Bible in 90 Days

Jesus helps a boy who has a bad spirit

¹⁴ They reached the place where the other disciples were. They saw that there was a large crowd there with them. Some teachers of God's Law were arguing with the disciples. ¹⁵ The people in the crowd saw Jesus and immediately they were very surprised. They ran to say ‘hello’ to Jesus.

¹⁶ Jesus asked his disciples, ‘What are you arguing about with the teachers of God's Law?’

¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered. He said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you. He is not able to speak because he has a bad spirit. ¹⁸ When the bad spirit takes hold of him, it throws him to the ground. Water comes out of his mouth and he bites his teeth together. Then his body stops moving. I asked your disciples to send the spirit out of him. But they were not able to do it.’

¹⁹ Jesus replied, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you. Bring the boy to me.’

²⁰ So the people brought the boy to Jesus. When the bad spirit saw Jesus, it immediately caused the boy's body to shake strongly. The boy fell onto the ground and he rolled about. Water was coming from his mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy's father, ‘How long has he been like this?’

‘He has been like this since he was a small boy,’ the father replied. ²² ‘Often the spirit has caused him to fall into the fire or into water. It is trying to kill him. Please be kind to us. If you can do anything, help us!’

²³ Jesus said to the father, ‘You should not say, “If you can do anything.” Everything is possible for those people who believe.’

²⁴ Immediately, the boy's father shouted, ‘Oh! I believe! Help me to believe more!’

²⁵ Jesus saw that the crowd of people was quickly becoming bigger. So he told the bad spirit to stop. Jesus said to it, ‘Spirit, I am telling you that you must leave this boy. He cannot hear or speak because of you. I tell you to come out of him! You must never go into him again.’

²⁶ The spirit screamed. It caused the boy's body to shake many times. Then it came out of him. The boy seemed to be dead, so many people said, ‘He is dead.’ ²⁷ But Jesus held the boy's hand and he helped the boy to stand up.

²⁸ Jesus went into a house and the disciples were alone with him. Then they asked him, ‘Why could we not cause the bad spirit to leave the boy?’

²⁹ Jesus said to them, ‘You must pray. This kind of spirit will not leave a person unless you pray.’

³⁰ Jesus and his disciples left that place. They passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where he was. ³¹ That was because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, ‘Soon, they will give the Son of Man to powerful people. They will take him away and they will kill him. But three days after that, he will become alive again.’ ³² The disciples did not understand what Jesus had said. But they were afraid to ask him.

Jesus explains who will be the most important person

³³ Jesus and his disciples arrived at Capernaum. When they were in the house, Jesus asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ ³⁴ But they did not say anything. They did not want to tell Jesus why they were arguing. On the way, they had argued about who was the most important disciple.

³⁵ Jesus sat down. He told the 12 apostles to come to him. Then he said to them, ‘If you want to be the leader, make yourself less important than everyone else. You must become the servant of everyone.’

³⁶ Then Jesus brought a child to stand in the middle of them all. He took hold of the child and he said to the disciples, ³⁷ ‘If someone accepts a child like this because of me, then that person also accepts me. If he accepts me, then he is not only accepting me. He is also accepting my Father God, who sent me.’^[a]

³⁸ John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw a man who was causing bad spirits to go out of people. He was using your authority to do it. But he is not in our group. So we told him that he must not do it.’

³⁹ ‘Do not tell him to stop,’ Jesus said. ‘That man is using my authority to do powerful things. Someone who does that cannot immediately say anything bad about me. ⁴⁰ If someone is not against us, he is working to help us. ⁴¹ Somebody may give you a cup of water because you are a servant of the Messiah. I tell you this: God will bless that person and he will never lose God's help.

⁴² A person who believes in me may not seem important. But you should never make that person do wrong things. Do not do that! It would be better if someone tied a big stone around your neck and then he threw you into the sea!

^43-44 If your hand causes you to do wrong things, you should cut it off.^[b] You will only have one hand, but you can have God's true life. It will be much worse for you if you keep both your hands and go to hell. There, the fire always burns and never stops. ^45-46 If your foot causes you to do wrong things, you should cut it off. You will only have one foot, but you can have God's true life. It will be much worse if you keep your two feet and go to hell. ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to do wrong things, then you should remove it. Then you will only have one eye, but you can go into the kingdom of God. It will be much worse if you keep both your eyes and God throws you into hell.

⁴⁹ God will put fire on everybody, as people put salt on food.^{[e] 50} Salt is good. But if your salt is not salty any more, you cannot make it salty again. You should be like good salt and love each other. Do not cause trouble among yourselves.’

Jesus teaches about men who send their wives away

10 Then Jesus left that place and he went to Judea. He went across to the east side of the Jordan River. Crowds of people came to him again. So he taught them, as he usually did.

² Some Pharisees came to Jesus. They wanted to find out how he would answer their question. They asked him, ‘Can a man send his wife away, so that she is no longer his wife? Is it right for him to do that?’

³ Jesus replied with a question: ‘What did Moses say was right for you?’^[f]

⁴ The Pharisees said, ‘Moses said that a man could write a letter to say that he and his wife are no longer married. Then the man can send the woman away.’^[g]

⁵ Jesus said to them, ‘You did not want to obey God. That is why Moses made this rule for you. ⁶ But at the start, when God made the world, he made people male and female. ⁷ That is the reason that a man leaves his father and his mother. Then God joins him and his wife together. ⁸ The man and the woman become like one body. They are not two separate people any longer. They have come together as one person. ⁹ God has put them together to be husband and wife. So nobody should cause them to be separate.’^[h]

¹⁰ When Jesus went into the house, the disciples asked him about these things again. ¹¹ So Jesus said to them, ‘A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, he has not been faithful to his wife. It is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. ¹² In the same way, a woman must not leave her husband and then marry another man. She also has done a wrong thing. It is the same as if she had sex with another woman's husband.’

