Chapter 1:

1-3 The Starting Point of the Good News about Jesus the Anointed One, Son of God.

The Scriptures say in Isaiah the Prophet: “I’m going to send my messenger ahead of you! He will prepare the road for you. It’s the voice of one who shouts in the desert, ‘Prepare the road for the Lord, clear a straight pathway for him!’”

4-8 John the baptizer and preacher turned up in the desert. He preached that people should be baptized as a symbol that they had changed their minds, and this resulted in their sins being cancelled. The whole district of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem kept coming out to him. They confessed their sins and were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John dressed in camel’s hair. He wore a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. “There’s someone coming after me and he’s stronger than I am!” he preached. “I’m not even fit to down and untie his sandals! I baptize you with water, that’s for sure, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

9-11 It turned out that at that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and let himself be baptized by John in the Jordan River. The moment Jesus came out of the water, he saw the skies split open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. A voice came out of heaven: “You are my dear Son. You’re the one I favored!”

12-13 Immediately the Spirit threw him into the desert. He was in the desert for forty days being put through an ordeal by Adversary. He was with the small wild animals, and the Messengers were providing for him.

14-15 Now after John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and proclaimed the Good News about God. He said, “The appointed time is here, and God’s Realm is close! Change your minds, and believe the Good News!”

16-20 As Jesus went past the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting nets into the lake – they were fishermen. Jesus said, “Come here and follow me, and I will make you fishers of human beings!” Immediately they released their nets and followed him. When he had gone a bit further on, he saw James, Zebedee’s son, and his brother John in a ship, preparing their nets. Immediately he called out to them. They left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired hands and followed him.

21-28 Off they went to Capernaum, and it turned out that on the Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and started teaching. They were shocked at his teaching, because he was teaching them like someone who had authority and not just like the Bible scholars. Now there was a person in their synagogue who had an unclean spirit. It screamed out forcefully, “Hey! What are you meddling with us for, Jesus of Nazareth? You’ve come to destroy us! I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”

Jesus reprimanded it sharply and ordered it, “Be bound, and come out of him!”

The unclean spirit caused him to spasm and came out of him with a very loud shout. They were all shocked, so much so that they discussed it with each other, and exclaimed, “What on earth’s this! A new teaching that has authority! He even orders around the unclean spirits, and they pay attention to him!”

Immediately Jesus’ fame spread throughout the whole region around Galilee.

29-31 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went straight to Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick in bed as she was feverish, and they immediately told Jesus about her. Jesus went over to her and helped her up, grabbing her by the hand. The fever left her, and she started providing for them.

32-34 But that evening after sunset, people kept bringing those who were sick and those who had evil spirits in them to Jesus. The whole city gathered at the door! Jesus healed many sick people who were inflicted with various types of diseases. He also threw out lots of evil spirits, but he didn’t allow the evil spirits to speak, because they knew who he was.

35-39 At a very early hour, while it was still night, Jesus got up and went out to a solitary area. He stayed there in prayer. Simon and his companions hunted him down. When they found him, they said, “Everyone’s looking for you!”

Jesus said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else - to the neighboring villages, so that I can preach there too, because this is the reason I’ve come here.” Off he went and preached in their synagogues over the whole of Galilee, and threw out evil spirits.

40-45 A leper came to him calling for help. He said, “If you want to, you can make me clean!”

And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched him and said, “I want to! Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Jesus was deeply moved and sent him off immediately, after instructing him, “Off you go – and see that you don’t say a thing to anyone! Show yourself to the priest, and offer the things that Moses ordered for your cleansing, as evidence that you are healed.”

But he went out and started publicizing it everywhere, and spreading the story around, so that Jesus couldn’t go into the city openly any more, but stayed outside in solitary locations. The people came to him from everywhere.

