¹⁴Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.”

¹⁵One of the other guests heard this, and said to him,

“Blessed is the man who shall be at the banquet in the Kingdom of God!”

¹⁶He said to him,

“A man once gave a great dinner, and invited a large number to it, ¹⁷and when the dinner hour came, he sent around his slave, to say to those who were invited, ‘Come! for it is now ready!’ ¹⁸And they all immediately began to excuse themselves. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go and look at it. Please have me excused.’ ¹⁹Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. Please have me excused.’ ²⁰Another said, ‘I have married, and so I cannot come.’ ²¹So the slave went back, and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house was angry and said to his slave, ‘Hurry out into the streets and squares of the city, and bring the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame in here!’ ²²And the slave said, ‘What you ordered, sir, has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out on the roads, and among the hedges, and make them come in so that my house may be full. ²⁴For I tell you that none of those men who were invited shall have any of my dinner!’ ”

²⁵There were great crowds accompanying him, and once he turned and said to them,

²⁶“If anyone comes to me without hating his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and his very life too, he cannot be a disciple of mine. ²⁷For no one who does not take up his own cross and come after me can be a disciple of mine. ²⁸What man among you if he wishes to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost of it, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹Or else when he has laid his foundation and cannot finish the building, everyone who sees it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰and say, ‘This man started to erect a building, and could not finish it!’ ³¹Or what king, if he is going to meet another king in battle, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the other who is coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²And if he cannot, while the other is still far away, he sends envoys to him and asks on what terms he will make peace. ³³In just that way, no one of you who does not say goodbye to all he has can be a disciple of mine. ³⁴Salt is good; but if salt loses its strength, what can it be seasoned with? ³⁵It is fit neither for the ground nor the manure heap; people throw it away. Let him who has ears to hear with, listen!”

Chapter 15

¹All the tax-collectors and irreligious people were crowding up to hear him. ²And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, and said,

“This man welcomes irreligious people, and even eats with them!”

³So in speaking to them he used this figure:

⁴“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep, and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go in search of the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵And when he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders with joy, ⁶and when he reaches home, he calls in his friends and neighbors, and says to them, ‘Congratulate me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ ⁷I tell you, in just that way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinful person who repents, than over ninety-nine upright people who do not need any repentance. ⁸Or what woman who has ten silver coins and loses one, does not light the lamp and sweep the house and look carefully until she finds it? ⁹And when she finds it, she calls in her friends and neighbors, and says to them, ‘Congratulate me, for I have found the coin that I lost!’ ¹⁰In just that way, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinful person who repents!”

¹¹And he said,

“A man had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the property.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³Not many days later, the younger son gathered up all he had, and went away to a distant country, and there he squandered his property by fast living. ¹⁴After he had spent it all, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. ¹⁵And he went and hired himself out to a resident of the country, and he sent him into his fields to tend pigs. ¹⁶And he was ready to fill himself with the pods the pigs were eating, and no one would give him anything. ¹⁷When he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired men my father has, who have more than enough to eat, and here I am, dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up, and go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your eyes; ¹⁹I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired men!” ’ ²⁰And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and pitied him, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your eyes; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired men!’ ²²But his father said to his slaves, ‘Make haste and get out the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; ²³and get the calf we are fattening, and kill it, and let us feast and celebrate, ²⁴for my son here was dead, and he has come to life; he was lost, and he is found!’ So they began to celebrate. ²⁵But his elder son was in the field. When he came in and approached the house, he heard music and dancing, ²⁶and he called one of the servants to him and asked him what it meant. ²⁷He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the calf he has been fattening, because he has gotten him back alive and well.’ ²⁸But he was angry and would not go into the house. And his father came out and urged him. ²⁹And he said to his father, ‘Here I have served you all these years, and have never disobeyed an order of yours, and you have never given me a kid, so that I could entertain my friends. ³⁰But when your son here came, who has eaten up your property with women of the street, for him you killed the calf you have been fattening!’ ³¹But he said to him, ‘My child, you have been with me all the time, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because your brother was dead, and has come to life, and was lost and is found!’ ”

Chapter 16

¹And he said to his disciples,

“There was a rich man who had a manager, and it was reported to him that this man was squandering his property. ²So he called him in and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Make an accounting for your conduct of my affairs, for you cannot be manager any longer!’ ³Then the manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do, because my master is going to take my position away from me? I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position people will take me into their homes.’ ⁵Then he called in each of his master’s debtors, and he said to the first one, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘Eight hundred gallons of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Here is your agreement; sit right down and write four hundred!’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He answered, ‘Fifteen hundred bushels of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your agreement; write twelve hundred.’ ⁸And his master praised the dishonest manager, because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are shrewder in their relation to their own age than the sons of the light. ⁹So I tell you, make friends for yourselves with your ill-gotten wealth, so that when it fails, they may take you into the eternal dwellings. ¹⁰The man who can be trusted in a very small matter can be trusted in a large one, and the man who cannot be trusted in a very small matter cannot be trusted in a large one. ¹¹So if you have proved untrustworthy in using your ill-gotten wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have been untrustworthy about what belonged to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you? ¹³No servant can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money!”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were avaricious, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. ¹⁵And he said to them,

“You are the men who parade your uprightness before people, but God knows your hearts. For what men consider great is detestable in the sight of God. ¹⁶Until John came, it was the Law and the Prophets. From that time the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone has been crowding into it. ¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dotting of an i in the Law to go unfulfilled. ¹⁸Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman who has been divorced from her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹“There was once a rich man, who used to dress in purple and fine linen, and to live in luxury every day. ²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus was put down at his gate covered with sores ²¹and eager to satisfy his hunger with what was thrown away from the rich man’s table. Why, the very dogs came and licked his sores. ²²And it came about that the beggar died and was carried away by the angels to the companionship of Abraham, and the rich man too died and was buried. ²³And in Hades he looked up, tormented as he was, and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus beside him. ²⁴And he called to him and said, ‘Father Abraham! take pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in torment, here in the flames!’ ²⁵And Abraham said, ‘My child, remember that you received your blessings in your lifetime, and Lazarus had his misfortunes in his; and now he is being comforted here, while you are in anguish. ²⁶Besides there is a great chasm set between you and us, so that those who want to go over from this side to you cannot, and they cannot cross from your side to us.’ ²⁷And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, ²⁸for I have five brothers; let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torture.’ ²⁹Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.’ ³⁰But he said, ‘No! Father Abraham, but if someone will go to them from the dead, they will repent!’ ³¹He answered, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!’ ”

Chapter 17

¹And he said to his disciples,

“It is inevitable that hindrances should arise, but alas for the man who causes them! ²He might better have a millstone hung around his neck, and be thrown into the sea, than be a hindrance to one of these humble people. ³Look out for yourselves! If your brother wrongs you, take it up with him, and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴And if he wrongs you seven times a day, and seven times turns to you and says, ‘I am sorry,’ you must forgive him.”

⁵The apostles said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”

⁶And the Master said,

“If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you might have said to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would have obeyed you!

⁷“What man among you, if he has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down at the table,’ ⁸instead of saying to him, ‘Get my supper ready, and dress yourself, and wait on me while I eat and drink, and you can eat and drink afterward’? ⁹Is he grateful to the slave for doing what he has been ordered to do? ¹⁰So you also, when you do all you have been ordered to do, must say, ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves! We have done only what we ought to have done!’ ”

¹¹It happened that, on his way to Jerusalem, he passed through Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as he was going into one village he met ten lepers, and they stood at some distance from him, ¹³and raising their voices, said,

“Jesus, Master, take pity on us!”

¹⁴And when he saw them, he said to them,

“Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

And as they went they were cured. ¹⁵But one of them, when he saw that he was cured, came back, loudly praising God, ¹⁶and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. ¹⁷And Jesus said,

“Were not all ten cured? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner?”

¹⁹And he said to him,

“Stand up and go! Your faith has cured you.”

²⁰He was once asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, and he answered,

“The Kingdom of God is not coming visibly, ²¹and people will not say, ‘Look! here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ for the Kingdom of God is within you.”

²²And he said to his disciples,

“The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not be able to do so. ²³Men will say to you, ‘Look! There he is!’ or, ‘Look! Here he is!’ Do not go off in pursuit of him, ²⁴for just as when the lightning flashes, it shines from one end of the sky to the other, that will be the way with the Son of Man. ²⁵But first he must go through much suffering, and be refused by this age. ²⁶In the time of the Son of Man it will be just as it was in the time of Noah. ²⁷People went on eating, drinking, marrying, and being married up to the very day that Noah got into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸Or as it was in Lot’s time; they went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building, ²⁹but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰It will be like that on the day when the Son of Man appears. ³¹A man who is on the roof of his house that day, with his goods in the house, must not go down to get them, and a man in the field, too, must not turn back. ³²Remember Lot’s wife! ³³Whoever tries to preserve his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴I tell you, there will be two men in the same bed that night; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left!”

³⁷They said to him,

“Where will this be, Master?”

And he said to them,

“Wherever there is a dead body the vultures will flock!”

Chapter 18

¹He gave them an illustration to show that they must always pray and not give up, ²and he said,

“There was once in a city a judge who had no fear of God and no respect for men. ³There was a widow in the city and she came to him and said, ‘Protect me from my opponent.’ ⁴And he would not for a time, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God nor respect for men, ⁵yet because this widow bothers me, I will protect her, so that she may not finally wear me out with her coming.’ ”

⁶And the Master said,

“Listen to what this dishonest judge said! ⁷Then will not God provide protection for his chosen people, who cry out to him day and night? ⁸I tell you, he will make haste to provide it! But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

⁹To some who were confident of their own uprightness, and thought nothing of others, he used this illustration:

¹⁰“Two men went up to the Temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood up and uttered this prayer to himself: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like other men, greedy, dishonest, or adulterous, like that tax-collector. ¹²I fast two days in the week; I pay tithes on everything I get.’ ¹³But the tax-collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, and said, ‘O God, have mercy on a sinner like me!’ ¹⁴I tell you, it was he who went back to his house with God’s approval, and not the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁵People brought babies to him to have him touch them, but the disciples, when they saw it, reproved them for it. ¹⁶But Jesus called them up to him and said,

“Let the children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. ¹⁷I tell you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”

¹⁸A member of the council asked him,

“Good master, what must I do to make sure of eternal life?”

¹⁹Jesus said to him,

“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God himself. ²⁰You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”

²¹And he said,

“I have obeyed all these commandments ever since I was a child.”

²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him,

“There is one thing that you still lack. Sell all that you have, and divide the money among the poor, and then you will have riches in heaven; and come back and be a follower of mine.”

²³But when he heard that, he was much cast down, for he was very rich. ²⁴And when Jesus saw it, he said,

“How hard it will be for those who have money to get into the Kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of God!”

²⁶And those who heard it said,

“Then who can be saved?”

²⁷And he said,

“The things that are impossible for men are possible for God!”

²⁸Peter said,

“Here we have left home and followed you.”

²⁹And he said to them,

“I tell you, there is no one who has given up home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the Kingdom of God ³⁰who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the coming age eternal life.”

³¹And he took the Twelve aside and said to them,

“See! we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written in the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

³²For he will be handed over to the heathen, and ridiculed and insulted and spat upon, ³³and they will flog him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”

³⁴And they did not understand any of this; the words were obscure to them, and they did not know what he meant.

³⁵As he approached Jericho, a blind man happened to be sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶And hearing a crowd going by he asked what it meant. ³⁷They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was coming by. ³⁸And he shouted,

“Jesus, you Son of David, take pity on me!”

³⁹And those who were in front reproved him and told him to be quiet, but he cried out all the louder,

“You Son of David, take pity on me!”

⁴⁰And Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came up, Jesus asked him,

⁴¹“What do you want me to do for you?”

He answered,

“Master, let me regain my sight!”

⁴²And Jesus said to him,

“Regain your sight! Your faith has cured you!”

⁴³And he regained his sight immediately, and followed Jesus, giving thanks to God. And all the people saw it and praised God.

Chapter 19

¹And he went into Jericho and was passing through it. ²Now there was a man named Zaccheus, the principal tax-collector, a rich man, ³who wanted to see who Jesus was, and he could not because of the crowd, for he was a small man. ⁴So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree, to see him, for Jesus was coming that way. ⁵When Jesus reached the place, he looked up and said to him,

“Zaccheus, come down quickly! for I must stay at your house today.”

⁶And he came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. ⁷And when they saw this, everyone complained, and said,

“He has gone to stay with an irreligious man!”

⁸But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Master,

“See, Master! I will give half my property to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay him four times as much.”

⁹Jesus said to him,

“Salvation has come to this house today, for he too is a descendant of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man has come to search for what was lost and to save it.”

¹¹As they were listening to this, Jesus went on to give them an illustration, because he was near Jerusalem and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was immediately going to appear. ¹²So he said,

“A nobleman once went to a distant country to secure his appointment to a kingdom and then return. ¹³And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone. ¹⁴But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man made king over us.’ ¹⁵And when he had secured the appointment and returned, he ordered the slaves to whom he had given the money to be called in, so that he could find out how much they had made. ¹⁶The first one came in and said, ‘Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!’ ¹⁷And he said to him, ‘Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.’ ¹⁸The second came in and said, ‘Your twenty dollars has made a hundred, sir!’ ¹⁹And he said to him, ‘And you shall be governor of five towns!’ ²⁰And the other one came in and said, ‘Here is your twenty dollars, sir. I have kept it put away in a handkerchief, ²¹for I was afraid of you, for you are a stern man. You pick up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.’ ²²He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will convict you, you wretched slave! You knew, did you, that I was a stern man, and that I pick up what I did not lay down, and harvest what I did not sow? ²³Then why did you not put my money in the bank, so that when I came back I could have gotten it with interest?’ ²⁴And he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the twenty dollars away from him, and give it to the man who has the two hundred!’ ²⁵They said to him, ‘He has two hundred, sir!’— ²⁶‘I tell you, the man who has will have more given him, and from the man who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away! ²⁷But bring those enemies of mine here who did not want me made king over them, and slaughter them in my presence!’ ”

²⁸With these words he went on ahead of them, on his way to Jerusalem.

²⁹When he was near Bethphage and Bethany by the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples ³⁰and said to them,

“Go to the village that lies in front of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹And if anyone asks you why you are untying it, you are to say, ‘The Master needs it.’

³²And the messengers went and found it just as he had told them. ³³And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them,

“Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴And they said,

“The Master needs it!”

³⁵And they brought it to Jesus. And they threw their coats on the colt and mounted Jesus on it. ³⁶And as he went on, people spread their coats in the road. ³⁷Just as he was coming down the Mount of Olives and approaching the city, the whole throng of his disciples began to praise God loudly and joyfully, for all the wonders they had seen, ³⁸and to say,

“Blessed is the king who comes in the Lord’s name,

Peace be in heaven and glory on high!”

³⁹Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him,

“Master, reprove your disciples!”

⁴⁰And he answered,

“I tell you, if they keep silence, the stones will cry out!”

⁴¹As he approached the city and saw it, he wept over it, ⁴²and said,

“If you yourself only knew today the conditions of peace! But as it is, they are hidden from you. ⁴³For a time is coming upon you when your enemies will throw up earthworks about you and surround you and shut you in on all sides, ⁴⁴and they will throw you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not know when God visited you!”

⁴⁵Then he went into the Temple and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things there, ⁴⁶and he said to them,

“The Scripture says, ‘And my house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

⁴⁷Every day he taught in the Temple, and the high priests and scribes and the leading men of the people were trying to destroy him, ⁴⁸but they could not find any way to do it, for all the people hung upon his words.

Chapter 20

¹One day as he was teaching the people in the Temple, and preaching the good news, the high priests and scribes came up with the elders ²and said to him,

“Tell us what authority you have for doing as you do, or who gave you any such authority?”

³He said to them,

“I will ask you a question too. ⁴Tell me, did John’s baptism come from heaven or from men?”

⁵And they argued with one another, and said,

“If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

⁷So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸And Jesus said to them,

“Nor will I tell you what authority I have for doing as I do.”

⁹Then he went on to give the people this illustration:

“A man once planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went away for along absence. ¹⁰And at the proper time he sent a slave to the tenants to have them give him a share of the vintage, but the tenants beat him, and sent him back empty-handed. ¹¹And again he sent another slave, and they beat him also and mistreated him and sent him back empty-handed. ¹²And again he sent a third, but they wounded him too, and threw him outside. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What can I do? I will send them my dear son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they argued with one another, ‘This is his heir! Let us kill him, so that the property will belong to us!’ ¹⁵So they drove him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and put those tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.”

When they heard this they said,

“Heaven forbid!”

¹⁷He looked at them and said,

“Then what does this saying of Scripture mean,

“ ‘That stone which the builders rejected

Has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸Whoever falls on that stone will be shattered, but whoever it falls upon will be pulverized.”

¹⁹And the scribes and high priests wanted to arrest him then and there, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that he had aimed this illustration at them. ²⁰So they kept watch of him and set some spies who pretended to be honest men to fasten on something that he said, so that they might hand him over to the control and authority of the governor. ²¹And they asked him,

“Master, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and that you show no favor, but teach the way of God in sincerity. ²²Is it right for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

²³But he detected their trickery, and said to them,

²⁴“Show me a denarius. Whose head and title does it bear?”

They said,

“The emperor’s.”

²⁵He said to them,

“Then pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and pay God what belongs to God!”

²⁶So they could not fasten on what he said before the people, and they were amazed at his answer, and said nothing more.

²⁷Then some of the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came up and asked him,

²⁸“Master, Moses made us a law that if a man’s brother die leaving a wife but no children, the man should marry the widow and raise up a family for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. And the eldest married a wife and died childless. ³⁰And the second married her, ³¹and the third, and all the seven married her and died without leaving any child. ³²After ward the woman died too. ³³Now at the resurrection, which one’s wife will the woman be? For all seven of them married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them,

“The people of this world marry and are married, ³⁵but those who are thought worthy to attain that other world and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are married. ³⁶For they cannot die again; they are like the angels, and through sharing in the resurrection, they are sons of God. ³⁷But that the dead are raised to life, even Moses indicated in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of dead men but of living, for all men are alive to him.”

³⁹Some of the scribes replied,

“Master, that was a fine answer!” ⁴⁰For they did not dare to ask him any more questions.

⁴¹But he said to them,

“How can the scribes say that the Christ is a son of David? ⁴²For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,

“ ‘The Lord has said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand,

⁴³Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet!*#“)

⁴⁴David then calls him lord. So how can he be his son?”

⁴⁵While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes who like to go about in long robes, and love to be saluted with respect in public places, and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets— ⁴⁷men who eat up widows’ houses and to cover it up make long prayers! They will get all the heavier sentence!”

Chapter 21

¹And looking up, he saw the rich people dropping their gifts into the treasury. ²And he saw a poor widow drop in two coppers. ³And he said,

“I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest. ⁴For they all gave from what they had to spare, but she in her want has put in all she had to live on.”

⁵When some spoke about the Temple and its decoration with costly stone and votive offerings, he said,

⁶“As for all this that you are looking at, the time is coming when not one stone will be left here upon another that will not be torn down!”

⁷Then they asked him,

“Master, when will this happen, and what will be the sign that it is going to take place?”

⁸And he said,

“Take care not to be misled. For many will come under my name, and say, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is at hand.’ Do not follow them. ⁹But when you hear of wars and outbreaks, do not be alarmed. These have to come first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

¹⁰Then he said to them,

“Nation will rise in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, and pestilence and famine here and there. There will be horrors and great signs in the sky. ¹²But before all this, men will arrest you and persecute you, and hand you over to synagogues and prisons and have you brought before kings and governors on my account. ¹³It will all lead to your testifying. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense, ¹⁵for I will give you such wisdom of utterance as none of your opponents will be able to resist or dispute. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by your parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷and you will be hated by everyone because you bear my name. ¹⁸Yet not a hair of your head will perish! ¹⁹It is by your endurance that you will win your souls. ²⁰But when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, then you must understand that her devastation is at hand. ²¹Then those who are in Judea must fly to the hills, those who are in the city must get out of it, and those who are in the country must not go into it, ²²for those are the days of vengeance, when all that is written in the Scriptures will be fulfilled. ²³But alas for women who are with child at that time, or who have babies, for there will be great misery in the land and anger at this people. ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be carried off as prisoners among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the heathen, until the time of the heathen comes. ²⁵There will be signs too in sun, moon, and stars, and on earth dismay among the heathen, bewildered at the roar of the sea and the waves. ²⁶Men will swoon with fear and foreboding of what is to happen to the world, for the forces in the sky will shake. ²⁷Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and glory. ²⁸But when this begins to happen, look up and raise your heads, for your deliverance will be at hand.”

²⁹And he gave them an illustration:

“See the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰As soon as they put out their leaves, you see them and you know without being told that summer is coming. ³¹So when you see these things happen, you must know that the Kingdom of God is at hand. ³²I tell you, it will all happen before the present generation passes away. ³³Earth and sky will pass away, but my words will not. ³⁴But take care that your hearts are not loaded down with self-indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares, and that day takes you by surprise, like a trap. ³⁵For it will come on all who are living anywhere on the face of the earth. ³⁶But you must be vigilant and always pray that you may succeed in escaping all this that is going to happen, and in standing in the presence of the Son of Man.”

³⁷He would spend the days teaching in the Temple, but at night he would go out of the city and stay on the hill called the Mount of Olives. ³⁸And in the morning all the people would come to him in the Temple to listen to him.

Chapter 22

¹The festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. ²And the high priests and the scribes were casting about for a way to put him to death, for they were afraid of the people.

³But Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, a member of the Twelve. ⁴And he went off and discussed with the high priests and captains of the Temple how he could betray him to them. ⁵And they were delighted and agreed to pay him for it. ⁶And he accepted their offer, and watched for an opportunity to betray him to them without a disturbance.

⁷When the day of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, ⁸Jesus sent Peter and John, saying to them,

“Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

⁹They said to him,

“Where do you want us to prepare it?”

¹⁰He said to them,

“Just after you enter the city, you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him to the house to which he goes, ¹¹and say to the man of the house, ‘Our Master says to you, “Where is the room where I can eat the Passover supper with my disciples?” ’ ¹²And he will show you a large room upstairs with the necessary furniture. Make your preparations there.”

¹³So they went and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover supper.

¹⁴When the time came, he took his place at the table, with the apostles about him. ¹⁵And he said to them,

“I have greatly desired to eat this Passover supper with you before I suffer. ¹⁶For I tell you, I will never eat one again until it reaches its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷And when he was handed a cup, he thanked God, and then said,

“Take this and share it among you, for I tell you, ¹⁸I will not drink the product of the vine again until the Kingdom of God comes.”

¹⁹And he took a loaf of bread and thanked God, and broke it in pieces, and gave it to them, saying,

“This is my body. ²¹Yet look! The hand of the man who is betraying me is beside me on the table! ²²For the Son of Man is going his way, as it has been decreed, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!”

²³And they began to discuss with one another which of them it was who was going to do this. ²⁴A dispute also arose among them, as to which one of them ought to be considered the greatest. ²⁵But he said to them,

“The kings of the heathen lord it over them, and their authorities are given the title of Benefactor. ²⁶But you are not to do so, but whoever is greatest among you must be like the youngest, and the leader like a servant. ²⁷For which is greater, the man at the table, or the servant who waits on him? Is not the man at the table? Yet I am like a servant among you. ²⁸But it is you who have stood by me in my trials. ²⁹So just as my Father has conferred a kingdom on me ³⁰I confer on you the right to eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and to sit on thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel! ³¹O Simon, Simon! Satan has obtained permission to sift all of you like wheat, ³²but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail. And afterward you yourself must turn and strengthen your brothers.”

³³Peter said to him,

“Master, I am ready to go to prison and to death with you!”

³⁴But he said,

“I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow today before you deny three times that you know me!”

³⁵And he said to them,

“When I sent you out without any purse or bag or shoes, was there anything you needed?”

They said,

“No, nothing.”

³⁶He said to them,

“But now, if a man has a purse let him take it, and a bag too. And a man who has no sword must sell his coat and buy one. ³⁷For I tell you that this saying of Scripture must find its fulfilment in me: ‘He was rated an outlaw.’ Yes, that saying about me is to be fulfilled!”

³⁸But they said,

“See, Master, here are two swords!”

And he said to them,

“Enough of this!”

³⁹And he went out of the city and up on the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed to do, with his disciples following him. ⁴⁰And when he reached the spot, he said to them,

“Pray that you may not be subjected to trial.”

⁴¹And he withdrew about a stone’s throw from them, and kneeling down he prayed ⁴²and said,

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. But not my will but yours be done!”

⁴⁵When he got up from his prayer, he went to the disciples and found them asleep from sorrow. ⁴⁶And he said to them,

“Why are you asleep? Get up, and pray that you may not be subjected to trial!”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, a crowd of people came up, with the man called Judas, one of the Twelve, at their head, and he stepped up to Jesus to kiss him. ⁴⁸Jesus said to him,

“Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹Those who were about him saw what was coming and said,

“Master, shall we use our swords?”

⁵⁰And one of them did strike at the high priest’s slave and cut his right ear off. ⁵¹But Jesus answered,

“Let me do this much!”

And he touched his ear and healed him. ⁵²And Jesus said to the high priests, captains of the Temple, and elders who had come to take him,

“Have you come out with swords and clubs as though I were a robber? ⁵³When I was among you day after day in the Temple you never laid a hand on me! But you choose this hour, and the cover of darkness!”

⁵⁴Then they arrested him and led him away and took him to the house of the high priest. And Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵And they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat about it, and Peter sat down among them. ⁵⁶A maid saw him sitting by the fire and looked at him and said,

“This man was with him too.”

⁵⁷But he denied it, and said,

“I do not know him.”

⁵⁸Shortly after, a man saw him and said,

“You are one of them too!”

But Peter said,

“I am not!”

⁵⁹About an hour later, another man insisted,

“This man was certainly with him too, for he is a Galilean!”

⁶⁰But Peter said,

“I do not know what you mean.”

And immediately, just as he spoke, a cock crowed. ⁶¹And the Master turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the words the Master had said to him—“Before the cock crows today, you will disown me three times.” ⁶²And he went outside and wept bitterly.

⁶³The men who had Jesus in custody flogged him and made sport of him, ⁶⁴and they blindfolded him, and asked him,

“Show that you are a prophet! Who was it that struck you?” ⁶⁵And they said many other abusive things to him.

⁶⁶As soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the high priests and scribes assembled, and brought him before their council, and said to him,

⁶⁷“If you are the Christ, tell us so.”

But he said to them,

“If I tell you, you will not believe me, ⁶⁸and if I ask you a question, you will not answer me. ⁶⁹But from this time on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God Almighty!”

⁷⁰And they all said,

“Are you the Son of God then?”

And he said to them,

“I am, as you say!”

⁷¹Then they said,

“What do we want of testimony now? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth!”

Chapter 23

¹Then they arose in a body and took him to Pilate, ²and they made this charge against him:

“Here is a man whom we have found misleading our nation, and forbidding the payment of taxes to the emperor, and claiming to be an anointed king himself.”

³And Pilate asked him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

He answered,

“Yes.”

⁴And Pilate said to the high priests and the crowd,

“I cannot find anything criminal about this man.”

⁵But they persisted and said,

“He is stirring up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He began in Galilee and he has come here.”

⁶When Pilate heard this, he asked if the man were a Galilean ⁷and learning that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction he turned him over to Herod, for Herod was in Jerusalem at that time. ⁸When Herod saw Jesus he was delighted, for he had wanted for a long time to see him, because he had heard about him and he hoped to see some wonder done by him. ⁹And he questioned him at some length, but he made him no answer. ¹⁰Meanwhile the high priests and the scribes stood by and vehemently accused him. ¹¹And Herod and his guards made light of him and ridiculed him, and they put a gorgeous robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. ¹²And Herod and Pilate became friends that day, for they had been at enmity before.

¹³Pilate summoned the high priests and the leading members of the council and the people, ¹⁴and said to them,

“You brought this man before me charged with misleading the people, and here I have examined him before you and not found him guilty of any of the things that you accuse him of. ¹⁵Neither has Herod, for he has sent him back to us. You see he has done nothing to call for his death. ¹⁶So I will teach him a lesson and let him go.”

¹⁸But they all shouted out,

“Kill him, and release Barabbas for us!”

¹⁹(He was a man who had been put in prison for a riot that had taken place in the city and for murder.) ²⁰But Pilate wanted to let Jesus go, and he called out to them again. ²¹But they kept on shouting,

“Crucify him! Crucify him!”

²²And he said to them a third time,

“Why, what has he done that is wrong? For I have found nothing about him to call for his death. So I will teach him a lesson and let him go.”

²³But they persisted with loud outcries in demanding that he be crucified, and their shouting won. ²⁴And Pilate pronounced sentence that what they asked for should be done. ²⁵He released the man they asked for, who had been put in prison for riot and murder, and handed Jesus over to their will.

²⁶As they led Jesus away, they seized a man named Simon, from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and put the cross on his back, for him to carry behind Jesus. ²⁷He was followed by a great crowd of people and of women who were beating their breasts and lamenting him. ²⁸But Jesus turned to them and said,

“Women of Jerusalem, do not weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children, ²⁹for a time is coming when they will say, ‘Happy are the childless women, and those who have never borne or nursed children!’ ³⁰Then people will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us up!’ ³¹For if this is what they do when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

³²Two criminals were also led out to execution with him.

³³When they reached the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, with the criminals one at his right and one at his left. ³⁴And they divided up his clothes among them by drawing lots for them, ³⁵while the people stood looking on. Even the leading councilors jeered at him, and said,

“He has saved others, let him save himself, if he is really God’s Christ, his Chosen One!”

³⁶The soldiers also made sport of him, coming up and offering him sour wine, ³⁷saying,

“If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸For there was a notice above his head, “This is the king of the Jews!”

³⁹One of the criminals who were hanging there, abused him, saying,

“Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us too!”

⁴⁰But the other reproved him and said,

“Have you no fear even of God when you are suffering the same penalty? ⁴¹And we are suffering it justly, for we are only getting our deserts, but this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²And he said,

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!”

⁴³And he said to him,

“I tell you, you will be in Paradise with me today!”

⁴⁴It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole country, and lasted until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵as the sun was in eclipse. And the curtain before the sanctuary was torn in two. ⁴⁶Then Jesus gave a loud cry, and said,

“Father, I intrust my spirit to your hands!”

With these words he expired.

⁴⁷When the captain saw what had happened he praised God, and said,

“This man was really innocent!”

⁴⁸And all the crowds that had collected for the sight, when they saw what happened, returned to the city beating their breasts. ⁴⁹And all his acquaintances and the women who had come with him from Galilee, stood at a distance looking on.

⁵⁰Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and upright man, ⁵¹who had not voted for the plan or action of the council. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and lived in expectation of the Kingdom of God. ⁵²He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁵³Then he took it down from the cross and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb hewn in the rock, where no one had yet been laid. ⁵⁴It was the Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was just beginning. ⁵⁵The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was put there. ⁵⁶Then they went home, and prepared spices and perfumes. On the Sabbath they rested in obedience to the commandment,

Chapter 24

¹but on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking spices they had prepared. ²But they found the stone rolled back from the tomb, ³and when they went inside they could not find the body. ⁴They were in great perplexity over this, when suddenly two men in dazzling clothing stood beside them. ⁵The women were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,

“Why do you look among the dead for him who is alive? ⁶Remember what he told you while he was still in Galilee, ⁷when he said that the Son of Man must be handed over to wicked men and be crucified and rise again on the third day.”

⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and they went back from the tomb and told all this to the eleven and all the rest. ¹⁰They were Mary of Magdala and Joanna and Mary, James’s mother; and the other women also told this to the apostles. ¹¹But the story seemed to them to be nonsense and they would not believe them.

¹³That same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and they were talking together about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵And as they were talking and discussing them, Jesus himself came up and went with them, ¹⁶but they were prevented from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them,

“What is all this that you are discussing with each other on your way?”

They stopped sadly, ¹⁸and one of them named Cleopas said to him,

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know what has happened there lately?”

¹⁹And he said,

“What is it?”

They said to him,

“About Jesus of Nazareth, who in the eyes of God and of all the people was a prophet mighty in deed and word, ²⁰and how the high priests and our leading men gave him up to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. ²¹But we were hoping that he was to be the deliverer of Israel. Why, besides all this, it is three days since it happened. ²²But some women of our number have astounded us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³and could not find his body, but came back and said that they had actually seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Then some of our party went to the tomb and found things just as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

²⁵Then he said to them,

“How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have said! ²⁶Did not the Christ have to suffer thus before entering upon his glory?”

²⁷And he began with Moses and all the prophets and explained to them the passages all through the Scriptures that referred to himself. ²⁸When they reached the village to which they were going, he acted as though he were going on, ²⁹but they urged him not to, and said,

“Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is nearly over.”

So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰And when he took his place with them at table, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it in pieces and handed it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished from them. ³²And they said to each other,

“Did not our hearts glow when he was talking to us on the road, and was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

³³And they got up immediately and went back to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and their party all together, ³⁴and learned from them that the Master had really risen and had been seen by Simon. ³⁵And they told what had happened on the road, and how they had known him when he broke the bread in pieces.

³⁶While they were still talking of these things, he himself stood among them. ³⁷They were startled and panic-stricken, and thought they saw a ghost. ³⁸But he said to them,

“Why are you so disturbed, and why do doubts arise in your minds? ³⁹Look at my hands and feet, for it is I myself! Feel of me and see, for a ghost has not flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

⁴¹But they could not yet believe it for sheer joy and they were amazed. And he said to them,

“Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate it before their eyes.

⁴⁴Then he said to them,

“This is what I told you when I was still with you—that everything that is written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must come true.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them,

“The Scriptures said that Christ should suffer as he has done, and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance leading to the forgiveness of sins should be preached to all the heathen in his name. ⁴⁸You are to be witnesses to all this, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁹And I will send down upon you what my Father has promised. Wait here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰And he led them out as far as Bethany. Then he lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹And as he was blessing them, he parted from them. ⁵²And they went back with great joy to Jerusalem, ⁵³and were constantly in the Temple, blessing God.

The Gospel According to John

Chapter 1

¹In the beginning the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was divine.

²It was he that was with God in the beginning. ³Everything came into existence through him, and apart from him nothing came to be. ⁴It was by him that life came into existence, and that life was the light of mankind. ⁵The light is still shining in the darkness, for the darkness has never put it out.

⁶There appeared a man by the name of John, with a message from God. ⁷He came to give testimony, to testify to the light, so that everyone might come to believe in it through him. ⁸He was not the light; he came to testify to the light.

⁹The real light, which sheds light upon everyone, was just coming into the world. ¹⁰He came into the world, and though the world came into existence through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to his home, and his own family did not welcome him. ¹²But to all who did receive him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³owing their birth not to nature nor to any human or physical impulse, but to God.

¹⁴So the Word became flesh and blood and lived for a while among us, abounding in blessing and truth, and we saw the honor God had given him, such honor as an only son receives from his father. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out—for it was he who said it—“He who was to come after me is now ahead of me, for he existed before me!”)

¹⁶For from his abundance we have all had a share, and received blessing after blessing. ¹⁷For while the Law was given through Moses, blessing and truth came to us through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God; it is the divine Only Son, who leans upon his Father’s breast, that has made him known.

¹⁹Now this is the testimony that John gave when the Jews sent priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem to ask him who he was. ²⁰He admitted—he made no attempt to deny it—he admitted that he was not the Christ. ²¹Then they asked him,

“What are you then? Are you Elijah?”

He said,

“No, I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered,

“No.”

²²Then they said to him,

“Who are you? We must have some answer to give those who sent us here. What have you to say for yourself?”

²³He said,

“I am a voice of one shouting in the desert, ‘Straighten the Lord’s way!’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

²⁴Now the messengers were Pharisees. ²⁵And they asked him,

“Then why are you baptizing people, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶“I am only baptizing in water,” John answered, “but someone is standing among you of whom you do not know. ²⁷He is to come after me, and I am not worthy to undo his shoe!”

²⁸This took place at Bethany, on the farther side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said,

“There is God’s lamb, who is to remove the world’s sin! ³⁰This is the man of whom I spoke when I said, ‘After me there is coming a man who is even now ahead of me, for he existed before me.’ ³¹I did not know him, but it is in order that he may be made known to Israel that I have come and baptized people in water.”

³²And John gave this testimony:

“I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him. ³³I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain, is the one who is to baptize in the holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I did see it, and I testify that he is the Son of God.”

³⁵Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and looking at Jesus as he passed, he said,

“There is God’s lamb!”

³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸But Jesus turned, and seeing them following him he said,

“What do you want?”

They said to him,

“Rabbi”—that is to say, Master—“Where are you staying?”

³⁹He said to them,

“Come and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent the rest of the day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John said and followed Jesus. ⁴¹Andrew immediately sought out his own brother Simon and said to him,

“We have found the Messiah!”—that is to say, the Christ.

⁴²He took him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,

“You are Simon, son of John. You shall be called Cephas”—that is, Peter, which means rock.

⁴³The next day Jesus determined to leave for Galilee. And he sought out Philip and said to him,

“Come with me.”

⁴⁴Now Philip came from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip sought out Nathanael, and said to him,

“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the Law and about whom the prophets wrote; it is Jesus, the son of Joseph, who comes from Nazareth!”

⁴⁶Nathanael said to him,

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip said to him,

“Come and see!”

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and he said of him,

“Here is really an Israelite without any deceit in him!”

⁴⁸Nathanael said to him,

“How do you know me?”

Jesus answered,

“While you were still under that fig tree, before Philip called you I saw you.”

⁴⁹Nathanael answered,

“Master, you are the Son of God! You are king of Israel!”

⁵⁰Jesus answered,

“Do you believe in me because I told you that I had seen you under that fig tree? You will see greater things than that!” ⁵¹And he said to him, “I tell you all, you will see heaven opened and God’s angels going up, and coming down to the Son of Man!”

Chapter 2

¹Two days later there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was present. ²Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ³The wine gave out, and Jesus’ mother said to him,

“They have no more wine!”

⁴Jesus said to her,

“Do not try to direct me. It is not yet time for me to act.”

⁵His mother said to the servants,

“Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now there were six stone water jars there, for the ceremonial purification practiced by the Jews, each large enough to hold twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to them,

“Fill these jars with water.”

⁸So they filled them full. And he said to them,

“Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.”

⁹And they did so. When the master of the feast tasted the water which had now turned into wine, without knowing where it had come from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew— ¹⁰he called the bridegroom and said to him,

“Everyone else serves his good wine first, and his poorer wine after people have drunk deeply, but you have kept back your good wine till now!”

¹¹This, the first of the signs of his mission, Jesus showed at Cana in Galilee. By it he showed his greatness, and his disciples believed in him.

¹²After this Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

¹³Now the Jewish Passover was approaching, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the Temple he found the dealers in cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting at their tables. ¹⁵And he made a lash out of rope, and drove them all, sheep and cattle, out of the Temple, and scattered the money-changers’ coins on the ground, and overturned their tables. ¹⁶And he said to the pigeon-dealers,

“Take these things away! Do not turn my Father’s house into a market!”

¹⁷His disciples remembered that the Scriptures said, “My zeal for your house will consume me!”

¹⁸Then the Jews addressed him and said,

“What sign have you to show us, for acting in this way?”

¹⁹Jesus answered,

“Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it in three days!”

²⁰The Jews said,

“It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and are you going to raise it in three days?”

²¹But he was speaking of his body as the sanctuary. ²²So afterward when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the passage of Scripture and what Jesus had said.

²³Now when he was at Jerusalem, at the Passover Festival, many, when they saw the signs that he showed, came to believe in him. ²⁴But Jesus on his part would not trust himself to them, for he knew them all, ²⁵and had no need of anybody’s evidence about men, for he knew well what was in their hearts.

Chapter 3

¹Among the Pharisees there was a man named Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews. ²This man went to Jesus one night, and said to him,

“Master, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can show the signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him,

“I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born over again from above!”

⁴Nicodemus said to him,

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb over again and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered,

“I tell you, if a man does not owe his birth to water and spirit, he cannot get into the Kingdom of God. ⁶Whatever owes its birth to the physical is physical, and whatever owes its birth to the Spirit is spiritual. ⁷Do not wonder at my telling you that you must be born over again from above. ⁸The wind blows wherever it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. That is the way with everyone who owes his birth to the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to him,

“How can that be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered,

“Are you the teacher of Israel and yet ignorant of this? ¹¹I tell you, we know what we are talking about and we have seen the things we testify to, yet you all reject our testimony. ¹²If you will not believe the earthly things that I have told you, how can you believe the heavenly things I have to tell? ¹³Yet no one has gone up into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven. ¹⁴And just as Moses in the desert lifted the serpent up in the air, the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

¹⁶For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that no one who believes in him should be lost, but that they should all have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to pass judgment upon the world, but that through him the world might be saved. ¹⁸No one who believes in him has to come up for judgment. Anyone who does not believe stands condemned already, for not believing in God’s only Son. ¹⁹And the basis of the judgment is this, that the light has come into the world, and yet, because their actions were wicked, men have loved the darkness more than the light. ²⁰For everyone who does wrong hates the light and will not come to it, for fear his actions will be exposed. ²¹But everyone who is living the truth will come to the light, to show that his actions have been performed in dependence upon God.

²²After this Jesus went into the country of Judea with his disciples, and stayed there with them and baptized. ²³John too was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, for there was plenty of water there, and people came there and were baptized. ²⁴For John had not yet been put in prison. ²⁵So a discussion arose between John’s disciples and a man from Judea, about purification. ²⁶And they went to John and said to him,

“Master, the man who was with you across the Jordan, and to whom you yourself gave testimony, is baptizing, and everybody is going to him.”

²⁷John answered,

“A man cannot get anything unless it is given to him from heaven. ²⁸You will bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ; I have been sent in advance of him.’ ²⁹It is the bridegroom who has the bride; but the bridegroom’s friend who stands outside and listens for his voice is very glad when he hears the bridegroom speak. So this happiness of mine is now complete. ³⁰He must grow greater and greater, but I less and less.”

³¹He who comes from above is above all others. A son of earth belongs to earth and speaks of earth. He who comes from heaven is above all others. ³²It is to what he has seen and heard that he gives testimony, and yet no one accepts his testimony. ³³Whoever does accept it has thereby acknowledged that God is true. ³⁴For he whom God has sent speaks God’s words, for God gives him his Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves his Son, and has put everything in his hands. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son possesses eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not experience life, but will remain under the anger of God.

Chapter 4

¹So when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had been told that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²though it was not Jesus himself who baptized them, but his disciples— ³he left Judea and went back again to Galilee. ⁴Now he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, ⁶and Jacob’s spring was there. So Jesus, tired with his journey, sat down just as he was by the spring. It was about noon. ⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,

“Give me a drink.”

⁸For his disciples had gone into the town to buy some food. ⁹So the Samaritan woman said to him,

“How is it that a Jew like you asks a Samaritan woman like me for a drink?” For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans. ¹⁰Jesus answered,

“If you knew what God has to give, and who it is that said to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹She said to him,

“You have nothing to draw water with, sir, and the well is deep. Where can you get your living water? ¹²Are you a greater man than our forefather Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, with his sons and his flocks?”

¹³Jesus answered,

“Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but anyone who drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty, but the water that I will give him will become a spring of water within him, bubbling up for eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him,

“Give me this water, sir, so that I may never be thirsty, nor have to come all this way to draw water.”

¹⁶He said to her,

“Go and call your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷The woman answered,

“I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her,

¹⁸“You are right when you say you have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the man you are now living with is not your husband. What you say is true.”

¹⁹The woman said to him,

“I see that you are a prophet, sir. ²⁰Our forefathers worshiped God on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that the place where people must worship God is at Jerusalem.”

²¹Jesus said to her,

“Believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem. ²²You worship something you know nothing about; we know what we worship, for salvation comes from the Jews. ²³But a time is coming—it is already here!—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and sincerity, for the Father wants such worshipers. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in sincerity.”

²⁵The woman said to him,

“I know that the Messiah is coming—he who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will tell us everything!”

²⁶Jesus said to her,

“I who am talking to you am he!”

²⁷Just then his disciples came back, and they were surprised to find him talking with a woman, yet no one of them asked him what he wanted or why he was talking with her. ²⁸So the woman left her pitcher and went back to the town, and said to the people,

²⁹“Come, here is a man who has told me everything I ever did! Do you suppose he is the Christ?”

³⁰The people went out of the town to see him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples urged him, saying,

“Master, eat something.”

³²But he said to them,

“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³So the disciples said to one another,

“Do you suppose that someone has brought him something to eat?”

³⁴Jesus said to them,

“My food is doing the will of him who has sent me, and finishing his work. ³⁵Are you not saying, ‘Four months more and the harvest will come’? Look, I tell you! Raise your eyes and see the fields, for they are white for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already being paid and gathering the harvest for eternal life, so that the sower may be glad with the reaper. ³⁷For here the saying holds good, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ ³⁸I have sent you to reap a harvest on which you have not worked. Other men have worked and you have profited by their work.”

³⁹Many of the Samaritans in that town came to believe in him because of the testimony the woman gave when she said, “He has told me everything I ever did!” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he did stay there two days. ⁴¹And a great many more believed because of what he said, ⁴²and they said to the woman,

“It is no longer because of your statement that we believe, for we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he is really the Savior of the world.”

⁴³When the two days were over, Jesus went on to Galilee, ⁴⁴for he himself declared that a prophet is not honored in his own country. ⁴⁵So when he reached Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, for they had seen everything he had done at Jerusalem, at the festival, for they too had gone to the festival.

⁴⁶So he came back to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water into wine. There was at Capernaum one of the king’s officials whose son was sick. ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and cure his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸Jesus said to him,

“Unless you see signs and marvels you will never believe!”

⁴⁹The official said to him,

“Come down, sir, before my child is dead!”

⁵⁰Jesus said to him,

“You can go home. Your son is going to live.”

The man believed what Jesus said to him and went home. ⁵¹While he was on the way, his slaves met him and told him that his boy was going to live. ⁵²So he asked them at what time he had begun to get better, and they said to him,

“Yesterday at one o’clock the fever left him.”

⁵³So the father knew that it was the very time when Jesus had said to him “Your son is going to live.” And he and his whole household believed in Jesus. ⁵⁴This second sign Jesus showed after coming back from Judea to Galilee.

Chapter 5

¹After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheepgate a pool called in Hebrew Bethzatha, which has five colonnades. ³In these there used to lie a great number of people who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed. ⁵There was one man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶Jesus saw him lying there, and finding that he had been in this condition for a long time, said to him,

“Do you want to get well?”

⁷The sick man answered,

“I have nobody, sir, to put me into the pool when the water stirs, but while I am getting down someone else steps in ahead of me.”

⁸Jesus said to him,

“Get up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

⁹And the man was immediately cured, and he picked up his mat and walked.

¹⁰Now it was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured,

“It is the Sabbath, and it is against the Law for you to carry your mat.”

¹¹But he answered,

“The man who cured me said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹²They asked him,

“Who was it that said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”

¹³But the man who had been cured did not know who it was, for as there was a crowd there, Jesus had left the place. ¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the Temple, and said to him,

“See! You are well again. Give up sin, or something worse may happen to you.”

¹⁵The man went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him. ¹⁶This was why the Jews used to persecute Jesus, because he did things like this on the Sabbath. ¹⁷But he answered them,

“My Father is still at work, and I work too.”

¹⁸On account of this the Jews were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but actually called God his Father, thus putting himself on an equality with God. ¹⁹So Jesus answered them,

“I tell you, the Son cannot do anything of his own accord, unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and lets him see everything that he himself is doing, and he will let him see greater deeds than these, to make you wonder. ²¹For just as the Father awakens the dead and makes them come to life, the Son makes anyone whom he chooses come to life. ²²For the Father passes judgment on no one, but he has committed the judgment entirely to the Son, ²³so that all men may honor the Son just as much as they honor the Father. Whoever refuses to honor the Son refuses to honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴I tell you, whoever listens to my message and believes him who has sent me, possesses eternal life, and will not come to judgment, but has already passed out of death into life. ²⁵I tell you, the time is coming—it is here already!—when those who are dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen to it will live. ²⁶For just as the Father is self-existent, he has given self-existence to the Son, ²⁷and he has given him the authority to act as judge, because he is a son of man. ²⁸Do not be surprised at this, for the time is coming when all who are in their graves will listen to his voice, ²⁹and those who have done right will come out to resurrection and life, and those who have done wrong, to resurrection and judgment. ³⁰I cannot do anything of my own accord. I pass judgment just as I am told to do, and my judgment is just, for I am not seeking to do what I please, but what pleases him who has sent me.

³¹“If I testify to myself, my testimony is not true. ³²It is someone else who testifies to me, and I know that the testimony that he gives about me is true. ³³You yourselves sent to John, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴But the testimony that I accept is not from any man; I am only saying this that you may be saved. ³⁵He was the lamp that burned and shone, and you were ready to be gladdened for a while by his light. ³⁶But I have higher testimony than John’s, for the things that my Father has intrusted to me to accomplish, the very things that I am doing, are proof that my Father has sent me, ³⁷and my Father who has sent me has thus borne witness to me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸and you do not keep his message in your hearts, for you do not believe the messenger whom he has sent. ³⁹You pore over the Scriptures, for you think that you will find eternal life in them, and these very Scriptures testify to me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me for life. ⁴¹I do not accept any honor from men, ⁴²but I know well that you have not the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you refuse to accept me. If someone else comes in his own name you will accept him. ⁴⁴Yet how can you believe in me, when you accept honor from one another, instead of seeking the honor that comes from the one God? ⁴⁵Do not suppose that I will accuse you to the Father. Moses is your accuser—Moses, on whom you have fixed your hopes! ⁴⁶For if you really believed Moses, you would believe me, for it was about me that he wrote. ⁴⁷But if you refuse to believe what he wrote, how are you ever to believe what I say?”

Chapter 6

¹After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias, and a great crowd followed him, ²because they could see the signs he showed in what he did for the sick. ³But Jesus went up on the hill, and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Jewish festival of the Passover was coming. ⁵So Jesus, raising his eyes and seeing that a great crowd was coming up to him, said to Philip,

“Where can we buy food for these people to eat?”

⁶Now he said this to test him, for he knew what he meant to do. ⁷Philip answered,

“Forty dollars’ worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to have even a little.”

⁸Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, another of his disciples, said to him,

⁹“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and a couple of fish, but what is that among so many people?”

¹⁰Jesus said,

“Make the people sit down.”

There was plenty of grass there, so the men threw themselves down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and gave thanks, and distributed them among the people who were resting on the ground, and in the same way as much of the fish as they wanted. ¹²When they were satisfied, he said to his disciples,

“Pick up the pieces that are left, so that nothing may be wasted.”

¹³So they picked them up, and they filled twelve baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves that were left after the people had eaten.

¹⁴When the people saw the signs that he showed, they said,

“This is really the Prophet who was to come into the world!”

¹⁵So Jesus, seeing that they meant to come and carry him off to make him king, retired again to the hill by himself.

¹⁶But in the evening his disciples went down to the sea ¹⁷and got into a boat and started across the sea for Capernaum. By this time it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them; ¹⁸a strong wind was blowing and the sea was growing rough.

¹⁹When they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat, and they were terrified. ²⁰But he said to them,

“It is I; do not be afraid!”

²¹Then as soon as they consented to take him into the boat, the boat was at the shore they had been trying to reach.

²²Next day the people who had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not embarked in it with his disciples, but that the disciples had gone away by themselves. ²³But some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where they had eaten the bread after Jesus had given thanks for it. ²⁴So when the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were any longer there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of him. ²⁵And when they had crossed the sea and found him, they said to him,

“When did you get here, Master?” ²⁶Jesus answered,

“I tell you, it is not because of the signs you have seen that you have come in search of me, but because you ate that bread and had all you wanted of it. ²⁷You must not work for the food that perishes, but for that which lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for God the Father has authorized him to do so.”

²⁸Then they said to him,

“What must we do to carry out God’s work?”

²⁹Jesus answered them,

“The work God has for you is to believe in the messenger that he has sent to you.”

³⁰Then they said to him,

“Then what sign do you show for us to see and so come to believe you? What work are you doing? ³¹Our forefathers in the desert had manna to eat; as the Scripture says, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat!’ ”

³²Jesus said to them,

“I tell you, Moses did not give you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the bread out of heaven, ³³for it is God’s bread that comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴Then they said to him,

“Give us that bread always, sir!”

³⁵Jesus said to them,

“I am the bread that gives life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty. ³⁶But as I have told you, although you have seen me, you will not believe. ³⁷All that my Father gives to me will come to me, and I will never refuse anyone who comes to me, ³⁸for I have come down from heaven not to do what I please but what pleases him who has sent me. ³⁹And the purpose of him who has sent me is this, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but should raise them to life on the Last Day. ⁴⁰For it is the purpose of my Father that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him to life on the Last Day.”

⁴¹The Jews complained of him for saying, “I am the bread that has come out of heaven,” ⁴²and they said,

“Is he not Joseph’s son, Jesus, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered,

“Do not complain to one another. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me; then I myself will raise him to life on the Last Day. ⁴⁵In the prophets it is written, ‘And all men will be taught by God!’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him will come to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has ever seen the Father, except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷I tell you, whoever believes already possesses eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread that gives life. ⁴⁹Your forefathers in the desert ate the manna and yet they died. ⁵⁰But here is bread that comes down out of heaven, and no one who eats it will ever die. ⁵¹I am this living bread that has come down out of heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the world’s life is my own flesh!”

⁵²This led the Jews to dispute with one another. They said,

“How can he give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³Then Jesus said to them,

“I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no self-existent life. ⁵⁴Whoever lives on my flesh and drinks my blood possesses eternal life, and I will raise him to life on the Last Day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever lives on my flesh and drinks my blood remains united to me and I remain united to him. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who lives on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that has come down out of heaven—not like that which your forefathers ate and yet died. Whoever lives on this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹Jesus said all this while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

⁶⁰Many of his disciples on hearing it said,

“This is a harsh teaching! Who can listen to it?”

⁶¹But Jesus, knowing that his disciples were complaining about this, said to them,

“Does this stagger you? ⁶²Then what if you see the Son of Man go up where he was before? ⁶³The Spirit is what gives life; flesh is of no use at all. The things that I have said to you are spirit and they are life. ⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who will not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who would not believe, and who was going to betray him. ⁶⁵And he added,

“This is why I said to you, ‘No one can come to me unless he is enabled to do so by the Father.’ ”

⁶⁶In consequence of this many of his disciples drew back and would not go about with him any longer. ⁶⁷So Jesus said to the Twelve,

“Do you mean to go away too?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered,

“To whom can we go, sir? You have a message of eternal life, ⁶⁹and we believe and are satisfied that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰Jesus answered them,

“Did I not myself select all twelve of you? And even of you, one is an informer.” ⁷¹He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though he was one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

Chapter 7

¹After this Jesus went from place to place in Galilee, for he would not do so in Judea, because the Jews were making efforts to kill him. ²But the Jewish camping festival was coming. ³So his brothers said to him,

“You ought to leave here and go to Judea, to let your disciples also see the things you are doing. ⁴For no one acts in secret when he desires to be publicly known. If you are going to do these things, let the world see you.” ⁵For even his brothers did not believe in him. ⁶Then Jesus said to them,

“It is not yet time for me to act, but any time is suitable for you. ⁷It is impossible for the world to hate you, but it does hate me for testifying that its ways are wrong. ⁸As for you, go up to the festival; I am not going up to this festival as yet, for it is not quite time for me to go.”

