In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.

For there are many ¹  rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, ² 

Such testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply that they may be healthy in the faith

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, ¹  quarrels, and fights about the law, ²  because they are useless and empty.

From James, ¹  a slave ²  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ³  Greetings!

Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. ¹  For Judah has profaned ²  the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god! ³ 

For this reason the Jewish leaders ¹  were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

Children, I am still with you for a little while. You will look for me, ¹  and just as I said to the Jewish religious leaders, ²  ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ ³  now I tell you the same. ⁴ 

Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being ¹  handed over ²  to the Jewish authorities. ³  But as it is, ⁴  my kingdom is not from here.”

From this point on, Pilate tried ¹  to release him. But the Jewish leaders ²  shouted out, ³  “If you release this man, ⁴  you are no friend of Caesar! ⁵  Everyone who claims to be a king ⁶  opposes Caesar!”

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples had gathered together ¹  and locked the doors ²  of the place ³  because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. ⁴  Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

He said to them, “You know that ¹  it is unlawful ²  for a Jew ³  to associate with or visit a Gentile, ⁴  yet God has shown me that I should call no person ⁵  defiled or ritually unclean. ⁶ 

They have been informed about you – that you teach all the Jews now living ¹  among the Gentiles to abandon ²  Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children ³  or live ⁴  according to our customs.

Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath ¹  (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), ²  the Jewish leaders ³  asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs ⁴  broken ⁵  and the bodies taken down. ⁶ 

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders ¹ ), ²  asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate ³  gave him permission, so he went and took the body away. ⁴ 

The next day, because the commanding officer ¹  wanted to know the true reason ²  Paul ³  was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole council ⁴  to assemble. He then brought ⁵  Paul down and had him stand before them.

They called out loudly in the Judahite dialect to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, trying to scare and terrify them so they could seize the city.

Leave the work on this temple of God alone. ¹  Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this temple of God in its proper place.

It was determined ¹  that from the descendants of the priests, the following had taken foreign wives: from the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ¹  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ²  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ³