Book of Common Prayer

¹⁵ After those days we made ourselves ready and went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and they brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we would lodge. ¹⁷ And when we got to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. ¹⁸ And on the morrow, Paul went in with us to James. And all the elders came together. ¹⁹ And when he had greeted them, he told in order all the things that God had wrought among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰ And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and said to him, You see, brother, how many thousand Jews there are who believe, and they are all zealous over the law. ²¹ And they are informed of you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and say that they ought not to circumcise their children, nor live according to the customs. ²² What then? This group is bound to get together, because they will hear that you have come. ²³ Do therefore what we say to you: We have four men who are under a vow. ²⁴ Take them, and purify yourself with them, and bear their expenses so that they can shave their heads, and everyone will know that those things that they have heard concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law. ²⁵ For concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and concluded that they need observe no such things, but should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication.

²⁶ Then the next day Paul took the men and purified himself with them, and entered into the temple, declaring that he was observing the days of purification until an offering should be offered for every one of them.

²⁷ And after that, Jesus went out and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom, and said to him, Follow me. ²⁸ And he left all, rose up, and followed him. ²⁹ And that same Levi gave for Jesus a great feast at home in his own house. And there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat at food with him.

³⁰ And the scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? ³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, The whole have no need for the physician, but the sick do. ³² I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

³³ Then they said to him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and pray, and the disciples of the Pharisees also, but yours eat and drink?

³⁴ And he said to them, Can you make the children of the wedding fast while the bridegroom is present with them? ³⁵ The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast, in those days.

³⁶ Then he spoke to them in a similitude: No one patches a piece of a new garment into an old vesture, because if he does, then he will have cut up the new, and the piece that was taken out of the new does not agree with the old. ³⁷ Also, no one pours new wine into old wineskins, because if he does, the new wine bursts the vessels and runs out, and the vessels are destroyed. ³⁸ But new wine must be poured into new vessels, and both are preserved. ³⁹ Also, no one who drinks old wine can straightaway abide the new, for he says the old is pleasanter.