The Life of Jesus

Appendices and Sources

Every word of Jesus

Every word the Bible gives to Jesus, book by book, as the Berean Standard Bible marks them. The chapters tell them in their scenes; here every one stands in each book's own wording, so none is lost where two Gospels tell the same saying.

Matthew

3:15 “Let it be so now,”
3:15 “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.”
4:4 “It is written:
4:4 ‘Man shall not live on bread alone,
4:4 but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
4:7 “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
4:10 “Away from Me, Satan!”
4:10 “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
4:17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
4:19 “Come, follow Me,”
4:19 “and I will make you fishers of men.”
5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
5:3 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
5:4 Blessed are those who mourn,
5:4 for they will be comforted.
5:5 Blessed are the meek,
5:5 for they will inherit the earth.
5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
5:6 for they will be filled.
5:7 Blessed are the merciful,
5:7 for they will be shown mercy.
5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
5:8 for they will see God.
5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
5:9 for they will be called sons of God.
5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
5:10 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
5:11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
5:13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
5:14 You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
5:15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
5:18 For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
5:19 So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
5:21 You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not murder’ and ‘Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.
5:23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
5:24 leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
5:25 Reconcile quickly with your adversary, while you are still on the way to court. Otherwise, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
5:26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
5:27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’
5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
5:30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.
5:31 It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’
5:32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
5:33 Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
5:34 But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
5:35 or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
5:36 Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
5:37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.
5:38 You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’
5:39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;
5:40 if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well;
5:41 and if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
5:42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
5:43 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’
5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
5:46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?
5:47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?
5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
6:1 “Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
6:2 So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
6:3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
6:4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
6:6 But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
6:7 And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.
6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
6:9 So then, this is how you should pray:
6:9 ‘Our Father in heaven,
6:9 hallowed be Your name.
6:10 Your kingdom come,
6:10 Your will be done,
6:10 on earth as it is in heaven.
6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
6:12 And forgive us our debts,
6:12 as we also have forgiven our debtors.
6:13 And lead us not into temptation,
6:13 but deliver us from the evil one.’
6:14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
6:15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
6:16 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
6:17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
6:18 so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
6:23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
6:24 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
6:25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
6:26 Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
6:28 And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin.
6:29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
6:30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
6:31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
6:32 For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
7:1 “Do not judge, or you will be judged.
7:2 For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
7:3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
7:4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?
7:5 You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
7:6 Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
7:8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
7:9 Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
7:11 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
7:12 In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.
7:15 Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
7:17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
7:20 So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.
7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
7:22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
7:24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
7:25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
7:26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
7:27 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell— and great was its collapse!”
8:3 “I am willing,”
8:3 “Be clean!”
8:4 “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as a testimony to them.”
8:7 “I will go and heal him,”
8:10 “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
8:11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
8:13 “Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you.”
8:20 “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
8:22 “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
8:26 “You of little faith,”
8:26 “why are you so afraid?”
8:32 “Go!”
9:2 “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
9:4 “Why do you harbor evil in your hearts?
9:5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
9:6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...”
9:6 “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
9:9 “Follow Me,”
9:12 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
9:15 “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
9:16 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and a worse tear will result.
9:17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
9:22 “Take courage, daughter,”
9:22 “your faith has healed you.”
9:24 “Go away,”
9:24 “The girl is not dead, but asleep.”
9:28 “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
9:29 “According to your faith will it be done to you.”
9:30 “See that no one finds out about this!”
9:37 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
9:38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.”
10:5 “Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
10:6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
10:7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’
10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
10:9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts.
10:10 Take no bag for the road, or second tunic, or sandals, or staff; for the worker is worthy of his provisions.
10:11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy there and stay at his house until you move on.
10:12 As you enter the home, greet its occupants.
10:13 If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it, but if it is not, let your peace return to you.
10:14 And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
10:15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
10:16 Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
10:17 But beware of men, for they will hand you over to their councils and flog you in their synagogues.
10:18 On My account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.
10:19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say.
10:20 For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
10:21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
10:22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
10:23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. Truly I tell you, you will not reach all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
10:24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
10:25 It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
10:26 So do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
10:27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
10:32 Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.
10:33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.
10:34 Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to turn
10:35 ‘a man against his father,
10:35 a daughter against her mother,
10:35 a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
10:36 A man’s enemies will be the members
10:36 of his own household.’
10:37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;
10:38 and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.
10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
10:40 He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me.
10:41 Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.
10:42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
11:4 “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:
11:5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
11:6 Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”
11:7 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
11:8 Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothing are found in kings’ palaces.
11:9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
11:10 This is the one about whom it is written:
11:10 ‘Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You,
11:10 who will prepare Your way before You.’
11:11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subject to violence, and the violent lay claim to it.
11:13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
11:14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.
11:15 He who has ears, let him hear.
11:16 To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
11:17 ‘We played the flute for you,
11:17 and you did not dance;
11:17 we sang a dirge,
11:17 and you did not mourn.’
11:18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”
11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
11:22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
11:23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
11:24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
11:25 “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
11:26 Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.
11:27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
11:28 Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
12:3 “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
12:4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to eat, but only for the priests.
12:5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
12:6 But I tell you that One greater than the temple is here.
12:7 If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
12:11 “If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?
12:12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
12:13 “Stretch out your hand.”
12:25 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
12:26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?
12:27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
12:28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
12:29 Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
12:31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come.
12:33 Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.
12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
12:35 The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.
12:36 But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.
12:37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
12:39 “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
12:42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.
12:43 When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.
12:44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house vacant, swept clean, and put in order.
12:45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation.”
12:48 “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?”
12:49 “Here are My mother and My brothers.
12:50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
13:3 “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
13:4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
13:5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.
13:6 But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
13:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.
13:8 Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop — a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.
13:9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
13:11 “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
13:12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
13:13 ‘Though seeing, they do not see;
13:13 though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
13:14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
13:14 ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
13:14 you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
13:15 For this people’s heart has grown callous;
13:15 they hardly hear with their ears,
13:15 and they have closed their eyes.
13:15 Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
13:15 hear with their ears,
13:15 understand with their hearts,
13:15 and turn, and I would heal them.’
13:16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
13:17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
13:18 Consider, then, the parable of the sower:
13:19 When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
13:20 The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
13:21 But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
13:22 The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
13:23 But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop — a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.”
13:24 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
13:25 But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away.
13:26 When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
13:27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
13:28 ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
13:28 So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
13:29 ‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them.
13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
13:31 “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field.
13:32 Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
13:33 “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”
13:37 “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
13:40 As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
13:41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.
13:42 And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
13:43 He who has ears, let him hear.
13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.
13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
13:46 When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it.
13:47 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and caught all kinds of fish.
13:48 When it was full, the men pulled it ashore. Then they sat down and sorted the good fish into containers, but threw the bad away.
13:49 So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous
13:50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:51 Have you understood all these things?”
13:52 “For this reason, every scribe who has been discipled in the kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
13:57 “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”
14:16 “They do not need to go away,”
14:16 “You give them something to eat.”
14:18 “Bring them here to Me,”
14:27 “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.”
14:29 “Come,”
14:31 “You of little faith,”
14:31 “why did you doubt?”
15:3 “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
15:4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
15:5 But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’
15:6 he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
15:7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:
15:8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips,
15:8 but their hearts are far from Me.
15:9 They worship Me in vain;
15:9 they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”
15:10 “Listen and understand.
15:11 A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”
15:13 “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.
15:14 Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
15:16 “Do you still not understand?”
15:17 “Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated?
15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man.
15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
15:20 These are what defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”
15:24 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
15:26 “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
15:28 “O woman,”
15:28 “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.”
15:32 “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way.”
15:34 “How many loaves do you have?”
16:2 “When evening comes, you say, ‘The weather will be fair, for the sky is red,’
16:3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times.
16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
16:6 “Watch out!”
16:6 “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
16:8 “You of little faith, why are you debating among yourselves about having no bread?
16:9 Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
16:10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
16:11 How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
16:13 “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
16:15 “But what about you?”
16:15 “Who do you say I am?”
16:17 “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.
16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
16:23 “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
16:24 “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
16:25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
16:26 What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
16:27 For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.
16:28 Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
17:7 “Get up,”
17:7 “Do not be afraid.”
17:9 “Do not tell anyone about this vision until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
17:11 “Elijah does indeed come, and he will restore all things.
17:12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him whatever they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands.”
17:17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation!”
17:17 “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to Me.”
17:20 “Because you have so little faith,”
17:20 “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
17:22 “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
17:23 They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life.”
17:25 “What do you think, Simon?”
17:25 “From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs and taxes: from their own sons, or from others?”
17:26 “Then the sons are exempt,”
17:27 “But so that we may not offend them, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish you catch. When you open its mouth, you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for My tax and yours.”
18:3 “Truly I tell you,”
18:3 “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
18:4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
18:5 And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.
18:6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
18:7 Woe to the world for the causes of sin. These stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!
18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.
18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
18:10 See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.
18:12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?
18:13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
18:14 In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
18:15 If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
18:16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18:18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
18:19 Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.
18:20 For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”
18:22 “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!
18:23 Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
18:24 As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him.
18:25 Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.
18:26 Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’
18:27 His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him.
18:28 But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’
18:29 So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’
18:30 But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.
18:31 When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.
18:32 Then the master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.
18:33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
18:34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.
18:35 That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
19:4 “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
19:5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
19:8 “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart. But it was not this way from the beginning.
19:9 Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
19:11 “Not everyone can accept this word,”
19:11 “but only those to whom it has been given.
19:12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way; others were made that way by men; and still others live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
19:14 “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
19:17 “Why do you ask Me about what is good?”
19:17 “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
19:18 “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
19:19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’”
19:21 “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
19:23 “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
19:26 “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
19:28 “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
19:30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
20:2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
20:3 About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
20:4 ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’
20:5 So they went.
20:5 He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.
20:6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked.
20:7 ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
20:7 So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’
20:8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’
20:9 The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.
20:10 So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.
20:11 On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.
20:12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
20:13 But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius?
20:14 Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you.
20:15 Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
20:16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
20:18 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death
20:19 and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And on the third day He will be raised to life.”
20:21 “What do you want?”
20:22 “You do not know what you are asking,”
20:22 “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
20:23 “You will indeed drink My cup,”
20:23 “But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom My Father has prepared them.”
20:25 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them.
20:26 It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
20:27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave —
20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
20:32 “What do you want Me to do for you?”
21:2 “Go into the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to Me.
21:3 If anyone questions you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
21:13 “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
21:16 “Yes,”
21:16 “Have you never read:
21:16 ‘From the mouths of children and infants
21:16 You have ordained praise’?”
21:19 “May you never bear fruit again!”
21:21 “Truly I tell you,”
21:21 “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
21:24 “I will also ask you one question,”
21:24 “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
21:25 What was the source of John’s baptism? Was it from heaven or from men?”
21:27 “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
21:28 But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first one and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
21:29 ‘I will not,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went.
21:30 Then the man went to the second son and told him the same thing.
21:30 ‘I will, sir,’ he said. But he did not go.
21:31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”
21:31 “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.
21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
21:33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
21:34 When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit.
21:35 But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
21:36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group. But the tenants did the same to them.
21:37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’
21:39 So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
21:40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those tenants?”
21:42 “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
21:42 ‘The stone the builders rejected
21:42 has become the cornerstone.
21:42 This is from the Lord,
21:42 and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
21:43 Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
21:44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
22:2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
22:3 He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.
22:4 Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
22:5 But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business.
22:6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
22:7 The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
22:8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy.
22:9 Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’
22:10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
22:11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes.
22:12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
22:12 But the man was speechless.
22:13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
22:18 “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me?
22:19 Show Me the coin used for the tax.”
22:20 “Whose image is this,”
22:20 “and whose inscription?”
22:21 “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22:29 “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
22:30 In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.
22:31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you:
22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
22:37 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
22:39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
22:42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?”
22:43 “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says:
22:44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
22:44 “Sit at My right hand
22:44 until I put Your enemies
22:44 under Your feet.”’
22:45 So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?”
23:2 “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
23:3 So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
23:4 They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
23:5 All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
23:6 They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues,
23:7 the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.
23:8 But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.
23:9 And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
23:10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.
23:11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
23:12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
23:13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
23:16 Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
23:17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?
23:18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’
23:19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?
23:20 So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
23:21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.
23:22 And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.
23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
23:24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.
23:27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
23:28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
23:29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous.
23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
23:31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.
23:33 You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?
23:34 Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.
23:35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
23:36 Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
23:38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.
23:39 For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
24:2 “Do you see all these things?”
24:2 “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
24:4 “See to it that no one deceives you.
24:5 For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.
24:7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
24:8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
24:9 Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
24:10 At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another,
24:11 and many false prophets will arise and deceive many.
24:12 Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
24:13 But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
24:15 So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),
24:16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
24:17 Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house.
24:18 And let no one in the field return for his cloak.
24:19 How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
24:20 Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath.
24:21 For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.
24:22 If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
24:23 At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it.
24:24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
24:25 See, I have told you in advance.
24:26 So if they tell you, ‘There He is, in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Here He is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.
24:27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
24:28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days:
24:29 ‘The sun will be darkened,
24:29 and the moon will not give its light;
24:29 the stars will fall from the sky,
24:29 and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
24:30 At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
24:31 And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
24:32 Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
24:33 So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door.
24:34 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.
24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
24:36 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
24:38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
24:39 And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
24:40 Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.
24:41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
24:42 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.
24:43 But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
24:44 For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
24:45 Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time?
24:46 Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
24:47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
24:48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’
24:49 And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
24:50 The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.
24:51 Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
25:3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take along any extra oil.
25:4 But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
25:5 When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
25:6 At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
25:7 Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
25:8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
25:9 ‘No,’ said the wise ones, ‘or there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
25:10 But while they were on their way to buy it, the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
25:11 Later the other virgins arrived and said, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us!’
25:12 But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’
25:13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
25:14 For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions.
25:15 To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent — each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey.
25:16 The servant who had received the five talents went at once and put them to work and gained five more.
25:17 Likewise, the one with the two talents gained two more.
25:18 But the servant who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.
25:19 After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
25:20 The servant who had received the five talents came and presented five more. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
25:21 His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
25:22 The servant who had received the two talents also came and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I have gained two more.’
25:23 His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
25:24 Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25:25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you.’
25:26 ‘You wicked, lazy servant!’ replied his master. ‘You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.
25:27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest.
25:28 Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents.
25:29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
25:30 And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
25:31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
25:32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
25:33 He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
25:34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
25:35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,
25:36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’
25:37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink?
25:38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
25:39 When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’
25:40 And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
25:41 Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42 For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,
25:43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’
25:44 And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
25:45 Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’
25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
26:2 “You know that the Passover is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
26:10 “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful deed to Me.
26:11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.
26:12 By pouring this perfume on Me, she has prepared My body for burial.
26:13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
26:18 “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him that the Teacher says, ‘My time is near. I will keep the Passover with My disciples at your house.’”
26:21 “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me.”
26:23 “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with Me will betray Me.
26:24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed. It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
26:25 “You have said it yourself.”
26:26 “Take and eat; this is My body.”
26:27 “Drink from it, all of you.
26:28 This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
26:29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
26:31 “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written:
26:31 ‘I will strike the Shepherd,
26:31 and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
26:32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
26:34 “Truly I tell you,”
26:34 “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
26:36 “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
26:38 “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”
26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
26:40 “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?”
26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
26:42 “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”
26:45 “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
26:46 Rise, let us go! See, My betrayer is approaching!”
26:50 “Friend,”
26:50 “do what you came for.”
26:52 “Put your sword back in its place,”
26:52 “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
26:53 Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
26:54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”
26:55 “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? Every day I sat teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me.
26:56 But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.”
26:64 “You have said it yourself,”
26:64 “But I say to all of you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
26:75 “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
27:11 “You have said so,”
27:43 ‘I am the Son of God.’
27:46 “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
27:46 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
27:63 ‘After three days I will rise again.’
28:9 “Greetings!”
28:10 “Do not be afraid,”
28:10 “Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see Me.”
28:18 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
28:20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Mark

1:15 “The time is fulfilled,”
1:15 “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
1:17 “Come, follow Me,”
1:17 “and I will make you fishers of men.”
1:25 “Be silent!”
1:25 “Come out of him!”
1:38 “Let us go on to the neighboring towns so I can preach there as well, for that is why I have come.”
1:41 “I am willing,”
1:41 “Be clean!”
1:44 “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
2:5 “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
2:8 “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?”
2:9 “Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?
2:10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...”
2:11 “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
2:14 “Follow Me,”
2:17 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
2:19 “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? As long as He is with them, they cannot fast.
2:20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
2:21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.
2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
2:25 “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?
2:26 During the high priesthood of Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was lawful only for the priests. And he gave some to his companions as well.”
2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
2:28 Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
3:3 “Stand up among us.”
3:4 “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
3:5 “Stretch out your hand.”
3:23 “How can Satan drive out Satan?
3:24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
3:25 If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
3:26 And if Satan is divided and rises against himself, he cannot stand; his end has come.
3:27 Indeed, no one can enter a strong man’s house to steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
3:28 Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter.
3:29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.”
3:33 “Who are My mother and My brothers?”
3:34 “Here are My mother and My brothers!
3:35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
4:3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4:4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
4:5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.
4:6 But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
4:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop.
4:8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop — one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.”
4:9 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
4:11 “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is expressed in parables,
4:12 so that,
4:12 ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
4:12 and ever hearing but never understanding;
4:12 otherwise they might turn
4:12 and be forgiven.’”
4:13 “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
4:14 The farmer sows the word.
4:15 Some are like the seeds along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
4:16 Some are like the seeds sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy.
4:17 But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
4:18 Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word,
4:19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
4:20 Still others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, receive it, and produce a crop — thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold.”
4:21 “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand?
4:22 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light.
4:23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
4:24 “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and even more will be added to you.
4:25 For whoever has will be given more. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
4:26 “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground.
4:27 Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.
4:28 All by itself the earth produces a crop— first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within.
4:29 And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
4:30 “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it?
4:31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds sown upon the earth.
4:32 But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.”
4:35 “Let us cross to the other side.”
4:39 “Silence!”
4:39 “Be still!”
4:40 “Why are you so afraid?”
4:40 “Do you still have no faith?”
5:8 “Come out of this man, you unclean spirit!”
5:9 “What is your name?”
5:19 “Go home to your own people,”
5:19 “and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you.”
5:30 “Who touched My garments?”
5:31 ‘Who touched Me?’
5:34 “Daughter,”
5:34 “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.”
5:36 “Do not be afraid; just believe.”
5:39 “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.”
5:41 “Talitha koum!”
5:41 “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
6:4 “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”
6:10 “When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area.
6:11 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.”
6:31 “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.”
6:37 “You give them something to eat.”
6:38 “Go and see how many loaves you have,”
6:50 “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.”
7:6 “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
7:6 ‘These people honor Me with their lips,
7:6 but their hearts are far from Me.
7:7 They worship Me in vain;
7:7 they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’
7:8 You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.”
7:9 “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.
7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
7:11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God ),
7:12 he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother.
7:13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”
7:14 “All of you, listen to Me and understand:
7:15 Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
7:18 “Are you still so dull?”
7:18 “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him,
7:19 because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.”
7:20 “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him.
7:21 For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
7:22 greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.
7:23 All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.”
7:27 “First let the children have their fill,”
7:27 “For it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
7:29 “Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”
7:34 “Ephphatha!”
7:34 “Be opened!”
8:2 “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat.
8:3 If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a great distance.”
8:5 “How many loaves do you have?”
8:12 “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
8:15 “Watch out!”
8:15 “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
8:17 “Why are you debating about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Do you have such hard hearts?
8:18 ‘Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?’ And do you not remember?
8:19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?”
8:20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?”
8:21 “Do you still not understand?”
8:23 “Can you see anything?”
8:26 “Do not go back into the village.”
8:27 “Who do people say I am?”
8:29 “But what about you?”
8:29 “Who do you say I am?”
8:33 “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
8:34 “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
8:35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it.
8:36 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
8:37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
8:38 If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
9:1 “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with power.”
9:12 “Elijah does indeed come first, and he restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected?
9:13 But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”
9:16 “What are you disputing with them?”
9:19 “O unbelieving generation!”
9:19 “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.”
9:21 “How long has this been with him?”
9:23 “If You can?”
9:23 “All things are possible to him who believes!”
9:25 “You deaf and mute spirit,”
9:25 “I command you to come out and never enter him again.”
9:29 “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.”
9:31 “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.”
9:33 “What were you discussing on the way?”
9:35 “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.”
9:37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me.”
9:39 “Do not stop him,”
9:39 “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me.
9:40 For whoever is not against us is for us.
9:41 Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.
9:42 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.
9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
9:48 where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’
9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
9:50 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
10:3 “What did Moses command you?”
10:5 “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart.
10:6 However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
10:7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
10:8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
10:9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
10:11 “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
10:12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
10:14 “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
10:15 Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
10:18 “Why do you call Me good?”
10:18 “No one is good except God alone.
10:19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”
10:21 “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
10:23 “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
10:24 “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
10:25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
10:27 “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
10:29 “Truly I tell you,”
10:29 “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel
10:30 will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.
10:31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
10:33 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles,
10:34 who will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise again.”
10:36 “What do you want Me to do for you?”
10:38 “You do not know what you are asking,”
10:38 “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo?”
10:39 “You will drink the cup that I drink,”
10:39 “and you will be baptized with the baptism that I undergo.
10:40 But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”
10:42 “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them.
10:43 But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
10:44 and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all.
10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
10:49 “Call him.”
10:51 “What do you want Me to do for you?”
10:52 “Go,”
10:52 “your faith has healed you.”
11:2 “Go into the village ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
11:3 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it shortly.’”
11:14 “May no one ever eat of your fruit again.”
11:17 “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
11:22 “Have faith in God,”
11:23 “Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him.
11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
11:25 And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”
11:29 “I will ask you one question,”
11:29 “and if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
11:30 John’s baptism — was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me!”
11:33 “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
12:1 “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
12:2 At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard.
12:3 But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
12:4 Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully.
12:5 He sent still another, and this one they killed.
12:5 He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed.
12:6 Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
12:7 But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
12:8 So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
12:9 What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
12:10 Have you never read this Scripture:
12:10 ‘The stone the builders rejected
12:10 has become the cornerstone.
12:11 This is from the Lord,
12:11 and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12:15 “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.”
12:16 “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
12:17 “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
12:24 “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
12:25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.
12:26 But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
12:29 “This is the most important: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
12:34 “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
12:35 “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?
12:36 Speaking by the Holy Spirit, David himself declared:
12:36 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
12:36 “Sit at My right hand
12:36 until I put Your enemies
12:36 under Your feet.”’
12:37 David himself calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?”
12:38 “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces,
12:39 and to have the chief seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
12:40 They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”
12:43 “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more than all the others into the treasury.
12:44 For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
13:2 “Do you see all these great buildings?”
13:2 “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
13:5 “See to it that no one deceives you.
13:6 Many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many.
13:7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.
13:8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
13:9 So be on your guard. You will be delivered over to the councils and beaten in the synagogues. On My account you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.
13:10 And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations.
13:11 But when they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what to say. Instead, speak whatever you are given at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
13:12 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
13:13 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
13:14 So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
13:15 Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house.
13:16 And let no one in the field return for his cloak.
13:17 How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
13:18 Pray that this will not occur in the winter.
13:19 For those will be days of tribulation unseen from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again.
13:20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short.
13:21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it.
13:22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
13:23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance.
13:24 But in those days, after that tribulation:
13:24 ‘The sun will be darkened,
13:24 and the moon will not give its light;
13:25 the stars will fall from the sky,
13:25 and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
13:26 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
13:27 And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
13:28 Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
13:29 So also, when you see these things happening, know that He is near, right at the door.
13:30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.
13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
13:32 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
13:33 Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
13:34 It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch.
13:35 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return — whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning.
13:36 Otherwise, he may arrive without notice and find you sleeping.
13:37 And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Keep watch!”
14:6 “Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful deed to Me.
14:7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me.
14:8 She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial.
14:9 And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
14:13 “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him,
14:14 and whichever house he enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is My guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’
14:15 And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
14:18 “Truly I tell you, one of you who is eating with Me will betray Me.”
14:20 “It is one of the Twelve — the one who is dipping his hand into the bowl with Me.
14:21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
14:22 “Take it; this is My body.”
14:24 “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
14:25 Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”
14:27 “You will all fall away, for it is written:
14:27 ‘I will strike the Shepherd,
14:27 and the sheep will be scattered.’
14:28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
14:30 “Truly I tell you,”
14:30 “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
14:32 “Sit here while I pray.”
14:34 “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
14:36 “Abba, Father,”
14:36 “all things are possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.”
14:37 “Simon, are you asleep?”
14:37 “Were you not able to keep watch for one hour?
14:38 Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
14:41 “Are you still sleeping and resting? That is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
14:42 Rise, let us go. See, My betrayer is approaching!”
14:48 “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw?
14:49 Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me. But this has happened that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.”
14:62 “I am,”
14:62 “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
14:72 “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
15:2 “You have said so,”
15:34 “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”
15:34 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
16:17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
16:18 they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.”

