Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Praise to God for His Holiness

The Child Samuel at Shiloh

¹⁸ Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy girded with a linen ephod.^{[a] 19} And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰ Then Eli would bless Elka′nah and his wife, and say, “The Lord give you children by this woman for the loan which she lent to^[b] the Lord”; so then they would return to their home.

²¹ And the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord.

The Council at Jerusalem

15 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. ³ So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoeni′cia and Samar′ia, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. ⁵ But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.”

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

²² Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsab′bas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, ²³ with the following letter: “The brethren, both the apostles and the elders, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cili′cia, greeting. ²⁴ Since we have heard that some persons from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, ²⁵ it has seemed good to us in assembly to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: ²⁹ that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled^[a] and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰ So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. ³¹ And when they read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation. ³² And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words and strengthened them. ³³ And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brethren to those who had sent them.^{[b] 35} But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.