Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him;

²for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”

³While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.

⁴But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way?

⁵For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

⁶But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me.

⁷For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.

⁸She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.

⁹Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

¹⁰Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.

¹¹When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

¹²On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

¹³So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him,

¹⁴and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

¹⁵He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

¹⁶So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

¹⁷When it was evening, he came with the twelve.

¹⁸And when they had taken their places and were eating, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹They began to be distressed and to say to him one after another, “Surely, not I?”

²⁰He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me.

²¹For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”

²²While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”

²³Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it.

²⁴He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

²⁵Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

²⁶When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

²⁷And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’

²⁸But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

²⁹Peter said to him, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.”

³⁰Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

³¹But he said vehemently, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of them said the same.

³²They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

³³He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated.

³⁴And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.”

³⁵And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

³⁶He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”

³⁷He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?

³⁸Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

³⁹And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

⁴⁰And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him.

⁴¹He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴²Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”

⁴³Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.

⁴⁴Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.”

⁴⁵So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him.

⁴⁶Then they laid hands on him and arrested him.

⁴⁷But one of those who stood near drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit?

⁴⁹Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.”

⁵⁰All of them deserted him and fled.

⁵¹A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him,

⁵²but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.

⁵³They took Jesus to the high priest; and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes were assembled.

⁵⁴Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the guards, warming himself at the fire.

⁵⁵Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death; but they found none.

⁵⁶For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree.

⁵⁷Some stood up and gave false testimony against him, saying,

⁵⁸“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’”

⁵⁹But even on this point their testimony did not agree.

⁶⁰Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?”

⁶¹But he was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

⁶²Jesus said, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’”

⁶³Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “Why do we still need witnesses?

⁶⁴You have heard his blasphemy! What is your decision?” All of them condemned him as deserving death.

⁶⁵Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him over and beat him.

⁶⁶While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came by.

⁶⁷When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.”

⁶⁸But he denied it, saying, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about.” And he went out into the forecourt. Then the cock crowed.

⁶⁹And the servant-girl, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”

⁷⁰But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean.”

⁷¹But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about.”

⁷²At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

¹Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.

²And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites.

⁶And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes

⁷and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.

⁸If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”

¹⁰But the whole congregation threatened to stone them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.

¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

¹²I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹³But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them,

¹⁴and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; for you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say,

¹⁶‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷And now, therefore, let the power of the LORD be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation.’

¹⁹Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”

²⁰Then the LORD said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked;

²¹nevertheless — as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD —

²²none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,

²³shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it.

²⁴But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

²⁵Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

²⁶And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:

²⁷How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.

²⁸Say to them, “As I live,” says the LORD, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say:

²⁹your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,

³⁰not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

³¹But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.

³²But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.

³⁴According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.”

³⁵I the LORD have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.

³⁶And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land —

³⁷the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the LORD.

³⁸But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the LORD? That will not succeed.

⁴²Do not go up, for the LORD is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, had not left the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.

¹You were dead through the trespasses and sins

²in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

³All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us

⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved —

⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God —

⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

¹¹So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” — a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands —

¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,

¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;

¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

²¹In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

²²in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

¹“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer?

²Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages,

³so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.

⁸The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;

¹⁰they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more.

¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them,

¹⁸visit them every morning, test them every moment?

¹⁹Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you?

²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

¹O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

²But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

³O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time on and forevermore.

¹My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you;

²keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

³bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him; he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

¹Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.

²Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.

³She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

⁴So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said.

⁵And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments.

⁶He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

⁸But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house.

¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.”

¹¹But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!

¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage.

¹³But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

¹⁴So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

¹⁵Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.”

¹⁶But he said, “As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing!” He urged him to accept, but he refused.

¹⁷Then Naaman said, “If not, please let two mule-loads of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god except the LORD.

¹⁸But may the LORD pardon your servant on one count: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I do bow down in the house of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant on this one count.”

¹⁹He said to him, “Go in peace.” Gehazi’s Greed But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance,

²⁰Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off too lightly by not accepting from him what he offered. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.”

²¹So Gehazi went after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he jumped down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is everything all right?”

²²He replied, “Yes, but my master has sent me to say, ‘Two members of a company of prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim; please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’”

²³Naaman said, “Please accept two talents.” He urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to two of his servants, who carried them in front of Gehazi.

²⁴When he came to the citadel, he took the bags from them, and stored them inside; he dismissed the men, and they left.

²⁵He went in and stood before his master; and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant has not gone anywhere at all.”

²⁶But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when someone left his chariot to meet you? Is this a time to accept money and to accept clothing, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves?

²⁷Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you, and to your descendants forever.” So he left his presence leprous, as white as snow.

¹In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.

²I looked, and there was a figure that looked like a human being; below what appeared to be its loins it was fire, and above the loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming amber.

³It stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, to the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

⁴And the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.

⁵Then God said to me, “O mortal, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy.

⁶He said to me, “Mortal, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see still greater abominations.”

⁷And he brought me to the entrance of the court; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall.

⁸Then he said to me, “Mortal, dig through the wall”; and when I dug through the wall, there was an entrance.

⁹He said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.”

¹⁰So I went in and looked; there, portrayed on the wall all around, were all kinds of creeping things, and loathsome animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel.

¹¹Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the fragrant cloud of incense was ascending.

¹²Then he said to me, “Mortal, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of images? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

¹³He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing.”

¹⁴Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD; women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD; there, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, prostrating themselves to the sun toward the east.

¹⁷Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O mortal? Is it not bad enough that the house of Judah commits the abominations done here? Must they fill the land with violence, and provoke my anger still further? See, they are putting the branch to their nose!

¹⁸Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”

¹While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples.

²He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.”

⁵On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied —

⁷altogether there were about twelve of them.

⁸He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God.

⁹When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

¹¹God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,

¹²so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”

¹⁴Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

¹⁵But the evil spirit said to them in reply, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered them all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

¹⁷When this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, everyone was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised.

¹⁸Also many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices.

¹⁹A number of those who practiced magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins.

²⁰So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

²¹Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia, and then to go on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have gone there, I must also see Rome.”

²²So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he himself stayed for some time longer in Asia.

²³About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way.

²⁴A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans.

²⁵These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, “Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business.

²⁶You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

²⁷And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.”

²⁸When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

²⁹The city was filled with the confusion; and people rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travel companions.

³⁰Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him;

³¹even some officials of the province of Asia, who were friendly to him, sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theater.

³²Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?

³⁶Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.

³⁷You have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess.

³⁸If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another.

³⁹If there is anything further you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly.

⁴⁰For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.”

⁴¹When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.