Gospel according to Luke 11

¹ Now once he was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples’.

² He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray: “Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;

³ give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,

⁴ for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.”‘

⁵ He also said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves,

⁶ because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”;

⁷ and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you”.

⁸ I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

⁹ ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

¹⁰ For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.

¹¹ What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish?

¹² Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg?

¹³ If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

¹⁴ He was casting out a devil and it was dumb; but when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed.

¹⁵ But some of them said, ‘It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils’.

¹⁶ Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven;

¹⁷ but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses.

¹⁸ So too with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? – Since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils.

¹⁹ Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges then.

²⁰ But if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.

²¹ So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are undisturbed;

²² but when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.

²³ ‘He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.

²⁴ ‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it says, “I will go back to the home I came from”.

²⁵ But on arrival, finding it swept and tidied,

²⁶ it then goes off and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, so that the man ends up by being worse than he was before.’

²⁷ Now as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked!’

²⁸ But he replied, ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

²⁹ The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, ‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.

³⁰ For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹ On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.

³² On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation. and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.

³³ ‘No one lights a lamp and puts it in some hidden place or under a tub, but on the lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.

³⁴ The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye is sound, your whole body too is filled with light; but when it is diseased your body too will be all darkness.

³⁵ See to it then that the light inside you is not darkness.

³⁶ If, therefore, your whole body is filled with light, and no trace of darkness, it will be light entirely, as when the lamp shines on you with its rays.’

³⁷ He had just finished speaking when a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at the table.

³⁸ The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal.

³⁹ But the Lord said to him, ‘Oh, you Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.

⁴⁰ Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?

⁴¹ Instead, give alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean for you.

⁴² But alas for you Pharisees! You who pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and overlook justice and the love of God! These you should have practised, without leaving the others undone.

⁴³ Alas for you Pharisees who like taking the seats of honour in the synagogues and being greeted obsequiously in the market squares!

⁴⁴ Alas for you, because you are like the unmarked tombs that men walk on without knowing it![*a]

⁴⁵ A lawyer then spoke up. ‘Master,’ he said ‘when you speak like this you insult us too.’

⁴⁶ ‘Alas for you lawyers also,’ he replied ‘because you load on men burdens that are unendurable, burdens that you yourselves do not move a finger to lift.

⁴⁷ ‘Alas for you who build the tombs of the prophets, the men your ancestors killed!

⁴⁸ In this way you both witness what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.

⁴⁹ ‘And that is why the Wisdom of God said, “I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute,

⁵⁰ so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet’s blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world,

⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary”. Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.

⁵² ‘Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves, and have prevented others going in who wanted to.’

⁵³ When he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions,

⁵⁴ setting traps to catch him out in something he might say.