Knox Bible

1

So he called his twelve disciples to him, and gave them authority to cast out unclean spirits, and to heal every kind of disease and infirmity.

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These are the names of the twelve apostles; first, Simon, also called Peter, then his brother Andrew,

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James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus,

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Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot, the traitor.✻

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These twelve Jesus sent out; but first gave them their instructions; Do not go, he said, into the walks of the Gentiles, or enter any city of Samaria;

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go rather to the lost sheep that belong to the house of Israel.

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And preach as you go, telling them, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils: give as you have received the gift, without payment.

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Do not provide gold or silver or copper to fill your purses,

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nor a wallet for the journey, no second coat, no spare shoes or staff; the labourer has a right to his maintenance.

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Whenever you enter a city or a village, find out who is worthy to be your host, and make your lodging there until you go away.

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When you enter this house, you are to wish it well;

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and so, if the house is worthy, your good wishes shall come down upon it; if unworthy, let them come back to you the way they went.

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And wherever they will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that city or that house;

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I promise you, it shall go less hard with the land of Sodom and Gomorrha at the day of judgement, than with that city.

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Remember, I am sending you out to be like sheep among wolves; you must be wary, then, as serpents, and yet innocent as doves.

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Do not put your trust in men; they will hand you over to courts of judgement, and scourge you in their synagogues;

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yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, so that you can bear witness before them, and before the Gentiles.

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Only, when they hand you over thus, do not consider anxiously what you are to say or how you are to say it; words will be given you when the time comes;

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it is not you who speak, it is the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you.

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Brothers will be given up to execution by their brothers, and children by their fathers; children will rise up against their parents and will compass their deaths,

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and you will be hated by all men because you bear my name; that man will be saved, who endures to the last.

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Only, if they persecute you in one city, take refuge in another; I promise you, the Son of Man will come, before your task with the cities of Israel is ended.

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A disciple is no better than his master, a servant than his lord;

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enough that the disciple should fare like his master, the servant like his lord. If they have cried Beelzebub at the master of the house, they will do it much more readily to the men of his household.

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Do not, then, be afraid of them. What is veiled will all be revealed, what is hidden will all be known;

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what I have said to you under cover of darkness, you are to utter in the light of day; what has been whispered in your ears, you are to proclaim on the house-tops.

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And there is no need to fear those who kill the body, but have no means of killing the soul; fear him more, who has the power to ruin body and soul in hell.

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Are not sparrows sold two for a penny? And yet it is impossible for one of them to fall to the ground without your heavenly Father’s will.

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And as for you, he takes every hair of your head into his reckoning.

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Do not be afraid, then; you count for more than a host of sparrows.

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And now, whoever acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven;

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and whoever disowns me before men, before my Father in heaven I too will disown him.

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Do not imagine that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace.

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I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter with her mother, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law;

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a man’s enemies will be the people of his own house.

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He is not worthy of me, that loves father or mother more; he is not worthy of me, that loves son or daughter more;

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he is not worthy of me, that does not take up his cross and follow me.

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He who secures✻ his own life will lose it; it is the man who loses his life for my sake that will secure it.

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He who gives you welcome, gives me welcome too; and he who gives me welcome gives welcome to him that sent me.

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He who gives a prophet the welcome due to a prophet shall receive the reward given to prophets; and he who gives a just man the welcome due to a just man shall receive the reward given to just men.

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And if a man gives so much as a draught of cold water to one of the least of these here, because he is a disciple of mine, I promise you, he shall not miss his reward.✻