Book of Common Prayer
A little scroll
10 Then I saw another strong angel coming down from heaven, dressed in a cloud. Over his head was a rainbow; his face was like the sun, and his feet were like fiery pillars. 2 He was holding a small scroll, open, in his hand. Placing his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land, 3 he shouted in a loud voice like a lion roaring. When he shouted, the seven thunders answered with their own voices. 4 When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven. “Seal up what the seven thunders said,” instructed the voice. “Don’t write it down.”
5 Then the angel whom I had seen standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand towards heaven 6 and swore an oath by the One who lives forever and ever, who made heaven and what it contains, the earth and what it contains, and the sea and what it contains. This was the oath: that there would be no more time, 7 but that God’s mystery would be completed in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who was going to blow his trumpet. That is what he had announced to his servants the prophets.
8 The voice I had heard from heaven spoke to me again. “Go,” it said, “and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went up to the angel.
“Give me the little scroll,” I said.
“Take it,” he said to me, “and eat it. It will be bitter in your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand, and I ate it. It tasted like sweet honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach felt bitter. 11 “You must prophesy again,” he said to me, “about many peoples, nations, languages and kingdoms.”
Other parables
44 “The kingdom of heaven,” Jesus continued, “is like treasure hidden in a field. Someone found it and hid it, and in great delight went off and sold everything he possessed, and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who was looking for fine pearls, 46 and who found one that was spectacularly valuable. He went off and sold everything he possessed, and bought it.
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea, and collected every type of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen brought it to shore. They sat down and selected the good ones, which they put into a bucket; but they threw out the bad ones. 49 That’s what it will be like at the close of the age. The angels will go off and separate the wicked from the righteous, 50 and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 “Have you understood all this?” asked Jesus.
“Yes,” they answered.
52 “Well, then,” he said to them, “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his storeroom some new things and some old things.”
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there.
Opposition in Nazareth
54 Jesus came to the town where he had been brought up. He taught them in their synagogue, and they were astonished.
“Where did this fellow get this wisdom, and these powers?” they said.
55 “Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judah? 56 And aren’t all his sisters here with us? So where does he get it all from?” 57 They were offended by him.
So Jesus said to them, “No prophet lacks respect—except in his own town and his own house!”
58 And he didn’t perform many mighty works there, because they didn’t believe.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.