Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away.

²At harvest time he sent a servant to the farmers to collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from them.

³But they took him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

⁴Again he sent another servant to them, and they hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.

⁵Then he sent another, and they killed that one. He also sent many others; some they beat, and others they killed.

⁶He still had one to send, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

⁷But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

⁸So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰Haven’t you read this Scripture: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

¹¹ This came about from the Lord and is wonderful in our eyes?”

¹²They were looking for a way to arrest him but feared the crowd because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they left him and went away.

¹³Then they sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to Jesus to trap him in his words.

¹⁴When they came, they said to him, “Teacher, we know you are truthful and don’t care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality but teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

¹⁵But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.”

¹⁶They brought a coin. “Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them. “Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

¹⁸Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and questioned him:

¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife behind but no child, that man should take the wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

²⁰There were seven brothers. The first married a woman, and dying, left no offspring.

²¹The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise.

²²None of the seven left offspring. Last of all, the woman died too.

²³In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?”

²⁴Jesus spoke to them, “Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God?

²⁵For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.

²⁶And as for the dead being raised — haven’t you read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?

²⁷He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are badly mistaken.”

²⁸One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

³¹The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

³²Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one else except him.

³³And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to question him any longer.

³⁵While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?

³⁶David himself says by the Holy Spirit: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’

³⁷David himself calls him ‘Lord’; how then can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

³⁸He also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who want greetings in the marketplaces,

³⁹the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.

⁴⁰They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”

⁴¹Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums.

⁴²Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.

⁴³Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

⁴⁴For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had  — all she had to live on.”

¹Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman).

²They said, “Does the LORD speak only through Moses? Does he not also speak through us?” And the LORD heard it.

³Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth.

⁴Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out.

⁵Then the LORD descended in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward,

⁶he said: “Listen to what I say: If there is a prophet among you from the LORD, I make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.

⁷Not so with my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my household.

⁸I speak with him directly, openly, and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. So why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

⁹The LORD’s anger burned against them, and he left.

¹⁰As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, resembling snow. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased

¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed.

¹²Please don’t let her be like a dead baby whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “God, please heal her!”

¹⁴The LORD answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”

¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in.

¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

¹Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.

²Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

³For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

⁴Let each person examine his own work, and then he can take pride in himself alone, and not compare himself with someone else.

⁵For each person will have to carry his own load.

⁶Let the one who is taught the word share all his good things with the teacher.

⁷Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,

⁸because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

⁹Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

¹¹Look at what large letters I use as I write to you in my own handwriting.

¹²Those who want to make a good impression in the flesh are the ones who would compel you to be circumcised  — but only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

¹³For even the circumcised don’t keep the law themselves, and yet they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh.

¹⁴But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

¹⁵For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

¹⁶May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy even to the Israel of God!

¹⁷From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

¹⁸Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

²I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

³Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.

⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

⁵Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.

⁷The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

⁸But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars  — their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

⁹Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰He then carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

¹¹arrayed with God’s glory. Her radiance was like a precious jewel, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

¹²The city had a massive high wall, with twelve gates. Twelve angels were at the gates; the names of the twelve tribes of Israel’s sons were inscribed on the gates.

¹³There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

¹⁴The city wall had twelve foundations, and the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations.

¹⁵The one who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.

¹⁶The city is laid out in a square; its length and width are the same. He measured the city with the rod at 12,000 stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal.

¹⁷Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which the angel used.

¹⁸The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold clear as glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of jewel: the first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

²¹The twelve gates are twelve pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

²²I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

²⁵Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there.

²⁶They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

²⁷Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.

¹Call out! Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?

²For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.

³I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.

⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.

⁵The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.

⁶For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

⁷But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.

⁹He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹⁰He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

¹¹He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

¹³He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

¹⁵He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷See how happy is the person whom God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.

²¹You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

²⁵You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will approach the grave in full vigor, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

²⁷We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

¹A song of ascents. [1] Since my youth they have often attacked me — let Israel say —

²Since my youth they have often attacked me, but they have not prevailed against me.

³Plowmen plowed over my back; they made their furrows long.

⁴The LORD is righteous; he has cut the ropes of the wicked.

⁵Let all who hate Zion be driven back in disgrace.

⁶Let them be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it grows up

⁷and can’t even fill the hands of the reaper or the arms of the one who binds sheaves.