Jesus prays for some children

¹³ People were bringing little children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hands on each child's head. The disciples told the people that they should not do that. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was angry. He said to them, ‘Do not stop the children. Let them come to me. People must become like these children so that God can rule their lives. That is what the kingdom of God is like. ¹⁵ I tell you this: A person must become like a little child for God to rule in his life. If he does not become like a child, he will not come into the kingdom of God.’ ¹⁶ Then Jesus took hold of the children. He put his hands on each of them and he asked God to bless them.

Jesus meets a rich man

¹⁷ While Jesus was starting on his journey, a man ran to him. He went down on his knees in front of Jesus. He said to Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

¹⁸ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you say that I am good? Only God is good. Nobody else. ¹⁹ You know God's rules:

²⁰ ‘Teacher,’ the man replied, ‘I have obeyed all these laws since I was a young man.’

²¹ Jesus looked at the man and Jesus loved him. Jesus said to him, ‘There is still just one thing that you must do. Go now. Sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’

²² When the man heard that, his face became sad. He was a very rich man. Because of that, he went away and he was very sad.

²³ Jesus looked round and he said to his disciples, ‘It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives.’

²⁴ They were very surprised about Jesus' words. Jesus spoke again to them: ‘My friends, it is very difficult for anyone to let God rule in their life. ²⁵ The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’

²⁶ Then Jesus' disciples were even more surprised. They said to each other, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’

²⁸ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples.’

²⁹ Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. And they have done it because of God's good news. ³⁰ Now, in this world, God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! Yes, they will receive houses and brothers and sisters. They will receive mothers and children and fields. As well as all this, people will be against them. But in the future world, they will live for ever with God. ³¹ But many people who are very important now will not be important then. And people who are not important now will become very important then.’

Jesus talks again about his death

³² Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road towards Jerusalem. Jesus was walking in front of them all. The disciples were very upset. Other people who were following behind them were afraid. Jesus again took his 12 apostles away from the other people. He began to tell them what would happen to him soon. ³³ ‘Listen!’ he said to them. ‘We are going to Jerusalem. There, someone will give the Son of Man to the leaders of the priests and to the teachers of God's Law. These Jewish leaders will decide that he must die. Then they will put him under the power of people who are not Jews. ³⁴ Those people will laugh at him. They will spit at him. They will hit him with whips. Then they will kill him. But after three days, he will become alive again.’

James and John ask Jesus to do something for them

³⁵ James and John, who were Zebedee's sons, came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we want to ask you for something. Please do it for us.’

³⁶ ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked them.

³⁷ They said to him, ‘When you are king, we want to rule with you. One of us will sit at your right side and the other one at your left side.’

³⁸ Jesus said to them, ‘You do not understand what you are asking for. I will have much pain and trouble. Are you ready to have the same pain? Are you ready to die in the way that I will die?’

³⁹ James and John replied, ‘Yes, we can do all that.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, that is true. You will have pain like mine. And people will want to kill you like me. ⁴⁰ But I cannot promise that you will sit at my right side or at my left side. God has chosen the people who will sit there. He has prepared the places for those people.’

⁴¹ When the other ten disciples heard about this, they were angry with James and John. ⁴² But Jesus told the disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘You know the things that rulers of other countries do. They show that they have much power over their people. The leaders of those countries use great authority over their people. ⁴³ But you should not be like that. Instead, the person who wants to be great among you must become like your servant. ⁴⁴ Anyone who wants to be the most important person among you must work hard for you all. ⁴⁵ Even the Son of Man came to earth to be a servant to other people. He did not come here to have servants who must work for him. No, he came to die so that many people can be free.’

Jesus causes a blind man to see

⁴⁶ Then Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jericho. When they were leaving the city again, a large crowd of people followed them. A blind man was sitting by the side of the road. He was asking people to give him money.^[i] His name was Bartimaeus and he was the son of Timaeus.

⁴⁷ Somebody told Bartimaeus that Jesus from Nazareth was walking past him. So he began to shout. He said, ‘Jesus, Son of David! Please be kind to me and help me!’

⁴⁸ Many people were angry with Bartimaeus. They told him that he should be quiet. But he shouted even louder than before, ‘Son of David!^[j] Please help me!’

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped. He said to the people, ‘Tell the man to come here.’ So the people said to the blind man, ‘Be brave! Stand up. Jesus is asking you to go to him.’ ⁵⁰ So Bartimaeus threw away his coat. He jumped up and he came to Jesus.

⁵¹ Then Jesus said to Bartimaeus, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

The blind man said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, I want to see again.’

⁵² ‘Go,’ Jesus said to him. ‘You are well now, because you believed in me.’ Immediately, Bartimaeus could see again. He followed Jesus along the road.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem

11 Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They were almost at the villages called Bethphage and Bethany. They were on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.^[k]

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has ever yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “Why are you doing this?” Then say, “The Master needs the donkey. He will send it back here soon.” ’

⁴ So the two disciples went into the village. They found the young donkey in the street. Someone had tied it outside, by a door. So the disciples undid the rope. ⁵ Some people were standing there. They asked the two disciples, ‘What are you doing? Why are you undoing the donkey's rope?’ ⁶ The disciples answered them. They repeated what Jesus had told them to say. The people then let them take the donkey away. ⁷ The two disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back and Jesus sat on it. ⁸ Many people then put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees in the fields. They put the branches down on the road as well.^[l]

⁹ Many people went in front of Jesus, and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹¹ Jesus went into Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked at everything there. It was late in the day, so he then went out of the city to Bethany. The 12 apostles went with him.

A tree without fruit

¹² On the next day, they left Bethany. Jesus was hungry. ¹³ He saw a fig tree which was a long way away. There were leaves on it. So he went to see if it had fruit on it. When he reached it, he found nothing except leaves. That was because it was not the right season for it to have fruit. ¹⁴ So Jesus said to the tree, ‘Nobody will ever eat your fruit again.’ And his disciples heard what he said.

Jesus goes to the temple

¹⁵ When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus went into the yard of the temple.^[m] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus began to make them all leave that place. Some men were changing coins there for people.^[n] He pushed over their tables. And he pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.^[o]

¹⁶ Jesus would not let anyone carry things through that place. ¹⁷ While he was teaching the people, Jesus said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people from all countries pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’

¹⁸ The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law heard this. And they thought about how they could kill Jesus. They were afraid of him. That was because all the crowd were listening to him. And the things that he taught caused the crowd to be very surprised.

