1    2   Full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan, and for forty days was led by the Spirit up and down the wilderness and tempted by the devil.

All that time he had nothing to eat, and at the end of it he was famished. 3   The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ 4   Jesus answered, ‘Scripture says, “Man cannot live on bread alone.”’

5   Next the devil led him up and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world. 6   ‘All this dominion will I give to you,’ he said, ‘and the glory that goes with it; for it has been put in my hands and I can give it to anyone I choose. 7   You have only to do homage to me and it shall all be yours.’ 8   Jesus answered him, ‘Scripture says, “You shall do homage to the Lord your God and worship him alone.”’

9   The devil took him to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself

The coming of Christ down; 10   for Scripture says, “He will give his angels orders to take care of you”, 11   and again, “They will support you in their arms for fear you should strike your foot against a stone.”’ 12   Jesus answered him, ‘It has been said, “You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.”’

13   So, having come to the end of all his temptations, the devil departed, biding his time.

In Galilee: success and opposition

14   Then Jesus, armed with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee; and reports about him spread through the whole countryside. 15   He taught in their synagogues and all men sang his praises.

16   So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went to synagogue on the Sabbath day as he regularly did. He stood up 17   to read the lesson and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the scroll and found the passage which says,

18   ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me;
he has sent me to announce good news to the poor,
to proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind;
to let the broken victims go free,
19   to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.’

20   He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

21   He began to speak: ‘Today’, he said, ‘in your very hearing this text has come true.’ ^note 22   There was a general stir of admiration; they were surprised that words of such grace should fall from his lips. 23   ‘Is not this Joseph's son?’ they asked. Then Jesus said, ‘No doubt you will quote the proverb to me, “Physician, heal yourself!”, and say, “We have heard of all your doings at Capernaum; do the same here in your own home town.” 24   I tell you this,’ he went on: ‘no prophet is recognized in his own country. 25   There were many widows in Israel, you may be sure, in Elijah's time, when for three years and six months the skies never opened, and famine lay hard over the whole country; 26   yet it was to none of those that Elijah was sent, but to a widow at Sarepta in the territory of Sidon. 27   Again, in the time

In Galilee: success and opposition of the prophet Elisha there were many lepers in Israel, and not one of them was healed, but only Naaman, the Syrian.’ 28   At these words the whole congregation were infuriated. 29   They leapt up, threw him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which it was built, meaning to hurl him over the edge. 30   But he walked straight through them all, and went away.

31   Coming down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, he taught the people on the Sabbath, 32   and they were astounded at his teaching, for what he said had the note of authority. 33   Now there was a man in the synagogue possessed by a devil, an unclean spirit. He shrieked at the top of his voice, 34   ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you ^note come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’ 35   Jesus rebuked him: ‘Be silent’, he said, ‘and come out of him.’ Then the devil, after throwing the man down in front of the people, left him without doing him any injury. 36   Amazement fell on them all and they said to one another: ‘What is there in this man's words? He gives orders to the unclean spirits with authority and power, and out they go.’ 37   So the news spread, and he was the talk of the whole district.

38   On leaving the synagogue he went to Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a high fever; and they asked him to help her. 39   He came and stood over her and rebuked the fever. It left her, and she got up at once and waited on them.

40   At sunset all who had friends suffering from one disease or another brought them to him; and he laid his hands on them one by one and cured them. 41   Devils also came out of many of them, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them and forbade them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah.

42   When day broke he went out and made his way to a lonely spot. But the people went in search of him, and when they came to where he was they pressed him not to leave them. 43   But he said, ‘I must give the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do.’ 44   So he proclaimed the Gospel in the synagogues of Judaea. ^note

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