Book of Common Prayer

Judas’ place is filled

^15-17 It was during this period that Peter stood among the brothers—there were about a hundred and twenty present at the time—and said, “My brothers, the prophecy of scripture given through the Holy Spirit by the lips of David concerning Judas was bound to come true. He was the man who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus, though he was one of our number and he had a share in this ministry of ours.”

^18-19 (This man had bought a piece of land with the proceeds of his infamy, but his body swelled up and his intestines burst. This fact became well known to all the residents of Jerusalem so that the piece of land came to be called in their Aramaic language Akeldama, which means “the field of blood”.)

²⁰ “Now it is written in the book of psalms of such a man: ‘Let his habitation be desolate, and let no one live in it’, and ‘Let another take his office’.

^21-22 “It becomes necessary then that whoever joins us must be someone who has been in our company during the whole time the Lord Jesus lived his life with us, from the beginning when John baptised him until the day when he was taken up from us. This man must be an eye-witness with us to the resurrection of Jesus.”

^23-26 Two men were put forward, Joseph called Barsabbas who was also called Justus and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” Then they drew lots for these men, and the lot fell to Matthias, and thereafter he was considered equally an apostle with the eleven.

The authorities resort to trickery

¹⁹ The scribes and chief priests longed to get their hands on him at that moment, but they were afraid of the people. They knew well enough that his parable referred to them.

²⁰ They watched him, however, and sent some spies into the crowd, pretending that they were honest men, to fasten on something that he might say which could be used to hand him over to the authority and power of the governor.

^21-22 These men asked him, “Master, we know that what you say and teach is right, and that you teach the way of God truly without fear or favour. Now, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

^23-24 But Jesus saw through their cunning and said to them, “Show me one of the coins. Whose face is this, and whose name is in the inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they said.

²⁵ “Then give to Caesar,” he replied, “what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”

²⁶ So his reply gave them no sort of handle that they could use against him publicly. And in fact they were so taken aback by his answer that they had nothing more to say.