Matthew

Chapter 1

¹ edit This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah. He is a descendant of {King} David, who was a descendant of Abraham{, the ancestor of all Jewish people}. ² Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and Judah’s {older and younger} brothers. ³ Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah. Their mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezrom. Hezrom was the father of Aram. ⁴ Aram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. ⁵ Salmon was the father of Boaz. Boaz’s mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. Obed’s mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. ⁶ Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon. Solomon’s mother was {Bathsheba, who had been} Uriah’s wife. ⁷ Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asaph.

⁸ Asaph was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was an ancestor of Ozias. ⁹ Ozias was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. ¹⁰ Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amos. Amos was the father of Josiah. ¹¹ Josiah was the grandfather of Jechoniah and Jechoniah’s brothers. {They lived} at the time when {the Babylonian army took the Israelites as} captives to the country of Babylon.

¹² After {the Babylonian army took the Israelites as} captives to the country of Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Salathiel. Salathiel was the father of Zerubbabel. ¹³ Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor. ¹⁴ Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Achim. Achim was the father of Eliud. ¹⁵ Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. ¹⁶ Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was Mary’s husband. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is the one whom we call the Messiah.

¹⁷ So then, there are 14 ancestors when we count from Abraham to David. There are 14 ancestors when we count from David until when {the Babylonian army took the Israelites as} captives to the country of Babylon. There are 14 ancestors when we count from that to the Messiah.

¹⁸ {I will tell you} what happened when the mother of Jesus the Messiah gave birth to him. His mother Mary was about to marry {a man named} Joseph, and they had not yet had sex. Despite that, Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant with a baby that the Holy Spirit had given to her. ¹⁹ Joseph, who was about to marry her, {thought that Mary had sex with another man.} Joseph usually did what was right, and he also did not want to shame Mary. So, he decided to say in private that he would not marry her. ²⁰ While Joseph was deciding what to do, he saw an angel from the Lord while he was sleeping! The angel said to him, “Joseph, King David's descendant, do not be reluctant to marry Mary. {I say that} because it was the Holy Spirit who caused her to become pregnant. ²¹ She will have a male child. You should name him ‘Jesus,’ {which means ‘the Lord rescues’}. {You should name him that} because he will rescue his people from the sins that they have committed.” ²² When all those things happened, what the Lord said by speaking through the prophet {Isaiah} came true. {Isaiah} said, ²³ “A young women who has never had sex will become pregnant! She will give birth to a male child. People will name him ’Immanuel.’” The name Immanuel means, “God is with us.” ²⁴ After Joseph woke up, he married Mary, which is what the angel from the Lord had told him to do. ²⁵ However, he did not have sex with her before she gave birth to a male child. Joseph named the child Jesus.

Chapter 2

¹ {Mary} gave birth to Jesus in the town of Bethlehem in the region of Judea. During that time, Herod was the king there. {Some time after Mary gave birth to Jesus,} some scholars who studied the stars traveled from eastern countries to the city of Jerusalem! ² They were asking people, “Where is the child who will be the king over the Jewish people? We saw a star appear in the sky {that indicated that his mother had given birth to} him. We traveled here so that we can worship him.”

³ When King Herod learned {what these men were asking}, he was upset. Many people in the city of Jerusalem also were upset. ⁴ So, King Herod summoned all the Jewish ruling priests and teachers of the Jewish law. He asked them about where the Messiah’s mother would give birth to him. ⁵ They answered him, “{His mother will give birth to him} in the town of Bethlehem in the region of Judea. {We know that} because of what the prophet {Micah} wrote. ⁶ ‘You who live in the town of Bethlehem in the land of Judah, your town is one of the important towns in Judah. {That is} because someone from your town will become a leader. That person will rule God’s people, the Israelites.’”

⁷ After that, King Herod summoned the scholars who studied the stars {to talk with him} privately. He asked them about exactly when they first saw the {special} star. ⁸ After that, he told them, “Go to the town of Bethlehem and look for the child. When you are sure that you know who he is, {come back and} tell me {who he is}. That way, I too can go and worship him.” Then, he sent them away.

⁹ The scholars listened to the king, and then they traveled {to Bethlehem}. The star which they saw when it appeared in the sky guided them! It moved {in the sky} until it was directly above the place where the child{, Jesus,} was living. ¹⁰ When they saw how the star moved and then stopped, they were extremely happy. ¹¹ They went into the house {above which the star had stopped}. There, they saw the child {Jesus} and his mother Mary. They bowed down and worshiped him. Then, they unpacked the valuable things that they had brought with them. They gave Jesus gold, incense, and valuable tree resin. ¹² After that, God used a dream to tell them not to go back to King Herod. So, they went home on a different road {than the one on which they had come}.

¹³ After the scholars who studied the stars went home, Joseph saw an angel from the Lord while he was sleeping! The angel told him, “King Herod wants to find the child so that he can kill him. So, when you wake up, escape to the land of Egypt with the child and his mother{, your wife}. Stay there until I tell you {that you can return home}.” ¹⁴ Then Joseph woke up. During that night, he left for the land of Egypt with the child and the child’s mother{, his wife}. ¹⁵ They lived in the land of Egypt while King Herod ruled. So, what the Lord said by speaking through the prophet {Hosea} came true:

     “I have told my son to leave Egypt.”

¹⁶ When {the scholars who studied the stars did not come back to King Herod}, he realized that they had fooled him. He became furious. He had some of his soldiers go to the city of Bethlehem and the areas around it and kill every male child who was two years old or younger. {He picked those ages} because of what the scholars who studied the stars told him about the exact time {when they first saw the star}. ¹⁷ At that time, what God said by speaking through the prophet Jeremiah came true:

     ¹⁸ “People heard women in the town of Ramah lamenting loudly.

     It was the descendants of Rachel mourning for their children.

     Because their children were dead, they would not stop mourning.”

¹⁹ {During this time, Joseph and his family were living} in the land of Egypt. After Herod died, Joseph saw an angel from the Lord while he was sleeping! ²⁰ The angel told him, “Everyone who wanted to kill the child has died. So, when you wake up, return to the country of Israel with the child and his mother{, your wife}.” ²¹ Then Joseph woke up. He went back to the country of Israel with the child and the child’s mother{, his wife}.

²² However, Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father, King Herod, as king over the region of Judea. So, he was afraid to live there. Further, while Joseph was sleeping, God instructed him {to live somewhere else}. So, Joseph decided to live in the region of Galilee. ²³ When he and his family arrived {in Galilee}, they lived in the town of Nazareth. In that way, what God said by speaking through the prophets came true: “People will say that the Messiah is from Nazareth.”

Chapter 3

¹ While Jesus was living in Galilee, a man whom people called John the Baptizer went to a desolate area in the region of Judea. He proclaimed, ² “Stop doing what is wrong! {You should do that} because God is about to establish his heavenly kingdom here.” ³ That man is the one about whom the Lord said, by speaking through the prophet Isaiah,

“In the desolate place, someone will be calling out {to the people}:

‘Prepare yourselves to receive the Lord!

Make yourselves ready for when he comes!’”

⁴ As for this man John, he wore rough clothes that he made out of camel’s hair. He fastened around his waist a belt that he made from animal skin. He ate grasshoppers and honey that he found in that desolate area. ⁵ At that time, people who lived in the city of Jerusalem, many people who lived in the region of Judea, and many people who lived near the Jordan River often went to listen to John. ⁶ Many of these people agreed that they had sinned. Then, John baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁷ In fact, many men from the Pharisee sect and from the Sadducee sect went to John so that he would baptize them. When he saw them, he declared to them, “You people are sneaky and dangerous like poisonous snakes! You think that if I baptize you, God will spare you when he punishes sinners. {But I did not say that!} ⁸ You need to do the things that show that you have truly rejected your previous sinful way of living! ⁹ Do not think to yourselves, ‘{Certainly God will not punish us, because} we are descendants of Abraham!’ {That does not impress God.} Let me assure you, God could turn these stones into descendants of Abraham! ¹⁰ You are like fruit trees that do not produce good fruit. God is like a man who is positioning the head of his axe at the base of those trees, ready to chop them down and throw them into the fire. God is ready to punish you like that if you continue sinning.

¹¹ I use water to baptize you so that you stop doing what is wrong. However, soon you will see someone else who is more powerful than I am. It is not appropriate for me to be even his servant.

He will give you the Holy Spirit and make you pure. ¹² {The Messiah is ready to do that, just like} a farmer who has his winnowing fork ready to use. A farmer separates all the good grain from the useless chaff. He stores the grain safely in his barn, but he burns the chaff until it is all gone. {Much like that farmer, the Messiah will preserve the people who obey God, and he will punish the people who disobey God.}”

¹³ After {John began preaching and baptizing people}, Jesus traveled from the region of Galilee to where John was near the Jordan River. He wanted John to baptize him. ¹⁴ However, John did not want to baptize him. He said to Jesus, “You should not want me to baptize you. Actually, I need you to baptize me!” ¹⁵ Jesus answered him, “Please {baptize me} at this time. When you do, you and I will be acting appropriately by doing what God requires.” After {Jesus said that,} John agreed {to baptize} him.

¹⁶ Right after John baptized him, Jesus climbed out of the River Jordan. Then, God allowed him to see into heaven! He saw that the Holy Spirit, who looked like a small bird, was descending {from heaven} and landing on him. ¹⁷ Then God spoke from heaven! He declared, “This man is my Son, the one whom I love dearly. What he does pleases me.”

Chapter 4

¹ After that, the Holy Spirit took Jesus into a desolate area. That way, the ruling evil spirit could try to make him sin. ² He did not eat any food for 40 days. After that, he was hungry. ³ Then the devil arrived. He wanted to make Jesus sin. He said to Jesus, “Show me that you really are God’s Son. Command these stones to become loaves of bread {for you to eat}.” ⁴ Jesus responded, “{I will not do that}, because Moses wrote in the Scriptures, ‘People need more than food to stay alive. {They also need to do} everything that God tells {them to do}.’” ⁵ After that, the ruling evil spirit transported Jesus to {Jerusalem,} the sacred city. He made him stand on the highest part of the temple. ⁶ Then, he said to Jesus, “Show me that you really are God’s Son. Jump from here! {You will not hurt yourself,} because it says in the Scriptures,

     ‘God will tell his angels {to protect} you.

     They will carry you,

     and you will not hurt yourself at all.’”

⁷ Jesus responded, “Again, {I will not do that}, because Moses wrote in the Scriptures, ‘Do not provoke the Lord your God to see what he will do.’” ⁸ Then, the devil transported Jesus onto the top of a very tall mountain. {From there,} he showed Jesus all the nations in the world. {He showed Jesus} how rich and powerful they were. ⁹ He told Jesus, “Bow down and worship me. Then, I will make you the ruler of all these countries.” ¹⁰ After that, Jesus responded, “Leave me, Satan! {I will not worship you,} because Moses wrote in the Scriptures, ‘You must only worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you may honor {as God}.’” ¹¹ After {Jesus said that,} the ruling evil spirit went away. Then, angels arrived and took care of Jesus!

¹² Soon afterward, Jesus learned that {King Herod Antipas} had put John {the Baptizer} in prison. So, Jesus went back to the region of Galilee. ¹³ After he visited the town of Nazareth, he went to live in the town of Capernaum. Capernaum is next to the Sea of Galilee in the region that used to belong to the tribe of Zebulun and the tribe of Naphtali. ¹⁴ So, what God said by speaking through the prophet Isaiah came true:

     ¹⁵ “{I am speaking about people in} the regions that belong to the tribe of Zebulun and to the tribe of Naphtali.

     {These regions are} by the Sea {of Galilee}, on the other side of the Jordan River.

     {We call these regions} Galilee, where many non-Jewish people live.

     ¹⁶

     The people {who live in those regions} sin and despair. They are like people who sit in dark places.

     However, God will rescue them. They will be like people who see a bright light.

     Again, {the people in those regions} suffer and die. They are like people who sit in a dangerous place without any light.

     However, God will save them. It will be as if a light shines on them.”

¹⁷ After {he went to live in the town of Capernaum}, Jesus started proclaiming, “Stop doing what is wrong! {You should do that} because God is about to establish his heavenly kingdom here.”

¹⁸ One day, Jesus was walking next to the Sea of Galilee. He saw two men: Simon, who also had the name Peter, and Simon’s {younger} brother Andrew. They earned money by catching and selling fish. {When Jesus saw them,} they were using nets to try to catch fish. ¹⁹ Jesus commanded them, “Come with me and be my apprentices. I will teach you how to gather people {to be my apprentices}, just as you have been gathering fish.” ²⁰ As soon as {Jesus said this}, they stopped working. They went with him and were his apprentices.

²¹ Jesus kept walking {next to the sea}. Then, he saw two more men: James, the son of Zebedee, and James’ {younger brother} John. {When Jesus saw them,} they were preparing their fishing tools in a boat with their father, Zebedee. Jesus commanded them, {“Come with me and be my apprentices.”} ²² As soon as {they heard what Jesus said,} they got out of the boat and left their father. They went with Jesus and were his apprentices.

²³ Jesus visited all the towns in the region of Galilee. He instructed people {when they gathered} in the Jewish meeting places. He proclaimed the good news about God’s kingdom. He cured many Jewish people who were sick in any way. ²⁴ Many people who lived in the region of Syria heard about him. They took to him many people who were suffering, people who were sick or hurting, people with demons, and people who could not move or who had seizures. Jesus healed them. ²⁵ Large groups of people went wherever Jesus went. These people came from the region of Galilee, from the region of the Ten Towns, from the city of Jerusalem, from the region of Judea, and from the east side of the Jordan River.

Chapter 5

¹ When Jesus saw these large groups of people, he went up on a hill. He sat down there, {ready to teach,} and his apprentices gathered around him {to listen}. ² Then, he began to instruct them. He said,

     ³ “It is very good for those who do not have spiritual strength.

     {That is} because they are part of God’s heavenly kingdom.

     ⁴ It is very good for those who grieve.

     {That is} because God will encourage them.

     ⁵ It is very good for those who are gentle.

     {That is} because God will give them the world {when he renews it}.

     ⁶ It is very good for those who greatly desire to do what is right.

     {That is} because God will enable them to do what they desire to do.

     ⁷ It is very good for those who are merciful {to other people}.

     {That is} because God will be merciful to them.

     ⁸ It is very good for those who only desire what is good.

     {That is} because they will be with God.

     ⁹ It is very good for those who enable people to be peaceful {with each other}.

     {That is} because God will regard them as his own children.

     ¹⁰ It is very good for those whom others mistreat because they do what is right.

     {That is} because they are part of God’s heavenly kingdom.

     ¹¹ It is very good for you whenever {people act against you} because you are my apprentices. They may shame you, mistreat you, and tell many hurtful lies about you. ¹² {When people treat you like that}, God is ready to reward you greatly from heaven. So, you should rejoice very much! Further, people mistreated the Jewish prophets long ago just as people mistreat you now.

¹³ You are like salt since you make people in this world better, just as salt seasons food. However, if salt were to stop seasoning food well, no one could make it season food well again. No one can use it for anything. So, people throw it away, and others walk on it. {In the same way, I will punish you if you do not make this world better.} ¹⁴ You are like a light that illuminates everyone in this world {since you tell people about me}. {You are like} a town on a hill that everyone can see {since everyone notices the good things that you do}. ¹⁵ Further, when people light a lamp, they do not cover it with a basket. Instead, they put it on a lampstand. That way, it illuminates everyone in the house. ¹⁶ Just as {the light from a lamp illuminates everyone in a house}, so you should publicly do what is right. That way, people will notice the good things that you do. Then, they will praise God, your Father, who rules from heaven.

¹⁷ You should not conclude that I am here to abolish any parts of the Scriptures. I am not here to abolish them. Rather, I am here so that they come true. ¹⁸ Every part of the Scriptures will be authoritative as long as what God has created continues to exist. {Further, the Scriptures will be authoritative} until everything {that their authors wrote about} happens. What I have said is true. ¹⁹ So then, suppose that someone disregards even one of the most insignificant laws. Also, suppose that this person teaches other people to do the same thing. This person will be insignificant in God’s heavenly kingdom. In contrast, suppose that someone obeys the laws and teaches other people to do the same thing. This person will be very important in God’s heavenly kingdom. ²⁰ Here is what I mean: You need to do what is right even more than the teachers of the Jewish law and the Pharisees do. That is the only way to participate in God’s heavenly kingdom.

²¹ You know that God said to our ancestors, ‘You must not murder anyone. People who murder someone deserve to have a judge decide they are guilty and punish them.’ ²² Now here is what I want to tell you: people who become angry with fellow believers deserve to have a judge decide they are guilty and punish them. People who insult fellow believers deserve to have the Jewish council decide they are guilty and punish them. People who say {that fellow believers are} foolish deserve to have God punish them in hell. ²³ So then, suppose that you are standing near the altar {in the temple} to present something {to God}. Then, you recall that you have offended a fellow believer. ²⁴ You should set down near the altar what you are presenting {to God} and depart {to visit that fellow believer}. You should resolve what happened to offend that fellow believer. Then, you can go back {to the altar} and present your gift {to God}. ²⁵ Suppose that someone intends to say to a judge that you did something wrong. You should try to resolve what happened before that person can speak to the judge. That way, the person does not bring you to the judge, who would command one of the officials to put you in jail. ²⁶ {If you go to jail,} you will never get out of there until you are able to pay every bit of what the judge says you owe. What I have said is true.

²⁷ You know that God said, ‘Married people must remain sexually faithful to their spouses.’ ²⁸ Now here is what I want to tell you: suppose that a man stares at a woman who is not his wife so that he can think about having sex with her. Simply because of what he desires, he has been sexually unfaithful to his wife. ²⁹ Suppose that you sinned because you looked at something. You should never do that again, even if you have to remove your eyes to make sure of it! {You should respond that drastically} because it is better for you to have no eyes than to have a complete body but end up in hell. ³⁰ Suppose that you sinned because you touched something. You should never do that again, even if you have to chop off your hands to make sure of it! {You should respond that drastically} because it is better for you to have no hands than to have a complete body but end up in hell.

³¹ God said, ‘Suppose that a man wants to divorce his wife. He must present her with a document that states that he is divorcing her.’ ³² Now here is what I want to tell you: a man may divorce his wife only if she has had improper sex. When a man divorces his wife for any other reason, he makes her disobey what God commanded about being sexually faithful to one’s spouse. Further, any man who marries a woman whose husband has divorced her also disobeys what God commanded about being sexually faithful to one’s spouse.

