One day there is again a great crowd without anything to eat. He calls his students and says to them — I am worried for the crowd, because they have stayed near me for three days already, and they do not have anything to eat. If I send them away to their own homes without eating, some of them will be lost on the way; some of them have come from far away.

His students answer him — From where could these be fed bread, here in an empty place?

— How many [loaves of] bread do we have? he asks.

— Seven, they say.

He passes the word to sit down on the ground, and takes the seven [loaves of] bread and gives thanks. He breaks [them] and gives [them] to his students to serve, and they serve the crowd. He has a few little fish, and giving praise, he says — Serve these also.

And they eat and are fed, and they pick up seven bags of scraps. They are around four thousand. He dismisses them. Then getting on the boat with his students, he goes to [their] part of the anchorage.

The Separatists come out and begin to investigate him. They seek a sign from the sky regarding him, and they test him. Sighing in his æther, he says — Why does this kindred seek a sign? Amen I say to you, if this kindred were given a sign…

He leaves them and boards the boat again, and he goes away to the other side. They have forgotten to bring bread, and only have one [loaf of] bread in the boat with them. He admonishes them, saying — Pay attention, and look away from the yeast of the Separatists, and the yeast of Herod.

They discuss amongst themselves [the fact] that they have no bread. Knowing [this], he says to them — Why are you discussing [the fact] that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive, nor grasp [this]? Do you have calcified hearts? Having eyes, do you not see, and having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember when I broke the five [loaves of] bread with the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps you picked up?

— Twelve, they say to him.

— And the seven [loaves] with the four thousand, how many bags of scraps did you pick up?

And they say to him — Seven.

He says to them — Do you not yet grasp it?

He goes to Beth-Tsaida. They bring to him a blind [person], and beg him to grasp him. Taking the blind one’s hand, he leads him outside the village, spits in his eyes, lays his hands on him, and asks him — Do you see anything?

He looks up and says — I see people, for I see [things] like trees walking around.

Again he lays his hands on his eyes. Staring, he is restored, and sees everything shining. And he sends him to his house, saying — Do not go into the village.

Yoshua and his students go out to the area of Caesareia of Philippos, and on the way he questions his students, saying to them — Who do people say I am? They tell him, saying — Yohanan the abluter, others Elias, and others one of the prophets.

— But you, he asks, who do you say I am?

Petros says to him in response — You are the Chosen One.

He orders them not to speak about him.

He begins to teach them that it is necessary for the Human One to endure much, and be convicted by the elders and the archpriests and the scholars, and be killed, and after three days awaken.

He speaks freely. Petros takes him aside and begins to admonish him. But he turns and looks at his students, and admonishes Petros, and says — Get behind me, Accuser, because you are not considering the [things] of God, but [things] of humans.

He calls the crowd [together] with his students, and he says to them — If [any]one wishes to follow me, they must deny themselves, and set up the stake of their [impalement], and follow me.

— Whoever wishes to save their own self will destroy it, but whoever destroys their self because of me and the Welcome Message will save it. For how does it help a person to gain the whole cosmos but be made to lose their self? What payment [could] a person give for their self?

Whoever is ashamed of me and my ideas among this unfaithful and failing kindred, the Human One will be ashamed of when he comes with his father’s acknowledgement and the sacred messengers.

— Amen, he says, I say to you that there are some standing here who will indeed not taste death until they see the kingdom of God coming in power.

Chapter 9

[There] come from Yerushalem Separatists and some of the scholars, [who] gather [near] him, and see that some of his students are eating bread with debased, that is, unwashed, hands (for the Separatists, and all the Youdaians, if they have not washed their hands and fists, do not eat, [keeping] firmly the heritage of the elders. If they come from the public square but do not sprinkle [themselves], they do not eat. There are many other things which they have received and cling to: ablution of wine-cups, sextarius [measures], and coppers). The Separatists and the scribes inquire of him — Why do your students not walk according to the heritage of the elders, but eat bread with debased hands?

