Luke 11 Cross References - Moffatt

¹ He was praying at a certain place, and when he stopped one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." ² He said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, thy name be revered, thy Reign begin; ³ give us our bread for the morrow day by day, ⁴ and forgive us our sins for we do forgive everyone who has offended us; and lead us not into temptation." ⁵ And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, let me have three loaves; ⁶ for a friend of mine travelling has come to my house and I have nothing to set before him.' ⁷ And suppose he answers from the inside, 'Don't bother me; the door is locked by this time, and my children are in bed with me. I can't get up and give you anything.' ⁸ I tell you, though he will not get up and give you anything because you are a friend of his, he will at least rise and give you whatever you want, because you persist. ⁹ So I tell you, ask and the gift will be yours, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open to you; ¹⁰ for everyone who asks receives, the seeker finds, the door is opened to anyone who knocks. ¹¹ What father among you, if asked by his son for a loaf, will hand him a stone? Or, if asked for a fish, will hand him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or, if asked for an egg, will he hand him a scorpion? ¹³ Well, if for all your evil you know to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father give the holy Spirit from heaven to those who ask him?" ¹⁴ He was casting out a dumb daemon, and when the daemon had gone out the dumb man spoke. The crowds marvelled, ¹⁵ but some of them said, "It is by Beelzebul the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons." ¹⁶ Others by way of tempting him demanded he should give them a Sign from heaven. ¹⁷ He knew what they were thinking about, so he said to them, "Any realm divided against itself comes to ruin, house after house falls down; ¹⁸ and if Satan is divided against himself, how can his realm stand? You say I am casting out daemons by Beelzebul? ¹⁹ If I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if it is by the finger of God that I cast daemons out, then the Reign of God has reached you already. ²¹ When the strong man in armour guards his homestead, his property is undisturbed; ²² but when a stronger man attacks and conquers him, he seizes the panoply on which he relied and divides up the spoil. ²³ He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. ²⁴ When an unclean spirit leaves a man, it roams through dry places in search of refreshment. As it finds none, then it says, 'I will go back to the house I left,' ²⁵ and when it comes it finds the house clean and in order. ²⁶ Then it goes off to fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first." ²⁷ While he was saying this, a woman shouted to him out of the crowd, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts you sucked!" ²⁸ But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear and who observe the word of God!" ²⁹ As the crowds were thronging to him, he proceeded to say, "This is an evil generation: it demands a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of Jonah; ³⁰ for as Jonah was a Sign to the Ninivites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation. ³¹ The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon. ³² The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah. ³³ No one lights a lamp to put it in a cellar or under a bowl, but on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of the body: when your eye is sound, then the whole of your body has light, but if your eye is diseased, then your body is darkened. ³⁵ (Look! perhaps your very light is dark.) ³⁶ So if your whole body has light, without any corner of it in darkness, it will be lit up entirely, as when a lamp lights you with its rays." ³⁷ When he finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to take a meal in his house; so he went in and lay down at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not washed before the meal, ³⁹ but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice. ⁴⁰ Foolish men! did not He who made the outside make the inside of things too? ⁴¹ Better cleanse what is within; then nothing will be unclean for you. ⁴² But woe to you Pharisees! you tithe mint and rue and every vegetable, but justice and the love of God you disregard; these latter you ought to have practised — without omitting the former. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! you love the front bench in the synagogues and salutations in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! you are like unsuspected tombs; men walk over them unawares." ⁴⁵ One of the jurists said to him, "Teacher, when you say this you are insulting us as well." ⁴⁶ He said, "And woe to you jurists! you load men with irksome burdens, and you will not put a single finger to their burdens. ⁴⁷ Woe to you! you build tombs for the prophets whom your own fathers killed: ⁴⁸ thus you testify and consent to what your fathers did, for they killed and you build. ⁴⁹ This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some they will kill and some they will persecute'; ⁵⁰ it was that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world might be charged upon this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zechariah who was slain between the altar and the House of God — yes, I tell you, it will all be charged upon this generation. ⁵² Woe to you jurists! you have taken the key that unlocks the door of knowledge; you have not entered yourselves, and you have stopped those who were entering." ⁵³ After he had gone away, the scribes and Pharisees commenced to follow him up closely and cross-question him on many points, ⁵⁴ lying in ambush to catch a word from his lips.

¹² It was in these days that he went off to the hillside to pray. He spent the whole night in prayer to God,

¹⁸ Now it happened that while he was praying by himself his disciples were beside him. So he inquired of them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"

²⁸ It was about eight days after he said this, when he took Peter, John, and James, and went up the hillside to pray.

³⁹ Then he went outside and made his way to the Hill of Olives, as he was accustomed. The disciples followed him, ⁴⁰ and when he reached the spot he said to them, "Pray that you may not slip into temptation." ⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone's throw and knelt in prayer, ⁴² saying, "Father, if it please thee, take this cup away from me. But thy will, not mine, be done." ⁴³ [And an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him; ⁴⁴ he fell into an agony and prayed with greater intensity, his sweat dropping to the ground like clots of blood.] ⁴⁵ Then rising from prayer he went to the disciples, only to find them asleep from sheer sorrow.

²⁶ So too the Spirit assists us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray aright, but the Spirit pleads for us with sighs that are beyond words, ²⁷ and He who searches the human heart knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, since the Spirit pleads before God for the saints.

⁷ In the days of his flesh, with bitter cries and tears, he offered prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard, because of his godly fear.

² You crave, and miss what you want: you envy and covet, but you cannot acquire: you wrangle and fight — you miss what you want because you do not ask God for it; ³ you do ask and you do not get it, because you ask with the wicked intention of spending it on your pleasures.

²⁰ But do you, beloved, build up yourselves on your most holy faith and pray in the holy Spirit,

² "Repent, the Reign of heaven is near."

¹⁶ So your light is to shine before men, that they may see the good you do and glorify your Father in heaven.

⁶ When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you. ⁷ Do not pray by idle rote like pagans, for they suppose they will be heard the more they say; ⁸ you must not copy them; your Father knows your needs before you ask him. ⁹ Let this be how you pray: 'our Father in heaven, thy name be revered, ¹⁰ thy Reign begin, thy will be done on earth as in heaven! ¹¹ give us to-day our bread for the morrow, ¹² and forgive us our debts as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors, ¹³ and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.' ¹⁴ For if you forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive men, your Father will not forgive your trespasses either.

³² Everyone who will acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge him before my Father in heaven;

⁹ heal those in the town who are ill, and tell them, 'The Reign of God is nearly on you.' ¹⁰ But wherever you are not received on entering any town, go out into the streets of the town and cry, ¹¹ 'The very dust of your town that clings to us, we wipe off from our feet as a protest. But mark this, the Reign of God is near!'

⁷ to all in Rome who are beloved by God, called to be saints, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!",

³ grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil world — by the will of our God and Father,

² grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁰ Glory to God our Father for ever and ever: Amen.

² to the consecrated and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

¹ Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace and peace to you.

³ as we recall your active faith and labour of love and patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

¹¹ May our God and Father and our Lord Jesus direct my way to you! ¹² And may the Lord make you increase and excel in love to one another and to all men (as is my love for you), ¹³ so as to strengthen your hearts and make them blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. [Amen.]

¹ PAUL and Silvanus and Timotheus, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ² grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁶ And may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope,

¹⁵ Then the seventh angel blew; and loud voices followed in heaven, crying, "The rule of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

⁴ Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou alone art holy. Yea, all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are disclosed."

⁶ Then I heard a cry like the shout of a great host and the sound of many waves and the roar of heavy thunder — "Hallelujah! now the Lord our God almighty reigns!

⁴ And I saw thrones with people sitting on them, who were allowed to judge — saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and God's word, those who would not worship the Beast or his statue, and who would not receive his mark on their forehead or hand; they came to life and reigned along with the Christ for a thousand years.

¹¹ give us to-day our bread for the morrow,

³⁴ So do not be troubled about to-morrow; to-morrow will take care of itself. The day's own trouble is quite enough for the day.

²⁷ Work for no perishing food, but for that lasting food which means eternal life; the Son of man will give you that, for the Father, God, has certified him." ²⁸ Then they asked him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" ²⁹ Jesus replied to them, "This is the work of God, to believe in him whom God has sent." ³⁰ "Well then," they said, "what is the Sign you perform, that we may see it and believe you? What work have you to show? ³¹ Our ancestors ate manna in the desert: as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." ³² Then said Jesus, "What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven — ³³ for the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

²⁵ At that time Jesus spoke and said, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding all this from the wise and learned and revealing it to the simpleminded; ²⁶ yes, Father, I praise thee that such was thy chosen purpose.

³⁵ My heavenly Father will do the same to you unless you each forgive your brother from the heart."

⁴¹ Watch and pray, all of you, so that you may not slip into temptation. The spirit is eager but the flesh is weak."

¹³ Those 'on the rock' are people who on hearing the word welcome it with enthusiasm, but they have no root; they believe for a while and fall away in the hour of trial.

⁴⁶ He said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not slip into temptation."

¹⁵ I pray not that thou wilt take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from the evil one.

¹³ No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

⁷ My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up; ⁸ three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me,

³¹ Drop all bitter feeling and passion and anger and clamouring and insults, together with all malice; ³² be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, be generous to each other as God has been generous to you in Christ.

¹³ forbear and forgive each other in any case of complaint; as Christ forgave you, so must you forgive.

³ However, the Lord is faithful; he will be sure to strengthen you and protect you from the Evil one.

¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every assault of evil, he will bring me safe to his own realm in heaven. To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

¹³ for the judgment will be merciless to the man who has shown no mercy — whereas the merciful life will triumph in the face of judgment.

⁸ If we say, 'We are not guilty,' we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us; ⁹ if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, he forgives our sins and cleanses us from all iniquity; ¹⁰ if we say, "We have not sinned," we make him a liar and his word is not within us.

¹⁰ Have no fear of what you are to suffer. The devil indeed is going to put some of you in prison, that you may be tested; you will have a distressful ten days. Be faithful, though you have to die for it, and I will give you the crown of Life.

¹⁰ Because you have kept the word of my patient endurance, I will keep you safe through the hour of trial which is coming upon the whole world to test the dwellers on earth.

¹ He also told them a parable about the need of always praying and never losing heart. ² "In a certain town," he said, "there was a judge who had no reverence for God and no respect even for man. ³ And in that town there was a widow who used to go and appeal to him for 'Justice against my opponent!' ⁴ For a while he would not, but afterwards he said to himself, 'Though I have no reverence for God and no respect even for man, ⁵ still, as this widow is bothering me, I will see justice done to her — not to have her for ever coming and pestering me.' ⁶ Listen," said the Lord, "to what this unjust judge says! ⁷ And will not God see justice done to his elect who cry to him by day and night? Will he be tolerant to their opponents? ⁸ I tell you, he will quickly see justice done to his elect! And yet, when the Son of man does come, will he find faith on earth?"

¹⁰ Now while they were away buying oil, the bridegroom arrived; those maidens who were ready accompanied him to the marriage-banquet, and the door was shut.

⁶ So Jesus went with them. But he was not far from the house when the captain sent some friends to tell him, "Do not trouble yourself, sir, I am not fit to have you under my roof,

²⁵ once the master of the House has got up and closed the door. You may stand outside and knock at the door, crying, 'Lord, open for us,' but he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'

¹⁷ Let no one interfere with me after this, for I bear branded on my body the owner's stamp of Jesus.

²² And a woman of Canaan came out of these parts and wailed, "Have pity on me, Lord, O Son of David! My daughter is cruelly possessed by a daemon." ²³ But he made no answer to her. Then his disciples came up and pressed him, saying, "Send her away, she is wailing behind us." ²⁴ He replied, "It was only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that I was sent." ²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, do help me." ²⁶ He replied, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." ²⁷ "No, sir," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." ²⁸ At that Jesus replied, "O woman, you have great faith; your prayer is granted as you wish." And from that hour her daughter was cured.

³⁰ Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me;

⁸ three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me,

¹ Striving? Yes, I want you to understand my deep concern for you and for those at Laodicea, for all who have never seen my face.

¹² Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, salutes you — a servant of Christ Jesus who is always earnest in prayer for you, that you may stand firm like mature and convinced Christians, whatever be the will of God for you.

²⁹ and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his grandeur was never robed like one of them.

⁷ Ask and the gift will be yours, seek and you will find, knock and the door will open to you; ⁸ for every one who asks receives, the seeker finds, the door is opened to anyone who knocks. ⁹ Why, which of you, when asked by his son for a loaf, will hand him a stone? ¹⁰ Or, if he asks a fish, will you hand him a serpent? ¹¹ Well, if for all your evil you know to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

²² All that ever you ask in prayer you shall have, if you believe."

³¹ Which of the two did the will of the father?" They said, "The last." Jesus said to them, "I tell you truly, the taxgatherers and harlots are going into the Realm of God before you.

²⁴ So I tell you, whatever you pray for and ask, believe you have got it and you shall have it.

³⁷ Watch: I say it to you, and I say it to all."

²⁴ "Strive to get in through the narrow door, for I tell you many will try to get in and not be able, ²⁵ once the master of the House has got up and closed the door. You may stand outside and knock at the door, crying, 'Lord, open for us,' but he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from.'

⁴⁵ he met Nathanael and told him, "We have found him whom Moses wrote about in the Law, and also the prophets — it is Jesus, the son of Joseph, who comes from Nazaret." ⁴⁶ "Nazaret!" said Nathanael, "can anything good come out of Nazaret?" "Come and see," said Philip. ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael approaching and said of him, "Here is a genuine Israelite! There is no guile in him." ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "When you were under that fig tree, before ever Philip called you, I saw you." ⁴⁹ "Rabbi," said Nathanael, "you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel!"

¹⁰ Jesus answered, "If you knew what is the free gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given you 'living' water."

¹³ and I will do whatever you ask in my name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;

⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then ask whatever you like and you shall have it.

¹⁶ You have not chosen me, it is I who have chosen you, appointing you to go and bear fruit — fruit that lasts, so that the Father may grant you whatever you ask in my name.

²³ And on that day you will not ask me any questions. Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you ask the Father, he will give you in my name; ²⁴ hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

⁴ He stared at the angel in terror, saying, "What is it?" He replied, "Your prayers and your alms have risen before God as a sacrifice to be remembered. ⁵ You must now send some men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is surnamed Peter; ⁶ he is staying with Simon a tanner, whose house stands by the sea."

