The Life of Jesus

And Jesus said to them, `Through your want of faith; for verily I say to you, if ye may have faith as a grain of mustard, ye shall say to this mount, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you,

and this kind doth not go forth except in prayer and fasting.'

And while they are living in Galilee, Jesus said to them, `The Son of Man is about to be delivered up to the hands of men,

and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise,' and they were exceeding sorry.

And they having come to Capernaum, those receiving the didrachms came near to Peter, and said, `Your teacher--doth he not pay the didrachms?' He saith, `Yes.'

And when he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, `What thinkest thou, Simon? the kings of the earth--from whom do they receive custom or poll-tax? from their sons or from the strangers?'

Peter saith to him, `From the strangers.' Jesus said to him, `Then are the sons free;

but, that we may not cause them to stumble, having gone to the sea, cast a hook, and the fish that hath come up first take thou up, and having opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater, that having taken, give to them for me and thee.'

At that hour came the disciples near to Jesus, saying, `Who, now, is greater in the reign of the heavens?'

And Jesus having called near a child, did set him in the midst of them,

and said, `Verily I say to you, if ye may not be turned and become as the children, ye may not enter into the reign of the heavens;

whoever then may humble himself as this child, he is the greater in the reign of the heavens.

`And he who may receive one such child in my name, doth receive me,

and whoever may cause to stumble one of those little ones who are believing in me, it is better for him that a weighty millstone may be hanged upon his neck, and he may be sunk in the depth of the sea.

`Woe to the world from the stumbling-blocks! for there is a necessity for the stumbling-blocks to come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling-block doth come!

`And if thy hand or thy foot doth cause thee to stumble, cut them off and cast from thee; it is good for thee to enter into the life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast to the fire the age-during.

`And if thine eye doth cause thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast from thee; it is good for thee one-eyed to enter into the life, rather than having two eyes to be cast to the gehenna of the fire.

`Beware! --ye may not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their messengers in the heavens do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens,

for the Son of Man did come to save the lost.

`What think ye? if a man may have an hundred sheep, and there may go astray one of them, doth he not--having left the ninety-nine, having gone on the mountains--seek that which is gone astray?

and if it may come to pass that he doth find it, verily I say to you, that he doth rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that have not gone astray;

so it is not will in presence of your Father who is in the heavens, that one of these little ones may perish.

`And if thy brother may sin against thee, go and show him his fault between thee and him alone, if he may hear thee, thou didst gain thy brother;

and if he may not hear, take with thee yet one or two, that by the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may stand.

`And if he may not hear them, say it to the assembly, and if also the assembly he may not hear, let him be to thee as the heathen man and the tax-gatherer.