¹⁹ When it was evening, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city again.

The fig tree is dead

²⁰ The next morning, Jesus and his disciples passed the fig tree. They saw that it was completely dead. ²¹ Peter remembered what Jesus had said. So he said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, look at that fig tree. You said that it should die, and it has died.’

²² So Jesus said to them, ‘You must believe in God. ²³ I tell you this: A person could say to this mountain, “Move and throw yourself into the sea.” Then it will happen like he says. But he must not let other ideas come into his mind. He must really believe that those things will happen. If he does believe it, God will do those things for him. ²⁴ So I tell you this. When you pray to ask God for anything, believe in him. Believe that you have received that thing. Then you will have whatever you have asked for. ²⁵ But when you stand up to pray, first you must forgive other people. If anyone has done something bad against you, forgive that person. If you do forgive them, your Father in heaven will forgive you. God will forgive you for the bad things that you have done.’ ^26 [p]

Jesus talks about his authority

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. Jesus was walking about in the yard at the temple. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews came to him. ²⁸ They asked him, ‘What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you the authority to do them?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question and you should answer me. If you do that, then I will answer your question. I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. ³⁰ John baptized people. Did God give him authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it? Now, tell me your answer.’

³¹ Then the Jewish leaders talked to each other. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But, if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” ³² But we do not want to say that only men gave John his authority.’ The Jewish leaders were afraid of the crowd. All the people thought that John really was a prophet from God.

³³ So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus: ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’

So Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’

Jesus tells a story about a garden

12 Then Jesus began to speak again to the important Jews. He told them stories. He said, ‘There was a man who made a garden. He planted vines to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground where he could make the grapes into wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden.^[q] He found some farmers who would work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country.^[r]

² At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers.^[s] He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. ³ But the farmers took hold of the servant and they hit him with sticks. They sent him away with nothing. ⁴ So the man sent another servant to the farmers. They also hit this servant on the head, and they did other bad things to him. ⁵ The man then sent another servant, but the farmers killed this servant. He sent many other servants to them. The farmers hit some of these servants with sticks and they killed other servants.

⁶ The man had only one person that he could still send. This was his own son. The man loved him very much.^[t] So, last of all, he sent his son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

⁷ But those farmers said to each other, “This is the son of our master. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. We should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.” ⁸ So the farmers took the son and they killed him. Then they threw his dead body out of the garden.’^[u]

⁹ Jesus then asked, ‘What will the master of the garden do then? I tell you, he will come and he will kill those farmers. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it. ¹⁰ I am sure that you have read these words in the Bible:^[v]

¹² The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and they went away.

The Pharisees ask about the money that Caesar demanded

¹³ Then the leaders sent some Pharisees to Jesus. They also sent some men who were friends of King Herod. They tried to use Jesus' words to cause trouble for him. ¹⁴ These men came to Jesus and they said, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. You really do teach us what God wants us to do. Tell us, should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’

¹⁵ Jesus knew that those men were not honest. So he said, ‘You just ask that question to cause trouble for me. Now, bring me a coin. I want to see it.’ ¹⁶ So they brought a coin to him. Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’

They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’

¹⁷ Jesus then said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to him. And give to God the things that belong to God.’

They were very surprised at his answer.

The Sadducees ask Jesus a question

¹⁸ Also, some Sadducees came to Jesus. Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die.^[x] They wanted to ask Jesus a question.

¹⁹ ‘Teacher,’ they said to him, ‘Moses wrote these things for us in the Bible: If a man dies without children, his brother must marry the man's wife. Then their children will be called the children of the brother who died. ²⁰ But once there were seven brothers. The oldest brother married a woman. But he died before they had any children. ²¹ So the second brother married her. He also died without children. Then the third brother married this woman. ²² And the same thing happened to all seven brothers. They all died but they had no children. After all this, the woman also died. ²³ You teach that at some time dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’

²⁴ Jesus said to the Sadducees, ‘You are very wrong. This is because you do not know the Bible. And you do not know how powerful God is. ²⁵ All people who have died will become alive again one day. But then men and women will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶ But God does make dead people alive again! You have read what Moses wrote about the bush in the wilderness. There, God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.”^{[y] 27} God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive. So you see, you are very wrong.’

Jesus teaches people about the most important rule

²⁸ One of the teachers of God's Law came near to the group of people. He heard Jesus speaking with the leaders. The teacher knew that Jesus had answered them well. So then the teacher asked Jesus, ‘Which rule is the most important among God's Laws?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘This rule is the most important rule: “Listen, Israel's people! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other Lord. ³⁰ Love the Lord, your God completely. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him in everything that you think and you do.”^{[z] 31} The second most important rule is this: “You should love other people as much as you love yourself.” No other rules are as important as these two.’

³² The teacher of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, you have answered well. You are right to say that the Lord is the only God. And there is no other God except him. ³³ We must love him completely, with all our mind and with all our strength. We must also love other people as much as we love ourselves. This is more important than all the gifts or animals that we could offer to God.’

³⁴ Jesus heard that the man had answered well. So Jesus said to him, ‘You are almost ready for God to rule in your life.’ After that, everybody was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.

Jesus teaches the people about the Messiah

³⁵ Jesus was teaching people in the yard at the temple. He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that the Messiah is King David's son.^[aa] What do you think about that? ³⁶ The Holy Spirit helped David himself to say:^[ab]

³⁷ In these words, David himself calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’^[ad]

The large crowd liked to listen to the things that Jesus was saying. It made them happy.

³⁸ As Jesus was teaching the people, he said, ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. ³⁹ They want to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. They choose the most important places at special meals. ⁴⁰ But these men take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’

Jesus talks about people who give to God

⁴¹ Many people were giving their gifts for the temple. There was a box for money there. People threw their coins into it. Jesus sat near the box and he watched them. Many rich people put a lot of money into the box. ⁴² But then a woman came there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box.

⁴³ Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘I tell you this: This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there. ⁴⁴ All those rich people have plenty of money. They only put a small part of that into the box. But this woman has almost nothing. She put in all the money that she had. That was all the money that she needed to live.’