³³ Here are more examples: you know that God said to our ancestors, ‘You must not promise to do anything that you will not do. Rather, you must always do what you promised the Lord {that you would do}.’ ³⁴ Now here is what I want to tell you: you must never have someone or something guarantee what you promise. For example, you must not have heaven guarantee it. That is because heaven is where God rules. ³⁵ You must not have the earth guarantee what you promise. That is because the earth is what God rules over. You must not have the city of Jerusalem guarantee it. That is because Jerusalem is a city that belongs to God, who is a powerful king.

³⁶ You must not have your own head guarantee what you promise. That is because you cannot even control what color your hairs are. ³⁷ When you promise something, just say ‘Yes, I will do it,’ or ‘No, I will not do it.’ When you say more to guarantee what you promised, you are doing what Satan wants {you to do}.

³⁸ You know that God said, ‘{You must punish people in a way that matches how they hurt others. For example,} consider a person who blinded someone. You should punish that person by blinding him or her too. Consider a person who knocked out someone’s tooth. You should punish that person by knocking out his or her tooth too.’ ³⁹ Now here is what I want to tell you: do not try to stop people who do bad things to you. Rather, suppose that someone {insults you by} hitting you on the right side of your face. You should turn your face so that the person can hit the left side also. ⁴⁰ Suppose that someone wants to sue you for your shirt. You should give that person your coat as well. ⁴¹ Suppose that someone requires you to carry his or her burden for one section of road. You should continue to carry that person’s burden for a second {section of road}. ⁴² Suppose that someone requests something from you. You should give that person {what they requested}. Suppose that someone wants to receive a loan from you. You should lend money to that person.

⁴³ You know that God said, ‘Care for your fellow Jews.’ {Some people add,} ‘Despise those who oppose you.’ ⁴⁴ Now here is what I want to tell you: you should care for those who oppose you. You should pray for those who mistreat you. ⁴⁵ God causes the sun to shine on people who are wicked and on people who are good. God makes it rain on people who do what is right and on people who do what is wrong. So, when you {care and pray for people who oppose you}, you are like children of God, your Father, who rules from heaven. ⁴⁶ Further, if you care for {only} those who care for you, do not expect God to reward you for doing that. Even {unkind} tax collectors care for those who care for them. ⁴⁷ If you say hello {only} to fellow believers, you are not behaving any differently {than unbelievers do}. Even {unbelieving} non-Jews say hello to their friends. ⁴⁸ So, you should always do what is right, just as God, your Father, who rules from heaven, always does what is right.

Chapter 6

¹ When you do what God desires, make sure that you are not doing it so that people praise you for it. When you do what God desires so that others praise you, God your Father, who rules from heaven, will not reward you. ² Whenever some people give money to help poor people, they have someone announce what they are doing by playing a loud instrument in the Jewish meeting places and in the main roads. They pretend to help others, but they just want other people to praise them. God will not reward them any more than that. What I have said is true. So, you should not behave like that. ³ Instead, when you give money to help poor people, you should do it as privately as possible. ⁴ That way, only God your Father will know that you have given money to help poor people. When he observes you doing that privately, he will reward you.

⁵ Whenever some people pray to God, they enjoy doing so while standing in the Jewish meeting places and on the street corners. They pretend to focus on praying, but they just want other people to recognize them. God will not reward them any more than that. What I have said is true. So, you should not behave like that. ⁶ In contrast, when you want to pray to God, you should go to a private room in your house and close the door. Then, you can pray to God your Father, who is there with you in private. When he observes you doing that privately, he will reward you. ⁷ Further, as you are praying, do not repeat yourself as non-Jews do. They suppose that their gods will listen to them if they use many words. ⁸ So then, do not pray to God as they do. In fact, before you ask him {for anything that you need}, God your Father is already aware of what you need. ⁹ Here is how you should pray to God:

     ‘{I pray to} God our Father, who rules from heaven.

         May all people glorify you.

         ¹⁰ May you establish your kingdom.

         May everyone do what you want

             here on earth, just as {they already do} in heaven.

         ¹¹ Please give us the food we need each day.

         ¹² We have forgiven people for when they did not treat us rightly.

         In the same way, please forgive us for when we do not act rightly.

         ¹³ Please protect us from everything that tries to make us sin.

         Please rescue us when Satan tries to harm us.’

¹⁴ God your Father, who rules from heaven, will forgive you as long as you forgive the people who sin against you. ¹⁵ However, God your Father will not forgive you when you sin against him as long as you do not forgive other people.

¹⁶ Whenever some people do not eat in order to please God, they change how their faces look. They pretend to be sad, but they just want other people to recognize that they are not eating. God will not reward them any more than that. What I have said is true. So, you should not behave like that. ¹⁷ In contrast, when you do not eat in order to please God, you should keep yourselves neat and clean. ¹⁸ That way, other people do not know that you are not eating. Only God your Father, who is there with you in private, {will know}. When he observes you doing that privately, he will reward you

¹⁹ You should not collect many valuable things for yourselves in this world. In this world, insects eat clothes, and metal objects corrode. Further, robbers force their way into people’s houses to take their goods. ²⁰ Rather, you should collect many valuable things for yourselves in heaven. In heaven, insects do not eat clothes, and metal objects do not corrode. Further, robbers do not force their way into people’s houses to take their goods. ²¹ {That is important} because you think and care most about the place where you collect valuable things.

²² Your eyes are like a lamp since they enable you to see. If your eyes are working properly, then your whole body will benefit. ²³ However, if your eyes are not working properly, then your whole body does not benefit at all. So consider how bad it is when what you see as bright light is actually very dark!

²⁴ Servants cannot serve two different masters {at the same time}. {If they tried to do that,} they would hate one of them and love the other one, or they would be loyal to one of them and despise the other one. {In the same way,} you cannot devote your life to serving God if you are also devoting your life to acquiring money and other material possessions.

²⁵ So then, here is what I want to tell you: do not worry about whether you will have enough to eat or drink to stay alive. Do not worry about whether you will have enough clothes to wear to stay warm. After all, your life is more important than the food you eat, and your body is more important than the clothes you put on it. ²⁶ Think about the birds {that fly} in the sky. They do not plant seeds, and they do not harvest crops. They do not store crops, but God your Father, who rules from heaven, provides food for them. You are certainly much more important than they are{, so you can be sure that God will give you what you need}. ²⁷ You cannot add even a minute to your life by worrying about it!

²⁸ So, you should not worry about whether you will have enough clothes to wear. Observe the way that flowers grow in a field. They do not work {to earn money}, and they do not make their own clothes. ²⁹ However, here is what I want to tell you: King Solomon, who {lived long ago and} wore glorious clothes, never dressed as beautifully as a single flower. ³⁰ God makes plants beautiful, even though they grow for only a short time. Then people {cut them down and} throw them into the fire. {But you are very precious to God.} He will care for you even more than he cares for the plants. You should trust God more than you do! ³¹ So then, do not worry by asking about whether you have anything to eat or drink, or whether you have clothes to wear. ³² The people who do not know God worry about such things. {However, you should not worry about such things} because God your Father, who rules from heaven, knows that you need them all. ³³ You should concentrate primarily on what you can do for God’s kingdom and on doing what God considers to be right. When you do those things, {you can trust God} to provide everything you need. ³⁴ So then, do not worry about {what will happen} tomorrow. You can worry tomorrow about what will happen during that day. Enough bad things happen each day {that you should not worry about bad things that might happen tomorrow}.

Chapter 7

¹ Do not harshly criticize {other people}. That way, God will not harshly criticize you. ² {I say that} because God will harshly criticize you in the same way that you harshly criticize others. In fact, God will treat you in the same way that you treat others. ³ {None of you should be concerned about the small faults of another person. You should be concerned about your own serious faults.} Otherwise, that would be like noticing a speck in the eye of that person while not noticing a huge wooden plank in your own eye. ⁴ You should not tell another believer, ‘Let me help you correct your faults,’ while you have not yet dealt with your own faults. ⁵ If you do that, you are a hypocrite! You should first {stop committing your own sins. That will be like} removing a large plank from your own eye. Then, as a result, you will have the spiritual insight you need to help others get rid of the {smaller faults that are like} little specks in their eyes.

⁶ {Apply this saying to how you live:} do not present sacred things to dogs, and do not put valuable things in front of pigs. {I say that} because the pigs will crush your valuable things, and the dogs will destroy the sacred things and then attack you.

⁷ Keep asking {God for the things you need}, and he will give them to you. Keep seeking {those things from God}, and you will receive them. Ask God to make things possible for you, and he will act on your behalf. ⁸ {You should do those things} because everyone who keeps asking {God for the things they need} will receive them. Everyone who seeks {those things from God} will receive them. If people ask God to make things possible for them, God will act on their behalf.

⁹ Suppose one of you had a child who asked you for bread {to eat}. You certainly would not give your child a rock {to eat}! ¹⁰ Similarly, suppose that your child asked you for a fish {to eat}. You certainly would not give your child a poisonous snake {to eat}! ¹¹ So, even though you people are sinful, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. Therefore, it is even more certain that God your Father, who rules from heaven, will give good things to those who ask him.

¹² In conclusion, in whatever way you want others to act toward you, that is the way you should act toward them. Then, you will be doing what it says in all the parts of the Scriptures.

^13-14 {When you choose how to live, you are like a traveler choosing which path to take.} There is an easy path and a large gate, and many people go that way. However, if you go that way, God will punish you. There is also a hard path and a small gate, and only a few people go that way. You should use that small gate, because that is how you will truly live.

¹⁵ Watch out for people who lie when they claim to speak messages from God. They may look like they are part of God’s people, but really they want to hurt God’s people. ¹⁶ You can tell what people are really like by the things that they do. So, people are like plants in this way. A bush with thorns does not produce grapes. A thorny plant does not produce figs. ¹⁷ Similarly, all healthy fruit trees produce fruit that is good to eat. All unhealthy fruit trees produce fruit that is bad to eat. ¹⁸ Healthy fruit trees cannot produce fruit that is bad to eat. Unhealthy fruit trees cannot produce fruit that is good to eat. ¹⁹ People chop down every tree that does not produce fruit that is good to eat. Then, they burn those trees {for fuel}. {In the same way, God will punish everyone who does not do what is right.} ²⁰ Therefore, you can tell if a plant is healthy or unhealthy by what kind of fruit it produces. In the same way, you can tell what people are really like by the things that they do.

²¹ Just calling me your Lord is not enough for you to participate in God’s heavenly kingdom. Rather, you need to do what God my Father, who rules from heaven, wants {you to do}. ²² On the day when God will judge everyone, many people will tell me, ‘Our Lord, we represented you when we proclaimed what God says! We represented you when we drove evil spiritual beings out of people! We represented you when we did many powerful things!’ ²³ I will then respond to them, ‘You were never part of my people. You do what is wrong. Leave me!’”

²⁴ So, all people who hear my teachings and obey them are like wise people who construct their homes on top of solid rock. ²⁵ There may be heavy rain, and there may be floods, and there may be strong winds that buffet those homes. However, they will not collapse. That is because the wise people constructed them on top of solid rock. ²⁶ However, all people who hear my teachings and do not obey them are like foolish people who construct their homes on top of shifting sand. ²⁷ There may be heavy rain, and there may be floods, and there may be strong winds that buffet those homes. Then, they will collapse completely.

²⁸ When Jesus finished teaching, the large groups of people {who had listened to him} felt amazed at the way he taught. ²⁹ {They felt amazed} because he did not teach as the teachers of the Jewish law did. Rather, he taught them like someone whom God had authorized to do so.

Chapter 8

¹ When Jesus went down from the hill, large groups of people went wherever he went. ² Then, a man who had a skin disease came and knelt before Jesus. He said to Jesus, “Lord, {please heal me!} I know that you are able to heal me if you are willing!” ³ Then Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the man. He said, “I am willing {to heal you}, and I heal you now!” At that time, Jesus healed the man from his skin disease. ⁴ Then Jesus told him, “Do not tell anyone what just happened. Instead, go and show yourself to a priest {so that he can examine you and see that you no longer have the skin disease}. Also, present the offering that Moses required {for people whom God has healed from skin disease}. This will prove to the community {that you no longer have the skin disease}.”

⁵ While Jesus was visiting the city of Capernaum, an important Roman officer came to him. He urged Jesus {to help him}. ⁶ He said, “Lord, one of my servants is lying in bed at my home because he cannot move. He is suffering very much. {Please help him.}” ⁷ Jesus answered, “I will go {to your home} and cure him.” ⁸ The important officer responded, “Lord, I am not important enough for you to come into my house. Instead {of going to my house}, you can cure my servant just by speaking a command. ⁹ {I know that you can do this} because I myself am a man who must obey the orders of my superiors. I also have soldiers who must obey my orders. When I say to one of them, ‘Go there!’ he goes there. When I say to another one, ‘Come here!’ he comes {to me}. When I say to my slave, ‘Perform this task!’ he does it.” ¹⁰ What the officer said impressed Jesus. Jesus declared to the people who were with him, “I have not met any Israelite who trusts me as much as this man does! What I have said is true.” ¹¹ So, here is what I want to tell you: many people from every part of the world{, including many non-Jewish people,} will arrive in God’s heavenly kingdom. They will feast along with {our Jewish ancestors,} Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ¹² However, God will cast out many people who think that they will participate in his kingdom. He will punish them in a dark place, where they will cry and grind their teeth in sorrow.” ¹³ Then, Jesus told the important officer, “Return home. I will do for you what you have trusted me to do.” Jesus healed the servant at that exact time.

¹⁴ After that, Jesus went to Peter’s home. There, he saw that Peter’s mother-in-law was lying in bed because she had a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand, and she recovered from the fever. Then, she stood up and offered Jesus some food.

¹⁶ When it was evening, people brought to Jesus many men and women whom evil spiritual beings controlled. Jesus drove these evil spiritual beings out of those men and women just by speaking words. Also, he cured everyone who was sick. ¹⁷ So, what God said by speaking through the prophet Isaiah came true: “When we were feeble, he helped us. When we were sick, he cured us.”

¹⁸ When Jesus saw that there was a large group of people around him, he told his disciples to take him {by boat} to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. ¹⁹ {Before they got into the boat}, a teacher of the Jewish law came up to Jesus and said to him, “My instructor, I want to go with you and be your apprentice.” ²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes in the ground to live in, and birds have nests to live in, but I, the Son of Man, do not have a home to sleep in!” ²¹ A different person who was one of Jesus’ apprentices said to him, “Lord, let me first go home and stay there until I bury my father. {Then I will go with you}.” ²² Jesus responded, “Come with me and be my apprentice {now}. You cannot help anyone who has died.”

²³ After that, Jesus got on the boat, and his apprentices went with him. {They started sailing to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.} ²⁴ {As they were sailing} a strong windstorm developed over the Sea of Galilee! Very high waves were splashing into the boat and filling it, but Jesus was asleep. ²⁵ So Jesus’ disciples came over to wake him up. They said to him, “Lord, please help us! We are all going to die!” ²⁶ Jesus answered, “You should not be so afraid. You should trust God more than you do!” Then he stood up. He scolded the wind and the water, and everything became calm. ²⁷ {What happened} impressed the apprentices. They asked, “What kind of person is Jesus? The wind and the water do what he says!”

²⁸ After that, they arrived on the other side {of the Sea of Galilee}, in the region where the Gadarene people lived. {When they landed}, two men whom demons controlled came up to Jesus. They came from the burial caves. They were strong and dangerous. Because of them, no one could travel on the road {that went near the burial caves}. ²⁹ They shouted to Jesus, “Leave us alone, you who are God’s Son! You should not arrive to punish us before it is the time {that God has appointed}.” ³⁰ Now there was a large herd of pigs grazing relatively far away from them. ³¹ The demons pleaded with Jesus, “When you drive us out {of these two men}, please allow us to control that herd of pigs!” ³² Jesus answered, “I will allow that!” So, the demons left the men and began to control the pigs. Then, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the steep bank into the Sea of Galilee! They died there in the sea. ³³ Then those who were taking care of the pigs ran away. They went to the nearby town, where they told people about everything that had happened, including what had happened to the men whom the demons had controlled. ³⁴ Then many people who lived in that town went to see Jesus! When they met him, they pleaded with him to leave their area.

Chapter 9

¹ After that, Jesus and his apprentices got into a boat. They sailed across the Sea of Galilee and arrived back in the city of Capernaum, where Jesus was living. ² Some people brought to Jesus a man who could not move! He was lying on a sleeping pad. Jesus perceived that these people believed {that he could heal the man}. So, he said to the man who could not move, “Do not worry, young man. I forgive you for your sins!” ³ Some teachers of the Jewish law thought to themselves, “He is insulting God!” ⁴ Jesus realized what they were thinking. He said, “You should not be thinking what is wrong! ⁵ You may think that it is easy to claim to forgive other people for their sins{, since it is difficult to prove whether this has happened}. Similarly, you may think that it is difficult to tell {someone who cannot move} to stand up and walk around{, since it is easy to prove whether this has happened}. ⁶ However, I want you to know that God has authorized me, the Son of Man, to forgive people on earth for their sins.” So, he said to the man who could not move, “Stand up, carry your sleeping pad, and go home!” ⁷ Then, the man stood up and went home. ⁸ Once the large groups of people {who were near Jesus} saw what had happened, they felt afraid. Also, they praised God for enabling people to do such amazing things.

⁹ As Jesus was walking away from that place, he noticed a man whom people called Matthew. Matthew was sitting in the booth {where the people came to pay him the taxes that the government required}. Jesus said to him, “Come with me and be my apprentice!” So Matthew stood up and went with him as his apprentice. ¹⁰ Later, Jesus was feasting in Matthew’s home. Many people who collected taxes and other sinful people arrived! They feasted with Jesus and his apprentices. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw {what Jesus was doing}, they told Jesus' apprentices, “Your instructor should not be feasting with people who collect taxes and other sinful people.” ¹² Jesus learned what they said. He answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor. Rather, people who are sick need a doctor. ¹³ You should study and learn from what God has said in the Scriptures: ‘What I most want is that people treat each other mercifully, not that people present offerings to me.’ Much like that, I am here not to invite those who think they are righteous to come to me. Rather, {I invite} those who know that they have sinned {to come to me}.”

