Book of Common Prayer

Agrippa and Bernice

¹³ After some days King Agrippa came to Caesarea, with Bernice, to greet Festus. ¹⁴ They spent several days there, and during that time Festus put to the king the whole matter of Paul and the case against him.

“I have a man here,” he said, “who was left by Felix as a prisoner. ¹⁵ When I was up in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Jewish elders came before me and asked me to pass sentence on him. ¹⁶ My response was that it is not our Roman custom to hand anyone over until the accused has had a chance to look his accusers in the face and make a defense against the charges. ¹⁷ So they came down here, and I didn’t postpone the business, but sat in court the next day and commanded the man to be brought. ¹⁸ His accusers stood there and brought charges—but not of the sort of wrongdoing I had been expecting. ¹⁹ It turned out to have to do with various wranglings concerning their own religion, and about some dead man called Jesus whom Paul asserted was alive. ²⁰ I simply didn’t know what to do about all this dispute, and so I asked him if he would like to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there about these things. ²¹ But Paul then appealed for his case to be sent up to His Majesty! So I gave the order that he should be kept under guard until I can send him to Caesar.”

²² “I should like to hear this man for myself,” said Agrippa to Festus.

“Very well,” said Festus. “You shall do so tomorrow.”

²³ On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great ceremony, and entered the audience chamber. With them came the tribunes and the leading men of the city. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought in.

²⁴ “King Agrippa,” said Festus, “and all of you assembled here, you see this man. The whole multitude of the Jews appealed to me about him, both in Jerusalem and here. They shouted that it wasn’t right to let him live. ²⁵ But I found that he had done nothing to deserve death, and since he then himself appealed to His Majesty I decided to send him. ²⁶ I don’t have anything definite to write to our Lord and Master about him, and so I’ve brought him here to you, and particularly before you, King Agrippa, so that I may know what to write once we have had a judicial hearing. ²⁷ There seems no sense to me in sending a prisoner without giving some indication of the charges against him.”

Signs of the end

13 As they were going out of the Temple, one of Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Teacher! Look at these huge stones, and these huge buildings!”

² “You see these enormous buildings?” said Jesus. “There will not be one single stone left on top of another. They will all be torn down.”

³ Peter, James, John and Andrew approached him privately as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple.

⁴ “Tell us,” they asked. “When will these things happen? What will be the sign that these things are about to be completed?”

⁵ “Take care that nobody deceives you,” Jesus began to say to them. ⁶ “Plenty of people will come in my name, saying ‘I’m the one!’ and they will lead plenty astray. ⁷ But whenever you hear about wars, and rumors of wars, don’t be disturbed. These things have to happen, but it doesn’t mean the end is here. ⁸ One nation will rise up against another; one kingdom will rise up against another. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines too. These are the first pains of childbirth.

⁹ “But watch out for yourselves. They will hand you over to courts, they will beat you in synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings because of me, as a witness against them. ¹⁰ And the message of the kingdom must first be announced to all the nations. ¹¹ And when they put you on trial and hand you over, don’t work out beforehand what you are going to say, but say whatever is given you at that moment. It won’t be you speaking, you see, but the holy spirit.

¹² “One brother will hand over another to death. Fathers will hand over children. Children will rebel against parents and have them put to death. ¹³ And you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who is patient through to the end—that one will be saved.”