⁹That was what he told them, and he stayed on in Galilee.

¹⁰But after his brothers had gone up to the festival, then Jesus went up also, not publicly, but as though he did not wish to be observed. ¹¹Now the Jews were looking for him at the festival and asking where he was, ¹²and there was a great deal of muttering about him among the crowds, some saying that he was a good man, and others that he was not, but was imposing on the people. ¹³But no one spoke of him in public, for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴But when the festival was half over, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵This astonished the Jews.

“How is it that this man can read?” they said, “when he has never gone to school?”

¹⁶So Jesus answered,

“My teaching is not my own; it comes from him who has sent me. ¹⁷Anyone who resolves to do his will will know whether my teaching comes from God, or originates with me. ¹⁸Whoever speaks simply for himself is looking for honor for himself, but whoever looks for honor for the person who has sent him shows his sincerity; there is no dishonesty about him. ¹⁹Was it not Moses who gave you the Law? Yet not one of you obeys the Law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰The crowd answered,

“You must be possessed! Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹Jesus answered,

“I have done just one deed, and you are all astonished at it. ²²Yet Moses gave you the rite of circumcision—not that it began with Moses but with your forefathers—and you practice it even on the Sabbath. ²³But if a person undergoes circumcision on a Sabbath, to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, are you angry at me for making a man perfectly well on a Sabbath? ²⁴You must not judge so externally; you must judge justly!”

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is not this the man they want to kill? ²⁶And here he is speaking publicly, and they say nothing to him! Can the authorities really have found that he is the Christ? ²⁷But then, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸So Jesus, as he was teaching in the Temple, cried out,

“You do know me and you do know where I come from, and I have not come of my own accord but someone who is very real, whom you do not know, has sent me. ²⁹I do know him, because I come from him, and he has sent me here.”

³⁰Then they tried to arrest him, and yet no one laid hands on him, because he was not yet ready. ³¹But many of the people believed in him, and said,

“Will the Christ show more signs when he comes than this man has shown?”

³²The Pharisees heard the people saying these things about him in whispers, and the high priests and the Pharisees sent attendants to arrest him. ³³Jesus said,

“I am to be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who has sent me. ³⁴You will look for me and you will not find me, and you will not be able to go where I shall be.”

³⁵Then the Jews said to one another,

“Where is he going, that we shall not find him? Is he going to our people scattered among the Greeks, and will he teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does he mean by saying ‘You will look for me and you will not find me, and you will not be able to go where I shall be’?”

³⁷Now on the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸If anyone believes in me, streams of living water, as the Scripture says, shall flow forth from his heart.”

³⁹He meant by this the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive—for the Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. ⁴⁰So some of the people, when they heard these words, said,

“This is certainly the Prophet!”

⁴¹Others said,

“This is the Christ!”

But they rejoined,

“What! Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴²Do not the Scriptures say that the Christ is to spring from the descendants of David and to come from the village of Bethlehem where David lived?”

⁴³So the people were divided about him, ⁴⁴and some of them wanted to arrest him, yet no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵The attendants went back to the high priests and Pharisees, and they said to the attendants,

“Why have you not brought him?”

⁴⁶The attendants answered,

“No man ever talked as he does!”

⁴⁷The Pharisees answered,

“Have you been imposed upon too? ⁴⁸Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹But these common people who do not know the Law are doomed!”

⁵⁰One of them, Nicodemus, who had previously gone to Jesus, said to them,

⁵¹“Does our Law condemn the accused without first hearing what he has to say, and finding out what he has done?”

⁵²They answered,

“Are you from Galilee too? Study and you will find that no prophet is to appear from Galilee.”

Chapter 8

¹²Then Jesus spoke to them again and said,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not have to walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

¹³The Pharisees said to him,

“You are testifying to yourself. Your testimony is not true.”

¹⁴Jesus answered,

“Even if I am testifying to myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I have come from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵You judge by material standards, but I am judging nobody. ¹⁶But even if I do judge, my decision is just, because I am not by myself, but the Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷Why, in your own Law it is stated that the testimony of two persons is valid. ¹⁸Here I am testifying to myself, and the Father who has sent me testifies to me.”

¹⁹Then they said to him,

“Where is your Father?”

Jesus answered,

“You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father too.”

²⁰He said these things in the treasury, as he was teaching in the Temple, and no one arrested him, because he was not yet ready.

²¹Then he said to them again,

“I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in the midst of your sin. You cannot come where I am going.”

²²So the Jews said,

“Is he going to kill himself, and is that why he says, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

²³He said to them,

“You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not belong to this world. ²⁴That is why I said to you that you would die in the midst of your sins, for unless you believe that I am what I say, you will die in the midst of your sins.”

²⁵They said to him,

“Who are you?”

Jesus said to them,

²⁶“Why do I even talk to you at all? I have a great deal to say about you and to condemn in you, yet he who sent me is truthful, and the things that I say to the world are things that I have learned from him.”

²⁷They did not understand that he was speaking to them of the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said,

“When you lift the Son of Man up in the air, then you will know that I am what I say, and that I do nothing of my own accord, but speak as the Father has instructed me. ²⁹And he who has sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

³⁰As he said this, many believed in him.

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,

“If you abide by what I teach, you are really disciples of mine, ³²and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

³³They answered,

“We are descended from Abraham, and have never been anyone’s slaves. How can you say to us, ‘You will be set free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered,

“I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave does not belong to a household permanently; but a son does. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free you will be really free. ³⁷I know that you are descended from Abraham, yet you want to kill me, because there is no room in your hearts for my teaching. ³⁸It is what I have seen in the presence of my Father that I tell, and it is what you have heard from your father that you do.”

³⁹They answered,

“Our father is Abraham.”

Jesus said to them,

“If you are Abraham’s children, then do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰But instead you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth he has heard from God. Abraham would not have done that. ⁴¹You are doing as your father does.”

They said to him,

“We are not illegitimate children. We have one father, God himself.”

⁴²Jesus said to them,

“If God were your father, you would love me, for I have come from God. I have not come of my own accord, but he has sent me. ⁴³Why is it that you do not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my message. ⁴⁴The devil is the father you are sprung from, and you want to carry out your father’s wishes. He was a murderer from the first, and he has nothing to do with the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in his true character, for he is a liar and the father of them. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth you will not believe me. ⁴⁶Who among you can prove me guilty of sin? But if I tell you the truth, why do you refuse to believe me? ⁴⁷Whoever is sprung from God listens to God’s words. The reason you refuse to listen is that you are not sprung from God.”

⁴⁸The Jews answered,

“Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?”

⁴⁹Jesus answered,

“I am not possessed, but I have respect for my Father, and you have no respect for me. ⁵⁰But I do not seek honor for myself; there is someone who seeks it for me, and is the judge of it. ⁵¹I tell you, if anyone observes my teaching, he will never experience death.”

⁵²The Jews said to him,

“Now we are sure that you are possessed! Abraham is dead and so are the prophets, and yet you say, ‘If anyone observes my teaching, he will never know what death is!’ ⁵³Are you a greater man than our forefather Abraham? Yet he is dead and the prophets are dead. What do you claim to be?”

⁵⁴Jesus answered,

“If I show special honor to myself, such honor counts for nothing. It is my Father who shows me honor. You say he is your God, ⁵⁵yet you have never come to know him. But I know him. If I say I do not know him, I will be a liar like yourselves. No! I do know him, and I am faithful to his message. ⁵⁶Your forefather Abraham exulted at the thought of seeing my coming. He has seen it, and it has made him glad.”

⁵⁷The Jews said to him,

“You are not fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸Jesus said to them,

“I tell you, I existed before Abraham was born!”

⁵⁹At that, the Jews picked up stones to throw at him, but he disappeared and made his way out of the Temple.

Chapter 9

¹As he passed along, he saw a man who had been blind from his birth. ²His disciples asked him,

“Master, for whose sin was this man born blind? For his own, or for that of his parents?”

³Jesus answered,

“It was neither for his own sin nor for that of his parents, but to let what God can do be illustrated in his case. ⁴We must carry on the work of him who has sent me while the daylight lasts. Night is coming, when no one can do any work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am a light for the world.”

⁶As he said this he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he put the clay on the man’s eyes, ⁷and said to him,

“Go and wash them in the Pool of Siloam”—a name which means One who has been sent. So he went and washed them, and went home able to see.

⁸Then his neighbors and people who had formerly seen him begging, said,

“Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?”

⁹Some said,

“Yes! It is he!”

Others said,

“No! but he looks like him.”

He himself said,

“I am the man.”

¹⁰So they said to him,

“Then how does it happen that you can see?”

¹¹He answered,

“The man they call Jesus made some clay and rubbed it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash them.’ So I went and when I had washed them I could see.”

¹²They said to him,

“Where is he?”

He answered,

“I do not know.”

¹³They took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴Now it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the clay and made him able to see. ¹⁵So once more the Pharisees asked him how he had become able to see, and he said to them,

“He put some clay on my eyes, and I washed them, and I can see.”

¹⁶Then some of the Pharisees said,

“This man does not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others said,

“How can a sinful man show such signs as this?”

And there was a division of opinion among them. ¹⁷So they asked the blind man again,

“What have you to say about him, because he has made you able to see?”

He said,

“He is a prophet!”

¹⁸But the Jews would not believe that he had been blind and had become able to see until they summoned the parents of the man who had been given his sight, ¹⁹and asked them,

“Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it that he can see now?”

²⁰His parents answered,

“We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. ²¹But we do not know how it is that he can see now, or who has made him able to see. You must ask him. He is grown up. Let him tell you about himself.”

²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already made an agreement that if anyone acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, he should be excluded from the synagogues. ²³That was why his parents said, “He is grown up; you must ask him.” ²⁴So they again summoned the man who had been blind, and they said to him,

“Give God the praise. This man we know is a sinful man.”

²⁵He answered,

“I do not know about his being a sinful man. All I know is that I was blind before and now I can see.”

²⁶They said to him,

“What did he do to you? How did he make you able to see?”

²⁷He answered,

“I have already told you and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become disciples of his too?”

²⁸Then they sneered at him, and said,

“You are a disciple of his yourself, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man came from.”

³⁰The man answered,

“There is something very strange about this! You do not know where he came from, and yet he has made me able to see! ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinful people, but if a man is devout and obeys God, God will listen to him. ³²It was never heard of in this world that anyone made a man born blind able to see. ³³If this man were not from God, he could not do anything.”

³⁴They answered,

“You were born in utter sin, and are you trying to teach us?”

So they excluded him from the synagogue.

³⁵Jesus learned that they had excluded him, and he found the man and said to him,

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶The man answered,

“Who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”

³⁷Jesus said to him,

“You have seen him already, and it is he who is now talking to you.”

³⁸And he said,

“I believe, sir!” and he fell on his knees before him.

³⁹And Jesus said,

“I have come into this world to judge men, that those who cannot see may see, and that those who can see may become blind.”

⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were present heard this, and they said to him,

“Then are we blind too?”

⁴¹Jesus said to them,

“If you were blind, you would be guilty of no sin, but as it is, you say ‘We can see’; so your sin continues.

Chapter 10

¹“I tell you, any man who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs over at some other place, is a thief and robber. ²But the man who enters by the door is the shepherd of the flock. ³The watchman opens the door to him, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls to his own sheep and leads them out. ⁴When he gets his own flock all out, he goes in front of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because they do not know the voices of strangers.”

⁶This was the figure Jesus used in speaking to them, but they did not understand what he meant by it.

⁷So Jesus said again,

“I tell you, I am the door of the sheepfold. ⁸All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep would not obey them. ⁹I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will pass in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come to let them have life, and to let them have it in abundance. ¹¹I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd will give his life for his sheep. ¹²A hired man who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf coming, will leave the sheep and run away, and the wolf will carry them off and scatter the flock. ¹³For he is only a hired man, and does not care about the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I am giving my life for my sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep too that do not belong to this fold. I must lead them too, and they will obey my voice, and they will all become one flock, with one shepherd. ¹⁷This is why the Father loves me, because I am giving my life, but giving it to take it back again. ¹⁸No one has taken it from me, but I am giving it of my own accord. I have power to give it, and I have power to take it back again. These are the orders I have received from my Father.”

¹⁹These words caused a fresh division of opinion among the Jews. ²⁰Many of them said,

“He is possessed and mad! Why do you listen to him?”

²¹Others said,

“These are not the words of a man who is possessed. Can a madman make blind men see?”

²²That was the time of the Rededication Festival at Jerusalem. It was winter time ²³and Jesus was walking up and down inside the Temple, in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,

“How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are really the Christ, tell us so frankly!”

²⁵Jesus answered,

“I have told you so, and you will not believe it. The things I have been doing by my Father’s authority are my credentials, ²⁶but you do not believe it because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them and they follow me, ²⁸and I give them eternal life, and they shall never be lost, and no one shall tear them out of my hands. ²⁹What my Father has intrusted to me is of more importance than everything else, and no one can tear anything out of the Father’s hands. ³⁰The Father and I are one.”

³¹The Jews again picked up stones to stone him with. ³²Jesus answered,

“I have let you see many good things from the Father; which of them do you mean to stone me for?”

³³The Jews answered,

“We are not stoning you for doing anything good, but for your impious talk, and because you, a mere man, make yourself out to be God.”

³⁴Jesus answered,

“Is it not declared in your Law, ‘I said, “You are gods*#“)? ³⁵If those to whom God’s message was addressed were called gods—and the Scripture cannot be set aside— ³⁶do you mean to say to me whom the Father has consecrated and made his messenger to the world, ‘You are blasphemous,’ because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷If I am not doing the things my Father does, do not believe me. ³⁸But if I am doing them, then even if you will not believe me, believe the things I do, in order that you may realize and learn that the Father is in union with me, and I am in union with the Father.”

³⁹In consequence of this they again tried to arrest him, and he withdrew out of their reach.

⁴⁰He went across the Jordan again to the place where John used to baptize at first, and there he stayed. ⁴¹And people came to him in great numbers, and they said of him,

“John did not show any sign in proof of his mission, but all that he said about this man was true.”

⁴²And many became believers in him in that place.

Chapter 11

¹Now a man named Lazarus was sick; he lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²It was the Mary who poured perfume upon the Master and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³So the sisters sent this message to Jesus: “Master, your friend is sick.” ⁴When Jesus received it he said,

“This sickness is not to end in death, but is for the honor of God, that through it the Son of God may be honored.”

⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on for two days in the place where he was, ⁷and then afterward said to his disciples,

“Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸The disciples said to him,

“Master, the Jews have just been trying to stone you, and are you going back there again?”

⁹Jesus answered,

“Is not the day twelve hours long? If a man travels by day he will not stumble, for he can see the light of this world; ¹⁰but if he travels at night he will stumble because he has no light.”

¹¹He told them this, and then he added,

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him.”

¹²The disciples said to him,

“Master, if he has fallen asleep he will recover.”

¹³Now Jesus had referred to his death. But they supposed that he meant a natural falling asleep. ¹⁴So Jesus then told them plainly,

¹⁵“Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may learn to believe in me. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶So Thomas the Twin said to his fellow-disciples,

“Let us go also, and die with him.”

¹⁷When Jesus arrived he found that Lazarus had been buried for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹and a number of Jews had come out to see Mary and Martha, to condole with them about their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him, but Mary remained at home. ²¹Martha said to Jesus,

“Master, if you had been here, my brother would not have died! ²²Even now I know that anything you ask God for, he will give you.”

²³Jesus said to her,

“Your brother will rise.”

²⁴Martha said to him,

“I know that he will rise at the resurrection, on the Last Day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her,

“I myself am Resurrection and Life. He who believes in me will live on, even if he dies, ²⁶and no one who is alive and believes in me will ever die. Do you believe that?”

²⁷She said to him,

“Yes, Master, I do indeed believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

²⁸With these words she went and called her sister Mary, whispering to her,

“Here is the Master, asking for you.”

²⁹When she heard it she sprang up and went to him, ³⁰for Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹The Jews who were sitting with her in the house, condoling with her, when they saw Mary spring up and go out, supposed that she was going to weep at the tomb, and followed her. ³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, and said,

“Master, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

³³When Jesus saw her weep and the Jews who had come with her weeping too, repressing a groan, and yet showing great agitation, ³⁴he said,

“Where have you laid him?”

They answered,

“Come and see, Master.”

³⁵Jesus shed tears. ³⁶So the Jews said,

“See how much he loved him!”

³⁷But some of them said,

“Could not this man, who opened the eyes of that blind man, have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸Again repressing a groan, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid against the mouth of it. ³⁹Jesus said,

“Move the stone away.”

The dead man’s sister, Martha, said to him,

“Master, by this time he is decaying, for he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus said to her,

“Have I not promised you that if you will believe in me you will see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they moved the stone away. And Jesus looked upward and said,

“Father, I thank you for listening to me, ⁴²though I knew that you always listen to me. But I have said this for the sake of the people that are standing around me that they may believe that you have made me your messenger.”

⁴³After saying this he called out in a loud voice,

“Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The dead man came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and with his face muffled with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them,

“Unbind him and let him move.”

⁴⁵So it came about that many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, came to believe in him, ⁴⁶but some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.

⁴⁷Then the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and they said,

“What are we to do about the fact that this man is showing so many signs? ⁴⁸If we let him go on, everybody will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and put an end to our holy place and our people.”

⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,

⁵⁰“You know nothing about it. You do not realize that it is to your interest that one man should die for the people, instead of the whole nation being destroyed.”

⁵¹Now he was not self-moved in saying this, but as high priest for that year he was inspired to say that Jesus was to die for the nation— ⁵²and not only for the nation but also for the purpose of uniting the scattered children of God. ⁵³So from that day they planned to kill Jesus.

⁵⁴In consequence of this, Jesus did not appear in public among the Jews any longer, but he left that neighborhood and went to the district near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover Festival was approaching and many people went up to Jerusalem from the country, to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶So they were looking for Jesus there, and asking one another as they stood in the Temple,

“What do you think? Do you think he will not come to the festival at all?”

⁵⁷For the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where he was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Chapter 12

¹Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, was living. ²They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha waited on them, while Lazarus was at the table with him. ³And Mary took a pound of choice perfume, very costly, and poured it on Jesus’ feet, and then wiped his feet with her hair, and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was going to betray him, said,

⁵“Why was this perfume not sold for sixty dollars, and the money given to the poor?”

⁶But he did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and when he had charge of the purse he used to take what was put in it. ⁷Jesus said,

“Let her alone; let her keep it for the day of my funeral, ⁸for you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

⁹A great many of the Jews found out that he was there, and they came to Bethany not only to see Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰But the high priests planned to kill Lazarus also, ¹¹for because of him many of the Jews were leaving them and becoming believers in Jesus.

¹²On the following day the crowds that had come up to the festival, hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³got palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“God bless him!

God bless him who comes in the Lord’s name!

Blessings on the king of Israel!”

¹⁴And Jesus found a young ass and mounted it, in accordance with the Scripture,

¹⁵“Do not be afraid, Daughter of Zion!

See, your king is coming mounted on an ass’s colt!”

¹⁶His disciples did not understand this at the time but after Jesus was glorified they remembered that this was said of him in Scripture and that it had happened to him. ¹⁷The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead was telling about it. ¹⁸That was why the crowd went out to meet him, because they heard that he had showed that sign. ¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another,

“You see, you cannot do anything! The whole world has run after him!”

²⁰There were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the festival, ²¹and they went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and made this request of him:

“Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

²²Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went to Jesus and told him. ²³Jesus answered,

“The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains just one grain. But if it dies, it yields a great harvest. ²⁵Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. ²⁶If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and wherever I am found, my servant must be also. If anyone serves me, my Father will show him honor. ²⁷Now my heart is troubled; what am I to say? Father, save me from this trial! And yet it was for this very purpose that I have come to this trial. ²⁸Father, honor your own name!”

Then there came a voice from the sky,

“I have honored it, and I will honor it again!”

²⁹The crowd of bystanders heard it and said it was thunder. Others said,

“It was an angel speaking to him!”

³⁰Jesus answered,

“It was not for my sake that the voice came, but for yours. ³¹The judgment of this world is now in progress. Its evil genius is now to be expelled, ³²and if I am lifted up from the ground, I will draw all men to myself.”

³³He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. ³⁴The crowd answered,

“We have learned from the Law that the Christ is to remain here forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵Jesus said to them,

“You will have the light only a little while longer. Go on while you still have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you, for those who go about in the dark do not know where they are going. ³⁶While you have the light believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

With these words Jesus went away, and disappeared from them. ³⁷But for all the signs he had shown among them, they refused to believe in him, ³⁸in fulfilment of the saying of the prophet Isaiah,

“Lord, who has believed our account?

And to whom has the Lord’s mighty arm been unveiled?”

³⁹So they could not believe; for Isaiah says again,

⁴⁰“He has made their eyes blind and their minds dull,

To keep them from seeing with their eyes, and understanding with their minds,

And turning to me to be cured.”

⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw his glory; it was of him that he spoke. ⁴²Yet for all that, even among the leading men, many came to believe in him, but on account of the Pharisees they would not acknowledge it, for fear of being excluded from the synagogues, ⁴³for they cared more for the approval of men than for the approval of God.

⁴⁴But Jesus cried loudly,

“Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who has sent me; ⁴⁵and whoever sees me, sees him who has sent me. ⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me may have to remain in darkness. ⁴⁷If anyone hears my words and disregards them, it is not I that judge him, for I have not come to judge the world but to save the world. ⁴⁸Whoever rejects me and refuses to accept my teachings is not without his judge; the very message I have given will be his judge on the Last Day, ⁴⁹for I have not spoken on my account, but the Father who has sent me has himself given me orders what to tell and what to say. ⁵⁰And I know his orders mean eternal life. So whatever I say, I say only as the Father has told me.”

Chapter 13

¹Before the Passover Festival began, Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father, but he had loved those who were his own in the world, and he loved them to the last. ²So at supper—the devil having by this time put the thought of betraying Jesus into the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son— ³Jesus, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴rose from the table, took off his outer clothing, and fastened a towel about his waist. ⁵Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, wiping them with the towel that was about his waist. ⁶So he came to Simon Peter. He said to him,

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered,

“You cannot understand now what I am doing, but you will learn by and by.”

⁸Peter said to him,

“I will never let you wash my feet!”

Jesus answered,

“You will have no share with me unless I wash you.”

⁹Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, wash not only my feet but my hands and my face too!”

¹⁰Jesus said to him,

“Anyone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed to be altogether clean. And you are already clean—though not all of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all of you clean.”

¹²When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes and taken his place, he said to them again,

“Do you understand what I have been doing to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Master, and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴If I then, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet too. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, in order that you may do what I have done to you. ¹⁶I tell you, no slave is superior to his master, and no messenger is greater than the man who sends him. ¹⁷Now that you have this knowledge, you will be blessed if you act upon it. ¹⁸I do not mean all of you; I know whom I have chosen; but let the Scripture be fulfilled:

“ ‘He who is eating my bread

Has raised his heel against me.’

¹⁹From now on I will tell you things before they happen, so that when they do happen you may believe that I am what I say. ²⁰I assure you, whoever welcomes any messenger of mine welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who has sent me.”

²¹After Jesus had said this he was greatly moved and said solemnly,

“I tell you, it is one of you that will betray me!”

²²The disciples looked at one another in doubt as to which of them he meant. ²³Next to Jesus, at his right at the table, was one of his disciples whom Jesus especially loved. ²⁴So Simon Peter nodded to him and said to him,

“Tell us whom he means.”

²⁵He leaned back from where he lay, on Jesus’ breast, and said to him,

“Master, who is it?”

²⁶Jesus answered,

“It is the one to whom I am going to give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So he dipped the piece of bread and took it and gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son. ²⁷After he took the bread, Satan took possession of him. Then Jesus said to him,

“Be quick about your business.”

²⁸But no one else at the table knew what he meant by telling him this, ²⁹for some of them thought that as Judas had the purse Jesus meant to say to him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or to have him give something to the poor. ³⁰So immediately after taking the piece of bread he went out. It was then night.

³¹When he was gone, Jesus said,

“Now the Son of Man has been honored, and God has been honored through him, ³²and God will through himself honor him; he will honor him immediately. ³³My children, I am to be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, but, as I said to the Jews, where I am going you cannot follow, ³⁴I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must love one another. ³⁵By this they will all know that you are my disciples—by your love for one another.”

³⁶Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, where are you going?”

Jesus answered,

“I am going where you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later.”

³⁷Peter said to him,

“Master, why cannot I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸Jesus answered,

“You will lay down your life for me? I tell you, before a cock crows, you will disown me thrice over!

Chapter 14

¹“Your minds must not be troubled; you must believe in God, and believe in me. ²There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I would have told you, for I am going away to make ready a place for you. ³And if I go and make it ready, I will come back and take you with me, so that you may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵Thomas said to him,

“Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

⁶Jesus said to him,

“I am Way and Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. ⁷If you knew me, you would know my Father also. From now on you do know him and you have seen him.”

⁸Philip said to him,

“Master, let us see the Father, and it will satisfy us.”

⁹Jesus said to him,

“Have I been with you so long, and yet you, Philip, have not recognized me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Let us see the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in union with the Father and the Father is in union with me? I am not the source of the words that I say to you, but the Father who is united with me is doing these things himself. ¹¹You must believe that I am in union with the Father and that the Father is in union with me, or else you must believe because of the things themselves. ¹²I tell you, whoever believes in me will do such things as I do, and things greater yet, because I am going to the Father. ¹³Anything you ask for as followers of mine I will grant, so that the Father may be honored through the Son. ¹⁴I will grant anything you ask me for as my followers.

¹⁵“If you really love me, you will observe my commands. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you always. ¹⁷It is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot obtain that Spirit, because it does not see it or recognize it; you recognize it because it stays with you and is within you. ¹⁸I am not going to leave you friendless. I am coming back to you. ¹⁹In a little while the world will not see me any more, but you will still see me, because I shall live on, and you will live on too. ²⁰When that day comes you will know that I am in union with my Father and you are with me and I am with you. ²¹It is he who has my commands and observes them that really loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and show myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said to him,

“Master, how does it happen that you are going to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³Jesus answered,

“Anyone who loves me will observe my teaching, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and live with him. ²⁴No one who does not love me will observe my teaching, and yet the teaching you are listening to is not mine but is that of him who has sent me.

²⁵“I have told you this while I am still staying with you, ²⁶but the Helper, the holy Spirit which the Father will send in my place, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you. ²⁷I leave you a blessing; I give you my own blessing. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Your minds must not be troubled or afraid. ²⁸You have heard me say that I am going away and am coming back to you; if you loved me you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And I have told you of it now before it happens, in order that when it happens you may believe in me. ³⁰I shall not talk much more with you, for the evil genius of the world is coming. He has nothing in common with me, ³¹but he is coming that the world may know that I love the Father and am doing what he has commanded me to do. Come, let us go away.

Chapter 15

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the cultivator. ²Any branch of mine that does not bear fruit he trims away, and he prunes every branch that bears fruit, to make it bear more. ³You are pruned already because of the teaching that I have given you. ⁴You must remain united to me and I will remain united to you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains united to the vine, you cannot unless you remain united to me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Anyone who remains united to me, with me united to him, will be very fruitful, for you cannot do anything apart from me. ⁶Anyone who does not remain united to me is thrown away like a branch and withers up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and burn them. ⁷If you remain united to me and my words remain in your hearts, ask for whatever you please and you shall have it. ⁸When you are very fruitful and show yourselves to be disciples of mine, my Father is honored. ⁹I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. You must retain my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commands you will retain my love, just as I have observed the Father’s commands and retain his love. ¹¹I have told you all this so that you may have the happiness that I have had, and your happiness may be complete. ¹²The command that I give you is to love one another just as I have loved you. ¹³No one can show greater love than by giving up his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you to do. ¹⁵I do not call you slaves any longer, for a slave does not know what his master is doing, but now I call you friends, for I have made known to you everything that I have learned from my Father. ¹⁶It was not you who chose me, it is I that have chosen you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that shall be lasting, so that the Father may grant you whatever you ask him for as my followers.

¹⁷“What I command you to do is to love one another. ¹⁸If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, the world would love what was its own. But it is because you do not belong to the world, but I have selected you from the world, that the world hates you. ²⁰Remember what I said to you: No slave is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me they will persecute you too. If they have observed my teaching, they will observe yours too. ²¹But they will do all this to you on my account, because they do not understand him who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but as it is, they have no excuse for their sin. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done things before them that no one else ever did they would not be guilty of sin. But as it is, they have seen both me and my Father, and they have hated us both. ²⁵But the saying of their Law, ‘They hated me without cause,’ must be fulfilled. ²⁶When the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father—that Spirit of Truth that comes from the Father—he will bear testimony to me, ²⁷and you must bear testimony too, because you have been with me from the first.

Chapter 16

¹“I have told you this to keep you from faltering. ²They will exclude you from their synagogues; why, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing religious service to God. ³They will do this because they do not know the Father or me. ⁴But I have told you about these things in order that when the time comes for them to happen, you may remember that I told you of them. I did not tell you this at first because I was still staying with you. ⁵But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me where I am going, ⁶but your minds are full of sorrow because I have told you this. ⁷Yet it is only the truth when I tell you that it is better for you that I should go away. For if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you. ⁸When he comes, he will bring conviction to the world about sin and uprightness and judgment; ⁹about sin, as shown in their not believing in me; ¹⁰about uprightness, as shown by my going away to the Father, where you can no longer see me; ¹¹and about judgment, as shown by the condemnation of the evil genius of this world. ¹²I have much more to tell you, but you cannot take it in now, ¹³but when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into the full truth, for he will not speak for himself but will tell what he hears, and will announce to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will do honor to me, for he will take what is mine and communicate it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has belongs to me. That is why I said that he will take what is mine and communicate it to you.

¹⁶“In a little while you will not see me any longer, and a little while after, you will see me again.”

¹⁷Then some of his disciples said to one another,

“What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you will not see me any longer, and a little while after, you will see me again,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” ¹⁸So they kept saying “What does he mean by ‘In a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

¹⁹Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him a question, and he said to them,

“Are you asking one another about my saying ‘In a little while you will not see me any longer, and a little while after, you will see me again’? ²⁰I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world will be happy; you will grieve, but your grief will change to happiness. ²¹When a woman is in labor she is sorrowful, for her time has come; but when the child is born, she forgets her pain in her joy that a human being has been brought into the world. ²²So you, too, are sorrowful now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will be happy, and no one will rob you of your happiness. ²³When that time comes, you will not ask me any questions; I tell you, whatever you ask the Father for, he will give you as my followers. ²⁴Hitherto you have not asked for anything as my followers, but now ask, and you will receive, so that your happiness may be complete.

²⁵“I have said all this to you in figurative language, but a time is coming when I shall not do so any longer, but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶When that time comes you will ask as my followers, and I do not promise to intercede with the Father for you, ²⁷for the Father loves you himself because you love me and believe that I have come from the Father. ²⁸I did come from the Father and enter the world. Now I am leaving the world again and going back to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples said,

“Why, now you are talking plainly and not speaking figuratively at all. ³⁰Now we know that you know everything and do not need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you have really come from God.”

³¹Jesus answered,

“Do you believe that now? ³²Why, a time is coming—it has already come!—when you will all be scattered to your homes and will leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³I have told you all this, so that through me you may find peace. In the world you have trouble; but take courage! I have conquered the world.”

Chapter 17

¹When Jesus had said all this he raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the time has come. Do honor to your son, that your son may do honor to you, ²just as you have done in giving him power over all mankind, so that he may give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And eternal life means knowing you as the only true God, and knowing Jesus your messenger as Christ. ⁴I have done honor to you here on earth, by completing the work which you gave me to do. ⁵Now, Father, do such honor to me in your presence as I had done me there before the world existed.

⁶“I have revealed your real self to the men you gave me from the world. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your message. ⁷Now at last they know that all that you have given me comes from you, ⁸for I have given them the truths that you gave me, and they have accepted them and been convinced that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me. ⁹I have a request to make for them. I make no request for the world, but only for those whom you have given me, for they are yours— ¹⁰all that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine—and they have done me honor. ¹¹Now I am to be no longer in this world, but they are to remain in the world, while I return to you. Holy Father, keep them by your power which you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are. ¹²As long as I was with them I kept them by your power which you gave me, and I protected them, and not one of them was lost (except the one who was destined to be lost), so that what the Scripture says might come true. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I say this here in this world in order that they may have the happiness that I feel fully realized in their own hearts. ¹⁴I have given them your message, and the world has come to hate them, for they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. ¹⁵I do not ask you to take them away from the world, but to keep them from evil. ¹⁶They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. ¹⁷Consecrate them by truth. Your message is truth. ¹⁸Just as you sent me to the world, I have sent them to the world. ¹⁹And it is for their sake that I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated by truth.

²⁰“It is not for them only that I make this request. It is also for those who through their message come to believe in me. ²¹Let them all be one. Just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am with you, let them be in union with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one just as we are, ²³I in union with them and you with me, so that they may be perfectly unified, and the world may recognize that you sent me and that you love them just as you loved me. ²⁴Father, I wish to have those whom you have given me with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, for you loved me before the creation of the world. ²⁵Righteous Father, though the world did not know you, I knew you, and these men knew that you had sent me. ²⁶I have made your self known to them and I will do so still, so that the love which you have had for me may be in their hearts, and I may be there also.”

Chapter 18

¹When Jesus had said this, he went out with his disciples to the other side of the Ravine of the Cedars where there was a garden, and he went into it with his disciples. ²Judas who betrayed him also knew the place, for Jesus often met his disciples there. ³So Judas got out the garrison and some attendants from the high priests and Pharisees, and came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. ⁴Then Jesus, as he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came forward and said to them,

“Who is it you are looking for?”

⁵They answered,

“Jesus of Nazareth.”

He said to them,

“I am he.”

Judas who betrayed him was standing among them. ⁶When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. ⁷Then he asked them again,

“Who is it you are looking for?”

They said,

“Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁸Jesus answered,

“I have told you that I am he, so if you are looking for me, let these men go.” ⁹This was to fulfil the saying he had uttered, “I have not lost one of those whom you have given me.”

¹⁰Then Simon Peter, who had a sword with him, drew it and struck at the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. ¹¹Then Jesus said to Peter,

“Put your sword back into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has offered me?”

¹²So the garrison and the colonel and the attendants of the Jews seized Jesus and bound him, ¹³and they took him first to Annas. For he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. ¹⁴Now it was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it was for their interest that one man should die for the people.

¹⁵But Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. This other disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest, and he went on with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, ¹⁶while Peter stood outside at the door. So this other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the woman at the door and brought Peter in. ¹⁷The maid at the door said to Peter,

“Are you also one of this man’s disciples?”

He said,

“No, I am not.”

¹⁸As it was cold the slaves and attendants had made a charcoal fire, and stood about it warming themselves. And Peter also was among them, standing and warming himself.

¹⁹Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. ²⁰Jesus answered,

“I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues or in the Temple where all the Jews meet together, and I have said nothing in secret. ²¹Why do you question me? Ask those who have heard me what it was that I said to them. They will know what I have said.”

²²When he said this, one of the attendants who stood near struck him and said,

“Is that the way you answer the high priest?”

²³Jesus replied,

“If I have said anything wrong, testify to it; but if what I have said is true, why do you strike me?”

²⁴So Annas sent him over still bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

²⁵But Simon Peter still stood warming himself. So they said to him,

“Are you also one of his disciples?”

He denied it and said,

“No, I am not.”

²⁶One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said,

“Did I not see you with him in the garden?”

²⁷Peter again denied it, and at that moment a cock crowed.

²⁸Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s house. It was early in the morning, and they would not go into the governor’s house themselves, to avoid being ceremonially defiled and to be able to eat the Passover supper. ²⁹So Pilate came outside to them, and said,

“What charge do you make against this man?”

³⁰They answered,

“If he were not a criminal, we would not have turned him over to you.”

³¹Pilate said to them,

“Take him yourselves, and try him by your law.”

The Jews said to him,

“We have no authority to put anyone to death.”

³²This was to fulfil what Jesus said when he declared how he was to die.

³³So Pilate went back into the governor’s house and called Jesus and said to him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

³⁴Jesus answered,

“Did you think of that yourself, or has someone else said it to you about me?”

³⁵Pilate answered,

“Do you take me for a Jew? Your own people and the high priests handed you over to me. What offense have you committed?”

³⁶Jesus answered,

“My kingdom is not a kingdom of this world. If my kingdom were a kingdom of this world, my men would have fought to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom has no such origin.”

³⁷Pilate said to him,

“Then you are a king?”

Jesus answered,

“As you say, I am a king. It was for this that I was born and for this that I came to the world, to give testimony for truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to my voice.”

³⁸Pilate said to him,

“What is truth!”

With these words he went outside again to the Jews, and said to them,

“I can find nothing to charge him with. ³⁹But it is your custom to have me release one man for you at Passover time. Do you want me therefore to release the king of the Jews for you?”

⁴⁰Then they shouted back,

“No! Not him, but Barabbas!”

Now Barabbas was a robber.

Chapter 19

¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ²And the soldiers made a wreath out of thorns and put it on his head, and put a purple coat on him, and they marched up to him, ³saying,

“Long live the king of the Jews!” each one giving him a blow. ⁴And Pilate went outside again and said to the Jews,

“See! I will bring him out to you, to show you that I can find nothing to charge him with.”

⁵So Jesus came out, still wearing the wreath of thorns and the purple coat. And Pilate said to them,

“Here is the man!”

⁶When the high priests and their attendants saw him, they shouted,

“Have him crucified! Have him crucified!”

Pilate said to them,

“Take him yourselves and have him crucified, for I can find nothing to charge him with.”

⁷The Jews answered,

“We have a law, and by our law he deserves death, for declaring himself to be a son of God.”

⁸When Pilate heard that, he was more frightened than before ⁹and he went back into the governor’s house and said to Jesus,

“Where do you come from?”

But Jesus made no answer. ¹⁰Then Pilate said to him,

“Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that it is in my power to release you or to have you crucified?”

¹¹Jesus answered him,

“You would have no power at all over me, if it were not given to you from above. So you are less guilty than the man who betrayed me to you.”

¹²This made Pilate try to find a way to let him go, but the Jews shouted,

“If you let him go, you are no friend of the emperor’s! Anyone who calls himself a king utters treason against the emperor!”

¹³When Pilate heard that, he had Jesus brought out and had him sit in the judge’s seat in the place they call the Stone Platform, or in Hebrew, Gabbatha. ¹⁴It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about noon. And Pilate said to the Jews,

“There is your king!”

¹⁵At that they shouted,

“Kill him! Kill him! Have him crucified!”

Pilate said to them,

“Am I to crucify your king?”

The high priests answered,

“We have no king but the emperor!”

¹⁶Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, ¹⁷and he went out carrying the cross by himself to a spot called the Place of the Skull, or in Hebrew, Golgotha. ¹⁸There they crucified him, with two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate had written a placard and had it put on the cross; it read “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” ²⁰Many of the Jews read this placard, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. ²¹So the Jewish high priests said to Pilate,

“Do not write ‘The king of the Jews,’ but write ‘He said, I am the king of the Jews.’ ”

²²Pilate answered,

“What I have written, I have written!”

²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier, besides his shirt. Now his shirt had no seam; it was woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴So they said to one another,

“Let us not tear it, but let us draw for it, to see who gets it.” This was to fulfil what the Scripture says:

“They divided my garments among them,

And for my clothing they cast lots.”

This was what the soldiers did. ²⁵Near Jesus’ cross stood his mother and her sister Mary, the daughter of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. ²⁶So Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, said to his mother,

“There is your son!”

²⁷Then he said to his disciple,

“There is your mother!”

And from that time his disciple took her into his home.

²⁸After that, Jesus, knowing that everything was now finished, to fulfil the saying of Scripture, said,

“I am thirsty.”

²⁹A bowl of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge soaked in the wine on a pike and held it to his lips. ³⁰When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,

“It is finished!”

Then bowing his head he gave up his spirit.

³¹As it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, in order that the bodies might not be left on the crosses over the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was an especially important one, the Jews asked Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies removed. ³²So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³But when they came to Jesus they saw that he was dead already, and they did not break his legs, ³⁴but one of the soldiers thrust a lance into his side, and blood and water immediately flowed out. ³⁵The man who saw it testifies to it—his testimony is true; he knows that he is telling the truth—to lead you also to believe. ³⁶For this happened to fulfil what the Scripture says:

“Not one of its bones will be broken.” ³⁷Moreover, it says in another place,

“They shall look at the man whom they pierced.”

³⁸After this, Joseph, of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him remove Jesus’ body, and Pilate gave him permission. So Joseph went and took the body down. ³⁹And Nicodemus also, who had first come to Jesus at night, went, taking a roll of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰So they took Jesus’ body, and wrapped it with the spices in bandages, in the Jewish way of preparing bodies for burial. ⁴¹There was a garden at the place where Jesus had been crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴²So because it was the Jewish Preparation day, and the tomb was close by, they put Jesus there.

Chapter 20

¹On the day after the Sabbath, very early in the morning while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb, and she saw that the stone had been removed from it. ²So she ran away and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple who was dear to Jesus, and said to them,

“They have taken the Master out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him.”

³So Peter and the other disciple went out of the city and started for the tomb. ⁴And they both ran, and the other disciple ran faster than Peter and got to the tomb first. ⁵And he stooped down and saw the bandages lying on the ground, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came up behind him, and he went inside the tomb, and saw the bandages lying on the ground, ⁷and the handkerchief that had been over Jesus’ face not on the ground with the bandages, but folded up by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first went inside too, and saw and was convinced. ⁹For they did not yet understand the statement of Scripture that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰So the disciples went home again.

¹¹But Mary stood just outside the tomb, weeping. And as she wept she looked down into the tomb, ¹²and saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at his head and one at his feet. ¹³And they said to her,

“Why are you weeping?”

She said to them,

“They have taken my Master away, and I do not know where they have put him.”

¹⁴As she said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was he. ¹⁵Jesus said to her,

“Why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

She, supposing that he was the gardener, said to him,

“If it was you, sir, that carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away.”

¹⁶“Mary!” said Jesus.

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

“Rabbouni!” which means Master.

¹⁷Jesus said to her,

“You must not cling to me, for I have not yet gone up to my Father, but go to my brothers and say to them that I am going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

¹⁸Mary of Magdala went and declared to the disciples,

“I have seen the Master!” and she told them that he had said this to her.

¹⁹When it was evening on that first day after the Sabbath, and the doors of the house where the disciples met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came in and stood among them and said to them,

“Peace be with you!”

²⁰Then he showed them his hands and his side, and the disciples were full of joy at seeing the Master. ²¹Jesus said to them again,

“Peace be with you! Just as my Father sent me forth so I now send you.”

²²As he said this he breathed upon them, and said,

²³“Receive the holy Spirit! If you forgive any men’s sins, they are forgiven them, and if you fix any men’s sins upon them, they will remain fixed.”

²⁴But Thomas, one of the Twelve, who was called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came in. ²⁵So the rest of the disciples said to him,

“We have seen the Master!”

But he said to them,

“Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into them, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it!”

²⁶A week after, the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came in and stood among them, and said,

“Peace be with you!”

²⁷Then he said to Thomas,

“Put your finger here and look at my hands, and take your hand and put it in my side, and be no longer unbelieving, but believe!”

²⁸Thomas answered him,

“My Master and my God!”

²⁹Jesus said to him,

“Is it because you have seen me that you believe? Blessed be those who believe without having seen me!”

³⁰There were many other signs that Jesus showed before his disciples which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these have been recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life as his followers.

Chapter 21

¹After this Jesus again showed himself to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he did so in this way. ²Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael, of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of Jesus were all together. ³Simon Peter said to them,

“I am going fishing.”

They said to him,

“We will go with you.”

They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. ⁴But just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, though the disciples did not know that it was he. ⁵So Jesus said to them,

“Children, have you any fish?”

They answered,

“No.”

⁶“Throw your net in on the right of the boat,” he said to them, “and you will find them.”

They did so, and they could not haul it in for the quantity of fish in it. ⁷Then the disciple who was dear to Jesus said to Peter,

“It is the Master!”

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Master, he put on his clothes, for he had taken them off, and sprang into the sea. ⁸The rest of the disciples followed in the boat, for they were not far from land, only about a hundred yards, dragging in the net full of fish. ⁹When they landed they saw a charcoal fire burning, with a fish on it, and some bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them,

“Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

¹¹So Simon Peter got into the boat, and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them,

“Come and have breakfast.”

None of the disciples dared to ask him who he was, for they knew it was the Master. ¹³Jesus went and got the bread and gave it to them, and the fish also. ¹⁴This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after he had risen from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

“Simon, son of John, are you more devoted to me than these others are?”

Peter said to him,

“Yes, Master, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Then feed my lambs!”

¹⁶Again Jesus said to him a second time,

“Simon, son of John, are you devoted to me?”

He said to him,

“Yes, Master, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Then be a shepherd to my sheep!”

¹⁷Jesus said to him a third time,

“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because the third time Jesus asked him if he loved him, and he answered,

“Master, you know everything, you can see that I love you.”

Jesus said to him,

“Then feed my sheep! ¹⁸I tell you, when you were young, you used to put on your own girdle and go where you pleased, but when you grow old, you will stretch our your hands and someone else will put a girdle on you and take you where you have no wish to go”

¹⁹He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter was to honor God; and after he had said it he said to Peter,

“Follow me!”

²⁰Peter turned and saw following them the disciple who was very dear to Jesus, who at the supper leaned back on Jesus’ breast and said, “Master, who is it that is going to betray you?” ²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus,

“But, Master, what about him?”

²²Jesus said to him,

“If I wish him to wait till I come, what does it matter to you? You must follow me.”

²³So the story spread among the brothers that this disciple was not going to die. But Jesus did not tell him that he was not going to die; he said, “If I wish him to wait till I come, what does it matter to you?”

²⁴It is this disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down, and we know that his testimony is true.

²⁵There are many other things that Jesus did, so many in fact that if they were all written out, I do not suppose that the world itself would hold the books that would have to be written.

The Acts of the Apostles

Chapter 1

¹In my first volume, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning ²until the day when through the holy Spirit he gave the apostles he had chosen their instructions, and was taken up to heaven. ³He had shown himself alive to them after he had suffered, in many convincing ways, appearing to them through forty days, and telling them about the Kingdom of God. ⁴And once when he ate with them, he instructed them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised.

“You have heard me speak of it,” he said, ⁵“for John baptized people in water, but in a few days you will be baptized in the holy Spirit.”

⁶So those who were present asked him,

“Master, is this the time when you are going to re-establish the kingdom for Israel?”

⁷He said to them,

“It is not for you to know times and dates which the Father has fixed by his own authority, ⁸but you will be given power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem and all over Judea and Samaria and to the very ends of the earth.”

⁹As he said this, he was caught up before their eyes and a cloud took him up from their sight. ¹⁰And while they were gazing after him into the sky, two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them, ¹¹and said to them,

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This very Jesus who has been caught up from you into heaven will come in just the way that you have seen him go up to heaven.”

¹²Then they went back to Jerusalem from the hill called the Olive-orchard, which is near Jerusalem, half a mile away.

¹³When they entered the city they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. There were Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James. ¹⁴They were all devoting themselves with one mind to prayer, with the women and Mary, Jesus’ mother, and his brothers.

¹⁵It was at that time that Peter got up among the brothers—there were about a hundred and twenty persons present—and said,

¹⁶“Brothers, the prediction of the Scriptures had to come true that the holy Spirit uttered by the lips of David, about Judas, who acted as guide for the men that arrested Jesus— ¹⁷for he was one of our number and a share in this ministry of ours fell to his lot.” ¹⁸(This man bought a piece of land with the money paid him for his treachery, and his body swelled up and burst open in the middle and all his vitals poured out. ¹⁹This fact was well known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the piece of land came to be called in their language Akeldamach, the bloody field.) ²⁰“For in the Book of Psalms it is written,

‘Let his estate be desolate, with no one to live on it,’

and

‘Let someone else take his position.’

²¹“So one of the men who has been associated with us all the time that the Lord Jesus moved about among us, ²²from his baptism by John to the time when he was caught up from us, must join us as a witness to his resurrection.”

²³Then they proposed two men, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was known as Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴And they prayed, saying,

“Lord, you who know all hearts, show us which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take this place of service as an apostle which Judas left to go where he belonged.”

²⁶Then they drew lots between them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Chapter 2

¹On the day of the Harvest Festival, they were all meeting together, ²when suddenly there came from the sky a sound like a violent blast of wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³And they saw tongues like flames separating and settling one on the head of each of them, ⁴and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to say in foreign languages whatever the Spirit prompted them to utter.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every part of the world living in Jerusalem. ⁶And when this sound was heard, the crowd gathered in great excitement, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷They were perfectly amazed and said in their astonishment,

“Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears his own native tongue? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, of Judea and Cappadocia, of Pontus, and Asia, ¹⁰of Phrygia, and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the district of Africa about Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them tell in our native tongues the mighty deeds of God.”

¹²And they were all amazed and bewildered and said to one another,

“What can this mean?”

¹³But others said derisively,

“They have had too much new wine!”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the eleven around him, and raising his voice addressed them.

“Men of Judea,” he said, “and all you residents of Jerusalem, let me explain this to you, and pay attention to what I say. ¹⁵These men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine in the morning. ¹⁶But this is what was predicted by the prophet Joel,

¹⁷“ ‘It will come about in the last days, God says,

That I will pour out my Spirit upon all mankind;

Your sons and daughters will become prophets,

Your young men will have visions,

And your old men will have dreams.

¹⁸Even on my slaves, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days,

And they will become prophets.

¹⁹I will show wonders in the sky above,

And signs on the earth below,

Blood and fire and thick smoke.

²⁰The sun will turn to darkness,

And the moon to blood,

Before the coming of the great, splendid Day of the Lord.

²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

²²“Men of Israel, listen to what I say. Jesus of Nazareth, as you know, was a man whom God commended to you by the wonders, portents, and signs that God did right among you through him. ²³But you, by the fixed purpose and intention of God, handed him over to wicked men, and had him crucified. ²⁴But God set aside the pain of death and raised him up, for death could not control him. ²⁵For David says of him,

‘I constantly regarded the Lord before me,

For he is at my right hand, so that I may not be displaced.

²⁶Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices,

And my body will still live in hope.

²⁷For you will not desert my soul in death,

You will not let your Holy One be destroyed.

²⁸You have made the ways of life known to me,

And you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

²⁹“Brothers, one may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his grave is here among us to this very day. ³⁰But as he was a prophet, and knew that God had promised him with an oath that he would put one of his descendants upon his throne, ³¹he foresaw the resurrection of the Christ and told of it, for he was not deserted in death and his body was not destroyed. ³²He is Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, and to whose resurrection we are all witnesses. ³³So he has been exalted to God’s right hand, and has received from his Father and poured over us the holy Spirit that had been promised, as you see and hear.

³⁴“For David did not go up to heaven, but he said,

‘The Lord said to my lord, Sit at my right hand,

³⁵Until I make your enemies your footstool.’

³⁶“Therefore the whole nation of Israel must understand that God has declared this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.”

³⁷When they heard this, they were stung to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,

“Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸Peter said to them,

“You must repent, and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to have your sins forgiven; then you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit, ³⁹for the promise of it belongs to you and your children, as well as to all those far away whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

⁴⁰He said much more besides in giving his testimony, and urged them to save themselves from that crooked age. ⁴¹So they welcomed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people joined them that day. ⁴²And they devoted themselves to the teaching and the society of the apostles, the breaking of bread, and prayer.

⁴³Everyone felt a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴The believers all shared everything they had with one another, ⁴⁵and sold their property and belongings, and divided the money with all the rest, according to their special needs. ⁴⁶Day after day they all went regularly to the Temple, they broke their bread together in their homes, and they ate their food with glad and simple hearts, ⁴⁷constantly praising God and respected by all the people. And every day the Lord added people who were saved to their number.

Chapter 3

¹Peter and John were on their way up to the Temple for the three o’clock hour of prayer, ²when a man who had been lame from his birth was carried by. He used to be placed every day at what was known as the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, to beg from the people on their way into the Temple, ³and when he saw Peter and John on the point of going into the Temple he asked them to give him something. ⁴Peter fixed his eyes on him, as John did also, and said to him,

“Look at us!”

⁵He looked at them, supposing that they were going to give him something. ⁶But Peter said,

“I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

⁷And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and his feet and ankles immediately became strong, ⁸and he sprang to his feet and began to walk, and he went into the Temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹When all the people saw him walking about, praising God, ¹⁰and recognized him as the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, they were perfectly astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.

¹¹And as he still clung to Peter and John, all the people crowded about them in the utmost astonishment in what was known as Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹²When Peter saw this, he said to the people.

“Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why do you stare so at us, as though it were some power or some piety of ours that had made him able to walk? ¹³The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has done this honor to his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴But you disowned the Holy, Righteous One. You asked to have a murderer released for you, ¹⁵and killed the very source of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify. ¹⁶It is by his power and through faith in him that this man whom you see and recognize has been made strong again, and it is faith inspired by him that has given him the perfect health you all see. ¹⁷Yet I know, brothers, that you did not know what you were doing, any more than your leaders did; ¹⁸it was in this way that God fulfilled what he by all the prophets foretold that his Christ must suffer. ¹⁹So repent and turn to God, to have your sins wiped out, and happier times will come from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰and he will send Jesus, your destined Christ. ²¹Yet he must remain in heaven till the time for the universal reformation of which God told in ancient times by the lips of his holy prophets. ²²Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, as he raised me up. You must listen to everything that he tells you. ²³Anyone that will not listen to that prophet will be annihilated from among the people.’ ²⁴Why, all the prophets from Samuel down, who have spoken, have also foretold these days. ²⁵You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the agreement that God made with your forefathers when he said to Abraham, ‘Through your posterity all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶It was to you that God first sent his servant after he had raised him from the dead, to bless you by making every one of you turn from his wickedness.”

Chapter 4

¹As they were talking in this way to the people, the high priests, the commander of the Temple, and the Sadducees came up to them, ²greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and declaring that in the case of Jesus there had been a resurrection from the dead. ³They arrested them, and as it was already evening, they shut them up until next morning. ⁴But many of those who had heard what they said believed it, and their number grew to be about five thousand.

⁵On the next day the leading members of the council, the elders, and the scribes met in Jerusalem, ⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all who belonged to the high priest’s family. ⁷They had the apostles brought before them and demanded of them,

“By what power or authority have men like you done this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, said to them,

“Leaders of the people and members of the council, ⁹if it is for a benefit conferred upon a helpless man, and as to how he was cured, that we are called to account here today, ¹⁰you and the people of Israel must all know that it is through the power of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that he stands here before you well. ¹¹He is the stone that you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. ¹²There is no salvation through anyone else, for there is no one else in the world who has been named to men as their only means of being saved.”

¹³They were amazed to see how outspoken Peter and John were, and to find that they were uneducated men with no advantages. They recognized them as companions of Jesus, ¹⁴and seeing the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say. ¹⁵But they ordered them out of the presence of the council and conferred together. ¹⁶They said,

“What are we to do with these men? For it is plain to everyone in Jerusalem that an extraordinary wonder has been done by them. We cannot deny that. ¹⁷But to keep it from spreading farther among the people, let us warn them to say nothing to anyone else at all about this person.”