Luke

2:49 “Why were you looking for Me?”
2:49 “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”
4:4 “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
4:8 “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
4:12 “It also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me,
4:18 because He has anointed Me
4:18 to preach good news to the poor.
4:18 He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives
4:18 and recovery of sight to the blind,
4:18 to release the oppressed,
4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
4:21 “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
4:23 “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’”
4:24 “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
4:25 But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land.
4:26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon.
4:27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed— only Naaman the Syrian.”
4:35 “Be silent!”
4:35 “Come out of him!”
4:43 “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.”
5:4 “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5:10 “Do not be afraid,”
5:10 “From now on you will catch men.”
5:13 “I am willing,”
5:13 “Be clean!”
5:14 “Do not tell anyone,”
5:14 “But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
5:20 “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
5:22 “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?
5:23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
5:24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins…”
5:24 “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”
5:27 “Follow Me,”
5:31 “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
5:32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
5:34 “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them?
5:35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”
5:36 “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
5:37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined.
5:38 Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.
5:39 And no one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
6:3 “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
6:4 He entered the house of God, took the consecrated bread and gave it to his companions, and ate what is lawful only for the priests to eat.”
6:5 “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
6:8 “Get up and stand among us.”
6:9 “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
6:10 “Stretch out your hand.”
6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor,
6:20 for yours is the kingdom of God.
6:21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
6:21 for you will be filled.
6:21 Blessed are you who weep now,
6:21 for you will laugh.
6:22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.
6:23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.
6:24 But woe to you who are rich,
6:24 for you have already received your comfort.
6:25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
6:25 for you will hunger.
6:25 Woe to you who laugh now,
6:25 for you will mourn and weep.
6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
6:26 for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way.
6:27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
6:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
6:29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well.
6:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back.
6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.
6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.
6:34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
6:37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
6:39 “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
6:40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
6:41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
6:42 How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6:43 No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
6:44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. Indeed, figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor grapes from brambles.
6:45 The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
6:46 Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say?
6:47 I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them:
6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent crashed against that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
6:49 But the one who hears My words and does not act on them is like a man who built his house on ground without a foundation. The torrent crashed against that house, and immediately it fell — and great was its destruction!”
7:9 “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
7:13 “Do not weep.”
7:14 “Young man,”
7:14 “I tell you, get up!”
7:22 “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
7:23 Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of Me.”
7:24 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
7:25 Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear elegant clothing and live in luxury are found in palaces.
7:26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
7:27 This is the one about whom it is written:
7:27 ‘Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You,
7:27 who will prepare Your way before You.’
7:28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John, yet even the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
7:31 “To what, then, can I compare the men of this generation? What are they like?
7:32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another:
7:32 ‘We played the flute for you,
7:32 and you did not dance;
7:32 we sang a dirge,
7:32 and you did not weep.’
7:33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’
7:34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
7:35 But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
7:40 “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
7:41 “Two men were debtors to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
7:42 When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Which one, then, will love him more?”
7:43 “You have judged correctly,”
7:44 “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
7:45 You did not greet Me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing My feet since I arrived.
7:46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with perfume.
7:47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, for she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
7:48 “Your sins are forgiven.”
7:50 “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
8:5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.
8:6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.
8:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the seedlings.
8:8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprang up and produced a crop — a hundredfold.”
8:8 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
8:10 “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
8:10 ‘though seeing, they may not see;
8:10 though hearing, they may not understand.’
8:11 Now this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.
8:12 The seeds along the path are those who hear, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
8:13 The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away.
8:14 The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.
8:15 But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.
8:16 No one lights a lamp and covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light.
8:17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light.
8:18 Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”
8:21 “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”
8:22 “Let us cross to the other side of the lake.”
8:25 “Where is your faith?”
8:30 “What is your name?”
8:39 “Return home and describe how much God has done for you.”
8:45 “Who touched Me?”
8:46 “Someone touched Me, for I know that power has gone out from Me.”
8:48 “Daughter,”
8:48 “your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
8:50 “Do not be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
8:52 “Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep.”
8:54 “Child, get up!”
9:3 “Take nothing for the journey,”
9:3 “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no second tunic.
9:4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that area.
9:5 If anyone does not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that town, as a testimony against them.”
9:13 “You give them something to eat.”
9:14 “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
9:18 “Who do the crowds say I am?”
9:20 “But what about you?”
9:20 “Who do you say I am?”
9:22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things,”
9:22 “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
9:23 “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
9:24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
9:25 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self?
9:26 If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
9:27 But I tell you truly, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
9:41 “O unbelieving and perverse generation!”
9:41 “How long must I remain with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
9:44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”
9:48 “Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me. For whoever is the least among all of you, he is the greatest.”
9:50 “Do not stop him,”
9:50 “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
9:58 “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
9:59 “Follow Me.”
9:60 “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
10:2 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
10:3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
10:4 Carry no purse or bag or sandals. Do not greet anyone along the road.
10:5 Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’
10:6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.
10:7 Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
10:8 If you enter a town and they welcome you, eat whatever is set before you.
10:9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’
10:10 But if you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into the streets and declare,
10:11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off as a testimony against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’
10:12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
10:13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
10:14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
10:15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades!
10:16 Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
10:18 “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
10:19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.
10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
10:21 “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.
10:22 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”
10:23 “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
10:24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
10:26 “What is written in the Law?”
10:26 “How do you read it?”
10:28 “You have answered correctly,”
10:28 “Do this and you will live.”
10:30 “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
10:32 So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side.
10:33 But a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
10:34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
10:35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return I will repay you for any additional expense.’
10:36 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
10:37 “Go and do likewise.”
10:41 “Martha, Martha,”
10:41 “you are worried and upset about many things.
10:42 But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
11:2 “When you pray, say:
11:2 ‘Father, hallowed be Your name.
11:2 Your kingdom come.
11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.
11:4 And forgive us our sins,
11:4 for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
11:4 And lead us not into temptation.’”
11:5 “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
11:6 because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’
11:7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’
11:8 I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
11:9 So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11:11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
11:12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
11:13 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
11:17 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and a house divided against a house will fall.
11:18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
11:19 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
11:20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure.
11:22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder.
11:23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
11:24 When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’
11:25 On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
11:26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.”
11:28 “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
11:29 “This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
11:30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.
11:31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.
11:32 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
11:33 No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light.
11:34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body is full of darkness.
11:35 Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
11:36 So if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, you will be radiant, as though a lamp were shining on you.”
11:39 “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
11:40 You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well?
11:41 But give as alms the things that are within you, and behold, everything will be clean for you.
11:42 Woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
11:43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.
11:44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”
11:46 “Woe to you as well, experts in the law!”
11:46 “For you weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.
11:47 Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.
11:48 So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
11:49 Because of this, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’
11:50 As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world,
11:51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.
11:52 Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
12:1 “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
12:2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
12:3 What you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.
12:4 I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear the One who, after you have been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!
12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
12:7 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
12:8 I tell you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God.
12:9 But whoever denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
12:10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
12:11 When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say.
12:12 For at that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say.”
12:14 “Man, who appointed Me judge or executor between you?”
12:15 “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
12:16 “The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.
12:17 So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’
12:18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.
12:19 Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
12:21 This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”
12:22 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.
12:23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
12:24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!
12:25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
12:26 So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?
12:27 Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
12:28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!
12:29 And do not be concerned about what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it.
12:30 For the Gentiles of the world strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
12:31 But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added unto you.
12:32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.
12:33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
12:35 Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
12:36 Then you will be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once.
12:37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds on watch when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table, and he himself will come and wait on them.
12:38 Even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night and finds them alert, those servants will be blessed.
12:39 But understand this: If the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
12:40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.”
12:42 “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their portion at the proper time?
12:43 Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
12:44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
12:45 But suppose that servant says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and he begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk.
12:46 The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
12:47 That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.
12:48 But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.
12:49 I have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
12:50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!
12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division.
12:52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.
12:53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
12:54 “As soon as you see a cloud rising in the west, you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and that is what happens.
12:55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It will be hot,’ and it is.
12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky. Why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?
12:57 And why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?
12:58 Make every effort to reconcile with your adversary while you are on your way to the magistrate. Otherwise, he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and the officer may throw you into prison.
12:59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny.”
13:2 “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way?
13:3 No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem?
13:5 No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
13:6 “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.
13:7 So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
13:8 ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it.
13:9 If it bears fruit next year, fine. But if not, you can cut it down.’”
13:12 “Woman, you are set free from your disability.”
13:15 “You hypocrites!”
13:15 “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?
13:16 Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
13:18 “What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?
13:19 It is like a mustard seed that a man tossed into his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
13:20 “To what can I compare the kingdom of God?
13:21 It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”
13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.
13:25 After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’
13:25 But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’
13:26 Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
13:27 And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’
13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out.
13:29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.
13:30 And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”
13:32 “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I will keep driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach My goal.’
13:33 Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.
13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
13:35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
14:3 “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”
14:5 “Which of you whose son or ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out?”
14:8 “When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited.
14:9 Then the host who invited both of you will come and tell you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ And in humiliation, you will have to take the last place.
14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the last place, so that your host will come and tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in front of everyone at the table with you.
14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
14:12 “When you host a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will be repaid.
14:13 But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,
14:14 and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
14:16 “A certain man prepared a great banquet and invited many guests.
14:17 When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
14:18 But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’
14:19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’
14:20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’
14:21 The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
14:22 ‘Sir,’ the servant replied, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’
14:23 So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
14:24 For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be My disciple.
14:27 And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
14:28 Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it?
14:29 Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
14:30 saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’
14:31 Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
14:32 And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace.
14:33 In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.
14:34 Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be seasoned?
14:35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile, and it is thrown out.
14:35 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
15:5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,
15:6 comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’
15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.
15:8 Or what woman who has ten silver coins and loses one of them does not light a lamp, sweep her house, and search carefully until she finds it?
15:9 And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors to say, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin.’
15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
15:11 “There was a man who had two sons.
15:12 The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
15:13 After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
15:14 After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need.
15:15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
15:16 He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.
15:17 Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death!
15:18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
15:20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
15:21 The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
15:22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
15:23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.
15:24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
15:25 Meanwhile the older son was in the field, and as he approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
15:26 So he called one of the servants and asked what was going on.
15:27 ‘Your brother has returned,’ he said, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.’
15:28 The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
15:29 But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
15:30 But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
15:31 ‘Son, you are always with me,’ the father said, ‘and all that is mine is yours.
15:32 But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
16:1 “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
16:2 So he called him in to ask, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in an account of your management, for you cannot be manager any longer.’
16:3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg.
16:4 I know what I will do so that after my removal from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’
16:5 And he called in each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first.
16:6 ‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he answered.
16:6 ‘Take your bill,’ said the manager, ‘sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
16:7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’
16:7 ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied.
16:7 ‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.
16:8 The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light.
16:9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.
16:10 Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
16:11 So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?
16:12 And if you have not been faithful with the belongings of another, who will give you belongings of your own?
16:13 No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
16:15 “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.
16:16 The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
16:18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
16:19 Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
16:20 And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores
16:21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
16:22 One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
16:23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side.
16:24 So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’
16:25 But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
16:26 And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’
16:27 ‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house,
16:28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also end up in this place of torment.’
16:29 But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let your brothers listen to them.’
16:30 ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will repent.’
16:31 Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
17:1 “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!
17:2 It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
17:3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
17:4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
17:6 “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
17:7 Which of you whose servant comes in from plowing or shepherding in the field will say to him, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?
17:8 Instead, won’t he tell him, ‘Prepare my meal and dress yourself to serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you may eat and drink’?
17:9 Does he thank the servant because he did what he was told?
17:10 So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
17:14 “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
17:17 “Were not all ten cleansed?”
17:17 “Where then are the other nine?
17:18 Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”
17:19 “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!”
17:20 “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs.
17:21 Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
17:22 “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
17:23 People will tell you, ‘Look, there He is!’ or ‘Look, here He is!’ Do not go out or chase after them.
17:24 For just as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day.
17:25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
17:26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:
17:27 People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
17:28 It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
17:29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
17:30 It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
17:31 On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind.
17:32 Remember Lot’s wife!
17:33 Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.
17:34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left.
17:35 Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”
17:37 “Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
18:2 “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men.
18:3 And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’
18:4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,
18:5 yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she will wear me out with her perpetual requests.’”
18:6 “Listen to the words of the unjust judge.
18:7 Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?
18:8 I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
18:10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
18:11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men — swindlers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector.
18:12 I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’
18:13 But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
18:14 I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
18:16 “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
18:17 Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
18:19 “Why do you call Me good?”
18:19 “No one is good except God alone.
18:20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”
18:22 “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
18:24 “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
18:25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
18:27 “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
18:29 “Truly I tell you,”
18:29 “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
18:30 will fail to receive many times more in this age — and in the age to come, eternal life.”
18:31 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything the prophets have written about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
18:32 He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.
18:33 They will flog Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again.”
18:41 “What do you want Me to do for you?”
18:42 “Receive your sight!”
18:42 “Your faith has healed you.”
19:5 “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.”
19:9 “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.
19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
19:12 “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to lay claim to his kingship and then return.
19:13 Beforehand, he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Conduct business with this until I return,’ he said.
19:14 But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’
19:15 When he returned from procuring his kingship, he summoned the servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what each one had earned.
19:16 The first servant came forward and said, ‘Master, your mina has produced ten more minas.’
19:17 His master replied, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
19:18 The second servant came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made five minas.’
19:19 And to this one he said, ‘You shall have authority over five cities.’
19:20 Then another servant came and said, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have laid away in a piece of cloth.
19:21 For I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’
19:22 His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?
19:23 Why then did you not deposit my money in the bank, and upon my return I could have collected it with interest?’
19:24 Then he told those standing by, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
19:25 ‘Master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’
19:26 He replied, ‘ I tell you that everyone who has will be given more; but the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
19:27 And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”
19:30 “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
19:31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
19:40 “I tell you,”
19:40 “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.”
19:42 “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.
19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side.
19:44 They will level you to the ground — you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
19:46 “It is written: ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
20:3 “I will also ask you a question,”
20:3 “Tell Me:
20:4 John’s baptism — was it from heaven, or from men?”
20:8 “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
20:9 “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.
20:10 At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.
20:11 So he sent another servant, but they beat him and treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed.
20:12 Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out.
20:13 ‘What shall I do?’ asked the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’
20:14 But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
20:15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
20:15 What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
20:16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
20:17 “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
20:17 ‘The stone the builders rejected
20:17 has become the cornerstone’?
20:18 Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
20:24 “Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
20:25 “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
20:34 “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.
20:35 But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.
20:36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.
20:37 Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
20:38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”
20:41 “How can it be said that the Christ is the Son of David?
20:42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms:
20:42 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
20:42 “Sit at My right hand
20:43 until I make Your enemies
20:43 a footstool for Your feet.”’
20:44 Thus David calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?”
20:46 “Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
20:47 They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”
21:3 “Truly I tell you,”
21:3 “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
21:4 For they all contributed out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
21:6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
21:8 “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.
21:9 When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.”
21:10 “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
21:12 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors.
21:13 This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses.
21:14 So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves.
21:15 For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death.
21:17 And you will be hated by everyone because of My name.
21:18 Yet not even a hair of your head will perish.
21:19 By your patient endurance you will gain your souls.
21:20 But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near.
21:21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city.
21:22 For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
21:23 How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
21:25 There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.
21:26 Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
21:27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
21:28 When these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
21:29 “Look at the fig tree and all the trees.
21:30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near.
21:31 So also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
21:32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.
21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life — and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
21:35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.
21:36 So keep watch at all times, and pray that you may have the strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man.”
22:8 “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
22:10 “When you enter the city, a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters,
22:11 and say to the owner of that house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’
22:12 And he will show you a large upper room, already furnished. Make preparations there.”
22:15 “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering.
22:16 For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
22:17 “Take this and divide it among yourselves.
22:18 For I tell you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”
22:19 “This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
22:20 “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
22:21 Look! The hand of My betrayer is with Mine on the table.
22:22 Indeed, the Son of Man will go as it has been determined, but woe to that man who betrays Him.”
22:25 “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them call themselves benefactors.
22:26 But you shall not be like them. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves.
22:27 For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am among you as one who serves.
22:28 You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials.
22:29 And I bestow on you a kingdom, just as My Father has bestowed one on Me,
22:30 so that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
22:31 Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat.
22:32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
22:34 “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”
22:35 “When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
22:36 “Now, however,”
22:36 “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.
22:37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”
22:38 “That is enough,”
22:40 “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.”
22:42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
22:46 “Why are you sleeping?”
22:46 “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.”
22:48 “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
22:51 “No more of this!”
22:52 “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against an outlaw?
22:53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this hour belongs to you and to the power of darkness.”
22:61 “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”
22:67 “If I tell you, you will not believe.
22:68 And if I ask you a question, you will not answer.
22:69 But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
22:70 “You say that I am.”
23:3 “You have said so,”
23:28 “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
23:29 Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
23:30 At that time
23:30 ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
23:30 and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
23:31 For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
23:43 “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
23:46 “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.”
24:7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’
24:17 “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”
24:19 “What things?”
24:25 “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
24:26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”
24:36 “Peace be with you.”
24:38 “Why are you troubled,”
24:38 “and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
24:39 Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see — for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
24:41 “Do you have anything here to eat?”
24:44 “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
24:46 “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
24:47 and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
24:48 You are witnesses of these things.
24:49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But remain in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

