The Gospels

by Sarah Ruden

  because they will be called ‘sons of god.’*31

  10 Happy are those hounded for the sake of justice,

  because theirs is the kingdom of the skies.

  11 “Happy are you when they insult you and hound you and say every kind of malicious thing about you [falsely] because of me. 12 Grow giddy with joy, because your wages in the skies will be generous. This, you see, is how they hounded the prophets who came before you.

  13 “You are the salt—not of the sea, but of the land; but if salt loses its bite and is dulled and dumbed down, what are you going to use to salt it with?*32 It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and stamped under people’s feet.

  14 “You are the light of the universe. A city lying on a hilltop can’t be kept hidden! 15 People don’t light a lamp and put it under a basket, but rather on a lamp-stand, and it gives light to everybody in the house. 16 In this way, let your light shine before people’s faces, so that they see the good things you do and glorify your father who is in the skies.

  17 “Don’t set me down as having come to annihilate the law or the prophets.*33 I haven’t come to annihilate but to fulfill. 18 Amēn I’m telling you: until the sky and the earth pass away, not a single dot or a single hook in the letters will pass out of the law, not until everything has been done.*34 19 Whoever nullifies a single one of these commands, even one of the least important, and teaches other people to do the same, he’ll be called the least important in the kingdom of the skies. But whoever carries out the commands and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the skies.*35

  20 “Hence I tell you that unless your lawfulness excels that of the scholars and the Farisaioi, you will never enter into the kingdom of the skies.

  21 “You’ve heard what was said to the people of ancient times: ‘You are not to commit murder’;*36 whoever commits a murder will be liable to be convicted. 22 But I say to you that anyone who’s angry with his brother will be liable to be convicted. And whoever says to his brother ‘Raka!’*37 will be liable to the high council,*38 and whoever says, ‘You imbecile!’ will be liable to ge’enna with its fires.*39 23 So if you’re presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there, in front of the altar, and get out. First be reconciled with your brother, and then come back and present your offering. 25 Rush to be gracious toward your adversary at law, while you’re with him on the way to court, or the adversary may just turn you over to the judge, and the judge to the bailiff, and you could be thrown into prison. 26 Amēn amēn I’m telling you: you’d never get out of there until you paid every last quadrans you owe.*40

  27 “You’ve heard that it was said: ‘You are not to violate marriage.’ 28 But I say to you that every man who looks at someone else’s wife with a willful craving has already violated marriage with her in his heart.*41 29 If your right eye sets a trap for you, pull it out and throw it away from you. It’s better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into ge’enna.*42 30 And if your right hand sets a trap for you, cut it off and throw it away from you. It’s better to lose one part of your body so that the whole of your body doesn’t go to ge’enna.*43

  31 “It was said: ‘Whoever wants to let his wife go must give her a written notice of putting her away.’ 32 But I say to you that any man who lets his wife go, except on the grounds that she’s whoring, makes her violate marriage, and whoever marries a woman let go by her husband violates marriage.*44

  33 “Again, you’ve heard what was said to the people of ancient times: you are not to violate your oath: you are to fulfill your oaths to the lord. 34 But I tell you not to take oaths at all: not by the sky, since it’s god’s throne, 35 and not by the earth, since it’s a foot-rest for his feet; and not by Hierosoluma, since it’s the city of the great king;*45 36 nor should you take an oath by your own head, because you can’t make a single one of your own hairs white or black. 37 Let the pledge you give be a repeated ‘Yes,’ or ‘No.’*46 Anything beyond this comes from the malicious one.*47

  38 “You’ve heard what was said: ‘An eye in exchange for an eye,’ and ‘A tooth in exchange for a tooth.’*48 39 But I tell you not to face off against someone malicious. Instead, if anyone slaps you on [your] right cheek, turn the other cheek to him as well.*49 40 And if someone wants to take you to court and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.*50 41 And if anybody commandeers you as a porter for a mile, get going with him for two.*51 42 If someone asks you for something, give it to him, and if someone wants to borrow from you, don’t turn away from him.*52

  43 You have heard what was said: ‘You are to love the one next to you,’ and you are to hate your enemy.*53 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who hound you and make cases against you, 45 so that you become sons of your father in the skies, because he causes his sun to rise over the malicious and the upstanding alike, and he sends rain to the lawful and the unlawful. 46 If you simply love those who love you, what reward will you get? Don’t even the tax-collectors do the same thing?*54 47 And if you welcome only your brothers, what’s extraordinary in what you’re doing? Don’t those in the other nations do the same thing? 48 So be what you were meant to be, be complete, as your father in the sky is complete!”*55

  Chapter 6

  1 “[But] take care not to perform your righteousness in front of people, to create a spectacle for them. If you do this, you don’t get any reward from your father in the skies. 2 When you make a merciful gift,*56 don’t have a trumpet blasted ahead of you, as those play-actors do in the synagogues and the streets, to cadge praise from people. Amēn I’m telling you: they have their full payment. 3 No, when you make a merciful gift, don’t even let your “better” hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 That way, your gift will be made in secret, and your father, who sees in secret, will give you the payment that’s due.