Jesus talks about future events

13 Then Jesus left the temple. While he was leaving, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Teacher, look at these great buildings! The stones in the walls of God's House are really great!’

² Jesus said to him, ‘Yes, look at all these large buildings! But I tell you, enemies will completely destroy them. Not even one stone will remain on top of another stone.’

³ After that, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. He could look across the valley at the temple. Peter, James, John and Andrew went together to talk with him. The crowd was not there. ⁴ They said to Jesus, ‘Please tell us when all these things will happen. What will show us that they will soon happen?’

⁵ Jesus began to say to them, ‘Be careful! Some people will tell you things that are not true. Do not believe those people. ⁶ Many people will say that they have come on my behalf. They will say, “I am the Messiah!” and they will deceive many people. ⁷ You will hear about wars. And there will be reports about wars in other places. Do not be afraid. Those things must happen, but that is not yet the end of everything. ⁸ People in one country will attack the people in another country. Kings and their armies will fight against other kings and their armies. The ground will shake in many different places. In some places, people will be hungry, with no food. Those things are like the first pains that a mother has before her baby is born.

⁹ So be careful! People will be against you. They will take you to stand in front of their leaders. They will punish you with whips in their meeting places. They will take you to stand in front of kings and rulers. This will happen because you are my disciples. You will tell them the good news about me. ¹⁰ Yes, you must first tell the good news about me to people in every country. ¹¹ When people take you to their leaders to show that you have done bad things, do not be afraid. Do not worry about what you should say. You should say the words that God gives you at that time. You will not be speaking your own words. Those words will come from the Holy Spirit.

¹² At that time, a man will let people kill his own brother. A father will let people kill his own child. Children will be against their parents. They will even ask people to kill their parents. ¹³ All people will hate you because you are my disciples. But God will save the person who remains strong until the end.

¹⁴ There will be a time when you will see in the temple a disgusting thing that causes trouble. You will see it in a place where it should not be. (When you read this, you must understand what it means.) At that time, people in Judea must run away to the hills to hide.^{[ae] 15} A person who is on the roof of his house must not go down into the house.^[af] He must not stop to get anything from his home. ¹⁶ A person who is outside in his field must not go back to his home. He must not return even to fetch his coat.

¹⁷ That will be a bad time for women who are soon to have a baby. It will also be a bad time for those women who have little babies. ¹⁸ You must pray to God that this time of trouble will not happen in winter. ¹⁹ Very bad troubles will happen to people at that time and cause them a lot of pain. Nothing as bad has ever happened before, since God created the world. Nothing as bad will ever happen again. ²⁰ The Lord God will cause those days of very bad trouble to come to an end. If he did not do that, there would be nobody still alive. But God will cause those days to be not too many. He will do that to help the people that he has chosen. ²¹ At that time, someone may say to you, “Look, here is the Messiah!” Or they may say, “Look, he is there!” If they say that, do not believe them. ²² Some people will even say, “I am the Messiah.” Other people will say, “I am a prophet from God.” But their words will be false. They will do strange and powerful things for people to see. If possible, they would even deceive the people that God has chosen. ²³ So watch out! I have told you about all these things before they happen.

The time when the Son of Man returns

²⁴ Then, after all these bad things have happened, the sun will become dark. The moon will not shine any more. ²⁵ Stars will fall out of the sky. And the powerful things in the sky will shake.

²⁶ Then people will see the Son of Man. He will come in the clouds. He will have great power and bright glory. ²⁷ Then he will send his angels. They will go in every direction, to every part of the earth and to every part of the sky. They will bring together all the people that God has chosen.

A lesson about the fig tree

²⁸ Here is a lesson for you to learn about the fig tree. When the new branches on the tree start to grow, the leaves appear. Then you know that the summer will begin soon. ²⁹ In the same way, you will see these strange things happening. Then you will know that the Son of Man will come very soon. He will be like someone at the door who is ready to come in. ³⁰ I tell you this: The people who are alive now will not all die until all these things happen. ³¹ One day, the earth and the sky will have an end. But my words will be there for ever.

Nobody knows when the Son of Man will return to the world

³² Nobody knows the day or the hour when all these things will happen. Only God the Father knows when they will happen. The angels who are in heaven do not know. Even the Son does not know. ³³ Watch carefully! Keep awake! You do not know the time when all these things will happen. ³⁴ It is like when a man begins a journey. Before the master leaves his house, he gives authority to his servants. He tells each servant about the work that he should do. Then he tells the servant at the door to watch for his master's return.

³⁵ So you must watch carefully. You do not know when the master of the house will come back. He might arrive in the evening, or in the middle of the night. Or he might arrive early in the morning, or just before the sun rises. ³⁶ When he arrives, he may surprise you. He may even find you asleep! ³⁷ I am saying this to you. I am also saying this to everyone else. Always be ready!’

The Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus

14 It was now two days before the Passover festival. It was the time when Jews eat flat bread which has no yeast in it.^[ag] The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law wanted to kill Jesus. But they wanted to take hold of him secretly. So they tried to decide how they could do that. ² They said to each other, ‘We do not want to do it during the festival. If we do that, the people will be angry. Then they may fight against us.’

A woman pours special oil on Jesus' head

³ Then Jesus went to Bethany, and he visited Simon at his house. At one time, Simon had had a bad disease of the skin. While Jesus was eating a meal there, a woman came into the house. She brought a small stone jar that contained expensive oil with a very nice smell. They used nard to make it. The woman broke the jar to open it. Then she poured the oil over Jesus' head.^[ah]

⁴ But some people became angry. They said to each other, ‘This woman should not have wasted the oil. ⁵ She could have sold it and she could have given the money to poor people. She could have sold it for more than 300 coins. A man would have to work for a year to get that much money.’ So they spoke angrily to the woman.

⁶ But Jesus said, ‘Do not speak to her like that! Do not cause trouble for her. She has done a good thing to me. ⁷ You will always have poor people with you. You can help them at any time that you want. But you will not always have me with you. ⁸ This woman did what she was able to do. She poured oil over my body. So now, my body will be ready for people to bury me. ⁹ I tell you this: Everywhere in the world, people will speak about God's good news. At the same time, they will also tell people about the good thing that this woman has done. And so they will remember her.’