End of chapter 1

Chapter 2:

1-7 Jesus went back to Capernaum after a few days, and people heard that he was at home. Such a large crowd gathered that there was no longer enough room to put them, not even near the door. Jesus preached to them. They came to him, bringing a paralyzed person who was carried by four people. As they couldn’t get near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof above where Jesus was. They made a hole in it and lowered the stretcher with the paralyzed person lying on it. When Jesus saw the paralyzed person’s faith, he said, “My child, your sins are forgiven at this very moment!”

Now some of the Bible scholars were sitting there and thoroughly considering to themselves, “Why is this guy talking like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins – only God can do that!

8-12 Immediately Jesus discerned in his spirit what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking these things? What’s easier to say, ‘Your sins are cancelled right at this moment,’ or, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk around?’ But so that you will know that the Human Being has the authority to cancel sins on the earth...” At this point he said to the paralyzed person, “I tell you, get up, pick up your stretcher and go home!”

And he got up. Immediately he picked up his stretcher and left right in front of everyone. As a result everyone was beside themselves in shock, and they praised God, and exclaimed, “We’ve never seen anything like it!”

13-17 Jesus went out again beside the sea. A large crowd went to him, and he started teaching them. As he walked along, he saw Levi, Alphaeus’ son, sitting at the Tax Profiteer’s office. He said to him, “Follow me,” and Levi got up and followed him.

While Jesus was reclining for dinner at Levi’s house, many Tax Profiteers and sinners were eating with him and his disciples - this was due to the fact that he was followed by so many people. When the Bible scholars who were Pharisees saw him reclining for dinner with sinners and Tax Profiteers they asked his disciples, “Why is he eating with Tax Profiteers and sinners?”

Jesus heard them and said, “People who are well don’t need a doctor, only people who are sick. I haven’t come to invite people who are right with God: instead, I’ve come to invite sinners.”

18-22 John’s disciples and Pharisees were fasting. People asked Jesus, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples don’t?”

“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus asked in turn. “No, they can’t fast while the bridegroom is with them! But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and that is when they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old coat. If they do, the added piece will tear away from the old one and make the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and then both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins.”

23-28 On a Sabbath day Jesus was passing by the grain fields. While his disciples were going along, they started picking some heads of grain. The Pharisees kept saying to Jesus, “Hey! Why are they doing this! It’s not legal on the Sabbath day!”

“Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions felt hungry and found themselves in need?” Jesus answered. “In the time of Abiathar the chief priest, David went into the house of God and ate the sacred bread. Now it was only legal for the priests to eat the sacred bread. Yet David gave some to his companions, too.”

Jesus added, “The Sabbath was made for the sake of the person – the person wasn’t made for the sake of the Sabbath! And so the Human Being is also Master of the Sabbath.”

End of chapter 2

Chapter 3:

1-6 On another occasion Jesus went to the synagogue, and there was a person who had a withered hand. The Pharisees kept a close eye on Jesus, to see if he would heal on a Sabbath, as that would provide them with an opportunity to accuse him. Jesus said to the person who had the withered hand, “Step forward!”

Then Jesus asked them, “On the Sabbath day is it legal to do good or to do bad, to save life or to destroy it?” But they kept quiet.

Jesus looked around angrily. He was very upset by the insensitivity of their minds. “Stretch out your hand,” Jesus said to the person.

The person stretched it out, and the hand was restored to its proper condition. At this the Pharisees left and immediately started plotting with the friends and supporters of Herod Antipas against Jesus, plotting how they were going kill him.

7-12 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. A large crowd from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, from Jerusalem, Idumaea, and the area beyond the Jordan River and around Tyre and Sidon. They followed him because they’d heard about everything that he was doing. He told his disciples to keep a small boat on hand so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him. In fact, he’d healed lots of people. As a result, all those people who had anything wrong with them were falling all over him so they could touch him. When the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down in front of him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” He strongly warned them against revealing who he was to anyone.

13-19 Jesus went up the mountain and called over the ones he wanted. He appointed twelve whom he also named apostles so that they would be with him and so that he could send them out to preach and have authority to throw out evil spirits.

