Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying these things, he departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.

²Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”

⁴“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female,”

⁵and he also said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?

⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷“Why then,” they asked him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”

⁸He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning.

⁹I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”

¹⁰His disciples said to him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry.”

¹¹He responded, “Not everyone can accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given.

¹²For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs who were made by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept it should accept it.”

¹³Then children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

¹⁵After placing his hands on them, he went on from there.

¹⁶Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

¹⁷“Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸“Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness;

¹⁹honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

²⁰“I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”

²¹“If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²²When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

²³Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁶Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

²⁷Then Peter responded to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you. So what will there be for us?”

²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

¹The LORD spoke to Moses:

²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God.

³Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.

⁴You are to practice my ordinances and you are to keep my statutes by following them; I am the LORD your God.

⁵Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live if he does them. I am the LORD.

⁶“You are not to come near any close relative for sexual intercourse; I am the LORD.

⁷You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father and mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her.

⁸You are not to have sex with your father’s wife; she is your father’s family.

⁹You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s, whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her.

¹⁰You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your family.

¹¹You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted by your father; she is your sister.

¹²You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.

¹³You are not to have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.

¹⁴You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual intercourse; she is your aunt.

¹⁵You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her.

¹⁶You are not to have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s family.

¹⁷You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.

¹⁸You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.

¹⁹“You are not to approach a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.

²⁰You are not to have sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her.

²¹“You are not to sacrifice any of your children in the fire to Molech. Do not profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.

²²You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman; it is detestable.

²³You are not to have sexual intercourse with any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴“Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things.

²⁵The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

²⁶But you are to keep my statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable acts — not the native or the alien who resides among you.

²⁷For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, and the land has become defiled.

²⁸If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you.

²⁹Any person who does any of these detestable practices is to be cut off from his people.

³⁰You must keep my instruction to not do any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am the LORD your God.”

¹Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.

²For the person who speaks in another tongue is not speaking to people but to God, since no one understands him; he speaks mysteries in the Spirit.

³On the other hand, the person who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation.

⁴The person who speaks in another tongue builds himself up, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

⁵I wish all of you spoke in other tongues, but even more that you prophesied. The person who prophesies is greater than the person who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be built up.

⁶So now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in other tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you with a revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

⁷Even lifeless instruments that produce sounds — whether flute or harp  — if they don’t make a distinction in the notes, how will what is played on the flute or harp be recognized?

⁸In fact, if the bugle makes an unclear sound, who will prepare for battle?

⁹In the same way, unless you use your tongue for intelligible speech, how will what is spoken be known? For you will be speaking into the air.

¹⁰There are doubtless many different kinds of languages in the world, none is without meaning.

¹¹Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker will be a foreigner to me.

¹²So also you — since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in building up the church.

¹³Therefore the person who speaks in another tongue should pray that he can interpret.

¹⁴For if I pray in another tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

¹⁵What then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding. I will sing praise with the spirit, and I will also sing praise with my understanding.

¹⁶Otherwise, if you praise with the spirit, how will the outsider say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?

¹⁷For you may very well be giving thanks, but the other person is not being built up.

¹⁸I thank God that I speak in other tongues more than all of you;

¹⁹yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, in order to teach others also, than ten thousand words in another tongue.

²⁰Brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking.

²¹It is written in the law, I will speak to this people by people of other tongues and by the lips of foreigners, and even then, they will not listen to me, says the Lord.

²²Speaking in other tongues, then, is intended as a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

²³If, therefore, the whole church assembles together and all are speaking in other tongues and people who are outsiders or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

²⁴But if all are prophesying and some unbeliever or outsider comes in, he is convicted by all and is called to account by all.

²⁵The secrets of his heart will be revealed, and as a result he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is really among you.”

²⁶What then, brothers and sisters? Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, another tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up.

²⁷If anyone speaks in another tongue, there are to be only two, or at the most three, each in turn, and let someone interpret.

²⁸But if there is no interpreter, that person is to keep silent in the church and speak to himself and God.

²⁹Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate.

³⁰But if something has been revealed to another person sitting there, the first prophet should be silent.

³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn and everyone may be encouraged.

³²And the prophets’ spirits are subject to the prophets,

³³since God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

³⁴the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to submit themselves, as the law also says.

³⁵If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, since it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

³⁶Or did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only?

³⁷If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.

³⁸If anyone ignores this, he will be ignored.

³⁹So then, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in other tongues.