¹⁸So they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all about the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John answered them,

“You must decide whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you instead of him, ²⁰for we cannot help telling of what we have seen and heard.”

²¹But after further threats they let them go, as they could find no way to punish them, on account of the people, who were all giving honor to God for what had happened, ²²for the man on whom this wonder of healing had been done was more than forty years old.

²³After being released, the apostles went back to their friends, and told them what the high priests and members of the council had said to them. ²⁴When they heard it, with one impulse they all raised their voices to God and said,

“Master, it was you who made heaven, earth, and sea, and everything that is in them, ²⁵and who said through the holy Spirit by the lips of our forefather David, your slave,

“ ‘Why did the heathen rage,

And the peoples form vain designs?

²⁶The kings of the earth stood by,

And the rulers assembled

Against the Lord and against his Christ.’

²⁷For they have assembled here in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you had consecrated—Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the heathen and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸to carry out what your hand and will had destined should happen. ²⁹And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and give your slaves the power to utter your message fearlessly, ³⁰when you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done by the power of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting shook, and they were all filled with the holy Spirit, and fearlessly uttered God’s message.

³²There was but one heart and soul in the multitude who had become believers, and not one of them claimed anything that belonged to him as his own, but they shared everything they had with one another. ³³The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and God’s favor rested richly upon them. ³⁴No one among them was in any want, for any who owned lands or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sale ³⁵and put them at the disposal of the apostles; then they were shared with everyone in proportion to his need. ³⁶Joseph, a Levite, and a native of Cyprus, whom the apostles had named Barnabas, which means Son of Encouragement, ³⁷sold a piece of land that belonged to him, and brought the proceeds and put them at the disposal of the apostles.

Chapter 5

¹But a man named Ananias, who, with his wife Sapphira, had sold a piece of property, ²with his wife’s connivance appropriated some of the price received, and brought only a part of it to put at the disposal of the apostles. ³And Peter said,

“Ananias, why has Satan taken such possession of your heart that you should lie to the holy Spirit, by appropriating part of the price of your land? ⁴As long as it was unsold was it not yours, and after it was sold was not the money under your control? How could you think of doing such a thing? You did not lie to men but to God!”

⁵When Ananias heard these words he fell down and expired, and everyone who heard them spoken was appalled. ⁶The younger men got up and wrapping his body up carried it out and buried it. ⁷About three hours later, his wife came in, without having learned what had happened. ⁸Peter said to her,

“Tell me, did you sell the land for such and such a sum?”

“Yes,” she said, “that was it.”

⁹Peter said to her,

“How could you two agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? There at the door are the footsteps of the men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out also.”

¹⁰She instantly fell down at his feet and expired. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹And the whole church and all who heard this were appalled. ¹²They would all meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹³None of the others dared to associate with them, but the people made much of them, ¹⁴and men and women in increasing numbers believed in the Lord and joined them.

Signs and wonders in great numbers continued to be done among the people by the apostles, ¹⁵so that people would carry their sick out into the streets, and lay them down on beds and mats, to have at least Peter’s shadow fall on some of them as he went by. ¹⁶Even from the towns around Jerusalem crowds would come in bringing sick people and those who were troubled with foul spirits, and they were all cured.

¹⁷This aroused the high priest and all his supporters, the party of the Sadducees, and filled them with jealousy, ¹⁸and they had the apostles arrested and put in the common jail. ¹⁹But an angel of the Lord opened the jail doors in the night and let them out, and said to them,

²⁰“Go, take your stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new life.”

²¹And they obeyed, and about daybreak went into the Temple and began to teach. The high priest and his party came over and called together the council and indeed the whole senate of the Israelites, and sent to the prison to have the apostles brought in. ²²But the attendants who went for them could not find them in the jail, and they came back and reported,

²³“We found the prison securely locked up, with the sentries on duty at the doors, but on opening the doors we found no one inside.”

²⁴When the commander of the Temple and the high priests heard this report, they were very much at a loss as to what would come of it. ²⁵Someone came over and reported to them,

“The men that you put in jail are standing right here in the Temple, teaching the people!”

²⁶Then the commander and his men went and brought them back, but without using violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. ²⁷So they brought them before the council. The high priest called on them for an explanation.

²⁸“We strictly forbade you,” he said, “to teach on this authority, and here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and propose to hold us responsible for this man’s death!”

²⁹Peter and the apostles answered,

“We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰The God of our forefathers raised Jesus to life when you had hung him on a cross and killed him. ³¹God took him up to his right hand as our leader and savior, in order to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. ³²We and the holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey him are witnesses to these things.”

³³When they heard this, they were furious, and wanted to kill them. ³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law highly regarded by all the people, got up in the council and ordered the men to be removed for a while, ³⁵and then said,

“Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men. ³⁶For some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be a person of importance, and a group of men numbering some four hundred joined him. But he was killed and all his followers were dispersed and disappeared. ³⁷After him, at the time of the census, Judas of Galilee appeared, and raised a great following, but he too perished, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this idea or movement is of human origin, it will come to naught, ³⁹but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it. You may actually find yourselves fighting God!”

⁴⁰They were convinced by him, and they called the apostles in and had them flogged, and warned them not to speak about the name of Jesus, and then let them go. ⁴¹So they went out from before the council, glad that they had been thought worthy to bear disgrace for the sake of Jesus, ⁴²and they did not for a single day stop teaching and preaching in the Temple and in private houses the good news of Jesus, the Christ.

Chapter 6

¹In those days, as the number of the disciples was increasing, complaints were made by the Greek-speaking Jews against the native Jews that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. ²So the Twelve called in the whole body of disciples and said to them,

“It is not desirable that we should give up preaching the word of God to keep accounts. ³You, brothers, must pick out from your number seven men of good standing, who are wise and full of the Spirit, and we will put them in charge of this matter, ⁴while we devote ourselves to prayer and to delivering the message.”

⁵This plan met the approval of the whole body, and they selected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the holy Spirit, with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, who had been a convert to Judaism. ⁶They brought these men before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them.

⁷So God’s message continued to spread; the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a great many priests accepted the faith.

⁸Stephen, greatly strengthened by God’s favor, did remarkable signs and wonders among the people. ⁹But members of the synagogue known as that of the Libyans, Cyreneans, and Alexandrians, and men from Cilicia and Asia undertook to debate with Stephen, ¹⁰but they could not meet his wisdom and the inspiration with which he spoke. ¹¹So they instigated people to say,

“We have heard him use abusive language about Moses and about God.”

¹²They aroused the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they set upon him and seized him, and brought him before the council. ¹³Then they brought forward false witnesses, who said,

“This man is constantly saying things against this holy place and against the Law, ¹⁴for we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will tear this place down and change the customs that have been handed down to us by Moses.”

¹⁵Everyone who sat in the council fixed his eyes on him, and they saw that his face was like that of an angel.

Chapter 7

¹The high priest said,

“Is this statement true?”

²He answered,

“Brothers and fathers, listen. The glorious God appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, ³and he said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and come to the country that I will show you.’ ⁴So he left the country of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran, and from there after the death of his father, God caused him to move into this country where you now live. ⁵He gave him no property in it, not a single foot, but he promised to give it to him and his posterity after him permanently, though he had no children at that time. ⁶This was what God said: ‘His descendants will be strangers, living in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and misused for four hundred years, ⁷and I will sentence the nation that has enslaved them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will leave that country and worship me on this spot.’ ⁸And he made the agreement of circumcision with him, and so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. ⁹The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him, ¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor of Egypt and of his whole household. ¹¹Then a famine spread all over Egypt and Canaan, and there was great suffering, and our forefathers could not find any food. ¹²But Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, and he sent our forefathers on their first visit there. ¹³On their second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Pharaoh learned of Joseph’s parentage. ¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all, ¹⁵and Jacob came down to Egypt. There he and our forefathers died, ¹⁶and they were carried back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. ¹⁷As the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to Abraham, the people became more and more numerous in Egypt, ¹⁸until another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. ¹⁹He took advantage of our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them abandon their infant children, so that they should not live. ²⁰It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a wonderfully beautiful child, and for three months he was taken care of in his father’s house. ²¹When he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²²So Moses was educated in all the Egyptian culture; he was strong in speech and action. ²³When he was forty years old, it occurred to him to visit his brothers, the descendants of Israel. ²⁴Seeing one of them being imposed upon, he interfered and defended the man who was being ill treated, striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him as the means of delivering them, but they did not. ²⁶The next day, he came across two of them fighting and tried to pacify them. He said to them, ‘You are brothers. Why should you injure each other?’ ²⁷But the aggressor thrust him off, saying, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸Do you mean to kill me as you did that Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹At those words Moses fled, and went and lived for a time in Midian, and two sons were born to him there. ³⁰When forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight, and when he went up to see what it was, the voice of the Lord said, ³²‘I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses was terrified and did not dare to look at it. ³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴I have seen all the oppression of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groans, and I have come down to save them. So come! I will make you my messenger to Egypt!’ ³⁵The Moses whom they had refused, saying to him, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ God sent both to rule and to deliver them, with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶It was he who brought them out of Egypt, and did wonders and signs there, and at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the desert. ³⁷This was the Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, ‘God will make a prophet rise from among your brothers to teach you, just as he made me rise.’ ³⁸It was he who with the congregation in the desert went between the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and our forefathers, and received and communicated to you utterances that still live. ³⁹Yet our forefathers would not listen to him, but thrust him off, and their hearts turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰for they said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to march in front of us, for as for this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!’ ⁴¹They even made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to their idol, and held a celebration over what their own hands had made. ⁴²So God turned his back on them and left them to worship the starry host, just as the Book of the Prophets says,

“ ‘Was it victims and sacrifices that you offered to me, O house of Israel,

Those forty years in the desert?

⁴³You offered me the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rompha,

The images you had made to worship!

So I will deport you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴In the desert our forefathers had the Tent of the Testimony built like the model Moses had seen, just as he who spoke to him told him to make it. ⁴⁵This tent was handed down to our forefathers and they brought it here with them when under Joshua they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, and it existed until the time of David. ⁴⁶He won the approval of God and begged to be allowed to provide a dwelling for the God of Jacob, ⁴⁷and Solomon actually built a house for him. ⁴⁸But the Most High does not live in buildings made by human hands. As the prophet says,

⁴⁹“ ‘The sky is my throne,

And the earth a footstool for my feet.

What house can you build for me? says the Lord,

Or what place is there where I can rest?

⁵⁰Was it not my hand that made it all?’

⁵¹You stubborn people, with heathen hearts and ears, you are always opposing the holy Spirit, just as your forefathers did! ⁵²Which of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? They killed the men who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and killed— ⁵³you who had the Law given to you by angels, and did not obey it!”

⁵⁴When they heard that, they were enraged and ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But he, full of the holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. ⁵⁶And he said,

“Look! I can see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand!”

⁵⁷But they uttered a great shout and stopped their ears, and they rushed upon him all together, ⁵⁸and dragged him out of the city and stoned him, the witnesses throwing down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹As they stoned Stephen, he prayed,

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰Then falling on his knees, he cried out,

“Lord, do not lay this sin up against them!”

With these words he fell asleep.

Chapter 8

¹And Saul entirely approved of his being put to death.

A great persecution of the church in Jerusalem broke out that day, and they were all scattered over Judea and Samaria except the apostles. ²Some pious men buried Stephen and loudly lamented him. ³But Saul harassed the church. He went into one house after another, and dragging out men and women, put them in prison.

⁴Those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message. ⁵Philip reached the city of Samaria, and proclaimed the Christ to them. ⁶When the people heard Philip and saw the signs that he showed they were all interested in what he had to say, ⁷for with loud cries foul spirits came out of many who had been possessed by them, and many paralytics and lame people were cured. ⁸So there was great rejoicing in that city.

⁹There was a man named Simon in the town, who had been amazing the Samaritan people by practicing magic there, and who made great pretensions. ¹⁰Everyone there, high and low, made much of him, and said,

“He must be what is known as the Great Power of God!”

¹¹They made much of him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. ¹²But when they believed Philip’s message of the good news of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike accepted baptism. ¹³Even Simon himself believed and after his baptism devoted himself to Philip, and he was amazed at seeing such signs and great wonders taking place.

¹⁴When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. ¹⁵When they came, they prayed that the Samaritans might receive the holy Spirit, ¹⁶for it had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the holy Spirit. ¹⁸But when Simon saw that the holy Spirit was imparted through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹saying,

“Give me also this power to communicate the holy Spirit to anyone I place my hands upon.”

²⁰But Peter said to him,

“Go to destruction with your money, for thinking you could buy God’s gift with it! ²¹You have no share or part in this movement, for your heart is not honest in the sight of God. ²²So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, to see if you may not be forgiven for thinking of such a thing. ²³For I see that you are a bitter poison and a bundle of iniquity!”

²⁴Simon answered,

“You must pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things you have said may happen to me!”

²⁵After they had given their testimony and delivered the Lord’s message, they went back to Jerusalem, telling the good news in many Samaritan villages on the way.

²⁶But an angel of the Lord said to Philip,

“Get up and go south, by the road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (The town is now deserted.)

²⁷So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a member of the court of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, her chief treasurer, who had come up to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸and was on his way home. He was sitting in his car, reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip,

“Go up and stay by that car.”

³⁰Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and he said to him,

“Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹“Why, how can I,” he answered, “unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³²This was the passage of Scripture that he was reading:

“Like a sheep he was led away to be slaughtered,

And just as a lamb is dumb before its shearer,

He does not open his mouth.

³³His sentence ended in his humiliation.

Who will tell the story of his posterity?

For his life is perished from the earth.”

³⁴“Tell me, of whom is the prophet speaking?” said the eunuch to Philip, “Of himself, or of someone else?”

³⁵Then Philip began, and starting from this passage, he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶As they went on along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said,

“Here is some water! What is there to prevent my being baptized?”

³⁸So he ordered the car to stop, and Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord hurried Philip away, and the eunuch saw nothing more of him. Full of joy, he went on with his journey, ⁴⁰while Philip found himself at Ashdod and went on telling the good news in all the towns all the way to Caesarea.

Chapter 9

¹Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest, ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women there who belonged to the Way, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem. ³But on his journey, as he was approaching Damascus, a sudden light flashed around him from heaven, ⁴and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him,

“Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”

⁵“Who are you, sir?” he asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” said the voice. ⁶“But get up and go into the city, and there you will be told what you ought to do.”

⁷Saul’s fellow-travelers stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could not see anyone. ⁸When he got up from the ground and opened his eyes he could see nothing. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus, ⁹and for three days he could not see, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰There was at Damascus a disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision,

“Ananias!”

And he answered,

“Yes, Lord!”

¹¹The Lord said to him,

“Get up and go to the street called the Straight Street, and ask at the house of Judas for a man named Saul, from Tarsus, for he is there praying. ¹²He has had a vision and seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, to restore his sight.”

¹³But Ananias answered,

“Lord, I have heard many people tell of this man, and the harm he has done to your people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴He is here with authority to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”

¹⁵The Lord said to him,

“Go! This man is the means I have chosen for carrying my name among the heathen and their kings, and among the descendants of Israel. ¹⁶For I am going to show him what he will have to endure for my sake.”

¹⁷Ananias set out and went to the house, and there he laid his hands upon Saul, and said to him,

“Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your journey, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.”

¹⁸Something like scales immediately dropped from his eyes, and his sight was restored, and he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹and, after taking some food, regained his strength.

Saul stayed for some time with the disciples at Damascus, ²⁰and began at once to declare in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. ²¹Everyone was astonished, and said,

“Is not he the man who made such havoc of the people in Jerusalem who call upon that name, and who came here especially for the purpose of arresting such persons and taking them before the high priests?”

²²But Saul grew more and more powerful, and bewildered the Jews who lived in Damascus by his proofs that Jesus was the Christ.

²³After some time had passed, the Jews made a plot to kill him, ²⁴but Saul found out about the plot. They watched the city gates day and night, in order to kill him, ²⁵but his disciples took him one night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶When he reached Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they could not believe that he was really a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas got hold of him and introduced him to the apostles, and he told them how on his journey he had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to him, and how boldly he had spoken for the cause of Jesus at Damascus. ²⁸After that, he associated with them freely in Jerusalem, ²⁹and spoke boldly for the Lord’s cause, talking and debating with the Greek-speaking Jews. But they tried to kill him. ³⁰When the brothers found this out, they took him down to Caesarea, and sent him away to Tarsus.

³¹So the church all over Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace and became established. It lived in reverence for the Lord and, stimulated by the holy Spirit, it grew steadily in numbers.

³²As Peter was traveling about among them all, he happened to visit God’s people at Lydda. ³³There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. ³⁴Peter said to him,

“Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you! Get up, and make your bed!”

And he got up immediately. ³⁵And everybody who lived in Lydda or in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶Among the disciples at Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha, which is in Greek Dorcas, that is, gazelle. She had devoted herself to doing good and to acts of charity. ³⁷Just at that time it happened that she had been taken ill and had died, and they had washed her body and laid her out in a room upstairs. ³⁸As Joppa was near Lydda, the disciples heard that Peter was there, and they sent two men to him, urging him to come over without delay. ³⁹Peter went with them at once. When he arrived, they took him up to the room and all the widows stood around him crying and showing him the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made when she was still with them. ⁴⁰But Peter put them all out of the room. Then he knelt down and prayed, and then turning to the body he said,

“Tabitha, stand up!”

She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹He gave her his hand and raised her to her feet, and calling in the believers and the widows, he gave her back to them alive. ⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord. ⁴³So it came about that Peter stayed for some time in Joppa, at the house of a tanner named Simon.

Chapter 10

¹There was at Caesarea a man named Cornelius, a captain in what was known as the Italian regiment. ²He was a devout man, who feared God, as did all the members of his household. He was liberal in charities to the people, and always prayed to God. ³One afternoon, about three o’clock, he had a vision, and distinctly saw an angel of God come into his room and say to him,

“Cornelius!”

⁴He stared at him in terror, and said,

“What is it, sir?”

“Your prayers and charities,” the angel answered, “have gone up and been remembered before God. ⁵Now send men to Joppa, for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. ⁶He is being entertained at the house of a tanner named Simon, which is close to the sea.”

⁷When the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants, and a devout soldier who was one of his personal attendants, ⁸and after telling them the whole story, sent them to Joppa.

⁹The next day, while they were still on their way, and were just getting near the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray. ¹⁰He got very hungry, and wanted something to eat. While they were getting it ready, he fell into a trance, ¹¹and saw the sky opened and a thing like a great sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by the four corners, ¹²with all kinds of quadrupeds, reptiles, and wild birds in it. ¹³And a voice came to him,

“Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it!”

¹⁴But Peter said,

“Never, sir! For I have never eaten anything that was not ceremonially cleansed.”

¹⁵The voice came to him again a second time,

“Do not call what God has cleansed unclean.”

¹⁶This happened three times; then the thing was taken right up into the sky.

¹⁷While Peter was still wondering what the vision he had had could mean, the men whom Cornelius had sent had asked the way to Simon’s house and reached the door, ¹⁸and they called out to ask if Simon who was called Peter was staying there. ¹⁹As Peter was pondering over his vision, the Spirit said to him,

“There are two men looking for you. ²⁰Get up and go down, and go with them without any hesitation, for I have sent them.”

²¹Then Peter went down to see the men, and said to them,

“I am the man you are asking for. What is the reason for your coming?”

²²They answered,

“Cornelius, who is a captain, and an upright and God-fearing man, and who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to listen to what you have to say.”

²³So Peter invited them in and entertained them. The next day he started off with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa, ²⁴and the day after, he reached Caesarea. Cornelius had invited in his relatives and his intimate friends and was waiting for them. ²⁵When Peter actually came in, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and made obeisance to him. ²⁶But Peter lifted him to his feet, and said,

“Get up! I am only human myself.”

²⁷So they went in talking together, and Peter found that many people had gathered, ²⁸and he said to them,

“You know that it is against the Law for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit one; but God has taught me not to call anyone vulgar or unclean. ²⁹That was why, when I was sent for, I came without any hesitation. And now I want to ask why you sent for me.”

³⁰Cornelius answered,

“Three days ago, just at this time of day, I was praying in my house about three o’clock, when a man in dazzling clothing stood before me, ³¹and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your charities have been recalled to mind by God. ³²So send to Joppa and invite Simon who is called Peter to come here. He is staying at the house of a tanner named Simon, close to the sea.’ ³³So I sent for you immediately, and you have very kindly come. Now we are all here in God’s presence, to hear everything that the Lord has instructed you to say.”

³⁴Then Peter began and said,

“Now I really understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵but welcomes the man of any nation who reveres him and does what is right. ³⁶He has sent his message to Israel’s descendants, and made the good news of peace known to them through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of us all. ³⁷You know the story that has gone all over Judea, starting from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, ³⁸about Jesus of Nazareth, and how God endowed him with the power of the holy Spirit, and he went about doing good and curing all who were in the power of the devil, because God was with him. ³⁹We are witnesses of everything that he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Yet they put him upon a cross and killed him. ⁴⁰But God raised him to life on the third day and caused him to be plainly seen, ⁴¹not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead. ⁴²He also directed us to announce to the people and bear solemn testimony that he is the one whom God has appointed to be the judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³It is of him that all the prophets bear witness that everyone that believes in him will have his sins forgiven in his name.”

⁴⁴Before Peter had finished saying these words, the holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to his message. ⁴⁵The Jewish believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the holy Spirit had been showered upon the heathen too, ⁴⁶for they heard them speaking in foreign languages and declaring the greatness of God. Then Peter said,

⁴⁷“Can anyone refuse the use of water to baptize these people when they have received the holy Spirit just as we did?”

⁴⁸And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on there a few days.

Chapter 11

¹The apostles and brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen had also accepted God’s message, ²and when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the advocates of circumcision took him to task, ³charging him with having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews. ⁴Then Peter explained the matter to them from beginning to end. He said,

⁵“I was praying in the town of Joppa, and while in a trance I had a vision. Something like a great sheet came down out of the sky, lowered by its four corners. It came right down to me, ⁶and when I looked at it, I saw in it quadrupeds, wild animals, reptiles, and wild birds. ⁷And I heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it!’ ⁸But I said, ‘Never, sir! For nothing that was not ceremonially cleansed has ever passed my lips.’ ⁹Then the voice from heaven answered again, ‘Do not call what God has cleansed unclean!’ ¹⁰This happened three times; then it was all drawn back again into the sky. ¹¹Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea to find me, reached the house where we were staying, ¹²and the Spirit told me not to hesitate to go with them. These six brothers here also went with me, and we went to the man’s house. ¹³Then he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for a man named Simon who is also called Peter, ¹⁴and he will tell you things that will save you and your whole household.’ ¹⁵When I began to speak to them, the holy Spirit fell upon them just as it did upon us at the beginning, ¹⁶and I remembered the saying of the Lord, ‘John baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷So if God had given them the same gift that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, to be able to interfere with God?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they made no further objection, but they gave honor to God, and said,

“Then God has given even the heathen repentance and the hope of life!”

¹⁹The fugitives from the persecution that had broken out over Stephen went all the way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message to none but Jews. ²⁰There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The Lord’s hand was with them, and there were a great many who believed and turned to the Lord. ²²The news about them came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas all the way to Antioch. ²³When he reached there and saw the favor God had shown them, he was delighted, and encouraged them all to be resolute and steadfast in their devotion to the Lord, ²⁴for he was an excellent man, full of the holy Spirit and faith. So a considerable number of people came over to the Lord. ²⁵Then Barnabas went over to Tarsus to seek out Saul, ²⁶and found him and brought him to Antioch. The result was that for a whole year they met with the church, and taught large numbers of people, and it was at Antioch that the disciples first came to be known as Christians.

²⁷About that time some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch, ²⁸and one of them named Agabus got up and under the influence of the Spirit revealed the fact that there was going to be a great famine all over the world. This was the famine that occurred in the reign of Claudius. ²⁹The disciples determined to make up a contribution, each according to his ability, and send it to the brothers who lived in Judea, ³⁰and this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Chapter 12

¹About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. ²He had John’s brother, James, beheaded, ³and when he saw that this gratified the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, at the time of the festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴He had him seized and put in jail, with four squads of soldiers to guard him, meaning after the Passover to bring him out before the people. ⁵So Peter was kept in the jail, but the church was praying earnestly to God for him. ⁶The night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter was asleep between two soldiers, and fastened with two chains, and watchmen were at the door, guarding the jail, ⁷when an angel of the Lord stood at his side, and a light shone in the room, and striking Peter on the side, he woke him, and said to him, “Get up quickly!”

The chains dropped from his hands, ⁸and the angel said to him,

“Put on your belt and your sandals!”

And he did so. Then he said to him,

“Put on your coat and follow me!”

⁹So he followed him out without knowing that what the angel was doing was real, for he thought he was having a vision. ¹⁰They passed the first guard and then the second, and came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened to them of itself, and they passed out and went along one street, when suddenly the angel left him. ¹¹Then Peter came to himself, and he said,

“Now I am certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the power of Herod and all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

¹²When he realized his situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where a number of people were gathered, praying. ¹³When he knocked at the outer door, a maid named Rhoda came to answer it, ¹⁴and when she recognized Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not stop to open the door, but ran in and told them that Peter was standing outside. ¹⁵But they said to her,

“You are crazy!”

But she insisted that it was so. Then they said,

“Then it is his guardian angel!”

¹⁶But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him they were amazed. ¹⁷He motioned to them to be quiet, and then related to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.

“Tell all this to James and the brothers,” he said.

Then he left them and went somewhere else. ¹⁸But when morning came, there was no little commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. ¹⁹Herod had inquiries made for him, and when he could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he left Judea for Caesarea, and stayed there.

²⁰Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came before him in a body, and after winning over Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for a reconciliation, because their country depended upon the king’s dominions for its food supply. ²¹So a day was fixed and on it Herod, dressed in his robes of state, took his seat on his throne in the theater, and made them an address, ²²and the people shouted in applause,

“It is a god’s voice, not a man’s!”

²³But the angel of the Lord struck him down immediately, because he did not give the honor to God; and he was eaten by worms and died. ²⁴But the Lord’s message continued to grow and spread.

²⁵When Barnabas and Saul had performed their mission to Jerusalem, they went back, taking John who was called Mark with them.

Chapter 13

¹There were at Antioch in the church there a number of prophets and teachers—Barnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the governor, and Saul. ²As they were engaged in worshiping the Lord and in fasting, the holy Spirit said,

“Set Barnabas and Saul apart for me, for the work to which I have called them.”

³So after fasting and prayer, they laid their hands upon them and let them go.

⁴Being sent out in this way by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. ⁵When they reached Salamis, they proclaimed God’s message in the Jewish synagogues. They had John with them as their assistant.

⁶They went through the whole island as far as Paphos, and there they came across a Jewish magician and false prophet named Barjesus. ⁷He was attached to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul and asked them to let him hear God’s message. ⁸But Elymas the magician—for that is the meaning of his name—opposed them, and tried to keep the governor from accepting the faith. ⁹But Saul, who was also called Paul, was filled with the holy Spirit, and looked at him ¹⁰and said,

“You monster of underhandedness and cunning! You son of the devil! You enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop trying to make the Lord’s straight paths crooked? ¹¹The Lord’s hand is right upon you, and you will be blind and unable even to see the sun for a time.”

Instantly a mist of darkness fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to lead him by the hand. ¹²Then the governor, seeing what had happened, believed, and was thunderstruck at the Lord’s teaching.

¹³Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem, ¹⁴but they went on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue there and took seats. ¹⁵After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue authorities sent to them, saying,

“Brothers, if you have any appeal to make to the people, proceed.”

¹⁶Then Paul got up, and motioning with his hand, said,

“Men of Israel, and you who reverence God, listen! ¹⁷The God of this people of Israel chose our forefathers, and made the people great during their stay in Egypt, and then with uplifted hand led them out of Egypt. ¹⁸Then after he had taken care of them for forty years in the desert, ¹⁹he destroyed seven nations in Canaan, and settled them upon their land for about four hundred and fifty years. ²⁰After that he gave them judges, down to the time of the prophet Samuel. ²¹Then they demanded a king and for forty years God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. ²²Then he removed him and raised David up to be their king, bearing this testimony to him: ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, who will do all that I desire.’ ²³It is from his descendants that God has brought to Israel as he promised to do, a savior in Jesus, ²⁴in preparation for whose coming John had preached to all the people of Israel baptism in token of repentance. ²⁵Toward the end of his career, John said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he! No! Someone is coming after me, the shoes on whose feet I am not fit to untie!’ ²⁶Brothers! Descendants of the house of Abraham, and those others among you who reverence God! It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. ²⁷For the people of Jerusalem and their leaders refused to recognize him, and condemned him, thus fulfilling the very utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, ²⁸and though they could find no ground for putting him to death, they demanded of Pilate that he be executed. ²⁹When they had carried out everything that had been said about him in the Scriptures, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰But God raised him from the dead, ³¹and for many days he appeared to those who had come up to Jerusalem with him from Galilee, and they are now witnesses for him to the people. ³²So we now bring you the good news ³³that God has fulfilled to us, their children, the promise that he made to our forefathers, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the second psalm, You are my Son! Today I have become your Father!’ ³⁴Now as evidence that he has raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: ‘I will fulfil to you my sacred promises to David.’ ³⁵For in another psalm he says, ‘You will not let your Holy One undergo decay.’ ³⁶Now David, after serving God’s purposes in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers and did undergo decay, ³⁷but he whom God raised to life did not undergo it. ³⁸You must understand therefore, my brothers, that through him the forgiveness of your sins is announced to you, ³⁹and that through union with him everyone who believes is cleared of every charge of which the Law of Moses could not clear you. ⁴⁰Take care, therefore, that what is said in the prophets does not prove true of you:

⁴¹“ ‘Look, you scoffers! Then wonder and begone!

For I am doing something in your times

Which you will never believe even when it is related to you!’ ”

⁴²As they were going out, the people begged to have all this said to them again on the following Sabbath, ⁴³and after the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and the devout converts to Judaism went away with Paul and Barnabas, and they talked with them, and urged them to rely on the favor of God.

⁴⁴The next Sabbath almost all the town gathered to hear God’s message. ⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were very jealous, and they contradicted what Paul said and abused him. ⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out plainly, and said,

“God’s message had to be told to you first, but since you thrust it off and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the heathen. ⁴⁷For these are the orders the Lord has given us:

“ ‘I have made you a light for the heathen,

To be the means of salvation to the very ends of the earth!’ ”

⁴⁸When the heathen heard this they were delighted, and praised God’s message, and all who were destined for eternal life believed, ⁴⁹and the Lord’s message spread all over the country. ⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the well-to-do religious women and the leading men of the town, and they started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. ⁵¹They shook off the dust from their feet in protest, and went to Iconium. ⁵²But the disciples continued to be full of joy and of the holy Spirit.

Chapter 14

¹At Iconium in the same way, they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. ²But the Jews who refused their message stirred up the heathen and poisoned their minds against the brothers. ³They spent some time there, speaking fearlessly and relying upon the Lord, who bore witness to his gracious message by letting signs and wonders be done by them. ⁴But the people of the town were divided, some siding with the Jews and some with the apostles. ⁵And when there was a movement on the part of both the heathen and the Jews with the authorities to insult and stone them, ⁶and they became aware of it, they made their escape to the Lycaonian towns of Lystra and Derbe and the country around, ⁷and there they went on preaching the good news.

⁸In the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had not the use of his feet. He had been lame from his birth, and had never been able to walk. ⁹He was listening to Paul as he talked, when Paul looked at him and, seeing that he had faith that he would be cured, ¹⁰said to him loudly,

“Stand on your feet!”

And he sprang up and began to walk. ¹¹The crowds, seeing what Paul had done, shouted in the Lycaonian language,

“The gods have come down to us in human form!”

¹²They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul, because he was the principal speaker, Hermes. ¹³The priest of the temple of Zeus that stood at the entrance to the town came with crowds of people to the gates, bringing bulls and garlands, meaning to offer sacrifice to them. ¹⁴But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rushed into the crowd, tearing their clothes ¹⁵and shouting,

“Friends, why are you doing this? We are only human beings like you, and we bring you the good news that you should turn from these follies to a living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain. ¹⁶In ages past he let all the heathen follow their own ways; ¹⁷though he did not fail to give some evidence about himself, through his kindnesses to you, in sending you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and happiness to your heart’s content.”

¹⁸Even with these words they could hardly restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them.

¹⁹But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and won the people over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead. ²⁰But the brothers gathered about him, and he got up and re-entered the town. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹They proclaimed the good news in that town and made a number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, ²²reassuring the disciples and encouraging them to stand by the faith and reminding them that we have to undergo many hardships to get into the Kingdom of God. ²³They appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. ²⁴Then they crossed Pisidia and entered Pamphylia. ²⁵They told their message in Perga, then went on to Attalia, ²⁶and from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s favor for the work which they had now finished. ²⁷When they arrived there, they called the church together, and reported how God had worked with them, and how he had opened the way to faith for the heathen. ²⁸There they stayed for a long time with the disciples.

Chapter 15

¹Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved. ²This created a disturbance and a serious discussion between Paul and Barnabas and them, and it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas and some others of their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question.

³The church saw them off upon their journey, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria they told of the conversion of the heathen, and caused great rejoicing among all the brothers. ⁴When they reached Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported how God had worked with them. ⁵But some members of the Pharisees’ party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.

⁶The apostles and elders had a meeting to look into this matter. ⁷After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them,

“Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it. ⁸And God who knows men’s hearts testified for them by giving them the holy Spirit just as he had done to us, ⁹making no difference between us and them, but cleansing their hearts by faith. ¹⁰Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹Why, we believe that it is by the mercy of the Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are.”

¹²This quieted the whole meeting, and they listened while Barnabas and Paul told of the signs and wonders which God had done among the heathen through them. ¹³When they finished James made this response:

“Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴Symeon has told how God first showed an interest in taking from among the heathen a people to bear his name. ¹⁵And this agrees with the predictions of the prophets which say,

¹⁶“ ‘Afterward I will return, and rebuild David’s fallen dwelling.

I will rebuild its very ruins, and set it up again,

¹⁷So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,

And all the heathen who are called by my name,

Says the Lord, ¹⁸who has been making this known from of old.’

¹⁹In my opinion, therefore, we ought not to put obstacles in the way of those of the heathen who are turning to God, ²⁰but we should write to them to avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood. ²¹For Moses for generations past has had his preachers in every town, and has been read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²²Then the apostles and elders with the whole church resolved to select representatives and send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They were Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers. ²³They were the bearers of this letter: “The apostles and the brothers who are elders send greeting to the brothers of heathen birth in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. ²⁴As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds, ²⁵we have unanimously resolved to select representatives and send them to you with our dear brothers Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷So we send Judas and Silas to you, to give you this same message by word of mouth. ²⁸For the holy Spirit and we have decided not to lay upon you any burden but this indispensable one, ²⁹that you avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. Keep yourselves free from these things and you will get on well. Goodbye.”

³⁰So the delegates went down to Antioch and gathered the congregation together and delivered the letter; ³¹and when they read it they were delighted with the encouragement it gave them. ³²Judas and Silas were themselves prophets, and gave the brothers much encouragement and strength by their words. ³³After they had stayed some time, the brothers let them go, with a greeting to those who had sent them.

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas stayed on in Antioch and taught, and with many others preached the good news of the Lord’s message.

³⁶Some time after, Paul said to Barnabas,

“Come, let us go back and revisit the brothers in each of the towns where we made the Lord’s message known, to see how they are doing.”

³⁷Now Barnabas wanted to take John who was called Mark with them. ³⁸But Paul did not approve of taking with them a man who had deserted them in Pamphylia instead of going on with them to their work. ³⁹They differed so sharply about it that they separated, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. ⁴⁰But Paul selected Silas and set out, the brothers commending him to the Lord’s favor. ⁴¹He traveled through Syria and Cilicia and strengthened the churches.

Chapter 16

¹He went to Derbe and Lystra also. At Lystra there was a disciple named Timothy whose mother was a Jewish Christian while his father was a Greek, ²and who was highly thought of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium. ³Paul wished to take this man on with him, and so on account of the Jews in that district he had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴As they traveled on from one town to another, they passed on to the brothers for their observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. ⁵So the churches became stronger and stronger in the faith, and their numbers increased from day to day.

⁶Thus they crossed Phrygia and Galatia. The holy Spirit prevented them from delivering the message in Asia, ⁷and when they reached Mysia they tried to get into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not permit it, ⁸and they passed Mysia and came down to Troas. ⁹There Paul had a vision one night; a Macedonian was standing appealing to him and saying,

“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

¹⁰As soon as he had this vision, we made efforts to get on to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to tell them the good news.

¹¹So we sailed from Troas, and ran a straight course to Samothrace, and next day to Neapolis. ¹²From there we went to Philippi, a Roman garrison town, and the principal place in that part of Macedonia.

In this town we stayed for some days. ¹³On the Sabbath we went outside the gates, to the bank of the river where we supposed there was a praying place, and we sat down and talked with the women who gathered there. ¹⁴One of our hearers was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods, from the town of Thyatira. She was a believer in God, and the Lord touched her heart, and led her to accept Paul’s teaching. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she appealed to us, and said,

“If you are really convinced that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she insisted upon our coming.

¹⁶Once as we were on our way to the praying place a slave-girl met us who had the gift of ventriloquism, and made her masters a great deal of money by her fortune-telling. ¹⁷This girl would follow Paul and the rest of us, crying out,

“These men are slaves of the Most High God, and they are making known to you a way of salvation.”

¹⁸She did this for a number of days, until Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit in her,

“In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!” And it came out instantly.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that their hopes of profits were gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them to the public square, to the authorities, ²⁰and brought them before the chief magistrates.

“These men,” they said, “are Jews, and they are making a great disturbance in our town. ²¹They are advocating practices which it is against the law for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”

²²The crowd also joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had them stripped and beaten. ²³After beating them severely, they put them in jail, and gave the jailer orders to keep close watch of them. ²⁴He, having had such strict orders, put them into the inner cell, and fastened their feet in the stocks. ²⁵But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶suddenly there was such an earthquake that the jail shook to its foundations; all the doors flew open, and everybody’s chains were unfastened. ²⁷It woke up the jailer, and when he saw that the doors of the jail were open, he drew his sword and was just going to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸But Paul shouted out,

“Do not do yourself any harm! We are all here!”

²⁹Then he called for lights and rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. ³⁰He led them out of the jail and said to them,

“Gentlemen, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹“Believe in the Lord Jesus,” they said, “and you and your household will be saved!”

³²Then they told God’s message to him and to all the members of his household. ³³And right then in the night, he took them and washed their wounds, and he and all his household were baptized immediately. ³⁴Then he took them up to his house and offered them food, and he and all his household were very happy over their new faith in God. ³⁵In the morning the magistrates sent policemen with instructions to let the men go. ³⁶The jailer reported this message to Paul, saying,

“The magistrates have sent orders that you are to be released. So you can take your leave and go unmolested.”

³⁷But Paul said to them,

“They had us beaten in public without giving us a trial, and put us in jail, although we are Roman citizens! And now are they going to dismiss us secretly? By no means! Have them come here themselves and take us out!”

³⁸The policemen delivered this message to the magistrates, and they were alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens, ³⁹and came and conciliated them, and took them out of the jail, and begged them to leave the town. ⁴⁰After leaving the jail they went to Lydia’s house, and saw the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left the town.

Chapter 17

¹After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica, where the Jews had a synagogue. ²Paul went to it as he was accustomed to do, and for three Sabbaths he discussed the Scriptures with them, ³explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.

“Jesus,” he said, “of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!”

⁴He convinced some of them, and they joined Paul and Silas, along with a great many devout Greeks and a number of the principal women. ⁵This offended the Jews and they gathered some unprincipled loafers, formed a mob and started a riot in the town. They attacked Jason’s house, to find them and bring them out among the people. ⁶As they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the town magistrates, shouting,

“The men who have made trouble all over the world have come here too, ⁷and Jason has taken them in. They all disobey the emperor’s decrees, and claim that someone else called Jesus is king.”

⁸The crowd and the magistrates were very much excited at hearing this, ⁹and they put Jason and the others under bonds before they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers sent Paul and Silas away immediately, in the course of the following night, to Berea. On arriving there they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹The Jews there were more high-minded than those at Thessalonica, and received the message with great eagerness and studied the Scriptures every day, to find out whether it was true. ¹²Many of them became believers and so did no small number of Greek women of position, and men too. ¹³But when the Jews at Thessalonica found out that God’s message had been delivered at Berea by Paul, they came there too, to excite and stir up the populace. ¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off to the coast, while Silas and Timothy stayed behind. ¹⁵The men who went with Paul took him all the way to Athens, and came back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him as soon as possible.

¹⁶While Paul waited for them at Athens, he was exasperated to see how idolatrous the city was. ¹⁷He had discussions at the synagogue with the Jews and those who worshiped with them, and every day in the public square with any whom he happened to find. ¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some of them said,

“What is this rag-picker trying to make out?”

Others said,

“He seems to be preaching some foreign deities.”

This was because he was telling the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the council of the Areopagus and said,

“May we know just what this new teaching of yours is? ²⁰Some of the things you tell us sound strange to us, and we want to know just what they mean.”

²¹For all Athenians and all visitors there from abroad used to spend all their time telling or listening to something new.

²²Then Paul stood up in the middle of the council and said,

“Men of Athens, from every point of view I see that you are extremely religious. ²³For as I was going about and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an Unknown God.’ So it is what you already worship in ignorance that I am now telling you of. ²⁴God who created the world and all that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by human hands, ²⁵nor is he waited on by human hands as though he were in need of anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything. ²⁶From one forefather he has created every nation of mankind, and made them live all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands, ²⁷so that they might search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him, though he is never far from any of us. ²⁸For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said,

“ ‘For we are also his offspring.’

²⁹So if we are God’s children we ought not to imagine that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, wrought by human art and thought. ³⁰While God overlooked those times of ignorance, he now calls upon all men everywhere to repent, ³¹since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said,

“We should like to hear you again on this subject.”

³³So Paul left the council. ³⁴Some persons joined him, however, and became believers, among them Dionysius, a member of the council, and a woman named Damaris, and some others.

Chapter 18

¹After this he left Athens and went to Corinth. ²There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, ³and as they practiced the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together, for they were tent-makers. ⁴Every Sabbath he would preach in the synagogue, and try to convince both Jews and Greeks.

⁵By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was absorbed in preaching the message, emphatically assuring the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. ⁶But as they contradicted and abused him, he shook his clothes in protest, and said to them,

“Your blood be on your own heads! I am not to blame for it! After this I will go to the heathen.”

⁷So he moved to the house of a devout proselyte named Titius Justus, which was next door to the synagogue. ⁸But Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, and so did all his household, and many of the people of Corinth heard Paul and believed and were baptized. ⁹One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision,

“Do not be afraid! Go on speaking and do not give up, ¹⁰for I am with you, and no one shall attack you or injure you, for I have many people in this city.”

¹¹So he settled there for a year and a half, and taught them God’s message.

¹²While Gallio was governor of Greece the Jews made a concerted attack upon Paul, and brought him before the governor.

¹³“This fellow,” they said, “is trying to induce people to worship God in ways that are against the law.”

¹⁴Before Paul could open his lips, Gallio said to the Jews,

“If some misdemeanor or rascality were involved, Jews, you might reasonably expect me to listen to you. ¹⁵But as it is only a question of words and titles and your own law, you must look after it yourselves. I refuse to decide such matters.”

¹⁶And he drove them away from the court. ¹⁷Then they all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio paid no attention to it.

¹⁸Paul stayed some time longer, and then bade the brothers goodbye and sailed for Syria, with Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, because of a vow he had been under. ¹⁹When they reached Ephesus he left them there. He went to the synagogue there and had a discussion with the Jews. ²⁰They asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent. ²¹He bade them goodbye, saying,

“I will come back to you again if it is God’s will.”

Then he sailed from Ephesus. ²²When he reached Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and paid his respects to the church, and then went on to Antioch. ²³After spending some time there, he started out again, and traveled systematically through Galatia and Phrygia, reassuring all the disciples.

²⁴A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, skilful in the use of the Scriptures. ²⁵He had had some instruction about the Way of the Lord, and he talked with burning zeal and taught painstakingly about Jesus, though he knew of no baptism but John’s. ²⁶He spoke very confidently in the synagogue at first, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained the Way of God to him more correctly. ²⁷As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God’s favor had become believers, ²⁸for he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, and showed from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Chapter 19

¹It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, after passing through the interior, reached Ephesus. Finding some disciples there, ²he said to them,

“Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?”

“No,” they said to him, “we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit.”

³“How then were you baptized?” he asked.

“With John’s baptism,” they answered.

⁴“John’s baptism was a baptism in token of repentance,” said Paul, “and he told the people to believe in him who was to follow him, that is, in Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, ⁶and when Paul laid his hands on them, the holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in foreign tongues and with prophetic inspiration. ⁷There were about twelve of them in all.

⁸He went to the synagogue there, and for three months spoke confidently, holding discussions and trying to persuade them about the Kingdom of God. ⁹But as some of them were obstinate and refused to believe, finding fault with the Way before the people, he left them, and withdrew the disciples, and held daily discussions in the lecture-room of Tyrannus. ¹⁰This went on for two years, so that everyone who lived in Asia, Greeks as well as Jews, heard the Lord’s message.

¹¹God did such extraordinary wonders by means of Paul, ¹²that people took to the sick handkerchiefs or aprons he had used, and they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits went out of them. ¹³Some Jews who went from place to place casting out demons tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in the cases of people who had evil spirits in them, saying,

“I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!”

¹⁴A Jewish high priest named Sceva had seven sons who were doing this. ¹⁵But the evil spirit answered,

“I know Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?”

¹⁶And the man in whom the evil spirit was sprang at them, and overpowered them all, with such violence that they ran out of the house tattered and bruised. ¹⁷This came to be known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, Greeks as well as Jews, and great awe came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus came to be held in high honor. ¹⁸Many who became believers would come and openly confess their former practices. ¹⁹A number of people who had practiced magic brought out their books and burned them publicly. The value of these was estimated and found to be ten thousand dollars. ²⁰So the Lord’s message went on growing wonderfully in influence and power.

²¹After these events, Paul, under the Spirit’s guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way.

“After I have gone there,” he said, “I must see Rome also.”

²²He sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed on for a while in Asia.

²³Just at that time a great commotion arose about the Way. ²⁴A silversmith named Demetrius was making large profits for his workmen by the manufacture of silver shrines of Artemis. ²⁵He got the workmen in that and similar trades together, and said to them,

“Men, you know that this business is the source of our prosperity, ²⁶and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but almost all over Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and drawn away numbers of people, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. ²⁷There is danger, therefore, not only that this business of ours will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be neglected and the magnificence of her whom all Asia and the world worship will be a thing of the past!”

²⁸When they heard this, they became very angry, and cried,

“Great Artemis of Ephesus!”

²⁹So the commotion spread all over the city, and by a common impulse the people rushed to the theater, dragging with them two Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions. ³⁰Paul wanted to go before the people himself, but the disciples would not allow it. ³¹Some of the religious authorities also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. ³²Meanwhile the people were shouting, some one thing and some another, for the meeting was in confusion, and most of them had no idea why they had come together. ³³Some of the crowd called upon Alexander, as the Jews had pushed him to the front, and he made a gesture with his hand and was going to speak in defense of them to the people. ³⁴But when they saw that he was a Jew, a great shout went up from them all, and they cried for two hours,

“Great Artemis of Ephesus!”

³⁵At last the recorder quieted the mob and said,

“Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky? ³⁶So as these facts are undeniable, you must be calm, and not do anything reckless. ³⁷For you have brought these men here, though they have not been guilty of disloyalty nor uttered any blasphemy against our goddess. ³⁸If Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen have a charge to bring against anyone, there are the courts and the governors; let them take legal action. ³⁹But if you require anything beyond that, it must be settled before the regular assembly. ⁴⁰For we are in danger of being charged with rioting in connection with today’s events, though there is really nothing about this commotion that we will not be able to explain.”

⁴¹With these words he dismissed the assembly.

Chapter 20

¹When the confusion was over, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he bade them goodbye and started for Macedonia. ²After traveling through those districts and giving the people a great deal of encouragement, he went on to Greece ³where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia. ⁴He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia. ⁵They went on to Troas and waited for us there, ⁶while we sailed from Philippi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and joined them at Troas five days later. There we stayed a week.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we had met for the breaking of bread, Paul addressed them, as he was going away the next morning, and he prolonged his address until midnight. ⁸There were a great many lamps in the upstairs room where we met ⁹and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting at the window, became very drowsy as Paul’s address grew longer and longer, and finally went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground, and was picked up for dead. ¹⁰But Paul went downstairs, and threw himself upon him, and put his arms around him.

“Do not be alarmed,” he said, “he is still alive.”

¹¹Then he went upstairs again, and broke the bread, and ate, and after a long talk with them that lasted until daylight, he went away. ¹²They took the boy home alive, and were greatly comforted.

¹³We had already gone on board the ship and sailed for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there, for that was the arrangement he had made, as he intended to travel there by land. ¹⁴So when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went on to Mitylene. ¹⁵Sailing from there, we arrived off Chios on the following day. On the next we crossed to Samos, and on the next we reached Miletus. ¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to lose any time in Asia, for he was hurrying to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of the Harvest Festival.

¹⁷From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. ¹⁸When they came, he said to them,

“You know well enough how I lived among you all the time from the first day I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹and how I served the Lord most humbly and with tears, through all the trials that I encountered because of the plots of the Jews. ²⁰I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public or at your houses, ²¹but earnestly urged Greeks as well as Jews to turn to God in repentance and to believe in our Lord Jesus. ²²I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, for the Spirit compels me to go there, though I do not know what will happen to me there, ²³except that in every town I visit, the holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and persecution are awaiting me. ²⁴But my life does not matter, if I can only finish my race and do the service intrusted to me by the Lord Jesus, of declaring the good news of God’s favor. ²⁵Now I know perfectly well that none of you among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God will ever see my face again. ²⁶Therefore I declare to you today that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, ²⁷for I have not shrunk from letting you know God’s purpose without reserve. ²⁸Take care of yourselves and of the whole flock, of which the holy Spirit has made you guardians, and be shepherds of the church of God, which he got at the cost of his own life. ²⁹I know that after I am gone savage wolves will get in among you and will not spare the flock, ³⁰and from your own number men will appear and teach perversions of the truth in order to draw the disciples away after them. ³¹So you must be on your guard and remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning any of you, even with tears. ³²Now I commit you to the Lord, and to the message of his favor, which will build you up and give you a place among those whom God has consecrated. ³³I have never coveted anyone’s gold or silver or clothes. ³⁴You know well enough that these hands of mine provided for my needs and my companions. ³⁵I showed you in every way that by hard work like that we must help those who are weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for he said, ‘It makes one happier to give than to be given to.’ ”

³⁶With these words, he knelt down with them all and prayed. ³⁷They all wept aloud, and throwing their arms about Paul’s neck they kissed him affectionately, ³⁸for they were especially saddened at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

Chapter 21

¹When the parting was over and we had sailed, we made a straight run to Cos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara. ²There we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, and we went on board and sailed on it. ³After sighting Cyprus and leaving it on our left, we sailed for Syria, and put in at Tyre, for the ship was to unload her cargo there. ⁴So we looked up the disciples there and stayed a week with them. Instructed by the Spirit, they warned Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem. ⁵But when our time was up, we left there and went on, and all of them with their wives and children escorted us out of the town. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed; ⁶then we bade one another goodbye, and we went on board the ship, and they went home.

⁷After making the run from Tyre, we landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and spent a day with them. ⁸The next day we left there and went on to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the missionary, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him. ⁹He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy. ¹⁰We spent a number of days there, and in the course of them a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹He came to see us and took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, and said,

“This is what the holy Spirit says: ‘The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt like this, and will hand him over to the heathen!’ ”

¹²When we heard this, we and the people there all begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³Then Paul answered,

“What do you mean by crying and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound at Jerusalem but to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴So as he would not yield, we gave up urging him, and said,

“The Lord’s will be done!”

¹⁵After this we made our preparations and started for Jerusalem. ¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and took us to the house of Mnason, a man from Cyprus, one of the early disciples, to spend the night. ¹⁷When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers there gave us a hearty welcome. ¹⁸On the next day we went with Paul to see James, and all the elders came in. ¹⁹Paul greeted them warmly and gave a detailed account of what God had done among the heathen through his efforts. ²⁰They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him,

“You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law. ²¹They have been told that you teach all Jews who live among the heathen to turn away from Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the old customs. ²²What then? They will be sure to hear that you have come. ²³So do what we tell you. We have four men here who are under a vow. ²⁴Join them, undergo the rites of purification with them, and pay their expenses so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will understand that there is no truth in the stories about you, but that you yourself observe the Law. ²⁵As for the heathen who have become believers, we have written them our decision that they must avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, the tasting of blood, the meat of strangled animals, and immorality.”

²⁶Then Paul joined the men and went through the rites of purification with them and the next day went to the Temple to give notice of the time when, upon the offering of the sacrifice for each one of them, their days of purification would be over.

²⁷The seven days were almost over when the Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple, and stirred up all the crowd and seized him, ²⁸shouting,

“Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the Law and this place, and besides he has actually brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this sacred place.”

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the Temple. ³⁰The whole city was thrown into confusion, and the people hurried together, and seized Paul and dragged him outside of the Temple, the gates of which were immediately shut. ³¹They were trying to kill him when the news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a tumult. ³²He immediately got some officers and men and hurried down among them, and when they saw the colonel and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul. ³³Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing. ³⁴Some of the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and as he could not find out the facts on account of the confusion, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. ³⁵When Paul got to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers, on account of the violence of the mob, ³⁶for the mass of people followed them shouting,

“Kill him!”

³⁷Just as they were going to take him into the barracks, Paul said to the colonel,

“May I say something to you?”

“Do you know Greek?” the colonel asked. ³⁸“Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago raised the four thousand cut-throats and led them out into the desert?”

³⁹“I am a Jew,” Paul answered, “from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you to let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰He gave him permission, and Paul standing on the steps made a gesture to the people, and when they had become quiet he spoke to them in Hebrew.

Chapter 22

¹“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen to what I have to say in my defense.”

²When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he said,

³“I am a Jew, and I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but was brought up here in this city, and thoroughly educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. ⁴I persecuted this Way even to the death, and bound both men and women and put them in prison, ⁵as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. In fact, they gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus and I went there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished. ⁶But on my way, as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly about noon, a blaze of light flashed around me from heaven, ⁷and I fell upon the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ⁸I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,’ he said, ‘whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. ¹⁰Then I said, ‘What am I to do, sir?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told of all you are destined to do.’ ¹¹As I could not see, because of the dazzling light, my companions had to lead me by the hand, and so I reached Damascus. ¹²There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the Law, highly respected by all the Jews who lived there, ¹³came to see me, and standing by my side, said to me, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight!’ Then instantly I regained my sight and looked at him, ¹⁴and he said, ‘The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn his will and to see his Righteous One and hear him speak, ¹⁵for you shall be his witness before all men of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶And now, why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash out your sins, calling on his name.’ ¹⁷After I had returned to Jerusalem, one day when I was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance, ¹⁸and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and leave Jerusalem at once, for they will not accept your evidence about me.’ ¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they know that I used to go through one synagogue after another, and to imprison and flog those who believed in you, ²⁰and when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it, and took charge of the clothes of the men who killed him.’ ²¹But he said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the heathen.’ ”

²²They had listened to him until he said that, but then they shouted,

“Kill him and get him out of the world! A creature like that ought not to be allowed to live!”

