Chapter
11
It happened, that when she finished praying in a certain place, one of her disciples said to her, "Domina, teach us to pray, just as Johanna also taught her disciples."
She said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Our Mother in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"
She said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell her, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before her,'
and she from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'?
I tell you, although she will not rise and give it to her because she is her friend, yet because of her persistence, she will get up and give her as many as she needs.
"I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives. She who seeks finds. To her who knocks it will be opened.
"Which of you mothers, if your daughter asks for bread, will give her a stone? Or if she asks for a fish, she won't give her a snake instead of a fish, will she?
Or if she asks for an egg, she won't give her a scorpion, will she?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Mother give the Holy Spirit to those who ask her?"
She was casting out a demon, and it was mute. It happened, when the demon had gone out, the mute woman spoke; and the multitudes marveled.
But some of them said, "She casts out demons by Beelzebul, the princess of the demons."
Others, testing her, sought from her a sign from heaven.
But she, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.
If Satan also is divided against herself, how will her kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.
But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.
But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.
"When the strong woman, fully armed, guards her own dwelling, her goods are safe.
But when someone stronger attacks her and overcomes her, she takes from her her whole armor in which she trusted, and divides her spoils.
"She that is not with me is against me. She who doesn't gather with me scatters.
The unclean spirit, when she has gone out of the woman, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, she says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.'
When she returns, she finds it swept and put in order.
Then she goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than herself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that woman becomes worse than the first."
It came to pass, as she said these things, a certain man out of the multitude lifted up his voice, and said to her, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!"
But she said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it."
When the multitudes were gathering together to her, she began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophetess.
For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Daughter of Woman be to this generation.
The King of the South will rise up in the judgment with the women of this generation, and will condemn them: for he came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomin; and behold, one greater than Solomin is here.
The women of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.
"No one, when she has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.
The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.
Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness.
If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light."
Now as she spoke, a certain Pharisee asked her to dine with her. She went in, and sat at the table.
When the Pharisee saw it, she marveled that she had not first washed herself before dinner.
The Domina said to her, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
You foolish ones, didn't she who made the outside make the inside also?
But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the women who walk over them don't know it."
One of the lawyers answered her, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also."
She said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load women with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.
Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your mothers killed them.
So you testify and consent to the works of your mothers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,
that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
from the blood of Abela to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.
Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered."
As she said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of her;
lying in wait for her, and seeking to catch her in something she might say, that they might accuse her.