— Well did Esias prophesize about you hypocrites, he says to them. As it is written, ‘This people honors me with [their] lips, but their hearts keep far away from me. They flaunt insincere awe of me, teaching as [divine] teachings human demands.’ Rejecting the demands of God, you [cling] firmly to the heritage of humans.

He says to them — Indeed you disregard the demands of God so that you may preserve your heritage. For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Who speaks evil of father or mother will end in death.’ But you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Whatever help you would have had from me is Korban (that is, Donated [to God]),”’ then you excuse them to never do anything for father or mother, disregarding the Idea of God in [favor of] your heritage, which you promulgate. You do many things like this.

Calling the crowd together again, he says to them — Listen to me all, and [keep up] with me. There is nothing outside a person that can, going in, debase them. Rather, the things coming out are those that debase a person.

When he goes into a house away from the crowd, his students ask him [about] the analogy. He says to them — Are you thus witless also? Do you not understand that anything from outside going into a person cannot debase them, because it does not go into the heart, but into the gut, and goes out into the toilet — cleansing all food?

— What goes out of a person, he says, that is what debases the person. For out of the hearts of humans comes bad judgement, whoring, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malevolence, trickery, violence, the evil eye, blasphemy, arrogance, and thoughtlessness. All these evil things come from inside and debase a person.

Up from there he goes to the territory of Tyros. He goes into a house; he wishes no one to know, but he is unable to escape notice. Then a woman whose daughter has an unclean æther, hearing about him, comes and falls at his feet. The woman is a Hellene, from a Tyro-Phonecian family, and she asks him to dispel the influence from her daughter.

He says to her — Let [my] boys be fed first, for it is not worthy to take bread from the boys and throw it to the canines¹.

She responds — Sir, the canines under the table will eat from the kids’ crumbs.

— For this [reassurance], he says to her, carry on, the influence has gone out of your daughter.

She goes away to her house, and she finds the child collapsed on the bed, the influence gone out.

He goes away again from the territory of Tyros, and he goes through Sidon to the lake of Galilaia, through the middle of the territory of the Decapolis. They bring to him [one] deaf and mute, and beg him to lay his hand on him.

He takes him away from the crowd by himself. He claps his fingers to his ears, spits, and grasps his tongue. He looks up to the sky, breathes, and and says to him — Ethpthakh! That is — Be opened!

And his hearing is opened, and the obstruction of his tongue is loosed, and he speaks correctly. He orders them not to speak, but as much as he orders them, they preach much more. They are struck beyond measure, saying — He does everything well, and he makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!

Chapter 8

He goes away from there, and comes to his own region, and his students follow him. Come Shabbat, he begins to teach in the synagogue, and the many, hearing, are struck, saying — From where [did] these things [come] to this [one], and what wisdom [is] given to this [one], that these kinds of deeds by his hands came about? Is this not the laborer, the son of Maryam, and the brother of Yaakov and Yoses and Youdas and Shimon? And are not his sisters here before us? They are confused by him.

Yoshua says to them — A prophet is not without honor, except in his homeland, among his kin, and in his house. And he is unable to exercise any abilities there, except, laying his hands on a few sick [people], he attends to them. He is amazed at their distrust.

He goes in a circuit around the villages teaching. He calls the Twelve to him, and begins sending them out by twos, giving them authority over the unclean æthers. He sends them with [orders] to take nothing on the way, except a [walking] stick: no bread, no bag, no copper in the belt; but to strap on sandals, and not to carry [more than one] tunic.

And he says to them — Wherever you go into a house, stay there until you leave. And whatever place does not accept you or listen to you, when you leave, shake out the dust from under your feet as proof to them.

They go out, and they preach reconceptualization, and dispel many influences, and rub olive oil on many sick [people], and attend to them.

Herod the king hears [about these things], for his name has become prominent, and he says — Yohanan the abluter has risen from [among] the dead, and because of this, these abilities [are at] work in him.

