Book of Common Prayer

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received God’s word, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for them, asking that they would receive the holy spirit, ¹⁶ since up to that point the spirit had come upon none of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the holy spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.

¹⁹ “Give me this power too,” he said, “so that anyone I lay my hands on will receive the holy spirit.”

²⁰ “You and your silver belong in hell!” retorted Peter. “Did you really think that God’s gift could be bought with money? ²¹ You have no part or share in this word! Your heart is not straight before God. ²² So repent from this wickedness, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive the scheme you had in your heart. ²³ I can see that you are still stuck in the bitter poison and chains of unrighteousness.”

²⁴ “Pray to the Lord for me,” said Simon in reply, “that none of what you’ve said will happen to me.”

²⁵ After Peter and John had finished bearing witness and speaking the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, announcing the good news to many Samaritan villages.

Feeding the five thousand

6 After this Jesus went away beside the sea of Galilee, that is, the sea of Tiberias. ² A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was doing in healing the sick. ³ Jesus went up into the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴ It was nearly time for the Passover, a Jewish festival.

⁵ Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him.

“Where are we going to buy bread,” he said to Philip, “so that they can have something to eat?” ⁶ (He said this to test him. He himself knew what he intended to do.)

⁷ “Even with six months’ pay,” replied Philip, “you wouldn’t be able to buy enough bread for each of them to have just a little!”

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, joined in.

⁹ “There’s a lad here,” he said, “who’s got five barley loaves and two fish. But what use are they with this many people?”

¹⁰ “Make the men sit down,” said Jesus.

There was a lot of grass where they were, so the men sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹ So Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them to the people sitting down, and then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹² When they were satisfied, he called the disciples.

“Collect up the bits and pieces left over,” he said, “so that we don’t lose anything.”

¹³ So they collected it up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of the five barley loaves left behind by the people who had eaten.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ So when Jesus realized that they were intending to come and seize him to make him king, he withdrew again, by himself, up the mountain.