Sunday 20 September 2015
File under 'Well said' VIII
“Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company”
― Booker T. Washington
― Booker T. Washington
Mark10-16 New American Bible
10)He set out from there and went into the district of Judea [and] across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them.
2
* The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him.a
3
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
4
They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.”b
5
But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.
6
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.c
7
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife],d
8
and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
9
Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
10
In the house the disciples again questioned him about this.
11
e He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her;
12
and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Blessing of the Children.
13
f And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.g
14
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15
Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child* will not enter it.”h
16
Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
The Rich Man.
17
i As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good?* No one is good but God alone.
19
You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’”j
20
He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”
21
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
22
At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
23
* Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”k
24
The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25
It is easier for a camel to pass through [the] eye of [a] needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”
27
Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”
28
Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.”
29
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
30
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
31
But many that are first will be last, and [the] last will be first.”l
The Third Prediction of the Passion.
32
m They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
33
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
34
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”
Ambition of James and John.
35
n Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
36
He replied, “What do you wish [me] to do for you?”
37
They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
38
* o Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
39
They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
40
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
42
* Jesus summoned them and said to them,p “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
43
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
44
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
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.”
The Blind Bartimaeus.*
46
They came to Jericho.q And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.
47
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
48
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
49
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.”
50
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
51
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
52
Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
11)1
When they drew near to Jerusalem,a to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
2
and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
3
If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ reply, ‘The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.’”
4
So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it.
5
Some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
6
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.
7
So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it.
8
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
9
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:b
“Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
10
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11
He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve.c
Jesus Curses a Fig Tree.*
12
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.d
13
Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs.
14
And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it.
Cleansing of the Temple.*
15
They came to Jerusalem,e and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.
16
He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.
17
Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written:
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’?
But you have made it a den of thieves.”f
18
The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
19
When evening came, they went out of the city.g
The Withered Fig Tree.
20
h Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.
21
Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God.
23
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.i
24
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.j
25
When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”k
26
*
The Authority of Jesus Questioned.*
27
They returned once more to Jerusalem.l As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him
28
and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?”
29
Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30
Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”
31
They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘[Then] why did you not believe him?’
32
But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.
33
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
12) 1
He began to speak to them in parables.a “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.b
2
At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
3
But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
4
Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
5
He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
6
He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
7
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8
So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9
What [then] will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.
10
Have you not read this scripture passage:c
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes’?”
12
They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.
Paying Taxes to the Emperor.
13
* They sent some Phariseesd and Herodians to him to ensnare hime in his speech.*
14
They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?”
15
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.”
16
They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
17
So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were utterly amazed at him.f
The Question about the Resurrection.*
18
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him,
19
saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’g
20
Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
21
So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise.
22
And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died.
23
At the resurrection [when they arise] whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.”
24
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?
25
When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.
26
As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, [the] God of Isaac, and [the] God of Jacob’?h
27
He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”
The Greatest Commandment.*
28
One of the scribes,i when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
29
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
30
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’j
31
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”k
32
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
33
And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”l
34
And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.m
The Question about David’s Son.*
35
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,n “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?
36
David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said:
‘The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.”’o
37
David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight.
Denunciation of the Scribes.*
38
In the course of his teaching he said,p “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces,
39
seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.
40
They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”
The Poor Widow’s Contribution.*
41
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.q Many rich people put in large sums.
42
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.
43
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.
44
For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
13)1
As he was making his way out of the temple area one of his disciples said to him, “Look, teacher, what stones and what buildings!”a
2
Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The Signs of the End.
3
* As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple area, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,b
4
“Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end?”
5
Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one deceives you.c
6
Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will deceive many.
7
When you hear of wars and reports of wars do not be alarmed; such things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.
8
Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes from place to place and there will be famines. These are the beginnings of the labor pains.
The Coming Persecution.
9
d “Watch out for yourselves. They will hand you over to the courts. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will be arraigned before governors and kings because of me, as a witness before them.
10
But the gospel must first be preached to all nations.*
11
When they lead you away and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say.e But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the holy Spirit.
12
Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
13
You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
The Great Tribulation.
14
f “When you see the desolating abomination standing* where he should not (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,g
15
[and] a person on a housetop must not go down or enter to get anything out of his house,h
16
and a person in a field must not return to get his cloak.
17
Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days.
18
Pray that this does not happen in winter.
