Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the desert to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 But Jesus answered, “It is written: A person does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and stood him on the highest point of the temple.[1] 6 “If you are God’s Son,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
‘He will give his angels orders about you, and they will lift you up on their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
8 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve him alone.”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and took care of him.
12 When Jesus heard that John had been handed over, he went back to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum, beside the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations — [2] 16 the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, and on those sitting in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
17 From that time on, Jesus began to proclaim, “Change your hearts, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[3]
18 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers — Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, because they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I will make you fishers of people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers — James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread through all Syria, and people brought to him all who were suffering — those afflicted with various diseases and pains, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed — and he healed them.[4] 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region beyond the Jordan.[5]
Notes
Note 1. The Greek πτερύγιον means literally a “little wing” or tip — the exact spot is not certain. Tradition places it at the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount, which stood high above the Kidron valley below, though the text names no precise structure. ↩
Note 2. The quotation adapts Isaiah 9:1–2. In its original setting Isaiah speaks of a region first humbled and later honored, and “Galilee of the nations” (literally “Galilee of the Gentiles”) points to its mixed, partly non-Jewish population. ↩
Note 3. The Greek is metanoeite — from meta (change) + nous (mind): to change one’s mind. It stands close to the Hebrew shuv, to turn around and go the other way, so it means a practical about-face and not mere regret. We render it “change your heart” throughout, so that the same call in Matthew, Mark and Luke reads the same way in English as it does in Greek. ↩
Note 4. The Greek word here, seleniazomenous, means literally “moon-struck” — from selene, the moon. Ancient people linked such fits to the moon’s influence, and the same root gives us the English word “lunatic.” The condition was not separated from what we would now call epilepsy, and was often thought to have a divine or demonic cause. ↩
Note 5. The Decapolis (“Ten Cities”) was a cluster of Greek-styled cities east and south of Galilee, formed after Rome’s conquest of the region in 63 BC. Surrounded by Jewish, Aramean, and Nabatean populations, they kept a distinctly Hellenistic culture. ↩