Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us,

²just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,

³I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

⁴so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.

⁵In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.

⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

⁸Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty,

⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.

¹⁰Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.

¹¹Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him.

¹³But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.

¹⁴You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

¹⁷With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.”

¹⁹The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

²⁰But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”

²¹Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary.

²²When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak.

²³When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

²⁴After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said,

²⁵“This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

³⁰The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.

³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.

³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.

³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.”

³⁸Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country,

⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

⁴⁶And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

⁵⁶And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

⁵⁷Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.

⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father.

⁶⁰But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.”

⁶¹They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.”

⁶²Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him.

⁶³He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed.

⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God.

⁶⁵Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

⁶⁸“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

⁶⁹He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,

⁷⁰as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

⁷¹that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.

⁷²Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant,

⁷³the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us

⁷⁴that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear,

⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

⁷⁷to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.

⁷⁸By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

⁷⁹to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

⁸⁰The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

¹The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

²Speak to the Israelites, and get twelve staffs from them, one for each ancestral house, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff,

³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each ancestral house.

⁴Place them in the tent of meeting before the covenant, where I meet with you.

⁵And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout; thus I will put a stop to the complaints of the Israelites that they continually make against you.

⁶Moses spoke to the Israelites; and all their leaders gave him staffs, one for each leader, according to their ancestral houses, twelve staffs; and the staff of Aaron was among theirs.

⁷So Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the covenant.

⁸When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.

⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the LORD to all the Israelites; and they looked, and each man took his staff.

¹⁰And the LORD said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die.”

¹¹Moses did so; just as the LORD commanded him, so he did.

¹²The Israelites said to Moses, “We are perishing; we are lost, all of us are lost!

¹³Everyone who approaches the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all to perish?”

¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,

²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

³But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints.

⁴Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving.

⁵Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient.

⁷Therefore do not be associated with them.

⁸For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light —

⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly;

¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,

¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise,

¹⁶making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

¹⁷So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

¹⁸Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

¹⁹as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,

²⁰giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²¹Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²²Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.

²³For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior.

²⁴Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

²⁶in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word,

²⁷so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind — yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish.

²⁸In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

²⁹For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,

³⁰because we are members of his body.

³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

³²This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.

³³Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.

¹“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.

³Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see?

⁵Are your days like the days of mortals, or your years like human years,

⁶that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin,

⁷although you know that I am not guilty, and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?

⁸Your hands fashioned and made me; and now you turn and destroy me.

⁹Remember that you fashioned me like clay; and will you turn me to dust again?

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?

¹¹You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.

¹²You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.

¹⁴If I sin, you watch me, and do not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me! If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look upon my affliction.

¹⁶Bold as a lion you hunt me; you repeat your exploits against me.

¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.

¹⁸“Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,

¹⁹and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort

²¹before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

²²the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.”

¹Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!

²Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the LORD.

³May the LORD, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise child makes a glad father, but a foolish child is a mother’s grief.

²Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.

³The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

⁴A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵A child who gathers in summer is prudent, but a child who sleeps in harvest brings shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise of heart will heed commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

⁹Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever follows perverse ways will be found out.

¹⁰Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, but the one who rebukes boldly makes peace.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

¹³On the lips of one who has understanding wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of one who lacks sense.

¹⁴The wise lay up knowledge, but the babbling of a fool brings ruin near.

¹⁵The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

¹⁶The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin.

¹⁷Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but one who rejects a rebuke goes astray.

¹⁸Lying lips conceal hatred, and whoever utters slander is a fool.

¹⁹When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but the prudent are restrained in speech.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the mind of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

²²The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

²³Doing wrong is like sport to a fool, but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked dread will come upon them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are established forever.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so are the lazy to their employers.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

²⁸The hope of the righteous ends in gladness, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nothing.

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the upright, but destruction for evildoers.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not remain in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.

¹Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get up and go with your household, and settle wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.”

²So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God; she went with her household and settled in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³At the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she set out to appeal to the king for her house and her land.

⁴Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.”

⁵While he was telling the king how Elisha had restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, “My lord king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

⁶When the king questioned the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the revenue of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”

⁷Elisha went to Damascus while King Ben-hadad of Aram was ill. When it was told him, “The man of God has come here,”

⁸the king said to Hazael, “Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God. Inquire of the LORD through him, whether I shall recover from this illness.”

⁹So Hazael went to meet him, taking a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he entered and stood before him, he said, “Your son King Ben-hadad of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this illness?’”

¹⁰Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover’; but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die.”

¹¹He fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was ashamed. Then the man of God wept.

¹²Hazael asked, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel; you will set their fortresses on fire, you will kill their young men with the sword, dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their pregnant women.”

¹³Hazael said, “What is your servant, who is a mere dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you are to be king over Aram.”

¹⁴Then he left Elisha, and went to his master Ben-hadad, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.”

¹⁵But the next day he took the bed-cover and dipped it in water and spread it over the king’s face, until he died. And Hazael succeeded him.

¹⁶In the fifth year of King Joram son of Ahab of Israel, Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah began to reign.

¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁹Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah, for the sake of his servant David, since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his descendants forever.

²⁰In his days Edom revolted against the rule of Judah, and set up a king of their own.

²¹Then Joram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. He set out by night and attacked the Edomites and their chariot commanders who had surrounded him; but his army fled home.

²²So Edom has been in revolt against the rule of Judah to this day. Libnah also revolted at the same time.

²³Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

²⁴So Joram slept with his ancestors, and was buried with them in the city of David; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

²⁵In the twelfth year of King Joram son of Ahab of Israel, Ahaziah son of King Jehoram of Judah began to reign.

²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of King Omri of Israel.

²⁷He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab, doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.

²⁸He went with Joram son of Ahab to wage war against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, where the Arameans wounded Joram.

²⁹King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against King Hazael of Aram. King Ahaziah son of Jehoram of Judah went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was wounded.

¹The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the LORD, which faces east. There, at the entrance of the gateway, were twenty-five men; among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur, and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people.

²He said to me, “Mortal, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city;

³they say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the pot, and we are the meat.’

⁴Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O mortal.”

⁵Then the spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the LORD: This is what you think, O house of Israel; I know the things that come into your mind.

⁶You have killed many in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: The slain whom you have placed within it are the meat, and this city is the pot; but you shall be taken out of it.

⁸You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord GOD.

⁹I will take you out of it and give you over to the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you.

¹⁰You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹¹This city shall not be your pot, and you shall not be the meat inside it; I will judge you at the border of Israel.

¹²Then you shall know that I am the LORD, whose statutes you have not followed, and whose ordinances you have not kept, but you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”

¹³Now, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord GOD! will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

¹⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁵Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “They have gone far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.”

¹⁶Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far away among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone.

¹⁷Therefore say: Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

¹⁸When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.

¹⁹I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord GOD.

²²Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²³And the glory of the LORD ascended from the middle of the city, and stopped on the mountain east of the city.

²⁴The spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen left me.

²⁵And I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you.”

²When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then he said:

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

⁶“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’

¹¹Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

¹²“A certain Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there,

¹³came to me; and standing beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ In that very hour I regained my sight and saw him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice;

¹⁵for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’

²¹Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²²Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

²³And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him.

²⁵But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The tribune came and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.