⁷ eternal life to those who by patiently doing good aim at glory, honour, and immortality,

² (He saith, I have heard you in the time of favour, and helped you on the day of salvation. Well, here is the time of favour, here is the day of salvation.)

⁸ three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me, ⁹ but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life.

¹⁶ So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in the hour of need.

⁶ and apart from faith it is impossible to satisfy him, for the man who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he does reward those who seek him.

⁵ Whoever of you is defective in wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men without question or reproach, and the gift will be his.

¹⁵ the prayer of faith will restore the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; even the sins he has committed will be forgiven him.

²² and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

¹⁴ Now the confidence we have in him is this, that he listens to us whenever we ask anything in accordance with his will; ¹⁵ and if we know he listens to whatever we ask, we know we obtain the requests we have made to him.

²⁴ But for the rest of you at Thyatira, for all who do not hold these tenets, for those who have not (in their phrase) 'fathomed the deep mysteries of Satan' — for you this is my word: I impose no fresh burden on you;

¹ He also told them a parable about the need of always praying and never losing heart.

³ you do ask and you do not get it, because you ask with the wicked intention of spending it on your pleasures.

¹¹ See, we call the stedfast happy; you have heard of the stedfastness of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord with him, seen that the Lord is very compassionate and pitiful.

⁹ Why, which of you, when asked by his son for a loaf, will hand him a stone?

¹⁹ I have indeed given you the power of treading on serpents and scorpions and of trampling down all the power of the Enemy; nothing shall injure you.

¹⁰ their tails and their stings were like scorpions', and their power of hurting men for five months lay in their tails;

⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven: he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

¹⁴ For if you forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will forgive you;

³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field which blooms to-day and is thrown to-morrow into the furnace, will not he much more clothe you? O men, how little you trust him!

³² (pagans make all that their aim in life) for your heavenly Father knows quite well you need all that.

¹¹ Well, if for all your evil you know to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?

² He said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, thy name be revered, thy Reign begin;

³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours arrives, after having wasted your means with harlots, you kill the fatted calf for him!' ³¹ The father said to him, 'My son, you and I are always together, all I have is yours. ³² We could not but make merry and rejoice, for your brother here was dead and has come to life again, he was lost but he has been found.' "

⁵ Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter God's Realm. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh: what is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day, of the festival, Jesus stood and cried aloud, "If anyone is athirst, let him come to me and drink; ³⁸ he who believes in me — out of his body, as scripture says, streams of living water will flow" ³⁹ (he meant by this the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive: — as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus had not been glorified yet).

³⁸ "Repent," said Peter, "let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; then you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.

⁹ Much more then, now that we are justified by his blood, shall we be saved by him from Wrath. ¹⁰ If we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

¹⁷ For if the trespass of one man allowed death to reign through that one man, much more shall those who receive the overflowing grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life through One, through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ For in me (that is, in my flesh) no good dwells, I know; the wish is there, but not the power of doing what is right.

³² The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

⁹ If there was glory in the administration that condemned, then the administration that acquits abounds far more in glory ¹⁰ (indeed, in view of the transcendent glory, what was glorious has thus no glory at all); ¹¹ if what faded had its glory, then what lasts will be invested with far greater glory.

³ For we ourselves were once senseless, disobedient, astray, enslaved to all manner of passions and pleasures; we spent our days in malice and envy, we were hateful, and we hated one another.

⁹ Why, we had fathers of our flesh to discipline us, and we yielded to them! Shall we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so live? ¹⁰ For while their discipline was only for a time, and inflicted at their pleasure, he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his own holiness.

³² As they went out, a dumb man was brought to him, who was possessed by a daemon, ³³ and when the daemon had been cast out, the dumb man spoke. Then the crowd marvelled; they said, "Such a thing has never been seen in Israel!" ³⁴ [vs omitted but shown in footnote] But the Pharisees said, "He casts out daemons by the prince of daemons."

²² Then a blind and dumb demoniac was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw. ²³ And all the crowds were amazed; they said, "Can this be the Son of David?" ²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard of it they said, "This fellow only casts out daemons by Beelzebul the prince of daemons."

³² And a deaf man who stammered was brought to him, with the request that he would lay his hand on him. ³³ So taking him aside from the crowd by himself, he put his fingers into the man's ears, touched his tongue with saliva, ³⁴ and looking up to heaven with a sigh he said to him, "Ephphatha" (which means, Open). ³⁵ Then his ears were [at once] opened and his tongue freed from its fetter — he began to speak correctly. ³⁶ Jesus forbade them to tell anyone about it, but the more he forbade them the more eagerly they made it public; ³⁷ they were astounded in the extreme, saying, "How splendidly he has done everything! He actually makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak!"

³⁴ [vs omitted but shown in footnote] But the Pharisees said, "He casts out daemons by the prince of daemons."

²⁵ enough for the scholar to fare like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If men have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they miscall his servants!

²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard of it they said, "This fellow only casts out daemons by Beelzebul the prince of daemons." ²⁵ As Jesus knew what they were thinking, he said to them, "Any realm divided against itself comes to ruin, any city or house divided against itself will never stand; ²⁶ and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then can his realm stand? ²⁷ Besides, if I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of God, then the Reign of God has reached you already. ²⁹ Why, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first of all binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his house. ³⁰ He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

²² But the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and "It is by the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons." ²³ So he called them and said to them by way of parable, "How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a realm is divided against itself, that realm cannot stand: ²⁵ if a household is divided against itself, that household cannot stand: ²⁶ and if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, he comes to an end. ²⁷ No one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods unless first of all he binds the strong man; then he can plunder his house. ²⁸ I tell you truly, the sons of men shall be forgiven all their sins, and all the blasphemies they may utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit is never forgiven, he is guilty of an eternal sin." ³⁰ (This was because they said, "He has an unclean spirit.")

¹⁸ and if Satan is divided against himself, how can his realm stand? You say I am casting out daemons by Beelzebul? ¹⁹ If I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges.

²⁰ The crowd replied, "You are mad. Who wants to kill you?"

⁴⁸ The Jews retorted, "Are we not right in saying you are a Samaritan, you are mad?"

⁵² The Jews said to him, "Now we are sure you are mad. Abraham is dead, and so are all the prophets; and you declare, 'If anyone holds to what I say, he will never taste death'!

²⁰ A number of them said, "He is mad. Why listen to him?"

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we would like to have some Sign from you." ³⁹ He replied to them, "It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of the prophet Jonah;

¹ Now the Pharisees and Sadducees came up and, in order to tempt him, asked him to show them a Sign from heaven. ² He replied, ³ — - ⁴ "It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, and no Sign shall be given to it except the Sign of Jonah." Then he left them and went away.

¹¹ Now the Pharisees came out and started to argue with him, asking him for a Sign from heaven, by way of tempting him. ¹² But he sighed in spirit and said, "Why does this generation demand a Sign? I tell you truly, no Sign shall be given this generation."

³⁰ "Well then," they said, "what is the Sign you perform, that we may see it and believe you? What work have you to show?

²² Jews demand miracles and Greeks want wisdom,

⁴ Jesus saw what they were thinking and said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?

