Book of Common Prayer

1 From: Sha’ul, God’s slave and an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, sent to promote among God’s chosen people the trust and knowledge of truth which lead to godliness ² and which are based on the certain hope of eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised that life before the beginning of time ³ but made public this word of his in its own season through a proclamation with which I have been entrusted by order of God, our Deliverer.

⁴ To: Titus, a true son in the faith we share:

Grace and shalom from God the Father and from the Messiah Yeshua, our Deliverer.

⁵ The reason I left you in Crete was so that you might attend to the matters still not in order and appoint congregation leaders in each city — those were my instructions. ⁶ A leader must be blameless, husband to one wife, with believing children who do not have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. ⁷ For an overseer, as someone entrusted with God’s affairs, must be blameless — he must not be self-willed or quick-tempered, he must not drink excessively, get into fights or be greedy for dishonest gain. ⁸ On the contrary, he must be hospitable, devoted to good, sober-mindedness, uprightness, holiness and self-control. ⁹ He must hold firmly to the trustworthy Message that agrees with the doctrine; so that by his sound teaching he will be able to exhort and encourage, and also to refute those who speak against it.

¹⁰ For there are many, especially from the Circumcision faction, who are rebellious, who delude people’s minds with their worthless and misleading talk. ¹¹ They must be silenced; because they are upsetting entire households by teaching what they have no business teaching, and doing it for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹² Even one of the Cretans’ own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons” — ¹³ and it’s true! For this reason, you must be severe when you rebuke those who have followed this false teaching, so that they will come to be sound in their trust ¹⁴ and no longer pay attention to Judaistic myths or to the commands of people who reject the truth.

¹⁵ To all who are themselves pure, everything is pure. But to those who are defiled and without trust, nothing is pure — even their minds and consciences have been defiled. ¹⁶ They claim to know God, but with their actions they deny him. They are detestable and disobedient; they have proved themselves unfit to do anything good.

1 Dear Theophilos:

Concerning the matters that have taken place among us, many people have undertaken to draw up accounts ² based on what was handed down to us by those who from the start were eyewitnesses and proclaimers of the message. ³ Therefore, Your Excellency, since I have carefully investigated all these things from the beginning, it seemed good to me that I too should write you an accurate and ordered narrative, ⁴ so that you might know how well-founded are the things about which you have been taught.

⁵ In the days of Herod, King of Y’hudah, there was a cohen named Z’kharyah who belonged to the Aviyah division. His wife was a descendant of Aharon, and her name was Elisheva. ⁶ Both of them were righteous before God, observing all the mitzvot and ordinances of Adonai blamelessly. ⁷ But they had no children, because Elisheva was barren; and they were both well along in years.

⁸ One time, when Z’kharyah was fulfilling his duties as cohen during his division’s period of service before God, ⁹ he was chosen by lot (according to the custom among the cohanim) to enter the Temple and burn incense. ¹⁰ All the people were outside, praying, at the time of the incense burning, ¹¹ when there appeared to him an angel of Adonai standing to the right of the incense altar. ¹² Z’kharyah was startled and terrified at the sight. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Z’kharyah; because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elisheva will bear you a son, and you are to name him Yochanan. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many people will rejoice when he is born, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of Adonai. He is never to drink wine or other liquor, and he will be filled with the Ruach HaKodesh even from his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ He will turn many of the people of Isra’el to Adonai their God. ¹⁷ He will go out ahead of Adonai in the spirit and power of Eliyahu to turn the hearts of fathers to their children^[a] and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready for Adonai a people prepared.”

¹⁸ Z’kharyah said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man; my wife too is well on in years.” ¹⁹ “I am Gavri’el,” the angel answered him, “and I stand in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you, to give you this good news. ²⁰ Now, because you didn’t believe what I said, which will be fulfilled when the time comes, you will be silent, unable to speak until the day these things take place.”

²¹ Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Z’kharyah; they were surprised at his taking so long in the Temple. ²² But when he came out unable to talk to them, they realized that he had seen a vision in the Temple; speechless, he communicated to them with signs.

²³ When his period of his Temple service was over, he returned home. ²⁴ Following this, Elisheva his wife conceived, and she remained five months in seclusion, saying, ²⁵ “Adonai has done this for me; he has shown me favor at this time, so as to remove my public disgrace.”