Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered, inasmuch as in the times to come, everything will long ago have been forgotten. The wise man, no less than the fool, must die.”

¹⁷ So I came to hate life, because the activities done under the sun were loathesome to me, since everything is meaningless and feeding on wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things for which I had worked under the sun, because I saw that I would have to leave them to the man who will come after me. ¹⁹ Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the things I worked for and which demonstrated how wise I am under the sun. This too is pointless. ²⁰ Thus I came to despair over all the things I had worked for under the sun. ²¹ Here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, knowledge and skill; yet he has to leave it to someone who has put no work into it. This is not only pointless, but a great evil. ²² For what does a person get from all his efforts and ambitions permeating the work he does under the sun? ²³ His whole life is one of pain, and his work is full of stress; even at night his mind gets no rest. This too is pointless. ²⁴ So there is nothing better for a man to do than eat, drink and and let himself enjoy the good that results from his work. I also realized that this is from God’s hand. ²⁵ For who will eat and who will enjoy except me? ²⁶ For to the man who is good from [God’s] viewpoint he gives wisdom, knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of collecting and accumulating things to leave to him who is good from God’s viewpoint. This too is pointless and feeding on wind.

¹⁸ Not until three years later did I go up to Yerushalayim to make Kefa’s acquaintance, and I stayed with him for two weeks, ¹⁹ but I did not see any of the other emissaries except Ya‘akov the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Concerning these matters I am writing you about, I declare before God that I am not lying!) ²¹ Next I went to Syria and Cilicia; ²² but in Y’hudah, the Messianic congregations didn’t even know what I looked like — ²³ they were only hearing the report, “The one who used to persecute us now preaches the Good News of the faith he was formerly out to destroy”; ²⁴ and they praised God for me.

2 Then after fourteen years I again went up to Yerushalayim, this time with Bar-Nabba; and I took with me Titus. ² I went up in obedience to a revelation, and I explained to them the Good News as I proclaim it among the Gentiles — but privately, to the acknowledged leaders. I did this out of concern that my current or previous work might have been in vain.

³ But they didn’t force my Gentile companion Titus to undergo b’rit-milah. ⁴ Indeed, the question came up only because some men who pretended to be brothers had been sneaked in — they came in surreptitiously to spy out the freedom we have in the Messiah Yeshua, so that they might enslave us. ⁵ Not even for a minute did we give in to them, so that the truth of the Good News might be preserved for you.

⁶ Moreover, those who were the acknowledged leaders — what they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by outward appearances — these leaders added nothing to me. ⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Uncircumcised, just as Kefa had been for the Circumcised; ⁸ since the One working in Kefa to make him an emissary to the Circumcised had worked in me to make me an emissary to the Gentiles. ⁹ So, having perceived what grace had been given to me, Ya‘akov, Kefa and Yochanan, the acknowledged pillars of the community, extended to me and Bar-Nabba the right hand of fellowship; so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the Circumcised. ¹⁰ Their only request was that we should remember the poor — which very thing I have spared no pains to do.

⁵³ When Yeshua had finished these parables, he left ⁵⁴ and went to his home town. There he taught them in their synagogue in a way that astounded them, so that they asked, “Where do this man’s wisdom and miracles come from? ⁵⁵ Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Miryam? and his brothers Ya‘akov, Yosef, Shim‘on and Y’hudah? ⁵⁶ And his sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does he get all this?” ⁵⁷ And they took offense at him. But Yeshua said to them, “The only place people don’t respect a prophet is in his home town and in his own house.” ⁵⁸ And he did few miracles there because of their lack of trust.