Read the Gospels in 40 Days

10 Then Yeshua left that place and went into the regions of Y’hudah and the territory beyond the Yarden. Again crowds gathered around him; and again, as usual, he taught them. ² Some P’rushim came up and tried to trap him by asking him, “Does the Torah permit a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He replied, “What did Moshe command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moshe allowed a man to hand his wife a get and divorce her.”^{[a] 5} But Yeshua said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your hardheartedness. ⁶ However, at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.^{[b] 7} For this reason, a man should leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, ⁸ and the two are to become one flesh.^[c] Thus they are no longer two, but one. ⁹ So then, no one should break apart what God has joined together.” ¹⁰ When they were indoors once more, the talmidim asked him about this. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife; ¹² and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she too commits adultery.”

¹³ People were bringing children to him so that he might touch them, but the talmidim rebuked those people. ¹⁴ However, when Yeshua saw it, he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ Yes! I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it!” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms, laid his hands on them, and made a b’rakhah over them.

¹⁷ As he was starting on his way, a man ran up, kneeled down in front of him and asked, “Good rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” ¹⁸ Yeshua said to him, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good except God! ¹⁹ You know the mitzvot — ‘Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, don’t defraud, honor your father and mother, . . .’”^{[d] 20} “Rabbi,” he said, “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” ²¹ Yeshua, looking at him, felt love for him and said to him, “You’re missing one thing. Go, sell whatever you own, give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me!” ²² Shocked by this word, he went away sad; because he was a wealthy man.

²³ Yeshua looked around and said to his talmidim, “How hard it is going to be for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” ²⁴ The talmidim were astounded at these words; but Yeshua said to them again, “My friends, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! ²⁵ It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” ²⁶ They were utterly amazed and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ Yeshua looked at them and said, “Humanly, it is impossible, but not with God; with God, everything is possible.” ²⁸ Kefa began saying to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” ²⁹ Yeshua said, “Yes! I tell you that there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundred times over, now, in the ‘olam hazeh, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and lands — with persecutions! — and in the ‘olam haba, eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first!”

³² They were on the road going up to Yerushalayim. Yeshua was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed — and those following were afraid. So again taking the Twelve along with him, he began telling them what was about to happen to him. ³³ “We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers. They will sentence him to death and turn him over to the Goyim, ³⁴ who will jeer at him, spit on him, beat him and kill him; but after three days, he will rise.”^[e]

³⁵ Ya‘akov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai, came up to him and said, “Rabbi, we would like you to do us a favor.” ³⁶ He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ They replied, “When you are in your glory, let us sit with you, one on your right and the other on your left.” ³⁸ But Yeshua answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink the cup that I am drinking? or be immersed with the immersion that I must undergo?” ³⁹ They said to him, “We can.” Yeshua replied, “The cup that I am drinking, you will drink; and the immersion I am being immersed with, you will undergo. ⁴⁰ But to sit on my right and on my left is not mine to give. Rather, it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the other ten heard about this, they became outraged at Ya‘akov and Yochanan. ⁴² But Yeshua called them to him and said to them, “You know that among the Goyim, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. ⁴³ But among you, it must not be like that! On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must be your servant; ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must become everyone’s slave! ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve — and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

⁴⁶ They came to Yericho; and as Yeshua was leaving Yericho with his talmidim and a great crowd, a blind beggar, Bar-Timai (son of Timai), was sitting by the side of the road. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Yeshua from Natzeret, he started shouting, “Yeshua! Son of David! Have pity on me!” ⁴⁸ Many people scolded him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David! Have pity on me!” ⁴⁹ Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him over!” They called to the blind man, “Courage! Get up! He’s calling for you!” ⁵⁰ Throwing down his blanket, he jumped up and came over to Yeshua. ⁵¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” asked Yeshua. The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me be able to see again.” ⁵² Yeshua said to him, “Go! Your trust has healed you.” Instantly he received his sight and followed him on the road.

11 As they were approaching Yerushalayim, near Beit-Pagei and Beit-Anyah, by the Mount of Olives, Yeshua sent two of his talmidim ² with these instructions: “Go into the village ahead of you; and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it, and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it,’ and he will send it here right away.”

⁴ They went off and found a colt in the street tied in a doorway, and they untied it. ⁵ The bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They gave the answer Yeshua had told them to give, and they let them continue. ⁷ They brought the colt to Yeshua and threw their robes on it, and he sat on it.

⁸ Many people carpeted the road with their clothing, while others spread out green branches which they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who were ahead and those behind shouted,

¹¹ Yeshua entered Yerushalayim, went into the Temple courts and took a good look at everything; but since it was now late, he went out with the Twelve to Beit-Anyah.

¹² The next day, as they came back from Beit-Anyah, he felt hungry. ¹³ Spotting in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came up to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it wasn’t fig season. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his talmidim heard what he said.