Judas agrees to help the leaders of the priests

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot went to the leaders of the priests. He said that he would help them to catch Jesus. (Judas was one of Jesus' 12 apostles.) ¹¹ The leaders of the priests were very happy about this. They promised to give Judas some money. Then Judas waited for the right moment to help them to take hold of Jesus.

Jesus eats his last meal with his 12 apostles

¹² The first day of the festival when the Jews eat flat bread arrived. On this day, each family kills a young sheep for the Passover meal. Jesus' disciples said to him, ‘We will go to prepare the Passover meal for you. Where do you want us to do that?’

¹³ So Jesus sent two disciples to prepare the meal. ‘Go into the city,’ he said to them. ‘A man, who is carrying a jar of water, will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ He will go to a house. You must say to the master of that house, “The Teacher sends this message to you: ‘Where is the room for visitors? I will eat the Passover meal there with my disciples.’ ” ¹⁵ Then the man will show you a large room upstairs. The room will have in it all the things that you will need. You should prepare the Passover meal for us there.’

¹⁶ Then the two disciples left and they went into the city. They found everything as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal there.

¹⁷ When it was evening, Jesus arrived with the 12 apostles. ¹⁸ While they were eating the meal, Jesus said, ‘I tell you this: One of you will help the Jewish leaders to take hold of me. It is someone who is eating this meal with me.’

¹⁹ The disciples became very sad. Each one of them said to Jesus, ‘Surely you do not mean me, do you?’

²⁰ Jesus said to them, ‘It is one of you 12 apostles. That man is eating from the same dish as I am.^{[ai] 21} The Son of Man must die in the way that the Bible says. But it will be very bad for the man who gives me to my enemies. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.’

The Passover meal

²² While Jesus and his disciples were eating, he took a loaf of bread. He thanked God for it. Then he broke the bread into pieces. He gave some of it to each of his disciples. ‘Take this bread and eat it,’ he said to them. ‘This is my body.’

²³ Then Jesus took a cup. He thanked God for the wine in the cup. Then he gave the cup to them and they all drank from it.

²⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘This is my blood that shows God's promise. When I die, my blood will pour out of my body. In that way God will save many people. That is the promise that God makes because of my death. ²⁵ I tell you this: I will not drink wine again until God rules in his kingdom. Then it will be new wine.’

²⁶ Then Jesus and his disciples sang a song to praise God. Then they went out to the Mount of Olives.^[aj]

Jesus tells the disciples what will happen

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘All of you will turn away from me. It will happen as the Bible says:

²⁸ Jesus then said, ‘But after that happens, I will become alive again. Then I will go to Galilee, and you will meet me there.’

²⁹ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Even if everyone else runs away, I will not leave you.’

³⁰ Jesus replied, ‘I tell you this: Even tonight, you will say that you do not know me. You will say that three times before the cockerel sings for the second time in the morning.’

³¹ But Peter said very strongly, ‘I will die with you if I need to. But I will never say that I do not know you.’ All the other disciples said the same thing.

Jesus prays in the garden called Gethsemane

³² Then they arrived at a garden called Gethsemane. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ ³³ Jesus took Peter, James and John with him. He started to feel very sad and upset. ³⁴ He said to them, ‘I am very sad. I feel as if I could die because I feel so sad. Wait here and stay awake.’

³⁵ Jesus went a short way beyond them. He went down on the ground. He prayed that, if possible, God would save him from this time of trouble. ³⁶ He said, ‘Abba, my Father, you can do all things. Please take this great pain away from me. But I do not ask you to do what I want. Do what you want to do.’

³⁷ Jesus returned to his three disciples. Now they were sleeping. He said to Peter, ‘Simon, you are asleep! You could not stay awake for even one hour! ³⁸ You must keep awake and you must pray. Then you will not want to do something wrong. You really want to do the right thing, but your body is weak.’

³⁹ Jesus went away again and he prayed in the same words. ⁴⁰ Then Jesus returned again to Peter, James and John. He saw that they were sleeping. They could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him.

⁴¹ Then Jesus returned a third time to the disciples. He said to them, ‘You should not still be sleeping and resting. That is enough! The moment has arrived. Look! Someone will now give me, the Son of Man, to my enemies. ⁴² Stand up, we will go now. Look! The man who will give me to my enemies is here.’

Judas leads the men who will take Jesus away

⁴³ Jesus was still speaking when, immediately, Judas arrived. He was one of Jesus' 12 apostles. A crowd came with him. They were carrying swords and heavy sticks. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews had sent these men.

⁴⁴ Before this, Judas had told these men, ‘I will kiss one of the men. You must take hold of that man. Lead him away and do not let him go.’ ⁴⁵ When they arrived, Judas went immediately to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said to Jesus. Then he kissed Jesus in a friendly way. ⁴⁶ So the men took hold of Jesus to lead him away. ⁴⁷ But a certain man who was standing there took hold of his sword. He hit the servant of the leader of the priests with it and he cut off the servant's ear.

⁴⁸ Then Jesus spoke to the crowd. He said, ‘You have come out here with swords and heavy sticks to take hold of me. Do you really think that I am leading people to fight against our country's rulers? ⁴⁹ No! I was with you every day when I was teaching people in the yard of the temple. You did not try to take hold of me then. But this must happen in the way that the Bible says it would happen.’ ⁵⁰ Then all Jesus' disciples left him and they ran away.

⁵¹ A certain young man was following Jesus.^[al] He was wearing only one piece of linen cloth to cover himself. The men tried to take hold of this young man. ⁵² But the young man left the piece of cloth behind and he ran away. So when he ran away, he was not wearing anything.

The most important priest asks Jesus questions

⁵³ The men took Jesus to the house of the most important priest. All the leaders of the priests met together there with the important Jews and with the teachers of God's Law.^[am]

⁵⁴ Peter followed Jesus into the yard of Caiaphas's house. But he did not go near Jesus. He sat down in the yard with the guards and he made himself warm by the fire.

