Likewise, just as it was<n id="1" /> in the days of Lot, people<n id="2" /> were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building;

but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.<n id="1" />

and said to them, &#8220;Thus it stands written that the Christ<n id="1" /> would suffer<n id="2" /> and would rise from the dead on the third day,

But they did not have a child, because Elizabeth was barren,<n id="1" /> and they were both very old.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">On<n id="1" /> the eighth day<n id="2" /> they came to circumcise the child, and they wanted to name<n id="3" /> him Zechariah after his father.

<p class="bodytext">And the child kept growing<n id="1" /> and becoming strong<n id="2" /> in spirit, and he was in the wilderness<n id="3" /> until the day he was revealed<n id="4" /> to Israel.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now<n id="1" /> when the time came for their<n id="2" /> purification according to the law of Moses, Joseph and Mary<n id="3" /> brought Jesus<n id="4" /> up to Jerusalem<n id="5" /> to present him to the Lord

<t /><p class="bodytext">There was also a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old,<n id="1" /> having been married to her husband for seven years until his death.

She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years.<n id="1" /> She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.<n id="2" />

But<n id="1" /> when the feast was over,<n id="2" /> as they were returning home,<n id="3" /> the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His<n id="4" /> parents<n id="5" /> did not know it,

but (because they assumed that he was in their group of travelers)<n id="1" /> they went a day&#8217;s journey. Then<n id="2" /> they began to look for him among their relatives and acquaintances.<n id="3" />

After<n id="1" /> three days<n id="2" /> they found him in the temple courts,<n id="3" /> sitting among the teachers,<n id="4" /> listening to them and asking them questions.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now<n id="1" /> it was during this time that Jesus<n id="2" /> went out to the mountain<n id="3" /> to pray, and he spent all night<n id="4" /> in prayer to God.<n id="5" />

When<n id="1" /> morning came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then<n id="1" /> he said to them all,<n id="2" /> &#8220;If anyone wants to become my follower,<n id="3" /> he must deny<n id="4" /> himself, take up his cross daily,<n id="5" /> and follow me.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now<n id="1" /> about eight days<n id="2" /> after these sayings, Jesus<n id="3" /> took with him Peter, John, and James, and went up the mountain to pray.

After<n id="1" /> the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. So<n id="2" /> they kept silent and told no one<n id="3" /> at that time<n id="4" /> anything of what they had seen.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now when<n id="1" /> the days drew near<n id="2" /> for him to be taken up,<n id="3" /> Jesus<n id="4" /> set out resolutely<n id="5" /> to go to Jerusalem.<n id="6" />

Then<n id="1" /> he said to them, &#8220;Which of you, if you have a son<n id="2" /> or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?&#8221;

After<n id="1" /> a few days,<n id="2" /> the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered<n id="3" /> his wealth<n id="4" /> with a wild lifestyle.