  5 “And when you pray, don’t be like those play-actors who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners to pray, on display to people. Amēn I tell you: they have their full payment. 6 When you pray, go into your storeroom and lock your door,*57 and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will pay you in full.

  7 “When you pray, don’t burble on and on as the people of other nations do, who think they’ll get a hearing because of the sheer amount of their talk:*58 8 so don’t be like them! Your father does know the things you need, even before you ask him.

  9 “So this is the way for you to pray:

  ‘Our father in the skies,

  Let your name be spoken in holiness.

  10 Let your kingdom arrive.

  Let what you want happen

  On the earth, as in the sky.

  11 Give us today tomorrow’s loaf of bread,*59

  12 And free us from our debts,

  As we too have set our debtors free.

  13 And don’t bring us into the ordeal—*60

  No, rescue us from the malicious one.’*61

  14 “If, then, you set other people free from their blunders, your father in the sky will set you free too. 15 But if you don’t set other people free, your father won’t let your blunders go either.

  16 “And when you fast, don’t be like those play-actors with their scowling faces, who make their faces unrecognizable—so that people recognize that they’re fasting.*62 Amēn I’m telling you: they have their full payment. 17 When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that people don’t recognize that you’re fasting; but your father who’s in private will; and your father who sees in private will pay you in full.

  19 “Don’t hoard up your hoards on earth, where moths and rust ruin them and robbers break in and rob you of them. 20 Hoard up your hoards in the sky, where moths and rust don’t ruin anything, and where robbers don’t break
in and rob. 21 Where your hoard is, there your heart will be as well.*63

  22 “The eye is the body’s lamp. If your eye is sound, then the whole of your body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, the whole of your body will be in darkness. If, then, the light in you is the same as darkness, what a great darkness that must be!*64

  24 “No one can be a slave of two masters. Either he’ll hate one and love the other, or he’ll be devoted to the one and show contempt for the other.*65 You can’t be a slave to both god and mamōnas.*66

  25 “Because of this, I say to you: don’t worry about your life, as to what you’ll have to eat [or what you’ll have to drink], or about your body, as to what you’ll have to clothe it. Isn’t life a greater thing than food, and the body a greater thing than clothing? 26 Take a good look at the birds in the sky: they don’t sow seed or reap grain or gather it into barns; but your father in the sky feeds them. Aren’t you worth far more than they are? 27 Which one of you, through his worries, can add one whole cubit to his height?*67 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Observe and learn from the lilies in the field, and how beautifully they grow. They don’t exhaust themselves spinning thread. 29 But I tell you that not even Solomōn*68 in all his glory was dressed as well as one of these flowers.*69 30 This is the field’s greenery: today it exists, and tomorrow it’s tossed into the oven, but god clothes it this way. Won’t he much more certainly clothe you, though you have so little trust? 31 So don’t worry, don’t ask “What are we going to eat?” or “What are we going to drink?” or “What are we going to wear?” 32 All these things are what the other nations chase after. Your father in the sky knows that you need all these things. 33 First go after [god’s] kingdom and his way of doing what is right, and all these other things will be given to you as well. 34 So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Today’s aggravation is plenty for today.”

  Chapter 7

  1 “Don’t pass judgment, and judgment won’t be passed on you. 2 The very verdict you give will be the verdict given on you, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.*70 3 Why are you looking at a speck of straw in your brother’s eye, but not noticing the log in your own? 4 Or how are you going to say to your brother, ‘Just let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when, look, there’s a log in your own eye? 5 You play-actor, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you’ll be able to see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

  6 “Don’t give a holy thing to dogs, and don’t throw down your pearls in front of pigs, in case they trample them under their trotters, turn on you, and rip you to pieces.*71

  7 “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you’ll find, knock on the door, and it will be opened to you. 8 Everyone who asks gets, and every seeker finds, and the door will be opened to whoever knocks. 9 Or is there anyone among you who, when his son asks him for a loaf of bread, would present him with a rock? 10 Or if the son asks for a fish to eat, would the father present him with a snake?*72 11 So if you all, worthless as you are, know how to give valuable gifts to your children, how much more certainly will your father in the skies give things of value to those who ask him!

  12 “So the whole sum of things you want people to do for you—that’s what you must do for them. This is what the law and the prophets amount to.*73

  13 “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gaping gate and the roomy road are the ones leading away to destruction, and there are plenty of people going in through that gate. 14 That’s because the gate that leads into life is narrow, and the road there is full of crushing hardship,*74 so there are few who find life.