Others say he is Elias, and others say a prophet from among the prophets, but Herod, hearing, says — Yohanan, whom I beheaded, this one is [him] risen. For Herod himself had ordered Yohanan seized and guarded because of Herodias, the woman of Phillipos his brother, because he married her. Yohanan had said to Herod — It is not permitted for you to have your brother’s woman.

Herodias held it [against] him, and wished to kill him, but was unable. For Herod was afraid of Yohanan, knowing him [to be] an upright and sacred man, and kept him [safe], and listened to him regarding many things, and he heard him with pleasure.

[There] came a timely day, when Herod on his [ancestor’s] birthday had a dinner for his courtiers and his captains, and the prominent [men] of Galilaia. The daughter of Herodias herself, coming in and dancing, pleased Herod and those reclining with him. The king said to the little girl — Ask me whatever you wish, and I will give it to you. He swore to her — Whatever you ask me I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.

She went out, and said to her mother — What should I ask? And she said — The head of Yohanan the abluter.

Then coming swiftly before the king she begged — I wish you would at once give me on a platter the head of Yohanan the abluter. Becoming grieved, the king, because of that by which he swore, and those reclining [to dine], did not wish to disregard her. Then the king sent a guard, and ordered [him] to bring his head.

He went out and beheaded him in the guardhouse, and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the little girl, and the little girl gave it to her mother. Hearing [this], his students came and took his fallen [body] and put it in a tomb.

So the envoys gather before Yoshua, and report to him all that they did and what they taught. And he says to them — Come here by yourselves to an empty place and pause a little.

For there are many coming and going, and they have no good time to eat. So they go away in the boat to an empty place by themselves. They see them going, and many observing them also run there on foot, from all the cities, and come to them.

Getting out, he sees the great crowd, and is impassioned for them, because they are like livestock without a herder, and he begins to teach them many things.

[After] a long time his students come before him and say — This is an empty place, and already much time [has passed]; release them, so they [can] go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

— You give them [something] to eat, he responds.

They say to him — We should go spend two hundred denarii on bread and give [it] to them to eat?

He says to them — How much bread do we have? Go and see. They find out: five [loaves], and two fish.

He directs them all to rest, party by party, on the green meadow. They sit, row by row, in fifties and hundreds.

He takes the five loaves and the two fish, and he looks up to the sky and gives praise, and breaks the loaves and gives them to his students to set before them, and the two fish he distributes to all. And they eat everything, and are fed, and they pick up twelve baskets full of scraps, apart from the fish. Those who eat the bread are five thousand men.

Then he makes his students get in the boat and go across to the other side near Beth-Tsaida, while he sends the crowd away. Withdrawing from them he goes away to the hill to pray. Come evening, the boat is in the middle of the lake, but he is alone on land. He sees their progress is difficult, for the wind is against them. Around the fourth watch of the night he comes near them, walking on the lake, but he wishes to go by them.

They see him walking on the lake, and they consider it an apparition, and cry out, for they all see him and are alarmed. Then he speaks to them, and says to them — Courage! It is me; don’t be afraid.

He goes up to them in the boat, and the wind weakens. They are greatly disturbed among themselves, for they have not taken in the [matter of the] bread, and their hearts are calcified. Crossing over, they come to land at Gennesareth, and anchor near there.

When he gets out of the boat, then they recognize him, and run around the whole of that region and begin to carry around on pallets those with illnesses, to where they hear that he is. And wherever he goes, either in villages or cities or farms, they lay the sick [ones] in the public squares, and beg him [to allow] them to touch even the edge of his cloak, and those who touch him are rescued.

Chapter 7

He goes to the other side of the lake, to the area of the Gerasenoi. Then, when he gets out of the boat, a person with an unclean æther, whose dwelling was in the mausoleums, comes to him from the tombs. Not even with chains can anyone ever bind him. Many times he has been bound with chains and manacles, but the chains he tears apart and the manacles he clashes, and no one has the strength to overpower him. He exists, all through night and day, in the mausoleums and the hills, croaking and cutting himself on the stones.

