Book of Common Prayer

The value and significance of the old testament, and how far the new excels it.

9 That first tabernacle indeed had observances, and the serving of God, and temporal holiness. ² For a foretabernacle was made, where the candlestick and the table and the showbread were, which is called holy. ³ But within the second veil there was a tabernacle that is called holiest of all. ⁴ It had the golden censer, and the ark of the testament overlaid round about with gold, in which was the golden pot with manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the testament. ⁵ Over the ark were the cherubims of glory covering the seat of grace – of which things we will not now speak particularly.

⁶ When these things had been set up accordingly, the priests went constantly into the first tabernacle and executed the service of God. ⁷ But into the second went the high priest alone, once every year – and not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the ignorance of the people. ⁸ By this the Holy Spirit was signifying that the way of holy things was not yet opened, while as yet the first tabernacle was standing. ⁹ That tabernacle was a similitude for the time then present, and in which gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not make the offerer perfect as pertaining to the conscience, ¹⁰ with only foods and drinks, and various washings and observances of the flesh, which were prescribed until the time of reformation.

¹¹ But Christ, being a high priest of good things to come, came by a greater and a more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands; that is to say, not of this creation. ¹² Neither was it by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered once and for all into the holy place, and found eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of oxen and of goats and the ashes of a heifer when sprinkled purified the unclean insofar as the purifying of the flesh is concerned, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works in order to serve the living God?

He heals the man who had been sick for 38 years. The Jews accuse him. He answers for himself and reproves them.

5 After that there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² And there is at Jerusalem, by the slaughterhouse, a pool called in the Hebrew tongue Bethseda, having five porches, ³ in which lay a great number of sick folk, of the blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴ For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first after the stirring of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatever disease he had.

⁵ And a certain man was there who had been diseased 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that for a long time now he had been diseased, he said to him, Do you want to be made whole? ⁷ The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But in the meantime, when I am about to come, another steps down before me. ⁸ And Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. ⁹ And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath day. ¹⁰ The Jews therefore said to him who had been healed, It is the Sabbath day; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. ¹¹ He answered them, The man who made me whole said to me, Take up your bed and walk. ¹² Then they asked him, What man is it that said to you, Take up your bed and walk? ¹³ But the man that was healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had gotten himself away, because there was a press of people in the place.

¹⁴ And after that, Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, Behold, you are made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you. ¹⁵ The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole. ¹⁶ And therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought means to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.

¹⁷ And Jesus told them, My Father works until now, and I work.

¹⁸ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, not only because he had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, and made himself equal with God.