John

1:38 “What do you want?”
1:39 “Come and see,”
1:42 “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas”
1:43 “Follow Me.”
1:47 “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”
1:48 “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
1:50 “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”
1:51 “Truly, truly, I tell you, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
2:4 “Woman, what is that to you and to Me?”
2:4 “My hour has not yet come.”
2:7 “Fill the jars with water.”
2:8 “Now draw some out,”
2:8 “and take it to the master of the banquet.”
2:16 “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”
2:19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
3:3 “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
3:5 “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
3:6 Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.
3:7 Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’
3:8 The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
3:10 “You are Israel’s teacher,”
3:10 “and you do not understand these things?
3:11 Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.
3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven— the Son of Man.
3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
3:15 that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.
3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
3:19 And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
3:21 But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”
4:7 “Give Me a drink.”
4:10 “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
4:13 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
4:14 But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
4:16 “Go, call your husband and come back.”
4:17 “You are correct to say that you have no husband.
4:18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”
4:21 “Believe Me, woman,”
4:21 “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
4:23 But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.
4:24 God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
4:26 “I who speak to you am He.”
4:32 “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
4:34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.
4:36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
4:37 For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.
4:38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”
4:48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
4:50 “Go,”
4:50 “Your son will live.”
4:53 “Your son will live.”
5:6 “Do you want to get well?”
5:8 “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”
5:11 ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’
5:14 “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
5:17 “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”
5:19 “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
5:20 The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.
5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.
5:22 Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son,
5:23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
5:24 Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.
5:25 Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
5:26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.
5:27 And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
5:28 Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice
5:29 and come out — those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
5:30 I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
5:31 If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.
5:32 There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that His testimony about Me is valid.
5:33 You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.
5:34 Even though I do not accept human testimony, I say these things so that you may be saved.
5:35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you were willing for a season to bask in his light.
5:36 But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works I am doing — testify about Me that the Father has sent Me.
5:37 And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form,
5:38 nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.
5:39 You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,
5:40 yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.
5:41 I do not accept glory from men,
5:42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you.
5:43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you have not received Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will receive him.
5:44 How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
5:45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hope.
5:46 If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.
5:47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
6:5 “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
6:10 “Have the people sit down,”
6:12 “Gather the pieces that are left over, so that nothing will be wasted.”
6:20 “It is I; do not be afraid.”
6:26 “Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.
6:27 Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”
6:29 “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”
6:32 “Truly, truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
6:33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
6:35 “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.
6:36 But as I stated, you have seen Me and still you do not believe.
6:37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.
6:39 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.
6:40 For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
6:41 “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
6:42 ‘I have come down from heaven’
6:43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,”
6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me —
6:46 not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.
6:47 Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life.
6:48 I am the bread of life.
6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die.
6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
6:53 “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
6:54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
6:55 For My flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink.
6:56 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.
6:57 Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your fathers, who ate the manna and died, the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
6:61 “Does this offend you?
6:62 Then what will happen if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?
6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
6:64 However, there are some of you who do not believe.”
6:65 “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”
6:67 “Do you want to leave too?”
6:70 “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”
7:6 “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come.
7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
7:8 Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”
7:16 “My teaching is not My own,”
7:16 “It comes from Him who sent Me.
7:17 If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.
7:18 He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood.
7:19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”
7:21 “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.
7:22 But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)
7:23 If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?
7:24 Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”
7:28 “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,
7:29 but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”
7:33 “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me.
7:34 You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
7:36 ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’
7:36 ‘Where I am, you cannot come’
7:37 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
7:38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”
8:7 “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”
8:10 “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?”
8:11 “Then neither do I condemn you,”
8:11 “Now go and sin no more.”
8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
8:14 “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.
8:15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
8:16 But even if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone; I am with the Father who sent Me.
8:17 Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
8:18 I am One who testifies about Myself, and the Father, who sent Me, also testifies about Me.”
8:19 “You do not know Me or My Father,”
8:19 “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.”
8:21 “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
8:22 ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’
8:23 “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
8:24 That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
8:25 “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,”
8:26 “I have much to say about you and much to judge. But the One who sent Me is truthful, and what I have heard from Him, I tell the world.”
8:28 “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own, but speak exactly what the Father has taught Me.
8:29 He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him.”
8:31 “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples.
8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
8:34 “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
8:35 A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever.
8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
8:37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants, but you are trying to kill Me because My word has no place within you.
8:38 I speak of what I have seen in the presence of the Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
8:39 “If you were children of Abraham,”
8:39 “you would do the works of Abraham.
8:40 But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing.
8:41 You are doing the works of your father.”
8:42 “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.
8:43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.
8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
8:45 But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!
8:46 Which of you can prove Me guilty of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me?
8:47 Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
8:49 “I do not have a demon,”
8:49 “but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.
8:50 I do not seek My own glory. There is One who seeks it, and He is the Judge.
8:51 Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”
8:54 “If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. The One who glorifies Me is My Father, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
8:55 You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word.
8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”
8:58 “Truly, truly, I tell you,”
8:58 “before Abraham was born, I am!”
9:3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.
9:4 While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
9:5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
9:7 “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam”
9:35 “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
9:37 “You have already seen Him,”
9:37 “He is the One speaking with you.”
9:39 “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.”
9:41 “If you were blind,”
9:41 “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”
10:1 “Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.
10:2 But the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
10:3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
10:5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not recognize his voice.”
10:7 “Truly, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
10:8 All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
10:9 I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.
10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
10:12 The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock.
10:13 The man runs away because he is a hired servant and is unconcerned for the sheep.
10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
10:15 just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.
10:16 I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
10:17 The reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up again.
10:18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”
10:25 “I already told you,”
10:25 “but you did not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name testify on My behalf.
10:26 But because you are not My sheep, you refuse to believe.
10:27 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
10:29 My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
10:30 I and the Father are one.”
10:32 “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”
10:34 “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’?
10:35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came — and the Scripture cannot be broken —
10:36 then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?
10:37 If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me.
10:38 But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”
11:4 “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
11:7 “Let us go back to Judea.”
11:9 “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
11:10 But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”
11:11 “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
11:14 “Lazarus is dead,
11:15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
11:23 “Your brother will rise again,”
11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
11:26 And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
11:34 “Where have you put him?”
11:39 “Take away the stone,”
11:40 “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
11:41 “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
11:42 I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”
11:43 “Lazarus, come out!”
11:44 “Unwrap him and let him go,”
12:7 “Leave her alone,”
12:7 “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.
12:8 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”
12:23 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
12:24 Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
12:25 Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
12:26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.
12:27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
12:28 Father, glorify Your name!”
12:30 “This voice was not for My benefit, but yours.
12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out.
12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”
12:35 “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
12:36 While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of light.”
12:44 “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.
12:45 And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
12:46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.
12:47 As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
12:48 There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
12:49 I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.
12:50 And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”
13:7 “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
13:8 “Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.”
13:10 “Whoever has already bathed needs only to wash his feet, and he will be completely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”
13:11 “Not all of you are clean.”
13:12 “Do you know what I have done for you?
13:13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am.
13:14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
13:15 I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you.
13:16 Truly, truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
13:17 If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
13:18 I am not speaking about all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the Scripture: ‘The one who shares My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
13:19 I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it comes to pass, you will believe that I am He.
13:20 Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives the One who sent Me.”
13:21 “Truly, truly, I tell you, one of you will betray Me.”
13:26 “It is the one to whom I give this morsel after I have dipped it.”
13:27 “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
13:31 “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
13:32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify the Son in Himself — and will glorify Him at once.
13:33 Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
13:34 A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
13:35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
13:36 “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.”
13:38 “Will you lay down your life for Me?”
13:38 “Truly, truly, I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.
14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well.
14:2 In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.
14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
14:7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
14:9 “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works.
14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me — or at least believe on account of the works themselves.
14:12 Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
14:13 And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14:14 If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it.
14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever —
14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
14:19 In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
14:20 On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
14:21 Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
14:23 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
14:24 Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.
14:25 All this I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.
14:28 You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
14:29 And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe.
14:30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on Me.
14:31 But I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
14:31 Get up! Let us go on from here.
15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.
15:2 He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.
15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
15:4 Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.
15:5 I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
15:6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
15:7 If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.
15:9 As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love.
15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
15:11 I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will remain — so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
15:17 This is My command to you: Love one another.
15:18 If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.
15:19 If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
15:20 Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they kept My word, they will keep yours as well.
15:21 But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me.
15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
15:23 Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.
15:24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.
15:25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’
15:26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father — the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father — He will testify about Me.
15:27 And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
16:1 “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.
16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
16:3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.
16:4 But I have told you these things so that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
16:5 Now, however, I am going to Him who sent Me; yet none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
16:6 Instead, your hearts are filled with sorrow because I have told you these things.
16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
16:8 And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
16:9 in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;
16:10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;
16:11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned.
16:12 I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it.
16:13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
16:14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.
16:15 Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.
16:16 In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.”
16:17 ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’
16:17 ‘Because I am going to the Father’
16:18 ‘a little while’
16:19 “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’?
16:20 Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
16:21 A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
16:22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
16:23 In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
16:25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
16:26 In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
16:27 For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
16:28 I came from the Father and entered the world. In turn, I will leave the world and go to the Father.”
16:31 “Do you finally believe?”
16:32 “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
16:33 I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
17:1 “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You.
17:2 For You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.
17:3 Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
17:4 I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do.
17:5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.
17:6 I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
17:7 Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You.
17:8 For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them. They knew with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
17:9 I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those You have given Me; for they are Yours.
17:10 All I have is Yours, and all You have is Mine; and in them I have been glorified.
17:11 I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.
17:11 Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.
17:12 While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
17:13 But now I am coming to You; and I am saying these things while I am in the world, so that they may have My joy fulfilled within them.
17:14 I have given them Your word and the world has hated them. For they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17:15 I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.
17:16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
17:18 As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.
17:19 For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
17:20 I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message,
17:21 that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
17:22 I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one —
17:23 I in them and You in Me — that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.
17:24 Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
17:25 Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, I know You, and they know that You sent Me.
17:26 And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”
18:4 “Whom are you seeking?”
18:5 “I am He.”
18:6 “I am He,”
18:7 “Whom are you seeking?”
18:8 “I told you that I am He,”
18:8 “So if you are looking for Me, let these men go.”
18:9 “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.”
18:11 “Put your sword back in its sheath!”
18:11 “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?”
18:20 “I have spoken openly to the world,”
18:20 “I always taught in the synagogues and at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.
18:21 Why are you asking Me? Ask those who heard My message. Surely they know what I said.”
18:23 “If I said something wrong, testify as to what was wrong. But if I spoke correctly, why did you strike Me?”
18:34 “Are you saying this on your own,”
18:34 “or did others tell you about Me?”
18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”
18:37 “You say that I am a king,”
18:37 “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”
19:11 “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”
19:26 “Woman, here is your son.”
19:27 “Here is your mother.”
19:28 “I am thirsty.”
19:30 “It is finished.”
20:15 “Woman, why are you weeping?”
20:15 “Whom are you seeking?”
20:16 “Mary.”
20:17 “Do not cling to Me,”
20:17 “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”
20:19 “Peace be with you!”
20:21 “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.”
20:22 “Receive the Holy Spirit.
20:23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
20:26 “Peace be with you.”
20:27 “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
20:29 “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
21:5 “Children, do you have any fish?”
21:6 “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”
21:10 “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”
21:12 “Come, have breakfast,”
21:15 “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?”
21:15 “Feed My lambs.”
21:16 “Simon son of John, do you love Me?”
21:16 “Shepherd My sheep.”
21:17 “Simon son of John, do you love Me?”
21:17 “Do you love Me?”
21:17 “Feed My sheep.
21:18 Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
21:19 “Follow Me.”
21:22 “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
21:23 “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?”

Acts

1:4 “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
1:5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
1:7 “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.
1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9:4 “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”
9:5 “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,”
9:6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
9:10 “Ananias!”
9:11 “Get up!”
9:11 “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
9:12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
9:15 “Go!”
9:15 “This man is My chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the people of Israel.
9:16 I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.”
10:13 “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
10:15 “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
11:7 ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’
11:9 ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
11:16 ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
18:9 “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent.
18:10 For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city.”
20:35 ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
22:7 ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’
22:8 ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’
22:10 ‘Get up and go into Damascus,’
22:10 ‘There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do.’
22:18 ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your testimony about Me.’
22:21 ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’
23:11 “Take courage! As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so also you must testify in Rome.”
26:14 ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
26:15 ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’
26:16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you.
26:17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
26:18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

1 Corinthians

11:24 “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
11:25 “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

2 Corinthians

12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”

Hebrews

10:5 “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
10:5 but a body You prepared for Me.
10:6 In burnt offerings and sin offerings
10:6 You took no delight.
10:7 Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll:
10:7 I have come to do Your will, O God.’”
10:8 “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them”
10:9 “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.”

Revelation

1:11 “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
1:17 “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,
1:18 the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
1:19 Therefore write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things that will happen after this.
1:20 This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
2:1 These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2:2 I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles.
2:3 Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.
2:4 But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.
2:5 Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
2:6 But you have this to your credit: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.
2:8 To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
2:8 These are the words of the First and the Last, who died and returned to life.
2:9 I know your affliction and your poverty — though you are rich! And I am aware of the slander of those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are in fact a synagogue of Satan.
2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.
2:12 To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
2:12 These are the words of the One who holds the sharp, double-edged sword.
2:13 I know where you live, where the throne of Satan sits, yet you hold fast to My name. You did not deny your faith in Me, even in the days of My faithful witness Antipas, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
2:14 But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.
2:15 In the same way, some of you also hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
2:16 Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.
2:18 To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
2:18 These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.
2:19 I know your deeds — your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance — and your latest deeds are greater than your first.
2:20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
2:21 Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.
2:22 Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.
2:23 Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
2:24 But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you
2:25 than to hold fast to what you have until I come.
2:26 And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations.
2:27 He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery — just as I have received authority from My Father.
2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
3:1 These are the words of the One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
3:1 I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead.
3:2 Wake up and strengthen what remains, which is about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
3:3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
3:4 But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white.
3:5 Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.
3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
3:7 To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
3:7 These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.
3:8 I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.
3:9 As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.
3:10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
3:11 I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
3:12 The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.
3:13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
3:14 To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
3:14 These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation.
3:15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!
3:16 So because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!
3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
3:18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
3:19 Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
3:21 To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
3:22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
4:1 “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”
16:15 “Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”
22:7 “Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.”
22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done.
22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”
22:20 “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Notes and sources

Chapter 1: The Word

Passages told

John 1:1-5, 9-14, 16-18; Hebrews 10:5-7; Luke 1:5-79; Matthew 1:1-24. The words of Scripture spoken in the chapter are in the Berean Standard Bible. Luke 1:1-4, where Luke tells Theophilus that he has set down an orderly account from the eyewitnesses, is his preface and is not part of the story.

Sayings told once

- Hebrews 10:8, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them", is the same saying in shorter form; the book tells it once, in this chapter, in the fuller wording of Hebrews 10:5-6.
- Hebrews 10:9, "Here I am, I have come to do Your will", is the same saying again; the book tells it once, in this chapter, in the wording of Hebrews 10:7.

The scenes and their spines

- The Word. John's prologue is the spine. The chapter tells it in the order of the coming, and sets the Word becoming flesh (John 1:14, 16) last, after the law and Moses (1:17-18), so that it leads into the words of the Son. "Grace upon grace" (1:16) is the gift given again and again. The words of Christ "when He came into the world" are Hebrews 10:5-7; Hebrews does not tie them to any one hour.
- John in the prologue. John's Gospel sets John the Baptist inside its prologue: "There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe. He himself was not the Light" (John 1:6-8), and "This is He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me'" (John 1:15). The book meets John in Chapter 4.
- Zechariah in the temple; Elizabeth in seclusion. Luke 1:5-25, told by Luke alone. Luke says Zechariah belonged to "the priestly division of Abijah" (1:5), one of the companies of priests who took turns serving in the temple, and calls the two of them "righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord" (1:6).
- Gabriel and Mary. Luke 1:26-38, Luke alone. "The sixth month" is Elizabeth's. Where the Berean Standard Bible says the angel "appeared to her" (1:28), Luke's Greek says he "came in" to her, which sets the scene indoors; Mary's "own home" is named at 1:56.
- Mary and Elizabeth. Luke 1:39-56, Luke alone. Luke does not name the town in the hill country of Judah, and neither does the chapter.
- The birth and naming of John. Luke 1:57-79, Luke alone. The neighbors "made signs" to Zechariah (1:62), as though he could not hear as well as speak. Luke tells that Zechariah's mouth was opened and he spoke, praising God (1:64), then how the news went through the hill country (1:65-66), then his prophecy (1:67-79); the chapter lets the prophecy follow at once on his first words and the news close the scene. "A horn of salvation" (1:69) is a strong deliverer: the horn of a bull or a ram stands for strength in the Psalms ("my horn is exalted in the LORD", 1 Samuel 2:1).
- John in the wilderness. Luke closes with "the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until the time of his public appearance to Israel" (Luke 1:80). The book meets him there in Chapter 4.
- Joseph's dream. Matthew 1:18-24, Matthew alone. Matthew says "she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit" (1:18); the chapter leaves the child's origin for the angel to tell Joseph. Matthew does not say when Mary was found to be with child; the chapter follows Luke's order and places it after her return from Elizabeth. The chapter ends at Matthew 1:24, Joseph taking Mary home as his wife; Matthew 1:25, the birth and naming, opens Chapter 2.

The line of Joseph

Matthew opens with the line of Jesus Christ, "the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1-17): Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers; Perez and Zerah by Tamar; Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon; Boaz by Rahab; Obed by Ruth; Jesse; David the king. Solomon by Uriah's wife; Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah; Jeconiah and his brothers at the exile to Babylon. After the exile: Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob; and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Matthew counts fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. Luke gives a different line, from Jesus back to Adam (Luke 3:23-38).

The Old Testament behind the words

- The Word: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
- "A body You prepared for Me": Hebrews quotes Psalm 40:6-8, where the Hebrew psalm reads "my ears You have opened."
- Elijah: Malachi 4:5-6 promised that Elijah would be sent before the Day of the LORD to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children.
- "The Lord is with you": the angel's words to Gideon (Judges 6:12).
- "No word from God will ever fail": compare the LORD to Abraham about Sarah, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14).
- Mary's song: it echoes Hannah's prayer at the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1-10).
- "The Dawn will visit us from on high": "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2).
- Immanuel: after the angel's words to Joseph, Matthew adds, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel'" (Matthew 1:22-23, quoting Isaiah 7:14), and gives the meaning, "God with us."

From the reference works and the Fathers

- Betrothal: from the moment of betrothal a woman was treated as married, and Matthew already calls Joseph "her husband"; the bond could be dissolved only by divorce, and unfaithfulness was counted adultery. The bride was later brought to her husband's house. Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ, chapter 9.
- Nazareth as the home of Joseph and Mary, and the town itself: a hollow among the lower hills of Galilee just before they sink into the plain of Esdraelon; houses built of the white stone of the limestone rocks around it, so that an old name for it was "the white town"; a spring at the foot of the hill on the north, where the women went with their jars to carry home water. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Nazareth".
- Christ: Hilary of Poitiers explains the name from the anointing with which kings and priests were consecrated.
- Why Joseph's line is given: Jerome notes that Matthew opens with the human line of Christ; Chrysostom (Homily 3 on Matthew) answers that the virgin birth was not made known at first, so that Mary would be kept from suspicion.

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail, which the texts do not give: the people in their cloaks under the open sky; Mary alone in the house, and the women heard going down to the spring; the doors shutting out the noise of the courts; the lamplight, the coals, and the smoke white and sweet under the ceiling; Elizabeth taking Mary by both hands; the child in his wrappings, Zechariah bent over the tablet, the neighbors gone still, and Zechariah looking down at the child in Elizabeth's arms; Joseph lying down before the dream, waking in the dark, and Mary crossing his threshold.

Chapter 2: Bethlehem

Passages told

Matthew 1:25; Luke 2:1-40; Matthew 2:1-23. Jesus is an infant throughout and says nothing, so the chapter carries no words of his and drops no saying as a twin. What others say (the angel, the heavenly host, the shepherds, Simeon, the Magi, the chief priests and scribes, Herod, the angel in Joseph's dreams) is given in the words of the Berean Standard Bible.

The scenes and their spines

- The road and the birth follow Luke 2:1-7. Luke dates the count: "This was the first census to take place while Quirinius was governor of Syria" (Luke 2:2). Luke 2:5 calls Mary "pledged to him in marriage"; Matthew 1:24 has already told that Joseph took her as his wife, and the chapter follows Matthew. Matthew 1:25, "he had no union with her until she gave birth to a Son," is told at the birth. The chapter tells Luke 2:7 in the order a reader lives it: the full town, no room in the inn, the shelter, the birth, the swaddling, the manger. The word Luke uses for "inn," kataluma, may mean a guest room in a house; Luke uses it again for the guest room where the Passover was eaten (Luke 22:11). Luke names only the manger; "a place where the beasts were kept" rests on it.
- The shepherds, the eighth day, the temple, Simeon and Anna follow Luke 2:8-38. Matthew tells none of these; he says only that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea in the time of King Herod (Matthew 2:1).
- The naming. Luke 2:21 sets it at the circumcision on the eighth day; Matthew 1:25 says Joseph gave the name. The chapter tells the one naming, on the eighth day, by Joseph. The angel gave the name to Mary (Luke 1:31) and to Joseph (Matthew 1:21).
- Anna. Luke 2:36 gives her line: "the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher." The Berean Standard Bible reads that she "was a widow to the age of eighty-four," and the chapter follows it. Some translations read the phrase as eighty-four years of widowhood.
- The Magi, the flight into Egypt, the killing of the boys of Bethlehem and the return to Nazareth follow Matthew 2:1-23. Luke tells none of these.
- The order of the two accounts. Luke 2:39 passes straight from the temple to Nazareth: "they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth." Matthew has the family still in Bethlehem, in a house, when the Magi come, and brings them to Nazareth only after Egypt. The chapter tells Luke's temple scene first, brings the family back to Bethlehem, and lets Matthew carry the homecoming, as the harmonies have long done. Neither Gospel says how long after the birth the Magi came; Matthew's "house" and Herod's reckoning of two years and under suggest that some time had passed.
- The growing child. The last lines are Luke 2:40.

The genealogy

Luke gives Jesus's line at the start of his ministry, when he was "about thirty years old" and "regarded as the son of Joseph" (Luke 3:23-38). From Joseph it runs back through Heli, Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Jannai, Joseph, Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Esli, Naggai, Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda, Joanan, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, Neri, Melchi, Addi, Cosam, Elmadam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonam, Eliakim, Melea, Menna, Mattatha and Nathan to David; from David through Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Sala, Nahshon, Amminadab, Admin, Arni, Hezron, Perez and Judah to Jacob, Isaac and Abraham; and from Abraham through Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shelah, Cainan, Arphaxad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalalel, Cainan, Enosh and Seth to Adam, "the son of God." Matthew's line, from Abraham down, is in the notes to Chapter 1.

The prophets and the Law

- The days of purification: Leviticus 12:1-8. After the birth of a son a mother was set apart seven days, and then thirty-three more, touching nothing holy; so the presentation fell forty days after the birth. Her offering was a year-old lamb and a bird, or, from a mother who could not afford a lamb, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24, quoting Leviticus 12:8). Luke records the birds.
- "Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord": Exodus 13:2, quoted by Luke 2:23.
- "But you, Bethlehem": Micah 5:2, with an echo of 2 Samuel 5:2, where the Lord tells David, "You will shepherd My people Israel."
- "Out of Egypt I called My Son": Matthew 2:15 says the stay in Egypt "until the death of Herod" fulfilled Hosea 11:1, where the son is Israel; compare Exodus 4:22, "Israel is My firstborn son."
- "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more": Matthew 2:17-18 says the killing at Bethlehem fulfilled Jeremiah 31:15. The last lines of that scene echo it. Rachel, Jacob's wife, died on the way to Bethlehem and was buried by the road there (Genesis 35:16-19; 48:7).
- "He will be called a Nazarene": Matthew 2:23 says the home in Nazareth fulfilled "what was spoken through the prophets." No single prophet has these words. Readers have heard in them the Branch from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and the Nazirite set apart from the womb (Judges 13:5).

From the reference works

- Bethlehem on a long gray hill of limestone, with a deep valley on the north and another on the south: Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Bethlehem." Smith also gives the name's meaning, "house of bread," and notes that Bethlehem was the home of David (1 Samuel 17:12) and of Ruth.
- The spur running east from the watershed: the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Bethlehem".
- The watchtower of the flock: Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 5. Near Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, stood Migdal Eder, "the watch-tower of the flock," where flocks meant for the temple sacrifices were kept. Edersheim thinks the shepherds of Luke 2 were probably those.
- The Messiah to be born in Bethlehem: Edersheim, chapter 5, notes that the Jewish teachers gave the same answer the scribes gave Herod, from the same verse of Micah.
- Where the beasts were kept: Luke says only that she laid him in a manger "because there was no room for them in the inn"; the manger is the place's one sure detail, and the story says no more than that. The Greek word for the inn, kataluma, can also mean a guest room (Luke 22:11). Gregory the Great (Forty Gospel Homilies 8, in holy) marks that he was born "not in his parents' house, but on the way." The later tradition of a cave is not given in the story.
- Mary swaddling the child with her own hands: Jerome, Against Helvidius: "With her own hands she wrapped Him in the swaddling clothes, herself both mother and midwife."
- The Magi as learned men: Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, chapter 2, takes the magi to be the philosophers of the Chaldeans. "Men who watched the sky" rests on their own words about the star.

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail, given by no source: the roads full of households on foot and the villages crowded at evening; the gray, stony, terraced hill country of Judea; the full town; the animals in the dark at the shelter; Mary binding the child round and round, and the fodder in the manger; the flock tower standing on the road in the shepherds' night, the flocks lying close, the quiet night, the light whitening the field and going with the angels, the shepherds climbing by paths they knew; the walls and towers of Jerusalem, the priests in white linen, Simeon coming through the crowd and looking down at the child; Anna speaking aloud; Herod's palace; night falling on the Magi's road and their kneeling with faces to the floor; Joseph waking Mary and the flight from the house in the dark; Herod waiting; the men going from house to house; the fields below Nazareth.

Chapter 3: My Father's House

Passages told

Luke 2:41-52. Only Luke tells this event, so Luke is the spine of every scene and there are no other accounts to set aside. Both sayings of Jesus (Luke 2:49) are in the chapter word for word; none is told elsewhere in the book, and no saying is dropped as a twin.

The scenes

- The going up (Luke 2:41-42). The law called every man of Israel to appear before the Lord three times a year, at the place the Lord would choose, and none was to come empty-handed (Exodus 23:14-17; Exodus 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16-17). Women were not bound by it, but Mary went up every year all the same, as women commonly did. The Passover fell in the spring month of Abib, later called Nisan (Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:1). The songs the pilgrims sang on the way were the songs of ascents, Psalms 120-134, among them Psalm 122: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD.'" Psalm 42:4 also remembers walking with the multitude to the house of God.
- The feast. The Passover lamb was killed in the temple at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month (Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 28:16) and eaten that night, roasted, with unleavened bread, "the bread of affliction", because Israel had left Egypt in haste and by night; none of the meat was kept until morning, and for seven days no leaven was to be found in the land (Deuteronomy 16:1-8; Exodus 12:15). The feast was a time of rejoicing before the Lord (Deuteronomy 12:7, 12:18).
- The road home (Luke 2:43-44). Luke gives only that the parents supposed Jesus to be in the company; the village boys running free along the line is the chapter's own picture of how that could be.
- Back to the city (Luke 2:45). Luke does not say whether the "three days" count from leaving Jerusalem or from turning back; the chapter tells the day out, the turn back and the searching, and says only that it was three days.
- The temple courts (Luke 2:46-50). "My Father's house" is the temple, set against Mary's "Your father and I". Older English versions read the words as "about my Father's business" (KJV); Bede has "in the things of my Father". Luke adds that his parents did not understand what he said to them.
- Nazareth (Luke 2:51-52). The chapter tells Luke's two closing lines in the reverse order, so that it ends with Mary. Luke says the same of her after the shepherds came (Luke 2:19, in Chapter 2), and the chapter's last line points back to it. The line on his growing echoes the boy Samuel, who "continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man" (1 Samuel 2:26), and Proverbs 3:4, "favor and high regard in the sight of God and man". The passing years are implied by Luke 2:52, which looks ahead across them.

From the reference works and the Fathers

- Edersheim, The Temple, ch. 11: women were not bound by law to go up to the Passover but commonly did; the pilgrims came in bands from all the land and from foreign countries, singing their pilgrim psalms and bringing offerings, none appearing empty. Josephus once had the lambs of a single Passover counted at 256,500: behind "there was no counting the people".
- Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Weights and Measures": a day's journey was about thirty miles, but companies traveling together made only about ten, which is why the first night's camp lay so near the city. By that reckoning the first stop out of Jerusalem was Beeroth.
- ISBE, "Jerusalem": the city on its hills with valleys around it.
- Chrysostom: the law fixed both the time and the place of the feast, so the parents of Jesus kept the Passover only at Jerusalem.
- Philoxenus of Mabbug: Jesus sat among the teachers, listened to them and asked them questions, as Luke tells it.

Words

- Teachers: teachers of the law of Moses.
- Tassels: the fringes the law commanded on the corners of a garment (Numbers 15:38).

The chapter's own texture

The rains over in spring; the company singing on the way; people sleeping on the roofs, tents on the slopes; lambs led through the lanes on cords; the roasted lamb and flat bread on every table; blankets rolled and skins filled at the cisterns; the village boys running the length of the line; the evening camp with its fires and the smoke standing straight; walking back against the homegoing crowds; shops reopening and tents coming down as the city emptied; the shade of a colonnade and white light across the court.

Chapter 4: The Voice in the Wilderness

Passages told

Luke 3:1-18, 21-22; Matthew 3:1-17; Mark 1:1-11 (BSB). The one saying of Jesus in these passages, Matthew 3:15, is given word for word. Luke 3:19-20, Herod's imprisonment of John, is told in its place in the life (a line in Chapter 8, the full story looking back in Chapter 15). John 1:19-34, the questioners from Jerusalem and "Look, the Lamb of God", is told in Chapter 6, after the forty days.

The scenes and their spines

- The date and John at the Jordan (Luke 3:1-3). Luke alone dates the beginning by the rulers and high priests. Herod here is Antipas, son of the Herod of Chapters 1 and 2. Luke gives the high priesthood to "Annas and Caiaphas"; the story names Caiaphas, who held the office. Luke names two more rulers: Herod's brother Philip, tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis (the stony lava country now called the Lajat), and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene. Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas (John 18:13; Ussher's Annals, AD 26); Annas is met in Chapter 29. Zechariah and Elizabeth and John's birth are told in Chapter 1. The camel's-hair garment, leather belt, locusts and wild honey come from Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" is John's cry in Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:4 and Luke 3:3 describe his preaching as "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins".
- Isaiah. All three Gospels set John's coming under Isaiah 40:3, "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.'" Luke 3:5-6 goes on: "Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth. And all humanity will see God's salvation." Mark 1:2 sets before it a line from Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way." Mark opens with "This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1).
- The crowds at the river (Matthew 3:5-10, with Luke 3:10-15). Matthew gives the people coming from Jerusalem, Judea and the Jordan country, confessing their sins (so also Mark 1:5). "You brood of vipers" is told in Matthew's wording and to Matthew's hearers, the Pharisees and Sadducees (the Pharisees a party known for strict keeping of the Law, the Sadducees the party of the leading priestly families); Luke 3:7 addresses it to the crowds and has "do not begin to say" for "do not presume to say". The questions of the crowds, tax collectors and soldiers, and the people's wondering whether John was the Christ, are Luke's alone.
- "One more powerful than I" (Luke 3:16-18). Matthew 3:11 has "whose sandals I am not worthy to carry"; Mark 1:7 has "to stoop down and untie", and Mark 1:8 speaks of the Holy Spirit without fire. Luke 3:18 closes the preaching: "With these and many other exhortations, John proclaimed the good news to the people." The chapter has no twin of a saying of Jesus to drop: Matthew 3:15 is his only saying here, and the only telling of it.
- The baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17). Matthew alone tells of John trying to prevent Jesus and gives the reply. "In those days" opening the scene is Mark 1:9. Luke 3:21-22 says Jesus was baptized when all the people were being baptized, that he was praying when heaven opened, and that the Spirit came "in a bodily form like a dove". Mark 1:10 has the heavens "breaking open". Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:22 give the voice as spoken to Jesus: "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Matthew's form, spoken of him, is told here.

From the reference works

- The dates of the rulers: Tiberius reigned AD 14 to 37; Pilate governed Judea AD 26 to 36. ISBE ("Chronology of the New Testament") reckons the fifteenth year of Tiberius as AD 28 to 29 if counted from the death of Augustus.
- Nazareth as the town where Jesus grew up: ISBE, "Nazareth"; Mark 1:9.
- The Jordan running south: ISBE, "Jordan", which traces the river from its springs at the foot of Mount Hermon down through the valley (the name itself means "flowing downward").
- The river about a hundred feet wide in its channel, with tamarisk and cane in its flood plain: ISBE, "Jordan".

Words

- Elijah's dress: John's hair garment and leather belt recall Elijah's in 2 Kings 1:8.
- Winnowing fork, threshing floor, chaff: grain was tossed into the wind with a wooden fork; the light chaff blew away and the heavier wheat fell back to the floor.

Texture

The waste country above the river; the pilgrims' bread, water skins and dusty hems; the current at the knees and the mud of the bank; the round gray stones, once; the Pharisees given way to on the bank; the soldiers' swords and laced sandals; someone wringing out a wet cloak; the brown water at the waist and the pull of the current; the people watching from the bank; John's hands on Jesus; the river closing over him and the water streaming from his hair and clothes. These are the chapter's own and drawn from no source.

Chapter 5: The Tempter

The passages

Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13.

The scenes

Into the wilderness and the forty days. Luke is the spine (4:1-2): Jesus returns from the Jordan "full of the Holy Spirit," is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, is tempted by the devil through the forty days, eats nothing, and is hungry when they end. "At once" and "drove" are Mark's (1:12), as are the wild animals (1:13). Matthew says he was led, fasted "forty days and forty nights," and tells only the three temptations that came at the end of the fast (4:1-3). The chapter holds both: the tempting through all the days, as Luke and Mark say, and the three temptations at the end, as Matthew and Luke tell them.

The bread. Matthew is the spine (4:3-4), with "the tempter" and "these stones." Luke has "this stone" (4:3).

The pinnacle of the temple. Matthew is the spine (4:5-7), and the chapter keeps his order: bread, temple, mountain. Luke tells the mountain second and the temple last. He names the city as Jerusalem, has the devil say "throw Yourself down from here," and adds "to guard You carefully" to the psalm (4:9-11).

The very high mountain. Matthew is the spine (4:8-10). Luke calls it "a high place," says the kingdoms were shown "in an instant," and gives the devil a longer offer: authority over all the kingdoms, "for it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish" (4:5-7).

The end. Matthew 4:11: the devil left him, and angels came and cared for him (the BSB's "ministered"). That the devil left "until an opportune time" is Luke's (4:13), who says he went when he "had finished every temptation." Mark sets the angels' care within the forty days, beside the wild animals (1:13).

Told once

- Luke 4:4, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone,'" is told in this chapter in Matthew's fuller wording (4:4); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 4:12, "It also says, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test,'" is told in this chapter in Matthew's wording (4:7); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 4:8, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only,'" is told in this chapter in Matthew's wording, with "Away from Me, Satan!" (4:10); Luke's is in the appendix.

The Scripture in the chapter

- Bread: Deuteronomy 8:3, Moses on the manna in the wilderness.
- The test: Deuteronomy 6:16, "as you tested Him at Massah" (Exodus 17:1-7).
- Worship: Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20.
- The devil's text is Psalm 91:11-12.
- Moses was forty days and forty nights on the mountain without bread (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9), and Elijah walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).

From the reference works

- The pinnacle. Smith's Bible Dictionary ("Pinnacle") notes that the word means "the pinnacle," one particular place, and gives Alford's view that it was the roof of Herod's royal portico, which overhung the ravine of the Kidron from a great height. The chapter follows that view.
- The Spirit who drove him. Orr (ISBE, "Holy Spirit") sets Mark's "driveth him forth" beside Luke's "full of the Holy Spirit." Gregory the Great held, with the received reading, that it was the Holy Spirit who led him.
- The hunger. Hilary of Poitiers read the hunger as coming after the forty days, as Matthew and Luke both say.

Words

- Satan, the devil, the tempter: the three names the Gospels use here for the one adversary; the chapter uses each as they do.
- Cared for (the BSB's "ministered"): the everyday word for serving and looking after someone's needs, used of Martha serving at table (Luke 10:40). Its tense is ongoing, "were caring for him": a continuing care, not one visit.

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail: the muddy Jordan under tamarisk and cane; the climb over white marl into bare, chalk-pale hills, dry gullies and scrub; the day's long shadows, noon heat and red evening; cold nights, stars and the moon through its changes; the voices and tracks of the wild animals; the loaf-shaped limestone; the parapet, the courts, the sheer wall and the wind on the pinnacle; the thin cold air of the mountain and the kingdoms spread below it; the river seen again far off at the end.

Chapter 6: Come and See

Passages told

John 1:19-51; John 2:1-12 (BSB). Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter, word for word; none of them is told elsewhere in the book, so none is dropped here.

The spine

John alone tells these days, so John is the spine of every scene. The other Gospels tell the call of Simon and Andrew differently and later, by the lake with their nets (Mark 1:16-18); that call is told in Chapter 9, where these men, who already know him, are called to leave everything.

Notes on the scenes

- "I myself did not know Him." John the Baptist says it twice (John 1:31 and 1:33), once in each of his two sayings about Jesus; the chapter gives it once.
- The return to the Jordan. John's Gospel does not tell the temptation; the chapter sets these days after the forty days of Chapter 5, the usual order of the harmonies.
- The delegation. John says "the Jews of Jerusalem" sent priests and Levites, and that the questioners included Pharisees. Origen counts two embassies: the priests and Levites first, then the Pharisees with their question about baptism (Commentary on John 6). Chrysostom notes that John answered what they suspected before what they asked: he first denied being the Christ (Homily on John 16).
- Elijah and the Prophet. Elijah was promised before the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5); the Prophet is the prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). John's answer is Isaiah 40:3.
- Bethany beyond the Jordan. Not the Bethany near Jerusalem. ISBE ("Bethabara"), quoting G. F. Wright, argues that the place lay a single day's journey from Cana, well up the river toward Galilee, perhaps at the ford Abarah near Beisan. The traditional site lies far south, near Jericho. The chapter names neither.
- The two disciples. John names Andrew as one of the two and leaves the other unnamed. Matthew Henry records the old guesses that he was Thomas, or John the son of Zebedee, who wrote the Gospel and often keeps his own name out of it.
- "What do you want?" Theodore of Mopsuestia notes that Jesus pointed out no house; he asked them to come along with him and see.
- Late afternoon. John says "about the tenth hour." By the Jewish count of hours from sunrise that is about four in the afternoon; some read John by a count from midnight, which would make it ten in the morning.
- "He first found his brother." John does not give the hour; the chapter keeps it on the same day, the common reading.
- Rabbi. A title of respect for the teachers of the Law, often given to Jesus (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Rabbi").
- Messiah, Cephas. Messiah is the Hebrew word for "anointed," Christ the Greek. John adds that Cephas "is translated as Peter": Cephas is the Aramaic word for "rock," Peter the Greek.
- Bethsaida. Its name means "house of fishing"; it lay near where the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee (ISBE, "Bethsaida"). Philip of Bethsaida is the apostle, not Herod's son Philip who ruled that country (Chapter 18).
- Nazareth. A town in Galilee, the home of Joseph and Mary, and the reason Jesus was called "of Nazareth" though born in Bethlehem (ISBE, "Nazareth").
- Nathanael. John alone names him, and later adds that he came from Cana (John 21:2). He is not in the lists of the Twelve (Chapter 11); a long tradition takes him to be Bartholomew, who stands beside Philip in those lists, though no Gospel says so.
- The fig tree. John says only that Jesus saw Nathanael under it before Philip called him; the chapter has Philip find him there.
- "You will all see." The saying turns from "you" singular to "you" plural; the chapter has Jesus speak it to all who stood there.
- The third day. The chapter counts it from the day Jesus set out for Galilee. Edersheim also counts it from the last day named, and, holding that a maiden's wedding was kept on a Wednesday afternoon, sets out the week day by day (Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 9).
- The wedding. The bride was led into the bridegroom's house with formalities of great age, and the feast was kept there: Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 9.
- "Woman." A respectful form of address; Jesus uses it to his mother again from the cross (John 19:26).
- The stone jars. John says they were set there "for the Jewish rites of purification," the washing of hands and vessels. "Twenty or thirty gallons" is the BSB's rendering of two or three measures each. John adds that the servants filled them "to the brim."
- The first sign. John closes the wedding: "Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him" (John 2:11).
- His brothers. John first mentions them here. Mark 6:3 names four. Whether they were sons of Mary and Joseph, sons of Joseph by an earlier marriage, or cousins has been read differently since the early Church.
- Capernaum. Cana stands on a hill and Capernaum on the shore, so John says they went "down." This was a stay of a few days; Jesus makes his home there later (Chapter 9; ISBE, "Capernaum").

From the reference works

- Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Cana": a village in the hills a few miles from Nazareth.
- ISBE, "Capernaum": a customs station where the road from the east met the road from the north.

Scripture behind the sayings

- "The Lamb of God": the Passover lamb of Exodus 12, the lamb God would provide of Genesis 22:8, and the lamb led to the slaughter of Isaiah 53:7.
- "We have found the One Moses wrote about": Deuteronomy 18:18, the prophet like Moses.
- "In whom there is no deceit": Psalm 32:2.
- "I saw you under the fig tree": Psalm 139:1-2.
- "The King of Israel": Zephaniah 3:15.
- "Angels of God ascending and descending": Jacob's ladder, Genesis 28:12; the Son of Man, Daniel 7:13-14.
- The jars filled to the brim: Elisha and the widow's jars of oil, 2 Kings 4:2-6.
- Wine at the feast: "wine that gladdens the heart of man," Psalm 104:15.

The chapter's own texture

John in the shallows and the questioners on the bank; water running from sleeves; people on the bank with sandals in their hands; the two keeping a little way back and stopping on the path; the low sun over the far side of the river; Simon in his cloak with Andrew at his shoulder; cold light in the morning and men rolling their cloaks; the trodden ground; travelers and loaded donkeys, threshing floors and sheepfolds, cooler air; Cana on its hill a few miles from Nazareth; low tables, lamps on their stands, cups and wineskins, voices over one another, the smell of roast meat and wine, servants with jugs; the empty jugs at the door, the many trips for water, the water level at the lips of the jars; the cup carried across the courtyard; the feast going on and the servants out among the tables with the new wine; Capernaum by the water where the east road met the north road, with its customs station, and the family coming down into it in the evening.

Chapter 7: The First Passover

Passages told

John 2:13-25 and John 3:1-30, with John 3:31-36 given here, from the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter, word for word; none of them is told elsewhere in the book, so none was dropped as a twin. Only John tells these events, so John is the spine of every scene.

The scenes

- The market in the temple courts (John 2:13-20). The other three Gospels tell a clearing of the temple in the last week of Jesus's life, and the book tells that one in Chapter 24. Augustine (Harmony of the Gospels 2.67.129) and Alcuin (in Aquinas's Catena Aurea on John 2:13) read John's as a separate, earlier clearing, and the chapter tells it where John places it. Nothing from the later clearing is used here. John says Jesus poured out the changers' coins. The line the disciples remembered is Psalm 69:9. John adds that Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body, and that after he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered this saying and believed the Scripture and the word he had spoken (John 2:21-22).
- The feast, and Nicodemus by night (John 2:23-3:21). John says Jesus did not entrust himself to those who believed because of the signs, for he knew all men and needed no one's testimony about man. John calls Nicodemus "a leader of the Jews"; he was a member of the ruling council (John 7:50). He comes back into the story twice more: speaking up for Jesus before the council (John 7:50-51), and bringing myrrh and aloes to his burial (John 19:39). The BSB marks 3:16-21 as the words of Jesus, and the chapter follows it; some readers end his words at 3:15 and take what follows as the Gospel writer's comment. The lifted snake recalls Numbers 21:6-9: when snakes came among the people in the wilderness, Moses set a bronze snake on a pole, and whoever had been bitten and looked at it lived. John does not say how the night ended; Nicodemus's leaving is the chapter's.
- The Judean countryside and Aenon (John 3:22-30). John 3:22 says Jesus baptized; John 4:2 adds that it was his disciples who did the baptizing, and Ussher's Annals read 3:22 that way. John notes that John the Baptist had not yet been thrown into prison (3:24). The dispute "over the issue of ceremonial washing" was between John's disciples and "a certain Jew"; John does not say what was argued, only that it brought them to John about Jesus.
- John the Baptist's words that follow (John 3:31-36). The BSB keeps John the Baptist speaking to the end of the chapter; some readers take these verses as the Gospel writer's own reflection. They read: "The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what He has seen and heard, yet no one accepts His testimony. Whoever accepts His testimony has certified that God is truthful. For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him."

From the reference works and the Fathers

- The outer court open to Jew and Gentile who kept its rules; the oxen, sheep and doves passed as fit for sacrifice and sold there as in a market; the money changers' tables; the noise on the eve of the Passover; and, farther in, a low marble screen whose Greek and Latin notices warned Gentiles not to pass it on pain of death: Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, chapter 2.
- Pilgrims from far away bringing money in place of animals, and the changers giving change for the buying and selling: Bede, in the Catena Aurea on John 2:14.
- Aenon a place of springs on the west side of the Jordan, known by its nearness to Salim, about eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis: ISBE, "Aenon" and "Salim".
- The disciples present at this Passover and at the baptizing in Judea: ISBE, "Andrew".

The chapter's own texture

Tethered cattle, penned sheep, stacked cages, straw on the paving, the changers counting at their trays; the plaited cords; the sanctuary white in the sun above the court; the sellers calling after their sheep; the dark streets, the lamp between Jesus and Nicodemus, the lamp burning low, Nicodemus going out into the night; the springs and pools among the stones at Aenon.

Chapter 8: The Well at Sychar

Passages told

John 4:1-54; Matthew 4:12; Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:14-15. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, or told once where two Gospels give the same saying:

- Matthew 4:17, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near," is told in this chapter in Mark's fuller wording (Mark 1:15); Matthew's is in the appendix.

Scene by scene

Leaving Judea. Spine: John 4:1-3. John adds that it was not Jesus himself who baptized, but his disciples (4:2). Matthew 4:12 and Mark 1:14 give the imprisonment of John as the moment of the return to Galilee; the chapter sets that news before the road north, and the reason Herod seized him is told looking back in Chapter 15. The order is read in more than one way: Remigius of Rheims takes John's departure as an earlier coming into Galilee, before the imprisonment, and the other Gospels as telling a later one; Augustine notes that some days passed between the things John tells and the return the others tell (both in Aquinas, Catena Aurea, on Matthew 4:12). The Herod of this chapter is Herod Antipas, the son of the king of the birth story.

The well and the fields. Spine: John 4:4-42. John gives the time as "about the sixth hour" (4:6), counted from sunrise: about noon. He adds that Jews did not associate with Samaritans (4:9), and he explains that Messiah is "called Christ" (4:25). The woman's "this mountain" (4:20) is named Gerizim in the chapter: the mountain stands above Sychar. The townspeople were already on their way out (4:30) when Jesus spoke of the fields ripe for harvest. The two days in the town are John 4:40-42.

Galilee and Cana. Spine: John 4:43-54, with Luke 4:14 for the return "in the power of the Spirit" and Mark 1:14-15 for the proclamation. Luke adds that the news about him spread through the region and that he taught in their synagogues (4:14-15); the book tells that circuit from Chapter 9. John adds that Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown (4:44); he says it aloud at Nazareth in Chapter 9. Matthew 4:17 says Jesus began to preach "from that time on," after he made his home at Capernaum (also told in Chapter 9). John calls the father "a royal official" (4:46); in Galilee the king's man served Herod Antipas, whom Mark calls "King Herod" (Mark 6:14). The servants say the fever left the boy "yesterday at the seventh hour" (4:52): about one in the afternoon. John closes by counting it the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea into Galilee (4:54); the first was the water made wine at Cana (Chapter 6).

Background

- Sychar is another name for Shechem, and Mount Gerizim rises beside it (ISBE, Sychar; OpenBible).
- Jacob's ground and Joseph's bones. John places Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob gave his son Joseph (4:5). Jacob bought it from the sons of Hamor, and there the Israelites buried the bones of Joseph, brought up out of Egypt (Genesis 33:19; 48:22; Joshua 24:32).
- Cana and Capernaum. Cana lay in the hills; Capernaum on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Capernaum"). The official asks Jesus to "come down" (John 4:47, 49).
- The well by the road. ISBE, "Sychar": Jacob's well lies on the right of the road where it bends from the plain into the pass of Shechem; Sychar a small place on the lower slope of Ebal, with Gerizim across the valley.
- Living water. The Prophets speak of the Lord as "the fountain of living water" (Jeremiah 2:13), and "With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3); "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1).

Texture

The people coming up streaming from the water; the terraced hills on the way north; the well on the right of the road where it bends into the pass; the noon heat rising off the road; the stone mouth worn smooth by ropes, the rope coiled on the curb, the water small and dark far down; the jar at the woman's feet and Gerizim across the valley; the bread laid out; the grain in the fields and the townspeople on the paths; the father counting back the hour; the long road down from Cana.

Chapter 9: Nazareth and Capernaum

Passages told

Luke 4:16-44; Matthew 4:13-16; Matthew 4:18-25; Mark 1:16-45; Luke 5:1-16; Matthew 8:1-4; Matthew 8:14-17 (BSB).

Sayings told once

Where two Gospels give the same saying, the chapter tells it once; the appendix "Every word of Jesus" carries every wording.

- Luke 5:10, "From now on you will catch men," spoken to Simon in the boat, is the call this chapter tells on the beach in Mark 1:17's wording, "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19 the same). Luke's "Do not be afraid" is kept in the boat.
- Luke 4:43, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well," is told in this chapter in Mark's wording (Mark 1:38).
- Luke 5:14 and Matthew 8:4, the charge to the cleansed leper, are told in this chapter in Mark's wording (Mark 1:44).

Scene by scene

- Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). Luke alone tells it. Luke says Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath "as was His custom." The reading is Isaiah 61:1-2. The crowd's word about Capernaum looks back to the official's son, healed at a word spoken in Cana (John 4:46-54, Chapter 8). "No prophet is accepted in his hometown" is the first time Jesus says it; he says it again when he returns to Nazareth (Mark 6:4).
- Capernaum and the shore (Matthew 4:13; spine of the call: Luke 5:1-11). Matthew says that on leaving Nazareth Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, and sees in it Isaiah 9:1-2: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned." The earlier stay at Capernaum is John 2:12. Simon and Andrew first met Jesus at the Jordan (John 1:35-42). Luke has the fishermen out of their boats washing their nets, names James and John, the sons of Zebedee, as Simon's partners in the other boat, and calls Simon "Simon Peter" at the moment he falls at Jesus's knees. Luke does not name Andrew; Augustine took him to be in the boat with Simon. Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20 tell the call differently: Jesus, walking by the sea, sees Simon and Andrew casting a net and calls them; going on, he sees James and John in their boat mending nets with their father. Mark alone says they left Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and the chapter takes that detail into Luke's scene. Luke tells the catch after the Sabbath in Capernaum; the chapter follows Mark and Matthew, who put the calling first. Calvin observed that the Evangelists did not keep a fixed order of dates.
- The Capernaum synagogue and Simon's house (spine: Mark 1:21-31). Luke 4:31-37 has the spirit begin with "Ha!", throw the man down before them all and leave him unharmed, and the crowd ask, "What is this message? With authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!" Mark and Luke both say the news of him spread through the region at once. At the house Luke has a high fever, and Jesus standing over her and rebuking it; Matthew has him touch her hand, and she serves him.
- At sunset (spine: Mark 1:32-34). The Sabbath ended at sunset, and the sick could then be carried through the town. Luke adds that Jesus laid his hands on each one, and that the demons came out shouting, "You are the Son of God!" and were silenced because they knew he was the Christ. Matthew says he drove the spirits out with a word, and sees in it Isaiah 53:4: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases."
- Before daybreak (spine: Mark 1:35-38). In Luke 4:42-43 it is the crowds who find him at daybreak and try to keep him.
- Through Galilee, and the leper (spine: Mark 1:39-45). Matthew 4:23-25 tells the same circuit: the news of him spread over Syria, the sick were brought to him (those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed), and crowds came from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond the Jordan; the book tells those crowds once, at the sea in Chapter 11. Luke 4:44 in the BSB reads "the synagogues of Judea," Judea in its wider sense of the land of the Jews; some manuscripts read Galilee. Mark alone says Jesus was moved with compassion, and that he sent the man away at once with a stern warning. Luke sets the leper "in one of the towns," calls him covered with leprosy, and has him fall on his face and begin "Lord, if You are willing"; Matthew sets it as Jesus came down from the mountain after the Sermon on the Mount, and has "offer the gift prescribed by Moses." Luke closes with great crowds coming to hear him and be healed, and Jesus often withdrawing to the wilderness to pray.

From the reference works and the Fathers

- Nazareth, the home of Joseph and Mary and the scene of Jesus's early life: ISBE, "Nazareth."
- ISBE, "Nazareth": the town in its hollow among the lower hills, built up the western slope of white limestone ("the white town"), its one spring at the foot of the hill where the women fill their jars, and the cliff many feet high not far from the old synagogue.
- Capernaum, a town of some importance and the center of his work in Galilee, near which the fishermen were called: ISBE, "Capernaum." Remigius and Matthew Henry read his leaving Nazareth in the light of the town's rejection of him.
- Galilee means "the circuit" or "district," which gives the chapter its heading: ISBE, "Galilee."
- The synagogue's chief purpose was the teaching of the people: Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 17.
- Andrew, Simon's brother, of Bethsaida, once a disciple of John the Baptist: Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Andrew." Chrysostom and ISBE read the call by the lake as a second call, after the first meeting at the Jordan.
- The Decapolis, the Ten Cities, lay east of the Sea of Galilee.

Words

- The attendant: the synagogue officer who handed the scroll to the reader and took it back.
- Zarephath and Naaman: Elijah was fed by a widow of Zarephath, near Sidon, in the famine (1 Kings 17); Naaman, a Syrian commander, was healed of leprosy when he washed in the Jordan at Elisha's word (2 Kings 5). Both lived outside Israel.
- Scribes: the teachers of the Law.
- Leprosy: in the Bible, a name for skin diseases that made a person unclean and kept him apart from others. The offering Moses prescribed for a cleansed leper is set out in Leviticus 14: two clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop, then offerings at the sanctuary.

Texture

The white limestone town in its hollow, its one spring and the women's jars, the steep lanes; the cold ovens of the Sabbath; the scroll's wooden rollers; the cliff near the synagogue; the washed nets, the oars, the floats going under, the fish heaped in the boats; the courtyard of Simon's house; the lamps carried through the dusk to the door; the stars over the lake before dawn; the barley fields and terraced vines of the hill country.

Chapter 10: The Lord of the Sabbath

Passages told

Mark 2:1-3:6; Matthew 9:1-17; Luke 5:17-6:11; John 5:1-47; Matthew 12:1-14 (BSB). Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, or its near-twin is, told once in the fullest wording. The appendix "Every word of Jesus" carries every wording.

The scenes

Home in Capernaum, and the roof (Mark 2:1-12, the spine). Mark has Jesus come back to Capernaum "a few days later", after the time out in the country where the crowds came to him. Matthew 9:1 has Jesus come by boat to "his own town"; Chrysostom (Homily 29 on Matthew) reads this as Capernaum, the town he lived in, where Jerome read Nazareth and Augustine all Galilee. Luke 5:17 adds Pharisees and teachers of the law from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and says the power of the Lord was present to heal. Mark has the four uncover the roof and dig an opening; Luke has the paralytic let down "through the tiles", and Mark alone says there were four. The first word to the paralytic is "Son" in Mark and "Friend" in Luke; the chapter gives Matthew's fuller "Take courage, son". Matthew has Jesus ask, "Why do you harbor evil in your hearts?" Luke has the healed man go home glorifying God; Matthew closes with the crowds glorifying God "who had given such authority to men", and Luke with "We have seen remarkable things today."

The tax booth and the banquet (Luke 5:27-39, the spine). Mark sets the call beside the sea, after Jesus had taught the crowd on the shore, and names the tax collector "Levi son of Alphaeus" (Mark 2:13-14); Matthew's Gospel calls him Matthew (Matthew 9:9), and the two are usually taken to be one man. In Mark and Matthew the objectors ask the disciples about Jesus ("Why does He eat..."). The answer is Matthew's fuller wording (Matthew 9:12-13, with Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice"); Luke's ends "sinners, to repentance". In Luke the fasting question comes from the same objectors; in Matthew it comes from John's own disciples, and in Mark from people unnamed. The bridegroom is Mark's wording (Mark 2:19-20); Matthew has "mourn". The garment and the wineskins are Luke's, whole, with the old wine, which only Luke gives; Mark and Matthew speak of a patch of unshrunk cloth, and Matthew adds "both are preserved". The customs booth by the town follows Smith's Bible Dictionary and the ISBE, which describe Capernaum as a customs station where dues were collected.

Bethesda, the temple, and the discourse (John 5, the only account). John does not name the feast, and gives no tie to the Galilean order beyond "some time later"; the chapter sets it here, between the fasting question and the grainfields. The pilgrims in the city follow the law of the three yearly feasts (Deuteronomy 16:16). Some later manuscripts add an angel who stirred the water, and say that the first one in after the stirring was healed (John 5:4); modern critical texts omit the verse, and the chapter tells only that the sick waited for the stirring, as the invalid's own words show. John does not say where the discourse was spoken; the chapter keeps it in the temple courts, where Jesus found the healed man (John 5:14). The courts follow the ISBE: the city's rock is limestone banded with flint, the hard reddish-grey layer underlying the temple area ("Jerusalem"); the outer court had double colonnades of marble columns roofed with cedar, Solomon's Porch on the east ("Temple"; John 10:23); the Mount of Olives rises higher than the city across the Kidron, capped with chalky limestone and flint, with a view over the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea to Moab ("Olives, Mount of"). The swallows under the roofs echo Psalm 84:3; the sheep for the altar, the selling in the courts (John 2:14). John 5:18 says the leaders "tried all the harder to kill Him"; the chapter tells it as the first step toward the plot this chapter ends on.

The grainfields (Matthew 12:1-8, the spine). The return to Galilee is inferred from the first three Gospels, which set this scene and the next there. Only Matthew says the disciples were hungry; Luke adds that they rubbed the heads in their hands (Luke 6:1), and has the Pharisees put the question to the disciples. The answer about David is Mark's fuller wording (Mark 2:25-26), with Abiathar; 1 Samuel 21 names his father Ahimelech as the priest who gave the bread. The priests in the temple and "One greater than the temple" are Matthew's alone, drawn from the Sabbath offerings of Numbers 28:9-10; "The Sabbath was made for man" is Mark's alone (Mark 2:27). The Law allowed plucking grain by hand in a neighbor's field (Deuteronomy 23:25); the quarrel was over the day.

The withered hand (Mark 3:1-6, the spine). Luke calls it "another Sabbath", gives the right hand, says Jesus knew their thoughts, and gives the call "Get up and stand among us" and "I ask you" in fuller words (Luke 6:6-9). In Matthew the Pharisees ask aloud, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" and the sheep in the pit (Matthew 12:11-12, Matthew's alone) is Jesus's direct answer; the chapter sets it after their silence. Matthew adds that the hand was restored "just like the other"; Luke says the scribes and Pharisees were "filled with rage". Mark alone names the Herodians. "On another Sabbath" is Luke's; Mark says only that Jesus went into the synagogue "once again". No Gospel names the town of this synagogue.

Sayings told once

Each of these is told in this chapter in another Gospel's wording; the appendix "Every word of Jesus" carries every wording.

- Mark 2:5 "Son" and Luke 5:20 "Friend, your sins are forgiven": told in Matthew 9:2, "Take courage, son".
- Matthew 9:4-6 and Luke 5:23-24, "Which is easier" and "go home": told in Mark 2:8-11.
- Mark 2:17 and Luke 5:31-32, the doctor and the sick: told in Matthew 9:12-13.
- Matthew 9:15 ("mourn") and Luke 5:34-35, the bridegroom: told in Mark 2:19-20.
- Mark 2:21-22 and Matthew 9:16-17, the patch and the wineskins: told in Luke 5:36-39.
- Matthew 12:3-4 and Luke 6:3-4, David and the consecrated bread: told in Mark 2:25-26.
- Matthew 12:8 and Luke 6:5, "Lord of the Sabbath": told in Mark 2:27-28.
- Mark 3:3-4, "Stand up among us" and "Which is lawful": told in Luke 6:8-9.

Words

- Scribes were trained in copying and teaching the Law of Moses; Pharisees were a party strict in keeping the Law and the traditions about it.
- Tax collectors gathered tolls and customs for the rulers and were despised by many as collaborators; sinners in the Gospels are people known to live outside the Law.
- The Sabbath ran from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, a day of rest from work (Deuteronomy 5:14).
- The consecrated bread was the Bread of the Presence, set before the LORD and afterward eaten by the priests (1 Samuel 21:3-6).
- Son of Man is Jesus's name for himself, from Daniel 7:13-14.
- Wineskins were goatskins sewn to hold wine; new wine, still working, would burst a skin already stretched and hardened.
- Bethesda is the pool's Hebrew name in John; its meaning is uncertain.
- The Herodians were supporters of the house of Herod, here Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee.
- "The Jews" in John 5 is John's word for the authorities in Jerusalem who opposed Jesus; the chapter calls them the leaders.

Texture

The chapter's own: the lanes running down between walled yards to the beach, the dust and plaster falling and hanging in the light, the four kneeling at the broken roof, the light on the empty floor, the coins and tallies on Levi's table and the empty booth, Levi at his own table among those who followed, the lamps and voices of the banquet, the cool shade and still water of the colonnades, the mat in the healed invalid's arms, the temple rock of limestone banded with flint with the one spring in the Kidron below it and the sun on the paving, the ripe grain and the kernels in the disciples' hands, the crowded benches of the synagogue and the hand held in a lap.

From the reference works: ISBE, "Jerusalem" (the limestone and flint, the temple rock the highest point of the hill, the one spring Gihon in the Kidron).

Chapter 11: The Mountain

Passages told

Matthew 12:15-21; Mark 3:7-19; Luke 6:12-49; Matthew 5:1-7:29. The Sermon on the Mount is told in Matthew's order and Matthew's words. Where Luke gives the same saying, it is told once, in Matthew's words, and Luke's wording stands in the appendix "Every word of Jesus".

Sayings told elsewhere in the book

- Matthew 5:29-30, cutting off the eye and the hand, is told in Chapter 18 in Mark's wording (Mark 9:43-48).
- Matthew 5:31-32, on divorce, is told in Chapter 23, where the whole teaching on marriage stands.
- Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters", is told in Chapter 21 as the close of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:13).
- Luke 6:39, the blind leading the blind, is told in Chapter 17 (Matthew 15:14).
- Luke 6:40, the disciple and his teacher, is told in Chapter 15 (Matthew 10:24-25).
- Luke 6:45, the good man's treasure, is told in Chapter 13 (Matthew 12:34-35).
- Luke 6:38's last sentence, "For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you", is told in this chapter in Matthew's words (Matthew 7:2).
- Luke's blessings, his "love your enemies", the other cheek, "Do to others", "Do not judge", the speck, the trees and the two builders (Luke 6:20-23, 27-32, 37, 41-44, 46-49) are told here in Matthew's words.

The scenes

The withdrawal to the sea (Matthew 12:15-16; Mark 3:7-12). The chapter opens where Chapter 10 ended, with the Pharisees and the Herodians plotting his death. Matthew says Jesus was aware of it and withdrew, that large crowds followed and he healed them all, and that he warned them not to make him known. Mark is the spine: the crowd from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan and the region of Tyre and Sidon; the boat kept ready so the crowd would not crush him; the unclean spirits crying "You are the Son of God!" and his stern warning not to make him known. Idumea lay to the south of Judea.

Matthew sees in this quiet withdrawal the fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1-4, and quotes it (Matthew 12:17-21): "Here is My Servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory. In His name the nations will put their hope."

The night and the Twelve (Luke 6:12-16). Luke is the spine: the mountain, the whole night in prayer to God, the choosing at daylight, and Luke's list of names. Mark 3:13-19 adds the name Boanerges, which he explains as "Sons of Thunder", and gives the purpose of the choosing: the twelve were appointed to be with him, to be sent out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons (the sending is Chapter 15). Mark's list sets James and John before Andrew, and in the place of Luke's "Judas son of James" it has "Thaddaeus". Luke says Judas Iscariot "became a traitor"; Mark says he "betrayed Jesus". This is the book's one list of the Twelve. Matthew 10:2-4 gives the list again when Jesus sends them out, with Thaddaeus as in Mark, and calls Matthew "the tax collector".

Simon's new name was promised at the Jordan (John 1:42, Chapter 6) and given here. Philip is the one Jesus found by the river the day after (John 1:43). Matthew 9:9 tells as Matthew's call the scene Mark and Luke tell of Levi (Chapter 10), and the two have long been taken as one man. Bartholomew is named only in the lists; many have long held him to be Nathanael, whom Philip brought to Jesus (John 1:45-49) and who returns in Chapter 34, since John never names Bartholomew and the other Gospels never name Nathanael, and Philip stands next to Bartholomew in three of the lists. That the twelve were called up one by one is the chapter's telling of Mark's "called for those He wanted, and they came to Him".

The teaching (Matthew 5:1-7:29). Matthew is the spine: Jesus sees the crowds, sits down on the mountain, his disciples come to him, and he teaches them while the crowds listen. Luke tells it differently. In Luke, Jesus comes down with the twelve and stands on a level place, where a crowd from Judea, Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon has come to hear him and be healed. All of them try to touch him "because power was coming from Him and healing them all" (Luke 6:17-19). Then he looks up at his disciples and speaks. Luke's sermon is shorter, and its blessings are spoken to "you": "Blessed are you who are poor", "you who hunger now", "you who weep now, for you will laugh."

Luke's sayings that have no twin in Matthew are set where they fit the thought:

- the woes (Luke 6:24-26), after the blessings, as in Luke;
- doing good and lending, expecting nothing (Luke 6:33-35), after Matthew 5:46-48;
- "Be merciful" and "Give, and it will be given to you" (Luke 6:36, 6:38), after them;
- "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord'" (Luke 6:46), before the two houses.

In Luke the wise builder "dug down deep" to lay his foundation on the rock, and the second house stands "on ground without a foundation"; in Matthew the two houses are built on the rock and on sand. Matthew closes with the crowds astonished, because he taught as one who had authority and not as their scribes (Matthew 7:28-29).

From the Fathers

- The Gospels do not name the mountain. Jerome (Commentary on Matthew 5:1) places it in Galilee, perhaps Tabor or another high mountain, and not the Mount of Olives, because Jesus goes on from it into Capernaum.
- Chrysostom (Homily 15 on Matthew) notes that Jesus sat to teach in one place, on a mountain away from any city or marketplace.
- Remigius (in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 5:1) names the boat, the mountain and the desert as the places Jesus withdrew to when the crowds pressed on him.

The Old Testament in the sermon

The first blessing echoes Isaiah 61:1, good news to the poor. The meek inheriting the earth echoes Psalm 37:11, and the pure in heart Psalm 24:4, "clean hands and a pure heart". Behind "seek first the kingdom of God" stands Psalm 34:10, "those who seek the LORD lack no good thing".

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail, from no source: the wet rounded stones of the shore and the mud at the water's edge; the boat knocking in the shallows; the sunset and the lamps of the lakeside towns going out; the stars; the dawn behind the eastern ridge; the twelve rising one by one; the morning light on the gray limestone ledges and the voices from below; the crowds climbing the slope; a listener who came up on a stick, who lays his hand on it before the two houses and does not get up at the end. The sermon is carried by one of its hearers and no more: the man who came up the slope on a stick, who lays it across his knees before the first word and is there again before the two builders. The Gospels give no hour for the sermon.

Chapter 12: Are You the One Who Was to Come?

Passages told

Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-50; Matthew 11:1-30; Luke 8:1-3. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, or told once in the wording of one Gospel where two give the same saying. The other wordings are these:

- "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith" (Luke 7:9), told in Matthew's fuller saying (Matthew 8:10-12), which goes on to the many coming from east and west.
- "Go back and report to John what you hear and see" (Matthew 11:4-6), told in Luke's "what you have seen and heard" (Luke 7:22-23).
- The discourse on John in Luke 7:24-28 and 7:31-35, told in Matthew 11:7-19, which alone carries the sayings on the violent and on Elijah (11:12-15). Luke's wording differs here and there: those in fine clothing "live in luxury" and "are found in palaces"; "there is no one greater than John"; "To what, then, can I compare the men of this generation? What are they like?"; children "calling out to one another"; "you did not weep"; John "came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say"; "wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

This chapter is the book's one telling of four sayings that Luke gives again later: the woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (Luke 10:13-15) and the prayer "I praise You, Father" with "All things have been entrusted to Me" (Luke 10:21-22), which Luke sets at the return of the seventy-two; "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John" (Luke 16:16); and the many who "will come from east and west and north and south" (Luke 13:28-29). Luke's wordings are in the appendix.

Scene by scene

The centurion's servant. Spine: Luke 7:1-10, where the centurion never comes himself but sends Jewish elders and then his friends. Matthew 8:5-13 tells it more briefly, as though the centurion came and spoke in person, and gives his first plea: "Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed and in terrible agony." Luke says only that the servant, highly valued, was sick and about to die. "I will go and heal him" is Matthew's (8:7), set here as the answer to the elders, where Luke says Jesus went with them. Matthew's "Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you" (8:13), spoken in Matthew to the centurion, is given here to his friends to carry back to him. Matthew says the servant was healed "at that very hour"; Luke, that the messengers found him in good health. Augustine read the two accounts this way: Matthew sets down in brief what passed between the centurion and the Lord, though it was done through others (Catena Aurea, on Matthew 8:5). Augustine also calls the centurion a Gentile, a soldier of Rome. A centurion commanded about a hundred men (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Army"; Remigius, in the Catena Aurea).

Nain. Luke 7:11-17, in Luke alone.

John's question. Spine: Luke 7:18-23, which names two messengers and tells the healings done "at that very hour." Matthew 11:2-6 says John heard in prison of "the works of Christ" and sent "his disciples." Matthew 4:12 has Jesus go back into Galilee when he heard that John had been put in prison. Matthew 11:1 opens this scene with Jesus finishing his instructions to the Twelve before going on to teach in the towns; that charge is told in Chapter 15, and the chapter says only that he had gone on to the towns. John had been in Herod's prison since Chapter 8; how he came there is told in Chapter 15.

The discourse on John. Spoken in Matthew's words (11:7-19). Luke places the response of the people and the Pharisees (7:29-30) in the middle of the discourse, just before the children in the marketplace; the chapter sets it there, between Matthew's sayings. Luke says the Pharisees and the experts in the law "rejected God's purpose for themselves."

The woes and "Come to Me." Matthew 11:20-30, in Matthew alone in this place. Matthew sets the prayer to the Father "at that time." Chorazin and Bethsaida lay near the north shore of the lake, a few miles from Capernaum (places list).

Simon's house. Luke 7:36-50, in Luke alone. The woman is not named. A denarius was a silver coin, a laborer's wage for a day (Matthew 20:2).

The women. Luke 8:1-3. Luke says the women were caring for them out of their own means. Chuza is "Herod's household manager"; the Herod is Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, who held John in prison (Luke 3:1, 3:19-20).

Background

- Capernaum was the center of the ministry in Galilee, the place of many of the "mighty works," among them the centurion's servant; Jesus called the publican from the receipt of custom there (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Capernaum").
- "Behold, I will send My messenger" is Malachi 3:1. "He is the Elijah who was to come" looks to Malachi 4:5: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD."
- "The blind receive sight, the lame walk" echoes Isaiah 35:5-6, "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer," and Isaiah 61:1, "to preach good news to the poor."
- "You will find rest for your souls" is the phrase of Jeremiah 6:16.
- Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities of the coast; Sodom the city destroyed in Genesis 19.
- Magdala, Mary Magdalene's town, lay on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (places list, under Magadan).

Texture

The chapter's own texture: the lanes running down to the water and the synagogue above the roofs; people at their doors as the crowd passed; Nain without a wall, its gate the gap between the houses, the tombs cut in the rock to the east; the bier on the bearers' shoulders, the linen, the wailing and its stopping; the blind blinking at the light; the reeds of the Jordan; the tax collectors and the silent Pharisees at the crowd's edge; the crowd of laborers in the heat, with scales on the fishermen's forearms and children on the women's hips; Simon's court with its couches, lamps, bread, fish and wine; the dust on Jesus's feet and the jar on the paving; the dark street; the next village below a rise at evening.

From the reference works: ISBE, "Nain" (never walled, the gate an opening between the houses, rock tombs east of the village).

Chapter 13: The Sower

Passages told

Mark 3:20-35; Matthew 12:22-50; Luke 8:4-21; Matthew 13:1-52; Mark 4:1-34. Where two or three Gospels give the same saying, it is told once, and the other wordings stand in the appendix "Every word of Jesus". The prophecy inside Jesus's answer about parables is Isaiah 6:9-10.

The spine of each scene

- The crowd and the family (Mark 3:20-21). Mark alone tells that the crowd kept Jesus and his disciples from eating, and that his family set out to take custody of him, saying he was out of his mind. Mark names them as his mother and brothers when they arrive (3:31).
- The healing and the charge (Matthew 12:22-45). Matthew alone tells of the blind and mute man who was healed and of the crowd's question about the Son of David. In Matthew the charge comes from the Pharisees; in Mark 3:22 it comes from the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem, in the words "He is possessed by Beelzebul" and "By the prince of the demons He drives out demons", and Mark 3:30 adds that they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit." Mark has Jesus call them to him; Matthew says he knew their thoughts. Matthew's answer is told whole, since it alone has the sayings about "your sons", the Spirit of God, gathering and scattering, the tree and its fruit, and every careless word. The demand for a sign comes from "some of the scribes and Pharisees" (Matthew 12:38). Augustine (Harmony of the Gospels 2.37, in Aquinas's Catena Aurea on Matthew 12:22) takes the mute man of Luke 11:14 to be this same man. The mute man of Chapter 14 (Matthew 9:32-34) and the second demand for a sign in Chapter 17 (Matthew 16:1-4) are other occasions.
- At the door (Matthew 12:46-50). In Matthew, Jesus points to his disciples; in Mark 3:34 he looks around at those seated in a circle about him. Luke 8:19-21 sets the visit after the parables by the sea. The chapter follows Matthew's order, which puts the parables "that same day".
- By the sea (Matthew 13:1-33, with Mark 4:1-32). Matthew gives the order of the day. Luke 8:4 adds that people were coming from town after town. The sower is told in Mark's wording, the fullest of the three ("Listen!", "they yielded no crop"); Matthew lists the harvest from a hundredfold down, and Luke gives only "a hundredfold" and says the seed on the path was trampled. "He who has ears to hear" is the wording of Mark and Luke, and Luke 8:8 tells that Jesus called it out. Mark 4:10 sets the disciples' question when Jesus was alone with the Twelve and those around him; Matthew 13:10 has the disciples simply come to him, and the chapter follows Matthew. The explanation of the sower is told in Mark's wording. The seed growing by itself is Mark's alone, the weeds and the leaven are Matthew's alone, and the mustard seed is told in Mark's wording. Mark gives the seed growing by itself and the mustard seed without a change of hearers; the chapter sets them with the weeds and the leaven, which Matthew gives to the crowds. Mark 4:33-34 adds that he spoke the word to them "to the extent that they could understand", and told them nothing without a parable.
- The fulfillment. Matthew 13:35 sees in the day's parables what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world" (Psalm 78:2).
- The house (Matthew 13:36-52, with Mark 4:34). Matthew alone tells of the explanation of the weeds, the treasure, the pearl, the net and the storeroom. Mark 4:34 says that in private Jesus explained everything to his own disciples. Matthew 13:53 closes the day: "When Jesus had finished these parables, He withdrew from that place." Mark 4:35 sets the crossing of the lake that same evening.

Sayings told once, and where

- Mark 3:23-29, Mark's answer to the charge of Beelzebul (with "his end has come" and "he is guilty of eternal sin"), is told here in Matthew's wording (12:25-32); Mark's is in the appendix.
- Mark 3:33-35 and Luke 8:21, the answer about his mother and brothers ("whoever does the will of God"; "those who hear the word of God and carry it out"), are told here in Matthew's wording (12:48-50); theirs are in the appendix.
- Luke 8:5-8 and Matthew 13:3-8, the sower, are told here in Mark's wording (4:3-8); theirs are in the appendix.
- Luke 8:10 and Mark 4:11-12, the answer about why he speaks in parables, are told here in Matthew's wording (13:11-17), the only one with the whole of Isaiah's prophecy and "blessed are your eyes"; theirs are in the appendix.
- Luke 8:11-15 and Matthew 13:18-23, the meaning of the sower (with Luke's "so that they may not believe and be saved" and "a noble and good heart"), are told here in Mark's wording (4:13-20); theirs are in the appendix.
- Matthew 13:31-32, the mustard seed, where the seed becomes a tree with birds nesting in its branches, is told here in Mark's wording (4:30-32); Matthew's is in the appendix.
- Mark 4:21 and Luke 8:16, the lamp under a basket, are told in Chapter 11 in Matthew's wording (5:15), on the mountain; theirs are in the appendix.
- Mark 4:22 and Luke 8:17, nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, are told in Chapter 15 in Matthew's wording (10:26), when the Twelve are sent out; theirs are in the appendix.
- Mark 4:23, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear", is told here once, as Jesus called it out after the sower (Mark 4:9).
- Mark 4:24, "Pay attention to what you hear" and the measure you use, is told in Chapter 11 in Matthew's wording (7:2); Mark's is in the appendix.
- Mark 4:25 and Luke 8:18, "whoever has will be given more", are told here once, in Matthew's answer about parables (13:12); theirs are in the appendix.

From the reference works and the Fathers

- Capernaum as the home of Jesus after he left Nazareth, and the center of his work in Galilee: ISBE, "Capernaum" (citing Matthew 4:13; 9:1).
- The plain of Gennesaret on the northwestern shore of the lake, with Capernaum by the sea in or near it: ISBE, "Capernaum" and "Galilee". The land coming down to the western shore in broad terraces, and the wheat fields of Galilee: ISBE, "Galilee". Smith's Bible Dictionary ("Gennesaret") thinks it probable that the scenery of this plain suggested the parable of the sower.
- Blind, mute and possessed, three afflictions in one man, all three undone together: Jerome, Commentary on Matthew 12:22.

- The crescent plain of Gennesaret, about three miles by one, with springs at its edge: Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Gennesaret".

Words in the text

- Beelzebul: the name the Pharisees gave the prince of demons. Rabanus Maurus, after Bede (Aquinas's Catena Aurea on Matthew 12:23), identifies Beelzebub with the god of Ekron.
- "Could this be the Son of David?": opening the eyes of the blind is named in prophecy as a sign of the Messiah (Isaiah 29:18; 42:7): Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Blindness".
- Jonah: the prophet who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (Jonah 1:17), and whose preaching Nineveh repented at (Jonah 3).
- The Queen of the South: the queen of Sheba, who came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions (1 Kings 10:1-13; 2 Chronicles 9:1-12).
- The breaks inside Mark 4:8, 4:20 and 4:28 are the translation's own punctuation inside sayings of Jesus, kept as they stand.

The chapter's own texture

The courtyard and the lane full; the door that could not be shut; the bread in its basket out of reach; the blind man led by the arm, his first look at the faces over him; the Pharisees against the wall; the people on the floor turning from one side to the other; those in the courtyard with their heads bent toward the door; the word passed in from the lane over the heads of the seated; the hand stretched out (Matthew says "pointing"); the black basalt of the shore and the small waves in it; the crescent plain under wheat sown almost to the water, the springs at its edge, its trodden footpaths, the soil thin over rock, the fieldstone walls with thorn at their feet, birds in the furrows; boats drawn up with their nets, a man mending a net; the boat on the swell, the voice over the water; the disciples at the water's edge; the nets drying on the beach; the dim room and the lamp on its stand.

Chapter 14: The Storm and the Tombs

Passages told

Matthew 8:18, 23-34; Mark 4:35-5:43; Luke 8:22-56; Matthew 9:18-38; Matthew 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6 (BSB). Every saying of Jesus that the chapter tells stands in it word for word. Where two Gospels give the same saying, it is told once, and the other wordings stand in the appendix "Every word of Jesus".

The scenes, their spine, and what the others tell

The shore at evening (Mark 4:35-36). The chapter opens on the evening of the day of the parables, after Jesus had gone into the house with his disciples (Matthew 13:36; Mark 4:35, "when that evening came"). He had taught that morning from a boat (Matthew 13:2; Mark 4:1), which is why Mark can say they took him "just as He was", since he was already in the boat. Matthew 8:18 says it was seeing the great crowd about him that led him to give orders to cross. The words "Let us cross to the other side" are Mark's (4:35); Luke 8:22 has "Let us cross to the other side of the lake."

The storm (Mark 4:35-41). Mark is the spine (his "overwhelmed with fear" is literally "they feared a great fear"): Jesus taken just as he was in the boat, other boats with them, Jesus asleep in the stern on the cushion, the cry "Teacher, don't You care that we are perishing?", the command "Silence! Be still!", the two questions after the calm, and their question to one another. The others differ:
- The cry: Matthew 8:25, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!"; Luke 8:24, "Master, Master, we are perishing!"
- The rebuke of the disciples: Matthew 8:26 sets it before the calm, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"; Luke 8:25 has "Where is your faith?" after it.
- Their question: Matthew 8:27, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him!"; Luke 8:25, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him!"

The possessed man of the tombs (Mark 5:1-20). Mark is the spine: one man, the chains he broke, his crying out night and day and cutting himself with stones, the name Legion, the plea not to be sent out of the country, the herd of about two thousand, the healed man sitting clothed and in his right mind, and his sending home to tell "how much the Lord has done for you". The others differ:
- Matthew 8:28-34 tells of two men, in the region of the Gadarenes, so violent that no one could pass that way; their shout adds "Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?"; the demons ask, "If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs." The single word "Go!" is Matthew's (8:32) and stands in the chapter, since Mark gives the permission without the word.
- Luke 8:26-39 says the man had long worn no clothing and was driven by the demon into solitary places; the demons beg not to be sent into the Abyss; the healed man is found sitting at Jesus' feet; and Jesus says, "Return home and describe how much God has done for you." Luke has the man proclaim it "all over the town"; Mark, "throughout the Decapolis". The man's nakedness, which Mark implies when he is found clothed, is told plainly in Luke.

Jairus and the woman (Mark 5:21-34). Mark is the spine: Jairus at his feet with "My little daughter is near death", the crowd pressing, the woman's twelve years and the physicians, her words "If only I touch His garments", the question "Who touched My garments?", the disciples' answer, and "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction." The words "Someone touched Me, for I know that power has gone out from Me" are Luke's alone (8:46) and stand in the chapter. The others differ:
- Matthew 9:18 has Jairus come saying "My daughter has just died," while Jesus is still speaking about fasting; Luke 8:41-42 adds that she was his only daughter.
- Luke 8:44 and Matthew 9:20 say she touched the fringe of his cloak; Matthew 9:21 gives her words as "If only I touch His cloak".
- Luke 8:45 has all deny it, and Peter answer, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You."
- Luke 8:47 has her speak in the presence of all the people; Matthew 9:22 has "Take courage, daughter," and says she was healed from that hour.

The house of Jairus (Mark 5:35-43). Mark is the spine: the messengers, "Why bother the Teacher anymore?", only Peter, James and John allowed to follow, the weeping and wailing, "Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep," the laughter, "Talitha koum!", the girl walking, twelve years old, the charge to tell no one, and food for her. The word to Jairus is told in Luke's fuller form (8:50), "Do not be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed"; Mark 5:36 has "Do not be afraid; just believe." The others differ:
- Matthew 9:23-24 names flute players and has Jesus say, "Go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep."
- Luke 8:52-55 has "Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep," says the mourners laughed knowing she was dead, gives "Child, get up!", and says her spirit returned.

Two blind men and the mute man (Matthew 9:26-34). Matthew alone tells these, and he sets them after the raising of the girl with the line that the news of it spread through all that region (9:26). This mute man is a second occasion: the first, a man blind and mute, and the charge of Beelzebul with Jesus's long answer to it, are told in Chapter 13 (Matthew 12:22-37). Here Matthew records the charge only.

Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6a). This is his second visit to the town; the first, when they drove him to the brow of the hill, is told in Chapter 9 (Luke 4:16-30). Mark is the spine: the Sabbath in the synagogue, the townspeople's questions, "Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary", the brothers James, Joses, Judas and Simon, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor," the few sick healed, and his amazement at their unbelief. Matthew 13:54-58 has "Isn't this the carpenter's son?", names the brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, gives the saying without "among his relatives", and says he did not do many miracles there, where Mark says he could do none beyond the few.

The villages (Mark 6:6b; Matthew 9:35-38). Mark gives the going round from village to village; Matthew the teaching, preaching and healing in all the towns, the compassion on crowds "harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd", and the saying of the harvest, which the book tells here, once. Mark's order (Jairus, then Nazareth, then the villages) is followed. The calling and sending of the Twelve (Matthew 10; Mark 6:7) opens Chapter 15.

From the reference works

- Fishing boats built on the shores of the lake: Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Handicraft" (Matthew 8:23; 9:1; John 21:3, 8).
- Capernaum as the centre of his work in Galilee: ISBE, "Capernaum".
- Nazareth as the town where Jesus grew up: ISBE, "Nazareth".
- The rock-cut tombs of the eastern shore with carved stone doors: ISBE, "Gadara".
- The woman's uncleanness: under the Law of Moses a woman with a long flow of blood was unclean all the days of it, and so was any bed she lay on and any seat she sat on; whoever touched her or them was unclean until evening and had to wash and bathe (Leviticus 15:19-27). The chapter keeps one line of it. Matthew's "fringe" of the cloak is the tassel the Law commanded on its four corners (Deuteronomy 22:12).
- Augustine (De Consensu Evangelistarum ii. 23): Matthew's command to cross and Luke's "one day" are the same crossing; the chapter tells one.

Told once

- Matthew 8:19-22, the scribe who would follow wherever Jesus went ("Foxes have dens") and the disciple who would first bury his father ("let the dead bury their own dead"), is told in Chapter 19, on the road through Samaria, in Luke's wording (Luke 9:57-62); Matthew's is in the appendix.
- Luke 8:22, "Let us cross to the other side of the lake," is told here in Mark's wording.
- Matthew 8:26, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?", and Luke 8:25, "Where is your faith?", are told here in Mark's words after the calm.
- Luke 8:39, "Return home and describe how much God has done for you," is told here in Mark's wording.
- Matthew 9:22, "Take courage, daughter, your faith has healed you," and Luke 8:48, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace," are told here in Mark's fuller wording.
- Mark 5:36, "Do not be afraid; just believe," is told here in Luke's fuller wording.
- Matthew 9:24, "Go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep," and Luke 8:52, "Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep," are told here in Mark's wording.
- Luke 8:54, "Child, get up!", is told here in Mark's "Talitha koum!"
- Matthew 13:57, "Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor," is told here in Mark's wording.

Words

- Talitha koum: Mark gives its meaning himself, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"
- Decapolis: the name means "ten cities", a league of towns lying mostly east of the sea.
- Legion: the man's answer explains it: "for we are many."

The chapter's own texture

The crowd come back to the shore at evening; the boat pushed off the stones, the sail run up; the sunset and the lamps of Capernaum astern; the steersman's cushion; the squall, the bailing, the water at their shins; the smooth black calm and the dripping sail; gray morning at the landing (no Gospel gives the hour); the rock tombs with their carved stone doors; the herd squealing and the sea churned white; the narrow streets and the crowd at Jesus' heels; the paving of the street; the mourners' cries and beaten breasts, the shut door, the small dim room; the blind men feeling along the walls and looking at their own hands; the people of Nazareth along the synagogue walls.

Chapter 15: The Twelve Sent Out

Passages told

Matthew 10:1-42; Mark 6:7-29; Luke 9:1-9; Matthew 14:1-12. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Where the Gospels give the same instruction, it is told once in Matthew's fuller wording; Mark's and Luke's wordings stand in the appendix "Every word of Jesus". Three of Matthew's sayings here are told elsewhere in the book, once:

- Matthew 10:21-22, brother betraying brother, hated by all, the one who perseveres to the end, is told in Chapter 26 in Mark's wording (Mark 13:12-13), on the Mount of Olives; Matthew's wording is in the appendix. His word to flee from one town to the next (10:23) is told here.
- Matthew 10:39, finding and losing one's life, is told in Chapter 18 in Mark's wording (Mark 8:35); Matthew's is in the appendix. Matthew 10:38, the cross, stays here because it closes the sentence it belongs to.
- Matthew 10:39, finding life and losing it, is told in Chapter 18 in the same speech; Matthew's wording here is in the appendix.

This chapter is the book's one home for the sheep among wolves and the Spirit speaking before councils (Matthew 10:16-20), the disciple not above his teacher (10:24-25), nothing concealed that will not be disclosed (10:26-27), the sparrows and confessing him before men (10:28-33), not peace but a sword (10:34-36), and whoever receives you, with the cup of cold water (10:40-42).

The scenes, and the Gospel each follows

The calling and the charge follow Matthew 10:1-42. No Gospel names the village. Matthew 10:2-4 names the twelve again here; the chapter does not repeat the list given at their choosing (Chapter 11). Matthew and Mark name one of them Thaddaeus, where Luke has Judas son of James. Luke 9:1-2 adds that Jesus gave them power to cure diseases and sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God; Mark 6:7 that he began to send them out two by two.

The instructions are given once, in Matthew's words. Mark 6:8-11 and Luke 9:3-5 give shorter forms: stay in one house until you leave that area; shake off the dust "as a testimony against them". On what they carried, the Gospels differ. Matthew 10:10 and Luke 9:3 forbid a staff, and Matthew sandals as well; Mark 6:8-9 has them take nothing but a staff and wear sandals. The chapter gives Matthew's words as spoken and names neither staff nor sandals on the road.

That James and John left their father Zebedee to follow Jesus is told in Mark 1:20 (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "James", which also makes James the elder brother).

The roads follow Mark 6:7 and 6:12-13: in pairs, preaching repentance, driving out many demons, anointing many of the sick with oil. Luke 9:6 says they went from village to village preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

The court of Herod follows Mark 6:14-16. This Herod is the son of the king of Chapter 2, the ruler of Galilee. Mark gives "John the Baptist has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him" to the people; Matthew 14:2 gives nearly the same words to Herod himself, spoken to his servants. In Luke 9:7-9 Herod is perplexed and asks, "I beheaded John, but who is this man I hear such things about?" Luke alone says he kept trying to see Jesus. Mark calls him King Herod; Matthew 14:1 and Luke 9:7 call him Herod the tetrarch.

The look back follows Mark 6:17-20, told as Mark and Matthew tell it, after the news reaches Herod; the arrest itself is told in Chapter 8. The Philip who had been Herodias's husband is Herod's brother, not the Philip who ruled the country to the northeast (Chapter 18). In Mark it is Herodias who wants John dead, while Herod fears him, protects him and hears him gladly. Matthew 14:5 says Herod himself wanted to kill John but was afraid of the people, who held John to be a prophet. John's words to Herod are Mark's; Matthew 14:4 has "It is not lawful for you to have her." The Law forbids taking a brother's wife (Leviticus 20:21). No Gospel names the fortress; the chapter sets the banquet and the prison in the same place because Mark 6:27 has the head brought in without delay.

The banquet follows Mark 6:21-28. Matthew 14:6-11 tells it more briefly: the girl was "prompted by her mother" and asked, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist", and the king was "grieved". The king's "up to half my kingdom" echoes the Persian king's words to Esther (Esther 5:3; 7:2). Mark's word for the executioner is one used of a soldier of the guard.

Afterward follows Mark 6:29, where John's disciples lay the body in a tomb. Matthew 14:12 says they buried it, and adds that they went and told Jesus, where the chapter ends.

Behind the words

- The road of the Gentiles and the towns of the Samaritans. Samaria was not counted part of the Holy Land, but a strip of foreign country between Galilee and Judea, and the Gospels rank Samaritans with Gentiles (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 1).
- The lost sheep of Israel recalls Jeremiah 50:6 and Ezekiel 34:6.
- Apostles. Matthew 10:2 calls the twelve "apostles", and the word is first used of them in connection with this mission among the villages (ISBE, "Apostle").
- A man's enemies is Micah 7:6.
- Shaking off the dust has a forerunner in Nehemiah 5:13, where Nehemiah shakes out the folds of his robe against any who break their word.
- "You will be given what to say" recalls the Lord's word to Moses, "I will teach you what to say" (Exodus 4:12).
- Two together. "Two are better than one" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
- A penny: the BSB's word for a small copper coin.

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail: the gray morning light in a hill village and the sparrows in the yard; the smoke of the first fires on the slope; the sun clearing the hills during the charge; the pairs parting on the roads, a stony track to a village on the high ground; preaching in lanes and doorways; oil on the head and hands; the news coming to Herod's court; chains, the dark and a barred door in the prison; couches, silver cups and the noise of the banquet hall; the faces turned to the king; the guardsman's way down by stairs and passages, with a lamp and a sword.

Chapter 16: Bread in the Wilderness

Passages told

Matthew 14:13-36; Mark 6:30-56; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-71 (Berean Standard Bible). Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, except where two Gospels give the same saying; those are told once, as listed below.

The scenes and their spines

- The news of John and the crossing. Spine: Matthew 14:12-13, "When Jesus heard about John, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place," with the apostles' return, the saying and the coming and going from Mark 6:30-33. Andrew's time with John the Baptist is John 1:35-40, told in Chapter 6; the story of John's death is told in Chapter 15. Luke 9:10 says he took the apostles to a town called Bethsaida; John 6:1-2 says he crossed the sea and the crowd followed because of the signs on the sick.
- The shore and the teaching. Spine: Mark 6:34, where Jesus has compassion on them "because they were like sheep without a shepherd" and begins to teach them many things. Matthew 14:14 and Luke 9:11 add that he healed the sick; Luke says he welcomed the crowd and spoke of the kingdom of God.
- The feeding of the five thousand. The question to Philip, the boy with the barley loaves, the gathering of the pieces and the cry of "the Prophet" are John's (6:3-15). John adds that Jesus asked Philip "to test him, for He knew what He was about to do" (6:6). The evening request of the Twelve is told in Mark's words (6:35-36); Matthew and Luke word it a little differently, and Luke adds lodging. In Mark 6:37 it is the disciples, not Philip, who speak of two hundred denarii. In Mark 6:38 the disciples report "Five, and two fish"; John alone names Andrew and the boy. Mark tells of green grass and groups of hundreds and fifties; Luke gives the command to sit in fifties. Mark says Jesus spoke a blessing; John says he gave thanks. Matthew 14:21 counts the five thousand men "besides women and children". This is the first of the two feedings; the four thousand are fed in Chapter 17.
- The sending away. Mark 6:45 sends the disciples ahead "to Bethsaida"; John 6:17 has them start across "to Capernaum"; Matthew 14:34 and Mark 6:53 land them at Gennesaret. The chapter says only "the other shore". That some of the crowd stayed the night is from John 6:22, where "the crowd that had remained on the other side" is still there the next day.
- The sea by night. Spine: Matthew 14:22-33, with Peter on the water and the worship in the boat. Matthew and Mark set the coming of Jesus in "the fourth watch of the night". Mark 6:48-52 adds that Jesus saw them straining at the oars, that he meant to pass by them, and that they were astounded because they had not understood about the loaves and their hearts were hardened. John 6:17-21 gives the distance rowed, three or four miles, and says that once they took him in, the boat was at once at the shore.
- Gennesaret. Spine: Mark 6:53-56, the sick carried on mats and laid in the marketplaces. Mark adds that it was so "wherever He went", in villages, towns and countryside; Matthew 14:34-36 tells it more briefly.
- The next day and the synagogue. John 6:22-59 only. John's "the next day" is the morning after the feeding, the morning of the landing at Gennesaret. John notes that the boats from Tiberias landed near the place "where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks" (6:23), and places the teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum (6:59). John calls those who grumbled and argued "the Jews" (6:41, 6:52); in this setting they were the people of Capernaum and the crowd from across the lake. In 6:41 John gives the grumblers' words as "I am the bread that came down from heaven," joining two of his sayings just before, "I am the bread of life" (6:35) and "I have come down from heaven" (6:38).
- Those who turned back. John 6:60-71 only. John adds two comments of his own: that Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him (6:64), and that the "devil" among the Twelve was Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who was later to betray him (6:71).

Sayings told once

- "You give them something to eat" is Matthew 14:16, Mark 6:37 and Luke 9:13 in the same words; it is told once in this chapter, with Matthew's "They do not need to go away."
- John 6:10, "Have the people sit down," is told in this chapter in Luke's fuller wording (Luke 9:14); John's is in the appendix.
- John 6:20, "It is I; do not be afraid," is told in this chapter in Matthew's wording (Matthew 14:27, the same as Mark 6:50); John's is in the appendix.
- The dash inside John 6:45 is the translation's own punctuation within the saying.

From the reference works and the Fathers

- The fringe of his cloak: the memorial tassels on the border of the outer garment, commanded in Numbers 15:37-39 and Deuteronomy 22:12 and worn by every pious Israelite (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 13).
- Capernaum and its synagogue as the center of his work and the place of the discourse on the bread of life: ISBE, "Capernaum".
- The feeding soon after John's death, near the Passover: Augustine (Harmony of the Gospels 2.45) and Rabanus Maurus, in Aquinas's Catena Aurea on Matthew 14. John 6:4 calls it "the Jewish Feast of the Passover".
- The crowds following on foot: Jerome, in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 14:13.
- The ford at the mouth of the Jordan and the green grass of the plain east of the river, against the thin herbage of the slopes: ISBE, "Bethsaida".

Words explained

- Denarius: a Roman silver coin.
- The fourth watch: the last watch of the night, from about three in the morning until dawn.
- The Prophet who is to come into the world: the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18:15-18.
- Manna: the bread from heaven that fed Israel in the wilderness (Psalm 78:24-25; Nehemiah 9:15).
- "They will all be taught by God": Isaiah 54:13.
- Son of Man: the name Jesus used for himself.

Texture

The chapter's own plain detail, from no source: John's disciples sitting in the house among the Twelve; the people coming and going at the door; the synagogue roof the last thing seen of Capernaum; the crowd running by the beach road and over the ford at the river mouth; the keel on the stones and the empty slopes; the green grass of the plain against the thin grass of the slopes; the round flat loaves, the companies in rows, the low sun on the grass; the pieces picked out of the grass; the crowd going home at dusk and those who slept by the water; the head wind, braced feet and bending oars; the water rising round Peter and dripping from his clothes; gray morning at Gennesaret and the sick laid where the roads met; the synagogue's benches and doorway, the damp clothes of those come over in the boats; Philip, the one asked about bread, sitting among the Twelve as the discourse turns; the murmur going round the walls; those who left going out along the road to their villages.

Chapter 17: Crumbs from the Table

Passages told

Matthew 15:1-16:12; Mark 7:1-8:26, in the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus stands in the chapter word for word. Where two Gospels give the same saying, it is told once in the fuller wording, and the other wording is kept in the appendix "Every word of Jesus".

The scenes, and what the other Gospel tells

- The washing of hands (Mark 7:1-15; Matthew 15:1-11). Mark is the spine. Neither Gospel names the town. Mark explains the custom for his readers: the Pharisees, and all who held to the tradition of the elders, did not eat until they had washed their hands in the prescribed way; coming back from the market they did not eat unless they washed; and they kept many other washings, of cups, pitchers, copper kettles and dining couches. Matthew puts the Corban saying before the words from Isaiah, has "For God said" where Mark has "For Moses said", and gives the question as "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat."
- In the house (Mark 7:17-23; Matthew 15:12-20). Mark is the spine. The saying about the blind man leading a blind man is told here, its one place in the book. The disciples' report that the Pharisees were offended, and the saying about the plant and the blind guides, are Matthew's alone and are set where Matthew places them. In Matthew it is Peter who asks for the parable to be explained. Matthew's list of evils is shorter and includes "false testimony", and closes with "but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him". After the saying about the stomach, Mark adds his own comment: "Thus all foods are clean."
- The woman of Tyre (Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). Matthew is the spine: her cry on the road, the silence of Jesus, the disciples' plea, and the saying about the lost sheep of Israel. In Mark, Jesus has gone into a house and wishes no one to know he is there; the woman is a Greek, Syrophoenician by birth, whose little daughter has an unclean spirit; she falls at his feet; her answer is "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs"; Jesus tells her, "Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter"; and she goes home to find the child lying on the bed with the demon gone. The fuller saying "First let the children have their fill" is Mark's.
- The deaf man (Mark 7:31-37). Mark alone. Mark gives the route: from the region of Tyre through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.
- The healings on the mountain (Matthew 15:29-31). Matthew alone.
- The four thousand (Mark 8:1-9; Matthew 15:32-39). Mark is the spine. This is a second feeding, on another occasion from the five thousand of Chapter 16, as both Gospels tell it and as Jesus himself recalls in the boat. In Matthew the disciples answer "Seven, and a few small fish", the loaves and fish are blessed together, Jesus says "I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way", and the count is four thousand men "besides women and children".
- The demand for a sign (Matthew 15:39-16:4; Mark 8:10-13). Matthew is the spine: Magadan, the Sadducees with the Pharisees, and the saying about the red sky, which is told here as its one place in the book. This is the second demand for a sign; the first, with the sign of Jonah told in full, is in Chapter 13. Mark names the place Dalmanutha, has only the Pharisees, says that Jesus "sighed deeply in His spirit", and gives the shorter answer "Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation."
- The leaven (Matthew 16:5-12; Mark 8:14-21). Matthew is the frame, and this is the book's one telling of the warning against the leaven, with his warning against the leaven "of the Pharisees and Sadducees" and his closing saying. The rebuke is told in Mark's fuller wording, with the disciples' answers "Twelve" and "Seven". Mark notes that they had one loaf with them in the boat, and gives the warning as "the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod". Matthew's rebuke opens "You of little faith". Matthew ends the scene: then they understood that he was warning them not against the leaven used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
- The blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). Mark alone.

Sayings told once

Where Matthew and Mark give the same saying here, the chapter tells it once and the other wording is in the appendix "Every word of Jesus":

- Matthew 15:3-7, the command of God and Corban, is told in Mark's wording (Mark 7:6-13).
- Matthew 15:10-11, "Listen and understand", is told in Mark's wording (Mark 7:14-15).
- Matthew 15:17-20, the stomach and the evils of the heart, is told in Mark's wording (Mark 7:18-23).
- Matthew 15:26, the children's bread, is told in Mark's fuller wording (Mark 7:27).
- Mark 7:29, "Because of this answer, you may go", is told as Matthew's "O woman, your faith is great" (Matthew 15:28).
- Matthew 15:32, the compassion for the crowd, is told in Mark's wording (Mark 8:2-3).
- Mark 8:12, "Why does this generation demand a sign?", is told as Matthew's answer (Matthew 16:2-4).
- Mark 8:15, the leaven "of the Pharisees and of Herod", is told as Matthew's warning (Matthew 16:6).
- Matthew 16:8-10, the rebuke in the boat, is told in Mark's wording (Mark 8:17-21).

Mark 7:16, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!", is missing from the oldest manuscripts and is not told.

Words a reader may want

- Corban: an offering dedicated to God; the saying itself explains it.
- Ephphatha: "Be opened", as Mark explains.
- Decapolis: "the ten cities", a league of towns lying mostly east of the Sea of Galilee.
- Magadan and Dalmanutha: two names for the same district on the western shore of the lake, near Magdala.
- "From that very hour": Matthew's words for the moment the daughter was healed.

From the reference works

- A jug kept in every Jewish house for washing the hands, with a basin under it to catch the water: the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Basin".
- Tyre on its rocky island a short way from shore, walled very high on the land side, and the fertile coastal plain around it: the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Tyre".

Texture

The chapter's own texture, which no Gospel gives: the dust on the travelers' cloaks; the courtyard, its gate and wall; the dim house and the shut door; the road over the hills to the coast; the word of Jesus gone ahead of him through the Decapolis from the man who had carried the legion (Mark 5:20); the woman crying along the road and kneeling in it; the stony slope and dry grass; the sick carried on backs and litters; nights on the ground in cloaks; the bread carried up the hill and the broken pieces in the grass; the silence at the oars; the lanes and open ground at Bethsaida, the lake shining beyond the village, and the path home.

Chapter 18: You Are the Christ

Passages told

Matthew 16:13-18:35; Mark 8:27-9:50; Luke 9:18-50. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, told once in the wording of one Gospel where two or three give the same saying, or told in another chapter of the book where he says the same thing again. The appendix, "Every word of Jesus," carries every Gospel's wording. The other wordings in this chapter's passages are these:

- "Who do people say I am?" (Mark 8:27) and "Who do the crowds say I am?" (Luke 9:18), told in Matthew's "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" (Matthew 16:13).
- "Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (Mark 8:33), told in Matthew 16:23, which adds "You are a stumbling block to Me."
- "Take up his cross and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34), told in Luke's "take up his cross daily" (Luke 9:23).
- "Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25) or "will save it" (Luke 9:24), told in Mark's "for My sake and for the gospel" (Mark 8:35).
- "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37) and "yet lose or forfeit his very self?" (Luke 9:25), told in Matthew 16:26.
- "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26), told in Mark 8:38.
- "Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom" (Matthew 16:28) and "before they see the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:27), told in Mark 9:1.
- "Elijah does indeed come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him whatever they wished. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer at their hands" (Matthew 17:11-12), told in Mark 9:12-13.
- "O unbelieving and perverse generation! How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to Me" (Matthew 17:17), and Luke's "How long must I remain with you and put up with you? Bring your son here" (Luke 9:41), told in Mark 9:19.
- "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life" (Matthew 17:22-23), and Luke's "Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men" (Luke 9:44), told in Mark 9:31.
- "Whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me" (Matthew 18:5) and "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me" (Mark 9:37), told in Luke 9:48, which alone ends "whoever is the least among all of you, he is the greatest."
- "Whoever is not against you is for you" (Luke 9:50), told in Mark 9:40.
- The millstone "and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matthew 18:6), told in Mark 9:42.
- "If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away ... the eternal fire," and "gouge it out and throw it away ... the fire of hell" (Matthew 18:8-9), told in Mark 9:43, 45, 47-48.

Told elsewhere in the book, where Jesus says the same thing again:

- "Because you have so little faith ... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain" (Matthew 17:20) is told in Chapter 25, at the withered fig tree, in Mark's wording (Mark 11:22-24). Here the disciples' question is answered by Mark 9:29, "This kind cannot come out, except by prayer."
- "If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ" (Mark 9:41) is told in Chapter 15, in the sending of the Twelve (Matthew 10:42).
- "Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it?" (Mark 9:50) is told in Chapter 11, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13). Mark 9:49 and the close of 9:50 are told here.
- The lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14) is told in Chapter 21 in Luke's wording (Luke 15:4-7), with the lost coin and the two sons.

Four verses that modern critical texts omit are not told: Matthew 17:21 ("this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting"), Matthew 18:11, and Mark 9:44 and 9:46.

Scene by scene

North to Caesarea Philippi. Spine: Matthew 16:13-23. Mark 8:27 says the question was asked "on the way," among the villages around the city; Luke 9:18 says it came as Jesus was praying in private with the disciples near. Peter's confession is Matthew's; in Mark 8:29 it is "You are the Christ," in Luke 9:20 "The Christ of God." The blessing of Peter, the rock and the keys are in Matthew alone. Matthew and Mark tell the first foretelling of the suffering in their own narration; the words given here are Luke's (9:22). Mark 8:31 has "after three days rise again," and adds that Jesus spoke "quite frankly." Mark 8:33 has Jesus turn and look at his disciples before rebuking Peter.

The cross. The sayings follow Matthew 16:24-27 with the fuller wordings named above. Mark 8:34 says Jesus called the crowd to him along with the disciples; Luke 9:23 says he spoke "to all of them."

The mountain. Spine: Luke 9:28-36, which alone tells that Jesus went up to pray, that the three were overcome by sleep and woke to see his glory, that Moses and Elijah spoke of his departure at Jerusalem, and that Peter spoke as the two were leaving. Matthew 17:1 and Mark 9:2 say "after six days," Luke "about eight days," and Matthew and Mark name the three as Peter, James and John. Matthew 17:2 says his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light; Mark 9:3 that they were whiter than any launderer on earth could bleach them. Peter calls Jesus "Lord" in Matthew 17:4 ("If You wish, I will put up three shelters") and "Rabbi" in Mark 9:5; Mark 9:6 says they were all terrified. Matthew 17:5 calls the cloud bright. The voice in Matthew is "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!", and in Mark "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!" Matthew 17:6-7 alone tells that the disciples fell facedown in terror and that Jesus touched them and said "Get up. Do not be afraid"; that saying is set here where Matthew places it. Luke's word for the clothes, given in the BSB as "radiantly white," is used of a flash of lightning; the light on the rock around him is the chapter's own. Luke gives no night, but the sleep and his "next day" (9:37) imply one.

Coming down. Spine: Mark 9:9-13. The command not to tell is given in Matthew's words (17:9); Mark reports it. Luke 9:36 says only that they kept silent in those days. Matthew 17:13 adds that the disciples then understood he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

The boy. Spine: Mark 9:14-27, the fullest telling, and the only one with the father's "I do believe; help my unbelief!" In Matthew 17:14-16 the father kneels and says "Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and is suffering terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water." In Luke 9:38-40 he cries out "Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child," and tells how the spirit makes him scream and keeps mauling him. Matthew 17:18 says the boy was healed from that moment. Luke 9:42-43 says Jesus gave him back to his father, and all were astonished at the greatness of God.

In the house. Spine: Mark 9:28-29, where the answer is prayer. Matthew 17:19-20 answers with the faith the size of a mustard seed; the book tells that saying in Chapter 25.

Through Galilee. Spine: Mark 9:30-32. Matthew 17:23 adds that the disciples were deeply grieved; Luke 9:45 that the saying "was veiled from them so that they could not comprehend it." In Luke the saying is spoken at the foot of the mountain while everyone was marveling.

The tax. Matthew 17:24-27 alone. Matthew gives only the command about the fish and the coin, and does not tell Peter going to the sea.

The greatest. Spine: Mark 9:33-50, where Jesus asks what they were discussing and they are silent. In Matthew 18:1 the disciples themselves come asking, "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Luke 9:46-47 says the argument started among them and that Jesus knew the thoughts of their hearts. The sayings of Matthew 18:3-4 and 18:7, which Mark lacks, are set in Mark's scene; "salted with fire" and "Have salt among yourselves" (Mark 9:49-50) are Mark's alone. John's question is given as in Mark 9:38; in Luke 9:49 he says "Master."

The little ones and forgiveness. Matthew 18:10-35 alone: the angels of the little ones, the brother who sins, binding and loosing, two or three gathered, Peter's question, and the parable of the unforgiving servant. The chapter ends where Matthew's discourse ends; the boats drawn up for the night are the chapter's own.

Background

- Caesarea Philippi stood at the chief of the two sources of the Jordan, on a limestone terrace at the foot of Mount Hermon, some twenty miles north of the Sea of Galilee. Philip enlarged it and named it for Caesar, adding his own name to tell it from the other Caesarea on the coast. It was the northern limit of Jesus's journeys (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Caesarea Philippi"; Chrysostom, Homily 54 on Matthew, on the other Caesarea).
- Philip's country. Herod's son Philip, the tetrarch of Luke 3:1, held the far north-east; he is not Philip of Bethsaida, the apostle. Its people were mostly Syrians and Greeks who kept the worship of the old Syrian gods, with Jewish colonists settled among them by Herod the Great and his successors. The city had once been Paneas, given to Pan, and Herod the Great built a temple there to Augustus (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 2). Jerome calls Philip the brother of Herod Antipas (Commentary on Matthew).
- Capernaum was Jesus's home and the centre of his work in Galilee (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Capernaum").
- The Old Testament behind the chapter. "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation" (Isaiah 28:16). "I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David" (Isaiah 22:22). "Have the gates of death been revealed to you?" (Job 38:17). "No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God" (Psalm 49:7). "You will repay each man according to his deeds" (Psalm 62:12). "Their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched" (Isaiah 66:24). "You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering" (Leviticus 2:13). "A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses" (Deuteronomy 19:15). "Like a weaned child with his mother" (Psalm 131:2).

Texture

The chapter's own texture is plain and probable: the Jordan cold and green and louder as the road climbed; Hermon gray with snow in its clefts; Greek in the village streets; the river rising from the grotto of Pan under its white marble temple (ISBE, "Jordan"; Smith, "Caesarea Philippi"); the sun on the stones by the roadside; the climb through boulders and thorn, the villages small below, the wind bending the grass on the summit; the valleys filling with dark, the three asleep in their cloaks; the rock lit by his clothes; the cloud so thick they could not see one another; the path down in the first light; the crowd heard before it was seen, the disciples with open hands; the boy rolling in the dust; the nets drying at Capernaum and the heavy warm air after the north; the daylight from the door across the earthen floor; the child quiet in his arms; the fishermen dragging the boats up for the night.

Chapter 19: The Feast of Tabernacles

Passages told

John 7:1-10; Luke 9:51-10:11; John 7:11-10:21. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, including the words of his that his hearers repeat back to him (John 7:36; 8:22), except the sayings below, which Jesus says again elsewhere and which the book tells once, in their best place. The appendix, "Every word of Jesus," carries every Gospel's wording.

Told elsewhere in the book, where Jesus says the same thing again:

- "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" (Luke 10:2) is told in Chapter 14, in Matthew's wording (Matthew 9:37-38).
- "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves" (Luke 10:3) is told in Chapter 15, in the sending of the Twelve, as "like sheep among wolves" (Matthew 10:16).
- "It will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town" (Luke 10:12) and the woes on Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (Luke 10:13-15) are told in Chapter 12, in Matthew's wording (Matthew 11:20-24).
- "Whoever listens to you listens to Me" (Luke 10:16) is told in Chapter 15, as "He who receives you receives Me" (Matthew 10:40-42), with the cup of water.

This chapter is the book's one telling of the would-be followers and "Foxes have dens" (Luke 9:57-62); Matthew's shorter account, with the scribe and the disciple who would first bury his father (Matthew 8:19-22), is in the appendix.

Where Luke's journey stands

Luke tells the journey through Samaria and the sending of the seventy-two without naming a feast. Ussher's Annals (under AD 33) set Luke 9:51-10:16 directly before John 7:11, as the going up to the Feast of Tabernacles, and bring the seventy-two back after the feast (Luke 10:17, Chapter 20). The ISBE article "James" places the Samaritan village "shortly after the Transfiguration," when Jesus was passing through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. The chapter follows that order: John's secret going up after the brothers (7:10) is told as a quiet road through Samaria once the pilgrim companies had gone ahead.

Scene by scene

Galilee and the brothers (John 7:1-10). Jesus says, "I am not going up to this feast," and goes up afterward, after his brothers have gone, "not publicly, but in secret" (7:10). Several of the Fathers read the two together: he did not go up with the pilgrim company, openly and at their bidding. Philoxenus of Mabbug says his going up "is not contrary to that which He said"; Alcuin, in Aquinas's Catena Aurea, that he went in secret "because He did not seek the favour of men."

The Samaritan village and the road (Luke 9:51-62). Luke is the spine. "As the day of His ascension approached, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem" (9:51); Bede and Cyril of Alexandria read "the days of his being taken up" as his passion and ascension together. Luke gives the Samaritans' reason: "because He was heading for Jerusalem" (9:53). Some later manuscripts add to 9:54-55 "as Elijah did" and the words "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of"; the BSB, following the earliest texts, has only that Jesus turned and rebuked them, and the chapter tells it so. Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian remark on the gentleness of the rebuke. The farmer at the plow is the chapter's own texture.

The seventy-two (Luke 10:1, 4-11). Some manuscripts read seventy; the BSB reads seventy-two. Luke calls Jesus "the Lord" here (10:1); the chapter names him Jesus.

The whispering crowds (John 7:11-13).

The middle of the feast (John 7:14-36). The "one miracle" of John 7:21 is the healing at the Pool of Bethesda on a Sabbath (John 5), told in Chapter 10. John adds that they tried to seize him but no one laid a hand on him, "because His hour had not yet come" (7:30).

The last and greatest day (John 7:37-44). John adds that Jesus "was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (7:39), and that some wanted to seize him, "but no one laid a hand on Him" (7:44).

The council (John 7:45-53). Nicodemus is the Pharisee who came to Jesus by night in John 3 (Chapter 7).

The woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11). The BSB prints this passage in its place in John and marks it as absent from the earliest manuscripts; the chapter tells it where the BSB sets it.

By the treasury (John 8:12-59). John places the sayings on the light of the world near the treasury in the temple courts (8:20) and adds there, as at 7:30, that no one seized him "because His hour had not yet come." After "I tell the world" John adds, "They did not understand that He was telling them about the Father" (8:27). John says Jesus spoke to "the Jews who had believed Him" (8:31); the dispute that follows is with them, and runs on to the stones and to Jesus hidden.

The man born blind (John 9:1-41). John says only that Jesus was passing by after leaving the temple, and names no place for the questioning or for the casting out; the chapter names none. John glosses Siloam as meaning "Sent" (9:7), and gives the parents' fear as the reason for their answer, "He is old enough. Ask him" (9:22-23).

The shepherd (John 10:1-21). John runs straight on from 9:41 with no change of scene, so the chapter keeps the same hearers. The Feast of Dedication (John 10:22) comes later, in winter (Chapter 21).

The Old Testament behind the words

- The booths. The feast's name comes from its law: the people were to live in booths for the days of the feast (Leviticus 23:42).
- Fire from heaven (Luke 9:54): Elijah called down fire on the king's men in Samaria (2 Kings 1:10-12).
- The plow (Luke 9:62): compare Elisha, called from his plowing, who asked first to kiss his father and mother goodbye (1 Kings 19:19-21).
- "If anyone is thirsty" (7:37-38): Isaiah 55:1, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters"; Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation"; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 58:11; Zechariah 14:8, living water flowing out from Jerusalem.
- The Law on adultery (8:5): Leviticus 20:10.
- Writing on the ground (8:6): compare Jeremiah 17:13, "All who turn away will be written in the dust."
- "I am the light of the world" (8:12; 9:5): Psalm 18:28; Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 42:6-7, a light to the nations, "to open the eyes of the blind."
- "The truth will set you free" (8:32): Isaiah 61:1, "to proclaim liberty to the captives."
- "Before Abraham was born, I am!" (8:58): Exodus 3:14, "I AM WHO I AM."
- The shepherd (10:1-18): Psalm 23:1; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:2-4, against the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves and not the flock. "Other sheep" (10:16): Isaiah 56:8.

From the reference works and the Fathers

- Judea and Galilee as the two divisions of the province, Judea taking its name from the tribe of Judah: Bede, in Aquinas's Catena Aurea on John 7:1. The King James Version reads "Jewry" for Judea at John 7:1 (ISBE, "Jewry").
- Six months before the cross. Smith's Bible Dictionary ("John, Gospel of") counts this as the fifth of the journeys John records, begun at the Feast of Tabernacles six months before the death of Jesus.
- "The last day, that great day of the feast" is the text of Edersheim's chapter on the Feast of Tabernacles in The Temple: Its Ministry and Services (chapter 14).
- The temple of Herod: white marble with heavy plates of gold on its front, above marble-cloistered courts that rose in terraces; double colonnades on the north, west and east of the outer court, and on the south the Royal Porch, four rows of marble columns under a roof of carved cedar; the Levites chanting on the steps that rose from the women's court to the inner court; the thirteen trumpet-shaped chests for offerings near the pillars of the women's court, which gave it the name "treasury" (John 8:20); and the libations of water carried by the priests to be poured on the altar at this feast, behind John 7:37 (ISBE, "Temple," part IV, "The Temple of Herod").
- The Chel: the low wall around the inner courts, with notices in Greek and Latin forbidding Gentiles to pass on pain of death (ISBE, "Temple"; Edersheim, The Temple).
- The Pool of Siloam lies low at the southern end of the city, which gives the beggar's walk down to it.

Words a reader may want

- "The Jews." John's own term, which in these chapters often names those in Jerusalem who opposed Jesus; the crowds, Jews themselves at a Jewish feast, are afraid "of the Jews" (7:13). The narration names who is meant: the leaders, the temple rulers, the Pharisees, the hearers.
- The treasury (8:20): the place in the temple courts where offerings were brought.
- "Put out of the synagogue" (9:22): shut out of the community's assembly.

Texture

The chapter's own texture is plain and probable: the empty road south once the pilgrims had gone; the village on the shoulder of a hill; the farmer behind his ox; the seventy-two in their tunics and cloaks; the city green with booths, the smell of cut wood, lamps through the leaves; the temple set once before the teaching, in two sentences: the terraced courts and the Chel wall with its Greek and Latin notices; heads bent close in the whispering; the officers with their staves standing near him, and back with their staves and nothing else; the woman set in the morning light, the eldest turning out of the circle; the hands coming up with stones; the beggar's cloak and open hands, the mud drying on his eyelids, the water dripping from his beard; his parents brought in with their son beside them, looking at them; the beggar still at his side as Jesus speaks of the shepherd. The sentence that Jesus had named James and John the Sons of Thunder is Mark 3:17; that Nicodemus had once come by night is John 3:2. That the beggar had never seen the face of Jesus follows from John 9:1-7.

Chapter 20: Who Is My Neighbor?

Passages told

Luke 10:17-13:17, in the Berean Standard Bible. Luke alone tells this stretch, so Luke is the spine of every scene. The journey up through Samaria and the sending of the seventy-two (Luke 9:51-10:16) are told in Chapter 19, as the going up to the Feast of Tabernacles; this chapter opens after the feast, in Judea near Jerusalem.

Sayings told elsewhere in the book

Luke gives these sayings in this stretch; the book tells each once, in another chapter, and the appendix "Every word of Jesus" carries Luke's wording.

- Luke 10:21-22, "I praise You, Father" and "All things have been entrusted to Me": told in Chapter 12 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 11:25-27).
- Luke 10:23-24, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see": told in Chapter 13 (Matthew 13:16-17).
- Luke 11:1-4, the request "Lord, teach us to pray" and the Lord's Prayer: told in Chapter 11 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 6:9-13).
- Luke 11:9-13, ask, seek, knock, and the father's good gifts: told in Chapter 11 (Matthew 7:7-11).
- Luke 11:14-26, the mute man, the charge of Beelzebul, the kingdom divided, the finger of God, the strong man, the unclean spirit returning: told in Chapter 13 (Matthew 12:22-45).
- Luke 11:29-32, the sign of Jonah, the Queen of the South, the men of Nineveh: told in Chapter 13.
- Luke 11:33-36, the lamp under a basket and the eye as the lamp of the body: told in Chapter 11.
- Luke 11:42-43 and 11:45-52, the woes on tithes, the chief seats, burdens, the tombs of the prophets, Abel to Zechariah, and the key to knowledge, with the lawyer's protest: told in Chapter 25 (Matthew 23).
- Luke 12:1, the leaven of the Pharisees: told in Chapter 17 (Matthew 16:6-12).
- Luke 12:2-3, nothing concealed that will not be disclosed: told in Chapter 15 (Matthew 10:26-27).
- Luke 12:4-9, fear the One who can throw into hell, the sparrows, confessing him before men: told in Chapter 15.
- Luke 12:10, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: told in Chapter 13.
- Luke 12:11-12, do not worry what to say before rulers: told in Chapter 15.
- Luke 12:22-31 and 12:33-34, do not worry, the ravens and the lilies, treasure and heart: told in Chapter 11 (Matthew 6:19-34).
- Luke 12:39-46, the thief in the night and the faithful and wise manager, with Peter's question: told in Chapter 26 (Matthew 24:43-51).
- Luke 12:51-53, not peace but division: told in Chapter 15 (Matthew 10:34-36).
- Luke 12:54-56, reading the sky: told in Chapter 17 (Matthew 16:2-3).
- Luke 12:57-59, reconcile with your adversary: told in Chapter 11 (Matthew 5:25-26).
- Luke 13:18-21, the mustard seed and the leaven: told in Chapter 13.

Scene by scene

The seventy-two come back. Luke 10:17-20. The manuscripts divide between seventy and seventy-two; the book follows the BSB. Luke does not say where they found him; the chapter sets it in Judea after the feast, the order Ussher's Annals gives.

The lawyer and the Samaritan. Luke 10:25-37. The lawyer answers from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The road of the parable runs down from Jerusalem eastward to Jericho, toward the Jordan; Edersheim (Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 4) describes the main roads of the land. A scribe asks Jesus about the great commandment at another time, in Chapter 25, and a ruler asks again what he must do to inherit eternal life, in Chapter 23.

Martha and Mary. Luke 10:38-42. Luke does not name the village; John 11:1 places the sisters at Bethany near Jerusalem.

The friend at midnight. Luke 11:5-8. Luke sets it just after Jesus has been praying, when the disciples ask to be taught to pray.

The woman in the crowd. Luke 11:27-28. In Luke she calls out while he is answering the charge of Beelzebul.

The Pharisee's table. Luke 11:37-41, 44, 53-54. Luke says only that the Pharisee was surprised that Jesus did not wash before the meal; the water jar is the chapter's own detail.

The crowd of thousands. Luke 12:1, 13-21, 32, 35-38, 47-50. Luke opens it with "in the meantime"; the chapter sets it as Jesus comes out from the Pharisee's house.

The Galileans and the tower. Luke 13:1-9. Luke alone tells of the Galileans and of the eighteen killed at Siloam, by the pool low in the city (ISBE, "Jerusalem," on the springs and Siloam).

The woman bent double. Luke 13:10-17. It is the second of the book's three Sabbath disputes over healing; the others are in Chapters 10 and 21.

Background

- The fall of Satan. Ephrem the Syrian reads "like lightning" as the suddenness of the fall, not a place he fell from.
- Pilate governed Judea from AD 26 to 36.
- Echoes of the Old Testament in these sayings: Isaiah 14:12 (the fall from heaven); Psalm 91:13 and Ezekiel 2:6 (snakes and scorpions); Psalm 27:4 (the one thing); Isaiah 40:11 (the little flock); Malachi 4:1 (the fire).

Texture

The chapter's own texture is plain and probable: the seventy-two barefoot and gray from the lanes; the bare hills of the Jericho road; Martha's stone house, its oven and ladder, her hands white with flour; the door shut at midnight; the unused water jar at the Pharisee's door; the threshing floors swept bare before the rains; the crowd on the walls and roofs; the stone benches of the synagogue and the woman upright among the faces.

Chapter 21: The Lost and the Found

Passages told

John 10:22-42; Luke 13:22-33; Luke 14:1-17:10. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, or told in another chapter of the book where he says the same thing again. The appendix, "Every word of Jesus," carries every Gospel's wording.

Told elsewhere in the book, where Jesus says the same thing again:

- "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob ... People will come from east and west and north and south" (Luke 13:28-29) is told in Chapter 12, at the centurion's servant, in Matthew's wording (Matthew 8:11-12).
- "Some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last" (Luke 13:30) is told in Chapter 23, at the close of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:16).
- "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem" (Luke 13:34-35) is told in Chapter 25, in Matthew's wording (Matthew 23:37-39).
- "Whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27) is told in Chapter 18, after Peter's confession (Luke 9:23). Luke 14:26 and 14:28-33 are told here.
- "Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor" (Luke 14:34-35) is told in Chapter 11, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13).
- "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John" (Luke 16:16) is told in Chapter 12, in Matthew's wording (Matthew 11:12-13).
- "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law" (Luke 16:17) is told in Chapter 11, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:18).
- "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery" (Luke 16:18) is told in Chapter 23, with the whole teaching on marriage (Mark 10:2-12).
- The stumbling blocks, the millstone, and forgiving seven times (Luke 17:1-4) are told in Chapter 18 (Matthew 18:6-7, 21-22).

This chapter is the book's one telling of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7, with the lost coin and the two sons; Matthew 18:12-14 is in the appendix), of the two masters (Luke 16:13, at the close of the shrewd manager; Matthew 6:24 is in the appendix), and of "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled" at the wedding banquet (Luke 14:11). The mulberry tree (Luke 17:6) is a different saying from the mountain moved by faith, told in Chapter 25.

Scene by scene

The Feast of Dedication. Spine: John 10:22-39. John says only that it was winter and that Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon's Colonnade. John calls those who gathered around him "the Jews"; in his Gospel the word often means the leaders in Jerusalem, and the chapter names them so. The stones were taken up "again" (John 10:31), as they had been in John 8:59.

Beyond the Jordan. Spine: John 10:40-42. The place where John first baptized is Bethany beyond the Jordan (John 1:28); the chapter does not name it.

The towns and the villages. Spine: Luke 13:22-33. Luke gives no place names for these chapters. The book sets them in the country beyond the Jordan, where John leaves Jesus staying (John 10:40), with Luke's "as He made His way toward Jerusalem" (13:22). Luke does not say who asked whether only a few would be saved. The Pharisees came "at that very hour" (13:31).

The Sabbath meal. Spine: Luke 14:1-24. Luke says Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor; the chapter shows them still arriving and choosing.

The crowds on the road. Spine: Luke 14:25-33.

The tax collectors and the sinners. Spine: Luke 15. The three parables are told to the Pharisees and scribes who grumbled, in the hearing of those who had come to listen.

To the disciples, and to the Pharisees. Spine: Luke 16:1-17:10. Luke runs straight on from the two sons with "Jesus also said to His disciples" (16:1) and names no new place; the chapter sets it farther along the road. The dishonest manager is spoken to the disciples, the rich man and Lazarus to the Pharisees who scoffed (16:14-15), and the sayings of chapter 17 to the disciples again. The beggar Lazarus belongs to the parable; he is not Lazarus of Bethany, met in Chapter 22. Luke calls Jesus "the Lord" when the apostles ask for faith (17:5-6).

Background

- The Feast of Dedication remembered the cleansing and rededication of the temple in the days of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 4:52-59). It fell in winter.
- The Sabbath meal. Edersheim notes that the Gospels show Jesus on the Sabbath more often than on any other festive occasion, and that he came to the joyous meal with which the day was closed (The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, chapter 9). No fire was kindled on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3), so the food was prepared the day before (Exodus 16:23).
- "I have said you are gods" is Psalm 82:6. The psalm opens with God rendering judgment "among the gods," and goes on, "But like mortals you will die."
- The Jordan valley. The lower valley is a plain ten to twelve miles wide between bluffs of sediment left from the time it was filled with water, and the Mount of Olives can be seen from its floor near Jericho. Down its middle the river runs in a lower flood plain of thickets, about a hundred feet wide in its channel, winding so that its course is some 200 miles for 70 in a straight line; it runs high in the winter and spring and carries driftwood into the thickets (ISBE, "Jordan").
- Dropsy is a swelling of the body with fluid.
- The Old Testament behind the parables. "I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out" (Ezekiel 34:11). "I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant" (Psalm 119:176). "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him" (Psalm 103:13). "It is better to be told, 'Come up here!' than to be demoted in the presence of the prince" (Proverbs 25:7). "The LORD does not see as man does" (1 Samuel 16:7).

Texture

The chapter's own texture is plain and probable: rain as he comes into the city; the colonnade's stone walk and columns, men walking its length in twos and threes; the road down through stone and chalk; the valley floor below the sea, mild in winter, its pale bluffs of old sediment, the hills of Judea behind and the mountains of the far side, the river winding in its lower bed through thickets of tamarisk and cane, brown and high with the rains, a hundred feet across, driftwood in the thickets (ISBE, "Jordan"); the couches, the court open to the sky, the food under cloths, the swollen body of the sick man; the crowds on the road through wet fields; the tax collectors sitting on the ground and the Pharisees standing apart, a woman who did not take her eyes from Jesus; the mulberry tree by the road. That the Herod of "that fox" was the one who had killed John is Mark 6:14-29.

Chapter 22: Lazarus

Passages told

John 11:1-57; Luke 17:11-18:14 (BSB). Every saying of Jesus in John 11 and in Luke 17:11-22, 17:25, 17:28-30, 17:32 and 18:1-14 is given word for word. The sayings of Luke 17 that the other Gospels also give are told once in the book, where they stand best:

- Luke 17:23-24, "Look, there He is!" and the lightning, is told in Chapter 26 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 24:23-27); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 17:26-27, the days of Noah, is told in Chapter 26 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 24:37-39); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 17:31, the one on the housetop and the one in the field, is told in Chapter 26 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 24:17-18); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 17:33, "Whoever tries to save his life will lose it," is told in Chapter 18 in Mark's wording (Mark 8:35); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 17:34-35, one taken and the other left, is told in Chapter 26 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 24:40-41); Luke's is in the appendix.
- Luke 17:37, "Where, Lord?" and the vultures, is told in Chapter 26 in Matthew's wording (Matthew 24:28); Luke's is in the appendix.

The spine of each scene

- The sickness, the delay, and the word to go back (John 11:1-16). John alone tells the raising of Lazarus; he is the spine throughout. Jesus was then beyond the Jordan, at the place where John had first baptized (John 10:40). The stones the disciples remember were taken up against him in Solomon's colonnade (John 10:31). John adds that Mary was the one who would anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe his feet with her hair (11:2), and that the disciples took "asleep" for ordinary sleep, though Jesus was speaking of the death of Lazarus (11:13). Martha's earlier welcome of Jesus into her house is Luke 10:38, told in Chapter 20.
- Martha, Mary, and "Jesus wept" (John 11:17-37). John. Bethany was "a little less than two miles" from Jerusalem (11:18), on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the first village on the road up from Jericho and the Jordan. John names the mourners "the Jews" who had come to console the sisters.
- The tomb (John 11:38-44). John: a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. John does not say who unbound Lazarus; Jesus speaks to those standing by.
- The council and Caiaphas (John 11:45-53). John. The Gospel adds its own comment on Caiaphas's words: he did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but to gather into one the scattered children of God (11:51-52).
- Ephraim and the approach of Passover (John 11:54-57). John. Ephraim lay in the hills north of Jerusalem near the wilderness.
- The ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). Luke alone, who says Jesus was then on his way to Jerusalem. Neither Gospel says how he came from Ephraim to the border of Samaria and Galilee. The chapter follows James Orr's course of the life (ISBE, "Jesus Christ"): from Ephraim north to the border, and from there down beyond the Jordan toward Judea, a roundabout way to the city. Orr notes that the route "is not easy to define."
- The coming of the kingdom, and the two parables (Luke 17:20-18:14). Luke gives no place for them; the chapter keeps them on the road after the lepers, in Luke's order. Luke introduces the second half of the widow's parable with "And the Lord said" (18:6). The hearers of the second parable are Luke's: those who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt.
- Luke 17:36, "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left," stands in the King James Version but is left out of modern critical texts and the BSB, and is not told.

Words and customs

- Lazarus: a form of the Hebrew Eleazar, "God has helped." He is not the beggar of the parable in Chapter 21.
- The Twin: Thomas is Aramaic for "twin," and John gives the Greek equivalent, Didymus.
- "Deeply moved" (John 11:33, 38): the Greek verb carries strong emotion, even indignation. The chapter says no more than the text.
- The council: the Sanhedrin, the high court in Jerusalem, under the high priest.
- "High priest that year": Caiaphas held the office for many years; John's phrase marks the year of these events.
- Purifying before Passover (John 11:55): pilgrims went up early to be made ritually clean before the feast.
- Torn clothes, loose hair, keeping their distance: the law for lepers in Leviticus 13:45-46, which kept them outside the camp. Cyril of Alexandria, on Luke 17:11, notes that the law shut them out of the cities and villages.
- "Show yourselves to the priests": by Leviticus 14 a healed leper was examined by a priest and declared clean. Tertullian, on this passage, notes that the ten were cleansed without a touch.
- The Samaritan: Titus of Bostra marks the enmity of Jews and Samaritans in this border country. In the time of Jesus the land was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria and Galilee (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Galilee").
- Master (Luke 17:13): a word for a chief or overseer.
- "In your midst" (Luke 17:21): older English versions have "within you."
- Tithes: a tenth of one's produce or income given to God.

The Old Testament behind it

- "The resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24): Daniel 12:2.
- "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25): Isaiah 26:19; Job 19:25-27.
- "Remember Lot's wife!" (Luke 17:32): Genesis 19:26.

The chapter's own texture

From the reference works: ISBE, "Bethany" (the village on the far slope of Olivet facing east, among fig and almond trees).

The sisters giving Lazarus water; the messenger with the road on his clothes; the two days of bread, water and sleep; Bethany on the far slope of the Mount of Olives facing the sunrise, its fig and almond trees; the mourners rocking and the night in the full house; Martha's way through the gate and lane; Mary in the dust; the tomb's trodden ground, the crowd in the sun, the stone grating aside, the dark of the cave; the linen unwound and the sisters with their brother in the sunlight; the council in its robes; the ridges, the evening wind and the fire at Ephraim; pilgrim families on the roads; the border villages with threshing floors and wells; the lepers on the stony ground.

Chapter 23: The Road to Jericho

Passages told

Matthew 19:1-20:34; Mark 10:1-52; Luke 18:15-19:27. The text is the Berean Standard Bible. Every saying of Jesus in these passages is in the chapter word for word, or told once in the wording of one Gospel where two or three give the same saying. The other wordings are these:

- On marriage, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' ... let man not separate" and "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart. But it was not this way from the beginning" (Matthew 19:4-8), told in Mark 10:5-9.
- "Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9, spoken to the Pharisees), told in Mark 10:11, spoken in the house. Matthew alone has the exception.
- "For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matthew 19:14) and Luke 18:16-17, told in Mark 10:14-15.
- "Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments," and the commandments ending "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 19:17-19); Luke 18:19-20, without "do not cheat others." Told in Mark 10:18-19.
- "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions" (Matthew 19:21) and "You still lack one thing" (Luke 18:22), told in Mark 10:21.
- "Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" with the camel (Matthew 19:23-24; Luke 18:24-25), told in Mark 10:23-25, which alone has "Children, how hard it is."
- "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26) and "What is impossible with man is possible with God" (Luke 18:27), told in Mark 10:27.
- "Everyone who has left houses ... for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold" (Matthew 19:29) and Luke 18:29-30 ("wife," "many times more"), told in Mark 10:29-30, which alone has "along with persecutions."
- The third telling of his death: Matthew 20:18-19 ("crucified," "on the third day He will be raised to life") and Luke 18:31-33 ("everything the prophets have written ... will be fulfilled," "insulted"), told in Mark 10:33-34.
- To the mother of Zebedee's sons, "What do you want?"; then "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?", "You will indeed drink My cup," and "for whom My Father has prepared them" (Matthew 20:21-23), told in Mark 10:36-40.
- "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them ... whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave" (Matthew 20:25-28), told in Mark 10:42-45.
- "Your faith has healed you" (Luke 18:42), told in Mark 10:52. Luke's "Receive your sight!" has no parallel and is told, just before Mark's "Go."

Told elsewhere in the book:

- Matthew 19:28, the twelve thrones, is told in Chapter 27 in Luke's wording at the supper (Luke 22:28-30); Matthew's is in the appendix.
- "But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first" (Mark 10:31; Matthew 19:30) is told once in this chapter, as the close of the vineyard (Matthew 20:16).
- This chapter is the book's one telling of the teaching on divorce; the sayings in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:31-32) and in Luke 16:18 are in the appendix.

Scene by scene

Beyond the Jordan. Spine: Mark 10:1, the crowds and the teaching. Matthew 19:1-2 opens, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee," and says large crowds followed and he healed them there. The course followed here, from the border of Samaria and Galilee down the Jordan valley into the country beyond the river and so toward Judea, is the one set out by Orr (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Jesus Christ").

What Moses commanded. Spine: Mark 10:2-9. Matthew 19:3-8 runs the other way about: the Pharisees ask whether a man may divorce his wife "for any reason," Jesus answers from the beginning, and they then ask why Moses ordered a certificate.

The house. Spine: Mark 10:10-12, where the disciples ask him about the matter again indoors. Matthew has no house; his saying on remarriage is spoken to the Pharisees, and the disciples' "it is better not to marry" and the answer about eunuchs (Matthew 19:10-12, found only in Matthew) follow it. The chapter sets them in the house, after Mark's saying.

The children. Spine: Mark 10:13-16, with Jesus indignant and taking the children in his arms. Luke 18:15 says the people were bringing even their babies; Matthew 19:13 says they came for Jesus to lay hands on them and pray.

One thing lacking. Spine: Mark 10:17-31, the man who ran up and knelt, and whom Jesus looked at and loved. Matthew calls him a young man (19:20, 22), and has him ask "what good thing must I do?" and "Which ones?" and "What do I still lack?"; Luke calls him a ruler (18:18). Peter's words are Mark 10:28; Matthew 19:27 adds "What then will there be for us?" The question about eternal life is a second occasion: the lawyer's, asked to test him, is in Chapter 20 (Luke 10:25).

The vineyard. Matthew 20:1-16, the only Gospel that has it, told whole where Matthew sets it.

Ahead of them. Spine: Mark 10:32-34, "going up the road to Jerusalem," with Jesus walking ahead and the disciples amazed and the followers afraid. The climb itself, from Jericho up into the hills, comes after the town. That the Twelve understood none of it, and its meaning was hidden from them, is Luke 18:34.

The two seats. Spine: Mark 10:35-45, where James and John make the request themselves. The quarrel over greatness on the way to Capernaum (Mark 9:33-34) is in Chapter 18; a third comes at the supper, in Chapter 27. In Matthew 20:20-21 their mother comes with them, kneels, and asks that her two sons sit at his right and left "in Your kingdom."

Jericho. Mark 10:46 says only that they came to Jericho; Zacchaeus is in Luke alone (19:1-10). Luke does not say where Zacchaeus stood up to speak; the chapter sets it at his door, in the hearing of the people, who are still listening when the parable of the minas begins (Luke 19:11). That Jesus went in and stayed the night there follows from his "I must stay at your house today" (Luke 19:5); the morning departure is the chapter's reading.

The minas. Luke 19:11-27, the only Gospel that has it, told whole. Luke gives the reason: Jesus was near Jerusalem and they thought the kingdom of God would appear at once.

Bartimaeus. Spine: Mark 10:46-52, which names him and tells of the cloak thrown off. Matthew 20:29-34 tells of two blind men, who cry "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" and ask that their eyes be opened, and says Jesus was moved with compassion and touched their eyes. Luke 18:35-43 has one blind man, not named, healed as Jesus drew near to Jericho, before Zacchaeus; he asks what the noise is and is told "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by," and he and all the people give praise to God. Matthew and Mark set the healing as Jesus was leaving the town, where the chapter tells it.

Background

- Beyond the Jordan. The country east of the river, called Peraea; in a loose sense it was counted with Judea, which is how Matthew and Mark name it (Smith's Bible Dictionary, "Judaea"; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Jesus Christ").
- Divorce in that day. It was easily had and common, and the teachers of the Law were divided over how little was cause enough. The school of Shammai allowed it only for "a matter of uncleanness" (Deuteronomy 24:1), but read that to include going about with loose hair, spinning in the street, talking familiarly with men, and speaking to a husband so loudly that the neighbors heard; the school of Hillel allowed far more (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, chapter 9). The certificate written, put in the wife's hand, and the wife sent from the house is the law of Deuteronomy 24:1-4.
- One flesh. Jesus quotes Genesis 1:27 and 2:24.
- The hours of the parable are counted from daybreak, so those hired at the eleventh hour worked a single hour before evening, as the grumblers say.
- Fourfold. The law asked a thief to restore what he took and add a fifth (Numbers 5:7); fourfold is what David said the rich man of Nathan's story must pay for the lamb (2 Samuel 12:6).
- "To seek and to save the lost" echoes Ezekiel 34:16, "I will seek the lost."
- A ransom for many looks back to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53:10-12.
- The delegation in the parable, "We do not want this man to rule over us," recalls 1 Samuel 8:7, where Israel rejects God as king.
- Rabboni is Bartimaeus's word in Mark: "my teacher."
- Jericho. Two sites bear the name: the old mound of Joshua's city (Tell es Sultan) and the town of Herod's day a little to the south (Tell el Alayiq). Readers have often taken the two to explain how Luke can set the healing on the way in and Matthew and Mark on the way out.