Chronological

The preaching of John the Baptist

3 In those days John the Baptist appeared. He was preaching in the Judaean wilderness.

² “Repent!” he was saying. “The kingdom of heaven is coming!”

³ John, you see, is the person spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, when he said,

⁴ John himself had clothing made from camel’s hair, and a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Jerusalem, all Judaea, and the whole area around the Jordan, were going off to him. ⁶ They were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ He saw several Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized by him.

“You brood of vipers!” he said to them. “Who warned you to escape from the coming wrath? ⁸ You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the right sort of fruit! ⁹ And you needn’t start thinking to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Let me tell you, God is quite capable of raising up children for Abraham from these stones! ¹⁰ The axe is already taking aim at the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus’ baptism

¹¹ “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,” John continued. “But the one who is coming behind me is more powerful than me! I’m not even worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire! ¹² He’s got his shovel in his hand, ready to clear out his barn, and gather all his corn into the granary. But he’ll burn up the chaff with a fire that will never go out.”

¹³ Then Jesus arrived at the Jordan from Galilee, and came to John to be baptized by him.

¹⁴ John tried to stop him.

“I ought to be baptized by you,” he said, “and are you going to come to me?”

¹⁵ “This is how it’s got to be right now,” said Jesus. “This is the right way for us to complete God’s whole saving plan.”

So John consented, ¹⁶ and Jesus was baptized. All at once, as he came up out of the water, suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw God’s spirit coming down like a dove and landing on him.

¹⁷ Then there came a voice out of the heavens.

“This is my son, my beloved one,” said the voice. “I am delighted with him.”

The preaching of John the Baptist

1 This is where the good news starts—the good news of Jesus the Messiah, God’s son.

² Isaiah the prophet put it like this (“Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of me; he will clear the way for you!”):

³ “A shout goes up in the desert: Make way for the Lord! Clear a straight path for him!”

⁴ John the Baptizer appeared in the desert. He was announcing a baptism of repentance, to forgive sins. ⁵ The whole of Judaea, and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, went out to him; they confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. ⁶ John wore camel-hair clothes, with a leather belt round his waist. He used to eat locusts and wild honey.

⁷ “Someone a lot stronger than me is coming close behind,” John used to tell them. “I don’t deserve to squat down and undo his sandals. ⁸ I’ve plunged you in the water; he’s going to plunge you in the holy spirit.”

Jesus’ baptism

⁹ This is how it happened. Around that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. ¹⁰ That very moment, as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit coming down like a dove onto him. ¹¹ Then there came a voice out of the heavens: “You are my son! You are the one I love! You make me very glad.”

¹² All at once the spirit pushed him out into the desert. ¹³ He was in the desert forty days, and the satan tested him there. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.

The calling of the disciples

¹⁴ After John’s arrest, Jesus came into Galilee, announcing God’s good news.

¹⁵ “The time is fulfilled!” he said; “God’s kingdom is arriving! Turn back, and believe the good news!”

¹⁶ As he went along beside the sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen, and were casting nets into the sea.

¹⁷ “Follow me!” said Jesus to them. “I’ll have you fishing for people!”

¹⁸ Straight away they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ He went on a bit, and saw James, Zebedee’s son, and John his brother. They were in the boat mending their nets, ²⁰ and he called them then and there. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went off after him.

Exorcism and healings

²¹ They went to Capernaum. At once, on the sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught. ²² They were astonished at his teaching. He wasn’t like the legal teachers; he said things on his own authority.

²³ All at once, in their synagogue, there was a man with an unclean spirit.

²⁴ “What business have you got with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” he yelled. “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: you’re God’s Holy One!”

²⁵ “Be quiet!” ordered Jesus. “And come out of him!”

²⁶ The unclean spirit convulsed the man, gave a great shout, and came out of him. ²⁷ Everyone was astonished.

“What’s this?” they started to say to each other. “New teaching—with real authority! He even tells the unclean spirits what to do, and they do it!”

