Book of Common Prayer

¹⁴ Then the apostles at Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria believed God's word. So they sent Peter and John to them.

¹⁵ When they came to them, they prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶ Until that time, none of the people there had received the Holy Spirit. They had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷ Then the apostles put their hands on the people and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ Simon saw that the people received the Holy Spirit when the apostles put their hands on them. Then he brought money to the apostles.

¹⁹ He said, `Give me this power, too, so that anyone on whom I put my hands will receive the Holy Spirit.'

²⁰ Peter said, `May you and your money be destroyed! You thought that you could buy the gift of God with money.

²¹ You have no part in this matter. You cannot have any of this because God sees that your heart is not right.

²² Stop your wrong ways. Ask the Lord. Perhaps God will forgive you for the wrong things you wanted to do.

²³ I see that you are very bitter. Your wrong ways control you all together.'

²⁴ Simon said, `Ask the Lord for me, so that none of the things you have talked about will happen to me.'

²⁵ The apostles told the people the word of the Lord. Then they went back to Jerusalem. On the way they told the good news in many villages in Samaria.

6 Then Jesus crossed over the sea of Galilee. (Another name for this sea was Tiberias.)

² Many people followed him because they saw the big works he had done in healing the sick people.

³ Jesus went up on a hill and sat down with his disciples.

⁴ The time for the Passover Feast of the Jews was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up, he saw many people coming to him. He said to Philip, `Where shall we buy food for these people to eat?'

⁶ Jesus knew what he himself would do, but he said this to see what Philip would do.

⁷ Philip answered him, `It would take nearly a year's wages to buy enough food for them, even if each one gets only a little.'

⁸ One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, talked to Jesus.

⁹ He said, `A boy here has five loaves of bread and two small fish. But what can that little bit of food do for so many people?'

¹⁰ Jesus said, `Tell the people to sit down.' Much grass was there. The number of men who sat down was about five thousand.

¹¹ Then Jesus took the bread and thanked God for it. He gave it to the disciples and they divided it among those who were sitting. He did the same thing with the fish. The people had all they wanted.

¹² When they had eaten enough, he said to his disciples, `Gather up all the pieces that are left so that nothing will be lost.'

¹³ They gathered all the pieces of the five loaves. Twelve baskets full were left over after all the people had eaten enough.

¹⁴ When those men saw the big work that Jesus did, they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet that is to come into the world.'

¹⁵ The people wanted to take Jesus by force to make him a king. When he saw this, he left again and went on the hill by himself.