Luke 4
King James Version
4 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44 And he preached in the synagogues of 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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