Book of Common Prayer

⁶ After forty days Noach opened the window of the ark which he had built; ⁷ and he sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove, to see if the water had gone from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place for her feet to rest, so she returned to him in the ark, because the water still covered the whole earth. He put out his hand, took her and brought her in to him in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days and again sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came in to him in the evening, and there in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf, so Noach knew that the water had cleared from the earth. ¹² He waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, and she didn’t return to him any more.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of the 601st year the water had dried up from off the earth; so Noach removed the covering of the ark and looked; and, yes, the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ It was on the twenty-seventh day of the second month that the earth was dry.

(iv) ¹⁵ God said to Noach, ¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons and your son’s wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing you have with you — birds, livestock and every animal that creeps on the earth — so that they can swarm on the earth, be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noach went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives; ¹⁹ every animal, every creeping thing and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

²⁰ Noach built an altar to Adonai. Then he took from every clean animal and every clean bird, and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ Adonai smelled the sweet aroma, and Adonai said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, since the imaginings of a person’s heart are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy all living things, as I have done. ²² So long as the earth exists, sowing time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great cohen gadol who has passed through to the highest heaven, Yeshua, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we acknowledge as true. ¹⁵ For we do not have a cohen gadol unable to empathize with our weaknesses; since in every respect he was tempted just as we are, the only difference being that he did not sin. ¹⁶ Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne from which God gives grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

5 For every cohen gadol taken from among men is appointed to act on people’s behalf with regard to things concerning God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He can deal gently with the ignorant and with those who go astray, since he too is subject to weakness. ³ Also, because of this weakness, he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as those of the people. ⁴ And no one takes this honor upon himself, rather, he is called by God, just as Aharon was.

⁵ So neither did the Messiah glorify himself to become cohen gadol; rather, it was the One who said to him,

⁶ Also, as he says in another place,

²³ Now while Yeshua was in Yerushalayim at the Pesach festival, there were many people who “believed in his name” when they saw the miracles he performed. ²⁴ But he did not commit himself to them, for he knew what people are like — ²⁵ that is, he didn’t need anyone to inform him about a person, because he knew what was in the person’s heart.

3 There was a man among the P’rushim, named Nakdimon, who was a ruler of the Judeans. ² This man came to Yeshua by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know it is from God that you have come as a teacher; for no one can do these miracles you perform unless God is with him.” ³ “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nakdimon said to him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” ⁵ Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. ⁶ What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Stop being amazed at my telling you that you must be born again from above! ⁸ The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.”

⁹ Nakdimon replied, “How can this happen?” ¹⁰ Yeshua answered him, “You hold the office of teacher in Isra’el, and you don’t know this? ¹¹ Yes, indeed! I tell you that what we speak about, we know; and what we give evidence of, we have seen; but you people don’t accept our evidence! ¹² If you people don’t believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of heaven? ¹³ No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; ¹⁵ so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.