¹⁴ Sometime later, the apprentices of John the Baptizer visited Jesus. They asked him, “We and the Pharisees frequently do not eat in order to please God. However, your apprentices do not do so. Why not?” ¹⁵ Jesus answered, “The friends of the bridegroom do not grieve while the wedding celebration is still going on. However, some day the bridegroom will no longer be with his friends. Then they will not eat.

¹⁶ People do not place a piece of unshrunken cloth on old clothing in order to mend a hole. {That is} because{, when they washed the garment,} the new piece of cloth would shrink and completely rip out of the clothing. As a result, the hole would become even bigger! ¹⁷ Similarly, people do not put fresh wine into old skin bags {to store it}. If they did that, the skin bags would tear open {because they would not stretch when the fresh wine fermented and expanded}. That would ruin the skin bags, and the wine would spill out. On the contrary, people put fresh wine into new skin bags. That way, they do not ruin the wine and the bags.

¹⁸ As Jesus was speaking to John’s disciples, an important man arrived! He knelt before Jesus and said, “My daughter just died. Please come with me and touch her. That way, she will live {again}.” ¹⁹ Jesus and his apprentices stood up, and they went with the man. ^20-21 Now there was a woman who had been suffering for 12 years from a disease that caused continual bleeding. She thought, “Just touching Jesus’ robe will cure me.” So, she approached Jesus from behind, and she touched the hem of his robe. ²² {After the woman touched Jesus’ robe}, Jesus turned around and looked at her. He said to her, “Do not worry, young woman. Because you believed {that I could heal you}, you are now well.” At that very moment, the woman became well.

²³ After that, Jesus arrived at the important man’s home. He saw {people grieving there}. Some people were playing instruments, and many people were making much noise. ²⁴ He said to these people, “Leave! The young woman is not dead! She is only sleeping.” Then, the people made fun of him {for saying that}. ²⁵ After those people left, Jesus went {to where the girl was}. He took hold of her hand, and she {became alive again and} stood up. ²⁶ After that, people throughout that whole area heard about what Jesus had done.

²⁷ When Jesus left the important man’s house, two men who were blind went with him. They were shouting, “You who are a descendant of King David, help us!” ²⁸ After Jesus entered the house {where he was staying}, the blind men approached him. Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I can heal you?” They answered, “Yes, Lord, we do!” ²⁹ After {they said that,} he touched their eyes. He declared, “I will do for you what you have trusted me to do.” ³⁰ Then, they could see. Jesus sternly told them, “Do not tell anyone about what just happened!” ³¹ However, after the two men left, they told people throughout that whole area about what Jesus had done.

³² While the two men were leaving, some people brought a man to Jesus! A demon was controlling him and keeping him from speaking. ³³ Jesus drove the demon out of the man, and he was able to speak. What Jesus had done impressed the large groups of people {who were nearby}. They declared, “We have not seen anything like this before in our country Israel!” ³⁴ However, the Pharisees declared, “It is the leader of the demons who enables this man to drive out demons!”

³⁵ Jesus traveled to many of the cities and towns {in that area}. He instructed people {when they gathered} in the Jewish meeting places. He proclaimed the good news about God’s kingdom. He cured people who were sick in any way. ³⁶ Jesus observed that the large groups of people {who traveled wherever he went} seemed upset and confused. They were like sheep who did not have a sheepherder {to lead them and to take care of them}. So, Jesus pitied them. ³⁷ So he told his apprentices, “Many people are ready to believe in me, but there are only a few people whom I can send out to help them. ³⁸ So pray to God{, who wants all of those people to believe,} and plead with him for more people who can go and help them.

Chapter 10

¹ Then, Jesus told his 12 apprentices to come to him. He authorized them to drive demons out of people and to cure people who were sick in any way. ² Here is a list of the names of the Twelve Representatives: Simon, whom people also call Peter; Andrew, Peter’s {younger} brother; James, Zebedee’s son; John, James’ {younger} brother; ³ Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew, a man who collected taxes; James, Alphaeus’ son; Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who eventually helped to arrest Jesus.

⁵ Jesus sent those 12 apprentices {to represent him}. {Before they went}, he told them, “Do not travel to places where non-Jews live. Do not visit Samaritan towns. ⁶ Instead, go to your fellow Israelites. They are like sheep who have wandered off {and need help}. ⁷ While you are traveling, proclaim {to people}, ‘God is about to establish his heavenly kingdom here.’ ⁸ Cure people who are sick. Make people who have died alive again. Heal people with skin diseases. Drive demons out of people. I have not charged you money as I enable you to do these things. So, you should not charge other people money to do these things for them. ⁹ Do not pack any money to take with you. ¹⁰ Do not pack a traveler’s bag, or an extra shirt, or sandals, or a walking stick. {I tell you not to bring these things} because people who work deserve their food. {So, the people whom you help will give you what you need}. ¹¹ When you visit a city or town, look for someone who lives there who welcomes you. {When you find such a person}, stay in that person’s home until you leave that area. ¹² When you go into that person’s home, say hello to the people who live there {and pray that God will make them peaceful}. ¹³ Suppose that the people who live in that house really do welcome you. Then, God will make them peaceful, as you prayed. However, suppose that the people who live in that house do not welcome you. Then, God will not make them peaceful. ¹⁴ Whenever people do not welcome you or listen to what you say, you should leave that home or city. As you are going, shake the dust from that place off your feet {to show that you reject those people}. ¹⁵ {God will judge and punish} any people who reject you more severely than he will judge and punish the {wicked} people who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. What I have said is true.

¹⁶ I am sending you out {to represent me} to people who will be hostile to you, so you will be like sheep among wolves. Therefore, you need to be as clever as snakes are. You also need to be as innocent as small birds are. ¹⁷ Watch out for certain people. They will arrest you and accuse you in front of groups of important people. They will beat you in the Jewish meeting places. ¹⁸ Because you are my apprentices, people will accuse you before local rulers and kings. That way, you will tell those rulers and the rest of the non-Jews {about me}. ¹⁹ Whenever people arrest you and accuse you, do not worry about how you will respond. At that time, God will reveal to you what you should say. ²⁰ {You can be sure of that} because the Holy Spirit, whom God your Father sends, will reveal to you what to say. You will not speak for yourself. ²¹ Men will have someone arrest their own brothers, and they will ask the judge to execute them. Fathers {will do the same thing} to their own children. Children will rebel against their parents and cause them to die. ²² Because you are my apprentices, many people will be hostile to you. However, if you persevere {in being my apprentices} while people harm you, God will rescue you. ²³ When people in one city try to harm you, you should quickly travel to another city. {You should do that} because I, the Son of Man, will return before you have proclaimed the good news in every town in Israel. What I have said is true.

²⁴ Apprentices are not greater than their teacher. Similarly, servants are not greater than their master. ²⁵ Those apprentices should be content when they become like their teacher. Similarly, those servants {should be content when they become} like their master. Since people called the person who leads the family Satan, they will also call the people who are part of the family {bad names}.

²⁶ So then, do not be afraid of those people. {I say that} because someday God will let everyone know everything people are trying to hide. ²⁷ You should declare publicly everything I have said to you privately. You should shout for everyone to hear what you have heard me say quietly. ²⁸ Do not be afraid of people. They can kill you physically, but they cannot kill you spiritually. Instead, you should be afraid of God. He can destroy you both spiritually and physically in hell. ²⁹ Think about the sparrows. {They have so little value that} you can buy two of them for only one small coin. However, God your Father knows about it whenever one sparrow dies. ³⁰ God even knows how many hairs there are on your head. ³¹ So, do not be afraid, because you are more precious {to God} than many sparrows. ³² If people tell others that they are my apprentices, then I will say to God my Father, who rules from heaven, that those people are my apprentices. ³³ However, if they tell others that they are not my apprentices, then I will say to God my Father, who rules from heaven, that those people are not my disciples.

³⁴ You should not think that I am here so that people will live together peacefully. Indeed, I am here so that people quarrel, not so that they live peacefully. ³⁵ In fact, I am here so that {family members} oppose each other. A man will oppose his father. A woman will oppose her mother. A woman who married {a man} will oppose her husband’s mother. ³⁶ People who are part of a person’s family will be those who oppose that person. ³⁷ People who care for their fathers or mothers more than they care for me are not behaving as my apprentices should. People who care for their sons or daughters more than they care for me are not behaving as my apprentices should. ³⁸ People who are not willing to suffer or die, as if they were carrying their own crosses, when they come with me as my apprentices are not behaving as my apprentices should. ³⁹ People who do anything to stay alive will not truly live. However, people who are willing to die because they are my apprentices will truly live.

⁴⁰ When people welcome you, it is the same as welcoming me. When people welcome me, it is the same as welcoming {God the Father}, who sent me here. ⁴¹ As for those who welcome someone because they know that person speaks for God, God will reward them in the same way that he rewards people who speak for him. As for those who welcome someone because they know that person does what is right, God will reward them in the same way that he rewards people who do what is right. ⁴² As for those who offer an unimportant person cold water to drink just because they know that person is my apprentice, God will most certainly reward them. What I have said is true.

Chapter 11

¹ So, Jesus completed instructing his 12 apprentices {about what they should do}. Then, he left that place in order to proclaim {the good news to people} in the towns throughout the area.

² Meanwhile, John the Baptizer was in jail. People told him about what {Jesus} the Messiah was doing. So, he sent some of his apprentices ³ to ask Jesus, “Are you the one whom {God promised} would come, or should we be waiting for someone else?” ⁴ So Jesus answered John’s apprentices, “Go back and tell John what you have heard and seen. ⁵ People who were blind are now seeing. People who were lame are now walking. People who had skin diseases no longer have them. People who were deaf can now hear. People who were dead are alive again. I am proclaiming good news to poor people. ⁶ God will bless anyone who {sees what I do and hears what I teach and} continues to believe in me.”

⁷ When John’s apprentices left, Jesus started to talk to the large groups of people about John. He said, “Surely you did not travel to John in the desolate area to see someone who often changed his mind, who was like the thin stalk of a plant that the wind shakes. ⁸ Surely you did not travel {to the desolate area} to see someone who wore fancy clothes. You know very well that the people who wear fancy clothes live in palaces{, not in desolate areas}. ⁹ Surely you traveled {to the desolate area} to see a man who spoke for God. Yes{, that is who John is}! But I want to tell you that John is more significant than other people who speak for God. ¹⁰ He is the one about whom a prophet wrote in the Scriptures:

     ‘Listen, I am sending my messenger ahead of you. He will make things ready for when you come.’

¹¹ Of all the people who have ever lived, there has been no one more important than John the Baptizer. However, the most insignificant people who participate in God’s heavenly kingdom are more important than John. What I have said is true. ¹² From the time when John the Baptizer began to preach publicly until this time, people have attacked God’s heavenly kingdom. Indeed, violent people try to conquer it. ¹³ Further, before John {began to preach}, the laws that God gave Moses and the things that the prophets wrote predicted {what is now happening}. ¹⁴ In fact, if you trust what I say, you can know that John is the one {whom God promised} would come, {the one who is like} the prophet Elijah. ¹⁵ You should think carefully about what you just heard me say!

¹⁶ {I will tell you} what {you people who live in} this time period are like. You are like children playing games in an open area. They call out to their friends, ¹⁷ ‘We played happy music for you on the flute, but you did not dance! Then we sang sad funeral songs for you, but you did not grieve!’ ¹⁸ Similarly, when John came to you and often did not eat or drink, people {rejected him and} said, ‘A demon is controlling him!’ ¹⁹ But when I, the Son of Man, came to you and I enjoyed food and drink, people {rejected me and} said, ‘Look! This man eats too much food and drinks too much wine, and he associates with people who collect taxes and other sinful people!’ But those who are wise themselves recognize that what John and I do is also wise.”

²⁰ Now people who lived in the towns where Jesus had done many powerful things did not stop doing what was wrong. So, Jesus began to scold them: ²¹ “How terrible it will be for you people who live in the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida! I say this because I did powerful things while I was in your cities. If I had done those same powerful things in {the ancient cities of} Tyre and Sidon, the {wicked} people who lived there would have stopped doing what was wrong. They would have shown how sorry they were by wearing coarse clothing and putting ashes on their heads. ²² So I want to tell you that when God judges everyone, he will punish you more severely than {the wicked people who lived in} Tyre and Sidon. ²³ I also have something to say to you people who live in the town of Capernaum. You may think that God is going to give you great rewards. No, God is not going to reward you at all! I say this because I did powerful things while I was in your town. If I had done those same powerful things in {the city of} Sodom, the {wicked} people who lived there {would have stopped doing what was wrong, and} God would not have destroyed them. ²⁴ So I want to tell you that when God judges everyone, he will punish you more severely than {the wicked people who lived in} the region of Sodom.

²⁵ Then Jesus responded by praying, “God my Father, you are Lord over everything you have made. I praise you that you have prevented people who think they are smart from understanding things. Instead, you have revealed them to people who accept {what you say} as readily as little children do. ²⁶ That is true, my Father, and you have done that because it pleased you to do so.

²⁷ God, my Father, has given everything to me. Only my Father really knows me, his Son. And only I, his Son, really know my Father. But I do choose to show some people who he is. ²⁸ Many of you feel tired and are struggling. Become my apprentices! I will enable you to rest. ²⁹ I am not forceful or proud, and I will help you to rest. So, do what I command and listen to what I teach. ³⁰ {I say that} because you can easily do what I command. Indeed, you can easily do what I ask you to do.

Chapter 12

¹ Some time later, Jesus {and his apprentices} were walking through grain fields during one of the Jewish day of rest. His apprentices became hungry, so they started to pick some grain and eat it. ² Some Pharisees saw {the apprentices picking grain}. They said to Jesus, “Look! Your apprentices are working on the Jewish day of rest. Our law forbids us to do that.” ³ Jesus replied, “Consider the story in the Scriptures about what King David did when he and the men who were with him became very hungry. ⁴ As you know, David entered the sacred tent. He ate some of the bread that had been on display before God, even though the law prohibited him and the men who were with him from doing that. Only priests could eat that bread. ⁵ Likewise, consider the laws in the Scriptures that permit priests to work during the Jewish days of rest because they are serving in the Jewish sanctuary . ⁶ However, I want you to know that there is now something even more important than the Jewish sanctuary. ⁷ Suppose that you truly understood what God has said in the Scriptures: ‘What I most want is that people treat each other mercifully, not that people present offerings to me.’ Then, you would not have declared {my apprentices} guilty when they have actually not disobeyed {the laws about the Jewish day of rest}. ⁸ {I say those things} because I, the Son of Man, can decide {what is right for people to do} during the Jewish day of rest!”

⁹ Then Jesus left the grain fields and visited one of the Jewish meeting places. ¹⁰ Now there was a man there who could not move his hand. The Pharisees wanted to accuse Jesus {of disobeying the laws about not working on the Sabbath}. So, they asked Jesus, “Does our law allow us to cure {people from their diseases} during Jewish days of rest?” ¹¹ Jesus replied, “Suppose that one of you had a single sheep. Also suppose that this sheep fell into a deep hole on a Jewish day of rest. You would certainly pull it out of the hole{, even though this would be doing work on the Jewish day of rest}! ¹² Therefore, {since} people are more important than sheep{, you should help others even more than you help sheep on Jewish days of rest}. So then, the laws that God gave Moses allow people to do what is good on Jewish days of rest.” ¹³ After {saying that}, Jesus commanded the man, “Extend the hand {that you cannot move}!” The man extended his hand, and he could move it just as well as his other hand. ¹⁴ Then the Pharisees left {the Jewish meeting place}. They started planning how they could kill Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus knew {that the Pharisees were planning to kill him}. So, he left that area. Many people went with him, and he cured all of them {who were sick}. ¹⁶ Jesus commanded them strongly that they should not tell other people about him. ¹⁷ So, what God said by speaking through the prophet Isaiah came true:

     ¹⁸ “Consider the one who serves me, whom I selected.

     I love him, and what he does pleases me.

     I will empower him with the Holy Spirit.

     He will declare to the non-Jews that I do what is right.

     ¹⁹ He will not quarrel with people. He will not shout loudly.

     He will not speak to many people in public areas.

     ²⁰

     He will be gentle with weak people.

     He will be kind to feeble people.

     {He will do those things} until he successfully completes doing what is right. ²¹ Non-Jewish people will confidently trust in him.”

²² After that, some people brought a man to Jesus. A demon was controlling him and keeping him from seeing or speaking. Jesus cured the man, and he was able to speak and see. ²³ What Jesus had done impressed all the large groups of people {who were nearby}. They declared {to each other}, “Perhaps this man is the special descendant of King David.” ²⁴ However, the Pharisees heard {them saying that}. They responded, “This man forces out demons only because Beelzebul, who rules the demons, enables him to do so.” ²⁵ Jesus realized what they were thinking. So he said to them, “When the people in one nation fight against each other, they will destroy their nation. When people who live in the same town or household fight against each other, that town or household will not last. ²⁶ Suppose that Satan enabled people to force out his own demons. In that case, he would be fighting against himself. So, he would soon cease to rule over the demons! ²⁷ Further, suppose that Beelzebul is enabling me to force out demons. Then, it must also be true that he is enabling your apprentices to force out demons. {But you know that is not true.} So your own apprentices prove that you are wrong. ²⁸ Actually, the Holy Spirit enables me to force out demons. That means that God is establishing his kingdom among you.

²⁹ Before thieves can break into the home of a strong man and take his belongings, they must first tie up the strong man. After that, they can take the belongings from his home.

³⁰ Anyone who is not supporting me is opposing me. Anyone who is not bringing people to me is sending them away from me.

³¹ So then, here is what I want to tell you: God will forgive many people who sin in many ways or say bad things {about God or others}. However, God will not forgive people who say bad things about the Holy Spirit. ³² Further, God will forgive people who say bad things about me, the Son of Man. However, God will not forgive people who say bad things about the Holy Spirit. {He will} not {forgive them} right now or at any later time.

³³ You must decide either that both a tree and its fruit are healthy or that both a tree and its fruit are unhealthy. {I say that} because you can tell if a tree is healthy or unhealthy by what kind of fruit it produces. Similarly, you can tell what people are really like by the things that they do. ³⁴ You people are sneaky and dangerous like poisonous snakes! Because you are wicked, you cannot speak anything good. {I say that} because people speak based on what they are thinking about. ³⁵ Good people say good things because they think good things. Evil people say evil things because they think evil things. ³⁶ Here is what I want you to know: when God judges everyone, he will hold people responsible for all the useless things that they have said. ³⁷ In fact, God will declare that you are either innocent or guilty based on what you have said.”