He sees Yoshua from a distance. He runs and worships him, and cries in a great voice — What have I to do with you, Yoshua, most mighty Divine One? I concede you [are] divine; do not try me!

He says to him — The unclean æther [shall] come out of [this] person. What is your name?

— Brigade is my name, for we are many. He begs him very much that he not send them away from that place. There was there on the hill a great herd of piglets feeding, and he begs him — Send us into the piglets, so we [can] enter into them. He fixes on them, and coming out, the foul æthers enter the piglets, and the herd rushes along the bank into the lake, about two thousand [of them], and drowns in the lake.

Those who tended them flee. They report [this] in the city and in the farms, and they come to see what has happened.

They come before Yoshua, and see the influenced [one] sitting clothed and of sound mind, the one who had posessed the Brigade, and they become afraid. Those who saw [it] describe what happened to the influenced one, and about the piglets. And they begin to beg him to go away from their borders.

[When] he gets in the boat, the influenced [one] begs to be with him. He does not allow him, but says to him — Go to your house, to your [people], and tell them how much the Master has done for you, and had mercy on you. So he goes away and begins preaching in the Decapolis how much Yoshua did for him. All are amazed.

Yoshua crosses over again in the boat to the other side. A large crowd gathers to him; he is by the lake. One of the leaders of the synagogue comes to him, Yaeiros by name, and seeing him, he falls at his feet and begs him very much, saying — My daughter is nearing her end; go lay your hands on her that she may be rescued and live. And he goes with him.

A large crowd follows him, and crowds him [close]. [There is] a woman, who has had a flow of blood for twelve years, enduring much under many physicians, spending all she had but never being helped, going deeper into hardship. Hearing about Yoshua, she comes [up] behind in the crowd, and [she] touches his cloak. For she says — If I touch even his cloak, I will be rescued.

Then her flow of blood dries up, and she knows in [her] body that her ordeal is cured. Then Yoshua, perceiving in himself capability expended, turns around in the crowd, and says — Who touched my cloak?

His students say to him — Do you see the crowd pressing you?

— Who touched me? He looks around to see who did it. The woman, trembling and afraid, knowing what has happened in her, comes and worships him, and tells him all the truth. And he says to her — Daughter, your trust has rescued you; go in peace, and be cured of your ordeal.

[As] he speaks, they come from the synagogue leader’s, saying — Your daughter died; why disturb the teacher any longer?

But Yoshua, hearing the message spoken, says to the synagogue leader — Do not fear, only trust. He allows no one to accompany him except Petros, Yaakov, and Yohanan the brother of Yaakov. He comes to the house of the synagogue leader, and perceives noise and much wailing and keening.

He goes in, and he says to them — Why are you making noise and wailing? The child has not died, but is sleeping. They mock him.

But throwing all [of them] out, he brings the child’s father and the mother, and those with him, and goes in to where the child is. Seizing the child’s hands, he says to her — Talitha qoum, that is in translation — Little girl, I say to you, ‘Wake up.’

Then the little girl wakes up and walks around. She is twelve years old.

Then they are greatly disturbed. He orders them strongly that no one know of this, and tells [them] to give her [something] to eat.

Chapter 6

Again he begins to teach beside the lake. A huge crowd is drawn to him, so that he boards a boat and is seated on the lake. All the crowd is on the land by the lake. He teaches them by many analogies, and says to them in his teaching:

— Listen! [Once] there was a sower who went out to sow. It happened in his sowing that some fell by the way, and birds came and ate them. Others fell on rocks where there was not much earth, and then sprang up, having no deep earth. Then the sun rose, and they were burned, having no roots, and whithered. And others fell into thorns, and the thorns rose up and stifled [them], and [they] gave no produce. But others fell on good earth, and bore fruit, growing and increasing, and bore thirty- and sixty- and a hundred-fold.

