Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him.

²The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near.

³So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples can see your works that you are doing.

⁴For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”

⁵(For not even his brothers believed in him.)

⁶Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.

⁷The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it — that its works are evil.

⁸Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

⁹After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly.

¹¹The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?”

¹²And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving the people.”

¹³Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

¹⁵Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?”

¹⁶Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.

¹⁷If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.

¹⁸The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

¹⁹Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰“You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹“I performed one work, and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered.

²²“This is why Moses has given you circumcision — not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers — and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.

²³If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?

²⁴Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.”

²⁵Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?

²⁶Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah?

²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

²⁸As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him;

²⁹I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

³¹However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.

³³Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me.

³⁴You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go so we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he?

³⁶What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’ ?”

³⁷On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

³⁸The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

³⁹He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.”

⁴¹Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he?

⁴²Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?”

⁴³So the crowd was divided because of him.

⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”

⁴⁷Then the Pharisees responded to them: “Are you fooled too?

⁴⁸Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus  — the one who came to him previously and who was one of them — said to them,

⁵¹“Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

⁵²“You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” [The earliest mss do not include 7:53–8:11.]

⁵³Then each one went to his house.

¹“Therefore, love the LORD your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands.

²Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

³his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

⁴what he did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and he destroyed them completely;

⁵what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.

⁷Your own eyes have seen every great work the LORD has done.

⁸“Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit,

⁹and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.

¹²It is a land the LORD your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.

¹³“If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil.

¹⁵I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve, and bow in worship to other gods.

¹⁷Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates,

²¹so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your fathers.

²²For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow — to love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, and remain faithful to him —

²³the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are.

²⁴Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.

²⁶“Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse:

²⁷there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you today,

²⁸and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the LORD your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.

³⁰Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you possess it and settle in it,

³²be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

²because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

³What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,

⁴in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.

⁶Now the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.

⁷The mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.

⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

¹⁰Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh,

¹³because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

¹⁷and if children, also heirs  — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

¹⁹For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility  — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it  — in the hope

²¹that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

²²For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

²³Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits  — we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

²⁴Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

²⁵Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

³²He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

³³Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.

³⁴Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

³⁵Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³⁶As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.

³They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

⁴For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;

⁵and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;

⁶and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral

⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard ) —

⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

¹⁰especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;

¹¹however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.

¹²But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.

¹³They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you.

¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

¹⁵They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness

¹⁶but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.

¹⁸For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.

²⁰For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

¹The LORD answered Job:

²Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who argues with God give an answer.

³Then Job answered the LORD:

⁴I am so insignificant. How can I answer you? I place my hand over my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not reply; twice, but now I can add nothing.

⁶Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

⁷Get ready to answer me like a man; When I question you, you will inform me.

⁸Would you really challenge my justice? Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself?

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰Adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory.

¹¹Pour out your raging anger; look on every proud person and humiliate him.

¹²Look on every proud person and humble him; trample the wicked where they stand.

¹³Hide them together in the dust; imprison them in the grave.

¹⁴Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can deliver you.

¹⁵Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He eats grass like cattle.

¹⁶Look at the strength of his back and the power in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree; the tendons of his thighs are woven firmly together.

¹⁸His bones are bronze tubes; his limbs are like iron rods.

¹⁹He is the foremost of God’s works; only his Maker can draw the sword against him.

²⁰The hills yield food for him, while all sorts of wild animals play there.

²¹He lies under the lotus plants, hiding in the protection of marshy reeds.

²²Lotus plants cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him.

²³Though the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid; he remains confident, even if the Jordan surges up to his mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture him while he looks on, or pierce his nose with snares?

¹For the choir director. Of David. [1] The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.

²The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, one who seeks God.

³All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

⁴Will evildoers never understand? They consume my people as they consume bread; they do not call on the LORD.

⁵Then they will be filled with dread, for God is with those who are righteous.

⁶You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the LORD is his refuge.

⁷Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come from Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

³She has sent out her female servants; she calls out from the highest points of the city:

⁴“Whoever is inexperienced, enter here!” To the one who lacks sense, she says,

⁵“Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed.

⁶Leave inexperience behind, and you will live; pursue the way of understanding.

⁷The one who corrects a mocker will bring abuse on himself; the one who rebukes the wicked will get hurt.

⁸Don’t rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke the wise, and he will love you.

⁹Instruct the wise, and he will be wiser still; teach the righteous, and he will learn more.

¹⁰“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

¹¹For by me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for your own benefit; if you mock, you alone will bear the consequences.”

¹³Folly is a rowdy woman; she is gullible and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits by the doorway of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,

¹⁵calling to those who pass by, who go straight ahead on their paths:

¹⁶“Whoever is inexperienced, enter here!” To the one who lacks sense, she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten secretly is tasty!”

