Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.

³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them,

⁴they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.

⁵Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

⁶They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

⁷When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

⁸And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

⁹When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

¹⁰Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”]]

¹²Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

¹³Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge by human standards; I judge no one.

¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

¹⁷In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid.

¹⁸I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.”

¹⁹Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

²⁰He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹Again he said to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”

²²Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

²³He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.

²⁴I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”

²⁵They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all?

²⁶I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”

²⁷They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father.

²⁸So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.

²⁹And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.”

³⁰As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;

³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

³³They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.

³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

³⁷I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.

³⁸I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”

³⁹They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did,

⁴⁰but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.

⁴¹You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

⁴³Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word.

⁴⁴You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

⁴⁶Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

⁴⁷Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”

⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.

⁵⁰Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge.

⁵¹Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.”

⁵²The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’

⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?”

⁵⁴Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’

⁵⁵though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word.

⁵⁶Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

¹These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.

²You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

³Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.

⁴You shall not worship the LORD your God in such ways.

⁵But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,

⁶bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

⁷And you shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁸You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires,

⁹for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁰When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,

¹¹then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the LORD.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).

¹³Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see.

¹⁴But only at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes — there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.

¹⁵Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.

¹⁶The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

¹⁷Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations;

¹⁸these you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that the LORD your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God in all your undertakings.

¹⁹Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, “I am going to eat some meat,” because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.

²¹If the place where the LORD your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the LORD has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire.

²²Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood; for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.

²⁴Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

²⁵Do not eat it, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

²⁶But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the LORD will choose.

²⁷You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but the meat you may eat.

²⁸Be careful to obey all these words that I command you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

²⁹When the LORD your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land,

³⁰take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, “How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same.”

³¹You must not do the same for the LORD your God, because every abhorrent thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.

¹I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit —

²I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.

⁴They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;

⁵to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

⁶It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,

⁷and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”

⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

⁹For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac.

¹¹Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue,

¹²not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”

¹³As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

¹⁴What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”

²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?

²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;

²³and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory —

²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”

²⁶“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called children of the living God.”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;

²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”

²⁹And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

³⁰What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;

³¹but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.

³²Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

³³as it is written, “See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

¹This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you

²that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles.

³First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts

⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”

⁵They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water,

⁶through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished.

⁷But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.

⁸But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

⁹The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

¹¹Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness,

¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

¹³But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;

¹⁵and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,

¹⁶speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability.

¹⁸But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?

³Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you?

⁴Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever?

⁵Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again!

⁹Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it?

¹⁰No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it?

¹¹Who can confront it and be safe? — under the whole heaven, who?

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning its limbs, or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.

¹³Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its teeth.

¹⁵Its back is made of shields in rows, shut up closely as with a seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸Its sneezes flash forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹From its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰Out of its nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹Its breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of its mouth.

²²In its neck abides strength, and terror dances before it.

²³The folds of its flesh cling together; it is firmly cast and immovable.

²⁴Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷It counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make it flee; slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.

²⁹Clubs are counted as chaff; it laughs at the rattle of javelins.

³⁰Its underparts are like sharp potsherds; it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹It makes the deep boil like a pot; it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²It leaves a shining wake behind it; one would think the deep to be white-haired.

³³On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear.

³⁴It surveys everything that is lofty; it is king over all that are proud.”

¹O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?

²Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;

³who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;

⁴in whose eyes the wicked are despised, but who honor those who fear the LORD; who stand by their oath even to their hurt;

⁵who do not lend money at interest, and do not take a bribe against the innocent. Those who do these things shall never be moved.

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.

¹King Hiram of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, and masons and carpenters to build a house for him.

²David then perceived that the LORD had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel.

³David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David became the father of more sons and daughters.

⁴These are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, and Nathan; Solomon,

⁵Ibhar, Elishua, and Elpelet;

⁶Nogah, Nepheg, and Japhia;

⁷Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

⁸When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went out against them.

⁹Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰David inquired of God, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” The LORD said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand.”

¹¹So he went up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. David said, “God has burst out against my enemies by my hand, like a bursting flood.” Therefore that place is called Baal-perazim.

¹²They abandoned their gods there, and at David’s command they were burned.

¹³Once again the Philistines made a raid in the valley.

¹⁴When David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come on them opposite the balsam trees.

¹⁵When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle; for God has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”

¹⁶David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.

¹⁷The fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him on all nations.

¹Then he led me out into the outer court, toward the north, and he brought me to the chambers that were opposite the temple yard and opposite the building on the north.

²The length of the building that was on the north side was one hundred cubits, and the width fifty cubits.

³Across the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and facing the pavement that belonged to the outer court, the chambers rose gallery by gallery in three stories.

⁴In front of the chambers was a passage on the inner side, ten cubits wide and one hundred cubits deep, and its entrances were on the north.

⁵Now the upper chambers were narrower, for the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and middle chambers in the building.

⁶For they were in three stories, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer court; for this reason the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones.

⁷There was a wall outside parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court, opposite the chambers, fifty cubits long.

⁸For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those opposite the temple were one hundred cubits long.

⁹At the foot of these chambers ran a passage that one entered from the east in order to enter them from the outer court.

¹⁰The width of the passage was fixed by the wall of the court. On the south also, opposite the vacant area and opposite the building, there were chambers

¹¹with a passage in front of them; they were similar to the chambers on the north, of the same length and width, with the same exits and arrangements and doors.

¹²So the entrances of the chambers to the south were entered through the entrance at the head of the corresponding passage, from the east, along the matching wall.

¹³Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers opposite the vacant area are the holy chambers, where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings; there they shall deposit the most holy offerings — the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering — for the place is holy.

¹⁴When the priests enter the holy place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court without laying there the vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; they shall put on other garments before they go near to the area open to the people.”

¹⁵When he had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faces east, and measured the temple area all around.

¹⁶He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.

¹⁷Then he turned and measured the north side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.

¹⁸Then he turned and measured the south side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.

¹⁹Then he turned to the west side and measured, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.

²⁰He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall around it, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to make a separation between the holy and the common.

¹Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem

²where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him

³and requested, as a favor to them against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

⁴Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly.

⁵“So,” he said, “let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶After he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.

⁸Paul said in his defense, “I have in no way committed an offense against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against the emperor.”

⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul said, “I am appealing to the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.

¹¹Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”

¹²Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, “You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.”

¹³After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him and asked for a sentence against him.

¹⁶I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before the accused had met the accusers face to face and had been given an opportunity to make a defense against the charge.

¹⁷So when they met here, I lost no time, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.

²¹But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of his Imperial Majesty, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to the emperor.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you will hear him.”

²³So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him.

²⁶But I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we have examined him, I may have something to write —

²⁷for it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”