These are the twelve he appointed – Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter), James (Zebedee’s son) and his brother John - (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means “People with thunderous natures”) – Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (Alphaeus’s son), Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, as well as Judas Iscariot, who in fact later betrayed him.

20-30 Jesus went to a house, and such a crowd gathered, that they couldn’t even sit down to eat a meal! When Jesus’ family heard, they went out to grab him. “He’s completely out of his mind!” they figured.

The Bible scholars who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He’s got Beelzebub in him!” and “He’s throwing out evil spirits by the chief evil spirit’s power!”

Jesus called them over and spoke to them in examples. “How can someone working for Adversary throw out someone who is working for Adversary?” he asked. “If a kingdom’s people fight against themselves, the kingdom can’t last. If a household is divided against itself, it can’t last. If really, as you say, Adversary is in opposition to himself and his kingdom is divided, it can’t last and it will come to an end. But it isn’t possible for someone to go into a strong person’s house and plunder their possessions, unless they tie up the strong person first. Then they can make off with the property. All people groups will be forgiven for all their sins and any blasphemies they speak, but the person who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Jesus said this because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31-35 Jesus’ mother and siblings arrived. They stood outside and sent someone in to call him. There was a crowd sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother, brothers, and sisters are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and siblings?” he asked. He looked around at those sitting in a circle around him, and said, “These are my mother and siblings! Whoever does God’s purpose is my brother, sister, and mother.”

End of chapter 3.

Chapter 4:

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End of chapter 4.

From the translator.

I have translated biological gender following the Greek text. For example, I have translated the Greek word meaning all people by the English word “humanity”. I have translated the Greek word meaning a human being, a person of either gender, by the English word “person”. People who object and prefer the terms “mankind” or “man” should realize that this is a preference within the English language, and has nothing to do with the original Greek. If the original Greek has “man” (male person), I translate by the English word “man”. It should be noted that, in Greek, grammatical gender is not dependant upon biological gender. For example, “Holy Spirit” is feminine grammatical gender in the Old Testament but neuter grammatical gender in the New Testament. This does not mean we are to refer to the Holy Spirit as “she” when reading the Old Testament, and as “it” when reading the New Testament. People who know only the English language often made the mistake of confusing biological and grammatical gender.

Further, the Greek word adelphoi is usually translated as “brothers” in most Bible versions. However, this word refers to both genders and has a range of meaning. It can mean “fellow believer”, “member of an association”, “associate”, or “siblings” (“brothers and sisters”). To say a translation which has “brother and sister” has added the word “sister” is a basic error, for the Greek word actually means “sibling”. In fact, in the Bible the word mostly occurs in its meaning “fellow believer”. A single word in one language often needs to be translated by several words in another language.

I have chosen to translate rather than transliterate many words, not following the usual tradition of Bible translation. “Transliteration” is the putting of Greek letters into English language, and “translation” is the rendering of their meaning into the English language. For example, “Angel” is the result of putting Greek letters into the English letters, but the actual translation is “Messenger”. In the same way, the word “Satan” is the transliteration, but “Adversary” is the meaning, the translation.

I have used “they” as the third person generic singular rather than “he or she”. This is now accepted English language usage, while presently less common in the USA than in Australia or the U.K. People who object to this could note that “they” was commonly the English singular pronoun until an English grammar prescribed instead the use of “he” around 1745.

Extensive notes on the meanings of the Greek words can be found in The Source New Testament: with Extensive Notes on Word Meaning.

Introduction.

For centuries, the meanings of numerous New Testament words remained unknown, and translators simply made educated guesses. In the late 1880s and again in the mid 1970s, large amounts of papyri written in New Testament times were discovered. (No, these were nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls!) These impacted our knowledge of word meaning in the New Testament to such a degree that scholars labeled the finds “sensational” and “dramatic.” Words found in the New Testament now appeared commonly in everyday private letters from ordinary people, contracts of marriage and divorce, tax papers, official decrees, birth and death notices, and business documents. Many mysteries of word meaning were solved.