Whoever has ears to hear, listen.

When he is by himself, those around him, with the Twelve, ask about the analogy. He says to them — To you has been given the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to those [on the] outside all comes by analogy, so that looking, they look and do not see; hearing, they hear and do not listen; or they [would] turn and be acquitted. You do not recognize this analogy? How will you be made to understand any of them?

The sower sows the Idea. These are [those] by the road where the Idea is sown, and when they hear, then comes the Accuser and takes away the Idea that was sown in them. And these likewise are those sown on rocks, who when they hear the Idea, then grasp it with joy; however, having no roots in themselves, they are ephemeral. Come pressure or scrutiny because of the Idea, they founder. And others are those sown in the thorns; these are those who hear the Idea, but the cares of the Æon, and the deception of wealth, and ambition for the rest, enter in and stifle the Idea, and they become unfruitful. But those are they who are sown on good earth, who hear the Idea and receive it, and bear fruit, thirty- and sixty- and a hundred-fold.

— Why, he says to them, would a lamp be brought to place under a basket or under a bed, and not put on a stand? Nothing is hidden but to be revealed; neither became anything secret but to become apparent. If anyone has ears to hear, listen.

And he says to them — Watch [out] what you hear. In what measure you measure it will be measured and given to you. For to [those] who have, it will be given; from [those] who do not have, it will be taken away.

— The kingdom of God, he says, is as if a person casts a seed upon the earth, and sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, all unnoticed. By itself the earth bears fruit, first the husk, then the ear, then the grain filling the ear. When the grain is firm, then one sends out the scythe, because the harvest is ready.

— To what, he says, shall we compare the kingdom of God, and by what analogy shall we illuminate it? Like a mustard seed, which when sown on the earth is smaller than all the seeds on the earth, [but] when sown rises up and becomes greater than all the [other] herbs, and grows branches so great that all the birds of the sky can roost in its shade.

In many analogies like this he tells them the Idea, so they can hear. He does not speak to them except in analogies, but by himself to his own students he unravels everything.

That day, come evening, he says to them — Let us go across to the other side. He dismisses the crowd, and they retrieve him so he is in the boat, and other boats are with him. There comes a great windstorm, and the swells are breaking in the boat; it is heavily loaded. He is in the stern, sleeping on a pillow. They wake him — Teacher, does it not worry you that we are being destroyed?

He wakes, and scolds the wind, and says to the lake — Quiet, shut up! The wind weakens, and [there] comes a great calm. He says to them — What cowards! Do you not yet trust?

They fear a great fear, and say amongst themselves — Who is this, whom the wind and the lake obey?

Chapter 5

He goes in to a synagogue again, [where] there is a person with a shriveled hand. They observe whether he will attend to him on Shabbat, so they can accuse him. He says to the person with the dried-up hand — Come up to the center.

He says to them — Is it permitted, on Shabbat, to do good or to do evil? To save a life or to kill?

But they are silent.

Angry, he looks around. Angry at the calcification of their hearts, he says to the person — Stretch out your hand. And he stretches it out, and his hand is restored. Then the Separatists leave [and] conspire against him with the Herodians to destroy him.

Yoshua, with his students, goes back towards the lake. A very great number from Galilaia follow,

  and from Youdaia,

  from Yerushalem,

  from Idumaia,

  from across the Yordan,

  and around Tyros and Sidon.

a great number, hearing how much he does, they go to him.

He tells his students that a small boat [should] keep near him, because of the crowd, so they do not crush him. He has attended to so many, and those under the lash fall upon him to grasp him.

The foul æthers, when they see him, fall before him and shout — You are the Divine One! He admonishes them strongly not to make him known.

He goes up a mountain, and calls to him those whom he wishes, and they go up after him. He forms the Twelve to be with him, and to be sent to preach, and be authorized to dispel influences.