⁵⁵ The leaders of the priests and all the Jewish leaders wanted to punish Jesus with death. So they tried to find some people who would say things against Jesus. But they did not find anyone who could help them. ⁵⁶ Many people said things against Jesus that were not true. But they did not agree with each other in what they said.^[an]

⁵⁷ Then some men stood up and they said something false against Jesus. ⁵⁸ They said, ‘We heard Jesus say, “I will destroy the temple, which men have built. In three days I will build another House for God. It will not be people who build this new house.” ’ ⁵⁹ Even then, these people who were speaking against Jesus did not say the same thing.

⁶⁰ Then Caiaphas stood up in front of everyone. He said to Jesus, ‘You must reply now to what these men have said against you. Are the things that they are saying true?’ ⁶¹ But Jesus did not reply. He did not say anything.

So again, Caiaphas asked Jesus, ‘Are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God?’

⁶² ‘I am,’ Jesus replied. ‘And you will all see the Son of Man. He will be sitting in the most important place at the right side of the Most Powerful God. You will see him coming to earth. He will be riding on the clouds in the sky.’

⁶³ Then Caiaphas tore his clothes to show that he was angry.^[ao] ‘We do not need anyone else to speak against Jesus,’ he said. ⁶⁴ ‘You have heard the bad words that he has spoken against God. Do you think that he is guilty?’

Everyone agreed that Jesus deserved to die.

⁶⁵ Then some of the men began to spit on Jesus. They covered his eyes with a cloth and they hit him many times with their fists. They said, ‘Show us that you are a prophet! Tell us who hit you!’ Then the guards took hold of Jesus and they beat him.

Peter says three times that he does not know Jesus

⁶⁶ Peter was still sitting outside in the yard. One of the young women who was a servant of the most important priest came there. ⁶⁷ She saw Peter, who was making himself warm by the fire.

She looked at him and she said, ‘You also were a friend of Jesus, the man from Nazareth.’

⁶⁸ Peter replied, ‘That is not true! I do not even know what you are talking about!’ Then Peter went out to the gate of the yard. At that moment a cockerel sang.

⁶⁹ The young woman watched him, and again she said to the other people there, ‘He is one of the men who were friends of Jesus.’ ⁷⁰ But Peter again said that it was not true.

After a little time, the other people who were standing there said to Peter, ‘We know you are from Galilee.^[ap] So we are sure that you are one of those men.’

⁷¹ Then Peter began to speak very strongly to them. He said, ‘I do not know this man that you are talking about. God will surely punish me if this is not true!’ ⁷² Immediately a cockerel sang loudly for a second time. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him: ‘You will say three times that you do not know me. You will do it before the cockerel sings for the second time.’

When Peter thought about this, he wept very much.

Pilate asks Jesus questions

15 Very early the next morning, all the Jewish leaders met together. The leaders of the priests met with the leaders, the teachers of God's Law, and the other important Jews. They decided what they would do. They tied Jesus' hands and feet and they took him to Pilate's house. They put him under Pilate's authority.^[aq]

² Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’

³ Then the leaders of the priests told Pilate that Jesus had done many bad things. ⁴ So Pilate asked him again, ‘What is your answer? You should say something! Listen! They are saying that you have done many bad things.’

⁵ But Jesus still did not reply to what the men were saying against him. Pilate was very surprised about that.

⁶ During the Passover festival each year, Pilate let one person go free out of the prison. The people had to ask him for the person that they wanted. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in the prison at that time. He and some other men had fought against the Roman rulers. And they had killed someone when they were fighting. ⁸ The crowd came to Pilate. They asked him to do what he usually did at this time.

⁹ Pilate asked the people, ‘Do you want me to let the king of the Jews go free?’ ¹⁰ Pilate knew why the leaders of the priests had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much. ¹¹ But the leaders of the priests talked strongly to the people. They said, ‘Ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free instead of Jesus.’

¹² Pilate asked the crowd again, ‘So what should I do to Jesus? He is the man that you call “the king of the Jews”.’

¹³ The people shouted back to Pilate: ‘Kill him on a cross!’

¹⁴ ‘Why should I kill him?’ Pilate asked. ‘What bad things has he done?’

But the people shouted even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross!’

¹⁵ Pilate decided to do what the crowd wanted.^[ar] So he let Barabbas go free. He said to his soldiers, ‘Hit Jesus many times with a whip.^[as] Then take him and fix him on a cross to die.’

¹⁶ So the soldiers took Jesus to the yard at the ruler's house. They told all the soldiers in their group to come there. ¹⁷ Then they put a dark red coat on Jesus. They used some branches with thorns to make a crown for him.^[at] They put it on his head.

¹⁸ Then the soldiers began to laugh at Jesus. They said, ‘Hello, King of the Jews, you are great!’ ¹⁹ They took a stick and they hit him on the head with it many times. They spat on him. Then they went down on their knees in front of him. They told him how great he was. ²⁰ When they had stopped laughing at him, they took the dark red coat off him. They put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him away to the place where they would kill him on a cross.

The soldiers put Jesus on a cross

²¹ When the soldiers were taking Jesus out to that place, a man called Simon was there. He was coming in from outside the city. He was from the city of Cyrene, and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers told Simon that he must carry Jesus' cross. ²² The soldiers took Jesus to a place that is called Golgotha. (Golgotha means ‘the place of a skull’.)^[au]

²³ They tried to give Jesus some wine to drink. They had mixed some medicine called myrrh into the wine. But Jesus would not drink it. ²⁴ Then the soldiers fixed Jesus onto the cross. They took his clothes for themselves. They played a game to decide which soldier would receive each of his clothes.

²⁵ It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the soldiers fixed Jesus to the cross. ²⁶ They put a notice there to show the reason why they were killing him. It said, ‘The King of the Jews’. ²⁷ They also put two robbers on crosses near to Jesus. One robber was on Jesus' right side. The other robber was on his left side. ²⁸ [The Bible says that this would happen.^[av] It says, ‘People thought of him as someone who did not obey God's Law.’]^[aw]

²⁹ The people who walked near there insulted Jesus. They laughed at him and they said, ‘Oh! You said that you would destroy the temple. And you said that in three days you would build it again. ³⁰ If you can really do that, save yourself. Come down from the cross!’