²⁵ As Jesus knew what they were thinking, he said to them, "Any realm divided against itself comes to ruin, any city or house divided against itself will never stand; ²⁶ and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then can his realm stand? ²⁷ Besides, if I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of God, then the Reign of God has reached you already. ²⁹ Why, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first of all binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

²³ So he called them and said to them by way of parable, "How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a realm is divided against itself, that realm cannot stand: ²⁵ if a household is divided against itself, that household cannot stand: ²⁶ and if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, he comes to an end. ²⁷ No one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods unless first of all he binds the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

²⁵ and required no evidence from anyone about human nature; well did he know what was in human nature.

²³ and her children I will exterminate. So shall all the churches know that I am the searcher of the inmost heart; I will requite each of you according to what you have done.

¹⁰ Then Jesus told him, "Begone, Satan! it is written, You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone."

²⁶ and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then can his realm stand?

³¹ I tell you therefore, men will be forgiven any sin and blasphemy, but they will not be forgiven for blaspheming the Spirit. ³² Whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will never be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come. ³³ Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For the mouth utters what the heart is full of.

¹⁵ but some of them said, "It is by Beelzebul the prince of daemons that he casts out daemons."

⁵ So the tongue is a small member of the body, but it can boast of great exploits. What a forest is set ablaze by a little spark of fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, the tongue proves a very world of mischief among our members, staining the whole of the body and setting fire to the round circle of existence with a flame fed by hell. ⁷ For while every kind of beast and bird, of creeping animals and creatures marine, is tameable and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸ no man can tame the tongue — plague of disorder that it is, full of deadly venom!

²⁷ Besides, if I cast out daemons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Thus they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of God, then the Reign of God has reached you already.

⁴¹ The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah. ⁴² The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

⁴⁹ John said to him, "Master, we saw a man casting out daemons in your name, but we stopped him because he is not a follower of ours."

³¹ The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon. ³² The men of Ninive will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for when Jonah preached they did repent, and here is One greater than Jonah.

²² He replied, 'You rascal of a servant, I will convict you by what you have said yourself. You knew, did you, that I was a hard man, picking up what I never put down, and reaping what I never sowed!

¹⁹ Whatever the Law says, we know, it says to those who are inside the Law, that every mouth may be shut and all the world made answerable to God;

²⁸ But if I cast out daemons by the Spirit of God, then the Reign of God has reached you already.

⁹ heal those in the town who are ill, and tell them, 'The Reign of God is nearly on you.'

¹¹ 'The very dust of your town that clings to us, we wipe off from our feet as a protest. But mark this, the Reign of God is near!'

²⁵ I know to-day that not one of you will ever see my face again — not one of you among whom I moved as I preached the Reign.

²³ So they fixed a day and came to him at his quarters in large numbers. From morning to evening he explained the Reign of God to them from personal testimony, and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets. ²⁴ Some were convinced by what he said, but the others would not believe. ²⁵ As they could not agree among themselves, they were turning to go away, when Paul added this one word: "It was an apt word that the holy Spirit spoke by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers, ²⁶ when he said, Go and tell this people, 'You will hear and hear but never understand, you will see and see but never perceive.' ²⁷ For the heart at this people is obtuse, their ears are heavy at hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they understand with their heart and turn again, and I cure them. ²⁸ Be sure of this, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen to it."

⁵ They are proof positive of God's equity; you are suffering for the realm of God, and he means to make you worthy of it —

²⁹ Why, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first of all binds the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

²⁷ No one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods unless first of all he binds the strong man; then he can plunder his house.

¹⁵ when he cut away the angelic Rulers and Powers from us, exposing them to all the world and triumphing over them in the cross.

⁸ he who commits sin belongs to the devil, for the devil is a sinner from the very beginning. (This is why the Son of God appeared, to destroy the deeds of the devil.)

⁴ My dear children, you belong to God, and you have conquered all such, for He who is within you is greater than he who is in the world.

¹ Then I saw an angel descend from heaven with the key of the abyss and a huge chain in his hand; ² he gripped the dragon, that old serpent (who is the devil and Satan), and bound him for a thousand years, ³ flinging him into the abyss and shutting and sealing it on the top of him, to prevent him seducing the nations again until the thousand years were completed — after which he has to be released for a little while.

³⁰ He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

⁴⁰ He who is not against us is for us.

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him; he who is not against you is for you."

¹⁵ I know your doings, you are neither cold nor hot — would you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.

⁴³ When an unclean spirit leaves a man, it roams through dry places in search of refreshment and finds none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, 'I will go back to the house I left,' and when it comes it finds the house vacant, clean, and all in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes off to fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is how it will be with the present evil generation."

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

²⁵ Now as Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, he checked the unclean spirit. "Deaf and dumb spirit," he said, "leave him, I command you, and never enter him again."

² in which you moved as you followed the course of this world, under the sway of the prince of the air — the spirit which is at present active within those sons of disobedience

⁸ Keep cool, keep awake. Your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion, looking out for someone to devour.

⁹ that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood, ¹⁰ and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them. ¹¹ Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood, ¹² so that all may be doomed who refuse faith in the Truth but delight in evil.

¹⁰ particularly those who fall in with the polluting appetite of the flesh and despise the Powers celestial. Daring, presumptuous creatures! they are not afraid to scoff at the angelic Glories; ¹¹ whereas even angels, superior in might and power, lay no scoffing charge against these before the Lord. ¹² But those people! — like irrational animals, creatures of mere instinct, born for capture and corruption, they scoff at what they are ignorant of; and like animals they will suffer corruption and ruin, ¹³ done out of the profits of their evil-doing. Pleasure for them is revelling in open daylight — spots and blots, with their dissipated revelling, as they carouse in your midst! — ¹⁴ their eyes are full of harlotry, insatiable for sin; their own hearts trained to lust, they beguile unsteady souls. Accursed generation! ¹⁵ they have gone wrong by leaving the straight road, by following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who liked the profits of evil-doing — ¹⁶ but he got reproved for his malpractice: a dumb ass spoke with human voice and checked the prophet's infatuation. ¹⁷ These people are waterless fountains and mists driven by a squall, for whom the nether gloom of darkness is reserved. ¹⁸ By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct — ¹⁹ promising them freedom, when they are themselves enslaved to corruption (for a man is the slave of whatever overpowers him).

⁸ Despite it all, these visionaries pollute their flesh, scorn the Powers celestial, and scoff at the angelic Glories. ⁹ Now the very archangel Michael, when he disputed the body of Moses with Satan, did not dare to condemn him with scoffs; what he said was, The Lord rebuke you! ¹⁰ But these people scoff at anything they do not understand; and whatever they do understand, like irrational animals, by mere instinct, that proves their ruin. ¹¹ Woe to them! they go the road of Cain, rush into Balaam's error for what it brings them, and perish in Korah's rebellion. ¹² These people are stains on your love-feasts; they have no qualms about carousing in your midst, they look after none but themselves — rainless clouds, swept along by the wind, trees in autumn without fruit, doubly dead and so uprooted, ¹³ wild waves foaming out their own shame, wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved eternally.

⁴⁵ Then it goes off to fetch seven other spirits worse than itself; they go in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is how it will be with the present evil generation."

¹⁵ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you succeed you make him a son of Gehenna twice as bad as yourselves.

