Matthew 14-16

Matthew 14

¹At that time news of Jesus came to Herod the king;

²And he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist; he has come back from the dead, and so these powers are working in him.

³For Herod had taken John and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

⁴Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her.

⁵And he would have put him to death, but for his fear of the people, because in their eyes John was a prophet.

⁶But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias was dancing before them, and Herod was pleased with her.

⁷So he gave her his word with an oath to let her have whatever she might make request for.

⁸And she, at her mother's suggestion, said, Give me here on a plate the head of John the Baptist.

⁹And the king was sad; but because of his oaths and because of his guests, he gave the order for it to be given to her;

¹⁰And he sent and had John's head cut off in the prison.

¹¹And his head was put on a plate and given to the girl; and she took it to her mother.

¹²And his disciples came, and took up his body and put it in the earth; and they went and gave Jesus news of what had taken place.

¹³Now when it came to the ears of Jesus, he went away from there in a boat, to a waste place by himself: and the people hearing of it, went after him on foot from the towns.

¹⁴And he came out and saw a great number of people and he had pity on them, and made well those of them who were ill.

¹⁵And when evening had come, the disciples came to him, saying, This place is waste land, and the time is now past; send the people away so that they may go into the towns and get themselves food.

¹⁶But Jesus said to them, There is no need for them to go away; give them food yourselves.

¹⁷And they say to him, We have here but five cakes of bread and two fishes.

¹⁸And he said, Give them to me.

¹⁹And he gave orders for the people to be seated on the grass; and he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing, and made division of the food, and gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people.

²⁰And they all took of the food and had enough: and they took up twelve baskets full of broken bits which were not used.

²¹And those who had food were about five thousand men, in addition to women and children.

²²And straight away he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, till he had sent the people away.

²³And after he had sent the people away, he went up into the mountain by himself for prayer: and when evening was come, he was there by himself.

²⁴But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, and was troubled by the waves: for the wind was against them.

²⁵And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

²⁶And when they saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they gave cries of fear.

²⁷But straight away Jesus said to them, Take heart; it is I, have no fear.

²⁸And Peter, answering, said to him, Lord, if it is you, give me the order to come to you on the water.

²⁹And he said, Come. And Peter got out of the boat, and walking on the water, went to Jesus.

³⁰But when he saw the wind he was in fear and, starting to go down, he gave a cry, saying, Help, Lord.

³¹And straight away Jesus put out his hand and took a grip of him, and said to him, O man of little faith, why were you in doubt?

³²And when they had got into the boat, the wind went down.

³³And those who were in the boat gave him worship, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.

³⁴And when they had gone across, they came to land at Gennesaret.

³⁵And when the men of that place had news of him, they sent into all the country round about, and took to him all who were ill,

³⁶With the request that they might only put their hands on the edge of his robe: and all those who did so were made well.

Matthew 15

¹Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying,

²Why do your disciples go against the teaching of the fathers? for they take food with unwashed hands.

³And in answer he said to them, Why do you, yourselves, go against the word of God on account of the teaching which has been handed down to you?

⁴For God said, Give honour to your father and mother: and, He who says evil of father or mother will be put to death.

⁵But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is given to God;

⁶There is no need for him to give honour to his father. And you have made the word of God without effect because of your teaching.

⁷You false ones, well did Isaiah say of you,

⁸These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁹But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men.

¹⁰And he got the people together and said to them, Give ear, and let my words be clear to you:

¹¹Not that which goes into the mouth makes a man unclean, but that which comes out of the mouth.

¹²Then the disciples came and said to him, Did you see that the Pharisees were troubled when these words came to their ears?

¹³But he said in answer, Every plant which my Father in heaven has not put in the earth, will be taken up by the roots.

¹⁴Let them be: they are blind guides. And if a blind man is guiding a blind man, the two will go falling into a hole together.

¹⁵Then Peter said to him, Make the story clear to us.

¹⁶And he said, Are you, like them, still without wisdom?

¹⁷Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth goes on into the stomach, and is sent out as waste?

¹⁸But the things which come out of the mouth come from the heart; and they make a man unclean.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts, the taking of life, broken faith between the married, unclean desires of the flesh, taking of property, false witness, bitter words:

²⁰These are the things which make a man unclean; but to take food with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean.

