Read the Gospels in 40 Days

4 Then Yeshua, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, returned from the Yarden and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days of testing by the Adversary. During that time he ate nothing, and afterwards he was hungry. ³ The Adversary said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order this stone to become bread.” ⁴ Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”^[a]

⁵ The Adversary took him up, showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, ⁶ and said to him, “I will give you all this power and glory. It has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I choose. ⁷ So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ Yeshua answered him, “The Tanakh says, ‘Worship Adonai your God and serve him only.’”^[b]

⁹ Then he took him to Yerushalayim, set him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, jump from here! ¹⁰ For the Tanakh says,

¹² Yeshua answered him, “It also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”^{[d] 13} When the Adversary had ended all his testings, he let him alone until an opportune time.

¹⁴ Yeshua returned to the Galil in the power of the Spirit, and reports about him spread throughout the countryside. ¹⁵ He taught in their synagogues, and everyone respected him.

¹⁶ Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and he was given the scroll of the prophet Yesha‘yahu. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

²⁰ After closing the scroll and returning it to the shammash, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ He started to speak to them: “Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!” ²² Everyone was speaking well of him and marvelling that such appealing words were coming from his mouth. They were even asking, “Can this be Yosef’s son?”

²³ Then Yeshua said to them, “No doubt you will quote to me this proverb — ‘“Doctor, cure yourself!” We’ve heard about all the things that have been going on over in K’far-Nachum; now do them here in your home town!’ ²⁴ Yes!” he said, “I tell you that no prophet is accepted in his home town. ²⁵ It’s true, I’m telling you — when Eliyahu was in Isra’el, and the sky was sealed off for three-and-a-half years, so that all the Land suffered a severe famine, there were many widows; ²⁶ but Eliyahu was sent to none of them, only to a widow in Tzarfat in the land of Tzidon. ²⁷ Also there were many people with tzara‘at in Isra’el during the time of the prophet Elisha; but not one of them was healed, only Na‘aman the Syrian.”

²⁸ On hearing this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with fury. ²⁹ They rose up, drove him out of town and dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which their town was built, intending to throw him off. ³⁰ But he walked right through the middle of the crowd and went away.

³¹ He went down to K’far-Nachum, a town in the Galil, and made a practice of teaching them on Shabbat. ³² They were amazed at the way he taught, because his word carried the ring of authority.

³³ In the synagogue there was a man who had an unclean demonic spirit, who shouted in a loud voice, ³⁴ “Yaah! What do you want with us, Yeshua from Natzeret? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” ³⁵ But Yeshua rebuked it: “Be quiet, and come out of him!” The demonic spirit threw the man down in the middle of the crowd and came out of him, having done him no harm. ³⁶ They were all astounded and said to one another, “What kind of teaching is this? Why, he gives orders with power and authority to the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷ And reports about him went out through the whole surrounding district.

³⁸ Leaving the synagogue, he went to Shim‘on’s house. Shim‘on’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to do something for her. ³⁹ So, standing over her, he rebuked the fever; and it left her. She immediately got up and began helping them.

⁴⁰ After sunset, all those who had people sick with various diseases brought them to Yeshua, and he put his hands on each one of them and healed them; ⁴¹ also demons came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But, rebuking them, he did not permit them to say that they knew he was the Messiah.

⁴² When day had come, he left and went away to a lonely spot. The people looked for him, came to him and would have kept him from leaving them. ⁴³ But he said to them, “I must announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God to the other towns too — this is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴ He also spent time preaching in the synagogues of Y’hudah.

5 One day, as Yeshua was standing on the shore of Lake Kinneret, with the people pressing in around him in order to hear the word of God, ² he noticed two boats pulled up on the beach, left there by the fishermen, who were cleaning their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Shim‘on, and asked him to put out a little way from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Shim‘on, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Shim‘on answered, “We’ve worked hard all night long, Rabbi, and haven’t caught a thing! But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” ⁶ They did this and took in so many fish that their nets began to tear. ⁷ So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both boats to the point of sinking. ⁸ When he saw this, Shim‘on Kefa fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, “Get away from me, sir, because I’m a sinner!” ⁹ For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and likewise both Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Shim‘on’s partners. “Don’t be frightened,” Yeshua said to Shim‘on, “from now on you will be catching men — alive!” ¹¹ And as soon as they had beached their boats, they left everything behind and followed him.

¹² Once, when Yeshua was in one of the towns, there came a man completely covered with tzara‘at. On seeing Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged him, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ¹³ Yeshua reached out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” Immediately the tzara‘at left him. ¹⁴ Then Yeshua warned him not to tell anyone. “Instead, as a testimony to the people, go straight to the cohen and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moshe commanded.” ¹⁵ But the news about Yeshua kept spreading all the more, so that huge crowds would gather to listen and be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ However, he made a practice of withdrawing to remote places in order to pray.