¹⁴ Later on Jesus met him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well and strong; commit no more sins, in case something worse befalls you."

⁴ For in the case of people who have been once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly Gift, who participated in the holy Spirit, ⁵ who tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away — ⁶ it is impossible to make them repent afresh, since they crucify the Son of God in their own persons and hold him up to obloquy. ⁷ For land which absorbs the rain that often falls on it, and bears plants that are useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God; ⁸ whereas, if it produces thorns and thistles, it is reprobate and on the verge of being cursed — its fate is to be burned.

²⁶ For if we sin deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, ²⁷ nothing but an awful outlook of doom, of that burning Wrath which will consume the foes of God. ²⁸ Anyone who has rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy, on the evidence of two or of three witnesses. ²⁹ How much heavier, do you suppose, will be the punishment assigned to him who has spurned the Son of God, who has profaned the covenant-blood with which he was sanctified, who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ We know who said, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital: and again, The Lord will pass sentence on his people. ³¹ It is an awful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

²⁰ After escaping the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, if they get entangled and overpowered again, the last state is worse for them than the first. ²¹ Better had they never known the Way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn back from the holy command which was committed to them. ²² They verify the truth of the proverb: "The dog turns back to what he has vomited, the sow when washed will wallow in the mire."

¹⁶ If anyone notices his brother committing a sin which is not deadly, he will ask and obtain life for him — for anyone who does not commit a deadly sin. There is such a thing as deadly sin; I do not mean he is to pray for that.

²⁸ The angel went in and said to her, "Hail, O favoured one! the Lord be with you!"

⁴² she called out with a loud cry, "Blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

⁴⁸ for he has considered the humiliation of his servant. From this time forth all generations will call me blessed,

²⁹ For there are days coming when the cry will be, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never have borne and the breasts that never have suckled!'

²¹ It is not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord!', who will get into the Realm of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to me at that Day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? did we not cast out daemons in your name? did we not perform many miracles in your name?' ²³ Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from my presence, you workers of iniquity.' ²⁴ Now, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts upon them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the floods rose, the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, for it was founded on rock.

⁴⁸ But he replied to the man who told him this, "Who is my mother? and who are my brothers?" ⁴⁹ Stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, that is my brother and sister and mother."

⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like. ⁴⁸ He is like a man engaged in building a house, who dug deep down and laid his foundation on the rock; when a flood came, the river dashed against that house but could not shake it, for it had been well built.

²¹ But he answered, "My mother and brothers are those who listen to the word of God and obey it."

¹⁷ If you know all this, blessed are you if you really do it.

²¹ so clear away all the foul rank growth of malice, and make a soil of modesty for the Word which roots itself inwardly with power to save your souls. ²² Act on the Word, instead of merely listening to it and deluding yourselves. ²³ For whoever listens and does nothing, is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ he glances at himself, goes off, and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ Whereas he who gazes into the faultless law of freedom and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an active agent, he will be blessed in his activity.

²¹ If our heart does not condemn us, beloved, then we have confidence in approaching God, ²² and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. ²³ Now this is what he commands, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has commanded us to do; ²⁴ he who obeys his commands remains within him — and He remains within him. And this is how we may be sure he remains within us, by means of the Spirit he has given us.

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, that theirs may be the right to the tree of Life, the right to enter the gates of the City!

⁷ But when he noticed a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who told you to flee from the coming Wrath?

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we would like to have some Sign from you." ³⁹ He replied to them, "It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a Sign, but no Sign will be given to it except the Sign of the prophet Jonah; ⁴⁰ for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

³⁴ This is why I will send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town; ³⁵ it is that on you may fall the punishment for all the just blood shed on earth from the blood of Abel the just down to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ I tell you truly, it will all come upon this generation.

³⁸ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this disloyal and sinful generation, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

⁴¹ Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long must I still be with you and bear with you? Fetch your son here."

¹⁶ Others by way of tempting him demanded he should give them a Sign from heaven.

⁵⁰ it was that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world might be charged upon this generation,

¹ Meanwhile as the crowd was gathering in its thousands till they trod on one another, he proceeded to say to his disciples first of all, "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,

²⁵ There were large crowds travelling with him; so he turned and said to them, ²⁶ "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, aye and his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine;

¹⁸ Then the Jews accosted him with the words, "What sign of authority have you to show us, for acting in this way?"

⁴⁴ You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires; he was a slayer of men from the very beginning, and he has no place in the truth because there is no truth in him: when he tells a lie, he is expressing his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁵¹ Stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ear, you are always resisting the holy Spirit! As with your fathers, so with you! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Just One. And here you have betrayed him, murdered him! —

⁴⁶ "Thus," he said, "it is written that the Christ has to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

⁴² The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

²² and the holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him; and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my son, the Beloved, to-day have I become thy father."

³⁵ but a voice came from the cloud, "This is my Son, my Chosen one; listen to him."

²⁷ And shall not those who are physically uncircumcised and who fulfil the Law, judge you who are a breaker of the Law for all your written code and circumcision?)

¹⁵ He is the likeness of the unseen God, born first before all the creation — ¹⁶ for it was by him that all things were created both in heaven and on earth, both the seen and the unseen, including Thrones, angelic Lords, celestial Powers and Rulers; all things have been created by him and for him; ¹⁷ he is prior to all, and all coheres in him. ¹⁸ Also, he is the head of the Body, that is, of the church, in virtue of his primacy as the first to be born from the dead — that gives him pre-eminence over all. ¹⁹ For it was in him that the divine Fulness willed to settle without limit,

⁷ It was by faith that Noah, after being told by God what was still unseen, reverently constructed an ark to save his household; thus he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that follows faith.

³¹ The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and here is One greater than Solomon.

²⁶ Such was the high priest for us, saintly, innocent, unstained, lifted high above the heavens, far from all contact with the sinful,

¹⁵ Nor do men light a lamp to put it under a bowl; they put it on a stand and it shines for all in the house. ¹⁶ So your light is to shine before men, that they may see the good you do and glorify your Father in heaven.

²⁷ what I tell you in the dark, you must utter in the open, what you hear in a whisper you must proclaim on the housetop.

²¹ He also said to them, "Is a lamp brought to be placed under a bowl or a bed? Is it not to be placed upon the stand? ²² Nothing is hidden except to be disclosed, nothing concealed except to be revealed.

¹⁶ No one lights a lamp and hides it under a vessel or puts it below the bed: he puts it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light. ¹⁷ For nothing is hidden that shall not be disclosed, nothing concealed that shall not be known and revealed.

⁹ Jesus replied, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If one walks during the day he does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world:

⁴⁶ I have come as light into the world, that no one who believes in me may remain in the dark.

¹⁵ so as to be blameless and innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where you shine like stars in a dark world; ¹⁶ hold fast the word of life, so that I can be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because I have not run or worked for nothing.

²² The eye is the lamp of the body: so, if your Eye is generous, the whole of your body will be illumined, ²³ but if your Eye is selfish, the whole of your body will be darkened. And if your very light turns dark, then — what a darkness it is!

¹² so that for all their seeing they may not perceive, and for all their hearing they may not understand, lest they turn and be forgiven."

²² adultery, lust, malice, deceit, sensuality, envying, slander, arrogance, recklessness,

¹⁸ You have eyes, do you not see? you have ears, do you not hear?

