1 Jesus turned away from the Jordan River full of the Sacreda Life-breath,b and he was led by the Life-breath throughout the Wilderness,c 2 being tested by the False Accuserd for forty days. He didn’t eat anything during those days, and when they were completed, he was hungry.

3 The False Accuser said to him, “If you are the Son of God,e tell this stone to become bread.”

4 “It is written,” Jesus answered, “Humanity does not live by bread alone.”f

5 Leading him up, the False Accuser showed him all the regimesg throughout the empireh in a moment of time 6 and said to him, “I will give you all this authority and glory, since it has been handed over to me, and I grant it to whomever I want. 7 Therefore, if you bow downi before me, it will all be yours.”

8 “It is written,” answered Jesus, “You will bow to The One Who Isj your God, and you will serve as representativek for theml alone.”m

9 The False Accuser led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the cornern of the temple and told him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 since it is written, ‘God will direct messengers around you to protect you,’o 11 and ‘They will lift you up with their hands, so that your foot will not crash upon a stone.’”p

12 “It is said,” Jesus answered, “‘Don’t put The One Who Is your God to the test.’”q

13 After bringing all the testing to an end, the False Accuser left him until another opportunity.

14 Jesus returned to Galilee with the power of the Life-breath, and news about him went out to the whole surrounding area. 15 He began teaching in their synagogues, being praised by all.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he was brought up, and entered the synagogue on Shabbat, according to custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. After opening the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

18 “The Life-breath of The One Who Is Sovereignr is upon me For the sake of whom shes anointed me To bring news of triumpht for people in poverty, And she sent me to announce release for people who are imprisoned, And recover sight for those who cannot see, To send out in freedom those who have been crushed, 19 To announce the coming arrival of the year filled with what is acceptable to the Sovereign One.’”u

20 After closing the scroll, he gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were focused on him.

21 “Today, this scripture has been lived outv as you heard it,” he began telling them.

22 They were all telling others about him and were shocked at the gracious words coming out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

23 “Without doubt, you will recite to me this cliché: ‘Heal yourself, Doctor!’” he told them. “And you’ll say, ‘Do all the things we heard were happening in Capernaum here in your hometown too.’”

24 Then he said, “Truly, I’m telling you that no prophet is acceptable in their hometown. 25 Speaking of truth, I tell you, there were many bereaved womenw in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut tightx for three years and six months, as a severe famine happened throughout all the land.y 26 Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a woman who was bereaved in Zarephath of Sidon.z 27 There were also many people with skin diseases in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 Everyone in the synagogue was filled with rage when they heard these things. 29 They stood up, drove him out of the town, and brought him to the ridge of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down. 30 However, after slipping through the middle of the crowd, he continued his travels.

31 He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee. He began teaching the people there each Shabbat,aa 32 and they were amazed at his teaching because his message was spoken with complete autonomy.bb

33 There was a person in the synagogue who had a spirit,cc an unclean demon, and he called out with a loud voice, 34 “Ah! What is there between you and us, Jesus the Nazarene! Did you come to destroy us? I’ve understood who you are: The one designated for sacred purposes by God!”dd

35 “Silence!” Jesus commanded it sharply, “Get out of him!” After the demon threw him to the ground in the middle of the crowd, it left him without injuring him.

36 Everyone was stunned, and they began to say to each other, “What does this mean? Because he gives orders to unclean spirits with authorityee and power, and they come out!” 37 News about him traveled everywhere throughout the region.

38 After standing up and leaving the synagogue, Jesusff went into Simeon’sgg house. Simeon’s mother-in-law was there suffering from a severe fever, and they made a request to Jesushh for her. 39 So, standing over her, he sharply commanded the fever, and it left her. Standing up right away, she began to show them hospitality.ii

40 As the sun was setting, everyone with people who were sick with various diseases brought them to him. Placing his hands on each one of them, he healed them. 41 Demons were coming out of many, calling out, “You are the Son of God!” He confronted them sharply and didn’t allow them to speak because they perceived him to be the Christ.jj

42 At daybreak, Jesus went out and traveled to a solitary place, but the crowds were searching for him. They reached him and kept preventing him from leaving them.

43 “I have to bring the news of the triumph of God’s reign to other towns too,” he told them, “because that’s why I was sent.” 44 And he continued announcing it in the synagogues of Galilee.kk

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FOOTNOTES:

  1. a. Traditionally, ‘Holy’

  2. b. Traditionally, ‘Spirit.’ The Greek word pneuma could be used to refer to ‘wind,’ ‘breath,’ or an animating energy within people, thought to be perceptible in the breath. Hebrew and Latin also use the same word for all these concepts. In scripture, it typically calls back the image to Genesis 1 and 2: “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2 NASB) and “the Lord God formed the human from the topsoil of the fertile land and blew life’s breath into [its] nostrils. The human came to life.” (Genesis 2:7 CEB).

