Luke 4 Contemporary English Version

Jesus and the Devil

(Matthew 4.1-11; Mark 1.12,13)

4 When Jesus returned from the Jordan River, the power of the Holy Spirit was with him, and the Spirit led him into the desert. ²For 40 days Jesus was tested by the devil, and during that time he went without eating.^[a] When it was all over, he was hungry.

³The devil said to Jesus, “If you are God's Son, tell this stone to turn into bread.”

⁴^(A) Jesus answered, “The Scriptures say, ‘No one can live only on food.’ ”

⁵Then the devil led Jesus up to a high place and quickly showed him all the nations on earth. ⁶The devil said, “I will give all this power and glory to you. It has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷Just worship me, and you can have it all.”

⁸^(B) Jesus answered, “The Scriptures say:

‘Worship the Lord your God
and serve only him!’ ”

⁹Finally, the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and had him stand on top of the temple. The devil said, “If you are God's Son, jump off. ^10-11^(C) The Scriptures say:

‘God will tell his angels
    to take care of you.
They will catch you
    in their arms,
and you will not even hurt
    your feet on the stones.’ ”

¹²^(D) Jesus answered, “The Scriptures also say, ‘Don't try to test the Lord your God!’ ”

¹³After the devil had finished testing Jesus in every way possible, he left him for a while.

Jesus Begins His Work

(Matthew 4.12-17; Mark 1.14,15)

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee with the power of the Spirit. News about him spread everywhere. ¹⁵He taught in the Jewish synagogues, and everyone praised him.

The People of Nazareth Turn against Jesus

(Matthew 13.53-58; Mark 6.1-6)

¹⁶Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the Scriptures, ¹⁷he was given the book of Isaiah the prophet. He opened it and read,

¹⁸^(E) “The Lord's Spirit
    has come to me,
because he has chosen me
to tell the good news
    to the poor.
The Lord has sent me
to announce freedom
    for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone
    who suffers,
¹⁹and to say, ‘This is the year
    the Lord has chosen.’ ”

²⁰Jesus closed the book, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue looked straight at Jesus.

²¹Then Jesus said to them, “What you have just heard me read has come true today.”

²²All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, “Isn't he Joseph's son?”

²³Jesus answered:

You will certainly want to tell me this saying, “Doctor, first make yourself well.” You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. ²⁴^(F) But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown.

²⁵^(G) Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, ²⁶^(H) but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. ²⁷^(I) During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy.^[b] But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria.

²⁸When the people in the synagogue heard Jesus say this, they became so angry ²⁹that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. ³⁰But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.

A Man with an Evil Spirit

(Mark 1.21-28)

³¹Jesus went to the town of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people on the Sabbath. ³²^(J) His teaching amazed them because he spoke with power. ³³There in the synagogue was a man with an evil spirit. He yelled out, ³⁴“Hey, Jesus of Nazareth, what do you want with us? Are you here to get rid of us? I know who you are! You are God's Holy One.”

³⁵Jesus ordered the evil spirit to be quiet and come out. The demon threw the man to the ground in front of everyone and left without harming him.

³⁶They all were amazed and kept saying to each other, “What kind of teaching is this? He has power to order evil spirits out of people!” ³⁷News about Jesus spread all over that part of the country.

Jesus Heals Many People

(Matthew 8.14-17; Mark 1.29-34)

³⁸Jesus left the synagogue and went to Simon's home. When Jesus got there, he was told that Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a high fever. ³⁹So Jesus went over to her and ordered the fever to go away. Right then she was able to get up and serve them a meal.

⁴⁰After the sun had set, people with all kinds of diseases were brought to Jesus. He put his hands on each one of them and healed them. ⁴¹Demons went out of many people and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus ordered the demons not to speak because they knew he was the Messiah.

⁴²The next morning Jesus went out to a place where he could be alone, and crowds came looking for him. When they found him, they tried to stop him from leaving. ⁴³But Jesus said, “People in other towns must hear the good news about God's kingdom. This is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴So he kept on preaching in the synagogues in Judea.^[c]

Footnotes

4.2 went without eating: See the note at 2.37.
4.27 leprosy: In biblical times the word “leprosy” was used for many different kinds of skin diseases.
4.44 Judea: Some manuscripts have “Galilee.”