³¹ The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law laughed at him. They said to each other, ‘This man saved other people, did he? But he cannot save his own life! ³² If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross now. Then we would see it and we would believe in him.’ The two men who were on the crosses next to Jesus also insulted him.

Jesus dies

³³ At midday, the whole country became dark for three hours. ³⁴ At three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus shouted loudly, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ That means, ‘My God, my God, why have you left me alone?’

³⁵ Some people who were standing near there heard him. They said to each other, ‘Look! He is shouting to Elijah.’

³⁶ One man ran to get a piece of cloth. He poured cheap wine on it, and he put it on the end of a stick. Then he lifted it up to Jesus so that he could drink the wine from it. The man said, ‘Wait! Now we will see if Elijah comes to take him down from the cross.’

³⁷ Then Jesus shouted loudly, and after that he died.

³⁸ And the curtain inside the temple completely tore into two parts from the top down to the bottom.^[ax]

³⁹ The captain of the soldiers was standing there in front of Jesus.^[ay] He saw how Jesus died. ‘It must be true!’ he said. ‘This man really was the Son of God.’

⁴⁰ Some women were also there. They were watching these events from a long way away. Mary from Magdala was one of the women. Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses was also there. Salome was there too. ⁴¹ These women had travelled with Jesus when he was in Galilee and they had helped him. Many other women were also there near the cross. They had come to Jerusalem with Jesus.

Joseph buries Jesus' dead body

⁴² It was Friday and the Jews were preparing for their day of rest on the Sabbath. ⁴³ That evening, a man called Joseph went to see Pilate. Joseph was from a town called Arimathea. He was a good man and he was one of the group of important Jewish leaders. He was waiting for the time when God would start to rule his people in his kingdom. Joseph bravely asked Pilate for the dead body of Jesus to bury it. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised that Jesus had already died. He asked the captain of the soldiers to come to him. He asked him if Jesus had already died. ⁴⁵ The captain told Pilate that Jesus was already dead. So then Pilate let Joseph go and take Jesus' dead body. ⁴⁶ Joseph bought a piece of linen cloth. He took Jesus' body down from the cross and he put the cloth around it. Then he put the body in a large hole in a rock. People had made that hole to put dead bodies in. After this, Joseph rolled a big stone across the front of the hole to shut it.

⁴⁷ Mary from Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching. They saw where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.

Jesus becomes alive again

16 After the day of rest had finished, the women bought some spices. They wanted to mix these with some oil to put on Jesus' body.^[az] These women were Mary from Magdala, Salome, and Mary the mother of James. ² They went out at dawn on the first day of the week, Sunday. They went to the hole in the rock where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.

³ The women asked each other, ‘Who will roll away the heavy stone for us? It closes the hole in the rock where they put Jesus' dead body.’

⁴ Then they looked and they saw the stone. It was a very big stone. But someone had already rolled it away from the hole. ⁵ When the women went into the hole in the rock, they saw a young man there.^[ba] He was sitting in there on the right side and he wore bright white clothes. The women were very afraid.

⁶ The young man said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth. The soldiers killed him on a cross, but he has become alive again. He is not here. Look! You can see the place where the men put him. ⁷ But now you must go to tell his disciples and Peter about this.^[bb] Tell them, “Jesus is going to Galilee and you must also go there. You will see him there, just as he told you it would happen.” ’

⁸ Then the women went out of the hole in the rock, and they ran away from that place. They were very upset and they had trouble in their minds. Because they were afraid, they did not say anything to anyone.

The end of Mark's book

^9 [bc] [Jesus became alive again early on the first day of the week. He appeared first to Mary from Magdala. Jesus had caused seven bad spirits to leave her. ¹⁰ She went to the people who had been with Jesus. They were all very sad and they were crying. Mary spoke to them. ¹¹ She told them that Jesus was alive. And she told them that she had seen him. But they did not believe it.

¹² After these things had happened, Jesus appeared to two other disciples. They were walking away from Jerusalem to their village. It seemed to them that Jesus was different. ¹³ Those two disciples went and told all the other disciples. But the other disciples did not believe them.

¹⁴ After that, Jesus appeared to the 11 apostles while they were eating. He told them that they were wrong not to believe. They should have been ready to believe. People had seen that he was now alive again. But the disciples had not believed them.

¹⁵ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Go to all people everywhere in the world. Tell God's good news to everyone. ¹⁶ If a person believes in me, then you should baptize that person. And God will save that person. But if a person does not believe, God will judge that person to be guilty. ¹⁷ These miracles will happen when people believe in me. On my behalf, they will send bad spirits out of people. They will speak new languages. ¹⁸ If they pick up a snake, it will not hurt them. If they drink poison, it will not hurt them. They will put their hands on ill people, and God will make those people well.’

Jesus goes up to heaven

¹⁹ So, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to the disciples, God took him up into heaven. There he sat down at the right side of God.

²⁰ The disciples went out everywhere. They told people God's good news. The Lord worked with them. He did powerful things to show that the message which they spoke was true.]

Luke writes the facts about Jesus

1 Many people have written about the things that have happened in our country. ² Some people were present when these things started to happen. They saw everything that happened and they told us about it. They are the people who wrote down the Good News for us. ³ I have checked the facts about what really happened. So now, I know about all the things that happened from the beginning. I am writing to make the facts clear to you, my important friend Theophilus. ⁴ People have already taught you about these things. Now you can be sure that they are true.

What happened before John the Baptist was born

⁵ There was a man whose name was Zechariah. He lived when Herod was king of Judea.^[bd] Zechariah was a priest and he belonged to a group of priests from the family of Abijah. He had a wife called Elizabeth. She also was from the family of the priest called Aaron.^[be]

⁶ Zechariah and Elizabeth obeyed God's commands and rules. God saw that they were righteous people. They did not do wrong things. ⁷ But they had no children. Elizabeth could not give birth and they were both getting old.^[bf]

⁸ One day, Zechariah's group of priests was working at the temple. He had a special job to do there. ⁹ The priests chose one of their group to go into the holy place in the temple. This time they chose Zechariah.^[bg] His job was to burn incense there.

