New Testament in a Year
How John the Baptist Was Killed(A)
14 At that time Herod, the ·ruler of Galilee [L tetrarch; see Luke 3:1], heard the reports about Jesus. 2 So he said to his servants, “·Jesus [L This] is John the Baptist, who has risen from the dead. That is why ·he can work these miracles [L miraculous powers are at work in him].”
3 ·Sometime before this, [L For] Herod had arrested John, ·tied him up [chained/bound him], and put him into prison. Herod did this because of Herodias, who had been the wife of Philip, Herod’s brother. 4 [L For] John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to ·be married to Herodias [have her].” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the ·people [crowd], because they ·believed John was [regarded John as] a prophet.
6 On Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod and his guests, and she [greatly] pleased him. 7 So he ·promised [announced] with ·an oath [a vow] to give her anything she ·wanted [asked]. 8 ·Herodias told her daughter what to ask for, so [At her mother’s urging/prompting] she said to Herod, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 9 Although King Herod was very ·sad [sorry; grieved; distressed], he had made a ·promise [vow; oath], and his dinner guests had heard him. So Herod ·ordered [commanded] that what she asked for be done. 10 He sent soldiers to the prison to cut off John’s head. 11 And they brought it on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother. 12 John’s ·followers [disciples] came and got his ·body [corpse] and buried it. Then they went and ·told [reported it to] Jesus.
More than Five Thousand Fed(B)
13 When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a ·lonely [isolated; deserted] place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he ·arrived [landed; came ashore], he saw a great crowd waiting. He ·felt sorry [had compassion] for them and healed those who were sick.
15 When it was evening, his ·followers [disciples] came to him and said, “·No one lives in this [This is a remote/deserted] place, and it is already late. Send the people away so they can go to the ·towns [villages] and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 They said to him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”
18 Jesus said, “Bring ·the bread and the fish [L them here] to me.” 19 Then he ·told [commanded; ordered] the people to ·sit down [recline] on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking to heaven, he ·thanked God for [blessed] the food. Jesus ·divided [broke] the bread and gave it to his ·followers [disciples], who gave it to the people. 20 All the people ate and were satisfied. Then ·the followers [L they] filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of food. 21 There were about five thousand men there who ate, not counting women and children.
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