  3. c. While this word can refer to undeveloped, wild areas in general, It was also the name of a specific region east of the Dead Sea. That region was the location of the Essene community of Qumran, where many speculate Johanan (John) resided. Additionally, the ‘wilderness’ in the Hebrew Bible is consistently used to represent chaos and scarcity, neglect of needs, sense of threat and hostility, and the place where those things originate, a return to the formlessness and emptiness preceding Creation.

  4. d. This is a more literal translation of the Greek diabolon. There’s a history of it being transliterated into other languages and eventually becoming traditionally ‘devil,’ but doing so obscures the meaning of what’s being communicated.

  5. e. “The Son of God” was a nickname for the emperor, a title taken on originally by Augustus Caesar, the son of Julius Caesar who was worshiped as divine, and was then used by each subsequent Caesar.

  6. f. Quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3

  7. g. The Greek word basileia can mean territories (“kingdoms”) or the governing systems that rule them. Rendering it ‘regimes’ here highlights that the test is whether Jesus will succumb to attempting to fulfill his calling through forced domination of the rulers, forcing them to fall under his rule. Essentially, The False Accuser is offering to make Jesus the new emperor in place of Caesar.

  8. h. The Greek term oikoumene is different than kosmos (“world’). It refers specifically to “the known world” or “developed area” as opposed to the places inhabited by “uncivilized” (unconquered) peoples or vast, uninhabited wilderness. Essentially, it referred to the area controlled by the Roman Empire.

  9. i. Sometimes this word is translated ‘worship.’ That could be a misleading word here, since it is not about praising the goodness of a divine figure but rather submitting to a ruling figure.

  10. j. “The One Who Is” is used to translate the Greek kurios (traditionally, “Lord”) when it refers to God, especially in Hebrew Bible quotations. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), kurios regularly replaces the Divine Name (YHWH), following an earlier Jewish oral tradition in which readers would say Adonai (“my Lord”) aloud wherever the written text read YHWH. The Jewish community attempted to honor the command “You will not take my name in vain” by not speaking it aloud at all. The practice of saying Adonai preserved reverence for the sacred Name while making the text speakable in public worship. Translating kurios as “The One Who Is” recovers the theological resonance of YHWH, which is linguistically connected to the Hebrew root haya (“to be”). In Exodus 3:14, God self-identifies as Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (“I will be who I will be” or “I am who I am”), using the first-person imperfect form ehyeh. The third-person equivalents—yihyeh (“he is” or “he will be” [in an ongoing way]), haya (“he was” [or time-limited, completed way]), and the rare participle howeh (“being” or “the one who is”)—suggest that YHWH blends all three in a fusion of past, present, and future being as well as presence both in particular moments and an ongoing reality. Early Jewish and Christian interpreters, including in Revelation 1:8 and 4:8, echoed this understanding in phrases like “the one who was, and is, and is to come.” Rendering kurios as “The One Who Is” is an attempt to honor the Name’s linguistic roots while resisting the patriarchal and hierarchical connotations carried by “Lord” in English. It also recalls the liberating presence of the Name given from the burning bush in Exodus as The One Who Is began moving to liberate the oppressed people of Israel.

  11. k. The word translated here as ‘serve as representative’ is the Greek word latreuo. It is often translated ‘serve,’ which is correct, but it is a more specific word than just any kind of service. It has to do with a formal service as a member of the military or the temple staff or an attendant to a priest or king. There is a ritual quality to it and an implication of representing a deity or king or other in performing the rituals.

  12. l. This is being used as a neuter singular here.

  13. m. Quotation of Deuteronomy 6:13

  14. n. This term is unclear to scholars. It literally means ‘little wing,’ but what part of the temple that would be referring to is unknown. It is not a term used elsewhere in literature about architecture. Some translations have rendered it as ‘pinnacle’ or ‘highest point,’ but they are only guessing.

  15. o. Quotation of Psalm 91:11

  16. p. Quotation of Psalm 91:12

  17. q. Quotation of Deuteronomy 6:16

  18. r. “The One Who Is” is used to translate the Greek kurios (traditionally, “Lord”) when it refers to God, especially in Hebrew Bible quotations. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), kurios regularly replaces the Divine Name (YHWH), following an earlier Jewish oral tradition in which readers would say Adonai (“my Lord”) aloud wherever the written text read YHWH. The Jewish community attempted to honor the command “You will not take my name in vain” by not speaking it aloud at all. The practice of saying Adonai preserved reverence for the sacred Name while making the text speakable in public worship. Translating kurios as “The One Who Is” recovers the theological resonance of YHWH, which is linguistically connected to the Hebrew root haya (“to be”). In Exodus 3:14, God self-identifies as Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (“I will be who I will be” or “I am who I am”), using the first-person imperfect form ehyeh. The third-person equivalents—yihyeh (“he is” or “he will be” [in an ongoing way]), haya (“he was” [or time-limited, completed way]), and the rare participle howeh (“being” or “the one who is”)—suggest that YHWH blends all three in a fusion of past, present, and future being as well as presence both in particular moments and an ongoing reality. Early Jewish and Christian interpreters, including in Revelation 1:8 and 4:8, echoed this understanding in phrases like “the one who was, and is, and is to come.” Rendering kurios as “The One Who Is” is an attempt to honor the Name’s linguistic roots while resisting the patriarchal and hierarchical connotations carried by “Lord” in English. It also recalls the liberating presence of the Name given from the burning bush in Exodus as The One Who Is began moving to liberate the oppressed people of Israel.

