²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?” They said, “Caesar’s.”

²⁸ But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’

²² All the saints greet you, especially those of the emperor’s household.

³² Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to the emperor.”^(A)

⁸ Paul said in his defense, “I have in no way committed an offense against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against the emperor.”^{(A) 9} But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”^{(B) 10} Paul said, “I am standing before the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know. ¹¹ Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death, but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”^{(C) 12} Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, “You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.”

²⁸ One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world, and this took place during the reign of Claudius.^(A)

² They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man inciting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.”^[a](A)

²² Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?”

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,^(A)

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.