¹⁷ One day when Yeshua was teaching, there were P’rushim and Torah-teachers present who had come from various villages in the Galil and Y’hudah, also from Yerushalayim; and the power of Adonai was with him to heal the sick. ¹⁸ Some men came carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. They wanted to bring him inside and lay him in front of Yeshua, ¹⁹ but they couldn’t find a way to get him in because of the crowd. So they went up onto the roof and lowered him on his mattress through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, right in front of Yeshua. ²⁰ When Yeshua saw their trust, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” ²¹ The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim began thinking, “Who is this fellow that speaks such blasphemies? Who can forgive sin except God?” ²² But Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, answered, “Why are you turning over such thoughts in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven you’? or ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralytic, “I say to you: get up, pick up your mattress and go home!” ²⁵ Immediately, in front of everyone, he stood up, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. ²⁶ Amazement seized them all, and they made a b’rakhah to God; they were awestruck, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

²⁷ Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; and he said to him, “Follow me!” ²⁸ He got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹ Levi gave a banquet at his house in Yeshua’s honor, and there was a large group of tax-collectors and others at the table with them. ³⁰ The P’rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?” ³¹ It was Yeshua who answered them: “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. ³² I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but rather to call sinners to turn to God from their sins.”

³³ Next they said to him, “Yochanan’s talmidim are always fasting and davvening, and likewise the talmidim of the P’rushim; but yours go on eating and drinking.” ³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them? ³⁵ The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; and when that time comes, they will fast.” ³⁶ Then he gave them an illustration: “No one tears a piece from a new coat and puts it on an old one; if he does, not only will the new one continue to rip, but the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ Also, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and be spilled, and the skins too will be ruined. ³⁸ On the contrary, new wine must be put into freshly prepared wineskins. ³⁹ Besides that, after drinking old wine, people don’t want new; because they say, ‘The old is good enough.’”

6 One Shabbat, while Yeshua was passing through some wheat fields, his talmidim began plucking the heads of grain, rubbing them between their hands and eating the seeds. ² Some of the P’rushim said, “Why are you violating Shabbat?” ³ Yeshua answered them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the House of God and took and ate the Bread of the Presence” — which no one is permitted to eat but the cohanim. ⁵ “The Son of Man,” he concluded, “is Lord of Shabbat.”

⁶ On another Shabbat, when Yeshua had gone into the synagogue and was teaching, a man was there who had a shriveled hand. ⁷ The Torah-teachers and P’rushim watched Yeshua carefully to see if he would heal on Shabbat, so that they could accuse him of something. ⁸ But he knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Come up and stand where we can see you!” He got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Yeshua said to them, “I ask you now: what is permitted on Shabbat? Doing good or doing evil? Saving life or destroying it?” ¹⁰ Then, after looking around at all of them, he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” As he held it out, his hand was restored. ¹¹ But the others were filled with fury and began discussing with each other what they could do to Yeshua.

¹² It was around that time that Yeshua went out to the hill country to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. ¹³ When day came, he called his talmidim and chose from among them twelve to be known as emissaries:

¹⁴ Shim‘on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya‘akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai;

¹⁵ Mattityahu; T’oma; Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai;

¹⁶ Shim‘on, the one called the Zealot; Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov; and Y’hudah from K’riot, who turned traitor.

¹⁷ Then he came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his talmidim was there with great numbers of people from all Y’hudah, Yerushalayim and the coast around Tzor and Tzidon; they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases. ¹⁸ Those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being healed; ¹⁹ and the whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power kept going out from him, healing everyone. ²⁰ He looked at his talmidim and said:

²² “How blessed you are whenever people hate you and ostracize you and insult you and denounce you as a criminal on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Be glad when that happens; yes, dance for joy! because in heaven your reward is great. For that is just how their fathers treated the prophets.

²⁶ “Woe to you when people speak well of you, for that is just how their fathers treated the false prophets!

²⁷ Nevertheless, to you who are listening, what I say is this:

³¹ “Treat other people as you would like them to treat you. ³² What credit is it to you if you love only those who love you? Why, even sinners love those who love them. ³³ What credit is it to you if you do good only to those who do good to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ What credit is it to you if you lend only to those who you expect will pay you back? Even sinners lend to each other, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing back! Your reward will be great, and you will be children of Ha‘Elyon; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶ Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.

the full measure, compacted, shaken together and overflowing, will be put right in your lap. For the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure back to you!”

³⁹ He also told them a parable: “Can one blind man lead another blind man? Won’t they both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A talmid is not above his rabbi; but each one, when he is fully trained, will be like his rabbi. ⁴¹ So why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the splinter from your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!

⁴³ “For no good tree produces bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit — figs aren’t picked from thorn bushes, nor grapes from a briar patch. ⁴⁵ The good person produces good things from the store of good in his heart, while the evil person produces evil things from the store of evil in his heart. For his mouth speaks what overflows from his heart.

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ but not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me, hears my words and acts on them — I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like someone building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the torrent beat against that house but couldn’t shake it, because it was constructed well. ⁴⁹ And whoever hears my words but doesn’t act on them is like someone who built his house on the ground without any foundation. As soon as the river struck it, it collapsed and that house became a horrendous wreck!”