⁴⁶ Day after day they resorted with one accord to the temple and broke bread together in their own homes; they ate with a glad and simple heart,

¹¹ See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand.

¹⁸ that their eyes may be opened and that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, to get remission of their sins and an inheritance among those who are consecrated by faith in me.'

⁸ as it is written, God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that see not, ears that hear not — down to this very day. ⁹ And David says, Let their table prove a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them; ¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot see, bow down their backs for ever.

¹² My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

⁴ there the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to prevent them seeing the light thrown by the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

³ but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning.

¹⁷ May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of himself,

⁵ Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters here below with reverence and trembling, with singleness of heart as to Christ himself;

²² Servants, obey your masters here below at every point; do not work simply when their eye is on you, like those who court human favour, but serve them with a single heart out of reverence for your Lord and Master.

⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ As for this mob, with its ignorance of the Law — it is accursed!"

³⁹ Then said Jesus, "It is for judgment that I have come into this world, to make the sightless see, to make the seeing blind." ⁴⁰ On hearing this the Pharisees who were beside him asked, "And are we blind?" ⁴¹ Jesus replied, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty; but, as it is, you claim to have sight — and so your sin remains."

²² They claimed to be wise, but they have become fools;

¹⁹ and are persuaded that you are a guide to the blind, a light to darkened souls, ²⁰ a tutor for the foolish, a teacher of the simple, because in the Law you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth — ²¹ well then, do you ever teach yourself, you teacher of other people? You preach against stealing; do you steal? ²² You forbid adultery; do you commit adultery? You detest idols; do you rob temples? ²³ You pride yourself on the Law; do you dishonour God by your breaches of the Law?

¹⁹ It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the sages, I will confound the insight of the wise. ²⁰ Sage, scribe, critic of this world, where are they all? Has not God stultified the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For when the world with all its wisdom failed to know God in his wisdom, God resolved to save believers by the 'sheer folly' of the Christian message.

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself about this; whoever of you imagines he is wise with this world's wisdom must become a 'fool,' if he is really to be wise. ¹⁹ For God ranks this world's wisdom as 'sheer folly.' It is written, He seizes the wise in their craftiness, ²⁰ and again, The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise is futile.

¹³ Who among you is wise and learned? Let him show by his good conduct, with the modesty of wisdom, what his deeds are. ¹⁴ But if you are cherishing bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on that — and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish; ¹⁶ for wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there disorder reigns and every evil. ¹⁷ The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, forbearing, conciliatory, full of mercy and wholesome fruit, unambiguous, straightforward;

⁹ whereas he who has not these by him is blind, shortsighted, oblivious that he has been cleansed from his erstwhile sins.

¹⁸ By talking arrogant futilities they beguile with the sensual lure of fleshly passion those who are just escaping from the company of misconduct —

¹⁷ You declare, 'I am rich, I am well off, I lack nothing!' — not knowing you are a miserable creature, pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

¹¹ He replied, "Because it is granted you to understand the open secrets of the Realm of heaven, but it is not granted to these people. ¹² For he who has, to him shall more be given and richly given, but whoever has not, from him shall be taken even what he has.

⁵² So he said to them, "Well then, every scribe who has become a disciple of the Realm of heaven is like a householder who produces what is new and what is old from his stores."

²⁴ Also he said to them, "Take care what you hear; the measure you deal out to others will be dealt out to yourselves, and you will receive extra. ²⁵ For he who has, to him shall more be given; while as for him who has not, from him shall be taken even what he has."

⁶ For God who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," has shone within my heart to illuminate men with the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ.

¹⁴ instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error;

¹⁶ Let the inspiration of Christ dwell in your midst with all its wealth of wisdom; teach and train one another with the music of psalms, with hymns, and songs of the spiritual life; praise God with thankful hearts.

¹⁵ remember you have known from childhood the sacred writings that can impart saving wisdom by faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for amendment, and for moral discipline, ¹⁷ to make the man of God proficient and equip him for good work of every kind.

¹⁴ Whereas solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by exercise to distinguish good and evil.)

²⁵ Whereas he who gazes into the faultless law of freedom and remains in that position, proving himself to be no forgetful listener but an active agent, he will be blessed in his activity.

¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory now and to the day of eternity: Amen.

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked him to dinner, and entering the house of the Pharisee he reclined at table.

¹ Now when he entered the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees to take a meal, they watched him closely.

¹⁹ Why, free as I am from all, I have made myself the slave of all, to win over as many as I could. ²⁰ To Jews I have become like a Jew, to win over Jews; to those under the Law I have become as one of themselves — though I am not under the Law myself — to win over those under the Law; ²¹ to those outside the Law I have become like one of themselves — though I am under Christ's law, not outside God's Law — to win over those outside the Law; ²² to the weak I have become as weak myself, to win over the weak. To all men I have become all things, to save some by all and every means. ²³ And I do it all for the sake of the gospel, to secure my own share in it.

² "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they take their food." ³ He replied, "And why do you transgress the command of God with your traditions?

² They noticed that some of his disciples ate their food with 'common' (that is, unwashed) hands. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat till they wash their hands up to the wrist, in obedience to the tradition of the elders; ⁴ they decline to eat what comes from the market till they have washed it; and they have a number of other traditions to keep about washing cups and jugs and basins [and beds].) ⁵ Then the Pharisees and scribes put this question to him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders? Why do they take their food with 'common' hands?"

²⁵ Now a dispute arose between John's disciples and a Jew over the question of 'purification';

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves.

³³ Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For the mouth utters what the heart is full of. ³⁵ The good man brings good out of his good store, and the evil man brings evil out of his store of evil.

¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil designs, murder, adultery, sexual vice, stealing, false witness, and slander.

²⁵ Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are filled with your rapacity and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may be clean as well.

¹³ And when the Lord saw her, he felt pity for her and said to her, "Do not weep."

¹⁵ So he told them, "You are the people who get men to think you are good, but God knows what your hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is loathsome in the eyes of God.

⁶ (Not that he cared for the poor; he said this because he was a thief, and because he carried the money-box and pilfered what was put in.)

² so at supper, knowing that though the devil had suggested to Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

³ "Ananias," said Peter, "why has Satan filled your heart and made you cheat the holy Spirit by appropriating some of the money paid for the land?

²¹ You come in for no share or lot in this religion. Your heart is all wrong in the sight of God. ²² So repent of this wickedness of yours, and ask God whether you cannot be forgiven for your heart's purpose. ²³ For I see you are a bitter poison and a pack of evil."

¹⁴ and how I outstripped many of my own age and race in my special ardour for the ancestral traditions of my house.

⁵ for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.

¹⁵ For the pure all things are pure, but nothing is pure for the polluted and unbelieving; their very mind and conscience are polluted.

⁸ draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

¹⁷ You are senseless and blind! for which is the greater, the gold or the sanctuary that makes the gold sacred?

²⁶ Blind Pharisee! first clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may be clean as well.

²⁰ But God said to him, 'Foolish man, this very night your soul is wanted; and who will get all you have prepared?'

²⁵ He said to them, "O foolish men, with hearts so slow to believe, after all the prophets have declared!

³⁶ Foolish man! What you sow never comes to life unless it dies.