19
For those times will have tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of God’s creation until now, nor ever will be.i
20
If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did shorten the days.
21
If anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.
22
False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.
23
Be watchful! I have told it all to you beforehand.
The Coming of the Son of Man.
24
j “But in those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,k
25
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26
* l And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory,
27
and then he will send out the angels and gather [his] elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree.
28
m “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.
29
In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.
30
Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.
31
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Need for Watchfulness.
32
“But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
33
n Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.
34
It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.o
35
Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
36
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
37
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
14)1
* The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread* were to take place in two days’ time.a So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
2
They said, “Not during the festival, for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”
The Anointing at Bethany.*
3
When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper,b a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
4
There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
5
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her.
6
Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me.
7
The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me.
8
She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
9
Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
The Betrayal by Judas.
10
c Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
11
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
Preparations for the Passover.
12
d On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,* his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
13
He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water.* Follow him.
14
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’
15
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
16
The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
The Betrayer.
17
e When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
18
* And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”
19
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, “Surely it is not I?”
20
He said to them, “One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
21
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,* but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper.
22
* While they were eating,f he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.”
23
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24
He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed* for many.
25
Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26
Then, after singing a hymn,* they went out to the Mount of Olives.g
Peter’s Denial Foretold.*
27
Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.’h
28
But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.”
29
Peter said to him, “Even though all should have their faith shaken, mine will not be.”
30
Then Jesus said to him, “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.”
31
But he vehemently replied, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all spoke similarly.
The Agony in the Garden.
32
* Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,i and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”j
33
He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed.
34
Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.”
35
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
36
he said, “Abba, Father,* all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”
37
When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
38
* Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.k The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
39
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
40
Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him.
41
He returned a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
42
Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus.
43
l Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.
44
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, “The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely.”
45
He came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him.
46
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
47
One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.
48
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me?
49
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the scriptures may be fulfilled.”
50
And they all left him and fled.
51
Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him,
52
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
53
* m They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
54
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
55
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none.
56
Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.
57
* Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging,
58
“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’”n
59
Even so their testimony did not agree.
60
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?”
61
* But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?”
62
Then Jesus answered, “I am; and
‘you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”o
63
At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses?
64
You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as deserving to die.
65
Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards greeted him with blows.p
Peter’s Denial of Jesus.
66
q While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along.
67
Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”
68
* But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. [Then the cock crowed.]
69
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”
70
Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”
71
He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”
72
And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.r
15)1
a As soon as morning came,b the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council.* They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
2
Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”* He said to him in reply, “You say so.”
3
The chief priests accused him of many things.
4
Again Pilate questioned him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of.”
5
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
The Sentence of Death.*
6
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested.c
7
A man called Barabbas* was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
8
The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed.
9
Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”
10
For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.
11
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
12
Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what [do you want] me to do with [the man you call] the king of the Jews?”
13
* They shouted again, “Crucify him.”
14
Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”
15
* So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
Mockery by the Soldiers.
16
* d The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
17
They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
18
They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
19
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage.
20
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.
The Way of the Cross.
21
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian,* who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.e
The Crucifixion.
22
f They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).
23
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
24
* g Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
25
It was nine o’clock in the morning* when they crucified him.
26
* The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
27
With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.h
28
*
29
* Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,i “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
30
save yourself by coming down from the cross.”
31
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.
32
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.j
The Death of Jesus.
33
At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
34
And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”* which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”k
35
* Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.”
36
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”
37
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
38
* The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
39
* l When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40
* There were also women looking on from a distance.m Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
41
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
The Burial of Jesus.
42
n When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath,
43
Joseph of Arimathea,* a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
44
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died.
45
And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
46
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
47
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.
16)1
When the sabbath was over,a Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.b
2
Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.
3
They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
4
When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.
5
On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed.c
6
He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.
7
But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”d
8
Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The Appearance to Mary Magdalene. [
9
e When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
10
f She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
11
When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
The Appearance to Two Disciples.
12
g After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country.
13
They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.
The Commissioning of the Eleven.
14
h [But] later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.
15
i He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
17
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.
18
They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”j
The Ascension of Jesus.
19
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.k
20
But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.]l
2
* The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him.a
3
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
4
They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.”b
5
But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.
6
But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.c
7
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife],d
8
and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
9
Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
10
In the house the disciples again questioned him about this.
11
e He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her;
12
and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Blessing of the Children.
13
f And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.g
14
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15
Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child* will not enter it.”h
16
Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
The Rich Man.