³⁸ After {Jesus said those things}, some teachers of the Jewish law and some Pharisees responded, “Instructor, we want to see you perform a miracle {that proves that God sent you}.” ³⁹ Then Jesus replied to them, “You people who are alive right now are wicked and faithless. You want me to do a miracle {that proves that God sent me}. However, the only miracle you will see is a miracle like the one that happened to the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ {A huge fish swallowed Jonah, and} he was inside this fish for three whole days. {Then, God had the fish spit him out.} Similarly, people will bury me, the Son of Man, and I will be in a tomb for three whole days. {Then, I will live again.} ⁴¹ The people who lived in the ancient city of Nineveh stopped sinning when Jonah preached to them. And now there is something even more important than {the prophet} Jonah. {However, you have not stopped sinning.} Therefore, when God judges everyone, the people who lived in Nineveh will stand up and condemn the people who are alive right now. ⁴² The Queen from the country of Sheba, which is south of Israel, who lived long ago, came from far away in order to listen to King Solomon teach many wise things. Now I have come to you, and I am far more important than Solomon was, but you have not listened to me. So when God judges everyone, God will resurrect the Queen of Sheba alongside of you and she will condemn you.”

⁴³ “Listen to this parable: An evil spirit might leave someone and wander around in desolate areas looking for someone else to live in. If it does not find anyone there, ⁴⁴ it says to itself, ‘I will return to the person in whom I used to live and have control.’ So he goes back and finds that the Spirit of God is not in control of that person’s life. The person’s life is like a house that has been swept clean and everything put in order, but it is empty with no one living in it. ⁴⁵ Then this evil spirit goes and gets seven other spirits that are even more evil, and they all enter that person and begin living there. So although that person’s condition was bad before, it becomes much worse. That is what you wicked people who have heard me teach will experience.”

⁴⁶ While Jesus was still speaking to the crowd, his mother and his younger brothers arrived. They stood outside the house, wanting to speak with him. ⁴⁷ Someone said to him, “Your mother and your younger brothers are standing outside the house wanting to talk to you.” ⁴⁸ Then Jesus responded to the person who said this to him, “I will tell you who are really my mother and brothers.” ⁴⁹ He then pointed toward his apprentices and said, “These apprentices are like my mother and my brothers to me. ⁵⁰ Those who do what God my Father who is in heaven wants are to me like my brother, my sister, or my mother.”

Chapter 13

¹ That same day, Jesus, along with the disciples, left the house where he was teaching and went to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He sat down there. ² After arriving there, a large crowd came to him. So Jesus got into a boat to sit {and teach}, and all of the people stood on the beach {to listen to him}. ³ Jesus taught them using many parables. He said, “Listen carefully to what I say! A man went out to his field to sow seeds. ⁴ As he was scattering the seeds over the soil, some of the seeds fell along the edge of the path. Then, some birds came and ate those seeds. ⁵ Other seeds fell on ground in a place where there was not much soil on top of rocks. The sun quickly warmed the shallow soil, so the seeds sprouted very quickly. ⁶ But when the day got very hot because the sun was at its highest point in the sky, the plants were scorched. Then, because they did not have deep roots {because of the shallow soil}, they dried up. ⁷ Other seeds fell on ground that had thorny weeds. The thorny weeds grew much quicker than the plants, so they crowded out the plants. ⁸ Still other seeds fell on good soil. These plants grew and produced a lot of grain. Some plants produced 100 times as many seeds as were planted. Some plants produced 60 times as much. Some plants produced 30 times as much. ⁹ Whoever is willing to listen, listen to what I say.”

¹⁰ The apprentices approached Jesus after he spoke that parable and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you speak to the crowd?” ¹¹ Jesus answered, “God is revealing to you what he has not revealed before about how he is making people to be his people to rule over from heaven. But he has not revealed this to the people in this crowd. ¹² Those who are able to understand what God has revealed to them, God will enable them to understand more. But from those who are not able understand what I say in my parables, even the little that they are able to understand God will take from them. ¹³ This is why I use parables when I speak to people, because although they see the miracles that I do, they do not understand what it means, and although they hear what I teach, they do not really learn what it means. ¹⁴ What these people do completely fulfills what God told the prophet Isaiah to say long ago when he said: ‘You will hear what I say, but you will not understand it. Similarly, you will see what I do, but you will not learn what it means.’

¹⁵ God also said to Isaiah,

     ‘These people are not able to understand these things.

     Even though they have ears which are able to hear, they do not understand my message.

     Even though I have done many great things in their sight, it is as if they shut their eyes. For they do not understand the things they have seen me do.

     If they had not done this, they would be able to see with their eyes and understand what I have done. Similarly, they would be able to hear my message and understand what it means. They would have been able to understand what I have done and what I have said, and they would have repented of their sins, and I would have forgiven their sins.’

¹⁶ But God has blessed you by making you able to understand what you see with your eyes and hear with your ears. ¹⁷ For what I say to you is true: Many prophets and righteous people who lived long ago desired to see what you are seeing me do, but they did not see it. Those prophets and righteous people also desired to hear the things that you have heard me say, but they did not hear what you have heard me say.”

¹⁸ Now listen to me explain the parable about the man who sowed seeds in various kinds of soil. ¹⁹ Some people hear the message about how God is causing people to be his people, but they do not understand it. They are like the path where some of the seeds fell. Like the bird who eats the seed, Satan, the evil one, comes and causes these people to forget what they have heard. ²⁰ Some people hear God’s message and immediately accept it joyfully. They are like the rocky places where some seeds fell. ²¹ But because it does not penetrate deeply into their hearts like deep roots, they believe it for only a short time. When others treat them badly and make them suffer because they believe in what I have told them, they quickly stop believing it any longer. ²² Some people hear God’s message, but they desire to be rich, so they worry only about what they need to live, as well as money and possessions. These things choke out their understanding of God's message like weeds that choke a plant growing among them. As a result, they do not do the things that please God. ²³ But some people hear my message and understand it. They do many things that please God. In this way they are like the seed which fell on good soil, and it produces thirty, sixty, or one hundred grains.”

²⁴ Jesus also told the crowd another parable. He said, “When God makes people to be his people to rule over from heaven, it will be like this story: A man is sowing good seed in his field. ²⁵ While that man was sleeping and not guarding the field, someone who did not like the man came and scattered weed seeds in the midst of the good seeds. Then he left. ²⁶ After the seeds sprouted and the plants grew, the heads of grain began to form. But the weeds also grew and were visible to the man. ²⁷ So the servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, you certainly gave us good seeds and those are the ones we sowed in your field. So where did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸ The landowner said to them, ‘My enemy did this.’ Then his servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to pull up the weeds?’ ²⁹ He said to them, ‘No! Do not do that. For you might pull up some of the wheat at the same time as pulling up the weeds. ³⁰ Let the wheat and the weeds grow together until harvest time. At that time, I will say to those who will reap, ‘First gather the weeds, and tie them into bundles for burning. Then gather the wheat and put it into my storehouse.’”

³¹ Jesus also told this parable: “When God makes people his people to rule from heaven, it is similar to what happens when mustard seeds grow after a man plants them in his field. ³² For the mustard seed starts as the smallest seed of any seed. But after it grows, it becomes a tree on which birds can live, much bigger than any other plants which are planted in a garden. It is the same way when God makes people his people to rule over. It starts out with few people, but eventually, many people become God's people whom he rules over.”

³³ Jesus also told this parable: “When God makes people his people to rule over from heaven, it is like when a woman mixed yeast into 40 liters of bread. This caused the bread to get bigger. Similarly, God's kingdom will start out being small, but will grow much bigger.”

³⁴ When Jesus taught the crowd these lessons, he only taught them using parables. ³⁵ By doing that, he proved true what God told one of the prophets to write long ago:

“I will speak in parables; I will tell parables to teach what I have kept secret since I created the world.”

³⁶ After Jesus sent the crowd away, he went into the house. Then the apprentices approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable about the weeds that grew in the wheat field.” ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed in the story represents me, the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field represents this world, where people live. The seeds that grew food represent God's people who he rules over as their father. The weeds represent the people who have the devil as their father. ³⁹ The enemy who sowed the weed seeds represents the devil. The time when the reapers will harvest the grain represents the time when the world will end. The reapers represent the angels. ⁴⁰ These weeds are gathered from the field and burned. That represents what will happen {to evil people} when God judges all people, when the world will end. It will be like this: ⁴¹ I, the Son of Man, will send my angels, and they will gather from among all that I am ruling the people that cause others to sin and all those who violate God’s law. ⁴² The angels will throw those people into the fires of hell, which is like a furnace. There they will weep because of their suffering, and they will grind their teeth because they will be in severe pain. ⁴³ However, the people who have pleased God with their actions will be glorified with him in heaven when he rules over them as a loving father. Whoever is willing to listen, listen to what I say.

⁴⁴ “When God makes people his people to rule from heaven, it is like a treasure that a man found which another person had buried in a field. When he dug it up, he buried it again so no one else would find it. Then he happily went and sold all his possessions to obtain money to buy that field. He then went and bought the field and acquired that treasure.

⁴⁵ Also, when God makes people his people to rule from heaven it is like what a merchant did who was looking for very valuable pearls to buy. ⁴⁶ When he found one very valuable pearl that was for sale, he sold all his possessions to acquire enough money to buy that pearl. Then he went and bought it.

⁴⁷ Similarly, when God makes people his people to rule from heaven, it is like what happens when fishermen cast their net into the sea. They caught all kinds of fish, both useful and worthless fish. ⁴⁸ When the net was full, the fishermen pulled it up onto the shore. Then they sat there and put the good fish into containers, but they threw the worthless ones away. ⁴⁹ This is like what will happen to people when the world ends. The angels will come to where God is judging people and will separate the wicked people from the righteous people. ⁵⁰ The angels will throw the wicked people into the fire in hell. There they will weep because of their suffering, and they will grind their teeth because they will be in severe pain.”

⁵¹ Then Jesus asked the disciples, “Do you understand all these parables I have told you?” They said to him, “Yes, we understand them.” ⁵² Then he said, “Those teachers of the law who have become God's people over whom he rules from heaven are like a house owner who shares new and old things out of their treasure. Similarly, the teacher of the law teaches people old teachings as well as new teachings from me.”

⁵³ When Jesus had finished telling these parables, he left that area. ⁵⁴ Then Jesus went to the town of Nazareth, his hometown. On the Sabbath he began to teach the people in the synagogue. The result was that the people there were astonished, and some were saying, “From where does this man get his wisdom and ability to do miracles? ⁵⁵ For he is just the son of the carpenter. His mother is certainly named Mary, and his younger brothers are James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas! ⁵⁶ And all of his sisters also live here in our town. So how is he able to teach and do all these things?” ⁵⁷ The people there sinned and refused to accept that Jesus had such authority. So Jesus said to them, “People honor me and other prophets everywhere else we go, but in our hometowns and among our own families, we are not honored.” ⁵⁸ Jesus did not perform many miracles there, because the people did not believe that he had such authority.

Chapter 14

¹ During that time the ruler Herod Antipas heard reports about Jesus performing miracles and teaching. ² He said to his servants, “That must be John the Baptizer. He must have risen from the dead, and that is why he has power to do these miracles.” ^3-4 {Herod said John had been raised from the dead because John had died.} This is how he died: John was saying to Herod Antipas that it was not lawful to have Herodias as his wife. Herodias, who was the wife of Herod's brother Philip, had her servants throw John in prison because he was saying this. ⁵ Herod wanted to order his men to execute John, but he was afraid of the masses of people, because they believed that John was a prophet speaking for God.

⁶ One day, there was a party to celebrate Herod's birthday, and Herodias’ daughter danced for his guests. Her dancing pleased Herod very much, ⁷ so he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. ⁸ Herodias told her daughter beforehand what to say, so she said to Herod, “I want you to cut off the head of John the Baptizer and bring it here on a platter to show that he is really dead!” ⁹ The king was now very sorry that he had promised to give Herodias’ daughter whatever she wanted. But because he had made a vow, and because all his guests had heard him do so, he felt that he had to do what he promised. So he ordered his servants to do what she wanted. ¹⁰ He sent soldiers to the prison, and they cut off John’s head. ¹¹ Then they put John’s head on a platter and brought it to the girl. Then the girl took it to her mother. ¹² Later, John’s apprentices went to the prison, took John’s body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened. ¹³ After Jesus heard that news, he went with the disciples by boat on the Sea of Galilee to a place where no one lived.

After the crowds heard about where he had gone, they left their towns and followed him, walking along the shore. ¹⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd waiting for him. He felt sorry for them, and he healed the sick people who were among them.

¹⁵ When it was evening, the apprentices came to Jesus and said, “This is a place where nobody lives, and it is very late in the day. Tell the crowds to go back to their towns so they can buy food.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said to his disciples, “They do not need to leave to get food. Instead, you yourselves should give them something to eat!” ¹⁷ The disciples said, “We only have five loaves of bread and two cooked fish here with us!” ¹⁸ He said, “Bring them to me!” ¹⁹ Jesus told the crowd of people who had gathered there to sit on the grass. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish from the apprentices. He looked up to the sky and prayed, thanking God for them, and broke them into many pieces. Then he gave the pieces back to his apprentices, and they distributed them to the crowd. ²⁰ All the people ate until they were no longer hungry. Then the disciples gathered the pieces that were left over and filled twelve baskets with them. ²¹ About 5, 000 men ate at that time, not counting the women and children!

²² Right after that happened, Jesus compelled the disciples to get in the boat and to go ahead of him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. In the meantime, he was going to send the crowd home. ²³ After he sent the crowd away, he went up into the hills to pray by himself. It was evening, and he was alone in that place. ²⁴ By this time the disciples were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. The wind was blowing very hard in the opposite direction that they were sailing, tossing the boat around on the waves. ²⁵ Then Jesus came down from the hills to the water sometime between three and six o’clock in the morning. He approached the boat, walking on the water. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they thought that he must be a ghost. So they were terrified, and they screamed in fear. ²⁷ Immediately Jesus said to them, “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid!” ²⁸ Peter said to him, “Lord, if it really is you, tell me to walk on the water to you!” ²⁹ Jesus said, “Come!” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when Peter saw the big waves from the strong wind, he became afraid. Thus, he began to sink in the water and cried out, “Lord, rescue me!” ³¹ Right away Jesus reached out with his hand and grabbed Peter. He said to him, “You only trust in me a little bit! You should not have doubted that I could keep you from sinking!” ³² Then, when Jesus and Peter got in the boat, the wind stopped blowing. ³³ All of the disciples who were in the boat bowed down and worshiped Jesus, and they said, “You certainly are the Son of God!”

³⁴ When they had gone across the lake in the boat, they reached the shore at the town of Gennesaret. ³⁵ The men of that area recognized Jesus, so they sent people to inform those who lived in the whole region that Jesus had come. Then the people brought to Jesus everyone who was sick. ³⁶ The sick people kept begging him to allow them to touch even the edge of his robe so that they would be healed. And so, everyone who touched his robe was healed from their sicknesses.

Chapter 15

¹ Then some Pharisees and men who taught the Jewish laws came from Jerusalem to talk to Jesus. They said, ² “We see that your apprentices disobey the traditions of our ancestors! They do not perform the proper ritual of washing their hands before they eat!” ³ Jesus answered them, “And I see that you refuse to obey God’s commands just so that you can follow what your ancestors taught you! ⁴ God gave these two commands: 'Honor your father and your mother.’ He also wrote, ‘Anyone who speaks in an evil way about their father or mother God will punish with death.’ ⁵ But you tell the people that they can say to their father and mother, 'What I was going to give to you to help provide for you, I have now promised to give to God', ⁶ and you tell people that they do not need to honor their father since they are giving their goods to God. By telling them to do that, you ignore what God commanded so that you can follow what your ancestors taught you! ⁷ You only pretend to be good! Isaiah told the truth about you when God spoke through him saying, ⁸ ‘These people talk as if they honor me, but they do not really desire to honor me, ⁹ They do not really worship me. For they teach people to obey man-made commandments which I did not command them to follow.’”

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the crowd to come nearer to him. He said to them, “Listen to what I am about to tell you and try to understand it. ¹¹ Nothing that a person puts into his mouth to eat causes God to consider them ceremonially unclean. But rather, it is what people say that shows that a person is ceremonially unclean.”

¹² Later the apprentices went to Jesus and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees heard what you said and became very angry at you?” ¹³ Then Jesus told them this parable. “My Father in heaven will get rid of all those who teach things that are against what he says, just like a farmer gets rid of plants that he did not plant by pulling them up by their roots. ¹⁴ Do not pay any attention to the Pharisees. They are like blind people who lead other blind people into a pit because they cannot see where they are going. For they do not know how to teach people to obey God.”

¹⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable about what a person eats.” ¹⁶ Jesus replied to them, “You ought to be able to understand what I am teaching by now! But you still do not understand. ¹⁷ You ought to understand that whatever food people eat enters their stomachs and then passes out of their bodies. ¹⁸ But the evil words which a person speaks from their innermost desires is what causes God to consider them ceremonially unclean. ¹⁹ This is because it is people’s innermost desires that cause them to think evil things, to murder people, to commit adultery, to commit sexual sins, to steal things, to testify falsely against someone, or to speak evil about others. ²⁰ It is these actions that cause God to consider people ceremonially unclean. But to eat with unwashed hands does not cause God to consider people this way.”

²¹ After Jesus and his disciples left the district of Galilee, they all went toward the region where the cities of Tyre and Sidon are located. ²² A woman from the group of people called Canaanites, who live in that region, came to Jesus. She kept shouting to him, “Lord, you are the descendant of King David. You are the Messiah! Help me! For my daughter is suffering very much because a demon controls her.” ²³ But Jesus did not answer her at all. The apprentices said to him, “Tell her to leave, for she keeps bothering us by shouting behind us as we are walking.” ²⁴ Jesus said to her, “God has sent me only to the people of Israel, because they are like sheep who have lost their way.” ²⁵ But the woman came closer to Jesus. She knelt down in front of him and pled, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ Jesus responded to her, “It is not good for someone to take the food the mother has prepared for the children and then throw it to the little dogs.” ²⁷ But the woman replied, “Lord, what you say is correct, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall to the floor when their masters sit at their tables and eat!” ²⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, because you believe in me, I will heal your daughter as you desire!” At that moment the demon left her daughter, and she became well.