¹⁵ On reaching Yerushalayim, he entered the Temple courts and began driving out those who were carrying on business there, both the merchants and their customers. He also knocked over the desks of the money-changers, upset the benches of the pigeon-dealers, ¹⁶ and refused to let anyone carry merchandise through the Temple courts. ¹⁷ Then, as he taught them, he said, “Isn’t it written in the Tanakh, My house will be called a house of prayer for all the Goyim^[k] But you have made it into a den of robbers!”^{[l] 18} The head cohanim and the Torah-teachers heard what he said and tried to find a way to do away with him; they were afraid of him, because the crowds were utterly taken by his teaching. ¹⁹ When evening came, they left the city.

²⁰ In the morning, as the talmidim passed by, they saw the fig tree withered all the way to its roots. ²¹ Kefa remembered and said to Yeshua, “Rabbi! Look! The fig tree that you cursed has dried up!” ²² He responded, “Have the kind of trust that comes from God! ²³ Yes! I tell you that whoever does not doubt in his heart but trusts that what he says will happen can say to this mountain, ‘Go and throw yourself into the sea!’ and it will be done for him. ²⁴ Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive your offenses.” ^26 [m]

²⁷ They went back into Yerushalayim; and as he was walking in the Temple courts, there came to him the head cohanim, the Torah-teachers and the elders; ²⁸ and they said to him, “What s’mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? Who gave you this s’mikhah authorizing you to do them?” ²⁹ Yeshua said to them, “I will ask you just one question: answer me, and I will tell you by what s’mikhah I do these things. ³⁰ The immersion of Yochanan — was it from Heaven or from a human source? Answer me.” ³¹ They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From Heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ³² But if we say, ‘From a human source, . . . ’” — they were afraid of the people, for they all regarded Yochanan as a genuine prophet. ³³ So they answered Yeshua, “We don’t know.” “Then,” he replied, “I won’t tell you by what s’mikhah I do these things.”

12 Yeshua began speaking to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; then he rented it to tenant-farmers and left. ² When harvest-time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the crop from the vineyard. ³ But they took him, beat him up and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ So he sent another servant; this one they punched in the head and insulted. ⁵ He sent another one, and him they killed; and so with many others — some they beat up, others they killed. ⁶ He had still one person left, a son whom he loved; in the end, he sent him to them, saying, ‘My son they will respect.’ ⁷ But the tenants said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ So they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others! ¹⁰ Haven’t you read the passage in the Tanakh that says,

¹² They set about to arrest him, for they recognized that he had told the parable with reference to themselves. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

¹³ Next they sent some P’rushim and some members of Herod’s party to him in order to trap him with a sh’eilah. ¹⁴ They came and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and are not concerned with what people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person’s status but really teach what God’s way is. Does Torah say that taxes are to be paid to the Roman Emperor, or not?” ¹⁵ But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a denarius so I can look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought one; and he asked them, “Whose name and picture are these?” “The Emperor’s,” they replied. ¹⁷ Yeshua said, “Give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give to God what belongs to God!” And they were amazed at him.

¹⁸ Then some Tz’dukim came to him. They are the ones who say there is no such thing as resurrection, so they put to him a sh’eilah: ¹⁹ “Rabbi, Moshe wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and have children to preserve the man’s family line.^{[o] 20} There were seven brothers. The first one took a wife, and when he died, he left no children. ²¹ Then the second one took her and died without leaving children, and the third likewise, ²² and none of the seven left children. Last of all, the woman also died. ²³ In the Resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”

²⁴ Yeshua said to them, “Isn’t this the reason that you go astray? because you are ignorant both of the Tanakh and of the power of God? ²⁵ For when people rise from the dead, neither men nor women marry — they are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, haven’t you read in the book of Moshe, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov’?^{[p] 27} He is God not of the dead, but of the living! You are going far astray!”

²⁸ One of the Torah-teachers came up and heard them engaged in this discussion. Seeing that Yeshua answered them well, he asked him, “Which is the most important mitzvah of them all?” ²⁹ Yeshua answered, “The most important is,

³¹ The second is this:

There is no other mitzvah greater than these.” ³² The Torah-teacher said to him, “Well said, Rabbi; you speak the truth when you say that he is one, and that there is no other besides him; ³³ and that loving him with all one’s heart, understanding and strength, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself, mean more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Yeshua saw that he responded sensibly, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared put to him another sh’eilah.

³⁵ As Yeshua was teaching in the Temple, he asked, “How is it that the Torah-teachers say the Messiah is the Son of David? ³⁶ David himself, inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh, said,

³⁷ David himself calls him ‘Lord’; so how is he his son?”

The great crowd listened eagerly to him. ³⁸ As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers who like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, ³⁹ who like to have the best seats in the synagogues and take the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁰ who like to swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”

⁴¹ Then Yeshua sat down opposite the Temple treasury and watched the crowd as they put money into the offering-boxes. Many rich people put in large sums, ⁴² but a poor widow came and put in two small coins. ⁴³ He called his talmidim to him and said to them, “Yes! I tell you, this poor widow has put more in the offering-box than all the others making donations. ⁴⁴ For all of them, out of their wealth, have contributed money they can easily spare; but she, out of her poverty, has given everything she had to live on.”