17
i As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good?* No one is good but God alone.
19
You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’”j
20
He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”
21
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
22
At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
23
* Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”k
24
The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25
It is easier for a camel to pass through [the] eye of [a] needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”
27
Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”
28
Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.”
29
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
30
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
31
But many that are first will be last, and [the] last will be first.”l
The Third Prediction of the Passion.
32
m They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
33
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
34
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”
Ambition of James and John.
35
n Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
36
He replied, “What do you wish [me] to do for you?”
37
They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
38
* o Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
39
They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
40
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
42
* Jesus summoned them and said to them,p “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
43
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
44
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
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.”
The Blind Bartimaeus.*
46
They came to Jericho.q And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.
47
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
48
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
49
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.”
50
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
51
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
52
Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
11)1
When they drew near to Jerusalem,a to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
2
and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.
3
If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ reply, ‘The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.’”
4
So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it.
5
Some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
6
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.
7
So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it.
8
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
9
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:b
“Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
10
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11
He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve.c
Jesus Curses a Fig Tree.*
12
The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.d
13
Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs.
14
And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it.
Cleansing of the Temple.*
15
They came to Jerusalem,e and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.
16
He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area.
17
Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written:
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’?
But you have made it a den of thieves.”f
18
The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.
19
When evening came, they went out of the city.g
The Withered Fig Tree.
20
h Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots.
21
Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God.
23
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.i
24
Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.j
25
When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.”k
26
*
The Authority of Jesus Questioned.*
27
They returned once more to Jerusalem.l As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him
28
and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?”
29
Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30
Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”
31
They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘[Then] why did you not believe him?’
32
But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet.
33
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
12) 1
He began to speak to them in parables.a “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.b
2
At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
3
But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
4
Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
5
He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
6
He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
7
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
8
So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9
What [then] will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.
10
Have you not read this scripture passage:c
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes’?”
12
They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.
Paying Taxes to the Emperor.
13
* They sent some Phariseesd and Herodians to him to ensnare hime in his speech.*
14
They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?”
15
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.”
16
They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They replied to him, “Caesar’s.”
17
So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were utterly amazed at him.f
The Question about the Resurrection.*
18
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him,
19
saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’g
20
Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
21
So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise.
22
And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died.
23
At the resurrection [when they arise] whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.”
24
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?
25
When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.
26
As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, [the] God of Isaac, and [the] God of Jacob’?h
27
He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”
The Greatest Commandment.*
28
One of the scribes,i when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”
29
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
30
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’j
31
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”k
32
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’
33
And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”l
34
And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.m
The Question about David’s Son.*
35
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,n “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?
36
David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said:
‘The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.”’o
37
David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight.
Denunciation of the Scribes.*
38
In the course of his teaching he said,p “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces,
39
seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.
40
They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”
The Poor Widow’s Contribution.*
41
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.q Many rich people put in large sums.
42
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.
43
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.
44
For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
13)1
As he was making his way out of the temple area one of his disciples said to him, “Look, teacher, what stones and what buildings!”a
2
Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down.”
The Signs of the End.
3
* As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple area, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,b
4
“Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end?”
5
Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one deceives you.c
6
Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will deceive many.
7
When you hear of wars and reports of wars do not be alarmed; such things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.
8
Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes from place to place and there will be famines. These are the beginnings of the labor pains.
The Coming Persecution.
9
d “Watch out for yourselves. They will hand you over to the courts. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will be arraigned before governors and kings because of me, as a witness before them.
10
But the gospel must first be preached to all nations.*
11
When they lead you away and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say.e But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the holy Spirit.
12
Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
13
You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
The Great Tribulation.
14
f “When you see the desolating abomination standing* where he should not (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,g
15
[and] a person on a housetop must not go down or enter to get anything out of his house,h
16
and a person in a field must not return to get his cloak.
17
Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days.
18
Pray that this does not happen in winter.
19
For those times will have tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of God’s creation until now, nor ever will be.i
20
If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did shorten the days.
21
If anyone says to you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.
22
False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.
23
Be watchful! I have told it all to you beforehand.
The Coming of the Son of Man.
24
j “But in those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,k
25
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26
* l And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory,
27
and then he will send out the angels and gather [his] elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree.
28
m “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.
29
In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.
30
Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.
31
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Need for Watchfulness.
32
“But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
33
n Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.