He forms the Twelve: he names Shimon “Petros”

  Yaakov [son] of Zebediyah and Yohanan the brother of Yaakov. He names them “Bnay Ra’ma,” that is, “Thunderers”

  Andreas

  Phillipos

  Bar-Tolmaios

  Matthias

  Thomas

  Yaakov [son] of Alphaios

  Thaddaios

  Shimon the Zealot

  Youdas the Sicarius, who will betray him.

He comes to a house, and again a crowd comes near, so that he cannot even eat bread. Hearing [this], those with him go out to seize him, and they carry him up out of it.

The scholars who have come down from Yerushalem say he posesses Ba’al Zevuv, and that [it is] by the source of influences that he dispels them.

Calling them before him, he speaks to them by analogy — How can the Accuser dispel the Accuser? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot be made to stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot be made to stand. If the Accuser rises up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can go in to the house of a strong [one] to ransack his furnishings without first binding the strong [one], and then ransacking his house.

— Amen I say to you that all human failures will be acquitted, and what blasphemies they blaspheme, but whoever blasphemes to the Sacred Æther, has no acquittal in the Æon, but is bound in the Æon by failure.

[This] because they said he has an unclean æther.

His mother and his siblings come [to him]. They stand outside, and send to summon him. Sitting around him is a crowd, and they tell him — Look, your mother and your siblings are outside seeking you. He answers — Who is my mother or my siblings? Looking at those seated in a circle around him, he says — Look: my mother and my siblings. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

Chapter 4

He goes to Kapernaoum again for a few days. They hear that he is in a house, and so many gather that there is no room, even in the door. He speaks to them the Idea.

There is borne to him a paralyzed [person], carried by four. Unable to get to him through the crowd, they uncover the roof where he is. They dismantle it, and they lower the mat the paralytic is lying on. Yoshua, seeing their trust, says to the paralytic — Kid, [you are] acquitted of your failures.

There are some scholars sitting there, assessing him in their hearts — Why does this one speak thus? He blasphemes: who can acquit of failure but the one God?

Then Yoshua perceives in his æther that they are thus assessing [him].

— Why do you assess these things in your hearts? What is easier, to say to a paralytic, ‘Your failures are acquitted,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? So that you see that the Human one has authority on the earth to acquit of failures — he says to the paralytic — To you I say ‘Get up, take your mat and go to your house.’ Then he gets up, picks up his mat, and leaves in front of everyone. All are unsettled. They acknowledge God —Never have we seen thus!

He goes out again by the lake. All the crowd comes to him, and he teaches them. As he goes, he sees Levi [son] of Alphaios sitting in the tax office, and says to him — Follow me. He rises and follows him.

When he reclines [to dine] in his house, many tax farmers and [moral] failures recline with Yoshua and his students — they being many — and they follow him. The scholars of the Separatist [party] see that he dines with failures and tax farmers. They say to his students — Why does he dine with tax farmers and failures?

Yoshua hears and says to them — [It is] not the healthy [who] need a physician, but the ill. I come not to call the successful, but the failures.

[Once] the students of Yohanan and the Separatists are detoxifying. They come to him and say to him — Why do Yohanan’s students and the Separatists detoxify, but your students do not?

Yoshua says to them — Can the groomsmen detoxify while the groom is with them? In the time the groom has with them, they cannot detoxify. But the days are coming when the groom will be taken away from them, and they will detoxify in that day.

—No one sews an unfulled patch on an old cloak; the new repair [would] separate from the old, and the tear become worse. No one pours new wine into old skins: the wine [would] burst the skin and both the wine and skin be ruined.

New wine in new skins.

[There] comes a Shabbat when he and his students are walking across farmland. On the way his students begin gathering ears of grain. The Separatists say to him — Do you see what they are doing on Shabbat which is not permitted?

