Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

In Praise of God the Savior

¹⁷ The Lord gave Moses ¹⁸ the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them. ¹⁹ When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the Lord. ²⁰ When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new grain is to be presented as a special contribution to the Lord. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the grain you thresh. ²¹ For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the Lord from the bread you bake.

²² But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the Lord has given Moses. ²³ And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the Lord commanded through Moses. ²⁴ If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, an odor that pleases the Lord, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵ The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the Lord. ²⁶ The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa

26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak on your own behalf.” Paul stretched out his hand and defended himself as follows:

² “King Agrippa! I consider myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you from all the things these Jews accuse me of, ³ particularly since you know so well all the Jewish customs and disputes. I ask you, then, to listen to me with patience.

⁴ “All the Jews know how I have lived ever since I was young. They know how I have spent my whole life, at first in my own country and then in Jerusalem. ^5 (A)They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees. ⁶ And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors— ⁷ the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews! ^8 (B)Why do you who are here find it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?

^9 (C)“I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them. ¹¹ Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.