¹And it came to pass, while He was praying in a certain place, that when He ceased, one of his disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples."

²And He said to them, "When you may pray, say: 'Our Father in the heavens, your name should be hallowed; your kingdom should come; your will should be done, as in heaven, also upon the earth;

³give us each day our daily bread;

⁴and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone indebted to us; and may you not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.'"

⁵And He said to them, "Who among you will have a dear one, and will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Dear one, lend me three loaves,

⁶since a dear one of mine is come to me off a journey, and I have nothing which I will set before him';

⁷and he from within, answering, may say, 'Do not cause me trouble; the door has already been shut, and my children are with me in the bed; I am not able, having risen up, to give to you.'

⁸I say to you, even if he will not give to him, having risen up, because of his being a dear one, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give to him as many as he needs.

⁹And I myself say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone asking receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

¹¹Now which father among you will his son ask for bread, and he will surely not give him a stone; or if a fish, will he surely give him a serpent instead of a fish?

¹²Or also if he will ask for an egg, will he surely not give him a scorpion?

¹³Therefore if you yourselves, being evil, know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

¹⁴And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. Then it came to pass, the demon having gone out, the mute one spoke; and the crowds marveled.

¹⁵But some of them said, "By Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, He casts out the demons."

¹⁶And others, testing, were seeking from Him a sign from the skies.

¹⁷But He Himself, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom having been divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house falls against a house.

¹⁸Now if even the adversary is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say I am casting out the demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹Now if I myself cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? On account of this they themselves will be your judges.

²⁰But if I myself cast out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹When the strong man, having armed himself, may guard his own house, his possessions are in peace;

²²but when the one stronger than he, having come upon him, may overcome him, he takes away his complete armor in which he had trusted, and divides his plunder.

²³The one not being with Me is against Me, and the one not gathering with Me scatters.

²⁴When the unclean spirit is gone out from the man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and not finding any, then it says, 'I will return to my house from where I came out.'

²⁵And having come, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and ordered.

²⁶Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than itself, and having entered, they dwell there; and the last of that man becomes worse than the first."

²⁷Then it came to pass, while He was saying these things, that a woman from the crowd, having lifted up her voice, said to Him, "Blessed is the womb which had borne You, and the breasts at which You nursed."

²⁸But He Himself said, "Rather, blessed are those hearing the word of God and keeping it."

²⁹Now as the crowds were pressed together around Him, He began to say, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks after a sign, and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

³⁰For even as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, thus will the Son of Man also be to this generation.

³¹The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them; for she came from the ends of the land to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, greater than Solomon is here.

³²The Ninevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, greater than Jonah is here.

³³Now no one, having lit a lamp, sets it in a cellar, nor under the basket, but upon the lampstand, that those who enter in may see the light.

³⁴The lamp of your body is your eye. When therefore your eye may be clear, all your body also is light; but when it may be evil, your body also is dark.

³⁵Therefore take heed lest the light that is in you be darkness.

³⁶Therefore if your body is full of light, not having any part dark, it will be all light, as when the lamp may light you with its shining.

³⁷Then, while He was speaking, a certain Pharisee asked Him that He would dine with him; then when he had entered, He reclined.

³⁸And the Pharisee, when he had seen it, marveled that He did not first wash before the dinner.

³⁹Then the Lord said to him, "Now you yourselves, the Pharisees, cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but your inside is full of plundering and wickedness.

⁴⁰Fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside also?

⁴¹But give alms of the things being within, and behold, all things are clean to you.

⁴²But woe to you Pharisees, for you pay tithes of the mint and the rue and every herb, and you pass by the justice and the love of God; these things, however, it was necessary to do, and not to neglect those.

⁴³Woe to you, the Pharisees, for you love the first seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, stage-actors, for you are like the unmarked graves, and the men who are walking above do not know it."

⁴⁵And answering, one of the lawyers says to Him, "Teacher, saying these things you insult us also."

⁴⁶And He said, "Woe to you the lawyers also! For you burden the men with burdens heavy to bear, and yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, yet your fathers killed them.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses and you consent to the works of your fathers; for they themselves indeed killed them, but you yourselves build their monuments.

⁴⁹Because of this also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and sent ones, and some of them they will kill and will pursue,'

⁵⁰so that the blood of all the prophets which was poured out from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation,

⁵¹from the blood of Abel until the blood of Zechariah, the one who perished between the altar and the house. Yes, I say to you, it will be required of this generation.

⁵²Woe to you the lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those entering."

⁵³And from there, while He was now expressing these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began urgently to press upon Him and to make Him speak about many things,

⁵⁴watching Him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, so that they may accuse him.