34
It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.o
35
Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
36
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
37
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
14)1
* The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread* were to take place in two days’ time.a So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
2
They said, “Not during the festival, for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”
The Anointing at Bethany.*
3
When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper,b a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
4
There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
5
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her.
6
Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me.
7
The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me.
8
She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
9
Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
The Betrayal by Judas.
10
c Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
11
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
Preparations for the Passover.
12
d On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,* his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
13
He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water.* Follow him.
14
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’
15
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
16
The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
The Betrayer.
17
e When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
18
* And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”
19
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, “Surely it is not I?”
20
He said to them, “One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
21
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,* but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper.
22
* While they were eating,f he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.”
23
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24
He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed* for many.
25
Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26
Then, after singing a hymn,* they went out to the Mount of Olives.g
Peter’s Denial Foretold.*
27
Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.’h
28
But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.”
29
Peter said to him, “Even though all should have their faith shaken, mine will not be.”
30
Then Jesus said to him, “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.”
31
But he vehemently replied, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all spoke similarly.
The Agony in the Garden.
32
* Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,i and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”j
33
He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed.
34
Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.”
35
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
36
he said, “Abba, Father,* all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”
37
When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
38
* Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.k The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
39
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
40
Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him.
41
He returned a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
42
Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus.
43
l Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.
44
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, “The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely.”
45
He came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him.
46
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
47
One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.
48
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me?
49
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the scriptures may be fulfilled.”
50
And they all left him and fled.
51
Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him,
52
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
Jesus before the Sanhedrin.
53
* m They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
54
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
55
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none.
56
Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.
57
* Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging,
58
“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’”n
59
Even so their testimony did not agree.
60
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?”
61
* But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?”
62
Then Jesus answered, “I am; and
‘you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”o
63
At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses?
64
You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as deserving to die.
65
Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards greeted him with blows.p
Peter’s Denial of Jesus.
66
q While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along.
67
Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”
68
* But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. [Then the cock crowed.]
69
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”
70
Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”
71
He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”
72
And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.r
15)1
a As soon as morning came,b the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council.* They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
2
Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”* He said to him in reply, “You say so.”
3
The chief priests accused him of many things.
4
Again Pilate questioned him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of.”
5
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
The Sentence of Death.*
6
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested.c
7
A man called Barabbas* was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
8
The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed.
9
Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”
10
For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.
11
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
12
Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what [do you want] me to do with [the man you call] the king of the Jews?”
13
* They shouted again, “Crucify him.”
14
Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”
15
* So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
Mockery by the Soldiers.
16
* d The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
17
They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
18
They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
19
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage.
20
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.
The Way of the Cross.
21
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian,* who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.e
The Crucifixion.
22
f They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).
23
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
24
* g Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
25
It was nine o’clock in the morning* when they crucified him.
26
* The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
27
With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.h
28
*
29
* Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,i “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
30
save yourself by coming down from the cross.”
31
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.
32
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.j
The Death of Jesus.
33
At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
34
And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”* which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”k
35
* Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.”
36
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.”
37
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
38
* The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
39
* l When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40
* There were also women looking on from a distance.m Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
41
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
The Burial of Jesus.
42
n When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath,
43
Joseph of Arimathea,* a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
44
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died.
45
And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
46
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
47
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.
16)1
When the sabbath was over,a Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.b
2
Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.
3
They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”
4
When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.
5
On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed.c
6
He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.
7
But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”d
8
Then they went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
The Appearance to Mary Magdalene. [
9
e When he had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons.
10
f She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
11
When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
The Appearance to Two Disciples.
12
g After this he appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country.
13
They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.
The Commissioning of the Eleven.
14
h [But] later, as the eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.
15
i He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
17
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.
18
They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”j
The Ascension of Jesus.
19
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.k
20
But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.]l
What the science says v what some scientists say.