⁴⁰But everything is to be done decently and in order.

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

³Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all.

⁴For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

⁵Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;

⁶and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.

⁷Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In the same way these people — relying on their dreams — defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones.

⁹Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹⁰But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct — like irrational animals — by these things they are destroyed.

¹¹Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn — fruitless, twice dead and uprooted.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

¹⁴It was about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones

¹⁵to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.”

¹⁶These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

¹⁷But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁸They told you, “In the end time there will be scoffers living according to their own ungodly desires.”

¹⁹These people create divisions and are worldly, not having the Spirit.

²⁰But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

²²Have mercy on those who waver;

²³save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

²⁴Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,

²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

¹Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.

²So I commended the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive.

³But better than either of them is the one who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.

⁴I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one person’s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

⁵The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh.

⁶Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.

⁷Again, I saw futility under the sun:

⁸There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. “Who am I struggling for,” he asks, “and depriving myself of good things?” This too is futile and a miserable task.

⁹Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.

¹⁰For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.

¹¹Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm?

¹²And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

¹³Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings.

¹⁴For he came from prison to be king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.

¹⁵I saw all the living, who move about under the sun, follow a second youth who succeeds him.

¹⁶There is no limit to all the people who were before them, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹A song. A psalm of David. [1] My heart is confident, God; I will sing; I will sing praises with the whole of my being.

²Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn.

³I will praise you, LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.

⁴For your faithful love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

⁵God, be exalted above the heavens, and let your glory be over the whole earth.

⁶Save with your right hand and answer me so that those you love may be rescued.

⁷God has spoken in his sanctuary: “I will celebrate! I will divide up Shechem. I will apportion the Valley of Succoth.

⁸Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.

⁹Moab is my washbasin; I throw my sandal on Edom. I shout in triumph over Philistia.”

¹⁰Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

¹¹God, haven’t you rejected us? God, you do not march out with our armies.

¹²Give us aid against the foe, for human help is worthless.

¹³With God we will perform valiantly; he will trample our foes.

¹A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.

²The tongue of the wise makes knowledge attractive, but the mouth of fools blurts out foolishness.

³The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, observing the wicked and the good.

⁴The tongue that heals is a tree of life, but a devious tongue breaks the spirit.

⁵A fool despises his father’s discipline, but a person who accepts correction is sensible.

⁶The house of the righteous has great wealth, but trouble accompanies the income of the wicked.

⁷The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge, but not so the heart of fools.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

⁹The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves the one who pursues righteousness.

¹⁰Discipline is harsh for the one who leaves the path; the one who hates correction will die.

¹¹Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD  —  how much more, human hearts.

¹²A mocker doesn’t love one who corrects him; he will not consult the wise.

¹³A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.

¹⁴A discerning mind seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

¹⁵All the days of the oppressed are miserable, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

¹⁶Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.

¹⁷Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred.

¹⁸A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but one slow to anger calms strife.

¹⁹A slacker’s way is like a thorny hedge, but the path of the upright is a highway.

²⁰A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish man despises his mother.

²¹Foolishness brings joy to one without sense, but a person with understanding walks a straight path.

²²Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

²³A person takes joy in giving an answer; and a timely word — how good that is!

²⁴For the prudent the path of life leads upward, so that he may avoid going down to Sheol.

²⁵The LORD tears apart the house of the proud, but he protects the widow’s territory.

²⁶The LORD detests the plans of the one who is evil, but pleasant words are pure.

²⁷The one who profits dishonestly troubles his household, but the one who hates bribes will live.

²⁸The mind of the righteous person thinks before answering, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil things.

²⁹The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

³⁰Bright eyes cheer the heart; good news strengthens the bones.

³¹One who listens to life-giving rebukes will be at home among the wise.

³²Anyone who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever listens to correction acquires good sense.

³³The fear of the LORD is what wisdom teaches, and humility comes before honor.

¹King Solomon reigned over all Israel,

²and these were his officials: Azariah son of Zadok, priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, court historian;

⁴Benaiah son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army; Zadok and Abiathar, priests;

⁵Azariah son of Nathan, in charge of the deputies; Zabud son of Nathan, a priest and adviser to the king;

⁶Ahishar, in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve deputies for all Israel. They provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month out of the year.

⁸These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (he had Socoh and the whole land of Hepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (Taphath daughter of Solomon was his wife);

¹²Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

¹⁴Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also had married a daughter of Solomon — Basemath);

¹⁶Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan. There was one deputy in the land of Judah.

