Book of Common Prayer

Roman fair-mindedness

³⁰ Next day the colonel, determined to get to the bottom of Paul’s accusation by the Jews, released him and ordered the assembly of the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin. Then he took Paul down and placed him in front of them.

Paul again attempts defence

23 ^1-3 Paul looked steadily at the Sanhedrin and spoke to them, “men and brothers, I have lived my life with a perfectly clear conscience before God up to the present day—” Then Ananias the High Priest ordered those who were standing near to strike him in the mouth. At this Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you white-washed wall! How dare you sit there judging me by the Law and give orders for me to be struck, which is clean contrary to the Law?”

⁴ Those who stood by said, “Do you mean to insult God’s High Priest?”

⁵ But Paul said, “My brothers, I did not know that he was the High Priest, for it is written: ‘You shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people.’”

Paul seizes his opportunity

⁶ Then Paul, realising that part of the council were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, raised his voice and said to them, “I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. It is for my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial!”

^7-9a At these words an immediate tension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the meeting was divided. For the Sadducees claim that there is no resurrection and that there is neither angel nor spirit, while the Pharisees believe in all three. A great uproar ensued and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party jumped to their feet and protested violently.

^9b “We find nothing wrong with this man! Suppose some angel or spirit has really spoken to him?”

¹⁰ As the tension mounted the colonel began to fear that Paul would be torn to pieces between them. He therefore ordered his soldiers to come down and rescue him from them and bring him back to the barracks.

God’s direct encouragement to Paul

¹¹ That night the Lord stood by Paul, and said, “Take heart!—for as you have witnessed boldly for me in Jerusalem so you must give your witness to me in Rome.”

Faith at Capernaum

2 ^1-5 When he re-entered Capernaum some days later, a rumour spread that he was in somebody’s house. Such a large crowd collected that while he was giving them his message it was impossible even to get near the doorway. Meanwhile, a group of people arrived to see him, bringing with them a paralytic whom four of them were carrying. And when they found it was impossible to get near him because of the crowd, they removed the tiles from the roof over Jesus’ head and let down the paralytic’s bed through the opening. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man on the bed, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

^6-7 But some of the scribes were sitting there silently asking themselves, “Why does this man talk such blasphemy? Who can possibly forgive sins but God?”

^8-11 Jesus realised instantly what they were thinking, and said to them, “why must you argue like this in your minds? Which do you suppose is easier—to say to a paralysed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or ‘Get up, pick up your bed and walk’? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has full authority to forgive sins on earth, I say to you,”—and here he spoke to the paralytic—“Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”

¹² At once the man sprang to his feet, picked up his bed and walked off in full view of them all. Everyone was amazed, praised God, and said, “We have never seen anything like this before.”