⁹ Why, we had fathers of our flesh to discipline us, and we yielded to them! Shall we not far more submit to the Father of our spirits, and so live?

⁴² give to the man who begs from you, and turn not away from him who wants to borrow.

¹ Take care not to practise your charity before men in order to be noticed; otherwise you get no reward from your Father in heaven. No, ² When you give alms, make no flourish of trumpets like the hypocrites in the synagogues and the streets, so as to win applause from men; I tell you truly, they do get their reward. ³ When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so as to keep your alms secret; then your Father who sees what is secret will reward you openly.

³⁴ Then shall the King say to those on his right, 'Come, you whom my Father has blessed, come into your inheritance in the realm prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you entertained me, ³⁶ I was unclothed and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me.' ³⁷ Then the just will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and fed you? or thirsty and gave you drink? ³⁸ when did we see you a stranger and entertain you? or unclothed and clothed you? ³⁹ when did we see you ill or in prison and visit you?' ⁴⁰ The King will answer them, 'I tell you truly, in so far as you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.'

¹¹ The poor you always have beside you, but you will not always have me.

³³ Sell what you possess and give it away in alms, make purses for yourselves that never wear out: get treasure in heaven that never fails, that no thief can get at, no moth destroy.

¹² He also said to his host, "When you give a dinner or supper, do not ask your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours, in case they invite you back again and you get repaid. ¹³ No, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ Then you will be blessed; for as they have no means of repaying you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

⁹ And I tell you, use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when you die they may welcome you to the eternal abodes.

²² When Jesus heard this he said to him, "You lack one thing more; sell all you have, distribute the money among the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me."

⁸ So Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, "I will give the half of all I have, Lord, to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will give him back four times as much."

³⁶ At Joppa there was a disciple called Tabitha (which may be translated Dorcas, or 'Gazelle'), a woman whose life was full of good actions and of charitable practices. ³⁷ She happened to take ill and die at this time, and after washing her body they laid it in an upper room. ³⁸ When the disciples heard that Peter was at Lydda (for Joppa is not far from Lydda), they sent two men to beg him to "Come on to us without delay." ³⁹ So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him up to the room, where all the widows stood beside him crying as they showed him the garments and dresses that Dorcas used to make when she was with them.

¹⁵ A second time the voice came back to him, "What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common."

³¹ saying, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, your alms are remembered by God. ³² You must send to Joppa and summon Simon who is surnamed Peter; he is staying in the house of Simon a tanner beside the sea.'

²⁹ So the disciples put aside money, as each of them was able to afford it, for a contribution to be sent to the brothers in Judaea.

¹⁷ After a lapse of several years I came up with alms and offerings for my nation,

¹⁴ I know, I am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is in itself unclean; only, anything is unclean for a man who considers it unclean. ¹⁵ If your brother is being injured because you eat a certain food, then you are no longer living by the rule of love. Do not let that food of yours ruin the man for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Your rights must not get a bad name. ¹⁷ The Reign of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, it means righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit; ¹⁸ he who serves Christ on these lines, is acceptable to God and esteemed by men.

⁷ Now then, you are to the front in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all zeal, and in love for us — do come to the front in this gracious enterprise as well. ⁸ I am not issuing any orders, only using the zeal of others to prove how sterling your own love is. ⁹ (You know how gracious our Lord Jesus Christ was; rich though he was, he became poor for the sake of you, that by his poverty you might be rich.)

¹² If only one is ready to give, according to his means, it is acceptable; he is not asked to give what he has not got.

⁶ Mark this: he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows generously will reap a generous harvest. ⁷ Everyone is to give what he has made up his mind to give; there is to be no grudging or compulsion about it, for God loves the giver who gives cheerfully. ⁸ God is able to bless you with ample means, so that you may always have quite enough for any emergency of your own and ample besides for any kind act to others; ⁹ as it is written, He scatters his gifts to the poor broadcast, his charity lasts for ever. ¹⁰ He who furnishes the sower with seed and with bread to eat will supply seed for you and multiply it; he will increase the crop of your charities — ¹¹ you will be enriched on all hands, so that you can be generous on all occasions, and your generosity, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God; ¹² for the service rendered by this fund does more than supply the wants of the saints, it overflows with many a cry of thanks to God. ¹³ This service shows what you are, it makes men praise God for the way you have come under the gospel of Christ which you confess, and for the generosity of your contributions to themselves and to all; ¹⁴ they are drawn to you and pray for you, on account of the surpassing grace which God has shown to you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!

²⁸ Let the thief steal no more; rather let him work and put his hands to an honest task, so as to have something to contribute to the needy.

⁴ Anything God has created is good, and nothing is to be tabooed — provided it is eaten with thanksgiving, ⁵ for then it is consecrated by the prayer said over it.

¹⁰ God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, or the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints.

¹⁶ Do not forget beneficence and charity, either; these are the kind of sacrifices that are acceptable to God.

²⁷ Pure, unsoiled religion in the judgment of God the Father means this: to care for orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself from the stain of the world.

¹⁴ My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; ¹⁶ if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that?

¹⁶ We know what love is by this, that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for the brotherhood. ¹⁷ But whoever possesses this world's goods, and notices his brother in need, and shuts his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?

¹³ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you shut the Realm of heaven in men's faces; you neither enter yourselves, nor will you let those enter who are on the point of entering.

²³ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised — without omit ting the former.

²⁷ Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you are like tombs white-washed; they look comely on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all manner of impurity.

¹² Twice a week I fast; on all my income I pay tithes.'

⁴² but I know there is no love to God in you;

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared to save all men, ¹² and it schools us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions and to live a life of self-mastery, of integrity, and of piety in this present world,

²⁰ If anyone declares, 'I love God,' and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who will not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot possibly love the God whom he has never seen.

⁶ they are fond of the best places at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they like to be saluted in the marketplaces and to be called 'rabbi' by men.

³⁸ And in the course of his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes! They like to walk about in long robes, to get saluted in the marketplaces, ³⁹ to secure the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets;

⁷ He also told a parable to the guests, when he observed how they picked out the best places. ⁸ "When anyone invites you to a marriage-banquet," he said, "never lie down in the best place, in case a more distinguished guest than yourself has been invited; ⁹ then the host will tell you, 'Make room for him,' and you will proceed in shame to take the lowest place. ¹⁰ No, when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place, so that when your host comes in he will tell you, 'Move higher up, my friend.' Then you will be honoured before your fellow guests. ¹¹ For everyone who uplifts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be uplifted."

⁴⁶ "Beware of the scribes! They like to walk about in long robes, they are fond of getting saluted in the market-places, of securing the front seats in the synagogues and the best places at banquets;

¹⁰ Put affection into your love for the brotherhood; be forward to honour one another;

³ never acting for private ends or from vanity, but humbly considering each other the better man,

² Suppose there comes into your meeting a man who wears gold rings and handsome clothes, and also a poor man in dirty clothes; ³ if you attend to the wearer of the handsome clothes and say to him, "Sit here, this is a good place," and tell the poor man, "You can stand," or "Sit there at my feet," ⁴ are you not drawing distinctions in your own minds and proving that you judge people with partiality?

⁹ I have written to the church; only, Diotrephes, who likes to take the lead among them, repudiates me.

