The Life of Jesus

and ye like to men waiting for their lord, when he shall return out of the wedding feasts, that he having come and knocked, immediately they may open to him.

`Happy those servants, whom the lord, having come, shall find watching; verily I say to you, that he will gird himself, and will cause them to recline (at meat), and having come near, will minister to them;

and if he may come in the second watch, and in the third watch he may come, and may find it so, happy are those servants.

`And this know, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief doth come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through;

and ye, then, become ye ready, because at the hour ye think not, the Son of Man doth come.'

And Peter said to him, `Sir, unto us this simile dost thou speak, or also unto all?'

And the Lord said, `Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the lord shall set over his household, to give in season the wheat measure?

Happy that servant, whom his lord, having come, shall find doing so;

truly I say to you, that over all his goods he will set him.

`And if that servant may say in his heart, My lord doth delay to come, and may begin to beat the men-servants and the maid-servants, to eat also, and to drink, and to be drunken;

the lord of that servant will come in a day in which he doth not look for him , and in an hour that he doth not know, and will cut him off, and his portion with the unfaithful he will appoint.

`And that servant, who having known his lord's will, and not having prepared, nor having gone according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes,

and he who, not having known, and having done things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few; and to every one to whom much was given, much shall be required from him; and to whom they did commit much, more abundantly they will ask of him.

`Fire I came to cast to the earth, and what will I if already it was kindled?

but I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I pressed till it may be completed!

`Think ye that peace I came to give in the earth? no, I say to you, but rather division;

for there shall be henceforth five in one house divided--three against two, and two against three;

a father shall be divided against a son, and a son against a father, a mother against a daughter, and a daughter against a mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.'

And he said also to the multitudes, `When ye may see the cloud rising from the west, immediately ye say, A shower doth come, and it is so;

and when--a south wind blowing, ye say, that there will be heat, and it is;

hypocrites! the face of the earth and of the heaven ye have known to make proof of, but this time--how do ye not make proof of it ?

`And why, also, of yourselves, judge ye not what is righteous?

for, as thou art going away with thy opponent to the ruler, in the way give diligence to be released from him, lest he may drag thee unto the judge, and the judge may deliver thee to the officer, and the officer may cast thee into prison;

I say to thee, thou mayest not come forth thence till even the last mite thou mayest give back.'

And there were present certain at that time, telling him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate did mingle with their sacrifices;