²⁹ Then Jesus and his disciples went away from that area, and came near to the Sea of Galilee. Then Jesus climbed the hill near there and sat down to teach the people. ³⁰ Large crowds came to him bringing lame people, crippled people, and blind people, those who were unable to talk, and many others who had various sicknesses. They laid them in front of Jesus in order that he would heal them. And he healed them. ³¹ The crowd saw him heal people who could not talk, crippled people, lame people, and blind people, and they were amazed and glorified God.

³² Then Jesus called his apprentices to him and said, “This crowd of people has been with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. Therefore, I feel sorry for them, and do not want to send them away while they are still hungry. For if I did that, they might faint on the way home.” ³³ The disciples said to him, “We certainly will not find enough food for this large crowd here in the desert!” ³⁴ Jesus asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They answered him, “Seven small loaves and a few small, cooked fish.” ³⁵ Then Jesus told the people to sit on the ground. ³⁶ He took the seven loaves and the cooked fish. After he had thanked God for them, he broke them into pieces, and he gave them to the apprentices to distribute to the crowd. ³⁷ All those people ate and had plenty to satisfy them. Then the disciples collected the pieces of food that were left over, and they filled seven large baskets with them. ³⁸ There were 4, 000 men who ate, and this was not counting the women or the children who also ate.

³⁹ After Jesus sent the crowd away, he and the disciples got in a boat and sailed to the region of Magadan.

Chapter 16

¹ Some Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus in order to test him. They said to him, “Show us that God has really sent you to us! Perform for us a sign from God!” ² He answered them, ^[1] [“In our country, if the sky is red in the evening, we say, ‘It will be good weather tomorrow.’ ³ But if the sky is red in the morning you say, ‘It will be stormy weather today.’ By looking at the sky, you can tell what the weather will be, but when you see the things that are now happening all around you, you do not understand how they tell what God is about to do.] ⁴ You are an evil people who does not love God faithfully. You seek a sign, but I will only give you one sign, the sign of Jonah the prophet.” And Jesus and his disciples departed from them.

⁵ After they sailed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the apprentices realized that they had forgotten to take any food with them. ⁶ At that point, Jesus said to them, “Be careful not to accept the yeast that the Pharisees and Sadducees want to give you.” ⁷ They were discussing among themselves about what Jesus might have meant, saying “He must have said that because we forgot to bring any bread” ⁸ But Jesus knew what they were discussing and said to them, “I am disappointed that you think it is because you forgot to bring bread that I talked about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You believe in me only a little bit. ⁹ I am disappointed that you do not realize the significance of, nor do you remember when I fed 5, 000 people with five loaves of bread. You even gathered up many baskets! ¹⁰ Neither do you realize the significance of nor remember when I fed 4, 000 people with seven loaves of bread. You also gathered up many baskets then! ¹¹ You should have understood that I was not really speaking about bread. Do not accept yeast from the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” ¹² Then the disciples understood that Jesus was not talking about the yeast that is in bread. Instead, he was talking about the wrong teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³ When Jesus and his apprentices entered into the region near the city of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, really am?” ¹⁴ They answered, “Some people say that you are John the Baptizer, who has come back to life again. Others say that you are the prophet Elijah, who has returned from heaven as God promised. Still others say that you are the prophet Jeremiah or one of the other prophets who lived long ago, who has come back to life again.” ¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “Who then do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter said to him, “You are the Messiah! You are the Son of the one true God.” ¹⁷ Then Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of Jonah, God, my Father who is in the heavens, has blessed you by revealing this to you. For no human could have revealed this to you. ¹⁸ I also say to you: You are Peter, which means ‘rock.’ You will be like a sturdy foundation for those who believe in me, like a rock is for a building. And no enemy, not even death, will be able to destroy it.” ¹⁹ Then he said, “I will give you authority among God's people over whom he rules from heaven. God will approve your decision about anything you prohibit on the earth. Similarly, God will approve your decision about anything you permit on the earth.” ²⁰ Then Jesus warned the apprentices not to tell anyone at that time that he was the Messiah.

²¹ From that time on, Jesus the Messiah began to teach the apprentices that it was necessary for him to go to the city of Jerusalem. There, the ruling elders, the chief priests, and the men who taught the Jewish laws would cause him to suffer and die. Then on the third day after that, he would come alive again. ²² But Peter took Jesus aside and began to scold him for saying these things. He said, “Lord, may God never permit that to happen to you!” ²³ Then Jesus turned to look at Peter, and he said to him, “Get out of my sight! For Satan is speaking through you and trying to get me to disobey God. You are not thinking what God thinks, but only what people think!”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his apprentices, “If any one of you wants to be my apprentice, you must disregard what you desire. You must also be willing to suffer pain like criminals who are forced to carry crosses to the places where they will be crucified. That is what anyone who wants to be my apprentice must do. ²⁵ You must do that because those who try to save their lives by denying that they belong to me will not live with me forever. But those who are killed because they are my apprentices will live forever with me. ²⁶ For it benefits no one eternally to save their life now, and then for God to punish them eternally after they finally die. For there is nothing in this world which is worth the price which God puts on the life of a person. ²⁷ I, the Son of Man, will come in the glory of my Father, along with his angels. After this, he will judge people based on whether they have done things that pleased him or displeased him. ²⁸ Listen carefully! Some of you who are here will see me, the Son of Man, coming to rule over his people before you die!”

Chapter 17

¹ Seven days after Jesus said those things, he took Peter, James, and John, the younger brother of James, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. ² While they were on the mountain, the three disciples saw Jesus’ appearance change. His face shone like the sun, and his clothing shone and became bright like light. ³ Suddenly the prophets Moses and Elijah appeared, and they were talking with Jesus. ⁴ Peter saw them and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is a good thing for us to be here! If you want me to, I will set up three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵ While Peter was speaking, a bright cloud came over them. They heard the voice of God saying from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. He pleases me very much. So you must listen to him!” ⁶ When the three apprentices heard God speaking, they were exceedingly afraid. As a result, they fell face down on the ground. ⁷ Jesus came to them and touched them and said to them, “Stand up! Do not be afraid!” ⁸ And when they looked up, they saw that Jesus was the only one who was still there.

⁹ While they were walking down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Do not tell anyone what you saw on the mountain top until God has caused me, the Son of Man, to become alive again after I die.” ¹⁰ The three apprentices who were on the mountain with Jesus asked him, “If you are the Messiah, why do the men who teach the Jewish laws say that it is necessary for Elijah to come back to earth before the Messiah is supposed to come?” ¹¹ Jesus answered them, “It is true that Elijah is coming and will prepare people for the coming of the Messiah. ¹² But note this: Elijah has already come, and our leaders did not recognize him as the one who would come before the Messiah. Instead, they did all of the evil things to him which they desired. And those same leaders will soon treat me, the Son of Man, in the same manner.” ¹³ Then the three apprentices understood that when he was talking about Elijah, he was referring to John the Baptist.

¹⁴ When Jesus and the three disciples returned to the crowds of his apprentices, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵ He said to him, “Master, have mercy on my son and heal him! He has epilepsy and suffers very much. Because of this illness, he has fallen into fire and into water many times. ¹⁶ I brought him to your apprentices in order that they might heal him, but they were not able to heal him.” ¹⁷ Jesus responded, “You people do not believe at all in God’s ability to heal people. How corrupt you are! I have been with you this long, and you still are not able to do this! Bring the boy here to me!” ¹⁸ When they brought the boy to Jesus, Jesus commanded the demon to come out of the boy. The demon went out, and the boy was healed from that time onward. ¹⁹ Later, some of the apprentices approached Jesus when he was by himself and asked him, “Why were we not able to drive out the demon?” ²⁰ He answered them, “It is because you believe in God only a little bit. What I say is true: Mustard seeds are very small seeds, but they grow and become large plants. Similarly, if you believe even a little bit that God will do what you ask him to, you will be able to do anything! You could command a mountain to move, and it would move.

^21[1] [But this kind of demon does not go out except with prayer and fasting.]” ²² When the disciples had gathered together in the region of Galilee, Jesus said to them, “Someone will have the leaders arrest me, the Son of Man. ²³ They will kill me, but God will cause me to become alive again on the third day after I am killed.” When the disciples heard that, they became very sad.

²⁴ When Jesus and the disciples came to the city of Capernaum, the men who collected taxes for the temple approached Peter and said to him, “Surely your teacher pays the temple tax, correct?” ²⁵ He answered them, “Yes, he does pay it.” Then the disciples came into the house where Jesus was. Before Peter began to speak, Jesus said to him, “Simon, from whom do you think rulers get their money? Do they collect taxes from the citizens of their own country, or from citizens of countries they have conquered?” ²⁶ Peter answered him, “From citizens of other countries.” Then Jesus said to him, “So citizens of their own country do not need to pay taxes. ²⁷ But so that the tax collectors will not become angry with us, go to the Sea of Galilee, cast your fish line and hook, and take the first fish that you catch. When you open its mouth, you will find a silver coin that is worth enough to pay the tax for you and me. Take that coin and give it to the temple tax collectors.”

Chapter 18

¹ Immediately the apprentices approached Jesus and asked him, “Which of us people over whom God rules from heaven are most important?” ² Jesus called a child to come to him, and he placed that child in the middle of the group of him and his apprentices. ³ He said, “What I tell you is true: If you do not change and become as humble as little children, surely you will not become one of God's people over whom he rules from heaven. ⁴ The people who become as humble as this child are the most important among the people over whom God rules from heaven. ⁵ Whoever welcomes a person who is humble like this child in my authority, to God it is as though they receive me.

⁶ God will severely punish anyone who causes one who is humble like these little children who believe in me to sin. It would certainly be better for them if they tied a heavy stone around their neck and someone threw them into the depths of the sea than for God to judge them. ⁷ There will always be people in this world who will cause others to sin. God will certainly judge the people of this world because they cause people to sin! ⁸ So if you are wanting to use one of your hands or feet to sin, stop using that hand or foot! Even if you have to cut it off so you will not sin! Suppose you had only one hand or one foot and still lived forever with God. How much better is that than if you had both hands and both feet and God threw you into the eternal fire in hell because of your sin. ⁹ If you are also wanting to use one of your eyes to sin, stop looking at things that cause you to sin, even if you have to gouge it out so you will not sin! Suppose you had only one eye and still lived forever with God. How much better is that than if you had both eyes and God threw you into the eternal fire in hell.

¹⁰ Be sure not to look down on even one person who is humble like a child. I tell you truly that the angels who protect them can always go to my Father and report to him if you mistreat them. ^11[1] [For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.] ¹² Consider the following situation. If a person had 100 sheep and one of them got lost, he would surely leave the 99 sheep that were on the hillside and go and search for the lost one. ¹³ What I say to you is true: If the person found it, they would rejoice very much. They would be happy that none of the 99 sheep strayed away, but they would rejoice even more because they had found the one sheep that had strayed away. ¹⁴ In the same way that the shepherd does not want one of his sheep to stray away, so God, your Father in the heavens, does not want any of these children to go to hell away from him.

¹⁵ If a fellow believer sins against you, go to him by yourself, and reprove him for sinning against you. If that person listens to you and feels sorry that he has sinned against you, you will be like brothers once again. ¹⁶ If, however, that person does not listen to you or feel sorry for sinning against you, have one or two other believers go with you. Do this so that there will be two or three witnesses to confirm everything of which you accuse them, just as the law of Moses says. ¹⁷ If the one who has sinned against you does not listen to the other believers you bring, tell the matter to the entire congregation so that they can correct him. And if the person does not listen to the congregation, exclude him from among you, just as you would exclude non-Jewish people and tax collectors who do not believe. ¹⁸ What I say to you is true: God will approve whatever you prohibit on the earth. Similarly, God will approve whatever you permit on the earth. ¹⁹ I also say to you: If two of you who live on earth agree with each other about whatever you ask for, my Father who is in heaven will give you what you ask. ²⁰ Your Father does this because when two or three of you are gathered together because of me, I am there spiritually also.”

²¹ Then Peter approached Jesus and said to him, “Lord, how many times must I forgive a fellow believer who keeps on sinning against me? If he keeps asking me to forgive him, must I forgive him as many as seven times?” ²² Jesus said to him, “I tell you that the number of times you must forgive someone is not just up to seven, but you must forgive him 77 times. ²³ For this reason, when God rules over his people from heaven, it is like when a king wanted his servants to pay the debts they owed him. ²⁴ The king first brought to himself a servant who owed him a very large sum of money. ²⁵ But because the servant did not have enough money to repay what he owed, the king demanded that his people sell the servant, his wife, his children, and everything he possessed to someone else. Then the king would take that money as a repayment. ²⁶ Then that servant fell on his knees in front of the king. He said to him, ‘Be patient with me, master, and I will pay you all of it eventually.’ ²⁷ The king, knowing that the servant could never pay all of that huge debt, felt sorry for him. So he canceled his debt and released him. ²⁸ Then, after going out from the king, that servant went to another one of the king’s servants who owed him a smaller sum of money. He grabbed him by the throat, started choking him, and said to him, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ ²⁹ That other servant fell on his knees and begged him saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you all of it, eventually.’ ³⁰ But that servant would not cancel the small debt that the man owed him. Instead, he put the other servant into prison until he could pay back the debt that he owed to him. ³¹ When the other servants of the king learned that this had happened, they were very distressed. So they went to the king and reported in detail what the one servant did to the other servant. ³² Then the king summoned the servant who had owed him a very large sum of money. He said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I canceled the large debt that you owed me because you begged me to do so! ³³ You should have been merciful and canceled your fellow servant's debt, just like I was merciful to you and canceled your debt!’ ³⁴ The king was very angry, so he handed this servant over to some jailers, who would torture him severely until he paid all of the debt that he owed.” ³⁵ Then Jesus concluded the parable by saying, “That is what my Father in heaven will do to you if you are not merciful and sincerely forgive a fellow believer who sins against you.”

Chapter 19

¹ After Jesus said these things, he took his disciples and left the region of Galilee. They went to the part of the region of Judea that is east of the Jordan River. ² Large crowds followed him there, and he healed the sick among them.

³ Some Pharisees approached him and said to him, “Does the Law of Moses permit a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” They asked that in order to test him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “You have read in the scriptures that at the time when God first created people, he made them male and female. ⁵ That explains why God said, ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and marries his wife. The two of them will be united as though they were one person’ ⁶ Consequently, although they functioned as two separate people before, they are now united as if they were one person. Since that is true, a man must not separate from his wife whom God has joined to him.”

⁷ The Pharisees then said to him, “If that is true, why did Moses command that a man who wanted to divorce his wife should give her a paper stating his reason for divorcing her and then send her away?” ⁸ Jesus said to them, “It was because your ancestors were stubborn that Moses allowed them to divorce their wives, and you are no different than them. But when God first created a man and a woman, he did not intend for them to separate from each other. ⁹ I am telling you that God considers any man adulterous who divorces his wife, unless it is because she committed adultery, and marries another woman. Similarly, God considers adulterous whoever marries the woman whom the man divorced.” ¹⁰ The apprentices said to him, “If that is true, it is better for men never to marry!” ¹¹ He answered, “Not every man is able to accept this teaching, but only the men whom God enables to accept it. ¹² There are men who do not marry because their genitals have been defective ever since they were born. There are other men who do not marry because they have been castrated. Then there are still other men who decide not to marry in order to serve God as he rules from heaven. You who are able to understand what I have said about marriage should accept it.”

¹³ Then some people brought little children to Jesus in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the apprentices scolded the people for doing that. ¹⁴ But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them! For it is these that God rules over from heaven.” ¹⁵ Jesus then laid his hands on the children to bless them. Then he left that place.

¹⁶ As Jesus was walking along, a young man approached him and said to him, “Teacher, what good deeds must I do in order to live with God forever?” ¹⁷ Jesus said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good to do? Only one being is good, and he has told people what good they should do. That being is God. But in order to answer your question about desiring to live with God forever, I will tell you to keep the commandments that God gave Moses.” ¹⁸ The man asked Jesus, “Which commandments must I keep?” Jesus answered him, “Do not murder anyone, do not commit adultery, do not steal things, do not testify falsely, ¹⁹ honor your father and your mother, and love every other person as much as you love yourself.” ²⁰ The young man said to Jesus, “I have perfectly obeyed all those commandments. What else must I do in order to live with God forever?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you desire to be blameless before God, go home, sell everything that you own, and give the money to poor people. In doing this, you will be spiritually rich because you will live with God in heaven forever. Then come and be my disciple!” ²² When the young man heard those words, he went away feeling sad. This was because he was very rich and did not want to give away everything he owned.

²³ Then Jesus said to the apprentices, “What I say to you is true: It is very difficult for rich people to please God and for him to rule over them from heaven as his people. ²⁴ Also I say to you: It is impossible for a camel to pass through the small hole that is in a needle. It is even more difficult for rich people to please God and for him to rule over them from heaven as his people.” ²⁵ When the apprentices heard this, they were very astounded. So they said to Jesus, “Certainly no one will be able to live with God forever if this is true!” ²⁶ Then Jesus looked intently at them and said, “Yes, it is impossible for people to save themselves. But it is possible for God to do anything!” ²⁷ Then Peter said to him, “Look at us. We have left everything behind and we have become your apprentices in order to follow you. So what benefit will we get for doing that?” ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “What I say to you is true: When God makes the new earth, and when I, the Son of Man, sit on my throne in my glory, those of you who have accompanied me will each sit on a throne. You will judge the people of the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ God will reward those who, because they were my apprentice, left behind a house or a plot of ground, their brothers, their sisters, their father, their mother, their children, or any other family members. God will give them a hundred times as many benefits as they have given up. And they will live with God forever. ³⁰ But many people who consider themselves to be important in this life now will be unimportant in eternity when they are living with God. Likewise, many people whom people consider to be unimportant now will be important in eternity, when they are living with God.”

Chapter 20

¹ “When God rules from heaven, it is like when a person who owns land goes out in the morning to hire people to work in his vineyard. ² He promised the men whom he hired that he would pay them the standard wage for working one day. Then he sent them to his vineyards. ³ At nine o’clock that same morning he went back to the marketplace. There he saw more men who did not have work. ⁴ He said to them, ‘Go to my vineyard as other men have done, and work there. I will pay you whatever wage is fair.’ So they also went to his vineyard and began to work. ⁵ At noon and at three o’clock he again went to the marketplace and found other laborers whom he promised to pay a fair wage. ⁶ At five o’clock he went to the marketplace again and saw other men standing there who were not working. He said to them, ‘Why are you standing here all day and not working?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘I will hire you. Go to my vineyard as other men have done, and work there.’ So they went.