  19. s. There is no pronoun explicit in the Greek since Greek often uses the form of the verb to convey who is the subject of the action. The verb carries no gender marker. Instances of the “Life-breath” will be paired with feminine pronouns in English to reflect the Hebrew linguistic heritage. In Hebrew, “Spirit” is grammatically feminine, and there is rich literary and theological tradition in imagining the Spirit/Life-breath as feminine.

  20. t. Traditionally, “bring this good news.” The word here is a verb euangelizo, meaning to announce or carry the euangelion, traditionally, translated ‘gospel’ or ‘good news.’ The word ‘gospel’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon term god-spell, which means ‘good story.’ The Greek euangelion literally means ‘good message’ and was used specifically of a message announced publicly, which fits the use of the word ‘news.’ The historical context comes from when rulers and military leaders returned to a city after victory in battle, and a herald would be sent ahead to announce the victory and the ruler’s impending arrival. The writers of the Bible took this word and applied it to Jesus’ victory of a different kind. The use of “news of triumph” here is intended to communicate the full meaning of the word in context and not the narrow dictionary definition.

  21. u. Quotation of Isaiah 61:1-2a

  22. v. Traditionally, ‘fulfilled.’ It could be translated as something like ‘given a fuller meaning.’ It literally means ‘filled full.’ Much like ‘order fulfillment’ when purchasing an order to be delivered, it means to act on something and bring it to reality in a new way.

  23. w. Or ‘widows’

  24. x. Meaning there was no rain

  25. y. Reference to 1 Kings 17

  26. z. This emphasizes that she was a non-Israelite living outside of Israel.

  27. aa. Reference to 2 Kings 5

  28. bb. The Greek word exousia is often translated as “authority” or “power,” but its root meaning points to the freedom or right to act. It derives from the verb exesti, meaning “it is permitted” or “it is possible,” and conveys a sense of unrestricted capability or empowered liberty. In Greek, exousia could refer to personal autonomy, civil rights, or delegated ability, not necessarily hierarchical control.

  29. cc. The Greek term pneuma literally means "breath," and is often translated it as "Life-breath" to emphasize the communal and embodied power of divine and human vitality. However, when context requires ambiguity between an internal psychological reality (such as trauma, shame, or fear internalized from the community) and an external, potentially spiritual entity, the word "spirit" is used. Though abstract, "spirit" best maintains this delicate balance in English. Readers should understand that "spirit" can evoke either—or both—meanings simultaneously, in the same way that a modern English speaker might refer to “battling my demons” when they are wrestling with trauma or shame.

  30. dd. Traditionally, ‘holy one’ or in other places ‘saint.’ Literally, it’s the word for ‘set apart’ as in ‘designated’ or ‘dedicated’ for a specific category or calling.

  31. ee. The Greek word exousia is often translated as “authority” or “power,” but its root meaning points to the freedom or right to act. It derives from the verb exesti, meaning “it is permitted” or “it is possible,” and conveys a sense of unrestricted capability or empowered liberty. In Greek, exousia could refer to personal autonomy, civil rights, or delegated ability, not necessarily hierarchical control.

  32. ff. The name is added for clarity.

  33. gg. Traditionally, ‘Simon.’ Simon is the English transliteration of the Greek transliteration of Simeon. There’s a long history of de-Jewish-ing the names of people in the Bible, including Jesus (Joshua) that stems from pervasive antisemitism.

  34. hh. The name is added for clarity.

  35. ii. The Greek word diakoneo (literally means “attend to, wait on, provide for”) conveys a variety of meanings, from waiting tables, to logistical support, and ritual service. In domestic scenes it often describes the culturally expected hosting of guests: preparing food, ensuring comfort, and honoring them with personal care.

  36. jj. Christos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew meshiah which has traditionally been transliterated as Messiah (and Christ) but translated would literally be “anointed.” The definition of ‘anointed’ is to be ‘smeared with ointment or oil’ and the biblical significance of anointing is to be selected by God (or a prophet of God) for a special appointment, usually king and sometimes other roles like priest or prophet, and experience a ceremony in which the prophet places oil on the head to signify that appointment.

  37. kk. Most Greek manuscripts read “Galilee” here; however, the oldest and most reliable manuscripts available read “Judea.” That presents a problem: the context of this passage is about Galilee, but the guiding principles of contextual criticism (the work of attempting to identify which variation within all the copies of manuscripts is most likely to be closest to the original) indicate that “Judea” is the option more likely to be the original version. Indeed, the SBL Greek New Testament, which is Greek text used for the LIT Bible, reads "Judea" in this verse. However, the insertion of “Judea” here was almost certainly a mistake, whether it was a scribal transcription error that was then corrected later, or whether it was an error made in the writing of the original manuscript itself. There is no way to know, but for it to make sense in the context of this passage, “Galilee” has been chosen in this translation.