²⁸ Word about Jesus spread at once, all over the surrounding district of Galilee.

²⁹ They came out of the synagogue, and went at once (with James and John) into Simon and Andrew’s house. ³⁰ Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her right away. ³¹ He went in, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she waited on them.

³² When the sun went down and evening came, they brought to Jesus everyone who was ill, including the demon-possessed. ³³ The whole town was gathered around the door. ³⁴ Jesus healed many people suffering from all kinds of diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

The healing of a man with a skin disease

³⁵ Very early—in the middle of the night, actually—Jesus got up and went out, off to a lonely place, and prayed. ³⁶ Simon, and those with him, followed. ³⁷ When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸ “Let’s go off to the other towns around here,” Jesus replied, “so that I can tell the news to people there too. That’s why I came out.”

³⁹ So he went into their synagogues, throughout the whole of Galilee, telling the news and casting out demons.

⁴⁰ A man with a virulent skin disease came up to him. He knelt down and begged him, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”

⁴¹ Jesus was deeply moved. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do want to: be clean!” ⁴² The disease left him at once, and he was clean.

⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once, with this stern warning: ⁴⁴ “Mind you don’t say anything to anyone! Just go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering Moses commanded, to purify yourself and to give them a sign.”

⁴⁵ But the man went out and began to spread the news far and wide. He did this so effectively that Jesus couldn’t any longer go publicly into a town. He stayed out in the open country, and people came to him from all around.

The preaching of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee; his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests.

At that time, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. ³ He went through all the region of the Jordan, announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ This is what is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

⁷ “You brood of vipers,” John used to say to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him. “Who told you to escape from the coming anger? ⁸ You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the proper fruit! Don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; let me tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹ The axe is already standing by the roots of the tree—so every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John the Baptist confronts the crowds

¹⁰ “What shall we do?” asked the crowds.

¹¹ “Anyone who has two cloaks,” replied John, “should give one to someone who hasn’t got one. The same applies to anyone who has plenty of food.”

¹² Some toll-collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they said, “what should we do?”

¹³ “Don’t collect more than what is laid down,” he replied.

¹⁴ Some soldiers, too, asked John, “What about us? What should we do?”

“No extortion,” replied John, “and no blackmail. Be content with your wages.”

¹⁵ The people were very excited, and everyone was questioning in their hearts whether John might not be the Messiah. ¹⁶ To all of them John responded: “I am baptizing you with water. But someone is coming who is stronger than I am. I don’t deserve to untie his sandal-strap. He will baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He will have his winnowing-fork to hand, ready to sort out the mess on his threshing floor and gather the corn into his barn. Any rubbish he will burn with a fire that will never go out.”

¹⁸ John urged his news on the people with many other words. ¹⁹ But Herod the Tetrarch—whom John had accused in the matter of his brother’s wife Herodias, and for all the evil things which Herod had done— ²⁰ added this to his list of crimes: he shut John up in prison.

Jesus’ baptism and genealogy

²¹ So it happened that, as all the people were being baptized, Jesus too was baptized, and was praying. The heaven was opened, ²² and the holy spirit descended in a bodily form, like a dove, upon him. There came a voice from heaven: “You are my son, my dear son! I’m delighted with you.”

²³ Jesus was about thirty years old at the start of his work. He was, as people thought, the son of Joseph, from whom his ancestry proceeds back in the following line: Heli, ²⁴ Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Jannai, Joseph, ²⁵ Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Esli, Naggai, ²⁶ Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda, ²⁷ Johanan, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, Neri, ²⁸ Melchi, Addi, Kosam, Elmadam, Er, ²⁹ Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, ³⁰ Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonam, Eliakim, ³¹ Melea, Menna, Mattatha, Nathan, David, ³² Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Sala, Nahshon, ³³ Amminadab, Admin, Arni, Hezron, Perez, Judah, ³⁴ Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Terah, Nahor, ³⁵ Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shela, ³⁶ Kainan, Arphachsad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, ³⁷ Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Kainan, ³⁸ Enosh, Seth, Adam, and God.