  15 “Be on the lookout for pretend prophets, who come to you disguised as sheep, whereas underneath they’re wolves who plunder the flock. 16 You’ll find out who they are by the harvests they yield. You can’t gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles, can you? 17 Thus every high-quality tree produces good fruit, but a low-quality tree produces worthless fruit. 18 A high-quality tree can’t produce worthless fruit, and a low-quality tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 By the harvests they yield, then, you’ll recognize who people are.

  21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will come into the kingdom of the skies; no, it will only be the person who carries out the will of my father in the skies. 22 Many people will say to me on that day, ‘Lord! Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name, and expel trouble-making spirits in your name, and perform many powerful acts in your name?’ 23 And then I’ll declare to them: ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, because what you’ve been working at is criminal.’

  24 “Whoever hears these things I’m saying and puts them into practice can be compared to a shrewd man who built his house on solid rock. 25 Then the rain came down, and the rivers in flood encroached, and the winds blew and fell violently on the house, but the house didn’t fall, because it was founded on rock. 26 But whoever hears these things I’m saying and doesn’t put them into practice can be compared to a stupid man, who built his house on sand. 27 Then the rain came down, and the rivers in flood encroached, and the winds blew and struck against that house, and it fell, and its fall was a massive one.”*75

  28 And it happened that, when Iēsous finished saying these things, the crowds were dumbfounded at his teaching. 29 In teaching them, in fact, he was like someone with genuine authority, and not like their scholars.

  Chapter 8

  1 After he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. 2 And look, a leper approached him and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if you want to, you can cleanse me.” 3 And Iēsous held out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do want to. Be cleansed!” and right away his leprosy was cleansed away. 4 Then Iēsous said to him, “See that you tell no one, but get going and show yourself to the priest and make the offering Mōüsēs set out in the law, as proof for them.”*76

  5 When he came to Kafarnaoum, a centurion approached him and pleaded with him, 6 saying, “Sir, my boy*77 is lying in the house paralyzed, in terrible torment.” 7 And Iēsous said to him, “I’ll come in person and heal him.” 8 But the centurion answered by saying, “Sir, I’m not a fit person to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my boy will be healed. 9 I do know this because I myself am a person deployed under other people’s authority, and I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Get on the road!’ and he gets on the road, and to another, ‘Come here!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 When Iēsous heard, he was amazed, and said to his followers, “Amēn I tell you, I haven’t found this much trust in anyone in Israēl. 11 But I’m telling you that many people will come from as far as the places where the sun rises and where it sets, and they’ll recline at the table with Abraam and Isaak and Iakōb in the kingdom of the skies, 12 while the kingdom’s sons will be thrown out into the darkness—far out; in that place there’ll be crying and grinding of teeth in pain.” 13 And Iēsous told the centurion: “Be on your way. It’s to be done for you as you trusted it would.” And [his] slave boy was healed within that hour.*78

  14 And coming into Petros’ home, Iēsous saw his mother-in-law lying ill with a burning fever, 15 and he grasped her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and proceeded to wait on him.*79

  16 When it was evening, they brought him many people possessed by demons, and he expelled the spirits by the spoken word, and he healed everyone who was unwell, 17 for the fulfillment of what was spoken through Ēsaïas the prophet, who said:

  “He took on our infirmities,

  And shouldered our diseases.”*80

  18 But Iēsous, seeing a large crowd around him, gave an order to go away to the opposite shore. 19 But a scholar approached and said to him, “Teacher, I’ll follow you wherever you go.” 20 But Iēsous said to him, “Foxes have dens, and the bir
ds of the sky have shelters, but the son of mankind has nowhere to lay his head down.”*81 21 Another of [his] students said to him, “Give me permission to go back and bury my father first.” 22 But Iēsous said to him, “Follow me and leave the dead to bury their dead.”*82

  23 Now as he boarded the boat, his students followed him. 24 But look, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was wrapped in waves, but he himself was sleeping. 25 Then they approached and woke him, saying, “Master, rescue us, we’re going under!” 26 But he said to them, “Why are you such cowards, you people with hardly any trust?” Then he got up and scolded the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men were amazed, saying, “What kind of person is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”

  28 Then he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarēnoi,*83 and two people possessed by demons came out from among the tombs and met him; they were excessively violent, to the extent that no one was strong enough to pass by on the road there. 29 And look, they yelled out, saying, “What’s your business with us, son of god? Have you come here to torture us before our time?” 30 Now there was, far off from them, a large herd of pigs, grazing. 31 The demons pleaded with him, saying, “If you expel us, send us into that herd of pigs.” 32 And he told them, “Get out!” And once they’d come out, they went into the pigs; but look, the entire herd barreled down the crag and died in the water. 33 The herders ran off, and when they reached the city they gave news of everything, including what had happened to the men possessed by demons. 34 And look, the whole city came out to meet Iēsous, and when they saw him they pleaded for him to leave their district.

  Chapter 9

  1 Then, boarding a boat, he crossed over and went to his hometown.