He says to them — Did you never learn what Dawid did when he had a need, and was hungry, and those with him? How he went in to the house of God, to Avi-Athar the archpriest, and ate the ritual bread, which is not permitted to be eaten except by the priests, and gave [it] also to those who were with him?

Shabbat came about for humans, not humans for Shabbat. So the Human One is the master of Shabbat.

Chapter 3

The Origin of the Welcome Message of [the Divine] Yoshua, the Chosen One

[As told to Yohanan Marcus]

Lo, I send my messenger before thy face,
  which shall prepare thy way before thee.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness
  —Prepare ye the way of the Master;
      make his paths straight.

– Esias the Prophet¹

Comes now Yohanan the abluter, preaching in the wasteland an ablution of reconceptualization and acquittal of failure. All Youdaia and Yerushalem come out to him. They acknowledge all their failures. They are abluted by him in the Yordan river.

Yohanan is swathed in camel hair with a leather belt, and eats locusts and wild honey.

— There comes after me one more powerful than I, he preaches, for whom I am unfitted to bend and untie a sandal’s strap. I ablute in water; He will ablute you in the Sacred Æther.

One day Yoshua comes from Nazareth in Galilaia. He is abluted in the Yordan by Yohanan.

Then, rising from the water, he sees the skies splitting

  and the Æther

  like a dove

  settling on him.

And comes a voice from the sky — You are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased.

Then the Æther sweeps him out into the desert. He is in the desert forty days, tested by the Accuser. He is with the Living Creatures, and Messengers attend to him.

After Yohanan is arrested, Yoshua goes to Galilaia. He preaches the Welcome Message of God — Time is complete; the kingdom of God is near. Reconceptualize and trust the Welcome Message.

He walks along the lake of Galilaia. He sees Shimon and his brother Andreas casting into the lake, they being fishermen. — Come here, after me, Yoshua says to them. I will make you into fishers of people. So they leave their nets to follow him.

Ahead a little he sees Yaakov [son] of Zebediyah and Yohanan his brother in a boat, maintaining nets. He calls them. They leave their father Zebediyah in the boat with the [deck]hands, and they follow him.

Then they go to Kapernaoum. On Shabbat he teaches in the synagogue, and they are startled by his teaching: authoritative teaching, not like the scholars.

In the synagogue is a person with an unclean æther, who shouts — What have I to do with you, Yoshua the Nazarenos? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Sacred Divine One!

— Be muzzled! Yoshua admonishes him. Come out of him. The foul æther tears at him, and shouting a great shout, comes out of him.

All are so astounded, they ask one another — What is this new teaching, with authority to admonish the unclean aether, and it obeys?

So goes out the telling of him everywhere around Galilaia.

Then, leaving the synagogue, he goes with Yaakov and Yohanan to Shimon and Andreas’s house. Shimon’s mother-in-law is prostrate with a fever. They speak to him about her. Going to her, he wakes her, seizing her hands. The burning heat rushes from her, and she attends to them.

Come evening, at sunset, they bring before him all those in distress, and those [malevolently] influenced. The whole city gathers at the door, and he attends to many who have various ills and dispels many influences. He does not allow these influences to speak, for they have known him.

Very early in the morning, he rises. He goes out and away to an empty place, and prays there. Shimon and those with him seek him, and find him, and tell him — All are seeking you.

— Let us carry on to other towns elsewhere, he says to them, for me to preach there, because for this I came. So he goes through the whole of Galilaia, preaching in their synagogues and dispelling influences.

There comes to him a scabby [outcast] calling him and kneeling, who says to him — If you wish it, you are able to cleanse me

Impassioned, he stretches out his hand to grasp him. — I wish it. Be cleansed. Then the scabs leave him, and he is made clean.

Then, bellowing, he sends him away — Look, say nothing to anyone, but take yourself to show the priest, and bring what Moshe prescribed to prove your cleansing.

But he leaves and begins to preach very much and spread the Idea, so that he is unable to enter a city openly, but is out in the wasteland. They come before him from everywhere.

Chapter 2