²³As they were shouting and throwing their clothes about and flinging dust into the air, ²⁴the colonel ordered Paul brought into the barracks, and gave directions that he should be examined under the lash, so that he might find out why they made such an outcry against him. ²⁵But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near,

“Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?”

²⁶Upon hearing this, the officer went to the colonel and reported it.

“What do you propose to do?” he said. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷Then the colonel came to Paul and said,

“Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes,” he said.

²⁸“I had to pay a large sum for my citizenship,” said the colonel.

“But I am a citizen by birth,” said Paul.

²⁹Then the men who had been going to examine him immediately left him, and the colonel himself was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

³⁰The next day, as he wished to find out the real reason why the Jews denounced him, he had him unbound and ordered the high priests and the whole council to assemble, and took Paul down and brought him before them.

Chapter 23

¹Paul looked steadily at the council and said,

“Brothers, I have done my duty to God with a perfectly clear conscience up to this very day.”

²At this the high priest Ananias ordered the people who were standing nearest to him to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him,

“God will strike you, you white-washed wall! Do you sit there to try me by the Law, and order them to strike me in violation of the Law?”

⁴But the people who stood near him said,

“Do you mean to insult God’s high priest?”

⁵“I did not know, brothers,” said Paul, “that he was high priest, for the Scripture says, ‘You shall not say anything against any ruler of your people.’ ”

⁶Knowing that part of them were Sadducees and part of them Pharisees, Paul called out in the council,

“Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees! It is for my hope for the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial!”

⁷When he said that, a dispute arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the meeting was divided. ⁸For the Sadducees hold that there is no resurrection and that there are no angels or spirits, while the Pharisees believe in all three. ⁹So there was a great uproar, and some scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and insisted,

“We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose some spirit or angel really spoke to him!”

¹⁰As the dispute was becoming violent, the colonel began to be afraid that they would tear Paul in pieces, and ordered the soldiers to go down and get him away from them and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹On the following night the Lord stood beside him and said,

“Courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you must testify in Rome also.”

¹²In the morning, the Jews made a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³There were more than forty of them involved in this plot, ¹⁴and they went to the high priests and elders and said to them,

“We have taken a solemn oath not to touch anything to eat till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵Now you and the council must suggest to the colonel that he should have Paul brought down to you, as you mean to look into his case more carefully, and we will be ready to kill him before he gets down.”

¹⁶But Paul’s nephew heard of the plot, and he came and got into the barracks, and told Paul. ¹⁷Paul called one of the officers and said to him,

“Take this young man to the colonel, for he has something to tell him.”

¹⁸So he took him to the colonel, and said,

“The prisoner Paul called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.”

¹⁹So the colonel took him by the arm and stepping aside where they could be alone, asked,

“What is it that you have to tell me?”

²⁰“The Jews,” he answered, “have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, on the ground that you mean to have a fuller inquiry made into his case. ²¹But do not let them persuade you, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him, and they have taken an oath not to eat or drink till they have killed him. They are all ready now, and are only waiting to get your promise.”

²²So the colonel sent the youth away, directing him not to tell anyone that he had given him this information. ²³Then he called in two of his officers and said to them,

“Get two hundred men ready to march to Caesarea, with seventy mounted men and two hundred spear-men, by nine o’clock tonight.” ²⁴They were also to provide horses for Paul to ride, so that they might take him in safety to Felix, the governor, ²⁵to whom he wrote a letter to this effect:

²⁶“Claudius Lysias sends greetings to his Excellency Felix, the governor. ²⁷This man had been seized by the Jews and they were just going to kill him when I came upon them with my men and rescued him, as I had learned that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸As I wanted to learn what charge they made against him, I had him brought before their council, ²⁹and found that their accusations had to do with questions about their Law, but that he was not charged with anything that would call for his death or imprisonment. ³⁰As I have been informed that a plot against him is brewing, I am sending him on to you at once, and directing his accusers to present their charges against him before you.”

³¹Then the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and escorted him as far as Antipatris that night. ³²The next day, they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him, ³³and they on reaching Caesarea delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. ³⁴After reading the letter, he asked Paul what province he belonged to, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵he said,

“I will hear your case as soon as your accusers arrive.”

And he gave orders that he should be kept in Herod’s palace.

Chapter 24

¹Five days later, the high priest Ananias came down with some of the elders and an attorney named Tertullus, and they presented their case against Paul before the governor. ²When Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began the prosecution.

“Your Excellency Felix,” he said, “since through your efforts we enjoy perfect peace, and through your foresight this nation is securing needed reforms, ³we always and everywhere acknowledge this with profound gratitude. ⁴But—not to detain you too long—I beg you to be kind enough to give us a brief hearing. ⁵For we have found this man a pest and a disturber of the peace among Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, ⁶and actually tried to desecrate the Temple, but we caught him. ⁸If you will examine him yourself you will be able to find out from him all about the things we charge him with.”

⁹The Jews also joined in these charges, and said that the statement was true. ¹⁰The governor made a sign to Paul to speak, and he answered,

“As I know that for many years you have acted as judge for this nation, I cheerfully undertake my defense, ¹¹for it is not more than twelve days ago, as you can easily satisfy yourself, that I went up to worship at Jerusalem, ¹²and they have never found me debating with anyone in the Temple, or creating a disturbance among the people in the synagogues or about the city, ¹³and they cannot sustain the charges they have just made against me. ¹⁴I admit that in worshiping the God of my forefathers I follow the way of life that they call a sect, but I believe everything that is taught in the Law or written in the prophets, ¹⁵and I have the same hope in God that they themselves hold, that there is to be a resurrection of the upright and the wicked. ¹⁶Therefore I strive always to have a clear conscience before God and men. ¹⁷After an absence of several years, I had come to bring charitable donations for my nation, and to offer sacrifice. ¹⁸I had undergone the rites of purification and was occupied with these matters when they found me in the Temple, with no crowd or disturbance at all. But there were some Jews from Asia ¹⁹who ought to be here before you and to present their charges if they have any to make against me. ²⁰Or let these men themselves tell what they found wrong in me when I appeared before the council— ²¹unless it was the one thing I shouted out as I stood among them—‘It is on the question of the resurrection of the dead that I am here on trial before you today!’ ”

²²Then Felix, who was somewhat well informed about the Way, adjourned the trial, saying to the Jews,

“When Lysias, the colonel, comes down here, I will decide your case.”

²³He ordered the officer to keep Paul in custody, but to allow him some freedom, and not to prevent his friends from looking after him.

²⁴Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and sent for Paul and heard what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵But as he talked of uprightness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became alarmed, and said,

“You may go for the present. I will find time later to send for you.”

²⁶At the same time he hoped to get money from Paul, and for that reason he used to send for him very often and talk with him.

²⁷But when two whole years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and as he wanted to gratify the Jews, Felix left Paul in prison.

Chapter 25

¹Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, ²and the high priests and Jewish leaders presented their charges against Paul, ³and begged him as a favor to order Paul to come to Jerusalem, plotting to kill him on the way. ⁴Festus answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there soon.

⁵“So have your principal men go down with me,” he said, “and present charges against the man, if there is anything wrong with him.”

⁶After staying only eight or ten days there, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day took his place in the judge’s chair, and ordered Paul brought in. ⁷When he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and made a number of serious charges against him, which they could not substantiate. ⁸Paul said in his own defense,

“I have committed no offense against the Jewish Law or the Temple or the emperor.”

⁹Then Festus, wishing to gratify the Jews, said to Paul,

“Will you go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”

¹⁰But Paul said,

“I am standing before the emperor’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have done the Jews no wrong, as you can easily see. ¹¹If I am guilty and have done anything that deserves death, I do not refuse to die; but if there is no truth in the charges that these men make against me, no one can give me up to them; I appeal to the emperor.”

¹²Then Festus after conferring with the council answered,

“You have appealed to the emperor, and to the emperor you shall go!”

¹³Some time after, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea on a state visit to Festus, ¹⁴and as they stayed there several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king.

“There is a man here,” he said, “who was left in prison by Felix, ¹⁵and when I was at Jerusalem the Jewish high priests and elders presented their case against him, and asked for his conviction. ¹⁶I told them that it was not the Roman custom to give anybody up until the accused met his accusers face to face and had a chance to defend himself against their accusations. ¹⁷So they came back here with me and the next day without losing any time I took my place in the judge’s chair and ordered the man brought in. ¹⁸But when his accusers got up, they did not charge him with any such crimes as I had expected. ¹⁹Their differences with him were about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died but who Paul said was alive. ²⁰I was at a loss as to how to investigate such matters, and I asked him if he would like to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges there. ²¹But Paul appealed to have his case reserved for his Majesty’s decision, and I have ordered him kept in custody until I can send him to the emperor.”

²²“I should like to hear the man myself,” Agrippa said to Festus.

“You shall hear him tomorrow,” Festus answered.

²³So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and went into the audience-room attended by officers and the leading citizens of the town, and at the command of Festus Paul was brought in. ²⁴Then Festus said,

“King Agrippa and all who are present, you see here the man about whom the whole Jewish people have applied to me both at Jerusalem and here, clamoring that he ought not to live any longer. ²⁵I could not find that he had done anything for which he deserved death, but as he appealed to his Majesty I decided to send him to him. ²⁶Yet I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. So I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, in order to get from your examination of him something to put in writing. ²⁷For it seems to me absurd to send a prisoner on, without stating the charges against him.”

Chapter 26

¹Then Agrippa said to Paul,

“You are at liberty to speak in your own defense.”

So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.

²“I think myself fortunate, King Agrippa,” said he, “that it is before you that I am to defend myself today against all the things the Jews charge me with, ³especially because you are so familiar with all the Jewish customs and questions. I beg you, therefore, to listen to me with patience. ⁴The way I lived from my youth up, spending my early life among my own nation and at Jerusalem, is well known to all Jews, ⁵for they have known from the first, if they are willing to give evidence, that I was a Pharisee and my life was that of the strictest sect of our religion. ⁶Even now it is for my hope in the promise that God made to our forefathers that I stand here on trial, ⁷the promise in the hope of seeing which fulfilled our twelve tribes serve God zealously night and day. It is about this hope, your Majesty, that I am accused by some Jews. ⁸Why do you all think it incredible that God should raise the dead? ⁹I once thought it my duty vigorously to oppose the cause of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰That was what I did at Jerusalem when on the authority of the high priests I put many of God’s people in prison. When they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, ¹¹and many a time in all the synagogues I had them punished, and tried to force them to say impious things. In my extreme rage against them I even pursued them to distant towns. ¹²I was once going to Damascus on this business, authorized and commissioned by the high priests, ¹³when on the road at noon, your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun flash around me and my fellow-travelers. ¹⁴We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me? You cannot kick against the goad!’ ¹⁵‘Who are you, sir?’ said I. The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for the express purpose of appointing you to serve me and to testify to what you have seen and to the visions you will have of me. ¹⁷I will save you from your people and from the heathen, to whom I will send you ¹⁸to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan’s control to God, so that they may have their sins forgiven and have a place among those who are consecrated through faith in me.’ ¹⁹Therefore, King Agrippa, I did not disobey that heavenly vision, ²⁰but first to the people of Damascus and Jerusalem and then all over Judea, and even to the heathen I preached that they must repent and turn to God and live as men who have repented should. ²¹That is why the Jews seized me in the Temple and tried to kill me. ²²To this day I have had God’s help and I stand here to testify to high and low alike, without adding a thing to what Moses and the prophets declared would happen, ²³if the Christ was to suffer and by being the first to rise from the dead was to proclaim the light to our people and to the heathen.”

²⁴As he said this in his defense, Festus called out,

“You are raving, Paul! Your great learning is driving you mad!”

²⁵“I am not raving, your Excellency Festus,” said Paul, “I am telling the sober truth. ²⁶The king knows about this, and I can speak to him with freedom. I do not believe that he missed any of this, for it did not happen in a corner! ²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do!”

²⁸“You are in a hurry to persuade me and make a Christian of me!” Agrippa said to Paul.

²⁹“In a hurry or not,” said Paul, “I would to God that not only you, but all who hear me today, might be what I am—except for these chains!”

³⁰Then the king rose, with the governor and Bernice and those who had sat with them, ³¹and after leaving the room, in talking the matter over together, they said,

“This man has not done anything to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²“He might have been set at liberty,” said Agrippa to Festus, “if he had not appealed to the emperor.”

Chapter 27

¹When it was decided that we were to sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were turned over to an officer of the Imperial regiment, named Julius. ²We went on board an Adramyttian ship bound for the ports of Asia, and put to sea. We had a Macedonian from Thessalonica, named Aristarchus, with us. ³The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius kindly allowed Paul to go and see his friends and be taken care of. ⁴Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, as the wind was against us, ⁵and after traversing the Cilician and Pamphylian waters, we reached Myra in Lycia. ⁶There the officer found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, and put us on board her. ⁷For a number of days we made slow progress and had some difficulty in arriving off Cnidus. Then as the wind kept us from going on, we sailed under the lee of Crete, off Cape Salmone, ⁸and with difficulty coasted along it and reached a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹As a great deal of time had now passed, and navigation had become dangerous, for the autumn fast was already over, Paul began to warn them.

¹⁰“Gentlemen,” he said, “I see that this voyage is likely to end in disaster and heavy loss, not only to ship and cargo but to our own lives also.”

¹¹But the officer was more influenced by the pilot and the captain than by what Paul had to say, ¹²and as the harbor was not fit to winter in, the majority favored putting to sea again, in the hope of being able to reach and winter in Phoenix, a harbor in Crete facing west-south-west and west-north-west. ¹³When a moderate south wind sprang up, thinking their object was within reach, they weighed anchor, and ran close along the coast of Crete. ¹⁴But very soon a violent wind which they call a Northeaster rushed down from it. ¹⁵The ship was caught by it and could not face the wind, so we gave way and let her run before it. ¹⁶As we passed under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with great difficulty to secure the ship’s boat. ¹⁷After hoisting it on board, they used ropes to brace the ship, and as they were afraid of being cast on the Syrtis banks, they lowered the sail, and let the ship drift. ¹⁸The next day, as the storm continued to be violent, they began to throw the cargo overboard, ¹⁹and on the next, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰For a number of days neither the sun nor the stars were visible, and the storm continued to rage, until at last we gave up all hope of being saved. ²¹Then, when they had gone a long time without food, Paul got up among them, and said,

“Gentlemen, you ought to have listened to me and not to have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. ²²Even now, I beg you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood before me, ²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor, and see! God has given you the lives of all the people who are on the ship with you.’ ²⁵So keep up your courage, gentlemen! For I have faith in God that it will be just as I was told. ²⁶But we are to be stranded on some island.”

²⁷It was the fourteenth night of the storm, and we were drifting through the Adriatic when about midnight the sailors began to suspect that there was land ahead. ²⁸On taking soundings, they found a depth of twenty fathoms, and a little later, taking soundings again, they found a depth of fifteen. ²⁹Then as they were afraid we might go on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and waited anxiously for daylight. ³⁰The sailors wanted to escape from the ship, and actually lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to run out anchors from the bow, ³¹but Paul said to the officers and the soldiers,

“You cannot be saved unless these men stay on board.”

³²Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the boat and let it drift away. ³³Until daybreak Paul kept urging them all to take something to eat.

“For fourteen days,” he said, “you have been constantly on the watch, without taking anything to eat. ³⁴I beg you to eat something; it is necessary for your safety. For not one of you will lose even a hair of his head.”

³⁵With these words he took some bread and after thanking God for it before them all, he broke it in pieces and began to eat it. ³⁶This raised the spirits of all of them, and they took something to eat. ³⁷There were about seventy-six of us on board. ³⁸When they had had enough to eat, they threw the wheat into the sea, in order to lighten the ship. ³⁹When daylight came they could not recognize the coast, but they saw a bay with a beach and determined to run the ship ashore there if possible. ⁴⁰So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time they undid the lashings of the steering oars, and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. ⁴¹But they struck a shoal and ran the ship aground. The bow struck and could not be moved, while the stern began to break up under the strain. ⁴²The soldiers proposed to kill the prisoners, for fear some of them might swim ashore and escape, ⁴³but the officer wanted to save Paul, and so he prevented them from doing this, and ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, ⁴⁴and the rest to follow on planks or other pieces of wreckage. So they all got safely to land.

Chapter 28

¹After our escape we learned that the island was called Malta. ²The natives showed us remarkable kindness, for they made a fire and welcomed us, because of the rain that had come on and the cold. ³Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, when a viper crawled out of them because of the heat and fastened on his hand. ⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another,

“This man is undoubtedly a murderer, for though he has been saved from the sea, justice will not let him live.”

⁵But he only shook the creature off into the fire and was unharmed. ⁶They expected to see him swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

⁷The governor of the island, whose name was Publius, had estates in that part of the island, and he welcomed us and entertained us hospitably for three days. ⁸Publius’ father happened to be sick in bed with fever and dysentery, and Paul went to see him and after praying laid his hands on him and cured him. ⁹After that, the other sick people on the island came and were cured. ¹⁰They made us many presents, and when we sailed, they provided us with everything that we needed.

¹¹Three months later, we sailed on an Alexandrian ship named the Dioscuri, which had wintered at the island. ¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days, ¹³then we weighed anchor and reached Rhegium. A day later, a south wind sprang up and the following day we arrived at Puteoli. ¹⁴There we found some of the brothers, and they urged us to spend a week with them. Then we went on to Rome. ¹⁵The brothers there had had news of our coming, and came as far as Appius’ Forum and Three Taverns to meet us, and when Paul saw them he thanked God and was greatly encouraged.

¹⁶When we reached Rome, Paul was given permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

¹⁷Three days later, he invited the leading Jews to come to see him, and when they came he said to them,

“Brothers, I have done nothing against our people, or the customs of our forefathers, yet I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner at Jerusalem. ¹⁸They examined me and were ready to let me go, as I was innocent of any crime that deserved death. ¹⁹But the Jews objected, and I was obliged to appeal to the emperor—not that I had any charge to make against my own nation. ²⁰That is why I asked to see you and speak with you, for it is on account of Israel’s hope that I have to wear this chain.”

²¹“We have had no letters about you from Judea,” they answered, “and none of the brothers who have come here has reported or said anything against you. ²²But we want to hear you state your views, for as far as this sect is concerned, we understand that everywhere it is denounced.”

²³So they fixed a day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying, and from morning till night he explained to them the Kingdom of God and gave his testimony, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. ²⁴Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. ²⁵As they could not agree among themselves, they started to leave, when Paul added one last word.

“The holy Spirit put it finely,” he said, “when it said to your forefathers through the prophet Isaiah,

²⁶“ ‘Go to this Nation and say to them,

“You will listen, and listen, and never understand,

And you will look, and look, and never see!

²⁷For this nation’s mind has grown dull,

And they hear faintly with their ears,

And they have shut their eyes,

So as never to see with their eyes,

And hear with their ears,

And understand with their minds, and turn back,

And let me cure them!” ’

²⁸“Understand then that this message of God’s salvation has been sent to the heathen. They will listen to it!”

³⁰So he stayed for two full years in rented lodgings of his own, and welcomed everybody who came to see him, ³¹preaching the Kingdom of God to them and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ openly and unhindered.

The Letter to the Romans

Chapter 1

¹Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to declare God’s good news, ²which he promised long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³about his Son, who was physically descended from David, ⁴and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead—Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵through whom we have received God’s favor and been commissioned in his name to urge obedience and faith upon all the heathen, ⁶including you who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ— ⁷to all those in Rome whom God loves, who are called to be his people; God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

⁸First I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world. ⁹As God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in spreading the good news of his Son, I never fail to mention you when I pray, ¹⁰and to ask that somehow by God’s will I may some day at last succeed in reaching you. ¹¹For I long to see you, to convey to you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you; ¹²in other words, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith. ¹³I want you to understand, brothers, that I have often intended to come to see you (though thus far I have been prevented) in order to produce some results among you, as well as among the rest of the heathen. ¹⁴I owe a debt both to Greeks and to foreigners, to the cultivated and the uncultivated. ¹⁵So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also. ¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. ¹⁷In it God’s way of uprightness is disclosed through faith and for faith, just as the Scripture says, “The upright will have life because of his faith.”

¹⁸For God’s anger is breaking forth from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth. ¹⁹For all that can be known of God is clearly before them; God has shown it to them. ²⁰Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature—his eternal power and divine character—have been clearly perceptible through what he has made. So they have no excuse, ²¹for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark. ²²They called themselves wise, but they have turned into fools, ²³and for the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles.

²⁴So God abandoned them, with their heart’s cravings, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies. ²⁵For they had exchanged the truth of God for what was false, and worshiped and served what he had created, instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen! ²⁶That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions. Their women have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural, ²⁷and men too in the same way have disregarded the natural function of women and been consumed with passion for one another, men for men, acting indecently, and experiencing in their own persons the inevitable penalty of what they have done. ²⁸And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct. ²⁹They revel in every kind of wrongdoing, wickedness, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and ill-nature. ³⁰They are gossips, slanderers, abhorrent to God, insolent, overbearing, boastful, ingenious in evil, undutiful, ³¹conscienceless, treacherous, unloving, and unpitying. ³²They know God’s decree that those who act in this way deserve to die, yet they not only do it, but applaud any who do.

Chapter 2

¹Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you pose as a judge, for when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, for you, who sit in judgment, do the very same things yourself. ²We know that God’s judgment rightfully falls upon those who do such things as these. ³And do you suppose, when you sit in judgment upon those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Do you think so lightly of his wealth of kindness, forbearance, and patience, and fail to see that God’s kindness ought to induce you to repent? ⁵But in your obstinacy and impenitence you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath, when the justice of God will burst forth. ⁶For he will pay every man for what he has done. ⁷Those who by persistently doing right strive for glory, honor, and immortality will have eternal life, ⁸but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury, ⁹crushing distress and anguish, every human soul of them that actually does what is wrong—the Jew first, and the Greek also; ¹⁰but there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does right, the Jew first, and the Greek also, ¹¹for God shows no partiality.

¹²All who sin without having the Law will perish without regard to the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be judged by the Law. ¹³For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright. ¹⁴When heathen who have no Law instinctively obey what the Law demands, even though they have no law they are a law to themselves, ¹⁵for they show that what the Law demands is written on their hearts, and their consciences will testify for them, and with their thoughts they will either accuse or perhaps defend themselves, ¹⁶on that Day when, as the good news I preach teaches, God through Christ Jesus judges what men have kept secret,

¹⁷Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, ¹⁸and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right, ¹⁹and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark, ²⁰train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law— ²¹why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself? ²²Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples? ²³Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it? ²⁴For, as the Scripture says, the very name of God is abused among the heathen, because of you! ²⁵Circumcision will help you only if you observe the Law; but if you are a lawbreaker, you might as well be uncircumcised. ²⁶So if people who are uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, will they not be treated as though they were circumcised? ²⁷And if, although they are physically uncircumcised, they obey the Law, they will condemn you, who break the Law, although you have it in writing, and are circumcised. ²⁸For the real Jew is not the man who is one outwardly, and the real circumcision is not something physical and external. ²⁹The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.

Chapter 3

¹What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision? ²A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God. ³What if some of them have shown a lack of faith? Can their lack of it nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴By no means! God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says,

“That you may be shown to be upright in what you say,

And win your case when you go into court.”

⁵But if our wrongdoing brings out the uprightness of God, what are we to say? Is it wrong in God (I am putting it in ordinary human terms) to inflict punishment? ⁶By no means, for then how could he judge the world? ⁷But, you say, if a falsehood of mine has brought great honor to God by bringing out his truthfulness, why am I tried for being a sinner? ⁸And why not say, as people abuse us for saying and charge us with saying, “Let us do evil that good may come out of it”? Such people will be condemned as they deserve!

⁹What does this mean? Are we Jews at a disadvantage? Not at all. We have already charged Jews and Greeks all alike with being under the control of sin. ¹⁰As the Scripture says,

“There is not a single man who is upright,

¹¹No one understands, no one searches for God.

¹²All have turned away, they are one and all worthless,

No one does right, not a single one!

¹³Their throats are like open graves,

They use their tongues to deceive;

The venom of asps is behind their lips,

¹⁴And their mouths are full of bitter curses.

¹⁵Their feet are swift when it comes to shedding blood,

¹⁶Ruin and wretchedness mark their paths,

¹⁷They do not know the way of peace.

¹⁸There is no reverence for God before their eyes!”

¹⁹Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God. ²⁰For no human being can be made upright in the sight of God by observing the Law. All that the Law can do is to make man conscious of sin. ²¹But now God’s way of uprightness has been disclosed without any reference to law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. ²²It is God’s way of uprightness and comes through having faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who have faith, without distinction. ²³For all men sin and come short of the glory of God, ²⁴but by his mercy they are made upright for nothing, by the deliverance secured through Christ Jesus. ²⁵For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men’s former sins)— ²⁶to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.

²⁷Then what becomes of our boasting? It is shut out. On what principle? What a man does? No, but whether a man has faith. ²⁸For we hold that a man is made upright by faith; the observance of the Law has nothing to do with it. ²⁹Does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the heathen too? Of course he belongs to the heathen too; ³⁰there is but one God, and he will make the circumcised upright on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised upright because of theirs.” ³¹Is this using faith to overthrow law? Far from it. This confirms the Law.

Chapter 4

¹Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham? ²For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God, ³for what does the Scripture say? “Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness.” ⁴Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation, ⁵but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness. ⁶So David himself says of the happiness of those to whom God credits uprightness without any reference to their actions,

⁷“Happy are they whose violations of the Law have been forgiven, whose sins are covered up!

⁸Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!”

⁹Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham’s faith was credited to him as uprightness. ¹⁰In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before; ¹¹and he was afterward given the mark of circumcision as the stamp of God’s acknowledgment of the uprightness based on faith that was his before he was circumcised, so that he should be the forefather of all who, without being circumcised, have faith and so are credited with uprightness, ¹²and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham’s example in the faith he had before he was circumcised.

¹³For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith. ¹⁴For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to possess it, faith is nullified and the promise amounts to nothing! ¹⁵For the Law only brings down God’s wrath; where there is no law, there is no violation of it. ¹⁶That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God’s favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham’s descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us; ¹⁷as the Scripture says, “I have made you the father of many nations.” The promise is guaranteed in the very sight of God in whom he had faith, who can bring the dead to life and call into being what does not exist. ¹⁸Abraham, hoping against hope, had faith, and so became the father of many nations, in fulfilment of the Scripture, “So countless shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹His faith did not weaken, although he realized that his own body was worn out, for he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah was past bearing children. ²⁰He did not incredulously question God’s promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God ²¹in the full assurance that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.

²³It was not on his account alone that these words, “it was credited to him,” were written, ²⁴but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, ²⁵who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.

Chapter 5

¹So as we have been made upright by faith, let us live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³More than that, we ought to glory in our troubles, for we know that trouble produces endurance, ⁴and endurance, character, and character, hope, ⁵and hope will not disappoint us. For, through the holy Spirit that has been given us, God’s love has flooded our hearts. ⁶For when we were still helpless, at the decisive moment Christ died for us godless men. ⁷Why, a man will hardly give his life for an upright person, though perhaps for a really good man some may be brave enough to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners. ⁹So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God’s anger! ¹⁰If, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, it is far more certain that now that we are reconciled we shall be saved through sharing in his life! ¹¹More than that, we actually glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we owe our reconciliation.

¹²It is just like the way in which through one man sin came into the world, and death followed sin, and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned. ¹³It is true sin was in the world before the Law was given, and men are not charged with sin where there is no law. ¹⁴Still death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam had, in the face of an express command. So Adam foreshadowed the one who was to come. ¹⁵But there is no comparison between God’s gift and that offense. For if one man’s offense made the mass of mankind die, God’s mercy and his gift given through the favor of the one man Jesus Christ have far more powerfully affected mankind. ¹⁶Nor is there any comparison between the gift and the effects of that one man’s sin. That sentence arose from the act of one man, and was for condemnation; but God’s gift arose out of many offenses and results in acquittal. ¹⁷For if that one man’s offense made death reign through that one man, all the more will those who receive God’s overflowing mercy and his gift of uprightness live and reign through the one individual Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So as one offense meant condemnation for all men, just so one righteous act means acquittal and life for all men. ¹⁹For just as that one man’s disobedience made the mass of mankind sinners, so this one’s obedience will make the mass of them upright. ²⁰Then law slipped in, and multiplied the offense. But greatly as sin multiplied, God’s mercy has far surpassed it, ²¹so that just as sin had reigned through death, mercy might reign through uprightness and bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Chapter 6

¹Then what shall we conclude? Are we to continue to sin to increase the spread of mercy? ²Certainly not! When we have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into union with Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? ⁴Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father’s glory, we too may live a new life. ⁵For if we have grown into union with him by undergoing a death like his, of course we shall do so by being raised to life like him, ⁶for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer, ⁷for when a man is dead he is free from the claims of sin. ⁸If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, ⁹for we know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more hold on him. ¹⁰For when he died, he became once for all dead to sin; the life he now lives is a life in relation to God. ¹¹So you also must think of yourselves as dead to sin but alive to God, through union with Christ Jesus.

¹²So sin must not reign over your mortal bodies, and make you obey their cravings, ¹³and you must not offer the parts of your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrong, but offer yourselves to God as men brought back from death to life, and offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of uprightness. ¹⁴For sin must no longer control you, for you live not under law but under mercy.

¹⁵What follows, then? Are we to sin, because we live not under law but under mercy? Certainly not! ¹⁶Do you not know that when you submit to being someone’s slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness? ¹⁷But, thank God! though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from your hearts to the standard of teaching that you received, ¹⁸and so you have been freed from sin, and made slaves of uprightness. ¹⁹I use these familiar human terms because of the limitations of your nature. For just as you before gave up the parts of your bodies in slavery to vice and greater and greater license, you must now give them up in slavery to uprightness, which leads to consecration. ²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free as far as uprightness was concerned. ²¹What good did you get from doing the things you are now ashamed of? Why, they result in death! ²²But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you get is consecration, and the final result is eternal life. ²³For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is eternal life through union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chapter 7

¹Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know what law is—that law governs a man only as long as he lives? ²For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, the marriage law no longer applies to her. ³So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress. ⁴So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵For when we were living mere physical lives the sinful passions, awakened by the Law, operated through the organs of our bodies to make us bear fruit for death. ⁶But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter.

⁷Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, “You must not covet.” ⁸That command gave sin an opening, and it led me to all sorts of covetous ways, for sin is lifeless without law. ⁹I was once alive and without law, but when the command came, sin awoke and then I died; ¹⁰and the command that should have meant life in my case proved to mean death. ¹¹The command gave sin an opening and sin deceived me and killed me with it. ¹²So the Law itself is holy, and each command is holy, just, and good.

¹³Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was. ¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am physical, sold into slavery to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I am doing, for I do not do what I want to do; I do things that I hate. ¹⁶But if I do what I do not want to do, I acknowledge that the Law is right. ¹⁷In reality, it is not I that do these things; it is sin, which has possession of me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right. ¹⁹I do not do the good things that I want to do; I do the wrong things that I do not want to do. ²⁰But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is not I that am acting, it is sin, which has possession of me. ²¹I find the law to be that I who want to do right am dogged by what is wrong. ²²My inner nature agrees with the divine law, ²³but all through my body I see another principle in conflict with the law of my reason, which makes me a prisoner to that law of sin that runs through my body. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who can save me from this doomed body? ²⁵Thank God! it is done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So mentally I am a slave to God’s law, but physically to the law of sin.

Chapter 8

¹So there is no condemnation any more for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. ²For the life-giving law of the Spirit through Christ Jesus has freed you from the Law of sin and death. ³For though it was impossible for the Law to do it, hampered as it was by our physical limitations, God, by sending his own Son in our sinful physical form, as a sin-offering, put his condemnation upon sin through his physical nature, ⁴so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane. ⁵People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical, and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual. ⁶For to be physically minded means death, but to be spiritually minded means life and peace. ⁷For to be physically minded means hostility to God, for it refuses to obey God’s law, indeed it cannot obey it. ⁸Those who are physical cannot please God. ⁹But you are not physical but spiritual, if God’s Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ’s spirit, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in your hearts, though your bodies are dead in consequence of sin, your spirits have life in consequence of uprightness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you.

¹²So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control, ¹³for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body’s doings to death, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are guided by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. ¹⁵It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, “Abba!” that is, Father. ¹⁶The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God’s children, ¹⁷and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too.

¹⁸For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us. ¹⁹For creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be disclosed. ²⁰For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope ²¹that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to decay, and have the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²²We know that all creation has been groaning in agony together until now. ²³More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God’s sons, through the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it.

²⁶In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit itself pleads for us with inexpressible yearnings, ²⁷and he who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit means, for it pleads for God’s people in accordance with his will. ²⁸We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good. ²⁹For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; ³⁰and those whom he has predestined he calls, and those whom he calls he makes upright, and those whom he makes upright he glorifies.

³¹Then what shall we conclude from this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything? ³³Who can bring any accusation against those whom God has chosen? God pronounces them upright; ³⁴who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather who was raised from the dead, is at God’s right hand, and actually pleads for us. ³⁵Who can separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or misfortune or persecution or hunger or destitution or danger or the sword? ³⁶As the Scripture says,

“For your sake we are being put to death all day long,

We are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷But in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor their hierarchies nor the present nor the future ³⁹nor any supernatural forces either of height or depth will be able to separate us from the love God has shown in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Chapter 9

¹I am telling the truth as a Christian, it is no falsehood, for my conscience under the holy Spirit’s influence bears me witness in it, ²when I say that I am greatly pained and my heart is constantly distressed, ³for I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kindred. ⁴For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God’s glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises, ⁵and the patriarchs, and from them physically Christ came—God who is over all be blessed forever! Amen. ⁶Not that God’s message has failed. For not everybody who is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel, ⁷nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, “The line of Isaac will be called your descendants.” ⁸That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity. ⁹For this is what the promise said: “When I come back at this time next year, Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac. ¹¹For before the children were born or had done anything either good or bad, in order to carry out God’s purpose of selection, which depends not on what men do but on his calling them, ¹²she was told, “The elder will be the younger’s slave.” ¹³As the Scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

¹⁴What do we conclude? That God is guilty of injustice? By no means. ¹⁵He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on the man on whom I choose to have mercy, and take pity on the man on whom I choose to take pity.” ¹⁶So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God. ¹⁷The Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you to your position for the very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, and making my name known all over the world.” ¹⁸So he has mercy on anyone he pleases, and hardens the heart of anyone he pleases.

¹⁹“Why, then,” you will ask, “does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” ²⁰On the contrary, who are you, my friend, to answer back to God? Can something a man shapes say to the man who shaped it, “Why did you make me like this?” ²¹Has not the potter with his clay the right to make from the same lump one thing for exalted uses and another for menial ones? ²²Then what if God, though he wanted to display his anger and show his power, has shown great patience toward the objects of his anger, already ripe for destruction, ²³so as to show all the wealth of his glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy, whom he has prepared from the beginning to share his glory, ²⁴including us whom he has called not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen? ²⁵Just as he says in Hosea,

“I will call a people that was not mine, my people,

And her who was not beloved, my beloved,

²⁶And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are no people of mine,’

They shall be called sons of the living God.”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out about Israel, “Although the sons of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, ²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence rigorously and swiftly on the earth.” ²⁹As Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us children,

We would have been like Sodom, and have resembled Gomorrah!”

³⁰Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith; ³¹while Israel, straining after a law that should bring uprightness, did not come up to it. ³²And why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through doing certain things. They stumbled over that stone that makes people stumble, ³³as the Scripture says,

“See, I will put a stone on Zion to make people stumble, and a rock to trip over,

But no one who has faith in it will be disappointed.”

Chapter 10

¹Brothers, my heart is full of good will toward them; my prayer to God is that they may be saved. ²I can testify to their sincere devotion to God, but it is not an intelligent devotion. ³For in their ignorance of God’s way of uprightness and in the attempt to set up one of their own, they refused to conform to God’s way of uprightness. ⁴For Christ marks the termination of law, so that now anyone who has faith may attain uprightness. ⁵Moses said that anyone who carried out the uprightness the Law prescribed would find life through it. ⁶But this is what the uprightness that springs from faith says: “Do not say to yourself, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ ” that is, to bring Christ down; ⁷or “ ‘Who will go down into the depths?’ ” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. ⁸No! This is what it says: “God’s message is close to you, on your lips and in your mind”—that is, the message about faith that we preach. ⁹For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with their minds men believe and are made upright, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment and are saved. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “No one who has faith in him will be disappointed.” ¹²There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him. ¹³For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. ¹⁴But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them? ¹⁵And how are men to preach unless they are sent to do it? As the Scripture says, “How welcome is the coming of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶It is true, they have not all accepted the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what we have told?” ¹⁷So faith comes from hearing what is told, and that hearing comes through the message about Christ. ¹⁸But I ask, had they no opportunity to hear it? On the contrary,

“Their voices have gone all over the earth,

And their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹But I ask again, did Israel fail to understand? Why, to begin with, Moses said,

“I will make you jealous of what is no nation at all,

I will exasperate you at a senseless nation.”

²⁰Then Isaiah broke out boldly and said,

“I have been found by men who were not looking for me,

I have shown myself to men who were not asking what my will was.”

²¹But of Israel he said,

“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

Chapter 11

¹I ask then, has God repudiated his people? By no means. Why, I am an Israelite myself, I am descended from Abraham, and I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not repudiated his people, which he had marked out from the first. Do you not know what the Scripture says in speaking of Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel? ³“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, I am the only one left and they are trying to take my life.” ⁴But what is God’s reply? “I have left myself seven thousand men who have never knelt to Baal!” ⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant selected by God’s mercy. ⁶But if it is by his mercy, it is not for anything they have done. Otherwise, his mercy would not be mercy at all. ⁷What follows? Israel failed to get what it sought, but those whom God selected got it. ⁸The rest became callous; as the Scripture says, “God has thrown them into a state of spiritual insensibility, with eyes that cannot see and cars that cannot hear, that has lasted down to this day.” ⁹And David said,

“Let their feasting prove a snare and a trap to them,

Their ruin and their retribution.

¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see;

Make their backs bend forever under their burden!”

¹¹I ask then, has their stumbling led to their absolute ruin? By no means. Through their false step salvation has gone to the heathen, so as to make the Israelites jealous. ¹²But if their false step has so enriched the world, and their defeat has so enriched the heathen, how much more good the addition of their full number will do!

¹³But it is to you who are of the heathen that I am speaking. So far then as I am an apostle to the heathen, I make the most of my ministry, ¹⁴in the hope of making my countrymen jealous, and thus saving some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection has meant the reconciling of the world, what can the acceptance of them mean but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the first handful of dough is consecrated, the whole mass is, and if the root of a tree is consecrated, so are its branches.

¹⁷If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive’s root, ¹⁸you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you.

¹⁹“But,” you will say, “branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!”

²⁰That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid, ²¹for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you. ²²Observe then the goodness and the severity of God—severity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, provided you abide by his goodness, for otherwise, you in your turn will be pruned away. ²³Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut from a wild olive and unnaturally grafted upon a cultivated one, how much easier it will be to graft them upon the olive to which they properly belong!

²⁵For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in, ²⁶and then all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says,

“The deliverer will come from Zion,

He will drive all ungodliness away from Jacob,

²⁷And this will be my agreement with them,

When I take away their sins.”

²⁸From the point of view of the good news they are treated as enemies of God on your account; but from the point of view of God’s choice, they are dear to him because of their forefathers, ²⁹for God does not change his mind about those to whom he gives his blessings or sends his call. ³⁰For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because they disobeyed, ³¹so they are now disobedient in order that they in turn may experience the same mercy as you. ³²For God has made all men prisoners of disobedience so as to have mercy upon them all. ³³How inexhaustible God’s resources, wisdom, and knowledge are! How unfathomable his decisions are, and how untraceable his ways!

³⁴“Who has ever known the Lord’s thoughts, or advised him?

³⁵“Or who has advanced anything to him, for which he will have to be repaid?”

³⁶For from him everything comes; through him everything exists; and in him everything ends! Glory to him forever! Amen.

Chapter 12

¹I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship. ²You must not adopt the customs of this world but by your new attitude of mind be transformed so that you can find out what God’s will is—what is good, pleasing, and perfect.

³By the favor that God has shown me, I would tell every one of you not to think too highly of himself, but to think reasonably, judging himself by the degree of faith God has allowed him. ⁴For just as there are many parts united in our human bodies, and the parts do not all have the same function, ⁵so, many as we are, we form one body through union with Christ, and we are individually parts of one another. ⁶We have gifts that differ with the favor that God has shown us, whether it is that of preaching, differing with the measure of our faith, ⁷or of practical service, differing in the field of service, or the teacher who exercises his gift in teaching, ⁸the speaker, in his exhortation, the giver of charity, with generosity, the office-holder, with devotion, the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. ⁹Your love must be genuine. You must hate what is wrong, and hold to what is right. ¹⁰Be affectionate in your love for the brotherhood, eager to show one another honor, ¹¹not wanting in devotion, but on fire with the Spirit. Serve the Lord. ¹²Be happy in your hope, steadfast in time of trouble, persistent in prayer. ¹³Supply the needs of God’s people, be unfailing in hospitality. ¹⁴Bless your persecutors; bless them; do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be too ambitious, but accept humble tasks. Do not be conceited. ¹⁷Do not pay anyone back with evil for evil. See that you are above reproach in the eyes of everyone. ¹⁸If possible, for your part, live peaceably with everybody. ¹⁹Do not take your revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s anger, for the Scripture says, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back, says the Lord.” ²⁰No! If your enemy is hungry, feed him! If he is thirsty, give him something to drink! For if you do, you will heap burning coals upon his head! ²¹Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

Chapter 13

¹Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him, ²so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves. ³The man who does right has nothing to fear from the magistrates, as the wrongdoer has. If you want to have no fear of the authorities, do right, and they will commend you for it, ⁴for they are God’s agents to do you good. But if you do wrong you may well be afraid, for they do not carry swords for nothing. They are God’s servants, to execute his wrath upon wrongdoers. ⁵You must obey them, therefore, not only to escape God’s wrath, but as a matter of principle, ⁶just as you pay your taxes; they are God’s ministers, devoting themselves to this service. ⁷Pay them all what is due them—tribute to the man entitled to receive it, taxes to the man entitled to receive them, respect to the man entitled to it, and honor to the man entitled to it. ⁸Owe nobody anything—except the duty of mutual love, for whoever loves his fellow-men has fully satisfied the Law. ⁹For the commandments, “You must not commit adultery, You must not murder, You must not steal, You must not covet,” and any other commandments there are, are all summed up in one saying, “You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.” ¹⁰Love never wrongs a neighbor, and so love fully satisfies the Law.

¹¹All this especially, because you know this critical time and that it is time for you to wake from your sleep, for our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. ¹²The night is nearly over; the day is at hand. So let us throw aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us live honorably, as in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, or in immorality and indecency, or in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about gratifying your physical cravings.

Chapter 14

¹Treat people who are overscrupulous in their faith like brothers; do not criticize their views. ²One man’s faith allows him to eat anything, while the overscrupulous man eats nothing but vegetables. ³The man who will eat anything must not look down on the man who abstains from some things, and the man who abstains from them must not criticize the one who does not, for God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so. ⁵One man thinks one day better than another, while another thinks them all alike. Everybody must be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶The man who observes the day does it in the Lord’s honor. The man who eats does it in the Lord’s honor, for he gives God thanks, and the man who abstains does it in the Lord’s honor, and gives him thanks. ⁷None of us lives only to himself, and none of us dies only to himself; ⁸if we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and if we die, we are responsible to him; so whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. ⁹For Christ died and returned to life for the very purpose of being Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰What business have you to criticize your brother? What business have you to look down upon your brother? We shall all have to stand before God for judgment. ¹¹For the Scripture says,

“As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend before me,

And every tongue will make its confession to God.”

¹²So each one of us must give an account of himself to God.

¹³Therefore let us not criticize one another any more. You must resolve instead never to put any hindrance or obstacle in your brother’s way. ¹⁴I know and as a follower of the Lord Jesus I am convinced that nothing is unclean in itself; a thing is unclean only to the man who regards it as unclean. ¹⁵For if your brother’s feelings are hurt by what you eat, your life is not governed by love. You must not, by what you eat, ruin a man for whom Christ died. ¹⁶The thing you have a right to do must not become a cause of reproach. ¹⁷The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of uprightness, peace, and happiness through the possession of the holy Spirit. ¹⁸Whoever serves Christ in that way pleases God and gains the approval of men. ¹⁹Let us, therefore, keep before us whatever will contribute to peace and the development of one another. ²⁰You must not, just for the sake of food, undo the work of God. It is true, everything is clean, but it is wrong for a man to hurt the consciences of others by what he eats. ²¹The right thing to do is to eat no meat at all and to drink no wine or do anything else if it hurts your brother’s conscience. ²²For your part, you must keep the faith you have to yourself, as between God and you. He is a happy man who has no fault to find with himself in following the course that he approves, ²³but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.

Chapter 15

¹It is the duty of us who are strong to put up with the weaknesses of those who are immature, and not just suit ourselves. ²Everyone of us must try to please his neighbor, to do him good, and help in his development. ³Christ did not please himself, but as the Scripture says, “The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” ⁴For everything that was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that by being steadfast and through the encouragement the Scriptures give, we might hold our hope fast. ⁵May God, from whom steadfastness and encouragement come, give you such harmony with one another, in following the example of Christ Jesus, ⁶that you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one accord and one voice.

⁷Therefore, treat one another like brothers, in God’s honor, just as Christ has treated you. ⁸I hold that Christ has become an agent of circumcision to show God’s truthfulness in carrying out the promises made to our forefathers, ⁹and causing the heathen to praise God for his mercy; as the Scripture says,

“I will give thanks to you for this among the heathen,

And sing in honor of your name.”

¹⁰And again,

“Rejoice, you heathen, with his people!”

¹¹And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you heathen,

And let all nations sing his praises.”

¹²Again Isaiah says,

“The descendant of Jesse will come,

The one who is to rise to rule the heathen;

The heathen will set their hopes on him.”

¹³May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit.

¹⁴For my part, as far as you are concerned, my brothers, I am convinced that you are already full of goodness of heart, endowed with perfect knowledge, and well qualified to instruct one another. ¹⁵But, just to refresh your memories, I have written you pretty boldly on some points, because of the favor God has shown me ¹⁶in making me a minister of Christ Jesus among the heathen, to act as a priest of God’s good news, to see that the heathen are an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the holy Spirit. ¹⁷So as a follower of Christ Jesus I have reason to be proud of my work for God. ¹⁸For I will venture to speak only of what Christ has accomplished through me in winning the heathen to obedience, by word and action, ¹⁹by the force of signs and marvels, and by the power of the holy Spirit, with the result that I have completed the preaching of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum. ²⁰In all this it has been my ambition to preach the good news only where Christ’s name was unknown, so as not to build on foundations other men had laid. ²¹As the Scripture says,

“They who have never been told of him will see,

And they who have never heard will understand!”

²²This is why I have so often been prevented from coming to see you. ²³But now there is no more work for me in this part of the world, and as I have had a great desire for many years to come to see you, ²⁴when I go to Spain I hope to see you on my way there, and to have you see me off on my journey, after I have enjoyed being with you for a while. ²⁵Just now I am starting for Jerusalem, to take help to God’s people. ²⁶For Macedonia and Greece have determined to make a contribution for the poor among God’s people in Jerusalem. ²⁷They determined to do it, and they really are indebted to them, for if the heathen have shared their spiritual blessings, they ought to do them a service in material ways. ²⁸So when I have finished this matter, and seen this contribution safely into their possession, I will start for Spain, and come to you on the way, ²⁹and I know that when I do come to see you, I will come with Christ’s fullest blessing.

³⁰I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the love that the Spirit inspires, join me in most earnest prayer to God for me. ³¹Pray that I may escape from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God’s people, ³²so that, if it is God’s will, I may come with a glad heart to see you and enjoy a visit with you. ³³God who gives peace be with you all! Amen.

Chapter 16

¹I want to introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a helper in the church at Cenchreae. ²Welcome her as a Christian, as God’s people should welcome one another, and give her whatever help she may need from you. For she has herself been a protection to many, including myself.

³Remember me to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in the cause of Christ Jesus, ⁴who risked their necks to save my life. Not only I but also all the churches among the heathen thank them. Remember me also to the church that meets at their house. ⁵Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first man in Asia to turn to Christ. ⁶Remember me to Mary, who has worked so hard for you. ⁷Remember me to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow-countrymen, who went to prison with me. They are noted men among the missionaries, and they became Christians before I did. ⁸Remember me to Ampliatus, my dear Christian friend. ⁹Remember me to Urbanus, our fellow-worker in Christ’s cause, and to my dear Stachys. ¹⁰Remember me to that veteran Christian, Apelles. Remember me to those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. ¹¹Remember me to my fellow-countryman, Herodion. Remember me to the Christians in the household of Narcissus. ¹²Remember me to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, those hard workers in the Lord’s cause. Remember me to my dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord, ¹³Remember me to Rufus, that eminent Christian, and to his mother, who has been a mother to me. ¹⁴Remember me to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who meet with them. ¹⁵Remember me to Philologus and Julia, to Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas, and all God’s people who meet with them. ¹⁶Greet one another with a sacred kiss. All the churches of Christ wish to be remembered to you.

¹⁷I beg you, brothers, to be on the watch for those who introduce divisions and difficulties, in opposition to the instruction that you were given, and to avoid them. ¹⁸Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people. ¹⁹Everyone has heard of your obedience, and I am very happy about you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and guileless about what is bad. ²⁰And God, who is the source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The blessing of our Lord Jesus be with you.

²¹My fellow-worker, Timothy, wishes to be remembered to you, and so do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow-countrymen. ²²I, Tertius, who write this letter, wish to be remembered to you as a fellow-Christian. ²³My host, Gaius, the host of the whole church, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the city-treasurer, and our brother Quartus wish to be remembered to you.

²⁵To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed, ²⁶and at the command of the eternal God made known through the writings of the prophets to all the heathen, to lead them to obedience and faith— ²⁷to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The First Letter to the Corinthians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, by the will of God called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and our brother Sosthenes, ²to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called as God’s people, like all those anywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours; ³God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

⁴I am always thanking God about you, for the blessing God has given you through Christ Jesus. ⁵For you have grown rich in everything through union with him—in power of expression and in capacity for knowledge. ⁶So your experience has confirmed the testimony that I bore to Christ, ⁷and there is no gift that you lack even while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to reappear, ⁸and at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ he will insure your complete vindication. ⁹God can be depended on, and it was he who called you to this fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰But I urge you all, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree in what you say, and not to allow factions among you, but to be perfectly united in mind and judgment. ¹¹For I have been informed, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that quarrels are going on among you. ¹²What I mean is this, that one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” another, “And I, of Apollos,” another, “And I, of Cephas,” and another, “And I, of Christ!” ¹³Christ has been divided up! But was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I am thankful that I never baptized any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so that no one could say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶And I did baptize the members of the household of Stephanas too; I do not know whether I baptized anyone else besides. ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news—but not with fine language, or the cross of Christ might seem an empty thing.

¹⁸For to those who are on the way to destruction, the story of the cross is nonsense, but to us who are to be saved, it means all the power of God. ¹⁹For the Scripture says,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

And I will thwart the shrewdness of the shrewd!”

²⁰Where now is your philosopher? Your scribe? Your reasoner of today? Has not God made a fool of the world’s wisdom?

²¹For since in God’s providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him. ²²For Jews insist upon miracles, and Greeks demand philosophy, ²³but we proclaim a Christ who was crucified—an idea that is revolting to Jews and absurd to the heathen, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is God’s power and God’s wisdom. ²⁵For God’s folly is beyond the wisdom of men, and God’s weakness is beyond their strength.

²⁶For consider, brothers, what happened when God called you. Not many of you were what men call wise, not many of you were influential, not many were of high birth. ²⁷But it was what the world calls foolish that God chose to put the wise to shame with, and it was what the world calls weak that God chose to shame its strength with, ²⁸and it was what the world calls low and insignificant and unreal that God chose to nullify its realities, ²⁹so that in his presence no human being might have anything to boast of. ³⁰But you are his children, through your union with Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom—our uprightness and consecration and redemption, ³¹so that, as the Scripture says, “Let him who would boast, boast of the Lord!”

Chapter 2

¹So when I came to you, brothers, I did not come and tell you the secret purpose of God in superior, philosophical language, ²for I resolved, while I was with you, to forget everything but Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. ³For my part, I came among you in weakness and with a great deal of fear and trembling, ⁴and my teaching and message were not put in plausible, philosophical language, but they were attended with convincing spiritual power, ⁵so that your faith might rest, not on human philosophy, but on the power of God.

⁶Yet there is a wisdom that we impart when we are with people who have a mature faith, but it is not what this world calls wisdom, nor what the authorities of this world, doomed as they are to pass away, would call so. ⁷But it is a mysterious divine wisdom that we impart, hitherto kept secret, and destined by God before the world began for our glory. ⁸It is a wisdom unknown to any of the authorities of this world, for otherwise they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. ⁹But, as the Scripture says, there are things

“Which no eye ever saw and no ear ever heard,

And never occurred to the human mind,

Which God has provided for those who love him.”

¹⁰For God revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit fathoms everything, even the depths of God himself. ¹¹For what human being can understand a man’s thoughts except the man’s own spirit within him? Just so no one understands the thoughts of God but the spirit of God. ¹²But the Spirit we have received is not that of the world, but the Spirit that comes from God, which we have to make us realize the blessings God has given us. ¹³These disclosures we impart, not in the set phrases of human philosophy, but in words the Spirit teaches, giving spiritual truth a spiritual form. ¹⁴A material man will not accept what the Spirit of God offers. It seems mere folly to him, and he cannot understand it, because it takes spiritual insight to see its true value. ¹⁵But the spiritual man is alive to all true values, but his own true value no unspiritual man can see. ¹⁶For who has ever known the Lord’s thoughts, so that he can instruct him? But we share the thoughts of Christ.

Chapter 3

¹So, for my part, brothers, I could not treat you as spiritual persons; I had to treat you just as creatures of flesh and blood, as babies in Christian living. ²I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

Why, you are not ready for it now, ³for you are still worldly. For when there are still jealousy and quarrels among you, are you not worldly and living on a merely human level? ⁴For when one man says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another, “I am a follower of Apollos,” are you not simply human? ⁵What is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Just servants through whom you came to have faith, as the Lord gave each of us opportunity. ⁶I did the planting, Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the plants grow. ⁷So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything, but only God who makes the plants grow. ⁸The planter and the waterer are all one, though each of us will be paid for his own work. ⁹For we are fellow-laborers for God, and you are God’s farm, God’s building.

