Luke 4
Legacy Standard Bible
The Temptation of Jesus
4 (A)Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, (B)returned from the Jordan and was being led around [a]by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for (C)forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had finished, He was hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘(D)Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
5 (E)And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of [b](F)the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this [c](G)dominion and [d]its glory, (H)for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore if You [e]worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘(I)You shall worship the [f]Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
9 (J)And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
‘(K)He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’
11 and,
‘(L)On their hands they will bear You up,
Lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘(M)You shall not put the [g]Lord your God to the test.’”
13 And when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
Jesus Begins His Ministry
14 And (N)Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and (O)news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15 And He was (P)teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
16 And He came to (Q)Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as was His custom, (R)He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and (S)stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “(T)The Spirit of the [h]Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
19 (U)To proclaim the favorable year of the [i]Lord.”
20 And He (V)closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and (W)sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your [j]hearing.” 22 And all were [k]speaking well of Him and marveling at the [l]gracious words which were coming forth from His lips, and they were saying, “(X)Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard took place (Y)at Capernaum, do also here in (Z)your hometown.’” 24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, (AA)no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel (AB)in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but (AC)only to [m]Zarephath, in the land of (AD)Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but (AE)only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things, 29 and they stood up and (AF)drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30 But (AG)passing through their midst, He went on His way.
Jesus Casts Out an Unclean Demon
31 And (AH)He came down to (AI)Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; 32 and (AJ)they were amazed at His teaching, for (AK)His [n]message was with authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man [o]possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “[p]Let us alone! [q](AL)What do we have to do with You, Jesus the (AM)Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—(AN)the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus (AO)rebuked it, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, it came out of him without doing him any harm. 36 And amazement came upon them all, and they were talking with one another saying, “What is [r]this message? For (AP)with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” 37 And (AQ)the report about Him was spreading into every place in the surrounding district.
Peter’s Mother-in-Law and Many Others Healed
38 (AR)Then He stood up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was (AS)suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him [s]to help her. 39 And standing over her, He (AT)rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she stood up and [t]began waiting on them.
40 (AU)And while (AV)the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and (AW)laying His hands on each one of them, He was (AX)healing them. 41 And demons also were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are (AY)the Son of God!” But (AZ)rebuking them, He was (BA)not allowing them to speak, because they knew Him to be the [u]Christ.
42 (BB)When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were eagerly seeking for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. 43 But He said to them, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, (BC)for I was sent for this purpose.”
44 So He kept on preaching in the synagogues (BD)of [v]Judea.
Footnotes
- Luke 4:1 Or under the influence of; lit in
- Luke 4:5 Lit the inhabited earth
- Luke 4:6 Or authority, but cf. Dan 7:14
- Luke 4:6 Lit their (referring to the kingdoms in v 5)
- Luke 4:7 Or bow down before
- Luke 4:8 In OT, Yahweh, cf. Deut 6:13
- Luke 4:12 In OT, Yahweh, cf. Deut 6:16
- Luke 4:18 In OT, Yahweh, cf. Is 61:1
- Luke 4:19 In OT, Yahweh, cf. Is 61:2
- Luke 4:21 Lit ears
- Luke 4:22 Or testifying
- Luke 4:22 Or words of grace
- Luke 4:26 Gr Sarepta
- Luke 4:32 Lit word
- Luke 4:33 Lit having a spirit
- Luke 4:34 Lit Ah!
- Luke 4:34 Lit What to us and to you (a Heb idiom)
- Luke 4:36 Or this word, that with authority...come out?
- Luke 4:38 Lit about her
- Luke 4:39 Or served
- Luke 4:41 Messiah
- Luke 4:44 The country of the Jews (including Galilee)
Luke 4
EasyEnglish Bible
The Devil tries to make Jesus do wrong things
4 Then Jesus returned from the Jordan River.[a] He was full of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness. 2 He stayed there for 40 days and he did not eat anything. During this time the Devil tried to cause Jesus to do wrong things.[b] At the end of 40 days, Jesus was very hungry.
3 The Devil said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone. Tell it to become bread.’
4 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says that food alone cannot cause people to live.’[c]
5 After that, the Devil led Jesus up to a high place. In one moment, he showed Jesus all the countries in the whole world. 6 He said to Jesus, ‘I will let you rule the whole world. I will give you power over all these things. That power all belongs to me. So I can give it to anyone that I choose. 7 You must bend down low and worship me. Then I will give you power over the whole world.’[d]
8 ‘No!’ Jesus replied, ‘The Bible says,
“Only worship your Lord God.
He is the only one that you should obey.” ’[e]
9 The Devil now took Jesus to Jerusalem. He took him to stand on the highest part of the temple. Then he said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump down from here to the ground. 10 You know that the Bible says:
“God will tell his angels to keep you safe.”
11 “They will hold you safely in their hands.
They will not let you hurt your foot on a stone.” ’[f]
12 ‘No!’ Jesus replied. ‘The Bible says,
“Do not test the Lord God, to see if he will save you.” ’[g]
13 In those ways, the Devil tried to make Jesus do many wrong things. When he had finished this, he left Jesus alone. He waited for another chance.
Jesus goes to Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee. The Holy Spirit continued to give him power. Everyone who lived near there heard the news about him. 15 He taught people in the Jewish meeting places.[h] Everyone said good things about him.
