Now one ¹  day, as Jesus ²  was teaching the people in the temple courts ³  and proclaiming ⁴  the gospel, the chief priests and the experts in the law ⁵  with the elders came up ⁶ 

Day after day when I was with you in the temple courts, ¹  you did not arrest me. ²  But this is your hour, ³  and that of the power ⁴  of darkness!”

And a man lame ¹  from birth ²  was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day ³  so he could beg for money ⁴  from those going into the temple courts. ⁵ 

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits?

the mighty men and warriors, judges and prophets, omen readers and leaders, ¹ 

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple courts, ¹  he asked them for money. ² 

The Lord did as Moses asked ¹  – the ²  frogs died out of the houses, the villages, and the fields.

I saw something else on earth: ¹  In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, ²  there was wickedness.

A deceiver’s methods are evil; ¹  he dreams up evil plans ²  to ruin the poor with lies, even when the needy are in the right. ³ 

For this reason the law lacks power, ¹  and justice is never carried out. ²  Indeed, ³  the wicked intimidate ⁴  the innocent. ⁵  For this reason justice is perverted. ⁶ 

Now ¹  as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. ² 

Now ¹  as Jesus ²  was going out of the temple courts, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these tremendous stones and buildings!” ³ 

But when they bring you before the synagogues, ¹  the ²  rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you should make your defense ³  or what you should say,

(Jesus ¹  spoke these words near the offering box ²  while he was teaching in the temple courts. ³  No one seized him because his time ⁴  had not yet come.) ⁵ 

(For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him previously, and ¹  they assumed Paul had brought him into the inner temple courts.) ² 

They did not find me arguing ¹  with anyone or stirring up a crowd ²  in the temple courts ³  or in the synagogues ⁴  or throughout the city, ⁵ 

which I was doing when they found me in the temple, ritually purified, ¹  without a crowd or a disturbance. ² 

So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? ¹ 

If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, ¹  cried out, ²  “You both know me and know where I come from! ³  And I have not come on my own initiative, ⁴  but the one who sent me ⁵  is true. You do not know him, ⁶