²⁰Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing.

²¹Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. They offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon’s provisions for one day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal,

²³ten fattened cattle, twenty range cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and pen-fed poultry,

²⁴for he had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza and over all the kings west of the Euphrates. He had peace on all his surrounding borders.

²⁵Throughout Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba, each person under his own vine and his own fig tree.

²⁶Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

²⁷Each of those deputies for a month in turn provided food for King Solomon and for everyone who came to King Solomon’s table. They neglected nothing.

²⁸Each man brought the barley and the straw for the chariot teams and the other horses to the required place according to his assignment.

²⁹God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore.

³⁰Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹He was wiser than anyone  — wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol. His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.

³²Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005.

³³He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

³⁴Emissaries of all peoples, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.

¹Then all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

²the prophet Jeremiah and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes),

³that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”

⁴So the prophet Jeremiah said to them, “I have heard. I will now pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and I will tell you every word that the LORD answers you; I won’t withhold a word from you.”

⁵And they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

⁶Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the LORD our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the LORD our God!”

⁷At the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,

⁸and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

⁹He said to them, “This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel to whom you sent me to bring your petition before him:

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will rebuild and not demolish you, and I will plant and not uproot you, because I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought on you.

¹¹Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear; don’t be afraid of him’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘because I am with you to save you and rescue you from him.

¹²I will grant you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and allow you to return to your own soil.’

¹³“But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ in order to disobey the LORD your God,

¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, instead we’ll go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are firmly resolved to go to Egypt and stay there for a while,

¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels there to Egypt, and you will die there.

¹⁷All who resolve to go to Egypt to stay there for a while will die by the sword, famine, and plague. They will have no survivor or fugitive from the disaster I will bring on them.’

¹⁸“For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents, so will my fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ Know for certain that I have warned you today!

²⁰You have gone astray at the cost of your lives because you are the ones who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us, and we’ll act accordingly.’

²¹For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God in everything he has sent me to tell you.

²²Now therefore, know for certain that by the sword, famine, and plague you will die in the place where you desired to go to stay for a while.”

¹Five days later Ananias the high priest came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus. These men presented their case against Paul to the governor.

²When Paul was called in, Tertullus began to accuse him and said: “We enjoy great peace because of you, and reforms are taking place for the benefit of this nation because of your foresight.

³We acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with utmost gratitude.

⁴But, so that I will not burden you any further, I request that you would be kind enough to give us a brief hearing.

⁵For we have found this man to be a plague, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the Roman world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

⁶He even tried to desecrate the temple, and so we apprehended him. By examining him yourself you will be able to discern the truth about these charges we are bringing against him.”

⁷

⁸

⁹The Jews also joined in the attack, alleging that these things were true.

¹⁰When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “Because I know you have been a judge of this nation for many years, I am glad to offer my defense in what concerns me.

¹¹You can verify for yourself that it is no more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem.

¹²They didn’t find me arguing with anyone or causing a disturbance among the crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or anywhere in the city.

¹³Neither can they prove the charges they are now making against me.

¹⁴But I admit this to you: I worship the God of my ancestors according to the Way, which they call a sect, believing everything that is in accordance with the law and written in the prophets.

¹⁵I have a hope in God, which these men themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous.

¹⁶I always strive to have a clear conscience toward God and men.

¹⁷After many years, I came to bring charitable gifts and offerings to my people.

¹⁸While I was doing this, some Jews from Asia found me ritually purified in the temple, without a crowd and without any uproar.

¹⁹It is they who ought to be here before you to bring charges, if they have anything against me.

²⁰Or let these men here state what wrongdoing they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin,

²¹other than this one statement I shouted while standing among them, ‘Today I am on trial before you concerning the resurrection of the dead.’”

²²Since Felix was well informed about the Way, he adjourned the hearing, saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.”

²³He ordered that the centurion keep Paul under guard, though he could have some freedom, and that he should not prevent any of his friends from meeting his needs.

²⁴Several days later, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and listened to him on the subject of faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵Now as he spoke about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix became afraid and replied, “Leave for now, but when I have an opportunity I’ll call for you.”

²⁶At the same time he was also hoping that Paul would offer him money. So he sent for him quite often and conversed with him.

²⁷After two years had passed, Porcius Festus succeeded Felix, and because Felix wanted to do the Jews a favor, he left Paul in prison.