⁸ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Tell the workers to come so that you can give them their pay. Pay the men first who started working last, and pay the men last who started working first.’ ⁹ The manager paid a standard day’s wage to each of the men who started working around five o’clock in the afternoon. ¹⁰ When the men who had begun working early in the morning went to get their wages, they thought that they would receive more than the standard wage. But they also received only the standard wage. ¹¹ So they complained to the owner of the vineyard because they thought their payment was unfair. ¹² They said to him, ‘These men only worked one hour! Yet, you have paid them the same wage as you paid us even though we worked hard all day. We even worked through the hottest part!’ ¹³ The owner of the vineyard said to one of those who complained, ‘Friend, I did not treat you unfairly. You agreed with me to work the whole day for a standard day’s wage. ¹⁴ Stop complaining to me! Take your wages and go! For I desire to give the men who started working after you the same wage as you. ¹⁵ I certainly have a right to spend my money as I desire! You should not be envious because I am generous!’” ¹⁶ “Similarly, some people whom people consider to be unimportant now will be important when they are living with God forever. Likewise, people who consider themselves to be important in this life now will be unimportant after they receive God's judgment.”

¹⁷ When Jesus was walking on the road up to Jerusalem along with the 12 apprentices, he took them to a place by themselves in order that he could talk to them privately. Then he said to them, ¹⁸ “Listen carefully! We are now going up to Jerusalem. While we are there, someone will compel the chief priests and the men who teach the Jewish laws to arrest me, the Son of Man. They will put me on trial and they will condemn me to die. ¹⁹ Then they will give me to non-Jewish people so that they can make fun of me, whip me, and kill me by nailing me to a cross. But on the third day after that, God will cause me to live again.”

²⁰ After this, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, brought her two sons to Jesus. She bowed down before Jesus and asked him to do her a favor. ²¹ Jesus said to her, “What do you want me to do for you?” She said to him, “Permit my two sons to sit in the places of most honor when you become king, one on your right and the other on your left.” ²² Jesus said to her and her sons, “You do not understand what you are asking for. Are you willing to suffer like I am about to suffer?” James and John answered him, “Yes, we are willing to do that.” ²³ Then Jesus said to them, “Yes, you will suffer as I will suffer. But I am not the one who chooses those who will sit next to me and rule with me. God, my Father, will give those places to the ones whom he appoints.”

²⁴ When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had requested, they became angry with them. For they also wanted to rule with Jesus in the positions of most honor. ²⁵ So Jesus called all of them together and said to them, “You know that those who rule the non-Jewish people enjoy showing that they are powerful. ²⁶ You should not be like those rulers among yourselves. On the contrary, if any of you wants God to consider him great, he must serve the rest of you. ²⁷ Likewise, everyone among you who wants God to consider him to be the most important must become a servant for the rest of you. ²⁸ You should imitate me. Even though I am the Son of Man, I did not come for others to serve me. On the contrary, I came in order to serve others. I came also to allow them to kill me, so that when I die, it would be like a payment to set people free from God punishing them for their sins.”

²⁹ As they were leaving the city of Jericho, a large crowd of people followed them. ³⁰ As Jesus and the apprentices walked along, two blind men who were sitting on the side of the road heard that Jesus was passing by. So they yelled to him, “Lord, Descendant of King David, take pity on us!” ³¹ People in the crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But the blind men yelled even louder, “Lord, Descendant of King David, have pity on us!” ³² Jesus stopped and called them to come to him. Then he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³³ They answered him, “Lord, heal our eyes so that we can see!” ³⁴ Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Immediately they were able to see, and they followed after Jesus.

Chapter 21

^1-2 As Jesus and his apprentices approached the city of Jerusalem, they came to the village of Bethphage, near the Mount of Olives. Jesus said to two of his apprentices, “Go to the village just ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey and her colt which someone tied up. Untie them and bring them here to me. ³ If anyone asks you why you are taking them, tell him that the Lord needs them. He will then allow you to lead them away.” ^4-5 All of this happened to prove true what God said through the prophet long ago. That prophet wrote, “Tell the people who live in Jerusalem, ‘Look! Your king is coming to you! He will come humbly, riding on a colt, the offspring of a donkey.’”

⁶ So the two apprentices went and did what Jesus told them to do. ⁷ They brought the donkey and its colt to Jesus. They placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. Then Jesus mounted and sat on the cloaks. ⁸ Then a large crowd spread some of their outer clothing on the road. Other people cut off branches from palm trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that walked in front of him and those who walked behind him were shouting,

     “Praise the Messiah, the Descendant of King David!”

     “May the Lord bless this one who comes as God’s representative!”

     “Praise God, who is in heaven!”

¹⁰ As Jesus entered Jerusalem, many people from all over the city became excited and were saying, “Who is this man whom they are honoring in this way?” ¹¹ The crowd that was walking with him answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from the town of Nazareth in the region of Galilee!”

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple courtyard and chased out all of those who were buying and selling things there. He also overturned the tables of those who were changing Roman coins for money that people used to pay the temple tax. He also overturned the seats of those who were selling pigeons for sacrifices. ¹³ Then he said to them, “A prophet wrote in the Scriptures that God said, ‘I want my house to be a place where people pray to me,’ but you people have made it into a place where robbers hide!”

¹⁴ After that, many blind people and lame people came to Jesus in the temple to ask him to heal them. And Jesus healed them. ¹⁵ The high priests and the men who taught the Jewish laws saw the marvelous deeds that Jesus did. They also saw the children shouting in the temple, “We praise the Messiah, the Descendant of King David!” And so, they were very angry at Jesus. ¹⁶ They asked him, “What they are saying cannot be correct!” Then Jesus said to them, “Yes, it is! For you have certainly read what the psalmist wrote, when he said to God, ‘You have taught infants and young children to praise you.’”

¹⁷ Then Jesus and the apprentices left the crowds and the city. They went to the village of Bethany, and they stayed there that night.

¹⁸ Early the next morning, when they were returning to the city, Jesus was hungry. ¹⁹ He saw a fig tree near the road, so he went over to it to pick some figs to eat. But when he got close, he saw that there were only leaves on it. So he said to the fig tree, “May you never again produce figs!” As a result, the fig tree immediately dried up. ²⁰ When the apprentices saw that the tree dried up, they were astonished and said to Jesus, “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” ²¹ Jesus said to them, “What I say to you is true: If you believe that God has power to do what you ask him to and you do not doubt that, you will be able to do things such as I have done to this fig tree. You will even be able to do marvelous deeds such as saying to that hill over there, ‘Uproot yourself and throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will happen! ²² In addition to that, whenever you ask God for something when you pray to him, and you believe that he will give it to you, you will receive it from him.”

²³ After that, Jesus went into the temple courtyard. While he was teaching the people, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him. They asked, “By what authority are you doing these things?” ²⁴ Jesus said to them, “First I will ask you a question, and if you answer me, I will tell you who authorized me to do these things. ²⁵ Who authorized John the Baptizer to baptize people? Was it God, or was it people?” The chief priests and elders debated among themselves about what they should answer. They said to each other, “If we say it was from God, he will say that we should have believed John's message!” ²⁶ But if we say, ‘It was from people,’ the crowd might react violently against us. For all the people believe that John was a prophet whom God had sent.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know who authorized John to baptize people.” Then Jesus said to them, “Because you did not answer my question, I will not tell you who authorized me to do the things I did here yesterday.”

²⁸ “Tell me what you think about this story: There was a man who had two sons. He went to his older son and said, ‘My son, go and work in my vineyard today!’ ²⁹ But the son said to his father, ‘I will not go!’ But later he changed his mind, and he went to the vineyard and worked. ³⁰ Then the father approached his younger son and said what he had said to his older son. That son said, ‘Sir, I will go and work in the vineyard today.’ But he did not go and work. ³¹ So which of the man’s two sons did what their father desired?” They answered, “The older son.” Then Jesus said to them, “What I say to you is true: God will rule over tax collectors and prostitutes much sooner than he will rule over you. ³² This is because, even though John the Baptizer explained to you how to live in the right way, you did not believe his message. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed his message, and they turned away from their sinful behavior. But you did not change your minds later and believe in his message when you saw tax collectors and prostitutes believing.”

³³ “Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He built a fence around it. He made a place to collect the juice that would come out of the grapes. He also built a tower in which someone could sit to guard that vineyard. He rented the vineyard to some men who would work in it. Then he went away to another country. ³⁴ When it was time to harvest the grapes, the landowner sent some of his servants to the men who were working in the vineyard to get his share of the grapes that the vineyard had produced. ³⁵ But the renters seized the servants. They beat one of them. Another one they killed, and they killed a third one of them by throwing stones at him. ³⁶ So the landowner sent more servants than he had sent the first time. The renters treated those servants the same way that they had treated the other servants. ³⁷ After he heard about this, the landowner sent his own son to those working the vineyard to get his share of the grapes. When he sent him, he said to himself, ‘They will certainly respect my son and give him my share of the grapes.’ ³⁸ But when those working in the vineyard saw his son arriving, they said to each other, ‘This is the man who will inherit this vineyard! Let us kill him together and divide the property among ourselves.’ ³⁹ So they grabbed him, dragged him outside the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ Now I ask you, when the landowner returns to his vineyard, what do you think he will do to those renters?” ⁴¹ The people replied, “He will thoroughly destroy those wicked men! Then he will rent the vineyard to others. They will give him his share of the grapes when they are ripe.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Certainly you have read these words which are written in the scriptures:

     ‘The men who were building the building refused to use a certain stone. But the Lord has put that same stone in its proper place, and it has become the most important stone in the building! The Lord has done this, and we marvel as we look at it.’

⁴³ So I am telling you this: God will no longer let you be the people who belong to him. Instead, he will let a people who do what he requires them to do be his people. ⁴⁴ Anyone who falls on this stone will break into pieces, and the stone will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard this story, they realized that Jesus was accusing them because they did not believe that he was the Messiah. ⁴⁶ They wanted to seize him, but they did not do so since they were afraid of what the crowds would do to them if they did that. This is because the crowds thought that Jesus was a prophet.

Chapter 22

¹ Then Jesus told the Jewish leaders other stories. The first one went like this: ² “When God rules from heaven, it will be like a king who told his servants that they should prepare a wedding feast for his son. ³ When the feast was ready, the king sent his servants to tell the people whom he had invited that it was time for them to come to the wedding feast. The servants went out and told the people, but the people whom the king invited did not want to come. ⁴ So the king sent other servants to tell those people again to come to the feast. He told them to say, ‘This is what the king says to you, “My servants have prepared the meal. They have butchered and cooked the oxen and the fattened calves. Everything is ready. It is time now for you to come to the wedding feast!”’ ⁵ But when the servants told them these things, they disregarded what the servants said. Some of them went to their own fields. Others went to their places of business. ⁶ The rest of those whom the king had invited seized his servants, treated them poorly, and killed them. ⁷ When the king heard what had happened, he became furious. He commanded his soldiers to go and kill those murderers and burn their city. ⁸ After his soldiers had done that, the king said to his other servants, ‘I have prepared the wedding feast, but the people whom I invited do not deserve to come to it. ⁹ So go to the intersections of the main roads in the town. Tell whomever you find there that they should come to the wedding feast.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went there. They gathered everyone they could find, both bad people and good people. They brought them into the hall where the wedding feast was about to take place, so that those people filled the hall. ¹¹ But when the king went into the hall to see the guests, he saw someone who was not wearing the clothes that he provided for the guests to wear at a wedding feast. ¹² The king said to him, ‘Friend, you should not have entered this hall. For you are not wearing the clothes that guests wear at wedding feasts!’ The man did not say anything, for he did not know what to say. ¹³ Then the king said to his servants, ‘Tie this person’s feet and hands and throw him outside where there is total darkness. This is where people cry out and gnash their teeth because of the pain they are in.’” ¹⁴ Then Jesus said, “The message of this story is that God has invited many to come to him, but only a few people are the ones whom he has chosen to come.”

¹⁵ After Jesus said that, the Pharisees met together in order to plan how they could cause him to say something that would allow them to arrest him. ¹⁶ They sent to him some of their apprentices along with some of the Jews who supported Herod Antipas, who ruled the region of Galilee. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that you teach only what is true. We also know that people’s opinions do not influence you. Instead, you truthfully teach all people what God wants them to do. You do not show regard for their social position. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think about this matter: Is it right that we pay taxes to the Roman government, or is it wrong that we pay taxes to it?” ¹⁸ But Jesus knew that they were only asking him this because they wanted to find a reason to get him in trouble with either the Jewish or the Roman authorities. So he said to them, “You are hypocrites! Stop pretending to ask me a genuine question! ¹⁹ Show me one of the coins with which people pay the Roman tax.” So they showed him a coin called a denarius. ²⁰ He said to them, “Whose picture is on this coin? And whose name is on it?” ²¹ They answered, “It has a picture and the name of Caesar, the man who rules the Roman government.” Then he said to them, “In that case give to the government what belongs to the government and give to God what belongs to God.” ²² When those men heard Jesus say that, his answer amazed them. Then they departed from him.

²³ During that same day, some Sadducees came to Jesus. They are a Jewish group that does not believe that God cause people to become alive again after they die. They asked Jesus, ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses wrote in the Scriptures, ‘If a man dies who did not have any children, his brother must marry the dead man’s widow. This is in order that she can have a child by him that will be considered the descendant of the man who died. That way the dead man will have descendants.’ ²⁵ There were seven brothers in a family. The oldest one married someone. He and his wife did not have any children, and he died. So, the second brother married the widow. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second brother, as well as to the other five brothers, who each married the woman, and then died without having any children. ²⁷ Finally, the woman also died. ²⁸ So, at the time when God makes people alive again after they have died, which of the seven brothers will be her husband? They all were married to her at different times.” ²⁹ Jesus replied to them, “You are incorrect in what you are thinking. You do not understand what is written in the Scriptures. You also do not understand that God is able to make people alive again. ³⁰ When God causes all people who have died to become alive again, no one will marry. Rather, they will be like the angels who are with God. For they also do not marry. ³¹ But you surely have read what God said to your ancestors about how he causes people to live again after they have died. He said, ³² ‘I am the God whom Abraham worships, the God whom Isaac worships, and the God whom Jacob worships.’ It is not dead people who worship God. It is living people who worship him. So, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living with God!”

³³ When the crowds of people heard Jesus teach that, it amazed them.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had answered the Sadducees in such a way that the Sadducees were not able to respond to him, the Pharisees gathered together to plan what they would say to him. Then they approached him. ³⁵ One of them, a man who was an expert in the laws that God gave Moses, wanted to test Jesus. He asked him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment in the laws that God gave Moses is the most important?” ³⁷ Jesus quoted the Law as he replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all that you feel, with all that you desire, and with all that you think.’ ³⁸ That is the most important commandment in the laws that God gave Moses. ³⁹ The next most important commandment that everyone must surely obey is: ‘You must love the people around you as much as you love yourself.’ ⁴⁰ These two commandments are the basis of every law that Moses wrote in the Scriptures and of all that the prophets wrote.”

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together near Jesus, he asked them, ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose descendant is he?” They said to him, “He is the descendant of King David.” ⁴³ Then Jesus said to them, “If the Messiah is King David’s descendant, why did David call him ‘Lord’ when he spoke what the Holy Spirit told him to speak and said, ⁴⁴ ‘God said to my Lord, “Sit here at my right side, in the place where I will highly honor you above everyone else! Sit here until the time when I completely defeat your enemies!”’ ⁴⁵ So, since King David called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ the Messiah cannot be just someone descended from David! He must be much greater than David!” ⁴⁶ No one who heard what Jesus said was able to think of something to say to him in response. After that, no one else ever dared to ask him another question to try to trap him.

Chapter 23

¹ Then Jesus said to the crowd and to his apprentices, ² “The Pharisees and the men who teach the Jewish laws have the authority that Moses had when he led Israel. ³ Therefore, you should do whatever they tell you that you must do. But do not do what they do, because they themselves do not do those things that they tell you to do. ⁴ They require you to obey many rules that are difficult to obey. But they themselves do not obey those rules. It is as if they were tying up very heavy loads and putting them on your shoulders for you to carry. But they will not even move one finger to help you carry them. ⁵ Whenever they do good deeds, they do those things so that other people will see them and admire them. For example, they make extra wide the tiny boxes containing portions of Scripture that they wear on their arms. They enlarge the tassels on their robes to make others think that they honor God. ⁶ They also want other people to honor them when, at dinners, they sit in the seats where the most important people sit. In the synagogues they want to sit in the same kind of places. ⁷ They love for people to greet them with great honor in the markets, and for people to call them ‘Teacher.’ ⁸ But you, my apprentices, should not allow people to call you ‘Teacher,’ as they do other Jewish teachers. I am the only one who is really your teacher. This means that you are all equal to each other, like brothers and sisters. ⁹ Do not honor anyone on earth by addressing him as ‘Father.’ For God, your Father in heaven, is your only true father. ¹⁰ Do not allow people to call you ‘teacher.’ For the Messiah is your only teacher. ¹¹ Instead, everyone among you who wants God to consider him to be important must serve others as servants do. ¹² God will humble those who try to make themselves important. Those who humble themselves, God himself will make important.”

¹³ “You teachers of the law and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you, because you refuse to become one of God's people over whom he rules, and you also keep others from becoming God's people. It is as if you shut the door to a house and do not let people enter it.”

^14[1] Because of this, God will punish you more severely ¹⁵ “You teachers of the law and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You work hard to get even one non-Jewish person to believe what you teach. You even travel across seas and on land to distant places in order to do that. But as a result, when someone believes what you teach, you make that person deserve for God to punish them even more than you yourselves deserve.”

¹⁶ ”How terribly God will punish you Jewish leaders! You are like blind people who try to lead others. You say, ‘If someone swears to do something and asks the temple to be a witness to this oath like a person would witness it, and he does not do what he promised, he is not obligated by God to do it. But if a person asks the gold in the temple to be a witness to this oath like a person would do, then he must keep his promise.’ ¹⁷ You are fools, and you are like people who are blind! The gold that is in the temple is only important because people use it in God's temple. ¹⁸ Also you say, ‘If someone swears to do something and asks the altar to be a witness to this oath, as a person would witness it, and he does not do what he promised, he is not obligated by God to do it. But if he asks what the priests are offering on the altar to be a witness to this oath as a person would do, then he must keep his promise.’ ¹⁹ You are fools, and you are like people who are blind! What the priests offer on the altar is only important because they offer it on God's altar. ²⁰ So those who swear to do something and ask the altar to be a witness to the oath are also asking everything on the altar to witness to the oath. ²¹ Likewise those who swear to do something and ask the temple to be a witness to the oath like a person would do, they are also asking the one who dwells in the temple to witness the oath. ²² If someone swears to do something and asks heaven to be a witness to the oath, they are asking the throne where God sits to be a witness, and so, they are also asking God himself, who sits on that throne, to be a witness.”

²³ “You teachers of the law and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You give to God a tenth of the herbs you produce, such as mint, dill, and cumin. But you do not obey God’s laws that are more important. For example, you do not act justly toward other people, you do not act mercifully toward people, and you do not act as God wants you to act. It is good to give a tenth of your herbs to God, but you should also obey these other more important laws. ²⁴ You leaders are like blind people who are trying to lead others. You are careful not to offend God in small ways. But you are not careful to offend God in great ways!

²⁵ “You teachers of the law and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You make yourselves appear like good people to others by how you act. But you truly desire greed and taking what belongs to others. You are like dishes that are clean on the outside but are still dirty on the inside. ²⁶ You blind Pharisees! First you must stop desiring to do evil things such as stealing from others. Then you will truly be able to act righteously and will be like a dish that is clean both outside and inside.”

²⁷ “You men who teach the laws and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You are like tombs where people have buried dead people. Those tombs are painted white on the outside in order to look beautiful. Even though they look beautiful on the outside, inside they are full of dead people’s bones and things that would make a person unclean if they touch them. ²⁸ You are like those tombs in that, when people look at you, they see you doing good deeds. But you are truly hypocrites, because you disobey God’s commands.”

²⁹ “You men who teach the Jewish laws and you Pharisees are hypocrites! How terribly God will punish you! You rebuild the tombs of the prophets whom Jewish people killed long ago. You decorate the monuments that honor righteous people. ³⁰ You say, ‘If we had lived when our ancestors lived, we would not have helped those who killed the prophets.’ ³¹ When you say this, you admit that you are like your ancestors and would kill the prophets just as they did. ³² You are as ready to murder people as your ancestors were! ³³ You wicked people are as dangerous as poisonous snakes! You certainly will not escape from God punishing you in hell! ³⁴ This is why I will send you prophets, wise men, and people who will teach the law of Moses. You will kill some of them by nailing them to crosses, and you will kill some in other ways. You will whip some of them in the places where you worship and you will chase them from city to city. ³⁵ So God will consider that you and your ancestors are guilty for killing all the righteous people who have ever lived on earth. This includes everyone from Adam’s son Abel, who was a righteous man, until one of the last prophets, Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom your ancestors killed in the holy place between the temple and the altar. ³⁶ What I say to you is true: You people who have witnessed what I have done God will punish for killing all those prophets!”

³⁷ “O people of Jerusalem, you killed the prophets who lived long ago, and you who killed with stones others whom God had sent to you. Many times I have wanted to gather you together to protect you, as a hen gathers her young chicks under her wings. But you did not want me to do that. ³⁸ So listen to this: Your city will become a place where no one lives. ³⁹ Keep this in mind: You will see me again only when I return, when you say about me, ‘God is truly pleased with this man who comes with God’s authority!’”

Chapter 24

¹ Jesus left the temple courtyard. As he was walking along, his apprentices came to him and began talking about how beautiful the temple buildings were. ² He said to them, “Certainly you are able to see these buildings! But what I say to you is true: An army will completely destroy them. They will throw down every stone in these buildings, so that no stone will remain on top of another stone.”

³ Later, as Jesus was sitting alone on the Mount of Olives, the apprentices came to him and asked him, “When will these things happen to the buildings of the temple? And what will God show us to demonstrate that you are about to come again and that this world is about to end?”

⁴ Jesus replied, “Beware that no one deceives you about when it will happen! ⁵ I say this because many people will come and say that they are me. They will say, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many people. ⁶ Whenever people tell you about wars that are happening and about wars that could happen, do not let this trouble you. These things will definitely happen. But when they do happen, do not think that it is the end of the world! ⁷ Groups who live in various countries will fight each other, and various governments will fight each other. There will also be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. ⁸ Yet, when these things happen, people will have only just begun to suffer. These first things that they suffer will be like the first pains a woman suffers who is about to bear a child. They will suffer much more after that.

⁹ After these things happen, people who oppose you will take you away to suffer and die. Every group of people will hate you because you believe in me. ¹⁰ Also, many people will stop believing in me because they suffer in this way. They will have their own fellow believers arrested and they will hate each other. ¹¹ Many will come saying that they are prophets, but they will be lying, and they will deceive many people. ¹² Because more people will disobey God’s laws, many believers will no longer love each other. ¹³ But God will save all of you who continue to trust in me strongly until your life ends. ¹⁴ Furthermore, believers will proclaim to all of the people of the world the good news that God is reigning as a king. Then the end of the world will come.

¹⁵ During that time the detestable thing will enter the temple. It will defile the temple and cause people to abandon it. Daniel the prophet spoke and wrote about that long ago.” (May everyone who reads this pay attention, because I am warning you.) ¹⁶ “At that time those people who are in the region of Judea should flee to higher hills. ¹⁷ Those people who are outside their houses should not enter their houses in order to get anything. ¹⁸ Those who are working in a field should not return to their houses in order to get additional clothes. ¹⁹ When this happens, how terrible it will be for pregnant women and for those who are nursing their babies! ²⁰ Pray that this painful time will not happen in winter, when it will be hard to travel, or on the Sabbath, the day of rest. ²¹ People will suffer very severely when those things happen. People have never suffered that severely since God created the world until now, and no one will ever suffer like that again. ²² If God had not decided that he would shorten that time when people suffer so much, everyone would die. But he has decided to shorten that time because he is concerned about the people whom he has chosen.

²³ At that time people will falsely say that they are the Messiah. So at that time, if someone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’, or if someone says, ‘Look, here he is!’, do not believe it! ²⁴ And some will appear claiming falsely to be prophets from God Other will claim to be the Messiah. Then they will perform many kinds of miracles. They will even try to deceive the people whom God has chosen. ²⁵ Do not forget that I have warned you about all this before it happens. ²⁶ So if someone says to you, ‘Look, the Messiah is in the wilderness!’ do not go there. Likewise, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in a secret room!’ do not believe that person. ²⁷ You should not believe them since, just as lightning flashes across the whole sky and people see it, in the same way everyone will see the Son of Man when returns again. ²⁸ It will be clear to everyone in the same way that, when you see vultures gathering, you know that an animal carcass is there.

²⁹ After the time when people suffer like that, God will cause the sun to become dark, and the moon will not shine. God will cause all of the things in the sky to shake out of their places. ³⁰ After that, everyone will see me, the Son of Man, appear in the sky. Then unbelieving people from all people groups on earth will wail because they will be afraid. They will see me, the Son of Man, coming on the clouds that are in the sky powerfully and gloriously. ³¹ Then I will have an angel blast a trumpet to alert the whole world that I am coming. I will send out my angels to gather together the people whom God has chosen from everywhere, from the most remote places on earth.

³² Now I want you to learn something from this story about how fig trees grow and tell you about seasons. When the branches of a fig tree begin to sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³ Similarly, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time for me to return is very close. ³⁴ What I say to you is true: All of these events will happen before all the people have died who have been with me have died. ³⁵ You can be certain that these things that I have said will happen. One day God will destroy the earth and what is in the sky when he restores all of creation, but these things that I have told you will always be true.

³⁶ But no one knows the exact time when I will return. The angels in heaven also do not know. Even I, God’s Son, do not know. Only my Father knows. ^37-39 But when I, the Son of Man, come again, people will be doing things just as people were doing at the time when Noah lived. At that time, people ate and drank as usual, and they got married as usual, up until the day when Noah and his family entered the great boat that God told Noah to build. But then the flood came and destroyed all those who were not in the boat. For they did not know what was coming. Similarly, the unbelieving people will not know when I, the Son of Man, will return. ⁴⁰ When that happens, God will only take those who believe in him. For example, two people will be in the fields. God will take one of them up to heaven and the other person God will leave here to punish him. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding grain together. God will take one of them and leave the other one behind. ⁴² So, because you do not know what day your Lord will return to the earth, you need to be ready all the time. ⁴³ Consider this: If the owner of a house knew at what time in the night a thief was coming, he would stay awake and prevent the thief from breaking in. ⁴⁴ So be ready, because I, the Son of Man, will come again at a time when you do not expect me.

⁴⁵ Think about what every faithful and wise servant is like. The house owner appoints one servant to supervise the other servants. He tells him to give them food at the proper times. Then he leaves on a long trip. ⁴⁶ Happy is that servant whose master will find him doing these things when he comes. ⁴⁷ What I say to you is true: The master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. ⁴⁸ But a wicked servant might say to himself, ‘The owner has been away for a long time, so he probably will not return soon and find out what I am doing.’ ⁴⁹ So he will begin to beat the other servants and eat and drink with those who are drunk. ⁵⁰ If he does that, his master might return at a time when the servant does not expect him. ⁵¹ The master will punish that servant severely. He will put him where the hypocrites are put. In that place, the people cry and grind their teeth because they suffer very much.”

Chapter 25

¹ “At that future time when God reveals his rule from heaven, it will be like what happened to ten unmarried girls {in this story}. {At night} they took their oil lamps and went to {the place where they would} meet the bridegroom. ² Five of these girls were foolish, and {the other} five girls were wise. ³ The foolish girls took their oil lamps, but they did not take any {extra} olive oil with them {to keep their lamps lit}. ⁴ But the wise girls took {extra} olive oil in their jars along with their oil lamps. ⁵ The bridegroom delayed coming{, and it became late at night}. So all the girls became drowsy and then fell asleep. ⁶ Around midnight someone shouted, ‘Pay attention! The bridegroom {is arriving}! Go outside to meet him!’ ⁷ At that time all the girls woke up and adjusted their oil lamps to burn properly. ⁸ The foolish girls said to the wise girls, ‘Give us some of your olive oil, because {the fire of} our oil lamps is about to burn out!’ ⁹ The wise girls replied, ‘{No, because} there will certainly not be enough olive oil for our lamps and yours. Go to the sellers and buy some olive oil for yourselves!’ ¹⁰ But the bridegroom arrived while the foolish girls were on their way to buy olive oil. Then the wise girls, who were ready, went inside with him to the wedding celebration. Then someone closed the door {to that place}. ¹¹ Later, the rest of the girls arrived {at that place} as well. They called {to the bridegroom}, ‘Sir! Please open the door for us!’ ¹² But he said to them, ‘I tell you truly that I do not know you{, so I will not open the door for you}!’ ¹³ So, {in order that this does not happen to you,} stay ready because you do not know exactly when {I will return}.”

¹⁴ “{You must stay ready} because when God reveals his rule from heaven, it will be like a man who was about to go {on a long journey} to a different country. He called his servants together and entrusted them with some of what he owned. ¹⁵ He gave each of them money according to their ability to use it. He gave one servant money equivalent to 30, 000 days’ wages. He gave another servant money equivalent to 12, 000 days’ wages, and he gave another servant money equivalent to 6, 000 days’ wages. Then he left at once on his journey to a different country. ¹⁶ After he left, his servant who had received money equivalent to 30, 000 days’ wages used that money to gain another 30, 000 days’ wages. ¹⁷ Similarly, the servant who had received money equivalent to 12, 000 days’ wages {used that money} to gain another 12, 000 days’ wages. ¹⁸ But the servant who had received money equivalent to 6, 000 days’ wages went and dug a hole in the ground and hid it there {to keep it safe}.

¹⁹ After a long time the servants’ master returned. He called them together to find out what they had done with his money. ²⁰ The servant who had received money equivalent to 30, 000 days’ wages brought 60, 000 days’ wages to his master. He said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with 30, 000 days’ wages. Look, I have used it to gain another 30, 000 days’ wages!’ ²¹ His master replied, ‘You are a very good servant! You have been very faithful to me. You have managed a small amount of money very well, so I will put you in charge of a lot of things. Come and rejoice with me!’

²² The servant who had received money equivalent to 12, 000 days’ wages also came {to his master}. He said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with 12, 000 days’ wages. Look, I have used it to gain another 12, 000 days’ wages!’ ²³ His master replied, ‘You are a very good servant! You have been very faithful to me. You have managed a small amount of money very well, so I will put you in charge of a lot of things. Come and rejoice with me!’

²⁴ Then the servant who had received money equivalent to 6, 000 days’ wages also came {to his master}. He said, ‘Master, I understand that you are a harsh man. {You are} just like a farmer who harvests crops that he did not plant. ²⁵ So I was afraid of you. I went and buried your money in the ground. Look, here is your money!’ ²⁶ His master replied, ‘You are an evil servant! You have been lazy! Suppose it is true that I am just like a farmer who harvests crops that I did not plant! ²⁷ Then you should at least have given my money to money lenders! Then when I returned I would have gotten it back plus the interest it earned!’ ²⁸ So {the master said to his other servants,} ‘Take the 6, 000 days’ wages from him and give it to the servant who has 60, 000 days’ wages! ²⁹ To everyone who uses well what they have received, I will give even more, and they will have abundantly more. But from those who do not use well what they have received, I will take away from them even what they already have. ³⁰ Furthermore, throw this useless servant into hell, which is an evil place where God does not give any spiritual blessings. There people will weep because of their suffering, and they will grind their teeth because they will experience severe pain.’

³¹ “When I, the Son of Man, come again and show how glorious I am and bring all my angels, I will sit {as king} on my majestic throne. ³² Angels will assemble people from every people group in front of me. Then I will separate those people into two groups, as a shepherd separates his sheep from his goats. ³³ I will honor the righteous people by putting them on my right side, but I will put the unrighteous people on my left side, {as a shepherd puts sheep on one side and goats on the other side}.

³⁴ Then I, the King, will tell those {righteous people} on my right side, ‘You people whom my Father has blessed, come! Come receive the benefits of those over whom I rule over. My Father has prepared these benefits for you since he made the world. ³⁵ {These things belong to you,} because you fed me when I was hungry. You gave me something to drink when I was thirsty. You welcomed me to stay in your houses when I was a stranger in your town. ³⁶ You gave me clothes when I did not have any. You took care of me when I was ill. You even visited me when I was in jail.’

³⁷ Then those righteous people will reply, ‘Lord, when were you hungry and we saw you and fed you? When were you thirsty and we gave you something to drink? ³⁸ When were you a stranger {in our town} and we saw you and welcomed you {to stay} in our houses? When did you not have any clothes and we gave you some? ³⁹ When were you sick or in jail and we visited you?’

⁴⁰ Then I, the King, will reply to those righteous people, ‘I tell you truly that you did for me whatever you did for even the least important one among these people who are as dear to me as brothers.’

⁴¹ But then I will say to those {people} on my left side, ‘Leave me! God has cursed you! {Go} into the fire that burns forever! God has prepared that fire for the devil and his {evil} angels. ⁴² {You deserve to go there,} because you did not feed me when I was hungry. You did not give me something to drink when I was thirsty. ⁴³ You did not welcome me to stay in your houses when I was a stranger in your town. You did not give me clothes when I did not have any. You did not take care of me when I was ill and in jail.’

⁴⁴ Then those people on my left side will reply, ‘Lord, when were you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or without clothing or ill or in jail, and we did not provide you with what you needed?’

⁴⁵ He will reply, ‘‘I tell you truly that you did not do for me whatever you did not do for even the least important one among these people of mine.’

⁴⁶ Then those people on my left will go away to the place where God will punish them forever. However, the righteous people will go to the place where they will live forever {with God}.”

Chapter 26

¹ When Jesus had finished saying all those things, he told his apprentices, ² “You are aware that the Jewish Passover celebration will begin in two days. At that time someone will take me, the Son of Man, to people who will kill me by nailing me to a cross.”

³ At the same time, the chief priests and elders {who ruled} over the Jewish people assembled in the home of the high priest. His name was Caiaphas. ⁴ {There} they planned how they could secretly arrest Jesus and have someone execute him. ⁵ They kept saying among themselves, “{We must not arrest him} during the {Passover} celebration. {If we do it then,} the people might riot.”

⁶ Jesus {and his apprentices} were in the village of Bethany. They were in the home of Simon, {whom Jesus had healed} of a skin disease. ⁷ A woman came to Jesus {while he was in the house}. She was carrying a beautiful stone jar that contained very valuable perfume. She poured all the perfume on Jesus’ head while he was sitting at the table for a meal. ⁸ When Jesus’ apprentices saw {the woman do} that, they were very upset. They said {to one another}, “She wasted {that valuable perfume}! ⁹ We could have sold it and gotten a lot of money for it! Then we could have given {that money} to poor people.” ¹⁰ Jesus knew what they were saying, so he told them, “Do not bother this woman! She has done a good thing to me. ¹¹ There will always be poor people among you, {so you can help them whenever you want to}. However, I will not always be with you! ¹² When she poured this perfume on my body, {it was as if} she was preparing my body to be buried {after I die}. ¹³ I tell you truly that in every place in the entire world where people preach the good news {about me}, they will also speak about what this woman has done {for me}. {As a result,} people will always remember her.”

¹⁴ After {Jesus said} this, one of his 12 apprentices went to the chief priests. His name was Judas Iscariot. ¹⁵ He asked {them}, “If I help you arrest Jesus, how much money will you give me?” {In response,} they counted out 30 silver coins {and gave them} to him. ¹⁶ From that time on Judas started looking for a chance to help {the ruling priests} arrest Jesus.

¹⁷ On the first day of the festival when Jewish people eat bread without yeast, Jesus’ apprentices went to him and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover Celebration meal so that we can eat it?” ¹⁸ Jesus told them, “Enter the city and go to a man {with whom I have previously arranged this}. Tell him, ‘Our Teacher says that it is almost the time {that he told you about}. He will eat the Passover Celebration meal with us, his apprentices, at your house.’” ¹⁹ So his apprentices did as Jesus told them to do. They went and prepared the Passover Celebration meal {in that man’s house}.

²⁰ When it was evening, Jesus sat at the table with his 12 apprentices {to eat the Passover Celebration meal}. ²¹ While they ate, he told them, “I tell you truly that one of you is going to help {my enemies} arrest me.” ²² The apprentices were very sad. They began to tell Jesus, one after the other, “Lord, I surely will not {betray you}!” ²³ He replied, “The one who will help {my enemies} arrest me is the one {among you} who is dipping bread {into the sauce} in the dish along with me. ²⁴ It is certain that I, the Son of Man, will die, because that is what the prophets wrote about me in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, there will be terrible punishment for the man who betrays me! {In fact,} it would be better for him if he had never been born!” ²⁵ Then Judas, the one who was going to betray him, said, “Teacher, surely it is not I!” Jesus replied, “Yes, it is you.”

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took {a flat loaf of} bread and thanked God for it. Then he broke the bread into pieces, gave it to his apprentices, and said, “Take and eat this bread. It is my body.” ²⁷ Then he took a cup {with wine in it} and thanked God {for it}. Then he gave it to his apprentices and said, “Drink {some wine} from this cup, each one of you. ²⁸ {The wine in} this cup is my blood, which will soon flow from my body {when my enemies kill me}. With this blood I will confirm the agreement that God has made to forgive the sins of many people. ²⁹ I want you to know this: I will not drink any more wine until the time when I drink it again with you when my Father rules everywhere as king.”

³⁰ After they sang a song praising God, Jesus and his apprentices went out toward the Mount of Olives.

³¹ Jesus then told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me because of {what will happen to} me! {This is certain to happen} because Zechariah wrote in the Scriptures {that God said}, ‘I will kill the shepherd, and the sheep of his flock will scatter.’ ³² But after {I have died and} God causes me to become alive again, I will go ahead of you to the district of Galilee and meet you there.” ³³ Peter replied, “All {of your other apprentices} may desert you because of {what will happen to} you, but I certainly will never desert you!” ³⁴ Jesus replied to him, “I tell you the truth: This very night, before the rooster crows {at dawn}, you will say three times that you do not know me!” ³⁵ Peter told him, “Even if I must die with you, I will never say that I do not know you!” All the rest of Jesus’ apprentices also said the same thing.

³⁶ Jesus then went with his apprentices to a place that people call Gethsemane. There he told his apprentices, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter, James, and John, with him. Jesus became very sad and distressed. ³⁸ Then he told those three apprentices, “I am very sorrowful. It is as if I were about to die! You men stay here with me and keep watch!” ³⁹ After going a little farther, Jesus threw himself facedown on the ground. He prayed, “O my Father, if it is possible, rescue me so that I do not have to suffer now! But do not do what I want. Instead, do what you want!” ⁴⁰ Then he returned to the three disciples and saw that they were sleeping. He {woke Peter up} and told him, “I am disappointed that you {men} were not able to keep watch with me for just a short time!” ⁴¹ {And Jesus said to them,} “You want to do what I say, but you are not strong enough. Keep awake and pray so that you can resist when you are tempted!”

⁴² Jesus went away a second time. He prayed, “O my Father, if it is necessary for me to suffer, may what you want happen!”

⁴³ When he returned to the three apprentices, he saw that they were asleep again. {This was} because {they were so sleepy that} they could not keep their eyes open. ⁴⁴ So he left them and went away again. He prayed a third time, saying the same thing that he had prayed before. ⁴⁵ Then he returned to the three apprentices. He woke them up and told them, “I am disappointed that you are still sleeping and resting! Look! The time for me to suffer is about to begin. Someone is about to help sinful men to arrest me, the Son of Man! ⁴⁶ So get up! Let us go! Look! Here comes the one who is helping them to arrest me!”

⁴⁷ While Jesus was still speaking, Judas arrived. He was one of the 12 apprentices. {He brought} with him a large crowd of people carrying swords and clubs. The chief priests and elders {who ruled} over the Jewish people had sent them {to arrest Jesus}. ⁴⁸ Judas, who was helping Jesus’ enemies to arrest him, had previously told this crowd, “The man whom I will kiss is the one you want. Arrest him!” ⁴⁹ He immediately went to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Teacher!” Then he kissed Jesus {on the cheek}. ⁵⁰ Jesus told him, “Friend, do what you came here to do.” Then the men who came with Judas grabbed Jesus and arrested him. ⁵¹ Suddenly, one of the men who was with Jesus pulled his sword {out of its sheath}. He struck someone who served the high priest and cut off that man’s ear. ⁵² Jesus then told him, “Put your sword back in its sheath! Someone will kill with a sword all those who try to kill others with a sword! ⁵³ Surely you know that if I asked my Father, he would immediately send more than 12 armies of angels to help me! ⁵⁴ {But if I did that,} then the scriptures that the prophets have written {about what will happen to the Messiah} would not come true.”

⁵⁵ At that time Jesus told the groups of people {who were arresting him}, “You have come here with swords and clubs to arrest me, as if I were a bandit! Day after day I sat in the temple courtyard, teaching {the people}. You could have arrested me then! ⁵⁶ But all this is happening in order that what the prophets wrote {about me in the Scriptures} may happen.” Then all of Jesus’ apprentices left him and ran away.

⁵⁷ The men who had arrested Jesus took him to {the house where} Caiaphas, the high priest{, lived}. The men who taught the Jewish laws and the Jewish elders had {already} assembled there. ⁵⁸ Peter followed Jesus at a distance. He went into the courtyard {of the house where} the high priest {lived}. He sat {there} with the men who guarded {the house of the high priest} in order to see what would happen.

⁵⁹ The chief priests and all the rest of the Jewish council tried to find {people who would tell} lies about Jesus so that they could {convince the Romans to} execute him. ⁶⁰ They did not succeed. Even though many people spoke lies about Jesus, {what they said was not useful}. Finally, two men came forward. ⁶¹ They said, “This man said that he can destroy God’s temple and rebuild it within three days.” ⁶² Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to reply {to what they have said}? What do you say about all the things that they are saying in order to accuse you?” ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I command you to tell us {the truth}, knowing that the one true God {is listening}: Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?” ⁶⁴ Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say. But I will also say this to {all of} you: Some day you will see me, the Son of Man, ruling beside God, who is completely powerful. {You will} also {see me} coming down through the clouds in the sky!”

⁶⁵ Then the high priest was so upset that he tore his outer garment. Then he said, “This man has insulted God! We certainly do not need anyone else to testify {against him}! You all surely heard how he insulted God! ⁶⁶ What have you decided?” The Jewish leaders replied, “He deserves to be executed!” ⁶⁷ Then some of them spit in Jesus’ face, hit him {with their fists}, and slapped him. ⁶⁸ They said, “{If you who claim to be} the Messiah are really a prophet, then tell us who hit you!”

⁶⁹ Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus, that man from the region of Galilee!” ⁷⁰ But while everyone there was listening, he denied having been with Jesus. He said, “I do not know what you are talking about!” ⁷¹ Then he went out to the entrance {of the courtyard}. Another servant girl saw him and told the people who were standing nearby, “This man was with Jesus, that man from the town of Nazareth.” ⁷² But Peter again denied having been with Jesus. He said, “May God punish me if I am lying! I do not even know that man!” ⁷³ A short time later, the people who were standing there went up to Peter and said to him, “It is certain that you are one of those {who were with that man}. {We know this} because the way you speak proves that you are from the district of Galilee.” ⁷⁴ Then Peter began to exclaim, “I do not know that man! For God knows that I am speaking truthfully, and may he punish me if I am lying!” Right then a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus had spoken to him {when he said}, “Before the rooster crows {at dawn}, you will say three times that you do not know me.” Peter went out {of the courtyard} and cried with great sorrow.

Chapter 27

¹ Early the next morning all the chief priests and elders {who ruled} over the Jewish people planned together in order to {persuade the Romans to} execute Jesus. ² Then their guards tied Jesus’ hands {again}. They took him {from Caiaphas} to Pilate, the {Roman} governor.

³ Then Judas, the one who had helped Jesus’ enemies arrest him, realized that the chief priests and elders had decided that Jesus must die. So he regretted {helping them}. He brought the 30 silver coins back to the chief priests and elders {who had given them to him}. ⁴ He said, “I have sinned. I have helped you condemn an innocent man to die.” They replied, “That means nothing to us! That is your problem!” ⁵ So Judas took the money and threw it into the temple. Then he went away and hanged himself {so that he died}.

⁶ The chief priests picked up the coins {Judas had thrown}. They said, “This is money that we paid for a man to die. Therefore, our laws prohibit us from putting this money into the temple treasury.” ⁷ After discussing the matter {further}, they used that money to buy a field that people called the Potter’s Field. {They bought that field} in order to make it a place where they could bury strangers who died {in Jerusalem}. ⁸ That is why people still call that place the “Field of Blood.” ⁹ {By buying that field} they made these words come true that the prophet Jeremiah had written {in the Scriptures}: “They took the 30 silver coins, which were what the Israelites had decided that he was worth, ¹⁰ and with that money they bought the potter’s field. {They did that} according to what the Lord had commanded me.”

¹¹ Then Jesus stood in front of {Pilate,} the governor. Pilate asked him, “Do you say that you are the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “You yourself have said so.”

¹² But when the chief priests and elders {of the Jews} accused Jesus {of doing various wrong things}, he did not reply. ¹³ So Pilate told him, “You surely hear all these things they are accusing you of doing! {You should reply!}” ¹⁴ But Jesus did not say anything at all to him in response. As a result, the governor was very surprised.

¹⁵ It was the governor’s custom {each year} during the Passover Celebration to release one person who was in prison. He released {from prison} whomever the people wanted {him to release}. ¹⁶ At that time the Romans were holding a well-known prisoner {in Jerusalem}. His name was Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when the people assembled, Pilate asked them, “Which prisoner would you like me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus, whom some of you call the Messiah?” ¹⁸ {He asked that question} because he was aware that the Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to him {only} because they were jealous {of Jesus}.

¹⁹ While Pilate was sitting on the seat where he usually pronounced verdicts, his wife sent this message to him: “Today I dreamed about that man, and it distressed me greatly. So do not pronounce that righteous man guilty!”

²⁰ The chief priests and elders {of the Jews} convinced the groups of people to ask Pilate to release Barabbas, and {to command soldiers} to execute Jesus. ²¹ The governor replied by asking them, “Which one of these two men do you want me to release for you?” They replied, “{We want you to release} Barabbas!” ²² Pilate asked them, “So what should I do with Jesus, whom some of you call the Messiah?” They all replied, “{Command your soldiers to} crucify him!” ²³ Pilate replied, “No! He has not committed any crime!” But they shouted even louder, “{Command your soldiers to} crucify him!”

²⁴ Pilate realized that he was not accomplishing anything. Rather, the people were starting to riot. So he took {a basin of} water and washed his hands while the group of people was watching. He said, “{By washing my hands, I have shown you that} I am not guilty of killing this man! That is your problem!” ²⁵ And all the people replied, “May we and our descendants be responsible for killing this man!” ²⁶ Then Pilate ordered the soldiers to release Barabbas to the group of people. But he ordered his soldiers to whip Jesus with leather straps into which they had fastened metal and bone pieces. Then he told the soldiers to take Jesus away to crucify him.

²⁷ Pilate’s soldiers then took Jesus into the government headquarters. Then the whole group of soldiers who were on duty there assembled around Jesus. ²⁸ They pulled off his clothes and put a red robe on him {in order to pretend that he was a king}. ²⁹ They {also} took some branches with thorns and wove them together to make a crown and put it on his head. They put in his right hand a stick {like a king’s staff}. Then they knelt in front of him and ridiculed him by saying, “Hooray for the King who rules the Jews!” ³⁰ They kept spitting on him. They took the stick {from him} and kept striking him on the head {with it}. ³¹ When they had finished ridiculing him, they pulled the robe off of him and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away {from the government headquarters} in order to nail him to a cross.

³² While they were going out {of Jerusalem}, the soldiers saw a man from the city of Cyrene. His name was Simon. They forced him to carry the cross for Jesus. ³³ They came to a place that people called Golgotha. That name means the “Place of the Skull.” ³⁴ Then they gave Jesus wine that they had mixed with bitter medicine so that he would drink it. After tasting it, Jesus refused to drink it. ³⁵ After nailing Jesus to the cross, they divided his clothes among themselves by gambling for them. ³⁶ Then the soldiers sat down there to guard him {so that no one could rescue him}. ³⁷ Above Jesus’ head they fastened to the cross a sign on which someone had written why they had nailed him to the cross. {It said,} ‘This man is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ ³⁸ Along with Jesus they also nailed to other crosses two prisoners who were bandits. They nailed one to a cross at the right side of Jesus and one to a cross at the left side of Jesus. ³⁹ The people who were passing by insulted him by shaking their heads {at him}. ⁴⁰ They said {to him}, “You said that you would destroy the temple and then you would build it again within three days. {If you could do that, then} rescue yourself! If you are really God’s Son, then prove it by coming down from that cross!”

⁴¹ Similarly, the chief priests, the men who taught the Jewish laws, and the elders ridiculed Jesus. They said {to each other}, ⁴² “People claim that he has saved others from trouble, but he cannot save himself! He claimed to be the king who rules the people of Israel. {If his words are true,} he should come down now from the cross! Then we will believe him! ⁴³ He says that he trusts in God, and that he is God’s Son. So if God is pleased with him, God should rescue him now!” ⁴⁴ Similarly, the two bandits whom the soldiers nailed on crosses beside Jesus insulted him as well.

⁴⁵ At noon the whole land became dark. {It stayed dark} until three o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁶ At about three o’clock Jesus shouted loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” That means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” ⁴⁷ When some of the people standing there heard {him say} that, they misunderstood it and said, “He is calling for the prophet Elijah!” ⁴⁸ At that moment one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with cheap wine. Then he put the sponge on {the tip of} a reed and held it up to try to get Jesus to suck out the wine that was in it. ⁴⁹ But the other people there said, “Wait! Let us see if Elijah comes to rescue him!” ⁵⁰ Then after Jesus shouted loudly again, he voluntarily died. ⁵¹ Just then the heavy, thick curtain {that closed off the Most Holy Place} in the temple split into two pieces from top to bottom. God also shook the earth and broke apart {some} rocks. ⁵² God caused burial chambers to open up. He also caused the dead bodies of many of his people to become alive again. ⁵³ Those people came out of the burial chambers, and they went into Jerusalem after Jesus became alive again. Many people saw them there.

⁵⁴ When the centurion {who was commanding the soldiers} and those soldiers who were guarding Jesus with him felt the earthquake and saw all the other things that happened, they were terrified. They exclaimed, “Certainly, this Jesus was God’s Son!”

⁵⁵ Many women were there, watching {what happened} from farther back. These women had accompanied Jesus from the district of Galilee in order to provide him with what he needed. ⁵⁶ Among these women were Mary from the town of Magdala, another Mary who was the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John.

⁵⁷ When evening was near, a rich man came there. His name was Joseph and he was from the city of Arimathea. He also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Joseph went to Pilate and asked him to allow him to take the body of Jesus {and bury it}. Pilate ordered {his soldiers} to give him the body {so he could take it away}. ⁵⁹ So Joseph {and others} took the body. They wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. ⁶⁰ Then they put Jesus’ body into Joseph’s own newly made burial chamber that workers had cut into a rock cliff. Then they rolled a huge flat stone in front of the entrance to the burial chamber. Then they left. ⁶¹ Mary from the town of Magdala and the other woman whose name was Mary were sitting there, facing the burial chamber.

⁶² The next day was the Jewish day of rest. {On that day} the chief priests and some of the Pharisees assembled {and met} with Pilate. ⁶³ They said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive, he said that on the third day {after he died}, God would cause him to become alive again.’ ⁶⁴ So {we ask you to} order your soldiers to secure the burial chamber for three days. If you do not do that, his apprentices may go there and steal the body. Then they will tell the people that God caused him to become alive again after he had died. If they deceive the people {in this way}, then it will be worse than the first {way he deceived people}.” ⁶⁵ Pilate told them, “Take some soldiers. Go {to the burial chamber and} secure it as best as you can.” ⁶⁶ So they went {to the burial chamber and} secured it by putting a seal on the huge flat stone {in front of the entrance to the burial chamber}. They also left some soldiers there to guard {the burial chamber}.

Chapter 28

¹ When the Sabbath ended at dawn on Sunday morning, Mary from the town of Magdala and the other woman whose name was Mary went to look at Jesus’ burial chamber. ² Suddenly there was a powerful earthquake because an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. He went {to the burial chamber and} rolled the large stone away {from the burial chamber’s entrance}. Then he sat on the stone. ³ (The angel was as bright as lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.) ⁴ The guards trembled because they were terrified of the angel, and then they fell down as if they were dead.

⁵ The angel told the two women, “You should not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus, whom people nailed to a cross. ⁶ {But} he is not here {anymore}, because God has caused him to become alive again! {It happened} just as Jesus told you it would! Come and look at the place {in the burial chamber} where his body lay! ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his apprentices, ‘God has caused him to become alive again after he had died! Listen! He will go ahead of you to the region of Galilee. You will see him there.’ Listen to what I have told you!”

⁸ So the two women left the burial chamber quickly. They were afraid but also very joyful. They ran {to where his disciples were staying} in order to tell them {what had happened}. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus appeared to them. He said, “Greetings to you!” The two women came close to him. They {knelt down and} clasped his feet {to honor him}, and they worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “You should not be afraid! Go and tell my apprentices to go to the region of Galilee. They will see me there.”

¹¹ While the two women were going {to Jesus’ apprentices}, some of the soldiers who had been guarding Jesus’ burial chamber went into Jerusalem. They reported to the chief priests everything that had happened {at the burial chamber}. ¹² So the chief priests and elders {of the Jews} assembled and decided what they would do. They gave the soldiers a lot of money {as a bribe}. ¹³ They said, “Tell people that his apprentices came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. ¹⁴ If the governor hears about this, we ourselves will convince him not to punish you. So you will not have to worry.” ¹⁵ So the soldiers {who had guarded Jesus’ burial chamber} took the money and did what the chief priests and elders had told them to do. And people are still telling this story among the Jews.

¹⁶ Later Jesus’ 11 apprentices went to the region of Galilee. They went to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him {there}, they worshiped him. However, some of them were not sure that it was really Jesus. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came close to them and said, “My Father has authorized me to rule over everything and everyone. ¹⁹ So go and proclaim my message to people from every people group so that they may become my disciples. Baptize them to show that they have devoted themselves to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And indeed, I will always be with you, until the time when the world ends.”