⁸Then none who pass by will say, “May the LORD’s blessing be on you. We bless you in the name of the LORD.”

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding

²so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol.

⁶She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

⁷So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house.

⁹Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel;

¹⁰strangers will drain your resources, and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.

¹¹At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed,

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction.

¹³I didn’t obey my teachers or listen closely to my instructors.

¹⁴I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs flow in the streets, streams in the public squares?

¹⁷They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving deer, a graceful doe  — let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever.

²⁰Why, my son, would you lose yourself with a forbidden woman or embrace a wayward woman?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the LORD’s eyes, and he considers all his paths.

²²A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.

²³He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity.

¹Joram son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria during the eighteenth year of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, and he reigned twelve years.

²He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, but not like his father and mother, for he removed the sacred pillar of Baal his father had made.

³Nevertheless, Joram clung to the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit. He did not turn away from them.

⁴King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams,

⁵but when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶So King Joram marched out from Samaria at that time and mobilized all Israel.

⁷Then he sent a message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?” Jehoshaphat said, “I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

⁸He asked, “Which route should we take?” He replied, “The route of the Wilderness of Edom.”

⁹So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out. After they had traveled their indirect route for seven days, they had no water for the army or the animals with them.

¹⁰Then the king of Israel said, “Oh no, the LORD has summoned these three kings, only to hand them over to Moab.”

¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD here? Let’s inquire of the LORD through him.” One of the servants of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat, who used to pour water on Elijah’s hands, is here.”

¹²Jehoshaphat affirmed, “The word of the LORD is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went to him.

¹³However, Elisha said to King Joram of Israel, “What do we have in common? Go to the prophets of your father and your mother!” But the king of Israel replied, “No, because it is the LORD who has summoned these three kings to hand them over to Moab.”

¹⁴Elisha responded, “By the life of the LORD of Armies, before whom I stand: If I did not have respect for King Jehoshaphat of Judah, I wouldn’t look at you; I would not take notice of you.

¹⁵Now, bring me a musician.” While the musician played, the LORD’s hand came on Elisha.

¹⁶Then he said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Dig ditch after ditch in this wadi.’

¹⁷For the LORD says, ‘You will not see wind or rain, but the wadi will be filled with water, and you will drink — you and your cattle and your animals.’

¹⁸This is easy in the LORD’s sight. He will also hand Moab over to you.

¹⁹Then you will attack every fortified city and every choice city. You will cut down every good tree and stop up every spring. You will ruin every good piece of land with stones.”

²⁰About the time for the grain offering the next morning, water suddenly came from the direction of Edom and filled the land.

²¹All Moab had heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. So all who could bear arms, from the youngest to the oldest, were summoned and took their stand at the border.

²²When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw that the water across from them was red like blood.

²³“This is blood!” they exclaimed. “The kings have crossed swords and their men have killed one another. So, to the spoil, Moab!”

²⁴However, when the Moabites came to Israel’s camp, the Israelites attacked them, and they fled from them. So Israel went into the land attacking the Moabites.

²⁵They would destroy the cities, and each of them would throw a stone to cover every good piece of land. They would stop up every spring and cut down every good tree. This went on until only the buildings of Kir-hareseth were left. Then men with slings surrounded the city and attacked it.

²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took seven hundred swordsmen with him to try to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not do it.

²⁷So he took his firstborn son, who was to become king in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. Great wrath was on the Israelites, and they withdrew from him and returned to their land.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

³You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴Your altars will be desolated and your shrines smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.

⁵I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your shrines cut down, and what you have made wiped out.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

⁸“Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.

⁹Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their detestable actions of every kind.

¹⁰And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

¹¹“This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.

¹²The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath on them.

¹³You will all know that I am the LORD when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak — the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.

¹⁴I will stretch out my hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

¹After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

²As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.”

⁴Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly.

⁶When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,

⁷and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king — Jesus.”

⁸The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset.

⁹After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

¹⁰As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

¹²Consequently, many of them believed, including a number of the prominent Greek women as well as men.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and upsetting the crowds.

¹⁴Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to go to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed on there.

¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities” — because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?

²⁰Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

²²Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.

²³For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it  — he is Lord of heaven and earth  — does not live in shrines made by hands.

²⁵Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.

²⁶From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

²⁷He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

³⁰“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.”

³³So Paul left their presence.

³⁴However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.