¹⁰Like an expert builder, I laid a foundation, as God commissioned me to do, and now someone else is building upon it. But let everyone be careful how he does so. ¹¹For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is laid, that is, Jesus Christ himself. ¹²And whether one uses gold or silver or costly stone in building on the foundation, or wood or hay or straw, ¹³the quality of everyone’s work will appear, for the Day will show it. For the Day will break in fire, and the fire will test the quality of everyone’s work. ¹⁴If what a man has built on the foundation stands the test, he will have his pay. ¹⁵If a man’s work is burned up, he must stand the loss, though he himself will be saved, but as one who has passed through the fire.

¹⁶Do you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit makes its home in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is sacred, and that is what you are.

¹⁸Let no one of you deceive himself. If any one of you imagines that he is wiser than the rest of you, in what this world calls wisdom, he had better become a fool, so as to become really wise. ¹⁹For this world’s wisdom is foolishness to God. For the Scripture says, “He who catches the wise with their own cunning,” ²⁰and “The Lord knows that the deliberations of the wise are fruitless.” ²¹So no one should boast about men. For it all belongs to you— ²²Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it belongs to you. ²³But you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Chapter 4

¹The right way for a man to think of us is as Christ’s servants, and managers authorized to distribute the secret truths of God. ²Now further, what is always demanded of managers is that they can be depended on. ³I for my part care very little about being examined by you or by any human court. I do not even offer myself for investigation. ⁴For while my conscience does not trouble me at all, that does not prove that I am innocent. It is the Lord who must examine me. ⁵Do not form any premature judgments, therefore, but wait until the Lord comes back. For he will light up the darkness that now hides things and show what the motives in people’s minds are, and then everyone will get from God the praise he deserves.

⁶Now, brothers, for your benefit I have applied all this only to Apollos and myself, by using us as illustrations to teach you the old lesson, “Never go beyond the letter,” and to keep any of you from boasting of one teacher at the expense of another. ⁷For who sees anything special in you? And what have you got that you have not been given? But if it has been given you, why do you boast as though it had not been? ⁸Are you satisfied already? Have you become rich already? Have you entered your kingdom without waiting for us? I wish you had entered it, so that we might share it with you! ⁹For it seems to me, God has exhibited us apostles at the very end of the procession, like the men condemned to die in the arena. For we have become a spectacle to the whole universe, angels as well as men. ¹⁰We are made fools of, for the sake of Christ, while you are men of sense, through being united with him. We are weak, you are strong. You are distinguished, we are despised. ¹¹To this day we have gone hungry, thirsty, and ill-clad; we have had rough usage, we have had no home, ¹²we have worked with our hands for a living. When people abuse us, we bless them, when they persecute us, we put up with it, ¹³when they slander us, we try to conciliate them. We have come to be like the scum of the earth, the dregs of the world, and we are so now.

¹⁴I do not write this to you to make you ashamed, but for your instruction as my dear children. ¹⁵For no matter how many guides you may have in the Christian life, you will not have many fathers; for in this matter of union with Christ, I became your father, through preaching the good news to you. ¹⁶So I urge you, follow my example. ¹⁷This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine, in the service of the Lord, and one on whom you can depend, and he will help you to keep in mind my methods in the service of Christ Jesus, which I follow everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some of you seem to think that I am not coming to visit you, and are putting on airs about it. ¹⁹But I am coming very soon to see you, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not what these conceited people have to say, but what they can actually do. ²⁰For the reign of God is not a matter of words but of power. ²¹Which will you have? Shall I come to you with a stick, or in a loving and gentle spirit?

Chapter 5

¹Immorality is actually notorious among you, and immorality of a kind unknown even among the heathen—that a man has taken his father’s wife. ²And can you put on airs, instead of being overwhelmed with grief at having to expel from your number the man who has done this? ³For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this, ⁴and meeting with you, in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, by the authority of our Lord Jesus ⁵I have handed the man over to Satan, for his physical destruction, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. ⁶Certainly this is nothing for you to boast of. Do you not know that a little yeast will affect all the dough? ⁷You must clean out the old yeast and become fresh dough, free from the old as you really are. For our Passover lamb is already sacrificed; it is Christ himself. ⁸So let us keep the festival, not with old yeast nor with the yeast of vice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.

⁹I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people— ¹⁰not that you are to have nothing whatever to do with the immoral people of the world, any more than with its greedy and grasping people or idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world altogether. ¹¹What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who is supposed to be a Christian brother, and yet is immoral or greedy or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or grasping—with such a person you must not even eat. ¹²For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not your part to judge those who are inside the church, ¹³and God’s, to judge those who are outside? You must drive the wrongdoer out from among you.

Chapter 6

¹When one of you has a disagreement with his neighbor, does he dare to bring the matter before a heathen court, instead of laying it before his Christian brothers? ²Do you not know that the Christians are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to come before you for judgment, are you unfit to decide the most trivial cases? ³Do you not know that we are to be the judges of angels, to say nothing of ordinary matters? ⁴If then you have ordinary matters to be settled, will you submit them for judgment to men who are nothing in the church? ⁵I ask it to shame you. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a disagreement between one brother and another, ⁶but one Christian has to go to law with another, and before unbelievers too? ⁷Having lawsuits with one another at all means your utter failure, to begin with. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be robbed? ⁸But it is you who wrong and rob others, and your own brothers at that! ⁹Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have any share in God’s kingdom? Do not let anyone mislead you. People who are immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or given to unnatural vice ¹⁰or thieves or greedy—drunkards, abusive people, robbers—will not have any share in God’s kingdom. ¹¹Some of you used to be like that; but you have washed it all away, you have been consecrated, you have become upright, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.

¹²I may do anything I please, but not everything I may do is good for me. I may do anything I please; but I am not going to let anything master me. ¹³It is true, food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for the food, but God will put an end to both of them. But the body is not meant for immorality, but for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body to serve. ¹⁴And as God raised the Lord to life, he will raise us also by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ’s body? Am I then to take away from Christ parts of his body, and make them parts of a prostitute’s? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes one body with her? For “The two,” says the Scripture, “shall become physically one.” ¹⁷But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. ¹⁸Fly from immorality! Any other sin a man commits is something outside his body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit that is within you, which you have received from God? Besides, you are not your own; ²⁰you have been bought and paid for. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

Chapter 7

¹As to the matters of which you wrote me, it is an excellent thing for a man to remain unmarried. ²But there is so much immorality that every man had better have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own. ³The husband must give his wife what is due her, and the wife must do the same by her husband. ⁴A wife cannot do as she likes with her own person; it is her husband’s; and in the same way a husband cannot do as he likes with his own person; it is his wife’s. ⁵You must not refuse each other what is due, unless you agree to do so for a while, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then to come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you through your lack of self-control. ⁶But I mean this as a concession, not a command. ⁷I should like to have everyone be just as I am myself; but each one has his own special gift from God, one of one kind, and one of another.

⁸To all who are unmarried and to widows, I would say this: It is an excellent thing if they can remain single as I am. ⁹But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be on fire with passion. ¹⁰To those already married my instructions are—and they are not mine, but the Lord’s—that a wife is not to separate from her husband. ¹¹If she does separate, she must remain single or else become reconciled to him. And a husband must not divorce his wife. ¹²To other people I would say, though not as Christ’s command, if a Christian has a wife who is not a believer, and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her, ¹³and a woman who has a husband who is not a believer, but is willing to live with her, must not divorce her husband. ¹⁴For the husband who is not a believer is consecrated through union with his wife, and the woman who is not a believer is consecrated through union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but, as it is, they are consecrated. ¹⁵But if the one who is not a believer wishes to separate, let the separation take place. In such cases the brother or sister is not a slave; God has called you to live in peace. ¹⁶For how do you wives know whether you will save your husbands? Or how do you husbands know whether you will save your wives?

¹⁷Only, everyone must continue in the station which the Lord has appointed for him, and in which he was when God’s call came to him. This is the rule I make in all the churches. ¹⁸If a man was circumcised when he was called, he must not try to alter it. If a man was uncircumcised when he was called, he must not have himself circumcised. ¹⁹Being circumcised or being uncircumcised does not make any difference; all that matters is keeping God’s commands. ²⁰Everyone ought to remain in the station in which he was called. ²¹If you were a slave when you were called, never mind. Even if you can gain your freedom, make the most of your present condition instead. ²²For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ. ²³You have been bought and paid for; you must not let yourselves become slaves to men. ²⁴Brothers, everyone must remain in fellowship with God in the station in which he was called.

²⁵About unmarried women I have no command of the Lord to give you, but I will give you my opinion as that of one on whom through the Lord’s mercy you can depend.

²⁶This, then, is my opinion in view of the present distress—that it is a good thing for a man to remain just as he is. ²⁷If you are united to a wife, do not seek to be released. If you are not, do not seek a wife. ²⁸But if you do marry, there is no sin in that. And if a girl marries, it is no sin. But those who marry will have worldly trouble, which I would like to spare you. ²⁹But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none, ³⁰and those who mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy anything as though they did not own it, ³¹and those who mix in the world, as though they were not absorbed in it. For the present shape of the world is passing away. ³²I want you to be free from all anxiety. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s work, and how he can please the Lord. ³³A married man is concerned about worldly affairs, and how he can please his wife, and so his interests are divided. ³⁴An unmarried woman or a girl is concerned about the Lord’s work, so as to be consecrated in body and spirit, but the woman who marries is concerned with worldly affairs, and how she can please her husband. ³⁵It is for your benefit that I say this, not to put a halter on you, but to promote good order, and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

³⁶But if a man thinks he is not acting properly toward the girl to whom he is engaged, if his passions are too strong, and that is what ought to be done, let him do as he pleases; it is no sin; let them be married. ³⁷But a man who has definitely made up his mind, under no constraint of passion but with full self-control, and who has decided in his own mind to keep her as she is, will be doing what is right. ³⁸So the man who marries her does what is right, and the man who refrains from doing so does even better.

³⁹A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases so long as he is a Christian. ⁴⁰But she will be happier, in my judgment, if she remains as she is, and I think I have God’s spirit as well as other people.

Chapter 8

¹About food that has been offered to idols, it is true, as you say, that we all have some knowledge on that matter. Knowledge gives people airs; love is what builds up character. ²If a man thinks he has acquired some knowledge, he does not yet know it as well as he ought to know it. ³But if a man loves God, God is known by him. ⁴As to eating things, then, that have been offered to idols, we all know that no idol has any real existence, and that there is no God but one. ⁵For supposing there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth—and indeed there are plenty of such gods and lords— ⁶yet for us there is just one God, the Father, who is the source of all things, and for whom we live, and just one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom everything was made and through whom we live. ⁷But it is not everyone that has this knowledge; for some, through being long accustomed to idols, still eat meat that has been sacrificed to them as really offered to an idol, and their consciences, being oversensitive, are troubled. ⁸But food is not going to affect our standing with God. We are none the worse if we do not eat it, and none the better if we do. ⁹But you must take care that this right of yours does not prove a hindrance to the overscrupulous. ¹⁰For if somebody sees you, who are intelligent about this matter, attending a dinner in an idol’s temple, will not he, with his sensitive conscience, be led to eat meat that is offered to idols? ¹¹For this overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by what you call your knowledge. ¹²But in sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their too scrupulous consciences, you are really sinning against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if what I eat makes my brother fall, I will never eat meat again, rather than make my brother fall.

Chapter 9

¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the product of my work in the Lord’s service? ²If I am not an apostle to other people, I certainly am one to you, for you yourselves, in your relation to the Lord, are the certificate of my apostleship.

³My answer to those who want to investigate me is this: ⁴Have we not a right to our food and drink? ⁵Have we not a right to take a Christian wife about with us, like the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? ⁶Or is it only Barnabas and I that have no right to give up working for a living? ⁷What soldier ever pays his expenses out of his own pay? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the grapes? Who tends a flock and does not get any of the milk? ⁸Am I saying only what men say? Does not the Law say so too? ⁹For in the Law of Moses it reads, “You shall not muzzle an ox that is treading out the grain.” Is it about the oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰Is he not clearly speaking in our interests? Of course this law was written in our interests, because the plowman ought to plow, and the thresher to thresh, in the expectation of sharing in the crop. ¹¹If it was we who sowed the spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? ¹²If others enjoy such rights over you, have we not a still better claim? But, you say, we have never availed ourselves of this right. No, we will stand anything rather than put any hindrance in the way of the good news of the Christ. ¹³Do you not know that those who do the work about the Temple get their living from the Temple, and those who attend to the altar divide the sacrifices with the altar? ¹⁴In just that way the Lord directed that those who preach the good news should get their living from it. ¹⁵But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine. ¹⁶As far as preaching the good news is concerned, that is nothing for me to boast of, for I cannot help doing it. For I am ruined if I do not preach. ¹⁷For if I do it of my own accord, I have my pay, but if I do it because I must, it is still a responsibility that I am charged with. ¹⁸What pay then do I get? Why, that in my preaching I can offer the good news without cost, and so not take full advantage of my rights as a preacher.

¹⁹Though I am free from anyone’s control, I have made myself everyone’s slave, so as to win over all the more. ²⁰To the Jews I have become like a Jew, to win Jews over; to men under the Law I have become like a man under the Law, though I am not myself under the Law, so as to win over those who are under the Law. ²¹To those who have no law I have become like a man without any law—though I am not without the law of God, but under the law of Christ—so as to win over those who are without any law. ²²To the overscrupulous I have become overscrupulous, so as to win the overscrupulous; I have become everything to everybody, so as by all means to save some of them. ²³And I do it all for the sake of the good news, so that I may share in its blessings along with the rest.

²⁴Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one wins the prize? That is the way you must run, so as to win. ²⁵Any man who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training, to win a wreath that will soon wither, but the one we compete for will never wither. ²⁶So that is the way I run, unswervingly. That is the way I fight, not punching the air. ²⁷But I beat and bruise my body and make it my slave, so that after I have called others to the contest I may not be disqualified myself.

Chapter 10

¹For I would not have you forget, brothers, that though our forefathers were all protected by the cloud, and all passed safely through the sea, ²and in the cloud and the sea all, as it were, accepted baptism as followers of Moses, ³and all ate the same supernatural food ⁴and drank the same supernatural drink—for they used to drink from a supernatural rock which attended them, and the rock was really Christ— ⁵still most of them disappointed God, for they were struck down in the desert.

⁶Now these things happened to warn us, so that we should not long for what is evil as they did. ⁷You must not become idolaters, like some of them, for the Scripture says, “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to dance.” ⁸Let us not practice immorality, like some of them, twenty-three thousand of whom fell dead in one day, ⁹Let us not try the Lord’s patience too far, as some of them did, for they were killed for it by the snakes. ¹⁰You must not grumble, as some of them did, for they were destroyed for it by the destroying angel. ¹¹These things happened to them as a warning to others, but they were written down to instruct us, in whose days the ages have reached their climax.

¹²So the man who thinks he can stand must be on his guard against a fall. ¹³It is no superhuman temptation that you have had. And God can be depended on, not to let you be tried beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to give you a way out of it, so that you can withstand it.

¹⁴Therefore, my dear brothers, have nothing to do with the worship of idols. ¹⁵I appeal to your good sense. Make up your minds about what I say. ¹⁶Does not the consecrated cup which we bless mean that in drinking it we share in the blood of Christ? Does not the bread that we break mean that in eating it we share in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we, many as we are, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. ¹⁸Think of the Israelites’ practices. Do not those who eat what is sacrificed have divine fellowship at the sacrificial altar? ¹⁹What am I saying then? That there is any such thing as being offered to an idol, or any such thing as an idol? ²⁰No, but that what the heathen sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons. ²²Or are we trying to arouse the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?

²³We are free to do anything, but not everything is good for us. We are free to do anything, but not everything builds up character. ²⁴No one should look after his own advantage but after that of his neighbor.

²⁵Eat anything for sale in the meat market without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned, ²⁶for the earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord. ²⁷If one of the heathen invites you to his house, and you wish to go, eat whatever is served, without raising any question, as far as conscience is concerned. ²⁸But if someone says to you, “This meat has been offered in sacrifice,” let it alone, on account of the man who told you and his conscientious scruples; ²⁹his scruples, I say, not yours. For why should my liberty of action be limited by another’s scruples? ³⁰If I give thanks for what I eat, why should I be denounced for eating what I give thanks over?

³¹So whether you are eating or drinking or doing anything else, do it all to the honor of God. ³²You must not be hindrances to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God either, ³³just as I for my part try to please everyone in all I do, not aiming at my own advantage, but at that of people generally, in order that they may be saved.

Chapter 11

¹You must follow my example in this, as I am following Christ’s.

²I appreciate your always remembering me, and your standing by the things I passed on to you, just as you received them. ³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, while a woman’s head is her husband, and Christ’s head is God. ⁴Any man who offers prayer or explains the will of God with anything on his head disgraces his head, ⁵and any woman who offers prayer or explains the will of God bareheaded disgraces her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved. ⁶For if a woman will not wear a veil, let her cut off her hair too. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her wear a veil. ⁷For a man ought not to wear anything on his head, for he is the image of God and reflects his glory; while woman is the reflection of man’s glory. ⁸For man was not made from woman, but woman from man, ⁹and man was not created for woman, but woman was for man. ¹⁰That is why she ought to wear upon her head something to symbolize her subjection, out of respect to the angels, if to nobody else. ¹¹But in union with the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman. ¹²For just as woman was made from man, man is born of woman, and both like everything else really come from God. ¹³Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to offer prayer to God with nothing on her head? ¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear his hair long is degrading, ¹⁵but a woman’s long hair is her pride? For her hair is given her as a covering. ¹⁶But if anyone is disposed to be contentious about it, I for my part recognize no other practice in worship than this, and neither do the churches of God.

¹⁷But while I am on this subject, I cannot approve of your meetings, because they are doing you more harm than good. ¹⁸For, in the first place, when you meet as a congregation, I hear that you divide into sets, and in a measure I believe it. ¹⁹Doubtless there must be parties among you, if those who are right are to be recognized among you. ²⁰So when you hold your meetings it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat, ²¹for each of you hurries to get his own supper and eat it, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. ²²Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly. ²³For I myself received from the Lord the account that I passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus the night he was betrayed took some bread ²⁴and gave thanks for it and then broke it in pieces, saying, “This is my body which takes your place. Do this in memory of me.” ²⁵He took the cup, too, after supper, in the same way, saying, “This cup is the new agreement ratified by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.” ²⁶For until the Lord comes back, every time you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim his death. ²⁷Hence anyone who eats the bread or drinks from the Lord’s cup in a way that is unworthy of it will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man should examine himself, and only when he has done so should he eat any of the bread or drink from the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks, eats and drinks a judgment upon himself if he does not recognize the body. ³⁰This is why many of you are sick and ill and a number have fallen asleep. ³¹But if we recognized our own condition, we would not incur this judgment. ³²But since we do incur it, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. ³³So, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring down a judgment upon you. The details I will settle when I come.

Chapter 12

¹About spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be misinformed. ²You know that when you were heathen you would stray off, as impulse directed, to idols that could not speak. ³Therefore, I must tell you that no one who is speaking under the influence of the Spirit of God ever says, “Curse Jesus!” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord!” without being under the influence of the holy Spirit.

⁴Endowments vary, but the Spirit is the same, ⁵and forms of service vary, but it is the same Lord who is served, ⁶and activities vary, but God who produces them all in us all is the same. ⁷Each one is given his spiritual illumination for the common good. ⁸One man receives through the Spirit the power to speak wisely, another, by the same Spirit, receives the power to express knowledge, ⁹another, from his union with the same Spirit receives faith, another, by one and the same Spirit, the ability to cure the sick, ¹⁰another, the working of wonders, another, inspiration in preaching, another, the power of distinguishing the true Spirit from false ones, another, various ecstatic utterances, and another, the ability to explain them. ¹¹These are all produced by one and the same Spirit, and apportioned to each of us just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we have all—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free men—been baptized in one spirit to form one body, and we have all been saturated with one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body does not consist of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot says, “As I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear says, “As I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If all the body were eye, how would we hear? If it were all ear, how could we have a sense of smell? ¹⁸As it is, God has arranged the parts, every one of them in the body as he wished them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” or the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” ²²On the contrary, the parts of the body that are considered most delicate are indispensable, ²³and the parts of it that we think common, we dress with especial care, and our unpresentable parts receive especial attention ²⁴which our presentable parts do not need. God has so adjusted the body and given such especial distinction to its inferior parts ²⁵that there is no clash in the body, but its parts all alike care for one another. ²⁶If one part suffers, all the parts share its sufferings. If a part has honor done it, all the parts enjoy it too. ²⁷Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it. ²⁸And God has placed people in the church, first as apostles, second as inspired preachers, third as teachers, then wonder-workers; then come ability to cure the sick, helpfulness, administration, ecstatic speaking. ²⁹Is everyone an apostle? Is everyone an inspired preacher? Is everyone a teacher? Is everyone a wonder-worker? ³⁰Is everyone able to cure the sick? Can everyone speak ecstatically? Can everyone explain what it means? ³¹But you must cultivate the higher endowments.

Chapter 13

¹I will show you a far better way. If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal. ²If I am inspired to preach and know all the secret truths and possess all knowledge, and if I have such perfect faith that I can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. ³Even if I give away everything I own, and give myself up, but do it in pride, not love, it does me no good. ⁴Love is patient and kind. Love is not envious or boastful. It does not put on airs. ⁵It is not rude. It does not insist on its rights. It does not become angry. It is not resentful. ⁶It is not happy over injustice, it is only happy with truth. ⁷It will bear anything, believe anything, hope for anything, endure anything. ⁸Love will never die out. If there is inspired preaching, it will pass away. If there is ecstatic speaking, it will cease. If there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For our knowledge is imperfect and our preaching is imperfect. ¹⁰But when perfection comes, what is imperfect will pass away. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside my childish ways. ¹²For now we are looking at a dim reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. Now my knowledge is imperfect, but then I shall know as fully as God knows me. ¹³So faith, hope, and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love.

Chapter 14

¹You must pursue love, while you are cultivating the spiritual endowments, and especially inspired preaching. ²For anyone who speaks ecstatically is speaking not to men but to God, for no one can understand him, though he is uttering secret truths. ³But the inspired preacher does his fellow-men good and encourages and comforts them. ⁴Anyone who speaks ecstatically does himself good, but the inspired preacher does a congregation good. ⁵I want you all to speak ecstatically, but I especially want you to be inspired to preach. The man who is inspired to preach is more useful than the one who speaks ecstatically—unless he can explain what he says so that it may do the church some good.

⁶But as it is brothers, if I come back to you and speak ecstatically, what good will I do you, unless I have some revelation or special knowledge or message or teaching to give you? ⁷Even inanimate things, like the flute or the harp, may produce sound, but if there is no difference in the notes, how can you tell what is being played? ⁸If the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle? ⁹So if you in your ecstatic speaking utter words no one can understand, how will people know what you are saying? You will be talking to the empty air! ¹⁰There are probably ever so many different languages in the world, each with its own meaning. ¹¹So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall seem to the man who is speaking to be a foreigner, and he will seem to me to be one too. ¹²So since you are ambitious for spiritual endowments, you must try to excel in them in ways that will do good to the church. ¹³Therefore, the man who can speak ecstatically should pray for the power to explain what he says. ¹⁴For if I pray ecstatically, it is my spirit that prays, but my mind is helping nobody. ¹⁵Then what am I to do? I will pray ecstatically, but I will pray intelligently too. I will sing ecstatically, but I will sing intelligently too. ¹⁶For if you utter blessings in ecstatic speech, how is an ordinary man to say Amen to your thanksgiving? For he does not know what you are saying. ¹⁷You are giving thanks well enough, but it is doing him no good. ¹⁸Thank God, I speak in ecstasy more than any of you. ¹⁹But in public worship I would rather say five words with my understanding so as to instruct others also than ten thousand words in an ecstasy.

²⁰Brothers, you must not be children mentally. In evil be babies, but mentally be mature. ²¹In the Law it says, “By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this nation, and not even then will they listen to me, says the Lord.” ²²So this ecstatic speaking is meant as a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but inspired preaching is a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe. ²³Hence, if the whole church assembles and they all speak ecstatically, and ordinary people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy? ²⁴But if they are all inspired to preach and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convinced of his sin by them all, he is called to account by them all, ²⁵the secrets of his heart are exposed, and he will fall down on his face and worship God, and declare that God is really among you.

²⁶Then what is the right course, brothers? When you meet together, suppose every one of you has a song, a teaching, a revelation, an ecstatic utterance, or an explanation of one; it must all be for the good of all. ²⁷If there is any ecstatic speaking, let it be limited to two or three people at the most, and have one speak at a time and someone explain what he says. ²⁸But if there is no one to explain it, have him keep quiet in church, and talk to himself and to God. ²⁹And let two or three who are inspired to preach speak, while the rest weigh what is said; ³⁰and if anything is revealed to another who is seated, the one who is speaking must stop. ³¹For in this way you can all preach one after another, as you are inspired to, so that everyone may be instructed and stimulated, ³²for the spirits of prophets will give way to prophets, ³³for God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This is the rule in all Christian churches.

³⁴Women are to keep quiet in church, for they are not allowed to speak. They must take a subordinate place, just as the Law says. ³⁵If they want to find out about anything, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church. ³⁶Did God’s message start from you Corinthians? Or are you the only people it has reached?

³⁷If anyone claims to be inspired to preach, or to have any other spiritual endowment, let him understand that what I am now writing you is a command from the Lord. ³⁸If anyone pays no attention to it, pay no attention to him. ³⁹So, my brothers, set your hearts on being inspired to preach, and yet do not hinder people from speaking ecstatically. ⁴⁰But let everything be done in a proper and orderly way.

Chapter 15

¹Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the form in which I presented to you the good news I brought, which you accepted and have stood by, ²and through which you are to be saved, if you hold on, unless your faith has been all for nothing. ³For I passed on to you, as of first importance, the account I had received, that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures foretold, ⁴that he was buried, that on the third day he was raised from the dead, as the Scriptures foretold, ⁵and that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the Twelve. ⁶After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles, ⁸and finally he was seen by me also, as though I were born at the wrong time. ⁹For I am the least important of the apostles, and am not fit to be called an apostle, because I once persecuted God’s church. ¹⁰But by God’s favor I have become what I am, and the favor he showed me has not gone for nothing, but I have worked harder than any of them, although it was not really I but the favor God showed me. ¹¹But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

¹²Now if what we preach about Christ is that he was raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not raised, ¹⁴and if Christ was not raised, there is nothing in our message; there is nothing in our faith either, ¹⁵and we are found guilty of misrepresenting God, for we have testified that he raised Christ, when he did not do it, if it is true that the dead are never raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are never raised, Christ was not raised; ¹⁷and if Christ was not raised, your faith is a delusion; you are still under the control of your sins. ¹⁸Yes, and those who have fallen asleep in trust in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If we have centered our hopes on Christ in this life, and that is all, we are the most pitiable people in the world.

²⁰But the truth is, Christ was raised from the dead, the first to be raised of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹For since it was through a man that we have death, it is through a man also that we have the raising of the dead. ²²For just as because of their relation to Adam all men die, so because of their relation to Christ they will all be brought to life again. ²³But each in his own turn; Christ first, and then at Christ’s coming those who belong to him. ²⁴After that will come the end, when he will turn over the kingdom to God his Father, bringing to an end all other government, authority, and power, ²⁵for he must retain the kingdom until he puts all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be overthrown will be death, ²⁷for everything is to be reduced to subjection and put under Christ’s feet. But when it says that everything is subject to him, he is evidently excepted who reduced it all to subjection to him. ²⁸And when everything is reduced to subjection to him, then the Son himself will also become subject to him who has reduced everything to subjection to him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

²⁹Otherwise, what do people mean by having themselves baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why do they have themselves baptized on their behalf? ³⁰Why do we ourselves run such risks every hour? ³¹By the very pride I take in you, brothers, through our union with Christ Jesus our Lord, I face death every day. ³²From the human point of view, what good is it to me that I have fought wild animals here in Ephesus? If the dead do not rise at all, “Let us eat and drink, for we will be dead tomorrow!” ³³Do not be misled. Bad company ruins character. ³⁴Return to your sober sense as you ought, and stop sinning, for some of you are utterly ignorant about God. To your shame I say so.

³⁵But someone will say, “How can the dead rise? What kind of a body will they have when they come back?” ³⁶You foolish man, the very seed you sow never comes to life without dying first; ³⁷and when you sow it, it has not the form it is going to have, but is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or something else; ³⁸and God gives it just such a form as he pleases, so that each kind of seed has a form of its own. ³⁹Flesh is not all alike; men have one kind, animals another, birds another, and fish another. ⁴⁰There are heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies, but the beauty of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is of another. ⁴¹The sun has one kind of beauty, and the moon another, and the stars another; why, one star differs from another in beauty. ⁴²It is so with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay. ⁴³It is sown in humiliation, it is raised in splendor. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength. ⁴⁴It is a physical body that is sown, it is a spiritual body that is raised. If there is a physical body, there is a spiritual body also. ⁴⁵This is also what the Scripture says: “The first man Adam became a living creature.” The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit. ⁴⁶It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸Those who are of the earth are like him who was of the earth, and those who are of heaven are like him who is from heaven, ⁴⁹and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven. ⁵⁰But I can tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, and decay will not share in what is imperishable. ⁵¹I will tell you a secret. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from decay, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. ⁵⁴And when this mortal nature puts on immortality, then what the Scripture says will come true—“Death has been triumphantly destroyed. ⁵⁵Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶Sin is the sting of death, and it is the Law that gives sin its power. ⁵⁷But thank God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸So my dear brothers, be firm and unmoved, and always devote yourselves to the Lord’s work, for you know that through the Lord your labor is not thrown away.

Chapter 16

¹About the collection for God’s people, I want you to do as I told the churches of Galatia to do. ²On the first of every week each of you is to put aside and store up whatever he gains, so that money will not have to be collected after I come. ³When I come I will send whatever persons you authorize with credentials, to carry your gift to Jerusalem. ⁴And if it seems worth while for me to go myself, they can go with me.

⁵I will come to you after passing through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia, ⁶and I will probably stay some time with you, or even pass the winter, so that you may start me off for wherever I may be going. ⁷For I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits it. ⁸But I shall stay in Ephesus until the Harvest Festival, ⁹for I have a great and promising opportunity here, as well as many opponents.

¹⁰If Timothy reaches you, put him at his ease among you, for he is devoted to the Lord’s work, just as I am. ¹¹So no one is to slight him. But see him off cordially when he comes back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

¹²As for our brother Apollos, I have often urged him to visit you with the other brothers, and he is quite unwilling to come now, but he will come when he has a good opportunity.

¹³Be on the watch. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men. Show yourselves strong. ¹⁴Do everything with love.

¹⁵Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the family of Stephanas was the first to be converted in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God’s people— ¹⁶I want you to enlist under such leaders, and under anyone who joins with you and works hard. ¹⁷And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come here, for they have made up for your absence. ¹⁸They have cheered my heart, and yours too. You should appreciate such men.

¹⁹The churches of Asia wish to be remembered to you. Aquila and Prisca, with the congregation that meets at their house, send you their special Christian greetings. ²⁰All the brothers wish to be remembered to you. Greet one another with a sacred kiss.

²¹This farewell I, Paul, add in my own hand. ²²A curse upon anyone who has no love for the Lord. Lord, come quickly! ²³The blessing of the Lord Jesus be with you! ²⁴My love be with you all through Christ Jesus.

The Second Letter to the Corinthians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, and all God’s people all over Greece; ²God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, and the God always ready to comfort! ⁴He comforts me in all my trouble, so that I can comfort people who are in any trouble with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God. ⁵For if I have a liberal share of Christ’s sufferings, through Christ I have a liberal share of comfort too. ⁶If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear. ⁷My hopes for you are unshaken. For I know that just as surely as you share my sufferings, just so surely you will share my comfort. ⁸For I do not want you, brothers, to misunderstand the distress that I experienced in Asia, for I was so utterly and unendurably crushed, that I actually despaired of life itself. ⁹Why, I felt in my heart that the end must be death. That was to keep me from relying on myself instead of on God, who can even raise the dead. ¹⁰So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again. ¹¹You must help me by your prayers, so that many will give thanks to God on my behalf for the blessing granted me in answer to many prayers.

¹²For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God. ¹³For what I am writing to you is only what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it fully, ¹⁴as some of you have come to understand me, and that you will understand that you have a right to be proud of me, as I have of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵It was because I was sure of this that I wanted to come to see you before going anywhere else, to give you a double pleasure; ¹⁶I was going to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia and have you see me off for Judea. ¹⁷Was it vacillating of me to want to do that? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say “Yes” and “No” in the same breath? ¹⁸As surely as God can be relied on, there has been no equivocation about our message to you. ¹⁹The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus, Timothy, and I, you have not found wavering between “Yes” and “No.” With him it has always been “Yes,” ²⁰for to all the promises of God he supplies the “Yes” that confirms them. That is why we utter the “Amen” through him, when we give glory to God. ²¹But it is God who guarantees us and you to Christ; he has anointed us ²²and put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts, as earnest-money.

²³But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth. ²⁴Not that we are the masters of you and your faith; we are working with you to make you happy, for in your faith you stand firm enough.

Chapter 2

¹For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. ²For if I hurt your feelings, who is there to cheer me up but the man whose feelings I hurt? ³This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy. ⁴For I was in great trouble and distress of mind when I wrote you, and I shed many tears as I did it, yet it was not to hurt your feelings, but to make you realize the extraordinary affection I have for you.

⁵But if anyone has hurt anybody’s feelings, it is not so much mine, as yours, or at least those of some of you, not to be too hard upon you all. ⁶For that individual, this censure by the majority of you is punishment enough, ⁷and so you must now turn around and forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by his remorse. ⁸So I beg you to restore him to his place in your affections. ⁹For that is why I wrote you—to find out how you would stand the test, and see if you would obey me absolutely. ¹⁰When you forgive a man, I forgive him too. For anything I had to forgive has been forgiven on your account, and as in the very presence of Christ, ¹¹to keep Satan from getting the better of us. For we know what he is after.

¹²When I went to Troas to preach the good news of the Christ there, I found a good opening for the Lord’s work, ¹³but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. ¹⁴But thank God! he always leads me in his triumphal train, through Christ, and spreads the perfume of knowledge of him everywhere through me as his censer-bearer. ¹⁵Yes, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, diffused among those who are being saved, and those who are perishing alike; ¹⁶to the one, a deathly, deadly odor, to the other a vital, life-giving one. Who is qualified for this task? I am! ¹⁷For I am no peddler of God’s message, like most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned by God and in his presence, in union with Christ I utter his message.

Chapter 3

¹Am I falling into self-recommendation again? Do I, like some people, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? ²You are my recommendations, written on my heart, for everybody to read and understand. ³You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by me, written not in ink, but in the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on the human heart.

⁴Such is the confidence that I have through Christ in my relations to God. ⁵Not that I am of myself qualified to claim anything as originating with me. My qualification is from God, ⁶and he has qualified me to serve him in the interests of a new agreement, not in writing but of spirit. For what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷But if the religion of death, carved in letters of stone, was ushered in with such splendor, so that the Israelites could not look at Moses’ face on account of the brightness that was fading from it, ⁸why should not the religion of the Spirit be attended with much greater splendor? ⁹If there was splendor in the religion of condemnation, the religion of uprightness must far surpass it in splendor. ¹⁰For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all. ¹¹For if what faded away came with splendor, how much more splendid what is permanent must be!

¹²So since I have such a hope, I speak with great frankness, ¹³not like Moses, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the fading of the splendor from it. ¹⁴Their minds were dulled. For to this day, that same veil remains unlifted, when they read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed. ¹⁵Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds, ¹⁶but “whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” ¹⁷Now the Lord here means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Chapter 4

¹So since by the mercy of God I am engaged in this service, I never lose heart. ²I disown disgraceful, underhanded ways. I refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s message. It is by the open statement of the truth that I would commend myself to every human conscience in the sight of God. ³If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction. ⁴In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them. ⁵For it is not myself but Christ Jesus that I am proclaiming as Lord; I am only a slave of yours for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, that is on the face of Christ.

⁷But I have this treasure in a mere ear then jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me. ⁸I am hard pressed on every side, but never cut off: perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹routed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus, so that in my body the life of Jesus also may be seen. ¹¹For every day I live I am being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be visible in my mortal nature. ¹²So it is death that operates in my case, but life that operates in yours. ¹³In the same spirit of faith as his who said, “I believed, and so I spoke,” I too believe, and so I speak, ¹⁴sure that he who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me also like Jesus, and bring me side by side with you into his presence. ¹⁵For it is all for your benefit, in order that as God’s favor reaches greater and greater numbers, it may result in more and more thanksgiving in praise of God.

¹⁶So I never lose heart. Though my outer nature is wasting away, my inner is being renewed every day. ¹⁷For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison, ¹⁸because I keep my eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

Chapter 5

¹For I know that if this earthly tent that I live in is taken down, God will provide me a building in heaven to live in, not built by human hands but eternal. ²This makes me sigh with longing to put on my heavenly dwelling, ³for if I do, I shall never find myself disembodied. ⁴For I who am still in my tent sigh with anxiety, because I do not want to be stripped of it, but to put on the other over it, so that what is only mortal may be absorbed in life. ⁵It is God himself who has prepared me for this change, and he has given me the Spirit as his guaranty.

⁶So I am confident. I know well that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from the Lord ⁷(for I have to guide my steps by faith, not by what is seen)— ⁸yet I am confident, and I prefer to leave my home in the body and make my home with the Lord. ⁹So whether I am at home or away from it, it is my ambition to please him. ¹⁰For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body.

¹¹It is with this knowledge of what the fear of the Lord means that I appeal to men. My true character is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too. ¹²I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you cause to be proud of me, to use in answering men who pride themselves on external advantages and not on sincerity of heart. ¹³For if I was out of my senses, as they say, it was between God and me; and if I am in my right mind, it is for your good. ¹⁴It is Christ’s love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died, ¹⁵and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so. ¹⁷So if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new being; the old state of things has passed away; there is a new state of things. ¹⁸All this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation— ¹⁹how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men’s offenses against them, and intrusted me with the message of reconciliation.

²⁰It is for Christ, therefore, that I am an envoy, seeing that God makes his appeal through me. On Christ’s behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God. ²¹He made him who knew nothing of sin to be sin, for our sake, so that through union with him we might become God’s uprightness.

Chapter 6

¹As God’s fellow-worker, I appeal to you, too, not to accept the favor of God and then waste it. ²For he says,

“I have listened to you at a welcome time,

And helped you on a day of deliverance!”

Now the welcome time has come! This is the day of deliverance! ³I put no obstacles in anyone’s path, so that no fault may be found with my work. ⁴On the contrary, as a servant of God I try in every way to commend myself to them, through my great endurance in troubles, difficulties, hardships, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger, ⁶through my purity of life, my knowledge, my patience, my kindness, my holiness of spirit, my genuine love, ⁷the truth of my teaching, and the power of God; with the weapons of uprightness for the right hand and the left, ⁸in honor or dishonor, in praise or blame; considered an imposter, when I am true, ⁹obscure, when I am well known, at the point of death, yet here I am alive, punished, but not dead yet, ¹⁰pained, when I am always glad, poor, when I make many others rich, penniless, when really I own everything.

¹¹I have kept nothing back from you, men of Corinth; I have opened my heart to you. ¹²It is not that I am cramping you, it is your own affections. ¹³To pay me back, I tell you, my children, you must open your hearts too.

¹⁴Do not get into close and incongruous relations with unbelievers. What partnership can uprightness have with iniquity, or what can light have to do with darkness? ¹⁵How can Christ agree with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said,

“I will live in them and move among them,

And I will be their God and they will be my people.”

¹⁷Therefore,

“Come out from them,

And separate from them, says the Lord,

And touch nothing that is unclean.

Then I will welcome you,

¹⁸I will become a father to you,

And you shall become my sons and daughters,

Says the Lord Almighty.”

Chapter 7

¹So since we have promises like these, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves of everything that can defile body or spirit, and by reverence for God make our consecration complete.

²Make room for me in your hearts. I have not wronged or harmed or got the better of anybody. ³I do not mean this as a reflection upon you, for as I said before, you will always have a place in my heart whether I live or die. ⁴I have the greatest confidence in you. I take the greatest pride in you. I am fully comforted. After all my trouble, I am overjoyed.

⁵For even when I reached Macedonia, my poor human nature could get no relief—there was trouble at every turn; fighting without, and fear within. ⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted me by the coming of Titus, ⁷and not only by his coming, but by the comfort you had given him, for he told me how you longed to see me, how sorry you were, and how you took my part, which made me happier still. ⁸For even if I did hurt your feelings with that letter, I cannot regret it; even if I did regret it, when I saw that the letter had hurt your feelings perhaps for a while, ⁹I am glad of it now; not because you had your feelings hurt, but because having them hurt led you to repent, for you took it as God meant you to do, so that you should not lose anything at all through me. ¹⁰For the pain that God approves results in a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets; but the world’s pain results in death. ¹¹See how earnest this God-given pain has made you! how eager to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how eager to see me, how zealous, how avenging! At every point you have proved that you are clear of this matter. ¹²So although I did write to you, it was not on account of the offender, nor of the injured man, but in the sight of God to reveal to you your devotion to me. ¹³That is why I am so comforted.

With all my own comfort, I was still more overjoyed at the gladness of Titus, for his mind has been set at rest by you all. ¹⁴If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true. ¹⁵His heart goes out all the more to you, as he recalls how you all obeyed him, and with what reverence and trembling you received him. ¹⁶I am glad that I can feel perfect confidence in you.

Chapter 8

¹I must tell you, brothers, how the favor of God has been shown in the churches of Macedonia, ²for in spite of a severe ordeal of trouble, their extraordinary gladness, combined with their extreme poverty, has overflowed in a wealth of generosity. ³For they have given to the utmost of their ability, as I can bear them witness, and beyond it, ⁴and begged me most earnestly, of their own accord, to let them share in the support of their fellow-Christians. ⁵They did far more than I hoped, for first in obedience to God’s will, they gave themselves to the Lord, and to me. ⁶This has led me to urge Titus to complete the arrangements he had formerly begun among you for this gracious undertaking. ⁷Just as you excel in everything else—faith, expression, knowledge, perfect devotion, and the love we have awakened in you—you must excel in this generous undertaking too.

⁸I do not mean this as a command. I only want to test the genuineness of your love by the devotion of others. ⁹You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich. ¹⁰But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year. ¹¹Now finish doing it, so that your readiness to undertake it may be equaled by the way you finish it up, as well as your means permit. ¹²If a man is willing to give, the value of his gift is in its proportion to what he has, not to what he has not. ¹³I do not mean to be easy upon others and hard upon you, ¹⁴but to equalize the burden, and in the present situation to have your plenty make up for what they need, so that some day their plenty may make up for what you need, and so things may be made equal— ¹⁵as the Scripture says, “The man who got much did not have too much, and the man who got little did not have too little.”

¹⁶Thank God, he puts the same devotion to you that I feel into Titus’ heart, ¹⁷for he has responded to my appeal, but he goes to you really of his own accord, he is so devoted to you. ¹⁸I am sending with him his brother, who is famous in all the churches for his work in spreading the good news. ¹⁹What is more, he has been appointed by the churches to travel with me in the interests of this generous undertaking, which I am superintending to honor the Lord and to show our readiness to help. ²⁰I mean to have no one able to find any fault with the way I handle this munificence. ²¹I intend to do what is right not only in the Lord’s sight but in the eyes of men. ²²I send with them another brother of ours whose devotion we have often tested in many ways, which is now greater than ever, because of his perfect confidence in you. ²³So as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and comrade in my work for you, while these brothers of ours represent the churches, and are a credit to Christ. ²⁴So you must give proof to them before all the churches of your love, and justify my pride in you.

Chapter 9

¹It is really unnecessary for me to write to you about this fund for your fellow-Christians, ²for I know how willing you are to help in it; I boast of you for it to the people in Macedonia, telling them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has been a stimulus to most of them. ³But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will; ⁴for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me—to say nothing of you—for having expressed such confidence. ⁵So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

⁶Remember this: The man who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and the man who sows generously will reap generously. ⁷Everyone must give what he has made up his mind to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion; God loves a man who is glad to give. ⁸God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough for every situation, and ample means for every good enterprise: ⁹as the Scripture says,

“He scatters his gifts to the poor;

His uprightness will never be forgotten.”

¹⁰He who supplies the sower with seed and so with bread to eat will supply you with seed, and multiply it and enlarge the harvest of your uprightness. ¹¹You will grow rich in every way, so that through me you can show perfect liberality that will make men thank God for it. ¹²For the rendering of this service does more than supply the wants of God’s people; it results in a wealth of thanksgiving to God. ¹³The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others; ¹⁴then they will long for you and pray for you, because of the extraordinary favor God has shown you. ¹⁵Thank God for his indescribable gift!

Chapter 10

¹I appeal to you personally, by the gentleness and forbearance of Christ—the Paul who is so humble when face to face with you, but so bold in dealing with you when he is far away! ²I beg you not to make me take as bold an attitude when I come, as I count on taking toward some people who suspect me of acting from worldly motives. ³For though I do live an earthly life, I am not carrying on an earthly war, ⁴for the weapons I use are not earthly ones, but divinely strong for destroying fortresses. ⁵I destroy arguments and every obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, and I take captive every thought and make it obey Christ, ⁶and am prepared to punish any trace of disobedience when you have made your obedience perfectly clear. ⁷You look at things externally. If anyone is sure he belongs to Christ, let him think again and understand that I belong to Christ just as much as he. ⁸For suppose I do boast a little too much of my authority—which the Lord gave me to build you up, not to pull you down—I will not have to blush for it. ⁹I do not want to seem to scare you with my letters. ¹⁰For they say, “His letters are impressive and telling, but his personal appearance is insignificant and as a speaker he amounts to nothing.” ¹¹Such people had better understand that when I arrive and take action I will do just as I say I will in my letters when I am far away. ¹²I do not indeed venture to class or compare myself with certain individuals who approve of themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense. ¹³But my boasting will not be extravagant, nor exceed the limits God has allowed me, which reach all the way to you. ¹⁴It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ. ¹⁵I do not indulge in extravagant boasts over work done by others, but I do hope that as your faith increases, my influence may be immensely enlarged through you, ¹⁶and I may preach the gospel in the lands beyond you without having to boast over work already done in another’s field. ¹⁷But let the man who boasts, boast about the Lord. ¹⁸For it is not the man who approves of himself who is really approved; it is the man of whom the Lord approves.

Chapter 11

¹I wish you would put up with a little folly from me. Do put up with it! ²I feel a divine jealousy about you, for I betrothed you to Christ, to present you as a pure bride to her one husband. ³But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ. ⁴For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough! ⁵For I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superfine apostles of yours. ⁶Even if I have no particular gifts in speaking, I am not wanting in knowledge. Why, I have always made that perfectly clear in my dealings with you.

⁷Do you think that I did wrong in degrading myself to uplift you, because I preached God’s good news to you without any compensation? ⁸I robbed other churches, letting them pay me so that I could work for you! ⁹And when I was with you and wanted money, I did not burden any of you, for when the brothers came from Macedonia they supplied what I needed. So I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way. ¹⁰By the truth of Christ that is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced anywhere in Greece. ¹¹And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

¹²And I shall go on doing as I do, so as to cut the ground from under those who want to make out that in their boasted apostleship they work on the same terms that I do. ¹³Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And no wonder, for even Satan himself masquerades as a shining angel. ¹⁵So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

¹⁶I repeat, no one should think me a fool, but if you do, show me at least the patience you would show a fool, and let me have my little boast like the others. ¹⁷When I boast in this reckless way, I do not say what I am saying for the Lord, but as a fool would talk. ¹⁸Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also. ¹⁹For you like to put up with fools, you are so wise yourselves! ²⁰For you put up with it if a man makes you his slaves, or lives on you, or takes you in, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face. ²¹To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am playing the part of a fool—I will dare to boast of too. ²²If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I! ²³If they are Christian workers—I am talking like a madman!—I am a better one! with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, vastly worse beatings, and in frequent danger of death. ²⁴Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews. ²⁵I have been beaten three times by the Romans, I have been stoned once, I have been shipwrecked three times, a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; ²⁶with my frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, ²⁷through toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, often without food, and exposed to cold. ²⁸And besides everything else, the thing that burdens me every day is my anxiety about all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak without my being weak? Whose conscience is hurt without my being fired with indignation? ³⁰If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness! ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is forever blessed, knows that I am telling the truth. ³²When I was at Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city gates watched in order to catch me, ³³but I was lowered in a basket from an opening in the wall, and got out of his clutches.

Chapter 12

¹I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations given me by the Lord. ²I know of a man fourteen years ago—whether in the body or out of it, I do not know, God knows—being actually caught up to the third heaven. ³And I know that this man—I do not know whether it was in the body or out of it, God knows— ⁴was caught up into Paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no human being can repeat. ⁵On this man’s account I am ready to boast, but about myself I will boast only of my weaknesses. ⁶Though if I do choose to boast, I will not be such a fool, for I will only be telling the truth. But I will refrain from it, for I do not want anyone to be influenced by the wonderful character of these revelations to think more of me than is justified by my words or conduct. ⁷So to keep me from being too much elated a bitter physical affliction was sent to me, a very messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too much elated. ⁸Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me, ⁹and he said to me, “My favor is enough for you, for only where there is weakness is perfect strength developed.”

So I am perfectly willing to boast of all my weakness, so that the strength of Christ may shelter me. ¹⁰That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ’s sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

¹¹I have been making a fool of myself, but you forced me to do it, when you ought to have been expressing your approval of me. For I am not a bit inferior to your superfine apostles, even if I am nobody! ¹²The signs that mark a true apostle were most patiently shown when I was among you, in signs, wonders, and marvels. ¹³For what is there in which the other churches had the better of you, except in the fact that I would not permit myself to be a burden to you? You must forgive me that wrong!

¹⁴Here it is the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I do not intend to be a burden to you now; for it is not your money but yourselves that I want; for children are not expected to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children. ¹⁵And I will be glad to spend all I have and all I am for your sake. Are you going to love me the less for loving you so intensely? ¹⁶But granting that I did not burden you myself, I was clever about it, you say, and took you in by a trick. ¹⁷Yet did I make anything out of you by anybody that I sent to you? ¹⁸I asked Titus to go and I sent his brother with him. Did Titus make anything out of you? Did not he and I act in the same spirit, and take the very same steps?

¹⁹Have you been supposing all along that it is before you I have been defending myself? It is in the sight of God and as a follower of Christ that I have been speaking. But it is all to do you good, dear friends, ²⁰for I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. I am afraid that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, bad feeling, rivalry, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder, ²¹and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over many who have kept on in their old sins and have never repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality in which they have indulged.

Chapter 13

¹This will be my third visit to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ²Those who have kept on in their old sins and all the rest I have warned, and I warn them now while I am still away, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will spare nobody— ³since you demand proof that Christ really speaks through me. He is not weak in dealing with you. On the contrary, right among you he exhibits his power. ⁴Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is. ⁵It is yourselves you must test, to see whether you are holding to the faith. It is yourselves you must examine. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is within you? Unless you fail to stand the test! ⁶I hope you will see that I do not fail to stand it. ⁷But I pray to God that you may not do wrong—not to prove me equal to the test, but that you should do right even if I fail to stand it. ⁸For I cannot do anything against the truth, but only for it. ⁹I am glad to be weak, if you are strong! That is what I pray for—the perfecting of your characters. ¹⁰That is why I write this while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be harsh in my use of the authority the Lord has given me, for it was to build you up, not to pull you down.

¹¹Now brothers, goodbye! Be what you ought to be, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and God the source of love and peace will be with you. ¹²Greet one another with a sacred kiss. ¹³All God’s people wish to be remembered to you.

¹⁴The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the participation in the holy Spirit be with you all.

The Letter to the Galatians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, an apostle not from men nor sent by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead— ²and all the brothers who are here with me, to the churches of Galatia; ³blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who to save us from the present wicked world gave himself for our sins at the will of our God and Father. ⁵To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news— ⁷not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him! ⁹We have said it before, and I repeat it now—if anyone is preaching to you good news that contradicts the good news you have already received, a curse upon him!

¹⁰Is that appealing to men’s weaknesses, or to God? Is that trying to suit men? If I were still doing that, I would be no slave of Christ. ¹¹For I tell you plainly, brothers, that the good news that I preached is not a human affair. ¹²I did not receive it from any man, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³You have heard of my former conduct when I was attached to the Jewish religion—how furiously I used to persecute the church of God and ravage it, ¹⁴and how I surpassed many of my own age among my people in my devotion to Judaism, I was so fanatically devoted to what my forefathers had handed down. ¹⁵And when God, who had set me apart from my birth and had called me in his mercy, saw fit ¹⁶to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach the good news about him to the heathen, immediately, instead of consulting with any human being, ¹⁷or going up to Jerusalem to see those who had been apostles before me, I went off to Arabia, and on my return came back to Damascus. ¹⁸Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem, to become acquainted with Cephas, and I spent two weeks with him; ¹⁹but I did not see any other apostle, except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(In writing you this, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth!) ²¹After that, I went to the districts of Syria and Cilicia. ²²I was still personally unknown to the Christian churches of Judea; ²³they only heard people say, “The man who once persecuted us is now preaching the good news of the faith he tried to destroy,” ²⁴and they praised God for me.

Chapter 2

¹Then, fourteen years later, I went up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and took Titus also with me. ²It was in obedience to a revelation that I went. I laid before them the good news that I preach to the heathen, presenting it privately to the leaders, for fear my efforts might be or might have been futile. ³But they did not insist that even my companion Titus, although he was a Greek, should be circumcised, ⁴to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again. ⁵But we did not submit to them for a moment, in order that the truth of the good news might remain yours. ⁶Those who were regarded as the leaders—what they once were makes no difference to me; God takes no account of external differences—the leaders contributed nothing new to me. ⁷On the contrary, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been intrusted with it for the Jews— ⁸for he who actuated Peter to be an apostle to the Jews also actuated me to be one to the heathen— ⁹and when they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, who were regarded as pillars of the church, pledged Barnabas and me their co-operation, with the understanding that we should work among the heathen and they among the Jews. ¹⁰Only, we were to remember the poor, and that I have taken pains to do. ¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, for his own conduct condemned him. ¹²For until some people came from James, he used to eat with the heathen, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof, for fear of the party of circumcision. ¹³The other Jewish Christians followed his example in concealing their real views, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pose. ¹⁴But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, right before them all, “If you live like a heathen, and not like a Jew, though you are a Jew yourself, why should you try to make the heathen live like Jews?”

¹⁵We who are Jews by birth, and not sinful heathen, ¹⁶but who know that a man is not made upright by doing what the Law commands, but by faith in Christ Jesus—even we believed in Christ Jesus, so as to be made upright by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands—for by doing what the Law commands no one can be made upright. ¹⁷If through our efforts to be made upright through Christ, we have ourselves been proved as much “sinners” as the heathen, does that make Christ encourage sin? By no means. ¹⁸I really convict myself of wrongdoing when I start to rebuild what I tore down. ¹⁹For it is through the Law that I have become dead to the Law, so that I may live for God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. The life I am now living in the body I am living by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I refuse to nullify the mercy of God. For if uprightness could be secured through law, then Christ died for nothing!