Fossils Don't Lie: Why Darwinism Is False
Coyne goes on to discuss several "transitional" forms. "One of our best examples of an evolutionary transition," he writes, is the fossil record of whales, "since we have a chronologically ordered series of fossils, perhaps a lineage of ancestors and descendants, showing their movement from land to water."9
"The sequence begins," Coyne writes, "with the recently discovered fossil of a close relative of whales, a raccoon-sized animal called Indohyus. Living 48 million years ago, Indohyus was... probably very close to what the whale ancestor looked like." In the next paragraph, Coyne writes, "Indohyus was not the ancestor of whales, but was almost certainly its cousin. But if we go back 4 million more years, to 52 million years ago, we see what might well be that ancestor. It is a fossil skull from a wolf-sized creature called Pakicetus, which is bit more whalelike than Indohyus." On the page separating these two paragraphs is a figure captioned "Transitional forms in the evolution of modern whales," which shows Indohyus as the first in the series and Pakicetus as the second.10
But Pakicetus--as Coyne just told us--is 4 million years older than Indohyus. To a Darwinist, this doesn't matter: Pakicetus is "more whalelike" than Indohyus, so it must fall between Indohyus and modern whales, regardless of the fossil evidence.
(Coyne performs the same trick with fossils that are supposedly ancestral to modern birds. The textbook icon Archaeopteryx, with feathered wings like a modern bird but teeth and a tail like a reptile, is dated at 145 million years. But what Coyne calls the "nonflying feathered dinosaur fossils"--which should have come before Archaeopteryx--are tens of millions of years younger. Like Darwinists Kevin Padian and Luis Chiappe eleven years earlier, Coyne simply rearranges the evidence to fit Darwinian theory.)11
So much for Coyne's prediction that "later species should have traits that make them look like the descendants of earlier ones." And so much for his argument that "if evolution were not true, fossils would not occur in an order that makes evolutionary sense." Ignoring the facts he himself has just presented, Coyne brazenly concludes: "When we find transitional forms, they occur in the fossil record precisely where they should." If Coyne's book were turned into a movie, this scene might feature Chico Marx saying, "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"12
There is another problem with the whale series (and every other series of fossils) that Coyne fails to address: No species in the series could possibly be the ancestor of any other, because all of them possess characteristics they would first have to lose before evolving into a subsequent form. This is why the scientific literature typically shows each species branching off a supposed lineage.
In the figure below, all the lines are hypothetical. The diagram on the left is a representation of evolutionary theory: Species A is ancestral to B, which is ancestral to C, which is ancestral to D, which is ancestral to E. But the diagram on the right is a better representation of the evidence: Species A, B, C and D are not in the actual lineage leading to E, which remains unknown.
It turns out that no series of fossils can provide evidence for Darwinian descent with modification. Even in the case of living species, buried remains cannot generally be used to establish ancestor-descendant relationships. Imagine finding two human skeletons in the same grave, one about thirty years older than the other. Was the older individual the parent of the younger? Without written genealogical records and identifying marks (or in some cases DNA), it is impossible to answer the question. And in this case we would be dealing with two skeletons from the same species that are only a generation apart and from the same location. With fossils from different species that are now extinct, and widely separated in time and space, there is no way to establish that one is the ancestor of another--no matter how many transitional fossils we find.
In 1978, Gareth Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History wrote: "The idea that one can go to the fossil record and expect to empirically recover an ancestor-descendant sequence, be it of species, genera, families, or whatever, has been, and continues to be, a pernicious illusion."13Nature science writer Henry Gee wrote in 1999 that "no fossil is buried with its birth certificate." When we call new fossil discoveries "missing links," it is "as if the chain of ancestry and descent were a real object for our contemplation, and not what it really is: a completely human invention created after the fact, shaped to accord with human prejudices." Gee concluded: "To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story--amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific."14
Next time, I'll address Coyne's mistakes on embryos.
Notes
9 Coyne, Why Evolution Is True, p. 48.
10 Coyne, Why Evolution Is True, pp. 49-51.
11 Kevin Padian & Luis M. Chiappe, "The origin and early evolution of birds," Biological Reviews 73 (1998): 1-42. Available online (2009) here.
Wells, Icons of Evolution, pp. 119-122.
12 Coyne, Why Evolution Is True, pp. 25, 53.
Chico Marx in Duck Soup (Paramount Pictures, 1933). This and other Marx Brothers quotations are available online (2009) here.
13 Gareth Nelson, "Presentation to the American Museum of Natural History (1969)," in David M. Williams & Malte C. Ebach, "The reform of palaeontology and the rise of biogeography--25 years after 'ontogeny, phylogeny, palaeontology and the biogenetic law' (Nelson, 1978)," Journal of Biogeography 31 (2004): 685-712.
14 Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time. New York: Free Press, 1999, pp. 5, 32, 113-117.
Jonathan Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006). More information available online (2009) here.
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