Knox Bible

1

Once, when he had found a place to pray in, one of his disciples said to him, after his prayer was over, Lord, teach us how to pray, as John did for his disciples.

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And he told them, When you pray, you are to say, Father, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;

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give us this day our daily bread;

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and forgive us our sins; we too forgive all those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation.

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Let us suppose that one of you has a friend, to whom he goes at dead of night, and asks him, Lend me three loaves of bread, neighbour;

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a friend of mine has turned in to me after a journey, and I have nothing to offer him.

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And suppose the other answers, from within doors, Do not put me to such trouble; the door is locked, my children and I are in bed; I cannot bestir myself to grant thy request.

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I tell you, even if he will not bestir himself to grant it out of friendship, shameless asking will make him rise and give his friend all that he needs.

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And I say the same to you; ask, and the gift will come, seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you.

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Everyone that asks, will receive, that seeks, will find, that knocks, will have the door opened to him.

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Among yourselves, if a father is asked by his son for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish?

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Or if he is asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

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Why then, if you, evil as you are, know well enough how to give your children what is good for them, is not your Father much more ready to give, from heaven, his gracious Spirit to those who ask him?✻

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✻ He had just cast out a devil, which was dumb; and no sooner had the devil gone out than the dumb man found speech. The multitudes were filled with amazement;

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but some of them said, It is through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, that he casts the devils out,

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while others, to put him to the test, would have him shew a sign out of heaven.

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But he could read their thoughts, and said to them, No kingdom can be at war with itself without being brought to desolation, one house falling upon another.

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And how do you suppose that Satan’s kingdom can stand firm if he is at war with himself, that you should accuse me of casting out devils through Beelzebub?

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Again, if it is through Beelzebub that I cast out devils, by what means do your own sons cast them out? It is for these, then, to pronounce judgement on you.

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But if, when I cast out devils, I do it through God’s power, then it must be that the kingdom of God has suddenly appeared among you.

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When a strong man, fully armed, mounts guard over his own palace, his goods are left in peace;

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but when a man comes who is stronger still, he will take away all the armour that bred such confidence, and divide among others the spoils of victory.

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He who is not with me, is against me; he who does not gather his store with me, scatters it abroad.

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The unclean spirit which has possessed a man, and then goes out of him, walks about the desert looking for a resting-place, and finds none; and it says, I will go back to my own dwelling, from which I came out.

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And it comes back, to find that dwelling swept out, and neatly set in order.

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Thereupon, it goes away and brings in seven other spirits more wicked than itself to bear it company, and together they enter in and settle down there; till the last state of that man is worse than the first.✻

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When he spoke thus, a woman in the multitude said to him aloud, Blessed is the womb that bore thee, the breast which thou hast sucked.

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And he answered, Shall we not say, Blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it?

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The multitudes gathered round him, and he began speaking to them thus; This is a wicked generation; it asks for a sign, and the only sign that will be given to it is the sign of the prophet Jonas.

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Jonas was the sign given to the men of Nineve; the sign given to this generation will be the Son of Man.

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The queen of the south will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgement, and will leave them without excuse; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

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The men of Nineve will rise up with this generation at the judgement, and will leave it without excuse; for they did penance when Jonas preached to them, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.✻

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Nobody lights a lamp, and then puts it away in a cellar or under a bushel measure; it is put on the lamp-stand, so that its light may be seen by all who come in.

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Thy body has the eye for its lamp; and if thy eye is clear, the whole of thy body will be lit up; when it is diseased, the whole of thy body will be in darkness.

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Take good care then, that this principle of light which is in thee is light, not darkness;

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then, if thy whole body is in the light, with no part of it in darkness, it will all be lit up as if by a bright lamp enlightening thee.

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At the time when he said this, one of the Pharisees invited him to his house for the mid-day meal; so he went in and sat down at table;

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the Pharisee meanwhile was inwardly surmising, why he had not washed before his meal.

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And the Lord said to him, You Pharisees are content to cleanse the outward part of cup and dish, while all within is running with avarice and wickedness.

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Fools, did not he who made the outward part make the inward too?

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Nay, you should give alms out of the store you have, and at once all that is yours becomes clean.

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Woe upon you, you Pharisees, that will award God his tithe, though it be of mint or rue or whatever herb you will, and leave on one side justice and the love of God; you do ill to forget one duty while you perform the other.

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Woe upon you, you Pharisees, for loving the first seats in the synagogues, and to have your hands kissed in the market-place;

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woe upon you, that are like hidden tombs which men walk over without knowing it.

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And here one of the lawyers answered him; Master, he said, in speaking thus thou art bringing us too into contempt.

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And he said, Woe upon you too, you lawyers, for loading men with packs too heavy to be borne, packs that you yourselves will not touch with one finger.

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Woe upon you, for building up the tombs of the prophets, the same prophets who were murdered by your fathers;

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sure witness that you approve what your fathers did, since you build tombs for the men they murdered.

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Whereupon the wisdom of God warns you, I will send my prophets and my apostles to them, and there will be some they will kill and persecute;

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so they will be answerable for all the blood of prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world,

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from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, who was killed between the altar and the temple; yes, I tell you, this generation will be held answerable for it.✻

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Woe upon you, you lawyers, for taking away with you the key of knowledge; you have neither entered yourselves, nor let others enter when they would.✻

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As he said all this to them, the scribes and Pharisees resolved to hunt him down mercilessly and to browbeat him with a multitude of questions.

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Thus they lay in wait for him, hoping to catch some word from his lips which would give them ground of accusation against him.