Chapter 3

¹You senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when you had Jesus Christ shown crucified right before your eyes? ²This is all I want to ask you: Did you receive the Spirit through doing what the Law commands, or through believing the message you heard? ³Are you so senseless? Did you begin with the Spirit only to end now with the flesh? ⁴Have you gone through so much, all for nothing?—if it really is for nothing! ⁵When he supplies you with the Spirit and works wonders among you, is it because you do what the Law commands, or because you believe the message you heard? ⁶Just as Abraham had faith in God and it was credited to him as uprightness.

⁷So you see, the real descendants of Abraham are the men of faith. ⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, “All the heathen will be blessed through you.” ⁹So the men of faith share the blessing of Abraham and his faith.

¹⁰For there is a curse upon all who rely on obedience to the Law, for the Scripture says, “Cursed be anyone who does not stand by everything that is written in the Book of the Law and obey it.” ¹¹That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith, ¹²and the Law has nothing to do with faith; it teaches that it is the man who does these things that will find life by doing them. ¹³Christ ransomed us from the Law’s curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, “Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree”) ¹⁴in order that the blessing given to Abraham might through Jesus Christ reach the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

¹⁵To take an illustration, brothers, from daily life: even a human agreement, once ratified, no one annuls or alters. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and his line. It does not say, “and to your lines,” in the plural, but in the singular, “and to your line,” that is, Christ. ¹⁷My point is this: An agreement already ratified by God cannot be annulled and its promise canceled by the Law, which arose four hundred and thirty years later. ¹⁸If our inheritance rests on the Law, it has nothing to do with the promise. Yet it was as a promise that God bestowed it upon Abraham.

¹⁹Then what about the Law? It was a later addition, designed to produce transgressions, until the descendant to which the promise was made should come, and it was enacted by means of angels, through an intermediary; ²⁰though an intermediary implies more than one party, while God is but one. ²¹Is the Law then contrary to God’s promises? By no means. For if a law had been given that could have brought life, uprightness would really have come through law. ²²But the Scripture describes all mankind as the prisoners of sin, so that the promised blessing might on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ be given to those who have faith.

²³But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed. ²⁴So the Law has been our attendant on our way to Christ, so that we might be made upright through faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant.

²⁶For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through your faith. ²⁷For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no room for “Jew” and “Greek”; there is no room for “slave” and “freeman”; there is no room for “male” and “female”; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are true descendants of Abraham and his heirs under the promise.

Chapter 4

¹I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property, ²but he is under guardians and trustees until the time fixed by his father. ³So when we were minors, we were slaves to material ways of looking at things, ⁴but when the proper time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made subject to law, ⁵to ransom those who were subject to law, so that we might receive adoption.

⁶And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, “Abba!” that is, Father. ⁷So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

⁸But formerly, in your ignorance of God, you were slaves to gods that really did not exist, ⁹but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again? ¹⁰You are observing days, months, seasons, and years! ¹¹I begin to be afraid that perhaps the labor I spent on you was wasted.

¹²Take my position, I beg you, brothers, just as I once took yours! You took no advantage of me then; ¹³though you know that it was because of an illness that I preached the good news to you that first time; ¹⁴and yet what must have tried you in my physical condition, you did not scorn and despise, but you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus himself. ¹⁵What has become of that satisfaction of yours? For I can bear witness that you would have torn out your very eyes, if you could, and given them to me! ¹⁶Have I turned into an enemy to you, by telling you the truth? ¹⁷These men are making much of you, but not with honorable intentions. They want to shut you out, so that you will have to make much of them. ¹⁸But it is a finer thing to be made much of honestly and constantly—not just when I can be with you, ¹⁹my children—you for whom I am enduring a mother’s pains again, until Christ is formed in you. ²⁰I wish I could be with you now, and use a different tone with you, for I do not know which way to turn about you.

²¹Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law? ²²For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman. ²³But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise. ²⁴This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar ²⁵(and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷For the Scripture says,

“Rejoice, childless woman, who bear no children,

Break into shouting, you who have no birth pains!

For the desolate woman has more children than the married one!”

²⁸Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise. ²⁹But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today. ³⁰Yet what does the Scripture say? “Drive the slave-girl and her son away, for the slave-girl’s son shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman.” ³¹So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.

Chapter 5

¹This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

²Why, I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do nothing for you. ³I insist again to any man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is under obligation to obey the whole Law. ⁴You people who propose to be made upright by law have finished with Christ; you have lost your hold upon God’s favor. ⁵But we, by the Spirit, through faith wait for the uprightness we hope for. ⁶For in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the want of it counts for anything, but only faith acting through love.

⁷You were making such progress! Who has stopped your obeying the truth? ⁸That kind of persuasion never came from him who called you! ⁹A little yeast will make all the dough rise. ¹⁰I am confident in the Lord that you will not take a different view. The man who is unsettling you will have to pay the penalty for it, no matter who he is. ¹¹And I, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? If that is the case, the cross has ceased to be an obstacle, I suppose! ¹²I wish the people who are upsetting you would go on, and have themselves emasculated!

¹³For you, brothers, have been called to freedom; only do not make your freedom an excuse for the physical, but in love be slaves to one another. ¹⁴For the whole Law is summed up in one saying: “You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.” ¹⁵But if you bite one another and eat one another, take care, or you will be destroyed by one another.

¹⁶I mean this: Live by the Spirit, and then you will not indulge your physical cravings. ¹⁷For the physical cravings are against the Spirit, and the cravings of the Spirit are against the physical; the two are in opposition, so that you cannot do anything you please. ¹⁸But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not subject to law. ¹⁹The things our physical nature does are clear enough—immorality, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party-spirit, ²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God. ²²But what the Spirit produces is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. There is no law against such things! ²⁴Those who belong to Jesus the Christ have crucified the physical nature with its propensities and cravings.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not in our vanity challenge one another or envy one another.

Chapter 6

¹But if a man is caught doing something wrong, brothers, you are spiritual, and you must set him right, in a spirit of gentleness. Think of yourself, for you may be tempted too. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and in that way carry out the law of the Christ. ³For if anyone thinks he is somebody when he is really nobody, he is deceiving himself. ⁴Every man ought to test his own work, and then whatever satisfaction he has will be with reference to himself, and not in comparison with someone else. ⁵For everyone will have to carry his own load.

⁶Those who are taught the message must share all their goods with their teacher. ⁷Do not be deceived. God is not to be sneered at. A man will reap just what he sows. ⁸The man who sows to gratify his physical cravings will reap destruction from them, and the man who sows to benefit the spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹Let us not get tired of doing right, for at the proper time we shall reap, if we do not give out. ¹⁰So then whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.

¹¹See what large letters I make, when I write to you with my own hand! ¹²These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ. ¹³Why, even those who let themselves be circumcised do not observe the Law themselves! But they want you to let yourselves be circumcised so that they can boast of that physical fact about you! ¹⁴But I never want to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, on which the world has been crucified to me and I have been to the world. ¹⁵For neither circumcision nor the want of it is of any importance, but only a new creation. ¹⁶Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.

¹⁷Let nobody interfere with me after this, for I bear on my body the scars that mark me as a slave of Jesus.

¹⁸The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

The Letter to the Ephesians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God’s people who are steadfast in Christ Jesus; ²God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. ⁴Through him he chose us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in his sight in love. ⁵He foreordained us to become his sons through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose, ⁶so that we might praise the splendid blessing which he has given us through his beloved Son. ⁷It is through union with him and through his blood that we have been delivered and our offenses forgiven, ⁸in the abundance of his mercy which he has lavished upon us. ⁹He has given us perfect insight into his secret purpose and understanding of it, in following out the design he planned to carry out in Christ, ¹⁰and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ— ¹¹the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will, ¹²to win praise for his glory, by having been the first to believe in Christ. ¹³You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised, ¹⁴which is the advance installment of our inheritance, so that we may get full possession of it, and praise his glory for it.

¹⁵This is why I, for my part, since I have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that prevails among you and among all God’s people, ¹⁶never cease to thank God for you when I mention you in my prayers. ¹⁷The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself, ¹⁸enlightening the eyes of your mind so that you may know what the hope is to which he calls you, and how gloriously rich his inheritance is among God’s people, ¹⁹and how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe; like the mighty strength ²⁰he exerted in raising Christ from the dead, and seating him at his right hand in heaven, ²¹far above all hierarchies, authorities, powers, and dominions, and all titles that can be bestowed not only in this world but in the world to come. ²²He has put everything under his feet and made him the indisputable head of the church, ²³which is his body, filled by him who fills everything everywhere.

Chapter 2

¹You also were dead because of the offenses and sins ²in the midst of which you once lived under the control of the present age of the world, and the master-spirit of the air, who is still at work among the disobedient. ³We all lived among them once, indulging our physical cravings and obeying the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were doomed to God’s wrath like other men. ⁴But God is so rich in mercy that because of the great love he had for us, ⁵he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved. ⁶And he raised us with Christ, and through our union with Christ Jesus made us sit down with him in heaven, ⁷to show the incomparable wealth of his mercy throughout the ages to come by his goodness to us through Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God. ⁹It has not been earned, so that no one can boast of it. ¹⁰For he has made us, creating us through our union with Christ Jesus for the life of goodness which God had predestined us to live.

¹¹So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands. ¹²At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God’s promise; with no hope and no God in all the world. ¹³But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near. ¹⁴For he is himself our peace. He has united the two divisions, and broken down the barrier that kept us apart, ¹⁵and through his human nature put an end to the feud between us, and abolished the Law with its rules and regulations, in order to make peace and create out of the two parties one new man by uniting them with himself, ¹⁶and to kill the feud between them with his cross and in one body reconcile them both to God with it. ¹⁷He came with the good news of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near; ¹⁸for it is through him that we both with one Spirit are now able to approach the Father. ¹⁹So you are no longer foreigners or strangers, but you are fellow-citizens of God’s people and members of his family. ²⁰You are built upon the apostles and prophets as your foundation, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone. ²¹Through him every part of the building is closely united and grows into a temple sacred through its relation to the Lord, ²²and you are yourselves built up into a dwelling for God through the Spirit.

Chapter 3

¹This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen— ²if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you, ³and how the secret was made known to me by revelation, as I have just briefly written. ⁴As you read that, you will be able to understand the insight I have into the secret of the Christ ⁵(which in past ages was not disclosed to mankind as fully as it has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets) ⁶that through union with Christ Jesus the heathen are fellow-heirs with the Jews, belong to the same body and share the promise with them, through the good news ⁷for which I became a worker by virtue of the gift of God’s mercy which by the exercise of his power he has given me. ⁸To me, the very least of all his people, this favor has been given, of preaching to the heathen the inexhaustible wealth of the Christ, ⁹and making clear how the secret purpose is to be worked out which has been hidden away for ages in God the creator of all things, ¹⁰so that the many-sided wisdom of God may now through the church be made known to the rulers and authorities in heaven, ¹¹fulfilling the eternal purpose which God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²Through union with him and through faith in him, we have courage to approach God with confidence. ¹³So I ask that what I am having to suffer for your sake may not make me lose heart, for it does you honor.

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven or on earth takes its name, ¹⁶and beg him out of his wealth of glory to strengthen you mightily through his Spirit in your inner nature ¹⁷and through your faith to let Christ in his love make his home in your hearts. Your roots must be deep and your foundations strong, ¹⁸so that you and all God’s people may be strong enough to grasp what breadth, length, height, and depth mean, ¹⁹and to understand Christ’s love, so far beyond our understanding, so that you may be filled with the very fulness of God. ²⁰To him who by the exertion of his power within us can do unutterably more than all we ask or imagine, ²¹be glory through the church and through Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Chapter 4

¹So I, the prisoner for the Lord’s sake, appeal to you to live lives worthy of the summons you have received; ²with perfect humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another lovingly. ³Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the tie of peace. ⁴There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope that belongs to the summons you received. ⁵There is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above us all, pervades us all, and is within us all. ⁷But each one of us has been given mercy in Christ’s generous measure. ⁸So it says,

“When he went up on high, he led a host of captives,

And gave gifts to mankind.”

⁹What does “he went up” mean, except that he had first gone down to the under parts of the earth? ¹⁰It is he who went down who has also gone up above all the heavens, to fill the universe. ¹¹And he has given us some men as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as pastors and teachers, ¹²in order to fit his people for the work of service, for building the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ. ¹⁴We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error. ¹⁵We must lovingly hold to the truth and grow up into perfect union with him who is the head—Christ himself. ¹⁶For it is under his control that the whole system, adjusted and united by each ligament of its equipment, develops in proportion to the functioning of each particular part, and so builds itself up through love.

¹⁷So what I mean and insist upon in the Lord’s name is this: You must no longer live like the heathen, with their frivolity of mind and darkened understanding. ¹⁸They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart, ¹⁹for they have become callous, and abandoned themselves to sensuality, greedily practicing every kind of vice. ²⁰That is not the way you have been taught what Christ means, ²¹at least if you have really become acquainted with him and been instructed in him, and in union with him have been taught the truth as it is found in Jesus. ²²You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions. ²³You must adopt a new attitude of mind, ²⁴and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

²⁵So you must lay aside falsehood and each tell his neighbor the truth, for we are parts of one another. ²⁶Be angry, but do not sin. The sun must not go down upon your anger; ²⁷you must not give the devil a chance. ²⁸The man who stole must not steal any more; he must work with his hands at honest toil instead, so as to have something to share with those who are in need. ²⁹No bad word must ever pass your lips, but only words that are good and suited to improve the occasion, so that they will be a blessing to those who hear them. ³⁰You must not offend God’s holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption. ³¹You must give up all bitterness, rage, anger, and loud, abusive talk, and all spite. ³²You must be kind to one another, you must be tender-hearted, and forgive one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Chapter 5

¹So follow God’s example, like his dear children, ²and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³But immorality or any form of vice or greed must not be so much as mentioned among you; that would not be becoming in God’s people. ⁴There must be no indecency or foolish or scurrilous talk—all that is unbecoming. There should be thanksgiving instead. ⁵For you may be sure that no one who is immoral, or greedy for gain (for that is idolatry) can have any share in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

⁶Whatever anyone may say in the way of worthless arguments to deceive you, these are the things that are bringing God’s anger down upon the disobedient. ⁷Therefore have nothing to do with them. ⁸For once you were sheer darkness, but now, as Christians, you are light itself. You must live like children of light, ⁹for light leads to perfect goodness, uprightness, and truth; ¹⁰you must make sure what pleases the Lord. ¹¹Have nothing to do with the profitless doings of the darkness; expose them instead. ¹²For while it is degrading even to mention their secret practices, ¹³yet when anything is exposed by the light, it is made visible, and anything that is made visible is light. ¹⁴So it says,

“Wake up, sleeper!

Rise from the dead,

And Christ will dawn upon you!”

¹⁵Be very careful, then, about the way you live. Do not act thoughtlessly, but like sensible men, ¹⁶and make the most of your opportunity, for these are evil times. ¹⁷So do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, for that is profligacy, but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹and speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and sacred songs. Sing praise to God with all your hearts; ²⁰always give thanks for everything to God our Father, as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹and subordinate yourselves to one another out of reverence to Christ.

²²You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, as you do to the Lord, ²³for a husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, which is his body, and is saved by him. ²⁴Just as the church is in subjection to Christ, so married women must be, in everything, to their husbands. ²⁵You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her, ²⁶to consecrate her, after cleansing her with the bath in water through her confession of him, ²⁷in order to bring the church to himself in all her beauty, without a flaw or a wrinkle or anything of the kind, but to be consecrated and faultless. ²⁸That is the way husbands ought to love their wives—as if they were their own bodies; a man who loves his wife is really loving himself, ²⁹for no one ever hates his own person, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ does with the church, ³⁰for we are parts of his body. ³¹Therefore a man must leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and they must become one. ³²This is a great secret, but I understand it of Christ and the church. ³³But each one of you must love his wife just as he loves himself, and the wife, too, must respect her husband.

Chapter 6

¹Children, as Christians obey your parents, for that is right. ²“You must honor your father and mother”—that is the first commandment accompanied with a promise— ³“so that you may prosper and have a long life on earth.” ⁴You fathers, too, must not irritate your children, but you must bring them up with Christian training and instruction.

⁵You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ, ⁶not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God. ⁷Do your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men, ⁸for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct. ⁹You who are masters, too, must treat your slaves in the same way, and cease to threaten them, for you know that their Master and yours is in heaven, and that he will show no partiality.

¹⁰Henceforth you must grow strong through union with the Lord and through his mighty strength. ¹¹You must put on God’s armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil’s stratagems. ¹²For we have to struggle, not with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the hierarchies, the authorities, the master-spirits of this dark world, the spirit-forces of evil on high. ¹³So you must take God’s armor, so that when the evil day comes you will be able to make a stand, and when it is all over to hold your ground. ¹⁴Stand your ground, then, with the belt of truth around your waist, and put on uprightness as your coat of mail, ¹⁵and on your feet put the readiness the good news of peace brings. ¹⁶Besides all these, take faith for your shield, for with it you will be able to put out all the flaming missiles of the evil one, ¹⁷and take salvation for your helmet, and for your sword the Spirit, which is the voice of God. ¹⁸Use every kind of prayer and entreaty, and at every opportunity pray in the Spirit. Be on the alert about it; devote yourselves constantly to prayer for all God’s people ¹⁹and for me, that when I open my lips I may be given a message, so that I may boldly make known the secret of the good news, ²⁰for the sake of which I am an envoy, and in prison. Pray that, when I tell it, I may have the courage to speak as I ought.

²¹In order that you also may know how I am, our dear brother Tychicus, a faithful helper in the Lord’s service, will tell you all about it. ²²That is the very reason I am sending him, to let you know how I am, and to cheer your hearts.

²³God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give the brothers peace and love, with faith. ²⁴God’s blessing be with all who have an unfailing love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Letter to the Philippians

Chapter 1

¹Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the devoted adherents of Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the superintendents and assistants; ²God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³I never think of you without thanking my God, ⁴and always whenever I pray for you all I do it with joy, ⁵over your co-operation in the good news from the day you first received it until now. ⁶For I am certain that he who has begun the good work in you will finish it for the Day of Jesus Christ. ⁷And I have a right to feel in this way about you all, because both when I am in prison and when I am defending and vindicating our right to preach the good news, I have you in my heart as all sharing that privilege with me. ⁸For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself. ⁹And it is my prayer that your love may grow richer and richer in knowledge and perfect insight, ¹⁰so that you may have a sense of what is vital, and may be men of transparent character and blameless life, in preparation for the Day of Christ, ¹¹with your lives filled with the fruits which uprightness produces through Jesus Christ, to the honor and praise of God.

¹²Now I want to assure you, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in furthering the preaching of the good news. ¹³Thus it is generally known throughout the Imperial Guard and elsewhere that it is for the sake of Christ that I am in prison, ¹⁴and so most of the Christian brothers have been exceedingly encouraged by my example to declare God’s message without any fear of the consequences.

¹⁵Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching the Christ from jealousy and partisanship, but there are others who are doing it out of good-will. ¹⁶These latter do it from love for me, for they know that God has put me where I am to defend our right to preach the good news. ¹⁷But the others are preaching the Christ not sincerely but for their own ends, imagining that they are making my imprisonment harder to bear.

¹⁸But what difference does it make? All that matters is that, in one way or another, from false motives or honest ones, Christ is being made known; I am glad of that. Yes, and I expect to be glad, ¹⁹for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all this will turn out for my highest welfare, ²⁰for I eagerly and confidently hope that I shall never disgrace myself but that this time as always hitherto, living or dying, I shall do Christ credit by my unfailing courage.

²¹For, as I see it, living means Christ and dying something even better. ²²But if living on here means having my labor bear fruit, I cannot tell which to choose. ²³I am undecided between the two, for I long to depart and be with Christ, for that is far, far better, ²⁴and yet your needs make it very necessary for me to stay on here. ²⁵I am convinced of this, and so I know that I shall stay on and serve you all, to help you to develop and to be glad in your faith. ²⁶So you will find in me fresh cause for Christian exultation, through having me with you again.

²⁷Whatever happens, show yourselves citizens worthy of the good news of the Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am kept away and only hear news of you, I may know that you are standing firm with one spirit, one purpose, fighting side by side for faith in the good news. ²⁸Never for a moment falter before your opponents, for your fearlessness will be a sure sign for them of their coming destruction, but to you it will be an omen, from God himself, of your deliverance. ²⁹For you have been granted the privilege not only of trusting in Christ but of suffering for him. ³⁰Take your part in the same struggle that you have seen me engage in and that you hear I am still keeping up.

Chapter 2

¹So by whatever appeal there is in our relation to Christ, by whatever incentive there is in love, by whatever participation there is in the Spirit, whatever affection and sympathy, ²make me perfectly happy by living in harmony, with the same attitude of love, with the same feeling and purpose. ³Do not act for selfish ends or from vanity, but modestly treat one another as your superiors. ⁴Do not take account of your own interests, but of the interests of others as well. ⁵Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. ⁶Though he possessed the nature of God, he did not grasp at equality with God, ⁷but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men. ⁸When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross. ⁹That is why God has so greatly exalted him, and given him the name above all others, ¹⁰so that in the name of Jesus everyone should kneel, in heaven and on earth and in the underworld, ¹¹and everyone should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, and thus glorify God the Father.

¹²So, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient, with reverence and awe make every effort to insure your salvation, not simply as though I were with you, but all the more because I am away. ¹³For it is God who in his good will is at work in your hearts, inspiring your will and your action. ¹⁴Do everything without any grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵so that you will be blameless and honest, faultless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted age, in which you appear like stars in a dark world, ¹⁶offering men the message of life. Then I will have reason to boast of you on the Day of Christ, because my exertion and labor have not been wasted. ¹⁷Even if my life is to be poured out as a libation as you offer your faith in a service of sacrifice to God, I am glad to have it so, and I congratulate you upon it, ¹⁸just as you must be glad and congratulate me.

¹⁹I hope, with the help of the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be cheered by having news about you. ²⁰For I have no one like him who would take such a real interest in you. ²¹For they are all looking out for their own interests, not for those of Jesus Christ. ²²But you know his character, and how like a son helping his father he has worked like a slave with me in preaching the good news. ²³So I hope to send him to you just as soon as I can see how my case is going to turn out. ²⁴I trust the Lord to enable me to come to you myself before long. ²⁵But I feel that I must send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, whom you sent to look after my needs.

²⁶For he has been longing to see you all, and has been greatly distressed because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷For he was sick, and nearly died, but God took pity on him, and not only on him, but on me, to save me from having one sorrow after another. ²⁸So I am all the more eager to send him, so that you may have the pleasure of seeing him again, and I may feel more relieved. ²⁹So give him a hearty Christian welcome, and value men like him very highly, ³⁰for he came near dying for the Lord’s work, and risked his life to make up for what was lacking in the service you have done me.

Chapter 3

¹Now, my brothers, goodbye, and the Lord be with you. I do not mind writing the same thing over and over to you; it is necessary for your safety.

²Look out for those dogs, those mischief-makers, with their amputation! ³We are the true circumcision, who worship God by his Spirit, priding ourselves only on Christ Jesus, and not relying on physical advantages, ⁴though I at least am entitled to rely on them.

If anyone thinks he can rely on his physical advantages, still more can I! ⁵I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee; ⁶as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church; and by the Law’s standard of uprightness, no fault could be found with me. ⁷But for the sake of Christ I have come to count my former gains as loss. ⁸Why, I count everything as loss compared with the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have lost everything, and think it rubbish, in order to gain Christ ⁹and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ—the uprightness that comes from God through faith. ¹⁰I want to know him in the power of resurrection, and to share his sufferings and even his death, ¹¹in the hope of attaining resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have captured it yet, only, forgetting what is behind me, and straining toward what lies ahead, ¹⁴I am pressing toward the goal, for the prize to which God through Christ Jesus calls us upward. ¹⁵Let as many of us therefore as are mature have this attitude. If you have any different attitude, God will make this clear to you. ¹⁶Only we must live up to what we have already attained.

¹⁷Follow my example, brothers, all of you, and notice those who follow the pattern we have set you. ¹⁸For there are many who live, as I have often told you, and tell you now with tears, like enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹They are doomed to destruction: their appetites are their god; they glory in their shame; they are absorbed in earthly matters. ²⁰But the commonwealth to which we belong is in heaven, and from it we are eagerly awaiting the coming of a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹He will make our poor bodies over to resemble his glorious body, by exerting the power he has to subject everything to himself.

Chapter 4

¹So, my dear brothers whom I so long to see, my joy and pride, stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

²I appeal to Euodia and I appeal to Syntyche to agree together, as Christians. ³And I beg you, my true comrade, help them, for they toiled at my side in spreading the good news, with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

⁴Goodbye, and the Lord be with you always. Again I say, goodbye. ⁵Let all men see your forbearing spirit. The Lord is coming soon. ⁶Have no anxiety about anything, but make all your wants known to God in prayer and entreaty, and with thanksgiving. ⁷Then, through your union with Christ Jesus, the peace of God, so far above any human thought, will guard your minds and thoughts.

⁸Now, brothers, let your minds dwell on what is true, what is worthy, what is right, what is pure, what is amiable, what is kindly—on everything that is excellent or praiseworthy. ⁹Do the things that you learned, received, and heard from me, and that you saw me do. Then God who gives peace will be with you.

¹⁰I was very glad, as a Christian, to have your interest in me revive again after so long; for you have always been interested, but you have had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹Not that I have anything to complain of, for I have learned how to be contented with the condition I am in. ¹²I know how to live humbly and I know how to enjoy plenty. I have learned the secret, in any and all conditions, of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of going without. ¹³I can do anything through him who gives me strength. ¹⁴But it was very kind of you to share my difficulties. ¹⁵And you at Philippi know as well as I do, that in the early days of the good news, after I left Macedonia, no church but yours went into partnership and opened an account with me. ¹⁶Even when I was at Thessalonica you sent money more than once for my needs. ¹⁷Not that I want your gifts, but I want you to have the profits that will accumulate to your credit. ¹⁸You have paid me in full, and more too. I am fully supplied with what I have received from you through Epaphroditus. It is like fragrant incense, just such a sacrifice as God welcomes and approves. ¹⁹My God will gloriously supply all your needs with his wealth, through your union with Christ Jesus. ²⁰Glory to our God and Father forever and ever. Amen.

²¹Remember me to all my fellow-Christians. The brothers who are with me wish to be remembered to you. ²²All God’s people wish to be remembered to you, especially those who belong to the emperor’s household.

²³The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.

The Letter to the Colossians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy, ²to the devoted and steadfast Christian brothers in Colossae; God our Father bless you and give you peace.

³We never pray for you without thanking God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴for what we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all God’s people, ⁵and for the hope of what is stored up for you in heaven. You first heard of it long ago when the true message of the gospel ⁶came among you, to thrive and bear its fruit among you, as it does all over the world, from the time when you first heard about the mercy of God, ⁷and really came to know it, in the form in which Epaphras, my dear fellow-slave, taught it to you. He is my faithful representative as a servant of Christ, ⁸and it is he who has told me of the love the Spirit has awakened in you. ⁹That is why, from the day I first heard of it, I have never given up praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full spiritual wisdom and insight, with a clear knowledge of what his will is, ¹⁰so that the lives you live may be worthy of your Master and wholly pleasing to him, and you may be fruitful in all kinds of good deeds, and may grow into fuller knowledge of God. ¹¹Then, so mighty is his majesty, he will nerve you perfectly with strength for the cheerful exercise of endurance and forbearance in every situation, ¹²and you will thank the Father who has entitled you to share the lot of God’s people in the realm of light. ¹³He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the realm of his dear Son, ¹⁴by whom we have been ransomed from captivity through having our sins forgiven. ¹⁵He is a likeness of the unseen God, born before any creature, ¹⁶for it was through him that everything was created in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, angelic thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷He existed before all things and he sustains and embraces them all. ¹⁸He is the head of the church, it is his body; for he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead—that he might come to stand first in everything. ¹⁹For all the divine fulness chose to dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to God all things on earth or in heaven, making this peace through his blood shed on the cross. ²¹And it has brought you, who were once estranged from him, hostile in attitude and engaged in doing wrong (though now he has reconciled you ²²through dying in his human body) in holiness, and free from reproach or blame, into God’s presence— ²³if at least you continue firm and steadfast in the exercise of faith, and never shift from the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been preached all over the world, and for which I, Paul, became a worker.

²⁴At present I am glad to be suffering in your interest, and I am making up in my own person what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the church, which is his body. ²⁵In it, by divine appointment, I became a worker, that I might preach among you the message of God in its fulness— ²⁶that secret, hidden from the ages and generations, but now disclosed to those who are consecrated to him, ²⁷to whom God has chosen to make known among the heathen how glorious this mystery of Christ in you, the promise of glorification, really is. ²⁸And in spreading the news of him, we warn everyone and teach everyone all our wisdom, in order to bring everyone to Christian perfection. ²⁹That is what I am working for, fighting with all the energy with which he so mightily endows me.

Chapter 2

¹For I want you to know what a fight I am putting up for you and for our brothers in Laodicea, and for all who do not know me personally, ²that your hearts may be cheered. I want you to be united by love, and to have all the benefit of assured knowledge in coming to know Christ— ³that divine mystery in which all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found. ⁴What I mean is, let nobody mislead you by specious arguments. ⁵For though I am absent from you in person I am with you in spirit, and I am glad to observe your harmony and the solidity of your faith in Christ.

⁶So just as you once accepted the Christ, Jesus, as your Lord, you must live in vital union with him. ⁷You must be rooted and built up in him and made strong in faith, just as you were taught to be, overflowing with it in your gratitude.

⁸Take care that nobody exploits you through the pretensions of philosophy, guided by human tradition, following material ways of looking at things, instead of following Christ. ⁹For it is in him that all the fulness of God’s nature lives embodied, ¹⁰and in union with him you too are filled with it. He is the head of all your principalities and dominions. ¹¹Through your relation to him you have received not a physical circumcision, but a circumcision effected by Christ, in stripping you of your material nature, ¹²when in your baptism you were buried with him, and raised to life with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. ¹³Yes, you who were dead through your misdeeds and physically uncircumcised, God raised to life with Christ. He forgave us all our misdeeds, ¹⁴canceled the bond which stood against us, with its requirements, and put it out of our way when he nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the principalities and dominions and displayed them openly, triumphing over them through him.

¹⁶So no one can call you to account for what you eat or drink, or do about annual or monthly feasts or Sabbaths. ¹⁷That was all only the shadow of something that was to follow; the reality is found in Christ. ¹⁸No one can put you in the wrong by persisting in studied humility and the worship of angels, being absorbed in the visions he has seen, and groundlessly conceited over his mere human mind. ¹⁹Such people lose their connection with the head, from which the whole body through its ligaments and sinews must be governed and united if it is to grow in the divine way.

²⁰If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like ²¹“You must not handle,” “You must not taste,” “You must not touch”— ²²referring to things that are all meant to be used up and destroyed? This is to follow mere human rules and regulations. ²³Such practices pass for wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, and their ascetic discipline, but they carry with them no real distinction, they are really only a catering to the flesh.

Chapter 3

¹If, then, you have been raised to life with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are where Christ is, above, seated at God’s right hand. ²Fix your thoughts on the things that are above, not on those that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life now lies hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is our true life, shall make his appearance, then you also will appear glorified with him.

⁵So treat as dead your physical nature, as far as immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed are concerned; for it is really idolatry. ⁶It is on account of these things that God’s anger is coming. ⁷And you once practiced them as others do, when you lived that old earthly life. ⁸But now you too must put them all aside—anger, rage, spite, rough, abusive talk—these must be banished from your lips. ⁹You must not lie to one another. For you have stripped off your old self with its ways ¹⁰and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully. ¹¹Here, what matters is not “Greek” and “Jew,” the circumcised and the uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeborn, but Christ is everything and in us all.

¹²As persons chosen by God, then, consecrated and dearly loved, you must clothe yourselves with tenderness of heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance. ¹³You must bear with one another and forgive one another, if anyone has reason to be offended with anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. ¹⁴And over all these put on love, which completes them and fastens them all together. ¹⁵Let the ruling principle in your hearts be Christ’s peace, for in becoming members of one body you have been called under its sway. And you must be thankful. ¹⁶Let the message of Christ live in your hearts in all its wealth of wisdom. Teach it to one another and train one another in it with thankfulness, with psalms, hymns, and sacred songs, and sing to God with all your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you have to say or do, do it all as followers of the Lord Jesus, and offer your thanksgiving to God the Father through him.

¹⁸You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, for that is your duty as Christians. ¹⁹You who are husbands must love your wives and not be harsh to them.

²⁰Children, always obey your parents, for that is commendable in Christians. ²¹Fathers, do not irritate your children, or they may lose heart.

²²You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord. ²³Work at everything you do with all your hearts, as work done not for men only but for the Lord, ²⁴for you know that it is from him that you are to receive that inheritance which is to be your reward. Think of Christ as the master you are working for. ²⁵For the man who wrongs anyone will be paid back for the wrong he has done; there will be no exceptions.

Chapter 4

¹You who are masters must treat your slaves justly and fairly, and remember that you have a Master too, in heaven.

²Be persistent in prayer and wide awake about it when you give thanks. ³Pray for me too, that God may give me an opening for the message, and let me tell the secret of Christ on account of which I am kept in prison ⁴until I can make clear to the authorities why I cannot help telling it. ⁵Use wisdom in dealing with outsiders, making the most of your opportunities. ⁶Always put your message attractively, and yet pointedly, and be prepared to give every inquirer a fitting answer.

⁷Our dear brother Tychicus, my faithful helper and fellow-servant in the Lord’s work, will tell you all about me. ⁸I am sending him to you for the express purpose of letting you know my circumstances, and of cheering your hearts. ⁹And with him I send my dear, faithful brother Onesimus, who is one of your own number. They will tell you all about matters here.

¹⁰Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does Barnabas’ cousin Mark. (About him you have had instructions; if he comes to see you, make him welcome.) ¹¹So also does Jesus who is called Justus. They are the only ones among the converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the reign of God who have proved a comfort to me. ¹²Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always standing up for you in his prayers that you may stand fast, like men of mature convictions, whatever God’s will for you may be. ¹³I can testify how anxious he is about you and the brothers in Laodicea and Hierapolis. ¹⁴Our dear Luke, the doctor, and Demas wish to be remembered to you. ¹⁵Remember me to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets at her house. ¹⁶When this letter has been read to you, have it read to the church at Laodicea also, and see that you read the letter that is coming from there. ¹⁷And tell Archippus, “See that you perform the Christian service you have been assigned.”

¹⁸This farewell is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am in prison. God bless you.

The First Letter to the Thessalonians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; God bless you and give you peace.

²We always thank God for you all when we mention you in our prayers, ³for we can never forget before our God and Father your energetic faith, your loving service, and your unwavering expectation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴For we know, brothers whom God so loves, that he has chosen you, ⁵for our preaching of the good news did not come to you as mere words but with power and the holy Spirit and full conviction—you know the kind of life we lived among you for your good. ⁶And you followed the example set by us and by the Lord, for though our message brought you great trouble, you welcomed it with joy inspired by the holy Spirit, ⁷so that you set an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Greece. ⁸For the Lord’s message has rung out from you not only over Macedonia and Greece, but the story of your belief in God has gone everywhere, so that we never need to mention it. ⁹For when people speak of us, they tell what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to God, to serve a true and living God, ¹⁰and to wait for the coming from heaven of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, our deliverer from God’s coming wrath.

Chapter 2

¹You know yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was far from ineffectual. ²We had just been through ill-treatment and insults at Philippi, as you remember, but, in the face of great opposition, we took courage by the help of our God, and told you God’s good news. ³For our appeal does not rest on a delusion, nor spring from any impure motive; there is no fraud about it. ⁴God has thought us fit to be intrusted with the good news, and so we tell it, making no effort to please men, but to please God, who tests our hearts. ⁵We never used flattery, as you know, or found pretexts for making money, as God is our witness. ⁶We never sought praise from men, either from you or anyone else, though as Christ’s apostles we might have stood on our dignity. ⁷We were children when we were with you; we were like a mother nursing her children. ⁸That was the kind of affection we had for you, which made us ready to share with you not only God’s good news but our own lives too, because you were so dear to us. ⁹You remember, brothers, how we toiled and labored. We worked night and day, when we preached the good news to you, in order not to be a burden to any of you. ¹⁰You will testify, and God will, how pure and upright and irreproachable our relations were with you who believed. ¹¹You know how, like a father with his children, we used to urge, encourage, and implore you ¹²to make your lives worthy of God who invites you into his kingdom and his glory.

¹³We for our part constantly thank God for another reason too—because when you received God’s message from our lips, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which does its work in the hearts of you believers. ¹⁴For you, brothers, followed the example of God’s churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you in your turn had to bear the same ill-treatment from your neighbors as they did from the Jews, ¹⁵who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; who displease God, and in their hostility to all mankind ¹⁶try to keep us from speaking to the heathen so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has overtaken them at last!

¹⁷For our part, brothers, when we were separated from you for a little while—in person, though not in spirit—we were extremely eager and longed intensely to see you. ¹⁸For we resolved to come to see you—I, Paul, did so again and again—but Satan held us back. ¹⁹For what hope or happiness shall we have or what prize to be proud of in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes, except you? ²⁰You are our pride and our joy.

Chapter 3

¹So when I could not bear it any longer, I made up my mind to stay behind alone at Athens, ²and I sent my brother Timothy, a servant of God in preaching the good news of the Christ, to strengthen you in your faith ³and encourage you not to be led astray, any of you, in all these troubles. You know yourselves that this is what we must expect, ⁴for when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to have trouble, and it came true, as you know. ⁵That was why, when I could not bear it any longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for I was afraid that the tempter might have tempted you and all our labor might be lost. ⁶But now that Timothy has just come back to me from you, and brought me good news of your faith and love, and told me how kindly you think of me and that you long to see me just as much as I long to see you, ⁷I feel encouraged, brothers, about you, in spite of all my distress and trouble, at your faith, ⁸for now I can really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹For how can I thank God enough for you, for all the happiness you make me feel in the presence of our God, ¹⁰as I pray night and day with intense earnestness that I may see your faces and supply what is lacking in your faith?

¹¹May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus open my way to you! ¹²May the Lord make your love for one another and for all men wide and full like my love for you, ¹³so that your hearts may be strong and faultlessly pure in the sight of our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus appears with all his saints!

Chapter 4

¹Now, brothers, we ask and entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to live as you learned from us that you must live, to please God—as indeed you are doing, only do it more and more. ²For you remember what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.

³It is God’s will that you should be consecrated, that you abstain from immorality, ⁴that each of you learn to take a wife for himself from pure and honorable motives, ⁵not to gratify his passion, like the heathen who know nothing of God. ⁶No one is to wrong or defraud his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all such things, as we told you before, in the most solemn terms. ⁷God has not called us to an unclean life, but to a pure one. ⁸So whoever disregards this is not disregarding man, but God, who gives you his holy Spirit.

⁹You do not need to have anyone write to you about brotherly love, for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another, ¹⁰and you are doing it to all the brothers all over Macedonia.

But we do entreat you, brothers, to surpass yourselves ¹¹in striving to live quietly and mind your own affairs, and work with your hands, as we directed you, ¹²so that you may have the respect of the outsiders, and not be dependent upon anybody.

¹³We do not want you to be under any misapprehension, brothers, about those who are falling asleep. You must not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then by means of Jesus God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵For we can assure you, on the Lord’s own authority, that those of us who will still be living when the Lord comes will have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself, at the summons, when the archangel calls and God’s trumpet sounds, will come down from heaven, and first those who died in union with Christ will rise; ¹⁷then those of us who are still living will be caught up with them on clouds into the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸Therefore, encourage one another with this truth.

Chapter 5

¹But as to times and dates, brothers, you do not need to have anyone write to you, ²for you yourselves know perfectly well that the Day of the Lord is to come like a thief in the night. ³When people say, “What peace and security!” then suddenly destruction will be upon them, like birth-pains upon a woman about to give birth to a child, and there will be no escape. ⁴But you are not in darkness, brothers, so that that Day should surprise you like thieves. ⁵You all belong to the light and the day. We have nothing to do with night or with darkness. ⁶So we must not sleep like other men, but we must be vigilant and composed. ⁷For those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk do so at night, ⁸but we who belong to the day must be composed, wearing faith and love for a coat of mail, and helmeted with the hope of salvation. ⁹For God has not destined us for his wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us so that whether we are still alive or fall asleep we may live with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and strengthen one another, just as you are doing.

¹²We beg you, brothers, to respect those who work with you and who lead you in the service of the Lord, and teach you. ¹³Hold them in the highest esteem and affection for what they do. Live at peace with one another. ¹⁴We beg you, brothers, warn the idlers, cheer up the despondent, keep hold of the weak, be patient with everybody. ¹⁵Take care that none of you ever pays back evil for evil, but always try to treat one another and everybody with kindness. ¹⁶Always be joyful. ¹⁷Never give up praying. ¹⁸Thank God whatever happens. For this is what God through Christ Jesus wants you to do. ¹⁹Do not stifle the Spirit. ²⁰Do not disregard the utterances it inspires, ²¹but test them all, retaining what is good ²²and avoiding every kind of evil.

²³May God himself, the giver of peace, consecrate you through and through. Spirit, soul, and body, may you be kept sound, and be found irreproachable when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ²⁴He who calls you can be relied on, and he will do this.

²⁵Brothers, pray for us.

²⁶Greet all the brothers with a sacred kiss. ²⁷I charge you in the Lord’s name to have this letter read to all the brothers.

²⁸The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

The Second Letter to the Thessalonians

Chapter 1

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; ²God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³We always have to thank God for you, brothers, as it is right that we should, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. ⁴As a result, we ourselves speak of you with pride in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in the face of all the persecutions and troubles you are having to endure. ⁵This is a proof of God’s justice in judging, and it is to prove you worthy of the Kingdom of God, for the sake of which you are suffering, ⁶since God considers it only just to repay with suffering those who are making you suffer ⁷and to give rest to you who are suffering and to us, when our Lord Jesus appears from heaven, with his mighty angels ⁸in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will be punished with eternal ruin and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and his glorious might, ¹⁰when on that Day he comes to be honored in his people, and wondered at in all who believe in him—because our testimony has been confirmed in you.

¹¹To this end we always pray for you too, asking our God to find you worthy of the call he has given you, and by his power to fulfil every desire you may have for goodness, and every effort of your faith, ¹²so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, by the blessing of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 2

¹As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our assembling to meet him, we beg you ²not to let your minds be too easily unsettled or wrought up, by any message of the Spirit or any utterance or letter purporting to be from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord has already come. ³You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance—he who is doomed to destruction, ⁴the adversary of every being that is called a god or an object of worship, and so overbearing toward them as to enter God’s sanctuary and take his seat there, proclaiming himself to be God— ⁵do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you this? ⁶So now you know what it is that is holding him back from making his appearance before the appointed time arrives. ⁷For disobedience is already secretly at work, but only until he who is now holding it in check is gotten out of the way. ⁸Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival. ⁹The other’s appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders, ¹⁰and full of wicked deception for men who are going to destruction, because they refused to love the truth and be saved. ¹¹This is why God sends upon them a misleading influence, to make them believe what is false, ¹²so that all who have refused to believe the truth but have preferred disobedience may be condemned.

¹³We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth, ¹⁴and called you to it through our preaching of the good news, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵So stand firm, brothers, and hold fast to the instructions you have received from us, whether by letter or by word of mouth. ¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and kindly given us unfailing encouragement and a well-founded hope, ¹⁷encourage you and strengthen you to do and say everything that is right.

Chapter 3

¹Now, brothers, pray for us, that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and gloriously as it did among you, ²and that we may be saved from unjust and wicked men; for not everybody has faith.

³But the Lord is to be relied on, and he will give you strength and protect you from the evil one. ⁴We have faith in you through the Lord that you are doing and will keep doing what we direct you to do. ⁵May the Lord guide your hearts into a sense of God’s love and into a steadfastness like Christ’s.

⁶We charge you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who lives in idleness, instead of following the teaching you received from us. ⁷For you know yourselves what you must do to follow my example, for I was not idle when I was with you; ⁸I did not eat anybody’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor I worked night and day, in order not to be a burden to any of you. ⁹Not that I had not a right to my support, but to give you in my own conduct an example to imitate. ¹⁰When I was with you, I gave you this rule: “If anyone refuses to work, give him nothing to eat!” ¹¹For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. ¹²Now with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such people to keep quiet and do their work and earn their own living. ¹³But you, brothers, must not get tired of doing right. ¹⁴If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark the man and do not have anything to do with him, to make him feel ashamed. ¹⁵Do not look upon him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. ¹⁶And may the Lord of peace himself always give you peace in every way. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷This greeting is in my own hand, Paul’s; it is the mark in every letter of mine. This is the way I write. ¹⁸The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

The First Letter to Timothy

Chapter 1

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by order of God our Savior and of Jesus Christ our hope, ²to Timothy, my true child in faith; God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord bless you and be merciful to you, and give you peace.

³As I asked you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus in order to warn certain people there not to teach strange views ⁴nor to devote themselves to fictions and interminable pedigrees; such things lead to controversy instead of the divine system which operates through faith. ⁵The aim of your instruction must be love that springs from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from a sincere faith. ⁶Some people have failed in these things and been diverted into fruitless talk. ⁷They would like to be teachers of law although they do not understand the words they use or the matters they insist upon.

⁸I agree that the Law is excellent—provided it is legitimately used, ⁹with the understanding that law is not intended for upright men but for the lawless and disorderly, the godless and irreligious, the irreverent and profane, men who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, ¹⁰immoral people, men sexually perverted, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, or whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, ¹¹as set forth in the glorious good news of the blessed God with which I have been intrusted.

¹²I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me the strength for it, for thinking me trustworthy and putting me into his service, ¹³though I once used to abuse, persecute, and insult him. But he had mercy on me, because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, ¹⁴and the blessing of our Lord has been given me in the greatest abundance, together with faith and love that union with Christ Jesus brings. ¹⁵It is a trustworthy saying, entitled to the fullest acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of them, ¹⁶but God had mercy on me in order that in my case as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience, as an example to those who would later believe in him and find eternal life. ¹⁷To the eternal King, immortal and invisible, the one God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁸These are the instructions that I intrust to you, my son Timothy, and they are in accordance with the predictions made long ago about you. Fight the good fight with their aid, ¹⁹keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. For some people have let that go and have had their faith ruined, ²⁰like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I turned over to Satan, to be taught not to blaspheme.

Chapter 2

¹First of all, then, I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for all men, ²for emperors and all who are in authority, so that we may live tranquil, quiet lives, with perfect piety and probity. ³It is right to do this, and it pleases God our Savior, ⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to know the truth.

⁵For there is but one God, and one intermediary between God and men—the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all men. This is what was testified to at the proper times, ⁷and I was appointed a herald and apostle of it—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—to teach the heathen faith and truth.

⁸I want the men everywhere to offer prayer, lifting to heaven hands that are holy, without any angry disputes. ⁹Women for their part are to dress modestly and sensibly in proper clothes, not adorning themselves by braiding their hair or with gold or pearls or expensive clothing, ¹⁰but, as is appropriate for women who profess to be religious, with good actions.

¹¹Women must listen quietly in church and be perfectly submissive. ¹²I do not allow women to teach or to domineer over men; they must keep quiet. ¹³For Adam was formed first, and then Eve; ¹⁴and it was not Adam who was deceived, it was the woman who was deluded and fell into sin. ¹⁵But they will be saved through motherhood, if they continue to have faith and to be loving and holy, and sensible as well.

Chapter 3

¹This is a trustworthy saying.

Whoever aspires to the office of superintendent sets his heart on a fine work. ²A superintendent must be a man above reproach, only once married, temperate, sensible, a man of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³not addicted to drink or pugnacious, but a man of moderation and peace, not avaricious, ⁴managing his own house well, and keeping his children under control and perfectly respectful— ⁵for if a man does not know how to conduct his own household, how can he look after a church of God? ⁶He must not be a new convert, or he may grow conceited and incur criticism from slanderous people. ⁷He must also be a man of good standing with outsiders, or he may get into disgrace and be entrapped by the slanderers. ⁸Assistants, in turn, must be serious, straightforward men, not addicted to wine or dishonest gain, ⁹but holding the divine truth of the faith with a clear conscience. ¹⁰They should first be tested, and afterward, if there is no fault to be found with them, they can serve as assistants. ¹¹Their wives too must be serious, not gossips; they must be temperate, and perfectly trustworthy. ¹²The assistants must be only once married, and manage their children and their households well. ¹³For those who do good service as assistants gain a good standing for themselves and great confidence in their faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing you all this ¹⁵so that if I am delayed, you may know how we are to conduct ourselves in the household of God, for it is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. ¹⁶No one can deny the profundity of the divine truth of our religion!

“He was revealed in flesh,

He was vindicated by the Spirit,

He was seen by the angels,

He was proclaimed among the heathen,

He was believed in throughout the world,

He was taken up into glory.”

Chapter 4

¹The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach ²through the pretensions of liars—men with seared consciences ³who forbid people to marry and insist on abstinence from certain kinds of food that God created for men who believe and understand the truth to enjoy and give thanks for. ⁴For everything God has created is good, and nothing need be refused, provided it is accepted with thanksgiving, ⁵for then it is consecrated by prayer and the Scripture used in it.

⁶If you point this out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, living on the principles of the faith and the excellent teaching you have had. ⁷But let worldly fictions and old wives’ tales alone. Train yourself for the religious life. ⁸Physical training is of some service, but religion is of service in every way, for it carries with it the promise of life here and hereafter. ⁹This is a trustworthy saying, entitled to the fullest acceptance. ¹⁰It is for this that we toil and struggle, for we have fixed our hopes on the living God, the Savior of all men, especially those who believe.

¹¹This is what you must urge and teach. ¹²Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set those who believe an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. ¹³Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, preaching, and teaching. ¹⁴Do not neglect the gift you have, that was given you with predictions of your work, when the elders laid their hands upon you. ¹⁵Cultivate these things, devote yourself to them, so that everyone will see your progress. ¹⁶Look out for yourself and for your teaching. Persevere in your work, for if you do you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

Chapter 5

¹Never reprove an older man, but appeal to him as to a father. Treat younger men like brothers, ²older women like mothers, younger ones like sisters, with absolute purity. ³Look after widows who are really dependent. ⁴If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety in the treatment of their own families, and to return the care of those who brought them up, for that is what God approves. ⁵But a woman who is really a widow, and has no children, has fixed her hope on God, and devotes herself to prayers and entreaties night and day. ⁶A widow who gives herself up to pleasure is dead while she is still alive. ⁷Insist upon these points, so that people may be irreproachable. ⁸Whoever fails to provide for his own relatives, and particularly for members of his own family, has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ⁹No one under sixty years of age should be put on the list of widows. A widow must have been married but once, ¹⁰and have a good reputation for Christian service, such as bringing up children, being hospitable to strangers, washing the feet of God’s people, helping people in distress, or devoting herself to any form of doing good. ¹¹Do not put young women on the list of widows, for when their youthful vigor comes between them and Christ, they want to marry, ¹²and become guilty of breaking their previous pledge. ¹³Besides, as they go about from house to house they learn to be idle, and not only idle but gossips and busybodies, and talk of things they ought not to mention. ¹⁴So I would have young women marry and have children and keep house and avoid giving our opponents any excuse for abusing us. ¹⁵For some widows have already turned aside to follow Satan. ¹⁶Any Christian woman who has widowed relatives should look after them, and relieve the church, so that it can look after widows who are really dependent.

¹⁷Elders who do their duties well should be considered as deserving twice as much as they get, particularly those who work at preaching and teaching. ¹⁸For the Scripture says, “You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain,” and the workman deserves his wages. ¹⁹Do not listen to an accusation made against an elder, unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. ²⁰Those who are found guilty you must reprove publicly, as a warning to others. ²¹I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the chosen angels to observe these rules without any discrimination, and to be perfectly impartial. ²²Never ordain anyone hastily; do not make yourself responsible for the sins of others; keep your life pure. ²³Stop drinking nothing but water; take a little wine for the good of your digestion and for your frequent attacks of illness. ²⁴Some men’s sins are perfectly evident, and lead them right on to judgment, but there are others whose sins only dog their steps. ²⁵Good deeds too are evident enough, or when they are not, they cannot be wholly concealed.

Chapter 6

¹All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused. ²Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them.

These are the things you must teach and preach. ³Anyone who teaches different views and does not agree with the wholesome instruction which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, and with religious teaching ⁴is a conceited, ignorant person, with a morbid craving for speculations and arguments which result only in envy, quarreling, abuse, base suspicions, ⁵and mutual irritation between people of depraved minds, who are lost to the truth and think of religion only as a means of gain. ⁶And religion with contentment is a great means of gain. ⁷For we bring nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸If we have food and clothing we will be satisfied. ⁹But men who want to get rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish, harmful cravings, that plunge people into destruction and ruin. ¹⁰For love of money is the root of all the evils, and in their eagerness to get rich, some men wander away from the faith and pierce themselves to the heart with many a pang.

¹¹But you, man of God, must fly from these things. Strive for uprightness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. ¹²Enter the great contest of faith! Take hold of eternal life, to which God called you, when before many witnesses you made the great profession of faith. ¹³Before God who maintains all life, and before Christ Jesus who in testifying before Pontius Pilate made his great profession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep his command stainless and irreproachable until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which will be brought about in his own time by the blessed, only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

¹⁷Charge the rich of this world not to be arrogant, nor to set their hopes on such an uncertain thing as riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸Charge them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, open-handed and generous, ¹⁹storing up a valuable treasure for themselves for the future, so as to grasp the life that is life indeed.

²⁰Timothy, guard what has been intrusted to you. Keep away from the worldly, empty phrases and contradictions of what they falsely call knowledge, ²¹through professing which some people have made a failure of the faith. God bless you all.

The Second Letter to Timothy

Chapter 1

¹Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Christ Jesus in fulfilment of the promise of that life which is found in union with Christ Jesus, ²to my dear child Timothy; God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord bless you and be merciful to you and give you peace.

³I thank God, whom I, like my forefathers, worship with a clear conscience, when I remember you, as I constantly do, in my prayers. ⁴When I remember the tears you shed I long night and day to see you again, and have the perfect happiness ⁵of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also. ⁶For this reason I would remind you to rekindle the divine gift that you received when I laid my hands upon you. ⁷For the Spirit God has given us is a spirit not of timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline. ⁸So you must not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, nor be ashamed of me who am in prison for his sake, but join with me in suffering for the good news, through the power of God. ⁹He saved us and called us to a consecrated life, not for anything we had done, but of his own accord and out of the mercy which he bestowed upon us ages ago through Christ Jesus, ¹⁰which has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has taken away the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the good news, ¹¹of which I have been appointed a herald, apostle and teacher. ¹²This is why I am suffering as I am, but I am not ashamed of it, for I know whom I have trusted and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have intrusted to him for that Day. ¹³As your example in wholesome instruction, keep before you what you learned from me, in the faith and love that come through union with Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard that splendid trust through the holy Spirit that lives in our hearts.

¹⁵You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often cheered me and was not ashamed of my being in prison. ¹⁷Why, when he arrived in Rome, he took pains to inquire for me and found me. ¹⁸The Lord grant that he may be shown mercy by the Lord on that Day! And you know well enough how he helped me at Ephesus.

