Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.

²They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

³They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

⁴I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

⁵but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

⁶Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.

⁷But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

⁸When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

⁹about sin, because people do not believe in me;

¹⁰about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

¹¹and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹²“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

¹⁴He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

¹⁶Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

¹⁷At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

¹⁸They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?

²⁰Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

²¹A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

²²So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

²³In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

²⁵“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

²⁶In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

²⁷No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

²⁸I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.

³⁰Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.

³²“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

¹When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.

²When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army.

³He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them.

⁴For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

⁵The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it.

⁶Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.

⁷Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.”

⁸Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”

⁹When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.

¹⁰When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.

¹¹If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you.

¹²If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city.

¹³When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.

¹⁴As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies.

¹⁵This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

¹⁶However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.

¹⁷Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you.

¹⁸Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?

²⁰However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.

¹Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

²To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.

⁵For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—

⁶God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.

⁷Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

⁸He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

¹¹My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.

¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

¹⁶(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)

¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

²²Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

²⁸God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

²⁹so that no one may boast before him.

³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

³¹Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

²Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.

⁴For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

⁶And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

⁷In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹⁰Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

¹¹Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones

¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

¹⁶These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.

¹⁸They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”

¹⁹These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

²¹keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²²Be merciful to those who doubt;

²³save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—

²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

¹A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.

³Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.

⁷Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

⁹Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.

¹²Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.

¹³Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

¹⁴When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.

¹⁵In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise— why destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time?

¹⁸It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.

¹⁹Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.

²¹Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—

²²for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”— but this was beyond me.

²⁴Whatever exists is far off and most profound— who can discover it?

²⁵So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

²⁶I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—

²⁸while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

²⁹This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

¹A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

⁴Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

¹An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.

²Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

³When wickedness comes, so does contempt, and with shame comes reproach.

⁴The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.

⁵It is not good to be partial to the wicked and so deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating.

⁷The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives.

⁸The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

¹¹The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.

¹²Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

¹³To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.

¹⁴The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

¹⁶A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

¹⁷In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.

¹⁸Casting the lot settles disputes and keeps strong opponents apart.

¹⁹A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city; disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

²⁰From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.

²¹The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.

²³The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

²⁴One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

¹Then David said, “The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

²So David gave orders to assemble the foreigners residing in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God.

³He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed.

⁴He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.

⁵David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So David made extensive preparations before his death.

⁶Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁷David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God.

⁸But this word of the LORD came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

⁹But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign.

¹⁰He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’

¹¹“Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the LORD your God, as he said you would.

¹²May the LORD give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the LORD your God.

¹³Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

¹⁴“I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

¹⁵You have many workers: stonecutters, masons and carpenters, as well as those skilled in every kind of work

¹⁶in gold and silver, bronze and iron—craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the LORD be with you.”

¹⁷Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon.

¹⁸He said to them, “Is not the LORD your God with you? And has he not granted you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subject to the LORD and to his people.

¹⁹Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD.”

¹In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.

²So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,

³he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

⁴Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

⁵The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

⁶But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

⁷Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

⁸Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:

⁹If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

¹⁰The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.

¹¹What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

¹²This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

¹³So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

¹⁴When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

¹⁵He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.

¹⁶At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

¹⁷Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

¹⁸He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

¹⁹During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven

²⁰and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.

²¹He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

²²He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.

²³I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

²⁴Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”

²⁵Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”

²⁶The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

²⁷Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about,

²⁸but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:

²⁹“As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

³⁰As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

³¹“Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.

³²The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,

³³its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.

³⁴While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.

³⁵Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

³⁶“This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.

³⁷Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;

³⁸in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

³⁹“After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.

⁴⁰Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.

⁴¹Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.

⁴²As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

⁴³And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

⁴⁴“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

⁴⁵This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

⁴⁶Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him.

⁴⁷The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

⁴⁸Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.

⁴⁹Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.

¹Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

²With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

³Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

⁴Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

⁵When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

⁶Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

⁷About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

⁹Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

¹⁰At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

¹²The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.

¹³No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.

¹⁴Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

¹⁵As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

¹⁶Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

¹⁷Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

¹⁸They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

¹⁹But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.

²⁰“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”

²¹At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.

²²But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,

²³“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

²⁴On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.

²⁵Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”

²⁶At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

²⁷The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.

²⁸“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

²⁹Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!

³⁰The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.

³¹God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.

³²We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

³³When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.

³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.

³⁵Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.

³⁶Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.

³⁷After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

³⁸Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.

³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

⁴⁰His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

⁴²Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.