However, nearly every New Testament translation of today follows the traditional translations of words of the earlier versions. These were published centuries before the evidence from the papyri and inscriptions revealed to us the meanings of numerous New Testament words.

For example, Matthew 11:12 has puzzled people for centuries. Only in recent times was it discovered that the verse contains technical legal terms referring to the hindering of an owner or lawful possessor of their enjoyment of property. Thus the scripture has nothing to do with heaven suffering violence or forcefully advancing. The actual translation is, “From the time of John the Baptizer until now, Heaven’s Realm is being used or even robbed by people who have no legal right to it. This stops those who do have a legal right to it from enjoying their own property.”

Many faulty traditions flourish in the Christian community. Some of these have arisen from mistranslation, but some have not. The following traditions demonstrate the ease with which religious tradition can mislead. There is a popular belief that there were “three” “wise men” and that these people visited Jesus as a baby in a manager. However, the Bible does not mention the number, and in fact states that they visited Jesus in a house. (History tells us that Jesus was around two years of age at the time.) At no time does the Bible, in any translation, imply that the “wise men” were present soon after Jesus’ birth. Further, not one Bible version states the number “three”; this is purely unfounded tradition based perhaps on the number of different types of gifts, not even number of gifts. In another instance, there is much talk and speculation in the some of the Christian community as to who the “Antichrist” could be, despite the fact that there is no mention of a single “Antichrist” figure anywhere in the Bible. The word only appears in the First and Second Letters of John, only briefly, and is identified as those people (plural) who do not agree that Jesus the Anointed One has come in human form. The word is not mentioned in Revelation. These misconceptions are all based on correct translation, so it is not surprising that many misconceptions are based on mistranslation. Turning to translation matters, in what is surely censorship, the same word Magos is translated widely as “wise man” in the context of the young Jesus, but as “sorcerer” in Acts, and as “astrologer” in Daniel.

Tradition and censorship do influence translation. In Hebrews 5:7 Jesus offered up the hiketeria to the Father. The hiketeria was literally an olive branch which the suppliant held in their hand as a claim for help and protection, a claim which was always honored. If all else failed the hiketeria could be offered. For example in Aeschylus’ play The Suppliant Maidens, Danaus’ daughters are fleeing from Egypt, and when the Danaus sees armed crowds approaching with horses and chariots, he advises the use of the hiketeria to ensure their safety. Herodotos 7.141 speaks of the Athenians sending their envoys to Delphi to consult the oracle, whereupon the priestess foretold a terrible fate. They were about to give up in dismay, when someone suggested they should approach the oracle the second time and offer the hiketeria. The priestess then gave a favorable prophecy. The Greek in these examples is the same as in verse 7.

Theological bias can influence Bible translators to err from translating correctly. For example, the straightforward Greek sentence of 1 Cor. 11:10 which simply states that a woman ought to show her own authority on her head has been completely altered in most Bible versions to state that a woman must wear a covering (the word “veil” does not appear in the Greek) to show she is under a man’s authority. The Greek sentence does not mention a man or husband.

The King James Version changed the female names Junia and Nympha to masculine names, reversed the order of “mother and brothers”, reversed the order of Priscilla (woman) and Aquila (man) when the couple was presented in a teaching context, and added the words “a man” to a sentence about a woman being in a position of responsibility. It is then not surprising that their social context, that is, the way in which women were viewed in their culture, impacted upon the way they chose to translate. Of course, this applies to bias in all areas, not just to women passages.

The translations of most New Testament versions are based to a large degree on mistranslation of Greek word meaning. Most available translations do not regard the abundant evidence for word meaning supplied in recent years by the papyri and inscriptions and thus in many cases present a far from accurate translation of the New Testament.

The Source New Testament: Extensive Notes is also available. It contains extensive notes on word meaning with documentary attestations and separate verse numbers.

End of the Introduction to The Source New Testament translation.