Book of Common Prayer

¹⁵ About one hundred and twenty people were gathered together. Peter stood up among them to speak to them.

¹⁶ He said, `My friends and brothers, Judas showed the people where Jesus was so they could take him. The Holy Spirit spoke through king David long ago about Judas before he did it. What was written about him has now happened.

¹⁷ Judas was one of us. He had his part of the work to do.' (

¹⁸ Judas received money for the wrong thing he did. He bought a field with the money and fell on his face. His belly burst open and all his insides came out.

¹⁹ All the people who live in Jerusalem know about this. In their language they named the field Akeldama, which means The Field of Blood.)

²⁰ `The book of Psalms says, "His house must be empty. No one may live in it." And it also says, "Someone else must do his work."

²¹ `Here are men who have been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus was with us.

²² They were with us from the time John baptised people until the day Jesus was taken up from us. One of these men must help us tell people that Jesus was raised from death.'

²³ They took two men. One was Joseph, named Barsabbas, who had another name Justus. The other man was Matthias.

^24-25 Then the people talked to God. They said, `Lord, you know what is in everybody's heart. Show us which of these two men you have chosen to have a part in this work and to be an apostle. For Judas left this work and went to the place where he belonged.'

²⁶ Then they picked out the name of Matthias. He was chosen to be with the eleven apostles.

⁵⁵ Many women were there watching from far away. They had come with Jesus from Galilee and had helped him.

⁵⁶ Among these women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

⁵⁷ In the evening, a rich man came. He was Joseph from the town of Arimathea. He also believed in Jesus.

⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate said that it should be given to him.

⁵⁹ Joseph took the body and wrapped a clean linen cloth around it.

⁶⁰ He put the body in his own new grave which had been cut in a rock. He rolled a very big stone to close the grave. Then he went away.

⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there. They sat where they could see the grave.

⁶² The next day was the Sabbath day. The chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate together.

⁶³ They said, `Sir, that man fooled people. We remember what he said when he was still living. He said that he would rise after three days.

⁶⁴ So give orders that the grave must be guarded for three days. Then his disciples cannot come in the night to carry away his body, and tell people he rose from death. This last trick would be worse than the first.'

⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, `Take soldiers. Go and guard the grave as well as you can.'

⁶⁶ So they went and shut the grave tight. They put a government mark on the big stone. And the soldiers stayed to guard it. This was to make sure the grave would stay shut.