¹⁸But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹David consulted with all his leaders, the commanders of hundreds and of thousands.

²Then he said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if this is from the LORD our God, let us spread out and send the message to the rest of our relatives in all the districts of Israel, including the priests and Levites in their cities with pasturelands, that they should gather together with us.

³Then let us bring back the ark of our God, for we did not inquire of him in Saul’s days.”

⁴Since the proposal seemed right to all the people, the whole assembly agreed to do it.

⁵So David assembled all Israel, from the Shihor of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

⁶David and all Israel went to Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim that belongs to Judah) to take from there the ark of God, which bears the name of the LORD who is enthroned between the cherubim.

⁷At Abinadab’s house they set the ark of God on a new cart. Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart.

⁸David and all Israel were dancing with all their might before God with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

⁹When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to hold the ark because the oxen had stumbled.

¹⁰Then the LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had reached out to the ark. So he died there in the presence of God.

¹¹David was angry because of the LORD’s outburst against Uzzah, so he named that place Outburst Against Uzzah, as it is still named today.

¹²David feared God that day and said, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

¹³So David did not bring the ark of God home to the city of David; instead, he diverted it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath.

¹⁴The ark of God remained with Obed-edom’s family in his house for three months, and the LORD blessed his family and all that he had.

¹Next he brought me into the great hall and measured the jambs; on each side the width of the jamb was 10½ feet.

²The width of the entrance was 17½ feet, and the side walls of the entrance were 8¾ feet wide on each side. He also measured the length of the great hall, 70 feet, and the width, 35 feet.

³He went inside the next room and measured the jambs at the entrance; they were 3½ feet wide. The entrance was 10½ feet wide, and the width of the entrance’s side walls on each side was 12¼ feet.

⁴He then measured the length of the room adjacent to the great hall, 35 feet, and the width, 35 feet. And he said to me, “This is the most holy place.”

⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was 10½ feet thick. The width of the side rooms all around the temple was 7 feet.

⁶The side rooms were arranged one above another in three stories of thirty rooms each. There were ledges on the wall of the temple all around to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports would not be in the temple wall itself.

⁷The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive story, for the structure surrounding the temple went up by stages. This was the reason for the temple’s broadness as it rose. And so, one would go up from the lowest story to the highest by means of the middle one.

⁸I saw that the temple had a raised platform surrounding it; this foundation for the side rooms was 10½ feet high.

⁹The thickness of the outer wall of the side rooms was 8¾ feet. The free space between the side rooms of the temple

¹⁰and the outer chambers was 35 feet wide all around the temple.

¹¹The side rooms opened into the free space, one entrance toward the north and another to the south. The area of free space was 8¾ feet wide all around.

¹²Now the building that faced the temple yard toward the west was 122½ feet wide. The wall of the building was 8¾ feet thick on all sides, and the building’s length was 157½ feet.

¹³Then the man measured the temple; it was 175 feet long. In addition, the temple yard and the building, including its walls, were 175 feet long.

¹⁴The width of the front of the temple along with the temple yard to the east was 175 feet.

¹⁵Next he measured the length of the building facing the temple yard to the west, with its galleries on each side; it was 175 feet. The interior of the great hall and the porticoes of the court —

¹⁶the thresholds, the beveled windows, and the balconies all around with their three levels opposite the threshold — were overlaid with wood on all sides. They were paneled from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered),

¹⁷reaching to the top of the entrance, and as far as the inner temple and on the outside. On every wall all around, on the inside and outside, was a pattern

¹⁸carved with cherubim and palm trees. There was a palm tree between each pair of cherubim. Each cherub had two faces:

¹⁹a human face turned toward the palm tree on one side, and a lion’s face turned toward it on the other. They were carved throughout the temple on all sides.

²⁰Cherubim and palm trees were carved from the ground to the top of the entrance and on the wall of the great hall.

²¹The doorposts of the great hall were square, and the front of the sanctuary had the same appearance.

²²The altar was made of wood, 5¼ feet high and 3½ feet long. It had corners, and its length and sides were of wood. The man told me, “This is the table that stands before the LORD.”

²³The great hall and the sanctuary each had a double door,

²⁴and each of the doors had two swinging panels. There were two panels for one door and two for the other.

²⁵Cherubim and palm trees were carved on the doors of the great hall like those carved on the walls. There was a wooden canopy outside, in front of the portico.

²⁶There were beveled windows and palm trees on both sides, on the side walls of the portico, the side rooms of the temple, and the canopies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁷

⁸

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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