Book of Common Prayer
The judgment of James
12 The whole company was silent, and listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders which God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had finished, James replied.
“My dear brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Symeon has explained how, at the beginning, God graciously favored the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his own name. 15 This, indeed, is in accordance with the words of the prophets, which say,
16 After this I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which had collapsed,
and I will build the ruins again, and set them straight,
17 so that the rest of the human race may seek the Lord,
and all the nations upon whom my name has been called.
Thus says the Lord, who has made these things 18 known from of old.
19 “Therefore this is my judgment: we should not cause extra difficulties for those of the Gentiles who have turned to God. 20 Rather, we should send them a message, warning them to keep away from things that have been polluted by idols, from fornication, from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 Moses, after all, has from ancient times had people proclaiming him from city to city, since he is read in the synagogues sabbath after sabbath.”
Jairus’s daughter and the woman with chronic bleeding
21 Jesus crossed over once more in the boat to the other side. There a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the seashore.
22 One of the synagogue presidents, a man named Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus he fell down at his feet.
23 “My daughter’s going to die! My daughter’s going to die!” he pleaded. “Please come—lay your hands on her—rescue her and let her live!”
24 Jesus went off with him. A large crowd followed, and pressed in on him.
25 A woman who had had internal bleeding for twelve years heard about Jesus. 26 (She’d had a rough time at the hands of one doctor after another; she’d spent all she had on treatment, and had got worse rather than better.) 27 She came up in the crowd behind him and touched his clothes. 28 “If I can just touch his clothes,” she said to herself, “I’ll be rescued.” 29 At once her flow of blood dried up. She knew, in her body, that her illness was cured.
30 Jesus knew at once, inside himself, that power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see this crowd crushing you,” said the disciples, “and you say ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 He looked round to see who had done it. 33 The woman came up; she was afraid and trembling, but she knew what had happened to her. She fell down in front of him and told him the whole truth.
34 “My daughter,” Jesus said to her, “your faith has rescued you. Go in peace. Be healed from your illness.”
The raising of Jairus’s daughter
35 As he said this, some people arrived from the synagogue president’s house.
“Your daughter’s dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Jesus overheard the message. “Don’t be afraid!” he said to the synagogue president. “Just believe!”
37 He didn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James and James’s brother John. 38 They arrived at the synagogue president’s house, and saw a commotion, with a lot of weeping and wailing. 39 Jesus went inside.
“Why are you making such a fuss?” he said. “Why all this weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s asleep.” 40 And they laughed at him.
He put them all out. Then he took the child’s father and mother, and his companions, and they went in to where the child was. 41 He took hold of her hand, and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Time to get up, little girl!” 42 At once the girl got up and walked about. (She was twelve years old.) They were astonished out of their wits. 43 Then he commanded them over and over not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.