²⁷ Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! you are like tombs white-washed; they look comely on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all manner of impurity. ²⁸ So to men you seem just, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

³ At this Paul said to him, "You whitewashed wall, God will strike you! You sit there to judge me by the Law, do you? And you break the Law by ordering me to be struck!"

³⁵ and one of them, a jurist, put a question in order to tempt him.

⁴⁶ He said, "And woe to you jurists! you load men with irksome burdens, and you will not put a single finger to their burdens.

⁵² Woe to you jurists! you have taken the key that unlocks the door of knowledge; you have not entered yourselves, and you have stopped those who were entering."

⁷ the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its deeds are evil.

⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁰ On hearing this the Pharisees who were beside him asked, "And are we blind?"

² "The scribes and Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses; ³ so do whatever they tell you, obey them, but do not do as they do. They talk but they do not act. ⁴ They make up heavy loads and lay them on men's shoulders, but they will not stir a finger to remove them.

⁴⁵ One of the jurists said to him, "Teacher, when you say this you are insulting us as well."

¹³ Why, even the circumcision party do not observe the Law themselves! They merely want you to get circumcised, so as to boast over your flesh!

²⁹ Woe to you, you irreligious scribes and Pharisees! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the tombs of the just, ³⁰ and you say 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have joined them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' ³¹ So you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are sons of those who killed the prophets! ³² And you will fill up the measure that your fathers filled. ³³ You serpents! you brood of vipers! how can you escape being sentenced to Gehenna?

⁵¹ Stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart and ear, you are always resisting the holy Spirit! As with your fathers, so with you!

¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who harassed ourselves, who offend God and oppose all men

³⁵ but the vinedressers took his servants and flogged one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Once more he sent some other servants, more than he had sent at first, and they did the same to them. ³⁷ Afterwards he sent them his son; 'They will respect my son,' he said. ³⁸ But when the vinedressers saw his son they said to themselves, 'Here is the heir; come on, let us kill him and seize his inheritance!'

³¹ So you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are sons of those who killed the prophets!

³⁵ Some were given back to their womankind, raised from the very dead; others were broken on the wheel, refusing to accept release, that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment — ³⁷ they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wanderers in the desert and among the hills, in caves and gullies.

¹⁰ As an example of fortitude and endurance, brothers, take the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord.

⁶ while the rest seized his servants and ill-treated them and killed them.

¹⁶ You will be betrayed by your very parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you will be put to death. ¹⁷ You will be hated by all on account of my name;

⁴⁷ and that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

² They will excommunicate you; indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will imagine he is performing a service to God.

⁸ You will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses at Jerusalem, throughout all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

⁵⁷ With a loud shriek they shut their ears and rushed at him like one man.

³ but Saul made havoc of the church by entering one house after another, dragging off men and women, and consigning them to prison.

¹ Meanwhile Saul still breathed threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus empowering him to put any man or woman in chains whom he could find belonging to the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem.

¹ It was about that time that king Herod laid hands of violence on some members of the church. ² James the brother of John he slew with the sword,

⁴ I persecuted this Way of religion to the death, chaining and imprisoning both men and women, ⁵ as the high priest and all the council of elders can testify. It was from them that I got letters to the brotherhood at Damascus, and then journeyed thither to bind those who had gathered there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

²⁰ and that I stood and approved when the blood of your martyr Stephen was being shed, taking charge of the clothes of his murderers!'

¹⁰ I did so in Jerusalem. I shut up many of the saints in prison, armed with authority from the high priests; when they were put to death, I voted against them; ¹¹ there was not a synagogue where I did not often punish them and force them to blaspheme; and in my frantic fury I persecuted them even to foreign towns.

²⁴ but for those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

³⁰ This is the God to whom you owe your being in Christ Jesus, whom God has made our 'Wisdom,' that is, our righteousness and consecration and redemption;

²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, ²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day;

¹¹ he granted some men to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to shepherd and teach,

³ in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge lie hidden!

²⁰ O heaven, rejoice over her! Saints, apostles, prophets, rejoice! For God has avenged you on her now." ²¹ Then a strong angel lifted a boulder like a huge millstone and flung it into the sea, crying, "So shall the great city, Babylon, be hurled down, hurtling, and never be seen any more: ²² and the sound of harpists and minstrels and fluteplayers and trumpeters shall never be heard in thee more: and craftsmen of any craft shall never be found in thee more: and the sound of the millstone shall never be heard in thee more: and the light of a lamp shall never be seen in thee more: and the voice of the bridegroom and bride shall never be heard in thee more. ²³ For the magnates of earth were thy traders; all nations were seduced by thy magic spells. ²⁴ And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, of all who were slain upon earth."

³⁵ it is that on you may fall the punishment for all the just blood shed on earth from the blood of Abel the just down to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

⁴ It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still.

²⁴ to Jesus who mediates the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood whose message is nobler than Abel's.

¹² we are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the evil One and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's just.

⁴⁵ One of the jurists said to him, "Teacher, when you say this you are insulting us as well." ⁴⁶ He said, "And woe to you jurists! you load men with irksome burdens, and you will not put a single finger to their burdens.

³⁹ Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Check your disciples, teacher." ⁴⁰ But he replied, "I tell you, if they were to keep quiet, the very stones would shout."

⁴⁷ The Pharisees retorted, "Are you misled as well? ⁴⁸ Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ As for this mob, with its ignorance of the Law — it is accursed!" ⁵⁰ Nicodemus, one of their number (the same who had come to him before), said to them, ⁵¹ "But surely our Law does not condemn the accused before hearing what he has to say and ascertaining his offence?" ⁵² They answered him, "And are you from Galilee, too? Search and you will see that no prophet ever springs from Galilee."

²⁴ So the man born blind was summoned a second time, and told, "Now give God the praise; this man, we know quite well, is only a sinner." ²⁵ To which he replied, "I do not know whether he is a sinner; one thing I do know, that once I was blind and now I can see." ²⁶ "What did he do to you?" they repeated; "How did he open your eyes?" ²⁷ He retorted, "I have told you that already, and you would not listen to me. Why do you want to hear it over again? Do you want to be disciples of his?" ²⁸ Then they stormed at him: "You are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses! ²⁹ We know God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this fellow comes from." ³⁰ The man replied to them, "Well, this is astonishing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he has opened my eyes! ³¹ God, we know, does not listen to sinners; he listens to anyone who is devout and who obeys his will. ³² It is unheard of, since the world began, that anyone should open a blind man's eyes. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." ³⁴ They retorted, "And so you would teach us — you, born in utter depravity!" Then they expelled him.

¹⁷ However, to keep things from going any further with the people, we had better threaten them that they are not to tell anyone in future about this Name." ¹⁸ So they called the men in and ordered them not to speak or teach a single sentence about the Name of Jesus.

⁴⁰ They gave in to him, and after summoning the apostles and giving them a flogging, they released them with instructions that they were not to speak about the name of Jesus.

²⁰ So watching their chance they sent spies who pretended to be honest persons, in order to seize on what he said and get him handed over to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees came up, who deny any resurrection, and put a question to him.

⁵ is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful;

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him in talk.

¹⁸ But Jesus detected their malice. He said, "Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites?

² and they watched to see if he would heal him on the sabbath, so as to get a charge against him.

¹³ But they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him for the purpose of catching him with a question.