²¹And Jesus went away from there into the country of Tyre and Sidon.

²²And a woman of Canaan came out from those parts, crying and saying, Have pity on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is greatly troubled with an unclean spirit.

²³But he gave her no answer. And his disciples came and said to him, Send her away, for she is crying after us.

²⁴But he made answer and said, I was sent only to the wandering sheep of the house of Israel.

²⁵But she came and gave him worship, saying, Help, Lord.

²⁶And he made answer and said, It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs.

²⁷But she said, Yes, Lord: but even the dogs take the bits from under their masters' table.

²⁸Then Jesus, answering, said to her, O woman, great is your faith: let your desire be done. And her daughter was made well from that hour.

²⁹And Jesus went from there and came to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and took his seat there.

³⁰And there came to him great numbers of people having with them those who were broken in body, or blind, or without voice, or wounded, or ill in any way, and a number of others; they put them down at his feet and he made them well:

³¹So that the people were full of wonder when they saw that those who had no voice were talking, the feeble were made strong, those whose bodies were broken had the power of walking, and the blind were able to see: and they gave glory to the God of Israel.

³²And Jesus got his disciples together and said, I have pity for the people, because they have now been with me three days and have no food: and I will not send them away without food, or they will have no strength for the journey.

³³And the disciples say to him, How may we get enough bread in a waste place, to give food to such a number of people?

³⁴And Jesus says to them, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes, and some small fishes.

³⁵Then he gave an order to the people to be seated on the earth,

³⁶And he took the seven cakes of bread and the fishes; and having given praise, he gave the broken bread to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people.

³⁷And they all took food, and had enough; and they took up of the broken bits, seven baskets full.

³⁸And there were four thousand men who took food, together with women and children.

³⁹And when he had sent the people away, he got into the boat, and came into the country of Magadan.

Matthew 16

¹And the Pharisees and Sadducees came and, testing him, made a request to him to give them a sign from heaven.

²But in answer he said to them, At nightfall you say, The weather will be good, for the sky is red.

³And in the morning, The weather will be bad today, for the sky is red and angry. You are able to see the face of heaven, but not the signs of the times.

⁴An evil and false generation is searching after a sign; and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. And he went away from them.

⁵And when the disciples came to the other side they had not taken thought to get bread.

⁶And Jesus said to them, Take care to have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

⁷And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, We took no bread.

⁸And Jesus, seeing it, said, O you of little faith, why are you reasoning among yourselves, because you have no bread?

⁹Do you still not see, or keep in mind the five cakes of bread of the five thousand, and the number of baskets you took up?

¹⁰Or the seven cakes of bread of the four thousand, and the number of baskets you took up?

¹¹How is it that you do not see that I was not talking to you about bread, but about keeping away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

¹²Then they saw that it was not the leaven of bread which he had in mind, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³Now when Jesus had come into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he said, questioning his disciples, Who do men say that the Son of man is?

¹⁴And they said, Some say, John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

¹⁵He says to them, But who do you say that I am?

¹⁶And Simon Peter made answer and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

¹⁷And Jesus made answer and said to him, A blessing on you, Simon Bar-jonah: because this knowledge has not come to you from flesh and blood, but from my Father in heaven.

¹⁸And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock will my church be based, and the doors of hell will not overcome it.

¹⁹I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever is fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven.

²⁰Then he gave orders to the disciples to give no man word that he was the Christ.

²¹From that time Jesus went on to make clear to his disciples how he would have to go up to Jerusalem, and undergo much at the hands of those in authority and the chief priests and scribes, and be put to death, and the third day come again from the dead.

²²And Peter, protesting, said to him, Be it far from you, Lord; it is impossible that this will come about.

²³But he, turning to Peter, said, Get out of my way, Satan: you are a danger to me because your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men.

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross, and come after me.

²⁵Because whoever has a desire to keep his life safe will have it taken from him; but whoever gives up his life because of me, will have it given back to him.

²⁶For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

²⁷For the Son of man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he will give to every man the reward of his works.

²⁸Truly I say to you, There are some of those here who will not have a taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.