¹⁰ While Zechariah was burning incense in the special room, many men were outside in the yard.^[bh] They were praying to God.

¹¹ The incense was burning on a special altar, when one of God's angels appeared to Zechariah. The angel was standing at the right hand side of the altar.^[bi]

¹² When Zechariah saw the angel, he was very surprised and very afraid. ¹³ The angel said to him, ‘Zechariah, do not be afraid. God has heard what you prayed. He will give you what you asked for. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to a baby boy. You will give him the name “John”. ^14-15 He will be very important to the Lord God. So he will make you very happy. Many other people will also be very happy because he has been born. He must never drink anything with alcohol in it. From the time that he is born, the Holy Spirit will live inside him.

¹⁶ He will teach many people in Israel.^[bj] Then they will turn their lives back to the Lord their God and they will obey God again. ¹⁷ John will prepare the people for the Lord to come to them. The Holy Spirit will lead John as he led Elijah.^[bk] John will do powerful things as Elijah did. He will help fathers to love their children. He will teach people who do not obey God. Then they will know what things are right. And they will do them. Then they will be ready when the Lord comes.’

¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure about this? You know that I am an old man. My wife is also old.’

¹⁹ The angel answered, ‘I am called Gabriel. My place is to stand in front of God. I am always ready to work for God. He has sent me to speak to you. He told me that I should tell you this good news. ²⁰ Now listen to me. Because you did not believe my message, you will not be able to speak. You will not speak again until the time that your son is born. My message will really become true at the right time.’

²¹ While this was happening, the people outside were waiting for Zechariah. They were thinking, ‘Why has Zechariah stayed for such a long time in the special room? Why has he not come out yet?’ ²² When he did come out, he tried to talk to them. But he could not speak. So they knew that God had showed him something special in the room. He was moving his head and his hands about, to tell them what had happened. But still he could not speak.

²³ When Zechariah had finished his work in the temple, he returned home. ²⁴ Soon, a baby was growing inside his wife Elizabeth. She stayed in her house for five months. ²⁵ ‘The Lord has now given me a baby,’ she said. ‘He has been kind to me. Because of this, other people cannot say bad things about me now.’

What happened before Jesus was born

²⁶ When Elizabeth's baby had grown inside her for nearly six months, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth. Nazareth is a town in Galilee. ²⁷ Gabriel went there to visit a young woman. Her name was Mary. She had never had sex with anyone. She had promised to marry a man called Joseph. He belonged to the family of King David.^[bl]

²⁸ Gabriel went to Mary and said, ‘Hello, Mary. The Lord God loves you very much. He is very near to you.’

²⁹ Mary had a lot of problems in her mind about Gabriel's message. She did not understand what he meant. ³⁰ Then Gabriel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary. God has been kind to you. ³¹ Listen! A baby boy will grow inside you. When he is born, you will call him Jesus. ³² He will be great. People will call him the Son of the powerful God who is over all. The Lord God will make him king. He will rule as his ancestor King David ruled.^{[bm] 33} He will rule over the family of Jacob for all time.^[bn] He will be king for all time, without end.’

³⁴ Mary asked, ‘How can this happen? I have never had sex with anyone.’ ³⁵ Gabriel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come to you. The power of God who is over all will cover you like a shadow. So your child will be special to God. He will be completely good. He will be called God's Son. ³⁶ Another thing! Your cousin, Elizabeth, is very old. People said that she could not have a baby. Listen! She also will have a son. The baby has grown inside her now for nearly six months. ³⁷ There is nothing that God cannot do.’

³⁸ Mary answered, ‘I am the servant of the Lord. I have heard what you have said. I want it to happen to me just like that.’ Then the angel left her.

Mary visits Elizabeth

³⁹ After that, Mary prepared herself to travel. She hurried to a town in the hills of Judea. ⁴⁰ When she arrived at the home of Zechariah, she said ‘hello’ to Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary speak, she felt her baby move quickly inside her. The Holy Spirit filled her. ⁴² She spoke to Mary in a loud voice, ‘God has made you very happy. He has been good and kind to you more than to other women. He has also been good and kind to your baby. ⁴³ You are the mother of my Lord and I am not an important person. So it is very good that you have visited me. ⁴⁴ Listen! When I heard you say, “Hello” to me, my baby moved quickly inside me. He was very happy. ⁴⁵ The Lord has told you what will happen. And you believed what he told you. Because of that, God has made you a happy person.’

Mary's song

⁴⁶ Then Mary said,

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months. Then she returned to her home.

John the Baptist is born

⁵⁷ The time arrived for Elizabeth to have her baby. She had a son. ⁵⁸ Her family and the people who lived near her heard about her baby. They knew that the Lord had been very kind to her. They saw that she was happy. So they were happy too. ⁵⁹ When the child was eight days old, people met together to circumcise him.^[bp] They wanted to call the child Zechariah. This was the same name that his father had.

⁶⁰ Elizabeth said, ‘No. His name will be John.’

⁶¹ They replied, ‘But you do not have anyone in your family called John. That cannot be right.’ ⁶² So they used their hands to make signs to the baby's father. They wanted to ask him what his son's name should be.^[bq]

⁶³ Zechariah asked for something to write on. He wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Everyone was very surprised at what he wrote. ⁶⁴ Immediately, Zechariah could speak again. He could speak easily. He began to thank God aloud.^[br]

⁶⁵ The people who lived near Zechariah and Elizabeth were very surprised. They saw how great God was. Many people who lived in the hills of Judea also talked about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard about these things thought about them. They asked each other, ‘When this child becomes a man, what will he be?’ They could see that God really was with him.

Zechariah's song

⁶⁷ The Holy Spirit filled John's father, Zechariah, so that he spoke God's message:

⁷⁶ Zechariah then spoke to John:

⁸⁰ Zechariah's child grew. God made him strong in his mind. He went into the wilderness and he lived there for many years. Later, God sent him to Israel's people, to teach them.^[bx]