Chapter 2

¹So you, my son, must find strength in the blessing that comes through Christ Jesus. ²The things you learned from me before many witnesses you must commit to trustworthy men who will be capable of teaching others. ³Share my hardships like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴Anyone who is in the army keeps from being involved in business affairs, so as to please the officer who enlisted him. ⁵No one who competes in the games is awarded a crown unless he obeys the rules. ⁶The farmer who does the work ought to be the first to have some of the produce. ⁷Think over what I say. For the Lord will help you to understand it perfectly. ⁸Remember Jesus Christ as risen from the dead, and descended from David, as I preach the good news, ⁹for the sake of which I even suffer imprisonment as a criminal. But God’s message is not imprisoned! ¹⁰For that reason I am ready to submit to anything for the sake of those whom God has chosen, so that they too may gain the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and brings eternal glory. ¹¹How true those words are! “If we have died with him, we will live with him! ¹²If we endure, we will reign with him! If we disown him, he will also disown us! ¹³If we are unfaithful, he will remain faithful, for he cannot be false to himself!”

¹⁴Remind men of these things. Charge them before God to avoid idle arguments which do no one any good and only bring destruction on those who listen to them. ¹⁵Do your best to win God’s approval as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of, but rightly shapes the message of truth. ¹⁶Leave worldly, empty phrases alone, for they lead people deeper and deeper into godlessness, ¹⁷and their teaching spreads like a cancer; men like Hymenaeus and Philetus, ¹⁸who have missed the truth and say that the resurrection has taken place already, thus undermining people’s faith. ¹⁹Yet God’s solid foundation stands unshaken, bearing this inscription, “The Lord knows those who belong to him,” and “Everyone who uses the name of the Lord must give up evil.” ²⁰In any large house there are not only gold and silver dishes but also wooden and earthen ones, some for great occasions and some for ordinary use. ²¹So if a man will cleanse himself from these things, he will be put to great uses, consecrated and used by the master of the house himself, and ready for any good use. ²²Fly from the cravings of youth, and go in pursuit of uprightness, faith, love, and peace, in company with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts. ²³Avoid foolish, crude speculations; you know they only lead to quarrels, ²⁴and a slave of the Lord must not quarrel, but treat everyone kindly; he must be persuasive and unresentful, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness; for God may possibly let them repent and acknowledge the truth, ²⁶and they may yet return to their senses and escape from the toils of the devil, who has caught them to make them do his will.

Chapter 3

¹Understand this, that in the last days there are going to be hard times. ²People will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, arrogant, abusive, undutiful, ungrateful, irreverent, ³unfeeling, irreconcilable, slanderous, with no self-control, brutal, with no love for what is good, ⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, caring more for pleasure than for God, ⁵keeping up the forms of religion, but resisting its influence. Avoid such people. ⁶They are the kind of men who make their way into people’s houses and make captives of poor, weak women, loaded down with their sins and under the control of all sorts of impulses, ⁷always ready to learn but never able to comprehend the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, these people in turn oppose the truth; they are men of depraved minds and counterfeit faith. ⁹But they will not make much progress, for everyone will perceive their folly, just as they did that of those others. ¹⁰But you have closely followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹my persecutions, my sufferings—the things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the persecutions I endured; yet the Lord brought me safely out of them all. ¹²But everyone who wants to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³and bad men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves. ¹⁴But you must stand by what you have learned and been convinced of, and remember from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the Scriptures which can give you the wisdom that through faith in Christ Jesus leads to salvation. ¹⁶All Scripture is divinely inspired, and useful in teaching, in reproof, in correcting faults, and in training in uprightness, ¹⁷so that the man of God will be adequate, and equipped for any good work.

Chapter 4

¹I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, ²preach the message; be at it in season and out of season; convince, reprove, exhort people, with perfect patience and willingness to teach. ³For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome instruction, but will overwhelm themselves with teachers to suit their whims and tickle their fancies, ⁴and they will turn from listening to the truth and wander off after fictions. ⁵But you must always be composed; do not shrink from hardship; do your work as a missionary, and your whole duty as a minister.

⁶My life is already being poured out, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have had a part in the great contest, I have run my race, I have preserved my faith. ⁸Now the crown of uprightness awaits me, which the Lord, the upright judge, will award me on that Day, and not only me but also all who have loved and hoped for his appearing.

⁹Do your best to come to me soon, ¹⁰for Demas has deserted me for love of the present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹No one but Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is of great assistance to me, ¹²and I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. ¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and the books, especially the parchments. ¹⁴Alexander, the metal-worker, did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he did. ¹⁵You too must be on your guard against him, for he vehemently opposed my teaching. ¹⁶At my first appearance in court no one came to help me; everybody deserted me. May no one lay it up against them! ¹⁷But the Lord stood by me, and gave me strength, so that I might make a full presentation of the message and let all the heathen hear it. So I was saved from the jaws of the lion. ¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from any harm and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁹Remember me to Prisca and Aquila, and to the members of the household of Onesiphorus. ²⁰Erastus stayed in Corinth. I left Trophimus sick at Miletus. ²¹Do your best to come before winter.

Eubulus wishes to be remembered to you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. God bless you all.

The Letter to Titus

Chapter 1

¹Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to arouse faith in those whom God has chosen, and the comprehension of religious truth, ²in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised ages ago, ³and revealed at the proper time in his message, through the preaching with which I have been intrusted at the command of God our Savior, ⁴to Titus, my true child in our common faith; God our Father and Christ Jesus our Savior bless you and give you peace.

⁵I left you behind in Crete expressly to correct what defects there were, and to appoint elders in each town, as I directed you— ⁶men of irreproachable character, who have been married only once, whose children are Christians, free from any suspicion of profligacy or disobedience. ⁷For as God’s overseer a superintendent must be irreproachable, not arrogant or quick-tempered or given to drink or pugnacious or addicted to dishonest gain, ⁸but hospitable, a lover of goodness, sensible, upright, of holy life, self-controlled, ⁹standing by the message that can be relied on, just as he was taught it, so that he may be qualified both to encourage others with wholesome teaching and to show the error of those who oppose him.

¹⁰For there are many undisciplined people, who deceive themselves with their empty talk, especially those of the party of circumcision. ¹¹They must be silenced, for such men upset whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach, for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹²It was a Cretan, a prophet of their own, who said,

“Cretans are always liars, savage brutes, lazy gluttons,”

¹³and that statement is true. Therefore correct them rigorously, to make them have a healthy faith, ¹⁴and not study Jewish fictions or commands given by men who reject the truth. ¹⁵To the pure everything is pure, but to the evil-minded and unbelieving nothing is pure, but their very minds and consciences are unclean. ¹⁶They profess to know God, but they disown him by what they do; they are detestable, disobedient men, worthless for any good purpose.

Chapter 2

¹But you must teach people the things that properly belong to wholesome teaching. ²Teach the older men to be temperate, serious, and sensible—men of vigorous faith, love, and steadfastness. ³Teach the older women, too, to be reverent in their behavior, and not to gossip or be slaves of drink, but to be teachers of what is right, ⁴so as to train the younger women to be loving wives and mothers, ⁵and to be sensible, pure-minded, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, so as not to bring reproach on God’s message. ⁶Urge the younger men, too, to be sensible. ⁷In every way set them an example of good conduct yourself. Teach with sincerity and seriousness, ⁸and present a wholesome, unobjectionable message, so that your opponent may be put to shame at finding nothing bad to say about us. ⁹Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them ¹⁰or steal from them, but to show such perfect good faith as to do credit to the teaching about God our Savior, by everything they do.

¹¹For God’s mercy has appeared and brought salvation to all men, ¹²training us to renounce godless ways and worldly passions, and live serious, upright, and godly lives in this world, ¹³while we wait for the fulfilment of our blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. ¹⁴He gave himself for us, to free us from all wickedness and purify for himself a people of his own, eager to do right.

¹⁵This is what you must teach and urge and insist upon with full authority. No one is to look down on you.

Chapter 3

¹Remind men to accept and obey the constituted authorities, to be ready for any useful service, ²to abuse nobody, to be peaceable and reasonable, showing perfect gentleness to everyone. ³For we ourselves were once without understanding, disobedient, deluded, enslaved to all kinds of passions and pleasures. Our minds were full of malice and envy. Men hated us and we hated one another. ⁴But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior were revealed, ⁵he saved us, not for any upright actions we had performed, but from his own mercy, through the bath of regeneration and renewal by the holy Spirit, ⁶which he has poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that we might be made upright through his mercy and become possessors of eternal life in fulfilment of our hope. ⁸This is a trustworthy teaching, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who believe in God may make it their business to do good. All this is right and beneficial to mankind. ⁹But have nothing to do with foolish controversies, pedigrees, strife, and wrangles about the Law, for they are profitless and futile. ¹⁰If a man is inclined to a sect, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him. ¹¹You may be sure that a man of that kind is corrupt and sinful, for his own actions condemn him.

¹²When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to settle there for the winter. ¹³Do all you can to help Zenas the expert in the Law and Apollos on with their journey, and see that they have everything they need. ¹⁴Have our people learn to make it their business to do good, so as to meet these pressing demands and not live unfruitful lives.

¹⁵All who are with me wish to be remembered to you. Remember me to all believers who love me. God bless you all.

The Letter to Philemon

Chapter 1

¹Paul, a prisoner for Jesus Christ, and brother Timothy, to our dear fellow-worker Philemon, ²and our sister Apphia, and our fellow-soldier Archippus, and the church that meets in your house; ³God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

⁴I never mention you in my prayers without thanking my God ⁵for what I hear of the love and faith you have in the Lord Jesus and all his people, ⁶and I pray that through coming to know every good thing about us as Christians they may effectually share your faith. ⁷I have been greatly pleased and encouraged over your love, for the hearts of God’s people have been cheered, my brother, by you.

⁸So although as a Christian I feel quite free to order you to do what ought to be done, ⁹I prefer to appeal to you in the name of love, simply as what I am—Paul, no less an envoy of Christ Jesus, though now a prisoner for him ¹⁰I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I have become here in prison. ¹¹Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me, ¹²and now that I send him back to you, it is like sending my very heart. ¹³I would have liked to keep him with me, to wait on me in your place while I am in prison for the good news, ¹⁴but I do not wish to do anything without your consent, so that your kindness might be voluntary, and not have the appearance of compulsion. ¹⁵For perhaps this is why you and he were parted for a while, that you might have him back forever, ¹⁶not as a slave any longer but more than a slave, a dear brother—dear especially to me, but how much dearer to you, both as a man and as a Christian! ¹⁷So if you regard me as a comrade, welcome him as you would me. ¹⁸And if he has caused you any loss or owes you anything, charge it to my account. ¹⁹I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention the fact that you owe me your very self besides. ²⁰Come, brother, let me make something out of you, in a Christian sense! Cheer my heart as a Christian.

²¹I write you in full reliance upon your obedience; I know that you will do even more than I ask. ²²And get ready to entertain me too, for I hope that I shall be restored to you, in answer to your prayers.

²³Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner for Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you, ²⁴and so do my fellow-workers, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke.

²⁵The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.

The Letter to the Hebrews

Chapter 1

¹It was little by little and in different ways that God spoke in old times to our forefathers through the prophets, ²but in these latter days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he had destined to possess everything, and through whom he had made the world. ³He is the reflection of God’s glory, and the representation of his being, and bears up the universe by his mighty word. He has effected man’s purification from sin, and has taken his seat on high at the right hand of God’s Majesty, ⁴showing himself to be as much greater than the angels as his title is superior to theirs. ⁵For to what angel did God ever say,

“You are my Son! I have today become your Father”?

Or again,

“I will become his Father, and he shall become my Son”? ⁶But of the time when he is to bring his firstborn Son back to the world he says,

“And let all God’s angels bow before him.”

⁷In speaking of the angels he says,

“He who changes his angels into winds,

And his attendants into blazing fire!”

⁸But of the Son he says,

“God is your throne forever and ever!

And a righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom!

⁹You have loved right and hated wrong!

That is why God, your God, has anointed you with exhilarating oil beyond all your comrades.”

¹⁰And

“You, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth,

And the sky is the work of your hands!

¹¹They will perish, but you continue!

And they will all wear out like a coat,

¹²And you will fold them up like a mantle,

And change them as one changes his coat.

But you are always the same, and your years will have no end!”

¹³But to what angel did he ever say,

‘Sit at my right hand,

Until I make your enemies a footstool for you”?

¹⁴Are not the angels all spirits in service, whom he sends on his errands for the good of those who are destined to possess salvation?

Chapter 2

¹This is why we must give the very closest attention to the message we have heard, to keep from ever losing our hold upon it. ²For if the message delivered by angels proved to be authentic, and every violation or neglect of it led to a corresponding penalty, ³how can we escape if we pay no attention to such a salvation as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and it was guaranteed to us by those who heard him, ⁴while God himself corroborated their testimony with signs, portents, and various wonders, and by impartations of the holy Spirit when he saw fit.

⁵For it was not for angels that he destined the control of that world to be, that we are speaking of. ⁶For someone has somewhere solemnly declared,

“What is man? for you think of him;

Or any man? for you care for him.

⁷You made him for a little while inferior to angels;

Yet you have crowned him with glory and honor,

And you have put him in charge of the works of your hands!

⁸You have put everything under his feet!”

In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him, ⁹but we do see Jesus, who was “made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being. ¹⁰For it was appropriate that he who is the great First Cause of the universe should, in guiding his many children to his glorious salvation, make their leader in it fully qualified through what he suffered. ¹¹For both he who purifies them and they who are purified spring from one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹²and say,

“I will tell your name to my brothers,

In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise”;

¹³and again

“I will put my trust in God”;

and again,

“Here I am with the children that God has given me.”

¹⁴Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil, ¹⁵and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death. ¹⁶For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help. ¹⁷And so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might prove a compassionate high priest as well as one faithful in his service to God, in order to forgive the people’s sins. ¹⁸For because he has himself been tempted in what he has suffered he is able to help others who are in trial.

Chapter 3

¹Therefore, my fellow-Christians, who have likewise heard the heavenly invitation, observe how faithful Jesus, the commissioner and high priest of our religion, ²has been to the God who appointed him, just as Moses was, in all the house of God. ³For Jesus is entitled to as much more honor than Moses as the builder of a house is than the house he builds. ⁴For every house has a builder, and the builder of the universe is God. ⁵Now the faithfulness of Moses in all the house of God was that of a servant, in faithfully repeating what he was told to say; ⁶but Christ’s faithfulness was that of a son set over the house of God. And we are that house, if we keep up our courage and our triumphant hope to the very end.

⁷Therefore, as the holy Spirit says, “If you hear his voice today,

⁸Do not harden your hearts as your forefathers provoked me by doing,

As in that time of trial in the desert,

⁹Where your forefathers put my doings to the proof for forty years,

Though they saw them all the time.

¹⁰That was why I was angry with that generation,

And I said, ‘Their minds are always wandering,

And they have never found my paths.’

¹¹But as I made oath in my anger,

They shall never be admitted to my Rest!”

¹²See to it, my brothers, that no one of you has a wicked, unbelieving heart, that turns away from the ever-living God, ¹³but encourage one another every day, as long as we can still speak of Today, so that no one of you may have his heart hardened by the pleasantness of sin. ¹⁴For we are true partners with Christ if we really keep the conviction that we had at first unshaken to the very end. ¹⁵So while we can still speak of Today, if you hear him speak, do not harden your hearts, as they provoked him by doing. ¹⁶For who was it that heard him speak and yet provoked him? Was it not all those who had escaped from Egypt under Moses’ leadership? ¹⁷And who was it with whom God was angry forty whole years? Was it not with those who had sinned, who dropped dead in the desert? ¹⁸And who was it to whom God made oath that they should not be admitted to his Rest, if it was not to those who had disobeyed him? ¹⁹So we see that it was their unbelief that kept them from being admitted to it.

Chapter 4

¹We ought therefore to fear that when the promise of admission to his Rest is still open, some one of you may be found to have failed to reach it. ²For we have had good news preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard did them no good because they did not agree through faith with what they heard. ³For we who have believed are admitted to that Rest, of which he said,

“As I made oath in my anger,

They shall never be admitted to my Rest!”

And yet God’s work was finished at the creation of the world, ⁴for he says somewhere of the seventh day,

“On the seventh day God rested after all his work,”

⁵while here he says again,

“They shall never be admitted to my Rest!”

⁶Since then it is still true that somebody will be admitted to it, and those who had a gospel preached to them before were not admitted because of their disobedience, ⁷he again fixes a new Today, saying long afterward through David, as already quoted,

“If you hear his voice today,

Do not harden your hearts!”

⁸For if Joshua had really brought them rest God would not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹So there must still be a promised Sabbath of Rest for God’s people. ¹⁰For all who are admitted to God’s Rest rest after their work, just as God did after his. ¹¹Let us, therefore, make every effort to be admitted to that Rest, so that none of us may fail through such disobedience as theirs. ¹²For the message of God is a living and active force, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing through soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and keen in judging the thoughts and purposes of the mind. ¹³No being created can escape God’s sight, but everything is bare and helpless before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

¹⁴Since then we have in Jesus, the Son of God, a great high priest who has gone up into heaven, let us keep firm hold of our religion. ¹⁵For our high priest is not one who is incapable of sympathy with our weaknesses, but he has been tempted in every way just as we have, without committing any sin. ¹⁶So let us come with courage to God’s throne of grace to receive his forgiveness and find him responsive when we need his help.

Chapter 5

¹For every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed to represent his fellow-men in their relations with God, and to offer gifts and sin-offerings. ²He can sympathize with the ignorant and misguided because he is himself subject to weakness, ³and on this account he is obliged to offer sacrifices for sin, not only for the people but for himself as well. ⁴And no one takes the office upon himself, but men assume it only when called to it by God, as Aaron was. ⁵So even Christ did not claim for himself the dignity of the high priesthood, but he was appointed to it by him who said to him,

“You are my Son! I have today become your Father!”

⁶For he says in another passage,

“You are a priest forever of the priesthood of Melchizedek.”

⁷For Jesus in his life on earth offered prayers and entreaties, crying aloud with tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and because of his piety his prayer was heard. ⁸And although he was a son, he learned to obey, through what he suffered, ⁹and when he was fully qualified, he became a source of unending salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰since God pronounced him a high priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

¹¹I have much to say to you about this, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, because you have become so slow of apprehension. ¹²For although from the length of your Christian experience you ought to be teaching others, you actually need someone to teach you over again the very elements of Christian truth, and you have come to need milk instead of solid food. ¹³For anyone who is limited to milk is unacquainted with Christian teaching, for he is only an infant. ¹⁴But full-grown men have a right to solid food, for their faculties are trained by practice to distinguish right and wrong.

Chapter 6

¹Let us therefore leave elementary Christian teaching alone and advance toward maturity. We must not be always relaying foundations, of repentance for wrong-doing, and of faith in God, ²with the teaching of baptism and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and final judgment. ³And we will advance if God permits it. ⁴For it is impossible to arouse people to a fresh repentance when they have once for all come into the light and had a taste of the gift from heaven, and shared in the holy Spirit ⁵and felt the goodness of the word of God and the strong influences of the coming age, ⁶and yet have fallen back, for they crucify the Son of God on their own account, and hold him up to contempt. ⁷Ground that drinks in frequent showers and produces vegetation that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated receives God’s blessing. ⁸But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is thought worthless and almost cursed, and it will finally be burned.

⁹But about you, dear friends, even though we say this, we are sure of better things that promise salvation. ¹⁰For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have showed for his cause, in giving help to your fellow-Christians as you still do. ¹¹But we want each of you to exhibit this same earnestness to the very end with regard to your confidence in your hope, ¹²so that you may never grow careless, but may learn to follow the example of those who through their faith and endurance are the possessors of God’s promises.

¹³For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to make oath by, he did so by himself, ¹⁴and said,

“I will certainly bless you richly, and greatly increase your numbers.” ¹⁵And so after waiting patiently, he received what God had promised him. ¹⁶For men make oath by something greater than themselves, and they accept an oath as settling finally any disagreement they may have. ¹⁷Therefore, God in his desire to make it perfectly clear to those to whom he made his promise, that his purpose was unalterable, bound himself with an oath, ¹⁸so that by these two unalterable things, which make it impossible for God to break his promise, we who have taken refuge with him may be greatly encouraged to seize upon the hope that is offered to us. ¹⁹This hope is like an anchor for our souls. It reaches up secure and strong into the sanctuary behind the heavenly curtain, ²⁰where Jesus has gone ahead of us, and become forever a high priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

Chapter 7

¹For this man Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was on his way back from defeating the kings, and gave him his blessing, ²to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace— ³with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

⁴Now see how great this man must have been to have the patriarch Abraham give him a tenth of the spoil. ⁵Those of the descendants of Levi who are appointed to the priesthood are directed by the Law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers, although they are descended from Abraham like themselves. ⁶But this man, whose ancestry is not connected with theirs, collected tithes from Abraham himself, and gave his blessing to the man who had received the promises from God. ⁷But, beyond any doubt, it is the inferior that is blessed by the superior. ⁸In the one case, mortal men collect tithes; but in the other, one who, it is intimated, lives on. ⁹In one way of putting it, Levi himself, the collector of the tithes, through Abraham paid him tithes, ¹⁰for none of Abraham’s posterity was yet begotten at the time of his meeting with Melchizedek.

¹¹Now if anything final had been really accomplished through the Levitical priesthood, for even the giving of the Law was based upon it, what further need would there have been of appointing a different priest of the priesthood of Melchizedek, instead of choosing one of the priesthood of Aaron? ¹²For when there is a change in the priesthood, a change necessarily takes place in the Law as well. ¹³For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar. ¹⁴For it is perfectly clear that our Lord sprang from the tribe of Judah, with reference to which Moses said nothing at all about priests. ¹⁵The point is still more clear in view of the fact that the appointment of the new priest resembles that of Melchizedek, ¹⁶for he is appointed not for possessing any legal physical qualifications, but by virtue of a life that cannot end. ¹⁷For the psalm bears witness,

“You are a priest forever, of the priesthood of Melchizedek!”

¹⁸So an earlier regulation is abrogated because it was poor and ineffective ¹⁹(for there was nothing final about the Law), and a better hope begins to dawn, through which we may approach God. ²⁰And in proportion as Jesus was not appointed priest without God’s making oath to it, ²¹the agreement which he guarantees is better than the old one, ²²for God took no oath in appointing the old priests, but he made oath to his appointment, when he said to him,

“The Lord has sworn it and he will not change;

You are a priest forever!”

²³The old priests too had to be numerous, because death prevented their continuing in office. ²⁴But he continues forever, and so his priesthood is untransferable. ²⁵Therefore, he is able to save forever all who come to God through him, because he lives and intercedes for them forever.

²⁶Such a high priest we needed—godly, blameless, unstained, removed from sinful men and raised above the very heavens; ²⁷who does not need, as the old high priests did, to offer sacrifices every day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people—for this last he has done once for all, in offering up himself. ²⁸For the Law appoints to the high priesthood men full of imperfection; but this utterance about the making of the oath, which came long after the Law, appoints a son, fully qualified to be high priest forever.

Chapter 8

¹Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a high priest as this, and he has taken his seat in heaven at the right hand of God’s Majesty, ²to officiate as priest in the sanctuary and in that true tent of worship which not man but the Lord himself set up. ³But every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this high priest also must have some sacrifice to offer. ⁴Further, if he were still on earth, he would not be a priest at all, for there are priests enough provided to offer the gifts the Law prescribes— ⁵though the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven. For when Moses was going to make the tent of worship he was warned, “Be sure to make it all just like the pattern you were shown on the mountain.” ⁶But, as it is, the priestly service to which Christ has been appointed is as much better than the old as the agreement established by him and the promises on which it is based are superior to the former ones. ⁷For if that first agreement had been perfect, there would have been no occasion for a second one. ⁸But in his dissatisfaction with them he says,

“ ‘See! the time is coming,’ says the Lord,

‘When I will conclude a new agreement with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

⁹Not like the one that I made with their forefathers,

On the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt,

For they would not abide by their agreement with me,

So I paid no attention to them,’ says the Lord.

¹⁰‘For this is the agreement that I will make with the house of Israel,

In those later days,’ says the Lord;

‘I will put my laws into their minds,

And write them on their hearts, And they will have me for their God,

And I will have them for my people.

¹¹And they will not have to teach their townsmen and their brothers to know the Lord,

For they will all know me,

From the lowest to the highest.

¹²For I will be merciful to their misdeeds,

And I will no longer remember their sins.’ ”

¹³Now when he speaks of a new agreement, he is treating the first one as obsolete; but whatever is obsolete and antiquated is almost ready to disappear.

Chapter 9

¹Even the first agreement provided regulations for worship, and a sanctuary that was fully equipped. ²For a tent was erected, with the lamp and the table and the presentation bread in the outer part, which was called the sanctuary. ³And beyond the second curtain, in the part called the inner sanctuary, ⁴stood the gold incense-altar and the chest that contained the agreement, entirely covered with gold, with the gold jar in it that held the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets containing the agreement; ⁵and above the chest were the winged creatures of the Divine Presence overshadowing the lid on which the blood was sprinkled—of which I cannot now speak in detail. ⁶With these arrangements for worship, the priests used constantly to go into the outer part of the tent, in the performance of their rites, ⁷but only the high priest could enter the inner part, and he but once a year, and never without taking some victim’s blood, to offer on his own behalf and for the sins committed through ignorance by the people. ⁸In all this the holy Spirit was seeking to show that there was no free access to the sanctuary while the outer tent was still standing. ⁹And all this looked toward the present time and was symbolic of the fact that the mere offering of material gifts and sacrifices cannot inwardly qualify the worshiper to approach God, ¹⁰since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings—material regulations in force only until the time for the new order.

¹¹But when Christ came, as the high priest of the better system under which we live, he went once for all, through that greater, more perfect tent of worship not made by human hands nor a part of our material creation, into the sanctuary, ¹²taking with him no blood of goats and calves, but his own, and secured our permanent deliverance. ¹³For if sprinkling ceremonially defiled persons with the blood of bulls and goats and with the ashes of a heifer purifies them physically, ¹⁴how much more surely will the blood of the Christ, who with the eternal Spirit made himself an unblemished offering to God, purify our consciences from the old wrongdoing for the worship of the everliving God?

¹⁵And this is why he is the negotiator of a new agreement, in order that as someone has died to deliver them from the offenses committed under the old agreement, those who have been offered it may receive the unending inheritance they have been promised. ¹⁶For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established, ¹⁷for a will is valid only in the case of a person who is dead; it has no force as long as the testator is alive. ¹⁸So even the old agreement could not be ratified without the use of blood. ¹⁹For when Moses had told all the regulations of the Law to all the people, he took calves’ and goats’ blood, along with water, crimson wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled the roll of the Law and all the people, ²⁰saying, “This blood ratifies the agreement which God has commanded me to make with you.” ²¹The tent too and all the appliances used in the priestly service he sprinkled with blood in the same way. ²²In fact, under the Law, almost everything is purified with blood, and unless blood is poured out nothing is forgiven. ²³By such means, therefore, these things that were only copied from the originals in heaven had to be purified, but the heavenly originals themselves required far better sacrifices than these. ²⁴For it was not a sanctuary made by human hands and only copied after the true one that Christ entered, but he went into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of God. ²⁵Nor does he go in to offer himself over and over again, like the high priest who enters the sanctuary year after year, taking with him blood that is not his own, ²⁶for then he would have had to suffer death over and over, ever since the creation of the world. But, as it is, once for all at the close of the age he has appeared, to put an end to sin by his sacrifice. ²⁷And just as men are destined to die once and after that to be judged, ²⁸so the Christ too, after being offered in sacrifice once for all to carry away the sins of many, will appear again but without any burden of sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him to come and save them.

Chapter 10

¹For while the Law foreshadowed the blessings that were to come, it did not fully express them, and so the priests by offering the same sacrifices endlessly year after year cannot wholly free those who come to worship from their sins. ²Otherwise, would they not have ceased to offer these sacrifices, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sin? ³They really only serve to remind the people annually of the sins they have committed, ⁴for bulls’ and goats’ blood is powerless to remove sin. ⁵That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said,

“You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me.

⁶You never cared for burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin!

⁷So I said, ‘See, I have come! as the Book of the Law says of me,

O God, to do your will!’ ”

⁸At first he says, “You never wished or cared for sacrifices or offerings, or burnt-offerings or sacrifices for sin”—all of which the Law prescribes— ⁹and then he adds, “See, I have come to do your will!” He is taking away the old to put the new in its place. ¹⁰And it is through his doing of God’s will that we have been once for all purified from sin through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ in sacrifice. ¹¹Every other priest stands officiating day after day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices, though they were powerless ever to remove people’s sins. ¹²But Christ has offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, and has taken his seat at God’s right hand, ¹³from that time waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. ¹⁴For by that one sacrifice he has forever qualified those who are purified from sin to approach God. ¹⁵And we have the testimony of the holy Spirit to this, for after saying,

¹⁶“ ‘This is the agreement that I will make with them

In those later days,’ says the Lord,

‘I will put my laws into their minds,

And write them upon their hearts,’ ”

he goes on,

¹⁷“ ‘And their sins and their misdeeds I will no longer remember.’ ”

¹⁸But when these are forgiven, there is no more need of offerings for sin.

¹⁹Since then, brothers, we have free access to the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new, living way which he has opened for us, through the curtain, that is, his physical nature, ²¹and since in him we have a great priest set over the house of God, ²²let us draw near to God in sincerity of heart and with perfect faith, with our hearts cleansed from the sense of sin, and our bodies washed with clean water. ²³Let us hold unwaveringly to the hope that we profess, for he who has given us his promise may be trusted. ²⁴By observing one another, let us arouse ourselves to rival one another’s love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not neglect meeting together as some do, but let us encourage one another, all the more as you can see that the great Day is coming nearer.

²⁶For if we choose to go on sinning after we have so fully learned the truth, there is no sacrifice left to be offered for our sins, ²⁷but only the dreadful prospect of judgment and that blazing indignation which is to devour God’s enemies. ²⁸Anyone who breaks the Law of Moses is put to death without any show of pity, on the evidence of only two or three witnesses. ²⁹How much worse a punishment do you think will anyone deserve who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and treats as worthless the blood of the agreement by which he has been purified, and outrages God’s spirit of mercy? ³⁰For we know who it is that has said,

“Vengeance belongs to me! I will pay back!”

and in another place,

“The Lord will be the judge of his people!”

³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

³²But you must remember those early days when after you had received the light you had to go through a great struggle with persecution, ³³sometimes being actually exposed as a public spectacle to insults and violence, and sometimes showing yourselves ready to share the lot of those in that condition. ³⁴For you showed sympathy with those who were in prison, and you put up with it cheerfully when your property was taken from you, for you knew that you had in yourselves a greater possession that was lasting. ³⁵You must not lose your courage, for it will be richly rewarded, ³⁶but you will need endurance if you are to carry out God’s will and receive the blessing he has promised. ³⁷For

“In a very little while

He who is to come will come and not delay,

³⁸And he whom I accept as righteous will find life through his faith.

But if a man draws back, my heart can take no pleasure in him.”

³⁹But we will not draw back and perish, but we will have faith and save our souls.

Chapter 11

¹Faith means the assurance of what we hope for; it is our conviction about things that we cannot see. ²For it was by it that the men of old gained God’s approval.

³It is faith that enables us to see that the universe was created at the command of God, so that the world we see did not simply arise out of matter. ⁴Faith made Abel’s sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain’s; through faith he gained God’s approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke. ⁵Faith caused Enoch to be taken up from the earth without experiencing death; he could not be found, because God had taken him up. For before he was taken up there is evidence that he pleased God, ⁶but without faith it is impossible to please him; for whoever would approach God must have faith in his existence and in his willingness to reward those who try to find him. ⁷Faith led Noah, when he was warned by God of things no one then saw, in obedience to the warning to build an ark in which to save his family, and by such faith he condemned the world, and came to possess that uprightness which faith produces. ⁸Faith enabled Abraham to obey when God summoned him to leave his home for a region which he was to have for his own, and to leave home without knowing where he was going. ⁹Faith led him to make a temporary home as a stranger in the land he had been promised, and to live there in his tents, with Isaac and Jacob, who shared the promise with him. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to that city with the sure foundations, designed and built by God. ¹¹Faith made even Sarah herself able to have a child, although she was past the time of life for it, because she thought, that he who had made the promise would keep it. ¹²And so from one man, for any prospect of descendants as good as dead, there sprang a people in number like the stars in the heavens or the countless sands on the seashore.

¹³All these people lived all their lives in faith, and died without receiving what had been promised; they only saw it far ahead and welcomed the sight of it, recognizing that they themselves were only foreigners and strangers here on earth. ¹⁴For men who recognize that show that they are in search of a country of their own. ¹⁵And if it had been the country from which they had come to which their thoughts turned back, they would have found an opportunity to return to it. ¹⁶But, as it is, their aspirations are for a better, a heavenly country! That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city to receive them.

¹⁷Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God’s promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, ¹⁸of whom he had been told, “Your posterity is to arise through Isaac!” ¹⁹For he believed that God was able to raise men even from the dead, and from the dead he did indeed, to speak figuratively, receive him back. ²⁰Faith enabled Isaac to bequeath to Jacob and Esau blessings that were still to be. ²¹Faith made Jacob when he was dying give a blessing to each of Joseph’s sons, and bow in worship even while leaning on his staff. ²²Faith inspired Joseph when he was dying to tell of the future migration of the Israelites, and to give instructions about his own body. ²³Faith led Moses’ parents to hide him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they would not respect the edict of the king. ²⁴Faith made Moses, when he was grown up, refuse to be known as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵for he preferred sharing the hardships of God’s people to a short-lived enjoyment of sin, ²⁶and thought such contempt as the Christ endured was truer wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the coming reward. ²⁷Faith made him leave Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he saw him who is unseen. ²⁸Faith made him institute the Passover and splash the blood upon the door-posts, to keep the angel that destroyed the firstborn from touching them. ²⁹Faith enabled them to cross the Red Sea as though it were dry land, although the Egyptians when they tried to follow them across it were drowned. ³⁰Faith made the walls of Jericho fall, after they had marched around them each day for seven days. ³¹Faith saved Rahab the prostitute from being destroyed with those who disobeyed God, because she had given a friendly welcome to the scouts.

³²And why should I go on? For my time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, ³³who by their faith conquered kingdoms, attained uprightness, received new promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴put out furious fires, escaped death by the sword, found strength in their time of weakness, proved mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵Women had their dead restored to them by resurrection. Others endured torture, and refused to accept release, that they might rise again to the better life. ³⁶Still others had to endure taunts and blows, and even fetters and prison. ³⁷They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawed in two, they were killed with the sword. Clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, they were driven from place to place, destitute, persecuted, misused— ³⁸men of whom the world was not worthy wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

³⁹Yet though they all gained God’s approval by their faith, they none of them received what he had promised, ⁴⁰for God had resolved upon something still better for us, that they might not reach the fulfilment of their hopes except with us.

Chapter 12

¹Therefore, let us too, with such a crowd of witnesses about us, throw off every impediment and the entanglement of sin, and run with determination the race for which we are entered, ²fixing our eyes upon Jesus, our leader and example in faith, who in place of the happiness that belonged to him, submitted to a cross, caring nothing for its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Think of the opposition that he encountered from those sinners against themselves, if you would not grow weary and faint-hearted. ⁴You have not yet resisted unto death in your struggle with sin, ⁵and you have forgotten the challenge addressed to you as God’s sons,

“My son, do not think lightly of the Lord’s discipline,

Or give up when he corrects you.

⁶For it is those whom the Lord loves that he disciplines,

And he chastises every son that he acknowledges.”

⁷You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline? ⁸But if you have none of that discipline which all sons undergo, you are illegitimate children, and not true sons. ⁹When our earthly fathers disciplined us we treated them with respect; should we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so have life? ¹⁰For they disciplined us for a short time and as they thought proper, but he does it for our good, to make us share his holiness. ¹¹Discipline is never pleasant at the time; it is painful; but to those who are trained by it, it afterward yields the peace of character. ¹²So tighten your loosening hold! Stiffen your wavering stand! ¹³And keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs that are lame may not be dislocated but instead be cured.

¹⁴Try to be at peace with everyone, and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord. ¹⁵Be careful that no one fails to gain God’s favor, or some poisonous root may come up to trouble and contaminate you all— ¹⁶some immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his very birthright for one single meal. ¹⁷For you know how, when he afterward wished to claim the blessing, he was refused it, although he begged for it with tears, for he had no opportunity to repent of what he had done.

¹⁸For it is no tangible blazing fire that you have come up to, no blackness and darkness and storm, ¹⁹no trumpet blast and voice whose words made those who heard them beg to be told no more, ²⁰for they could not bear the order, “Even a wild animal, if it touches the mountain, must be stoned to death,” ²¹and so awful was the sight that Moses said, “I am aghast and appalled!” ²²But you have come up to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels, ²³to the solemn gathering of all God’s elder sons, enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men now at last enjoying the fulfilment of their hopes, ²⁴to Jesus the negotiator of a new agreement, and to sprinkled blood that speaks more powerfully than even Abel’s. ²⁵Take care not to refuse to listen to him who is speaking. For if they could not escape because they would not listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, who reject him who is from heaven! ²⁶Then his voice shook the earth, but now his promise is, “But once more I will make not only the earth but the very heaven to tremble!” ²⁷Now the words “But once more” indicate the final removal of all that is shaken, as only created, leaving only what is unshaken to be permanent. ²⁸Let us, therefore, be thankful that the kingdom given to us cannot be shaken, and so please God by worshiping him with reverence and awe; ²⁹for our God is a consuming fire.

Chapter 13

¹Your love for the brotherhood must continue. ²Do not forget to be hospitable to strangers, for by being so some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests. ³Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated as being yourselves liable to the same trials. ⁴Marriage should be respected by everyone, and the marriage relation kept sacred, for vicious and immoral people God will punish. ⁵You must not be avaricious; you must be content with what you have, for God himself has said, “I will never let go of you or desert you!” ⁶So that we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can men do to me?”

⁷Do not forget your former leaders, the men who brought you God’s message. Remember how they ended their lives and imitate their faith.

⁸Jesus Christ is the same today that he was yesterday, and he will be so forever. ⁹You must not be carried away with strange varieties of teaching. The true way to steadfastness of heart is through God’s mercy, not through scruples about food, which have never done their adherents any good. ¹⁰Our altar is one at which those who serve the tent of worship have no right to eat. ¹¹For the bodies of the animals whose blood is taken into the sanctuary by the high priest are burned outside the camp. ¹²And so Jesus too, in order to purify the people by his blood, suffered death outside the city gate. ¹³Let us, therefore, go out to him, outside the camp, sharing the contempt that he endured, ¹⁴for we have no permanent city here on earth, but we are in search of the city that is to come. ¹⁵In his name let us continually offer praise as our sacrifice to God—the utterance of lips that glorify God’s name. ¹⁶But do not forget to be helpful and generous, for that is the kind of sacrifice that pleases God.

¹⁷Obey your leaders and give way to them, for they are keeping watch in defense of your souls, as men accountable for the trust. Make their work a joy and not a grief, for that would be the worse for you.

¹⁸Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clear conscience, and I mean in every way to live an upright life. ¹⁹I ask this of you more especially that I may be brought back to you the sooner.

²⁰May God, the giver of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus who through the blood by which he ratified the everlasting agreement has become the great shepherd of the sheep, ²¹fit you by every blessing to do his will, and through Jesus Christ carry out in us what will please him. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

²²I beg you brothers, to listen patiently to this appeal, for I have written you but briefly.

²³You must know that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. If he comes here soon, we will see you together.

²⁴Remember us to all your leaders and to all your fellow-Christians. The brothers from Italy wish to be remembered to you.

²⁵God bless you all!

The Letter to James

Chapter 1

¹James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting to the twelve tribes that are scattered over the world.

²You must find the greatest joy, my brothers, in being involved in various trials, ³for you know that the testing of your faith leads to steadfastness, ⁴and steadfastness must have full play, so that you may be fully and perfectly developed without any defects.

⁵If any one of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to everyone, and does not reproach one with it afterward, and he will give it to him. ⁶But he must ask with faith, and without any doubt, for the man who doubts is like the billowing sea, driven and blown about by the wind. ⁷Such a man must not expect to get anything from the Lord— ⁸an irresolute person like him, who is uncertain about everything he does. ⁹A brother of low position ought to be proud of his eminence, ¹⁰but one who is rich ought to rejoice at being reduced in circumstances, for the rich will disappear like the wild flowers. ¹¹For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, and the flowers wither, and all their beauty is gone. That is the way rich men will fade and die in the midst of their pursuits.

¹²Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will be given the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. ¹³No one should think when he is tempted that his temptation comes from God, for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil, and he does not tempt anyone. ¹⁴When anyone is tempted, it is by his own desire that he is enticed and allured. ¹⁵Then desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin is mature, it brings forth death. ¹⁶Do not be misled, my dear brothers. ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no variation of changing shadow. ¹⁸Of his own accord he brought us into being through the message of truth, so that we might be a kind of first-fruits among his creatures.

¹⁹You must understand this, my dear brothers. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to be angry, ²⁰for men’s anger does not produce the uprightness God wishes. ²¹So strip yourselves of everything that soils you, and of every evil growth, and in a humble spirit let the message that has the power to save your souls be planted in your hearts. ²²Obey the message; do not merely listen to it, and deceive yourselves. ²³For anyone who merely listens to the message without obeying it is like a man who looks in a mirror at the face that nature gave him, ²⁴and then goes off and immediately forgets what he looked like. ²⁵But whoever looks at the faultless law that makes men free and keeps looking, so that he does not just listen and forget, but obeys and acts upon it, will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives himself, his religious observances are of no account. ²⁷A religious observance that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one’s self unstained by the world.

Chapter 2

¹My brothers, do you try to combine faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with acts of partiality? ²For if a finely dressed man with a gold ring comes into a meeting, and a poor man in shabby clothes comes in also, ³and you pay attention to the man in the fine clothes and say to him, “Sit here; this is a good place!” and say to the poor man, “Stand up, or sit on the floor at my feet,” ⁴have you not wavered and shown that your judgments are guided by base motives? ⁵Listen, my dear brothers. Has not God chosen the world’s poor to be rich in faith, and to possess the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶But you humiliate the poor. Are not the rich your oppressors? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who slander the noble name you bear? ⁸If you really obey the supreme law where the Scripture says, “You must love your neighbor as you do yourself,” you are doing right, ⁹but if you show partiality, you are committing a sin, and stand convicted before the Law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰For anyone who obeys the whole of the Law but makes one single slip is guilty of breaking it all. ¹¹For he who said, “You must not commit adultery,” said also, “You must not commit murder.” Now if you abstain from adultery, but commit murder, you are still a violator of the Law. ¹²You must talk and act like men who expect to be judged by the law that treats men as free. ¹³For the merciless will be mercilessly judged; but mercy will triumph over judgment.

¹⁴My brothers, what is the good of a man’s saying he has faith, if he has no good deeds to show? Can faith save him? ¹⁵If some brother or sister has no clothes and has not food enough for a day, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Goodbye, keep warm and have plenty to eat,” without giving them the necessaries of life, what good does it do? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no good deeds to show, is dead. ¹⁸But someone may say, “You have faith, and I good deeds.” Show me your faith without any good deeds, and I will show you my faith by my good deeds. ¹⁹Do you believe in one God? Very well! So do the demons, and they shudder. ²⁰But do you want proof, my senseless friend, that faith without good deeds amounts to nothing? ²¹Was not our forefather Abraham made upright for his good deeds, for offering his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that in his case faith and good deeds worked together; faith found its highest expression in good deeds, ²³and so the Scripture came true that says, “Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness, and he was called God’s friend.” ²⁴You see a man is made upright by his good deeds and not simply by having faith. ²⁵Was not even Rahab the prostitute made upright for her good deeds, in entertaining the scouts and sending them off by a different road? ²⁶Just as the body without the spirit is dead, faith is dead without good deeds.

Chapter 3

¹Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ²For we all make many mistakes. Anyone who never makes a mistake in what he says has a character that is fully developed and is able to control his whole body as well. ³If we put bridles into horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can guide their whole bodies. ⁴Even ships, great as they are, and driven by strong winds, are steered with a very small rudder wherever the pilot pleases. ⁵So the tongue is a little organ and yet very boastful. What a great forest a spark will set on fire! ⁶And the tongue is a fire, a world of wrong the tongue proves in our bodies, soiling the whole body and setting fire to the whole round of nature, and set on fire itself by hell. ⁷For every kind of animal and bird, reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man, ⁸but no human being can tame the tongue. It is an irreconcilable evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹With it we bless the Lord our Father, and with it we curse men made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰Blessing and cursing issue from the same mouth! This is not right, my brothers. ¹¹Does a spring pour forth fresh and brackish water from the same crevice? ¹²Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grape vine figs? A salt spring cannot give fresh water.

¹³What wise, intelligent man is there among you? Let him show by his good life that what he does is done in the humility of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you cherish bitter feelings of jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus belie the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom does not come from above. It is earthly, animal, demon-like. ¹⁶For wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there will be confusion and every low action. ¹⁷The wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, considerate, willing to yield, full of compassion and good deeds, whole-hearted, straightforward. ¹⁸The harvest uprightness yields must be sown in peace, by peacemakers.

Chapter 4

¹What causes wars and fights among you? Is it not your cravings, which are at war within your bodies? ²You crave things, and cannot have them, and so you commit murder. You covet things, and cannot get them, and so you quarrel and fight. You do not have things because you do not ask for them. ³You ask and fail to get them because you ask with wrong motives, to spend them on your pleasures. ⁴You renegades! Do you not know that the friendship of the world means enmity with God? So whoever wishes to be the world’s friend declares himself God’s enemy. ⁵Do you suppose the Scripture means nothing when it says, “He yearns jealously over the Spirit he has put in our hearts?” ⁶But he gives all the greater blessing. As the Scripture says, “God opposes haughty persons, but he blesses humble-minded ones.” ⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will fly from you. ⁸Approach God, and he will approach you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Make your hearts pure, you doubters! ⁹Be miserable, grieve, and weep aloud! Turn your laughter into grief and your happiness into gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will raise you up

¹¹Do not talk against one another, brothers. Whoever talks against a brother or condemns his brother talks against the Law, and condemns the Law. But if you condemn the Law you are not an observer of the Law but its judge. ¹²There is only one lawgiver and judge—he who has the power to save and to destroy; who are you, to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a town, to stay a year and go into business and make money,” ¹⁴when you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow! You are just a mist, which appears for a little while and then disappears. ¹⁵This, instead of saying, “If it is the Lord’s will, we shall live to do this or that.” ¹⁶But, as it is, you pride yourselves on your pretensions. All such pride is wrong. ¹⁷So when a man knows what is right and fails to do it, he is guilty of sin.

Chapter 5

¹Come now, you rich people! weep aloud and howl over the miseries that are going to overtake you! ²Your wealth has rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten, ³your gold and silver are rusted, and their rust will testify against you and eat into your very flesh, for you have stored up fire for the last days. ⁴Why, the wages you have withheld from the laborers who have reaped your harvests cry aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. ⁵You have lived luxuriously and voluptuously here on earth; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. ⁶You have condemned and murdered the upright. Will he make no resistance?

⁷So be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer has to wait for the precious crop from the ground, and be patient with it, until it gets the early and the late rains. ⁸You must have patience too; you must keep up your courage, for the coming of the Lord is close at hand. ⁹Do not complain of one another, brothers, or you will be judged. The judge is standing right at the door! ¹⁰As an example, brothers, of ill-treatment patiently endured, take the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Why, we call those who showed such endurance happy! You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen what the Lord brought out of it, for the Lord is very kind and merciful.

¹²Above all, my brothers, do not swear an oath, either by heaven or by the earth, or by anything else; let your “Yes” be a plain Yes, and your “No” a plain No, or you will fall under condemnation.

¹³If any one of you is in trouble, he should pray. If any one is in good spirits, he should sing a hymn. ¹⁴If any one is sick, he should call in the elders of the church and have them pray over him, and pour oil on him in the name of the Lord, ¹⁵and the prayer offered in faith will save the sick man; the Lord will restore him to health, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be cured. An upright man can do a great deal by prayer when he tries. ¹⁷Elijah was a man like us, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months there was no rain in the land. ¹⁸Then he prayed again, and the heavens yielded rain and the earth produced crops. ¹⁹My brothers, if any one of you is led astray from the truth, and someone brings him back, ²⁰you may be sure that whoever brings a sinner back from his misguided way will save the man’s soul from death, and cover up a host of sins.

The First Letter of Peter

Chapter 1

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are scattered as foreigners over Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ²whom God the Father has chosen and predestined by the consecration of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ, and to be sprinkled with his blood; God bless you and give you perfect peace.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has caused us to be born anew to a life of hope through Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, ⁴and to an imperishable, unsullied, and unfading inheritance, which is kept safe for you in heaven, ⁵and you by God’s power are being protected through faith to receive a salvation that is now ready to be disclosed at the last time. ⁶Rejoice over this, although just now perhaps distressed by various trials; ⁷they are to show that your faith when tested is found to be more precious than gold, which though it is perishable is tested with fire, and they will bring you praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸You must love him, though you have not seen him, but since you believe in him though you do not now see him, rejoice with triumphant, unutterable joy ⁹to attain the goal of faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰About this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the blessing that was destined for you made the most careful investigation, ¹¹trying to learn for what possible time the spirit of Christ within them in predicting the sufferings destined for Christ intended them and the glories that were to follow them. ¹²It was disclosed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in dealing with these things, which have now been told you by those who through the holy Spirit sent from heaven brought you the good news; things into which angels long to look!

¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action, and with perfect calmness fix your hopes on the mercy that you are to experience when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴Like obedient children, do not adapt yourselves to the cravings you used to follow when you were ignorant, ¹⁵but like the holy Being who has called you, you must also prove holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶for the Scripture says,

“You must be holy,

Because I am holy.”

¹⁷And if you address him as Father who judges everyone impartially by what he does, you must live reverently all the time you stay here, ¹⁸for you know that you have not been ransomed with anything perishable like silver or gold, from the futile way of living in which you were brought up, ¹⁹but with precious blood, like that of an unblemished, spotless lamb, the blood of Christ, ²⁰who was predestined for this before the foundation of the world, but was revealed only at the end of the ages, ²¹for the sake of you who through him trust in God, who raised him from the dead and showed him honor; and so your faith and hope rest on God.

²²Now that by obeying the truth you have purified your souls for sincere love of the brotherhood, you must love one another intensely and heartily, ²³for you have been born anew from a germ not perishable, but imperishable, through the message of the living, everlasting God. ²⁴For

“All flesh is like grass,

And all its glory like the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,

And the flower fades,

²⁵But the word of the Lord will last forever,”

that is, the good news that has been brought to you.

Chapter 2

¹Free yourselves, therefore, from all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of any kind, ²and like new-born babes crave the pure spiritual milk that will make you grow up to salvation, ³since you have tasted the Lord’s kindness. ⁴Come to him, as to a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and prized in the sight of God, ⁵and build yourselves up as living stones into a spiritual house for a consecrated priesthood, so as to offer spiritual sacrifices that through Jesus Christ will be acceptable to God. ⁶For it says in Scripture,

“Here I lay a choice stone in Zion, a costly cornerstone;

No one who believes in it will ever be disappointed!”

⁷It is you, therefore, who believe who see its value, but for men who do not believe,

“The stone which the builders refused has been made a cornerstone,”

⁸and

“A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip them up.”

They stumble over the message because they will not obey it; that is their destiny. ⁹But you are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, his own people, so that you may declare the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light; ¹⁰you who were once “no people” but are now “God’s people”; once “unpitied” but now “pitied indeed.”

¹¹Dear friends, I beg you, as aliens and exiles here, not to indulge the physical cravings that are at war with the soul. ¹²Live upright lives among the heathen, so that even if they charge you with being evil-doers, they may from observing the uprightness of your conduct come to praise God on the Day of Judgment.

¹³Submit to all human authority, for the Master’s sake; to the emperor, as supreme, ¹⁴and to governors, as sent by him to punish evil-doers, and to encourage those who do right. ¹⁵For it is the will of God that by doing right you should silence the ignorant charges of foolish people. ¹⁶Live like free men, only do not make your freedom an excuse for doing wrong, but be slaves of God. ¹⁷Treat everyone with respect. Love the brotherhood, be reverent to God, respect the emperor.

¹⁸You servants must be submissive to your masters and perfectly respectful to them; not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are unreasonable. ¹⁹For God approves a man if from a sense of duty he endures suffering unjustly inflicted— ²⁰for what credit is there in your enduring being beaten for doing wrong? But if you endure suffering for doing what is right, you have God’s approval. ²¹That is the life to which you have been called, for Christ himself suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow his footsteps. ²²He committed no sin, and deceit was never on his lips. ²³He was abused but he did not retort. He suffered but he did not threaten, but committed his case to him who judges justly. ²⁴He carried the burden of our sins in his own body on the cross, in order that we might die to sin and live for uprightness. By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Chapter 3

¹You married women, in the same way, must be submissive to your husbands, so that any who refuse to believe the message may be won over without argument through the behavior of their wives ²when they see how chaste and submissive you are. ³You must not adopt the external attractions of arranging the hair and wearing jewelry and dress; ⁴yours must be the inner beauty of character, the imperishable attraction of a quiet and gentle spirit, which has great value in the sight of God. ⁵It was in that way in ancient times that those pious women who set their hopes on God made themselves attractive. They were submissive to their husbands, ⁶like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham, and called him Master. You are true daughters of hers, if you do right and are unafraid.

⁷You married men also must be considerate in living with your wives. You must show deference to women as the weaker sex, sharing the gift of life with you, so that there may be nothing to interfere with your prayers.

⁸Finally, you must all be harmonious, sympathizing, loving, tender-hearted, modest, ⁹not returning evil for evil, or abuse for abuse. You must bless people instead. It is for this that you were called—to obtain blessing. ¹⁰For

“Let him who would enjoy life

And see happy days,

Keep his tongue from evil,

And his lips from uttering deceit.

¹¹Let him turn away from evil and do right,

Let him seek peace and go after it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are upon upright men,

And his ears are open to their entreaty,

But the Lord’s face is set against men that do wrong.”

¹³And who is there that can hurt you if you are eager to do what is right? ¹⁴Even if you should suffer for uprightness, you are blessed. But do not be afraid of them, nor be troubled, ¹⁵but reverence Christ in your hearts as Lord, and always be ready to make your defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that you have. But do so gently and respectfully, ¹⁶and keep your conscience clear, so that those who abuse your upright Christian conduct may be made ashamed of their slanders. ¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong. ¹⁸For Christ himself died once for all, for sin, an upright man for unrighteous men, to bring us to God, and was physically put to death, but he was made alive in the Spirit. ¹⁹In it Enoch went and preached even to those spirits that were in prison, ²⁰who had once been disobedient, when in Noah’s time God in his patience waited for the ark to be made ready, in which a few people, eight in all, were brought safely through the water. ²¹Baptism, which corresponds to it, now saves you also (not as the mere removing of physical stain, but as the craving for a conscience right with God)—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone to heaven and is at God’s right hand, with angels, hierarchies, and powers made subject to him.

