Book of Common Prayer

²⁴ Some days after that, Felix came with his wife Drusilla. She was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to what Paul said about believing in Christ Jesus.

²⁵ Paul talked about what is right, about living the right way, and about the time when all people will be judged. Felix was very much afraid when he heard these things. He said to Paul, `You may go now. When I have time, I will call you again.'

²⁶ He hoped that Paul would give him money to free him. And so he often sent for Paul and talked with him.

²⁷ After two years, a man named Porcius Festus came to rule in Felix's place. Felix had wanted to please the Jewish leaders, so he left Paul in prison.

25 Three days after Festus came to the country, he went to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

² Then the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews told him what they had against Paul.

³ `Please do something for us,' they begged. `Send for Paul to come to Jerusalem.' They had made a secret plan to kill him on the road.

⁴ Festus said, `Paul is being kept in prison in Caesarea. I myself am going there soon.

⁵ Let the men among you who are able come with me. If Paul has done anything wrong, then they can talk against him.'

⁶ Festus stayed only eight or ten days more among them. Then he went to Caesarea. The next day he sat on his chair in the court and had Paul brought in.

⁷ When Paul came in, the Jewish leaders who had come from Jerusalem stood around Paul. They talked much against him. But they could not prove that the things they said were true.

⁸ Paul spoke for himself. He said, `I have done no wrong to the law, or to the temple, or against Caesar the ruler of the Romans.'

⁹ Festus wanted to please the Jewish leaders, so he said to Paul, `Will you go to Jerusalem and let me judge you there about these things?'

¹⁰ Paul said, `I am standing in Caesar's court. That is where I should be judged. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews. You yourself know that well.

¹¹ If I have done wrong things, or any wrong thing for which I should die, then I do not ask to live. But if the things these people say are not true, then no one has power to give me up to the leaders of the Jews. I ask to go to Caesar.'

¹² So Festus talked the matter over with the court. Then he said to Paul, `You have asked to go to Caesar. All right, you will go to Caesar!'

³⁵ Jesus was teaching people in the temple. He said, `How can the scribes say that Christ is David's son?

³⁶ The Holy Spirit spoke through David and he himself said: "The Lord said to my Lord, `Sit beside me until I make you master over your enemies.' "

³⁷ `So David calls Christ his Lord. How can Christ be David's son?' Most of the people were glad to hear Jesus' teaching.

³⁸ Jesus went on to teach them. He said, `Take care. Do not let the scribes fool you by the way they do things. They like to walk about with long gowns. They want people to greet them in the market.

³⁹ They want to sit in the front seats in the meeting houses. They want to sit in the best places at feasts.

⁴⁰ They take away the homes of women whose husbands are dead. They cover up the wrong things they do by talking to God a long time. They will be punished more!'

⁴¹ Jesus sat down in the temple near the place where people put in their money. He saw how the people put in money. Many rich people put in much money.

⁴² A poor woman, whose husband was dead, came. She put in two small pieces of money.

⁴³ Jesus called his disciples. He said, `I tell you the truth. This poor woman has given more money than all the other people.

⁴⁴ All these people had plenty of money and they gave only a part of it. She was poor and she gave everything she had. She has nothing left to live on.'