Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

³And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

⁴And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

⁵He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”

⁸And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

⁹And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

¹⁰And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”

¹¹He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things.

¹²But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”

¹³Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

¹⁴And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him,

¹⁵said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.

¹⁶And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”

¹⁷And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

¹⁸And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁰He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

²¹

²²As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,

²³and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.

²⁴When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?”

²⁵He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?”

²⁶And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.

²⁷However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,

²that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”

³Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,

⁴“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

⁵No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

⁷And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

⁸And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

⁹And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

¹²He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,

¹³both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

¹⁵And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”

¹⁹God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.

²¹But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

²²When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁵And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.

²⁷And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

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

²To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

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

⁴I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

⁵that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge —

⁶even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you —

⁷so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁸who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

¹²What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

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

¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

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

¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

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

¹⁸For the word of the cross is folly 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, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

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

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

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

²⁹so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

³⁰And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

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

¹But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

³heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,

⁴treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

⁵having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

⁶For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,

⁷always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

⁹But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

¹⁰You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

¹¹my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra — which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.

¹²Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

¹³while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

¹⁵and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

¹⁷that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

¹“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³“Lay down a pledge for me with you; who is there who will put up security for me?

⁴Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property — the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.

⁷My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My days are past; my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

¹²They make night into day: ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’

¹³If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,

¹⁴if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

¹Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

²From your presence let my vindication come! Let your eyes behold the right!

³You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

⁴With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.

⁵My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.

⁶I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.

⁷Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.

⁸Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

⁹from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.

¹⁰They close their hearts to pity; with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

¹¹They have now surrounded our steps; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.

¹²He is like a lion eager to tear, as a young lion lurking in ambush.

¹³Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him! Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,

¹⁴from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants.

¹⁵As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

¹Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.

³The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

⁷Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince.

⁸A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers.

⁹Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

¹⁰A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

¹²Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸One who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹Whoever loves transgression loves strife; he who makes his door high seeks destruction.

²⁰A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity.

²¹He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy.

²²A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

²³The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.

²⁷Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

¹Then allotment was made to the people of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. To Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, were allotted Gilead and Bashan, because he was a man of war.

²And allotments were made to the rest of the people of Manasseh by their clans, Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These were the male descendants of Manasseh the son of Joseph, by their clans.

³Now Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters, and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

⁴They approached Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders and said, “The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brothers.” So according to the mouth of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father.

⁵Thus there fell to Manasseh ten portions, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan,

⁶because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the people of Manasseh.

⁷The territory of Manasseh reached from Asher to Michmethath, which is east of Shechem. Then the boundary goes along southward to the inhabitants of En-tappuah.

⁸The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, but the town of Tappuah on the boundary of Manasseh belonged to the people of Ephraim.

⁹Then the boundary went down to the brook Kanah. These cities, to the south of the brook, among the cities of Manasseh, belong to Ephraim. Then the boundary of Manasseh goes on the north side of the brook and ends at the sea,

¹⁰the land to the south being Ephraim's and that to the north being Manasseh's, with the sea forming its boundary. On the north Asher is reached, and on the east Issachar.

¹¹Also in Issachar and in Asher Manasseh had Beth-shean and its villages, and Ibleam and its villages, and the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, and the inhabitants of En-dor and its villages, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its villages, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; the third is Naphath.

¹²Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.

¹³Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.

¹⁴Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the LORD has blessed me?”

¹⁵And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

¹⁶The people of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”

¹⁷Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only,

¹⁸but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”

¹An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.

²The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.

³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.

⁴And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

⁵And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten — two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the LORD God of Israel.

⁷In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.

⁸He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

⁹In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹²Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

¹³The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.

¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

⁶And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

⁹And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

²²So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

²⁷that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

²⁸for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

²⁹Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

³⁰The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³So Paul went out from their midst.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.