Chapter 4

¹Since Christ therefore has suffered in our physical nature, you must also arm yourselves with the same resolve. For he who suffers in his physical nature has done with sin, ²and no longer lives by what men desire, but for the rest of his earthly life by what God wills. ³You have spent time enough in the past in doing as the heathen like to do, indulging in sensuality, passion, drunkenness, carousing, dissipation, and detestable idolatry. ⁴They are amazed that you no longer join them in plunging into the flood of dissipation, and they abuse you for it; ⁵but they will have to answer for it to him who is ready to judge living and dead. ⁶This is why the good news was preached to the dead also, that though they are judged in their physical nature as men are, they may yet live, like God, in the Spirit.

⁷But the end of all things is near. Be serious and collected, therefore, and pray. ⁸Above all keep your love for one another strong, because love covers up a host of sins. ⁹Be ungrudgingly hospitable to one another. ¹⁰Whatever the endowment God has given you, use it in service to one another, like good dispensers of God’s varied mercy. ¹¹If one preaches, let him do it like one who utters the words of God; if one does some service, let him do it as with strength which God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

¹²Dear friends, do not be surprised that a test of fire is being applied to you, as though a strange thing were happening to you, ¹³but be glad that you are in a measure sharing the sufferings of the Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may be triumphantly happy. ¹⁴If you are being abused for the sake of Christ, you are blessed, because the glorious Spirit of God is resting upon you. ¹⁵For no one of you must suffer as a murderer or thief or criminal or revolutionist, ¹⁶but if a man suffers for being a Christian, he must not be ashamed of it, but must do honor to God through that name. ¹⁷For the time has come for the judgment to begin with the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who refuse God’s good news? ¹⁸If it is hard for the upright man to be saved, what will become of the godless and sinful? ¹⁹Therefore, those who suffer by the will of God must intrust their souls to a Creator who is faithful, and continue to do what is right.

Chapter 5

¹I appeal therefore to those who are elders among you; I am their brother-elder and a witness to what the Christ suffered, and I am to share in the glory that is to be revealed— ²be shepherds of the flock of God that is among you, not as though it were forced upon you but of your own free will, and not from base love of gain but freely, ³and not as tyrannizing over those in your charge but proving models for the flock; ⁴and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the glorious wreath that will never fade. ⁵You younger men must show deference to the elders. And you must all clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but shows mercy to the humble. ⁶Submit humbly, therefore, to God’s mighty hand, so that he may in due time raise you up. ⁷Throw all your anxiety upon him, for he cares for you. ⁸Be calm and watchful. Your opponent the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion, wanting to devour you. ⁹Resist him and be strong in the faith, for you know that your brotherhood all over the world is having the same experience of suffering. ¹⁰And God, the giver of all mercy, who through your union with Christ has called you to his eternal glory, after you have suffered a little while will himself make you perfect, steadfast, and strong. ¹¹His be the dominion forever. Amen.

¹²By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I think him, I have written you this short letter to encourage you and bear my testimony that this is what the true mercy of God means. Stand fast in it. ¹³Your sister-church in Babylon, chosen like you, and Mark my son wish to be remembered to you. ¹⁴Greet one another with a kiss of love.

Peace to all of you that are in union with Christ.

The Second Letter of Peter

Chapter 1

¹Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the uprightness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have been given a faith as privileged as ours; ²God bless you and give you perfect peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³For his divine power has given us every requisite for life and piety, through our coming to know him who through his glory and excellence called us to him. ⁴Thus he has given us his precious and splendid promises so that through them you may escape the corrupting influences that exist in the world through passion, and come to share in the divine nature. ⁵For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, ⁶knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with piety, ⁷piety with a spirit of brotherhood, and the spirit of brotherhood with love. ⁸For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹For whoever lacks these qualities is blind or near-sighted, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰Therefore, brothers, make all the greater efforts to make God’s call and choice of you certain. For if you have these qualities, you will never stumble, ¹¹for then you will be triumphantly admitted to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹²Therefore I will always remind you of this, although you know it and are firmly grounded in the truth that you have. ¹³Yet I think it right, as long as I live in my present tent, to arouse you by a reminder, ¹⁴for I know that I must soon put it away, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. ¹⁵I will also take care that after I am gone you will be able at any time to call these things to mind. ¹⁶For they were no fictitious stories that we followed when we informed you of the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his coming, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For when he was so honored and glorified by God the Father and from the supreme glory there were borne to him such words as these: “This is my Son, my Beloved! He is my Chosen!”— ¹⁸we heard these words borne from heaven when we were with him on that sacred mountain. ¹⁹So we have the message of the prophets more fully guaranteed. Please pay attention to that message as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰You must understand this in the first place, that no prophecy in Scripture can be understood through one’s own powers, ²¹for no prophecy ever originated in the human will, but under the influence of the holy Spirit men spoke for God.

Chapter 2

¹There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. ²Many people will follow their immoral ways, and they will cause the true way to be maligned. ³In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered. ⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but plunged them into Tartarus, and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom, ⁵and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood upon the godless world; ⁶and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and overwhelmed them with ashes, as a warning to ungodly men of what was to come, ⁷and saved the upright Lot who was so distressed by the immoral conduct of unprincipled men— ⁸for as long as that upright man lived among them, day after day his upright soul was tormented by what he saw and heard of their lawless actions— ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue God-fearing people from trial and to punish wrongdoers while they are being kept for the Day of Judgment, ¹⁰especially those who yield to their physical nature and indulge in passions that defile them, and despise authority. Rash, headstrong men! They stand in no awe of majesty, but deride beings ¹¹against whom even angels far superior to these beings in strength and power bring no abusive charge before the Lord. ¹²These men, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse what they do not understand and will be destroyed like animals, ¹³suffering wrong as the reward for their wrongdoing. They find pleasure in the indulgence of the moment; they are a stain and a disgrace, and they revel in their deceit while they join in your religious meals. ¹⁴They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women—eyes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed! ¹⁵They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain, ¹⁶but he was rebuked for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and checked the prophet’s madness. ¹⁷Such men are dried-up springs, clouds driven before the storm, and they are doomed to utter darkness. ¹⁸They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error; ¹⁹promising them freedom when they are themselves slaves of destruction; for a man is the slave of whatever overcomes him. ²⁰For if after men have escaped the corrupting influences of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome by them, their final condition is worse than their former one. ²¹For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they had been intrusted. ²²What has happened to them shows the truth of the proverb, “A dog returns to what he has vomited up, and a sow that has washed goes back to wallow in the mire.”

Chapter 3

¹This is the second letter, dear friends, that I have now written to you, in the effort to arouse your unsullied minds ²to remember the things foretold by the holy prophets, and the command of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. ³First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, going where their passions lead ⁴and saying, “Where is his promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation!” ⁵For they wilfully ignore the fact that long ago there existed heavens and an earth which had been formed at God’s command out of water and by water, ⁶by which also that world was destroyed, through being flooded with water. ⁷But by the same command the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, and are kept for the day when godless men are to be judged and destroyed.

⁸But do not overlook this one fact, dear friends, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. ⁹The Lord is not slow about his promise, in the sense that some men think; he is really showing his patience with you, because he does not want any to perish, but wishes all men to be brought to repentance. ¹⁰The Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on it the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth and all its works will melt away. ¹¹If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what holy and pious lives you ought to lead, ¹²while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of God, which will cause the heavens to burn up and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to blaze and melt. ¹³In fulfilment of his promise we expect new heavens and a new earth, where uprightness will prevail.

¹⁴Therefore, dear friends, while waiting for this, make every effort to be found by him unstained, irreproachable, and at peace. ¹⁵Look upon our Lord’s patience as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul, with the wisdom that God gave him, wrote you to do, ¹⁶speaking of it as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which ignorant, unsteadfast people twist to their own ruin, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures. ¹⁷So you, dear friends, now that you are forewarned, must be on your guard against being led away by the errors of unprincipled men and losing your present firmness. ¹⁸You must grow in the blessing and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory to him now and forever.

The First Letter of John

Chapter 1

¹It is what existed from the beginning, that we announce; what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have beheld, and touched with our hands; it is the very message of life— ²for life has been revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and announce to you that eternal life that was with the Father and has been revealed to us— ³it is what we have seen and heard that we announce to you also, so that you may share our fellowship, for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, ⁴and we write this to you to make your happiness complete.

⁵This is the message that we heard from him and announce to you: God is light; there is no darkness in him at all.

⁶If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet live in darkness, we are lying and not living the truth. ⁷But if we live in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin. ⁸If we say, “We are without any sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and there is no truth in our hearts. ⁹If we acknowledge our sins, he is upright and can be depended on to forgive our sins and cleanse us from everything wrong. ¹⁰If we say, “We have not sinned,” we are making him a liar, and his message is not in our hearts.

Chapter 2

¹My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone does sin, we have in Jesus Christ one who is upright and will intercede for us with the Father. ²He is himself an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world. ³This is how we can be sure that we know him—by obeying his commands. ⁴Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not obey his commands, is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart; ⁵but whoever obeys his message really has the love of God in perfection in his heart. This is the way we can be sure that we are in union with him; ⁶whoever says, “I am always in union with him” must live just as he lived.

⁷Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing you, but an old one that you have had from the beginning. That old command is the same as the message you have heard. ⁸Yet it is a new command that I am writing you; it is newly realized in him and in yourselves, for the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

⁹Whoever says, “I am in the light,” and yet hates his brother, is still in darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother is always in the light and puts no hindrance in anyone’s way. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and is living in darkness, and he does not know where he is going, for the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven for his sake. ¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have been victorious over the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. ¹⁴I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God’s message is always in your hearts, and you have been victorious over the evil one. ¹⁵Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone loves the world, there is no love for the Father in his heart, ¹⁶for all that there is in the world, the things that our physical nature and our eyes crave, and the proud display of life—these do not come from the Father, but from the world; ¹⁷and the world with its cravings is passing away, but whoever does God’s will will endure forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour. You have heard that Antichrist is coming, and many Antichrists have indeed appeared. So we may be sure that it is the last hour. ¹⁹They have gone out from our number, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to make it clear that none of them really belonged to us that they withdrew. ²⁰But you have been anointed by the Holy One. You all know the truth; ²¹I do not write to you because you do not know it, but because you do know it, and because no lie can come from the truth.

²²Who is such a liar as the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the real Antichrist—the man who disowns the Father and the Son. ²³No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too. ²⁴Keep what you have heard from the beginning in your hearts; then you will always be in union with the Son and the Father. ²⁵And what he himself has promised us is eternal life.

²⁶I write you this with reference to those who are trying to mislead you. ²⁷You still retain in your hearts the anointing with the Spirit that you received from him, and you do not need to have anyone teach you. But just as that anointing of his teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, keep in union with him just as it has taught you to do. ²⁸Now, dear children, keep in union with him, so that if he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame when he comes. ²⁹If you know that he is upright, you may be sure that everyone who acts uprightly is his child.

Chapter 3

¹Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God’s children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are—because it has never come to know him. ²Dear friends, we are God’s children now; it has not yet been disclosed what we are to be. We know that if he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who possesses this hope in him tries to make himself as pure as he is.

⁴Whoever commits sin disobeys law; sin is disobedience to law. ⁵You know that he appeared to take our sins away, and that there is no sin in him. ⁶No one who keeps in union with him sins. Anyone who sins has never seen him or come to know him. ⁷Dear children, let no one mislead you; whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright. ⁸Whoever commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared—to undo the devil’s work.

⁹No one who is a child of God commits sin, for God’s nature remains in his heart, and he cannot sin, because he is a child of God. ¹⁰This is how the children of God and those of the devil can be distinguished: No one who does not act uprightly or who does not love his brother is a child of God. ¹¹For the message you have heard from the beginning is this: We must love one another. ¹²We must not be like Cain who was a child of the evil one, and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother’s upright.

¹³You must not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you! ¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love is still in death. ¹⁵Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer can have eternal life remain in his heart. ¹⁶We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷But if someone who is rich sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can he have any love for God in his heart? ¹⁸Dear children, let us love not with words or lips only but in reality and truth.

¹⁹From that we can be sure that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God’s sight, ²⁰if they condemn us for anything, for God is greater than our consciences, and he knows all. ²¹Dear friends, if our consciences do not condemn us, we approach God with confidence, ²²and we obtain from him whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him. ²³His command is this—that we are to believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he has commanded us to do. ²⁴All who obey his commands keep in union with him, and he does with them; and this is how we know that he keeps in union with us—by the Spirit which he has given us.

Chapter 4

¹Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world. ²You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God, ³and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

⁴You are children of God, dear children, and you have been victorious over these men, for he who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵They are children of the world; that is why they speak as the world directs, and the world listens to them. ⁶We are God’s children. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not a child of God will not listen to us. In this way we can tell what is inspired by truth from what is inspired by error.

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹God’s love for us has been revealed in this way—that God has sent his only Son into the world, to let us have life through him. ¹⁰The love consists not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹Dear friends, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; yet if we love one another, God keeps in union with us and love for him attains perfection in our hearts. ¹³This is the way we know that we keep in union with him and he does with us—because he has given us some of his Spirit. ¹⁴We have seen and can testify that the Father has sent the Son to be Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God keeps in union with him and he with God. ¹⁶So we know and believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever continues to love keeps in union with God, and God with him. ¹⁷Love attains perfection in us, when we have perfect confidence about the Day of Judgment, because here in this world we are living as he lives. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. For fear suggests punishment and no one who feels fear has attained perfect love. ¹⁹We love because he loved us first. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹This is the command that we get from him, that whoever loves God must love his brother also.

Chapter 5

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves those who are his children. ²This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God: it is by loving God and obeying his commands. ³For loving God means obeying his commands, and his commands are not burdensome, ⁴for every child of God is victorious over the world. Our faith is the victory that has triumphed over the world. ⁵For who is there that is victorious over the world except the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? ⁶It was he, Jesus Christ himself, who came in water and in blood; not in water only, but in water and in blood. The Spirit also testifies to this, for the Spirit is truth. ⁷For there are three that testify to it, ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are at one. ⁹If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; for the value of God’s testimony lies in this, that he has testified to his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God possesses that testimony in his heart. Anyone who will not believe God has made him a liar, for he has refused to believe the testimony that God has borne to his Son. ¹¹And that testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and that this life is found in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever has not the Son has not life.

¹³I have written this so that you who believe in the Son of God may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴And we have confidence in him, that if we ask him for anything that is in accordance with his will, he will listen to us. ¹⁵And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him for, we know that the requests we have made of him are granted. ¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing any sin except a deadly one, he will ask and obtain life for him—provided the sin is not a deadly one. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not say that a man should pray about that. ¹⁷Any wrongdoing is sin, but there are sins that are not deadly.

¹⁸We know that no child of God commits sin, but the fact that he is God’s child protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him. ¹⁹We know that we are children of God, while the whole world is under the power of the evil one. ²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us power to recognize him who is true; and we are in union with him who is true, through his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ²¹Dear children, keep away from idols.

The Second Letter of John

Chapter 1

¹The Elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I truly love—and not only I but all who know the truth— ²because of the truth that stays in our hearts and will be with us forever; ³blessing, mercy, and peace be with us from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

⁴It makes me exceedingly happy to find that some of your children are guided by truth, just as we have been commanded to be by the Father. ⁵And now I beg you, my lady—not as though I were writing you any new command, but one which we have had from the beginning—let us love one another. ⁶Love means this, that we be guided by his commands. The command, as you have heard from the beginning, is to be guided by love. ⁷For many impostors have gone out into the world—men who do not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in human form. That is the mark of the impostor and the Antichrist. ⁸Look out for yourselves, take care not to lose what we have worked for, but make sure that you are paid for it in full. ⁹Anyone who goes too far and does not keep to the teaching of Christ has not God. It is the man who holds to the teaching who has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰If anyone comes to you without bringing this teaching, do not let him come into the house or bid him good morning. ¹¹For anyone who bids him good morning shares in his wicked work.

¹²Though I have a great deal to write to you, I would rather not write it with paper and ink, but I hope to come to see you, and talk with you face to face, so that your happiness may be complete. ¹³The children of your chosen sister wish to be remembered to you.

The Third Letter of John

Chapter 1

¹The Elder to my dear friend Gaius, whom I truly love.

²Dear friend, it is my prayer that everything is going well with you and that you are well; I know it is well with your soul. ³For it makes me exceedingly happy to have some brothers come and testify to the truth of your life, for you are guided by truth. ⁴I know of no greater blessing than hearing that my children are being guided by the truth.

⁵Dear friend, it is loyal of you to do anything you can for the brothers, especially as they are strangers; ⁶they have testified before the church to your love. Please see them off on their journey in a way appropriate to God’s service. ⁷For they have started out for the sake of the cause, and they are accepting nothing from the heathen. ⁸So we ought to support such men, to show that we are ready to co-operate with the truth.

⁹I have written briefly to the church, but Diotrephes who likes to be their leader will not accept what I say. ¹⁰So if I come, I will bring up the things that he is doing, and how he is maliciously accusing me. Not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers himself, and he is interfering with those who want to do so, and has them put out of the church.

¹¹Dear friend, do not follow bad examples, but good ones. The man who does right is a child of God; the man who does wrong has never seen God. ¹²Everybody testifies to Demetrius; the truth itself does; I testify to him too, and you know that my testimony to him is true.

¹³I have a great deal to write to you, but I do not want to write it with pen and ink; ¹⁴I hope to see you very soon and we will talk face to face. Goodbye. Our friends wish to be remembered to you. Remember me to our friends, every one.

The Letter of Jude

Chapter 1

¹Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James, to those who have been called, who are dear to God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ; ²may mercy, peace, and love be granted you in abundance.

³Dear friends, I was just on the point of writing to you about our common salvation, when it became necessary for me to write and appeal to you to come to the defense of the faith that has once for all been intrusted to God’s people. ⁴For some people have sneaked in among us—their doom was foretold long ago—godless persons, who turn the mercy of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that he who brought the people safely out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed the ones who did not believe, ⁶and the angels who neglected their responsibilities and abandoned their homes he has put in everlasting chains to be kept in darkness for the judgment of the great Day, ⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in immorality and unnatural vice stand as a warning, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In that same way these dreamers defile the body, make light of authority, and deride majesty. ⁹The archangel Michael himself, when he had the dispute with the devil about Moses’ body, did not venture to condemn him for blasphemy; he only said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰But these people deride anything they do not understand, and the things they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, they use for their own destruction. ¹¹Alas for them, for they follow Cain’s path, they plunge into Balaam’s error for gain, and they perish in rebelliousness like Korah’s. ¹²They are stains on your religious meals, where they carouse together, boldly attending to no one but themselves; rainless clouds driven before the wind; leafless trees without fruit, doubly dead, and uprooted; ¹³wild sea waves foaming up their own shame; wandering stars doomed forever to utter darkness.

¹⁴Of them also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, “See! The Lord comes with his holy myriads ¹⁵to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the godless of all the godless deeds they have done, and of all the harsh things that godless sinners have said against him.”

¹⁶These men are grumblers, dissatisfied with life. They go where their passions lead, their talk is arrogant and they cultivate people in the hope of gain.

¹⁷But you, dear friends, must remember what was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁸for they said to you, “In the last times there will be mockers who will go where their own godless passions lead.” ¹⁹These are the men who create division; they are animal and devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰But you, dear friends, must build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith and pray in the holy Spirit, ²¹and keep in the love of God, and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life. ²²Those whom you pity in their uncertainty, ²³save, snatching them out of the fire, and look on others with pity mixed with fear, loathing even the clothes their animal nature has stained.

²⁴Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his presence irreproachable and triumphant— ²⁵to the one God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord now and forever and ever. Amen.

The Revelation of John

Chapter 1

¹A revelation made by Jesus Christ which God gave him to disclose to his slaves of what must very soon happen. He sent and communicated it by his angel to his slave John, ²who testifies to what he saw—to the message of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³Blessed be the man who reads this prophecy and those who hear it read and heed what is written in it, for the time is near.

⁴John to the seven churches in Asia, blessing and peace to you from him who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ the trustworthy witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the sovereign of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has released us from our sins by his blood ⁶he has made us a kingdom of priests for his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever. Amen. ⁷See! He is coming on the clouds, and every eye will see him, even the men who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will lament over him. So it is to be, Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega.” says the Lord God, who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.

⁹I, John, your brother and companion in the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance that Jesus brings, found myself on the island called Patmos, for uttering God’s message and testifying to Jesus. ¹⁰On the Lord’s day I fell into a trance, and I heard a loud voice like a trumpet behind me ¹¹say,

“Write what you see in a roll and send it to the seven churches—to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²I turned to see whose voice it was that was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven gold lampstands, ¹³and among the lampstands a being like a man, wearing a long robe, with a gold belt around his breast. ¹⁴His head and hair were as white as white wool, as white as snow; his eyes blazed like fire; ¹⁵his feet were like bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the noise of mighty waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun at noonday. ¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he laid his right hand upon me, and said,

“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, ¹⁸the living one. I was dead, yet here I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys of death and the underworld. ¹⁹So write what you have seen, what is now and what is to happen hereafter. ²⁰The secret meaning of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the guardian angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Chapter 2

¹“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

“ ‘He who holds the seven stars in his right hand and goes about among the seven gold lampstands speaks thus: ²I know what you have done; your hard work and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, and that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles when they were not, and have found them to be impostors. ³You show endurance; you have undergone much for my sake, and you have not grown weary. ⁴But I hold it against you that you do not love as you did at first. ⁵So remember how far you have fallen, and repent and do as you did at first, or else I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent. ⁶But it is in your favor that you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, as I do. ⁷Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will permit him who is victorious to eat the fruit of the tree of life that stands in the Paradise of God.’

⁸“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

“ ‘The first and the last, who died and came to life again, speaks thus: ⁹I know of your distress and poverty—though you are rich!—I know how you are slandered by those who claim to be Jews when they are not so, but only a synagogue of Satan! ¹⁰Do not be afraid of what you are going to suffer. See! The devil is going to put some of you into prison to be tested there, and for ten days to endure persecution. Prove faithful even unto death and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. He who is victorious will not be hurt by the second death.’

¹²“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

“ ‘He who wields the sharp, double-edged sword speaks thus: ¹³I know where you live; where Satan has his throne! Yet you cling to my name and did not renounce your faith in me even in the days when my faithful Antipas, my witness, was put to death among you—where Satan lives. ¹⁴Yet I hold it somewhat against you that you have among you some adherents of the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entrap the children of Israel into eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and into immoral practices. ¹⁵So you also have among you some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶So repent, or else I will come to you quickly and make war upon them with the sword that is in my mouth. ¹⁷Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give him who is victorious some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble with a new name written on it which no one knows except the man who receives it.’

¹⁸“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

“ ‘The Son of God, whose eyes blaze like fire, and whose feet are like bronze, speaks thus: ¹⁹I know the things you do, your love and faithfulness and helpfulness and endurance, and I know that you are now doing more than you did at first. ²⁰But I hold it against you that you tolerate that Jezebel of a woman who claims to be inspired and who is misleading my slaves and teaching them to practice immorality and to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. ²²See! I am going to lay her on a sick bed, and to bring great distress upon those who share her immorality, unless they repent of her practices, ²³and I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches men’s hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you for what you have done. ²⁴But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching and have not learned the “deep things” of Satan, as they call them—to you I say, I have no fresh burden to lay on you, ²⁵but keep hold of what you have, until I come. ²⁶To him who is victorious and continues to the end to do the things that please me, I will give authority over the heathen— ²⁷just such authority as I received from my Father; he will shepherd them with an iron staff and shatter them like earthen jars!— ²⁸and I will give him the morning star. ²⁹Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Chapter 3

¹“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

“ ‘He who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars speaks thus: I know what you are doing; you are supposed to be alive, but you are dead. ²Wake up, and strengthen what is left, although it is already on the point of death, for I have found nothing you have done complete in the sight of my God. ³So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I am coming upon you. ⁴Yet you have a few at Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me clad in white, for they deserve to. ⁵He who is victorious will be clothed thus, in white clothing, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, but I will acknowledge him as mine in the presence of my Father and his angels. ⁶Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’

⁷“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

“ ‘He who is holy and true, who carries the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open, speaks thus: ⁸I know what you are doing. See! I have put before you an open door that no one can close. I know that you have little strength, but you have obeyed my message and you have not disowned my name. ⁹I will make some who belong to that synagogue of Satan and claim to be Jews when they are not so, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and learn that I loved you. ¹⁰Because you have kept in mind the message of what I endured, I also will keep you safe in the time of testing that is going to come upon the whole world, to test the inhabitants of the earth. ¹¹I am coming soon. Keep hold of what you have, so that no one may deprive you of your crown. ¹²I will make him who is victorious a pillar in the temple of my God; he shall never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the new Jerusalem, which is to come down out of heaven from my God—and my new name. ¹³Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’

¹⁴“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

“ ‘The Amen, the true and faithful witness, the origin of God’s creation, speaks thus: ¹⁵I know what you are doing, and that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶As it is, since you are tepid and neither cold nor hot, I am going to spit you out of my mouth! ¹⁷Because you say, “I am rich, I have become wealthy, I need nothing,” and you do not know that it is you that are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, ¹⁸I advise you to buy of me gold that has been tested with fire, so that you may be rich, and white clothes to put on, to keep your shameful nakedness from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, to make you see. ¹⁹I reprove and discipline all whom I love. So be earnest and repent. ²⁰Here I stand knocking at the door. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will be his guest and dine with him, and he with me. ²¹I will permit him who is victorious to take his seat beside me on my throne, just as I have been victorious and taken my seat beside my Father on his throne. ²²Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

Chapter 4

¹Afterward I had another vision: There was a door standing open in the heavens and the first voice like a trumpet that I had heard speak to me, said,

“Come up here, and I will show you what must take place.”

²Immediately after this I found myself in a trance, and there stood a throne in heaven with a being seated on it. ³The one who was seated on it looked like jasper and sardius, and around the throne was a halo of the color of an emerald. ⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, with twenty-four elders seated on them, clothed in white and with gold crowns on their heads. ⁵Out from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven blazing lamps were burning; they are the seven spirits of God. ⁶In front of the throne was what looked like a sea of glass, like crystal. Around the throne, in the middle of each side, were four animals covered with eyes in front and behind. ⁷The first animal was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man’s, and the fourth was like an eagle flying. ⁸The four animals have each of them six wings, and they are covered with eyes all over and underneath their wings. And day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is coming.”

⁹And whenever the animals offer glory, honor, and thanksgiving to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and they throw down their crowns before the throne, and say,

¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, honor, and power, for you created all things; by your will they existed and were created.”

Chapter 5

¹Then I saw lying in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a roll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel announcing in a loud voice,

“Who is fit to open the roll and break its seals?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or underneath the earth could open the roll or look into it. ⁴Then I cried bitterly because no one could be found fit to open the roll or look into it. ⁵But one of the elders said to me,

“Do not cry! See! The lion who is of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David, has been victorious so that he can open the roll and break its seals.”

⁶Then I saw standing in the center of the throne and of the four animals and of the elders a Lamb which seemed to have been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the seven spirits of God, which are sent on errands to all parts of the earth. ⁷He came and took the roll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. ⁸When he took the roll, the four animals and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each with a harp and gold bowls full of incense, that is, of the prayers of God’s people. ⁹Then they sang a new song:

“You deserve to take the roll and open its seals, for you have been slaughtered, and with your blood have bought for God men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, ¹⁰and have made them a kingdom of priests for our God, and they are to reign over the earth.”

¹¹Then in my vision I heard the voices of many angels surrounding the throne, the animals, and the elders, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹²saying in a loud voice,

“The Lamb that was slaughtered deserves to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing.”

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, underneath the earth, and on the sea, and all that they contain, say,

“Blessing, honor, glory, and power to him who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!”

¹⁴The four animals said,

“Amen!”

And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Chapter 6

¹In my vision, when the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals, I heard the first of the four animals say with a voice like thunder,

“Come!”

²Then I saw a white horse, and its rider carried a bow. He was given a crown, and he rode forth as a victor to conquer. ³When he broke the second seal, I heard the second animal say,

“Come!”

⁴And another horse came forth, bright red, and its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth, and make men slaughter one another; he was given a great sword.

⁵When he broke the third seal, I heard the third animal say,

“Come!”

And there I saw a black horse, and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand, ⁶and I heard a voice which seemed to come from the midst of the four animals say,

“Wheat at a dollar a quart, and barley three quarts for a dollar, but you must not injure the oil and wine!”

⁷When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal say,

“Come!”

⁸And there I saw a horse the color of ashes, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. They were given power over one quarter of the earth, to kill the people with sword, famine, death, and the wild animals of the earth.

⁹When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who have been slaughtered on account of God’s message and for adhering to the testimony. ¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice,

“Holy and true Master, how long is it to be before you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to be quiet a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-slaves and their brothers, who were to be killed as they had been, should be complete.

¹²When he broke the sixth seal I saw that there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black as sackcloth; the full moon became like blood; ¹³the stars of the sky fell upon the earth just as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when it is shaken by a strong wind; ¹⁴the sky was torn apart and rolled up like a roll; and every mountain and island was dislodged from its place. ¹⁵The kings of the earth, the nobles, the officers, the rich, the strong—everybody, slave and free—hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks,

“Fall on us, and conceal us from the sight of him who is seated on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb, ¹⁷for the great day of their anger has come, and who can escape?”

Chapter 7

¹After that I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. ²Then I saw another angel ascend from the east with the seal of the living God, and he cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who had it in their power to harm the earth and the sea,

³“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we mark the slaves of our God on their foreheads.”

⁴I heard that the number of those that were marked with the seal was 144,000. They were from every tribe of the children of Israel: ⁵12,000 from the tribe of Judah that were marked; 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben; 12,000 from the tribe of Gad; ⁶12,000 from the tribe of Asher; 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali; 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh; ⁷12,000 from the tribe of Symeon; 12,000 from the tribe of Levi; 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar; ⁸12,000 from the tribe of Zebulon; 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph; 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin.

⁹After that I saw a great crowd which no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and they cried in a loud voice,

“Our deliverance is the work of our God who is seated on the throne, and of the Lamb!”

¹¹Then all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four animals, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying,

“Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me and said,

“Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?”

¹⁴I said to him,

“You know, my lord.”

He said to me,

“They are the people who come through the great persecution, who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵That is why they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who is seated on the throne will shelter them. ¹⁶They will never be hungry or thirsty again, and never again will the sun or any burning heat distress them, ¹⁷for the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Chapter 8

¹When he broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ²Then I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³Then another angel with a gold censer came and stood at the altar, and he was given a great quantity of incense so that he might mingle it with the prayers of all the saints on the altar of gold that stood before the throne. ⁴So the smoke of the incense went up before God from the angel’s hand for the prayers of his people. ⁵Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar, and emptied it upon the earth, and there followed peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

⁶Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

⁷The first blew his trumpet, and there was a storm of hail and fire mixed with blood, and it fell upon the earth, and one third of the earth was burned up, and one third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and what looked like a great mountain ablaze with fire was thrown into the sea, and one third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹and one third of all the live creatures in the sea perished, and one third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and there fell from the sky a great star blazing like a torch, and it fell upon one third of the streams and the springs of water. ¹¹The star is called Apsinthus, that is, Wormwood. Then one third of the waters turned to wormwood, and numbers of people died of the waters, for they had turned bitter.

¹²Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one third of the sun was blasted, and one third of the moon and one third of the stars, so that one third of them were darkened, and there was no light for one third of the day and of the night.

¹³Then in my vision I heard an eagle flying in midair say in a loud voice,

“Alas! Alas! Alas for the inhabitants of the earth, because of the other blasts of the three angels who are going to blow their trumpets!”

Chapter 9

¹Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen on the earth from the sky. He was given the key to the pit of the abyss, ²and he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace poured up out of the pit, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit. ³Out of the smoke locusts descended upon the earth, but with powers like those of earthly scorpions. ⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only the men who did not have the mark of God’s seal upon their foreheads. ⁵They were not allowed to kill anyone, but only to torture them for five months, and the torture they inflicted was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings a man. ⁶In those days men will seek death and never find it. They will want to die, but death will fly from them. ⁷In appearance the locusts were like war-horses armed for battle; on their heads were what appeared to be crowns like gold; their faces were like human faces; ⁸they had hair like a woman’s; their teeth were like those of lions; ⁹their breasts were like iron breast-plates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of a great number of chariots and horses rushing into battle. ¹⁰They had tails and stings like scorpions; it was in their tails that their power lay to harm men for five months. ¹¹They had over them as king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he is called Apollyon.

¹²The first woe is past. See! Two woes are yet to come.

¹³Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the corners of the altar of gold that was before God ¹⁴say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet,

“Release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

¹⁵Then the four angels who were held in readiness for that hour and day and month and year were let loose to kill one third of mankind. ¹⁶The number of the hosts of horsemen was twice 10,000 times 10,000; I heard their number. ¹⁷And this was how the horses and their riders looked in my vision: Their breast-plates were fire red, dark blue, and yellow. The horses’ heads were like lions’ heads, and fire, smoke, and sulphur poured from their mouths. ¹⁸One third of mankind were killed by these three plagues—the fire, smoke, and sulphur that poured from their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses lay in their mouths and their tails; their tails were like snakes, and they had heads with which they hurt people. ²⁰Yet what was left of mankind, those who escaped being killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshiping demons and gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wooden idols, which cannot either see or hear or move, ²¹and they did not repent of their murders, or their magic arts, or their immorality, or their thefts.

Chapter 10

¹Then I saw another mighty angel descend from heaven. He was clothed in a cloud, and a rainbow encircled his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire, ²and he had a little scroll open in his hand. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, ³and he uttered a great shout like the roar of a lion; and when he shouted, the seven thunders raised their voices. ⁴When the seven thunders had spoken I was going to write it down, but I heard a voice from heaven say,

“Seal up what the seven thunders have said! Do not write it down!”

⁵Then the angel, whom I had seen standing on the sea and on the land, raised his right hand to heaven, ⁶and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, that there should be no more delay, ⁷but at the time when the seventh angel spoke, when he should blow his trumpet, then God’s mysterious purpose, the good news of which he gave to his slaves the prophets, would be accomplished. ⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, and said,

“Go and take the little scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

⁹So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me,

“Take it and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”

¹⁰So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it, it made my stomach bitter. ¹¹Then they said to me,

“You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings!”

Chapter 11

¹Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told,

“Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there, ²but leave out the court outside the temple; do not measure that, for it has been given up to the heathen, and for forty-two months they will trample on it. ³And I will permit my two witnesses, clothed in sackcloth, to prophesy for 1,260 days.”

⁴They are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵If anyone tries to hurt them fire comes out of their mouths and consumes their enemies; if anyone tries to hurt them, he will certainly be killed in that way. ⁶They have the power to shut up the sky, so that no rain will fall during the days when they are prophesying, and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to smite the earth with any plague whenever they please. ⁷When they finish their testimony, the animal that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, ⁸and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord also was crucified. ⁹For three days and a half, men of all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their bodies, and will not let them be buried. ¹⁰The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate by sending presents to one another, for these two prophets were a torment to the inhabitants of the earth. ¹¹After three days and a half, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror seized those who saw them. ¹²And they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them,

“Come up here.”

And they went up to heaven in a cloud, before the eyes of their enemies. ¹³At that moment there was a great earthquake, and one tenth of the city was destroyed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were filled with awe, and acknowledged the glory of the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second woe is past. See! The third woe is soon to come.

¹⁵Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices were heard in heaven, saying,

“The sovereignty of the world has passed into the possession of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁶Then the twenty-four elders who were seated on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷saying,

“We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and were, because you have assumed your great power and begun to reign. ¹⁸The heathen were enraged, but now your anger has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your slaves the prophets and your people high and low who revere your name, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth!”

¹⁹Then the temple of God in heaven was thrown open, and the chest containing his agreement was seen inside the temple, and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great storm of hail.

Chapter 12

¹Then a great portent appeared in the sky—a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²She was soon to have a child, and she cried out with pain and agony in giving birth to it. ³Another portent appeared in the sky—there was a great fire-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven diadems on his heads. ⁴His tail swept away one third of the stars of heaven and flung them down upon the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth to a child in order to devour her child as soon as it was born. ⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to shepherd all the heathen with a staff of iron; and her child was caught up to God, to his throne. ⁶Then the woman fled into the desert, where there was a place prepared by God for her, where she was to be taken care of for 1,260 days.

⁷Then war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought ⁸but they were defeated, and there was no place for them any longer in heaven. ⁹So the great dragon, the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. ¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say,

“The deliverance and power and reign of our God, and the authority of his Christ have now come, for the accuser of our brothers, who kept bringing charges against them day and night before our God, has been hurled down. ¹¹They have conquered him because of the Lamb’s blood, and the message to which they bore testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death. ¹²Therefore, rejoice, you heavens and you who live in them! But alas for the earth and the sea, for the devil has descended upon you in a great rage, for he knows that he has only a short time left.”

¹³When the dragon saw that he had been hurled down to the earth, he went in pursuit of the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴But the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to her place in the desert, where she is to be taken care of for a time, times, and a half-time, on account of the serpent. ¹⁵Then the serpent poured water from his mouth after the woman like a river, to sweep her away. ¹⁶But the earth helped the woman, for the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured out of his mouth. ¹⁷So the dragon was enraged at the woman, and he went off to make war on the rest of her children—those who obey God’s commands and adhere to the testimony of Jesus.

Chapter 13

¹Then I stood on the sand of the seashore, and I saw an animal come up out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and with ten diadems on its horns, and blasphemous titles on its heads. ²The animal I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave it his own power and his throne and great authority. ³One of its heads seemed to have received a mortal wound, but its mortal wound had been healed. And the whole earth followed the animal in wonder, ⁴and worshiped the dragon for having given the animal his authority, and they worshiped the animal, and said,

“Who is there like the animal? Who can fight with it?”

⁵It was allowed to utter great boasts and blasphemies, and to exert authority for forty-two months. ⁶It opened its mouth in blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling-place, that is, those who live in heaven. ⁷It was allowed to make war on God’s people and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. ⁸All the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not from the foundation of the world been written in the slain Lamb’s book of life, will worship it. ⁹Let everyone who can hear listen. ¹⁰Whoever is destined for captivity will go into captivity; whoever kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. On this fact rests the endurance and fidelity of God’s people.

¹¹Then I saw another animal come up out of the land. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. ¹²It exercises the full authority of the first animal on its behalf. It makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first animal, whose mortal wound had been healed. ¹³It performs great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth before men’s eyes. ¹⁴It leads the inhabitants of the earth astray by the wonders it is allowed to do on behalf of the animal, telling the inhabitants of the earth to erect a statue to the animal that bears the mark of the sword-thrust and yet lives. ¹⁵It is also allowed to impart life to the animal’s statue so that the animal’s statue can speak, and to have all who do not worship the animal’s statue killed. ¹⁶And it makes everyone, high and low, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, have a mark stamped on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷and permits no one to buy or sell anything unless he bears the mark, that is, the animal’s name or the number corresponding to its name. ¹⁸There is wisdom hidden here! Let everyone of intelligence calculate the animal’s number, for it indicates a certain man; its number is 666.

Chapter 14

¹Then in my vision I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 people who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. ²And I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of great waters, and loud peals of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps. ³They were singing a new song before the throne and the four animals and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been ransomed from the earth. ⁴They are the men who have not been defiled by relations with women; they are celibates. It is they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed from among men as the first-fruits for God and the Lamb, ⁵and they have never been known to utter a lie; they are irreproachable.

⁶Then I saw another angel flying in midair, with eternal good news to announce to the inhabitants of the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. ⁷He cried in a loud voice,

“Fear God and give him glory, for the hour for his judgment has come. Worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and the springs of water.”

⁸A second angel followed, saying,

“She is fallen! Mighty Babylon is fallen, who made all the heathen drink the wine of the passion of her immorality!”

⁹A third angel followed them, saying in a loud voice,

“Whoever worships the animal and its statue and lets its mark be put on his forehead or on his hand ¹⁰shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and be tortured with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the holy angels and the Lamb. ¹¹The smoke of their torture will go up forever and ever, and they will have no rest night or day—these worshipers of the animal and its statue, and any who bear the mark of its name.” ¹²On this fact rests the endurance of God’s people, who obey God’s commands and cling to their faith in Jesus.

¹³Then I heard a voice from heaven say,

“Write: Blessed are the dead who from this time forth die as Christians!”

“Yes!” answers the Spirit, “Let them rest from their toil, for what they have done will go with them!”

¹⁴Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on it a being like a man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

¹⁵And another angel came out of the temple and cried in a loud voice to him who was seated on the cloud,

“Use your sickle and reap. The time has come to reap, for the earth’s harvest is ripe.”

¹⁶So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

¹⁷Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. ¹⁸And another angel came forth from the altar, who presided over the fire, and he called in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle,

“Use your sharp sickle and gather the bunches of grapes from the earth’s vine, for the grapes on it are ripe.”

¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered the fruit of the earth’s vine, and flung them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. ²⁰The grapes were trodden in the winepress outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress in a stream so deep that for 200 miles it came up to the horses’ bridles.

Chapter 15

¹Then I saw another great, marvelous portent in heaven. There were seven angels with seven plagues which are to be the last, for they complete the expression of God’s wrath.

²And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and standing upon the sea of glass those who had come off victorious from the animal and its statue and the number corresponding to its name. They had harps that God had given them, ³and they were singing the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your doings, Lord God Almighty! Upright and true are your ways, King of the Ages! ⁴Who will not fear and give glory to your name, Lord? For you alone are holy. All the heathen will come and worship before you, for the justice of your sentences has now been shown.”

⁵Afterward I saw the temple, that is, the tent of the testimony, thrown open in heaven, ⁶and the seven angels with the seven plagues came out of the temple. They were clothed in clean, glistening linen and had gold belts around their breasts. ⁷Then one of the four animals gave the seven angels seven gold bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, ⁸and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one could go into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were over.

Chapter 16

¹Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels,

“Go and empty the seven bowls of God’s wrath upon the earth!”

²So the first angel went and emptied his bowl upon the earth, and loathsome, painful sores attacked the men who bore the mark of the animal and worshiped its statue.

³The second emptied his bowl upon the sea, and it turned into blood like a dead man’s, and every live thing in the sea died.

⁴The third emptied his bowl upon the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood. ⁵Then I heard the angel of the waters say,

“You are just in pronouncing this sentence, you who are and were, the Holy One; ⁶for they shed the blood of your people and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

⁷And I heard the altar answer,

“Yes, Lord God Almighty! Your sentences are true and just.”

⁸The fourth emptied his bowl upon the sun, and it was allowed to scorch mankind with its heat, ⁹and they were dreadfully scorched, but they reviled the name of God who had control of these plagues, and would not repent and give him glory.

¹⁰The fifth emptied his bowl upon the animal’s throne, and its kingdom was plunged in darkness, and men gnawed their tongues in anguish ¹¹and reviled the God of heaven for their sufferings and sores, but they would not repent of what they had done.

¹²The sixth emptied his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up to make the way ready for the kings from the east. ¹³Then I saw three foul spirits like frogs emerge from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the animal and from the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴They are demon spirits that perform wonders, and they go out to the kings all over the world to muster them for battle on the great Day of God Almighty. ¹⁵(See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who keeps awake, and keeps hold of his clothes, so that he will not have to go naked and be put to shame!) ¹⁶So they mustered the kings at the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.

¹⁷The seventh emptied his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is all over!”

¹⁸Then there were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, and there was a great earthquake; there has never been such an earthquake since man first existed upon the earth, it was so great. ¹⁹The great city broke into three pieces, the cities of the heathen fell, and God remembered to give mighty Babylon the cup of the wine of his fierce anger. ²⁰Every island vanished, the mountains disappeared, ²¹huge hailstones of immense weight fell on mankind from heaven, and men reviled God because of the plague of hail, the plague of it was so terrible.

Chapter 17

¹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and spoke to me.

“Come,” he said, “I will show you the doom of the great idolatress who is seated on many waters, ²in whose idolatry the kings of the earth have joined, and with the wine of whose idolatry the inhabitants of the earth have been intoxicated.”

³So he carried me away in a trance to a desert, and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet animal all covered with blasphemous titles; it had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and glittered with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She had in her hand a gold cup full of accursed things, and the impurities of her immorality. ⁵On her forehead there was written a name that was symbolic: “Mighty Babylon, mother of idolatresses and of earth’s abominations.” ⁶I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s people, and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her I was perfectly amazed, ⁷but the angel said to me,

“Why are you amazed? I will explain to you what the woman and the animal with seven heads and ten horns that carries her symbolize. ⁸The animal that you saw was, and is no more; it is going to come up out of the abyss, but it is to go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names from the foundation of the world have not been written in the book of life, will be amazed when they see that the animal was, and is no more, and yet is to come. ⁹Here is a problem for a profound mind! The seven heads are seven hills, on which the woman is seated. ¹⁰They are also seven kings; five have fallen, one is reigning, the other has not yet come, and when he does his stay must be brief. ¹¹So must it be with the animal that was, and is no more. It is also an eighth king, although it is one of the seven, and it is to go to destruction. ¹²The ten horns that you saw are also ten kings, who have not yet begun to reign, but for a single hour they receive authority as kings along with the animal. ¹³They have one purpose, they give their power and authority to the animal. ¹⁴They will make war upon the Lamb, and the Lamb with his elect, chosen, and faithful followers with him will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.

¹⁵“The waters that you saw,” he said to me, “on which the idolatrous woman was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. ¹⁶The ten horns that you saw and the animal will hate the idolatrous woman and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her up with fire. ¹⁷For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by having a common purpose and giving up their authority to the animal until God’s decrees are carried out. ¹⁸And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”

Chapter 18

¹Afterward I saw another angel come down from heaven. He possessed great authority and his splendor lighted up the earth. ²He cried out with a mighty voice,

“She is fallen! Mighty Babylon is fallen! She has become the haunt of demons, and a dungeon for every foul spirit and every unclean and loathsome bird, ³for after drinking the wine of the passion of her immorality all the heathen have fallen; the kings of the earth have joined in her idolatry, and the traders of the earth have grown rich from her excessive luxury!”

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say,

“Come out of her, my people, so that you may not share in her sins, and suffer from her plagues. ⁵For her sins are piled up to the sky, and God has remembered her crimes. ⁶Pay her back in her own coin, and give her double for what she has done. In the cup she mixed for others, mix her a double draught. ⁷The more she has given herself to pride and luxury the more you must give her torture and grief. Because she says to herself, ‘I sit on a throne; I am not a widow, I shall never have any sorrow,’ ⁸her plagues will overtake her in one day, death, grief, and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is mighty. ⁹The kings of the earth who have joined in her idolatry and luxury will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke from her burning. ¹⁰They will stand a long way off for fear of her torture and say, ‘Alas! Alas for the great city, for Babylon the mighty city, for in a single hour your judgment has overtaken you!’ ¹¹The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one will buy their cargoes any more— ¹²cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet, all kinds of citron wood, all kinds of objects of ivory and costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, ¹³and cinnamon, spices, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves—and human lives! ¹⁴The fruit of your soul’s desire is gone, your luxury and splendor have perished, and people will never find them again. ¹⁵The dealers in these things, who had grown rich from their trade with her, for fear of her torture will stand a long way off, weeping and mourning, ¹⁶and say, ‘Alas! Alas for the great city that was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and glittered with gold, precious stones, and pearls, ¹⁷for in a single hour this vast wealth has been destroyed!’ All navigators and all who travel by sea, sailors and sea-faring men, stood a long way off ¹⁸and cried out when they saw the smoke from her burning, ‘What city was like the great city?’ ¹⁹They threw dust on their heads and wept and mourned, crying out, ‘Alas! Alas for the great city, where all who had ships on the sea grew rich through her extravagance! For in a single hour she has been destroyed!’ ²⁰Gloat over her, heaven! and all you people of God, apostles, and prophets, for God has avenged you upon her!”

²¹Then a mighty angel caught up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,

“With such violence will Babylon the great city be hurled to destruction and never be seen again! ²²The sound of harpists and musicians, flute-players, and trumpets will never be heard in you again. No craftsman of any kind will ever be found in you again, no sound of the millstone will ever be heard in you again; ²³no light of any lamp will ever shine in you again; no voice of bride or bridegroom will ever be heard in you again. For your merchants were the great men of the earth; by your magic all the heathen have been led astray, ²⁴and in you was found the blood of prophets, God’s people, and all who have been slaughtered on the earth.”

Chapter 19

¹After that I heard what sounded like the loud shout of a great multitude in heaven saying,

“Praise the Lord! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, ²for his judgments are sound and upright. For he has passed judgment upon the great idolatress who corrupted the earth with her idolatry, and he has avenged the blood of his slaves upon her!”

³Then they said again,

“Praise the Lord! For smoke will go up from her forever and ever!”

⁴Then the twenty-four elders and the four animals fell down and worshiped God who was seated upon the throne.

“Amen!” they said, “Praise the Lord!”

⁵And there came a voice from the throne, saying,

“Praise our God, all you slaves of his, high and low, who fear him!”

⁶Then I heard what sounded like the shout of a great multitude and the noise of many waters and the sound of mighty thunders, saying,

“Praise the Lord; for the Lord our God, the Almighty now reigns! ⁷Let us be glad and triumphant and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. ⁸She has been permitted to wear clean, glistening linen, for linen represents the upright deeds of God’s people.”

⁹Then he said to me,

“Write: ‘Blessed are they who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ These,” he said to me, “are the true words of God.”

¹⁰I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me,

“You must not do that. I am only a fellow-slave of yours and of your brothers who have accepted the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is what inspires prophecy.”

¹¹Then I saw heaven thrown open and there appeared a white horse. His rider was called Faithful and True, and he judges and wages war in uprightness. ¹²His eyes blazed like fire. There were many diadems on his head, and there was a name written on him which no one knew but himself. ¹³The garment he wore was spattered with blood, and his name was the Word of God. ¹⁴The armies of heaven followed him mounted on white horses and clothed in pure white linen. ¹⁵From his mouth came a sharp sword with which he is to strike down the heathen. He will shepherd them with a staff of iron, and will tread the winepress of the fierce anger of God Almighty. ¹⁶On his clothing and his thigh he has this title written: King of kings and Lord of lords.

¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing on the sun, and shouting in a loud voice to all the birds that fly in midair,

“Come! Gather for God’s great banquet, ¹⁸and eat the bodies of kings, commanders, and mighty men, of horses and their riders—the bodies of all men, slaves and freemen, high and low.”

¹⁹Then I saw the animal and the kings of the earth and their armies gather to make war on him who was mounted upon the horse and upon his army. ²⁰And the animal was captured and with it the false prophet who performed wonders on its behalf by means of which he led astray those who had let the animal’s mark be put on them and who worshiped its statue. Both of them were flung alive into the fiery lake of burning brimstone. ²¹The rest were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves upon their bodies.

Chapter 20

¹Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. ²He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, ³and hurled him into the abyss and he closed it and sealed it over him, to keep him from leading the heathen astray any longer, until the thousand years are over; after that he has to be released for a little while.

⁴Then I saw thrones with beings seated on them, who were empowered to act as judges. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus and the message of God, who refused to worship the animal and its statue, and would not have its mark put on their foreheads or on their hands. They were restored to life and reigned with the Christ a thousand years. ⁵The rest of the dead were not restored to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. ⁶Blessed and holy is the man who experiences the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them; they will be priests of God and the Christ, and reign with him for the thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸and will go out to lead astray the heathen in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and to muster them for battle, in numbers like the sand of the seashore. ⁹They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the encampment of God’s people, and the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them, ¹⁰and the devil who led them astray was flung into the fiery, sulphurous lake, where the animal and the false prophet were, there to be tortured day and night forever and ever.

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne with a being seated on it from whose presence earth and sky fled so far that they could not be found. ¹²I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened; it was the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books about what they had done. ¹³The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and the underworld gave up the dead that were in them, and they were all judged by what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were flung into the fiery lake. This is the second death—the fiery lake. ¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was flung into the fiery lake.

Chapter 21

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²And I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, come down out of heaven from God, like a bride dressed and ready to meet her husband. ³I heard a loud voice from the throne say,

“See! God’s dwelling is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them, ⁴and he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no death any longer, nor any grief or crying or pain. The old order has passed away.”

⁵Then he who sat upon the throne said,

“See! I am making everything new! Write this,” he said, “for these words are trustworthy and true. ⁶It is all over!” he told me, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give anyone who is thirsty water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷He who is victorious will possess all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But the cowardly, unfaithful, and polluted—murderers, immoral people, those who practice magic or idolatry, and all liars will find themselves in the burning lake of fire and brimstone. This is the second death.”

⁹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke to me.

“Come,” he said, “I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰He carried me away in a trance to a great, high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹in all the glory of God. It shone with a radiance like that of some very precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. ¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, which had carved upon them the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the Lamb’s twelve apostles. ¹⁵The angel who talked with me had a gold measuring rod, with which to measure the city and its gates and wall. ¹⁶The city was a square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod, and it was 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height were the same. ¹⁷He measured the wall and it was about 144 cubits (216 feet), as men measure, for that was the way the angel measured. ¹⁸The material of the wall was jasper, but the city was pure gold, as transparent as glass. ¹⁹The foundation stones of the wall of the city were ornamented with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate made of a single pearl. The principal street of the city was pure gold, as transparent as glass. ²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city does not need the sun nor the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God lighted it, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The heathen will walk by its light. The kings of the earth will bring their splendor to it. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut by day—for there will be no night there ²⁶and they will bring the splendor and the wealth of the heathen into it. ²⁷Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who indulges in abominable practices and falsehoods, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Chapter 22

¹Then he showed me a river of living water, clear as crystal, which issued from the throne of God and of the Lamb, ²and ran through the middle of the principal street of the city. On both sides of the river grew the tree of life. It bore twelve kinds of fruit, yielding a different kind each month, and its leaves were a cure for the heathen. ³There will no longer be anything that is accursed. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his slaves will worship him; ⁴they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will no longer be any night and they will have no need of lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁶“These words are trustworthy and true,” he said to me; “For the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his slaves what must happen very soon. ⁷See! I am coming very soon! Blessed is he who heeds the words of prophecy that are in this book.”

⁸It was I, John, who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, to worship him. ⁹But he said to me,

“You must not do that. I am only a fellow-slave of yours and of your brothers the prophets and the men who heed the words of this book. Worship God!

¹⁰“Do not seal up the words of prophecy that are in this book,” he said to me, “for the time of their fulfilment is very near. ¹¹Let the evil-doer do worse and worse, let the base grow baser and baser, let the upright man be more and more upright, and the man who is holy be more and more holy.”

¹²“See! I am coming very soon, bringing with me my rewards, to repay everyone for what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. ¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so as to have the right to approach the tree of life and to enter the gates of the city. ¹⁵The dogs, those who practice magic or immorality, murderers, idolaters, and anyone who loves falsehood or tells lies will be shut out of it.

¹⁶“I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am of the line and family of David, I am the bright morning star.”

¹⁷“Come,” say the Spirit and the bride. Let everyone who hears this say,

“Come!”

Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wants it come and take without cost living water.

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the message of prophecy in this book read, that if anyone adds anything to it, God will inflict upon him the plagues that are described in this book; ¹⁹and if anyone removes from this book any of the prophetic messages it contains, God will remove from him his share in the tree of life and the holy city which are described in this book.

²⁰He who testifies to all this says,

“It is true! I am coming very soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ be with his people.