The Dream’s Interpretation

³¹ “Your Majesty, as you were watching, suddenly a colossal statue appeared. That statue, tall and dazzling, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was terrifying. ³² The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were bronze, ³³ its legs were iron, and its feet were partly iron and partly fired clay. ³⁴ As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it,^[a](A) struck the statue^(B) on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them.^{(C) 35} Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff^(D) from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled^(E) the whole earth.

³⁶ “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. ³⁷ Your Majesty, you are king of kings.^(F) The God of the heavens has given you sovereignty, power,^(G) strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever people live—or wild animals, or birds of the sky—he has handed them over to you and made you ruler over them all.^(H) You are the head of gold.

³⁹ “After you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and then another, a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole earth.^{(I) 40} A fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron; for iron crushes and shatters everything, and like iron that smashes, it will crush and smash all the others.^{[b](J) 41} You saw the feet and toes, partly of a potter’s fired clay and partly of iron—it will be a divided kingdom, though some of the strength of iron will be in it. You saw the iron mixed with clay, ⁴² and that the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly fired clay—part of the kingdom will be strong, and part will be brittle. ⁴³ You saw the iron mixed with clay—the peoples will mix with one another^[c] but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay.

⁴⁴ “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed,^(K) and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms^(L) and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. ⁴⁵ You saw a stone^(M) break off from the mountain without a hand touching it,^[d](N) and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future.^(O) The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.”

The Herald of the Messiah

3 In those days John the Baptist came,^(A) preaching in the wilderness of Judea^{(B) 2} and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” ^{(C) 3} For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:

⁴ Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.^(E)

⁷ When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees^(F) coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?^{(G) 8} Therefore produce fruit^(H) consistent with^[b] repentance. ⁹ And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’^(I) For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.^(J)

¹¹ “I baptize you with^[c] water for repentance,^(K) but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove^[d] his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.^{(L) 12} His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”^(M)

The Baptism of Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.^{(N) 14} But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

¹⁶ When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens^(O) suddenly opened for him,^[e] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.^{(P) 17} And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”^(Q)

The Lamb of God

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God,^(A) who takes away the sin^(B) of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ³¹ I didn’t know him,^(C) but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed^(D) to Israel.” ³² And John testified, “I saw the Spirit^(E) descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him.^{(F) 33} I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on—he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’^{(G) 34} I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”^[a](H)

³⁶ “My kingdom^(A) is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world,^(B) my servants^(C) would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is,^[a] my kingdom is not from here.”^(D)

³⁷ “You are a king then?” Pilate asked.

“You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world^(E) for this: to testify^(F) to the truth.^(G) Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”