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. On the Jewish day of rest, he went to their meeting place.[i] This was what he usually did. He stood up to read aloud from the Bible.[j]
17 They gave him the scroll that had the messages of God's prophet Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll. He found the place where Isaiah wrote:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.
He has chosen me to tell good news to poor people.
He has sent me to tell people who are in prison, “You can go free!”
I must say to people that cannot see, “See again!”
I must cause people that are like slaves to become free.
19 I must tell everyone, “This is the year when God will be kind to his people.” ’[k]
20 When Jesus had read this to the people, he closed the scroll. He gave it back to an officer of the meeting place. Then he sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the meeting place was looking carefully at him.
21 Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’
22 Everyone was talking about Jesus. They were surprised at the good way in which he spoke. They said to each other, ‘We know that he is only Joseph's son.’
23 Jesus then said to them, ‘Now you will tell me the proverb, “Doctor, make yourself well!” You will also say, “We have heard that you did many surprising things in Capernaum. This is your home town, so do the same things here!” 24 I tell you this: People do not accept a prophet of God who comes from their own town.
25 What I tell you is true. There were many widows in the country of Israel when Elijah was alive. At that time, it did not rain for three and a half years. So people were very hungry in all the country. 26 But God did not send Elijah to help a widow in Israel. Instead, God sent Elijah to the country called Sidon. There he helped a widow in a place called Zarephath.[l]
27 Here is another example: When God's prophet Elisha was alive, there were many people in Israel with a bad disease of the skin. But God did not make any of them well. Instead, he made a man well who was from the country called Syria. That man was called Naaman.’[m]
28 The people in the meeting place heard what Jesus said.[n] They became very angry. 29 They stood up and they made him leave the town. They took him to the top of the hill outside the town. They wanted to throw him over the edge to the bottom. 30 But Jesus walked through the middle of the crowd and he went away.
Jesus causes a bad spirit to leave a man
31 Jesus went to a town in Galilee called Capernaum. On the Jewish day of rest, he taught the people there. 32 The people were very surprised at the things that Jesus taught them. He spoke with authority. 33 There was a sick man in the meeting place. He had a spirit of a bad demon that was living inside him. The spirit caused the man to shout loudly. 34 He said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone! Do not destroy us! I know who you are. You are God's Holy One!’
35 Jesus said to the spirit, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man!’ Then the bad spirit caused the man to fall to the ground in front of the people. It came out of the man but it did not hurt him.
36 All the people were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘Listen to what this man says! He has power and authority. He tells bad spirits to come out of people, and they come out.’ 37 So they began to tell everyone about Jesus. Because of this, people in all the places near Capernaum heard the news about Jesus.
Jesus makes many people well
38 Jesus then left the meeting place and he went to Simon's home. The mother of Simon's wife was ill and her body was very hot. So they asked Jesus to make her well. 39 Jesus came and he stood near her. He told the illness to go away and immediately she was well again. She got up and she prepared food for her visitors.
40 When the sun was going down, people in the town brought to Jesus all those people who were ill. They had many different kinds of illness. Jesus put his hands on each ill person and they became well again.
41 Also, bad spirits came out of many people. They were shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ The spirits knew that Jesus was the Messiah. Because of this, Jesus stopped them. He would not let them speak.
42 Early the next morning, Jesus went to a place where he could be alone. The people went to look for him. When they found him they said, ‘Do not leave us! Please stay here with us.’ 43 Jesus replied, ‘I must go to other towns to tell everyone the good news. I will tell them how God rules in the lives of his people. That is what God sent me to do.’
44 Then he travelled to many towns in the country called Judea. He went into the Jewish meeting places and taught people there.
Footnotes
- 4:1 Jesus was soon to start the work that God sent him to do.
- 4:2 The Devil is an angel that refused to obey God. He also tries to cause people to do bad things.
- 4:4 The Devil knew that Jesus was very hungry, so he gave him the idea to make stones into food. Jesus knew that he had power to do anything. But he wanted only to obey God. He could make stones into food. But that was not what God wanted. Our bodies are not the most important part of us. Jesus came to give us food for our spirits. That part of us is more important. Jesus knew what God said in his book. And he answered the Devil with words from Deuteronomy 8:3.
- 4:7 The Devil was telling Jesus that his work could be easier. He would let Jesus rule the world now, if he would obey him. Jesus knew that this was wrong. He knew that he must obey only God.
- 4:8 Jesus was speaking the words in Deuteronomy 6:13.
- 4:11 The Devil was using the words from Psalms 91:11-12. But he was not using them in a right way.
- 4:12 Jesus was speaking words from Deuteronomy 6:16. He was standing on the highest part of the temple. This was 600 metres above the ground. He knew that God did not want him to jump. We must not get into danger just to see God save us.
- 4:15 Jews used their meeting places to pray together and to learn more about God.
- 4:16 The Jewish day of rest is our Saturday. This was a special day for them, when nobody worked.
- 4:16 The Bible that the Jews read was the Old Testament. See Isaiah 58:6; 61:1-2.
- 4:19 Jesus read the words from Isaiah 61:1-2, but he changed them a bit.
- 4:26 We can read about this widow in 1 Kings 17:7-24.
- 4:27 We can read about Naaman in 2 Kings 5.
- 4:28 Jesus told the people in the meeting place about himself. But they did not like the things that he was saying. They refused to believe that God had sent him.
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