Book of Common Prayer
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip.
“Get up and go south,” he said. “Go to the desert road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
27 So he got up and went. Lo and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace (the queen of Ethiopia), who was in charge of her whole treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and was on his way back home. He was sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 “Go up and join his chariot,” said the spirit to Philip. 30 So Philip ran up, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
“Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked.
31 “How can I,” he replied, “unless someone gives me some help?”
So he invited Philip to get up and sit beside him. 32 The biblical passage he was reading was this one:
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter
and as a lamb is silent before its shearers,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation, judgment was taken away from him.
Who can explain his generation?
For his life was taken away from the earth.
34 “Tell me,” said the eunuch to Philip, “who is the prophet talking about? Himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip took a deep breath and, starting from this biblical passage, told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water.
“Look!” said the eunuch. “Here is some water! What’s to stop me being baptized?”
38 So he gave orders for the chariot to stop, and both of them went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch together, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him anymore, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, turned up at Azotus. He went through all the towns, announcing the good news, until he came to Caesarea.
Jesus walking on the water
16 When it was evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the seashore. 17 They got into a boat, and went across the sea towards Capernaum. It was already getting dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 A strong wind blew up, and the sea began to get rough. 19 They had been rowing for about three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, coming towards the boat. They were terrified.
20 But he spoke to them.
“It’s me!” he said. “Don’t be afraid!”
21 Then they were eager to take him into the boat; and at once the boat arrived at the land they had been making for.
22 The next day the crowd that had remained on the far side of the lake saw that there had only been the one boat there. They knew that Jesus hadn’t gone with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. 23 But other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25 When they found him beside the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Bread from heaven
26 This was Jesus’ reply.
“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “You aren’t looking for me because you saw signs, but because you ate as much bread as you could. 27 You shouldn’t be working for perishable food, but for food that will last to the life of God’s coming age—the food which the son of man will give you, the person whom God the father has stamped with the seal of his approval.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.