Book of Common Prayer

²² Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God among you with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves know. ²³ Him you have taken by the hands of unrighteous persons, after he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and have crucified and slain. ²⁴ But God has raised him up, and loosed the sorrows of death, because it was impossible that he should be held by it. ²⁵ For David speaks of him: I foresaw God always before me. For he is on my right hand, that I should not be shaken. ²⁶ Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover also, my flesh shall rest in hope, ²⁷ because you will not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer your Holy One to see corruption. ²⁸ You have shown me the ways of life, and will make me full of joy with your countenance.

²⁹ Men and brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David. For he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre remains with us to this day. ³⁰ Therefore, seeing he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his loins would sit on his seat, ³¹ in that Christ would rise again in the flesh, he saw beforehand and spoke of the resurrection of Christ – that his soul would not be left in hell, nor would his flesh see corruption. ³² This Jesus, God has raised up – whereof we are all witnesses.

³³ Since now he is exalted by the right hand of God, and has received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has shed forth that which you now see and hear. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into heaven, but he said: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand ³⁵ until I make your enemies your footstool. ³⁶ So therefore, let all the house of Israel know most certainly that God has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

⁴¹ Then he said to them, How is it they say that Christ is David’s son? ⁴² And David himself says in the book of the Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, ⁴³ till I make your enemies your footstool. ⁴⁴ Seeing David calls him Lord, how is he then his son?

⁴⁵ Then, in the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long clothing, and love greetings in the markets, the highest seats in the synagogues, and the places of honour at feasts; ⁴⁷ who devour widows’ houses, and that under a colour of long praying. The same shall receive greater damnation.

Christ commends the poor widow. He tells of the destruction of Jerusalem, of false teachers, of the signs and troubles to come, of the end of the world, and of his own coming.

21 As he looked on, he saw the rich, how they cast their offerings into the treasury. ² And he saw also a certain poor widow who cast in two small coins, ³ and he said, Of a truth I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. ⁴ For they all have added to the offering to God out of their surplus, but she, of her penury, has cast in all the substance that she had.