Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.

²But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,

³Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.

⁴No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”

⁵For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.

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

⁸You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

⁹After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.

¹¹Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”

¹²Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”

¹³But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

¹⁴Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.

¹⁵The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”

¹⁶Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.

¹⁷Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

¹⁸Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.

¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰“You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.

²²Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.

²³Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?

²⁴Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

²⁵At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?

²⁶Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?

²⁷But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him,

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

³⁰At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

³¹Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am 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.”

³⁵The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

³⁶What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

³⁸Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

³⁹By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?

⁴²Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

⁴³Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

⁴⁴Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.

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

⁴⁹No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,

⁵¹“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵²They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.” [The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

⁵³Then they all went home,

¹Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

²Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;

³the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;

⁴what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them.

⁵It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place,

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them.

⁷But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done.

⁸Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

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

¹⁰The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

¹²It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

¹³So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul—

¹⁴then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.

¹⁵I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.

¹⁷Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

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

²⁰Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,

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

²²If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—

²³then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.

²⁴Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

²⁶See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—

²⁷the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;

²⁸the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.

³⁰As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.

³¹You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there,

³²be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

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

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

³For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

⁶The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

⁷The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

⁸Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

¹⁰But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

¹²Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

¹³For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

¹⁵The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

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

¹⁷Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

¹⁹For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope

²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

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

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

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

³⁴Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³⁶As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

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

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

³In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

⁵if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;

⁶if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

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

⁹if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁰This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings;

¹¹yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.

¹²But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

¹³They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

¹⁴With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

¹⁶But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

¹⁸For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

²⁰If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

²¹It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

²²Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

¹The LORD said to Job:

²“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³Then Job answered the LORD:

⁴“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.

⁵I spoke once, but I have no answer— twice, but I will say no more.”

⁶Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

⁸“Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

⁹Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his?

¹⁰Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

¹¹Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low,

¹²look at all who are proud and humble them, crush the wicked where they stand.

¹³Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave.

¹⁴Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.

¹⁶What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly!

¹⁷Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.

¹⁸Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron.

¹⁹It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.

²⁰The hills bring it their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.

²¹Under the lotus plants it lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh.

²²The lotuses conceal it in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround it.

²³A raging river does not alarm it; it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth.

²⁴Can anyone capture it by the eyes, or trap it and pierce its nose?

¹For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

²The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

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

⁴Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the LORD.

⁵But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous.

⁶You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.

⁷Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars.

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

³She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city,

⁴“Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says,

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

⁶Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

⁷Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.

⁸Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.

⁹Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.

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

¹¹For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.

¹³Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing.

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

¹⁵calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way,

¹⁶“Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!”

¹⁸But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

¹David conferred with each of his officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.

²He then said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you and if it is the will of the LORD our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our people throughout the territories of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites who are with them in their towns and pasturelands, to come and join us.

³Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul.”

⁴The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people.

⁵So David assembled all Israel, from the Shihor River in Egypt to Lebo Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim.

⁶David and all Israel went to Baalah of Judah (Kiriath Jearim) to bring up from there the ark of God the LORD, who is enthroned between the cherubim—the ark that is called by the Name.

⁷They moved the ark of God from Abinadab’s house on a new cart, with Uzzah and Ahio guiding it.

⁸David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, timbrels, cymbals and trumpets.

⁹When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled.

¹⁰The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.

¹¹Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

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

¹³He did not take the ark to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

¹⁴The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his house for three months, and the LORD blessed his household and everything he had.

¹Then the man brought me to the main hall and measured the jambs; the width of the jambs was six cubits on each side.

²The entrance was ten cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were five cubits wide. He also measured the main hall; it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide.

³Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance; each was two cubits wide. The entrance was six cubits wide, and the projecting walls on each side of it were seven cubits wide.

⁴And he measured the length of the inner sanctuary; it was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits across the end of the main hall. He said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”

⁵Then he measured the wall of the temple; it was six cubits thick, and each side room around the temple was four cubits wide.

⁶The side rooms were on three levels, one above another, thirty on each level. There were ledges all around the wall of the temple to serve as supports for the side rooms, so that the supports were not inserted into the wall of the temple.

⁷The side rooms all around the temple were wider at each successive level. The structure surrounding the temple was built in ascending stages, so that the rooms widened as one went upward. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the top floor through the middle floor.

⁸I saw that the temple had a raised base all around it, forming the foundation of the side rooms. It was the length of the rod, six long cubits.

⁹The outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits thick. The open area between the side rooms of the temple

¹⁰and the priests’ rooms was twenty cubits wide all around the temple.

¹¹There were entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one on the north and another on the south; and the base adjoining the open area was five cubits wide all around.

¹²The building facing the temple courtyard on the west side was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.

¹³Then he measured the temple; it was a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long.

¹⁴The width of the temple courtyard on the east, including the front of the temple, was a hundred cubits.

¹⁵Then he measured the length of the building facing the courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The main hall, the inner sanctuary and the portico facing the court,

¹⁶as well as the thresholds and the narrow windows and galleries around the three of them—everything beyond and including the threshold was covered with wood. The floor, the wall up to the windows, and the windows were covered.

¹⁷In the space above the outside of the entrance to the inner sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner and outer sanctuary

¹⁸were carved cherubim and palm trees. Palm trees alternated with cherubim. Each cherub had two faces:

¹⁹the face of a human being toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the other. They were carved all around the whole temple.

²⁰From the floor to the area above the entrance, cherubim and palm trees were carved on the wall of the main hall.

²¹The main hall had a rectangular doorframe, and the one at the front of the Most Holy Place was similar.

²²There was a wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits square; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.”

²³Both the main hall and the Most Holy Place had double doors.

²⁴Each door had two leaves—two hinged leaves for each door.

²⁵And on the doors of the main hall were carved cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls, and there was a wooden overhang on the front of the portico.

²⁶On the sidewalls of the portico were narrow windows with palm trees carved on each side. The side rooms of the temple also had overhangs.

¹Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor.

²When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix: “We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation.

³Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude.

⁴But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.

⁵“We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect

⁶and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him.

⁷

⁸By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.”

⁹The other Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.

¹⁰When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied: “I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation; so I gladly make my defense.

¹¹You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

¹²My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city.

¹³And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.

¹⁴However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,

¹⁵and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

¹⁶So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.

¹⁷“After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.

¹⁸I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance.

¹⁹But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me.

²⁰Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin—

²¹unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’ ”

²²Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.”

²³He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs.

²⁴Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”

²⁶At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.

²⁷When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.