Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

²He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.

³And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

⁴Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

⁶“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!

⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

⁹And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

¹⁰“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

¹¹

¹²“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

¹³And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.

¹⁴In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

¹⁵“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

¹⁶But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

¹⁷If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

¹⁹“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

²⁰For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

²¹Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²²Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

²³“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

²⁴As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.

²⁵Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶“At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’

²⁷The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

²⁸“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

²⁹“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

³⁰“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

³¹When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³²“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.

³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’

³⁴In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

¹The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.

²Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

³He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by.

⁴Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.

⁵Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

⁷Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.

⁸He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

⁹“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said.

¹⁰Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

¹¹Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.

¹²So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’

¹⁴Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

¹⁶When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

¹⁷Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

¹⁸Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.

¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

²⁰Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous

²¹that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

²²The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

²³Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

²⁵Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

²⁶The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

²⁷Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,

²⁸what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

²⁹Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

³⁰Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

³¹Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

³²Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

³³When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

¹And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.

⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

⁵so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

⁷No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

¹⁴The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

¹⁵The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,

¹⁶for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

³For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

⁹Do your best to come to me quickly,

¹⁰for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

¹²I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.

¹⁵You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.

¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁹Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.

²¹Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk.

³Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place?

⁵“The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning.

⁶The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.

⁷The vigor of his step is weakened; his own schemes throw him down.

⁸His feet thrust him into a net; he wanders into its mesh.

⁹A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast.

¹⁰A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path.

¹¹Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step.

¹²Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls.

¹³It eats away parts of his skin; death’s firstborn devours his limbs.

¹⁴He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors.

¹⁵Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.

¹⁶His roots dry up below and his branches wither above.

¹⁷The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land.

¹⁸He is driven from light into the realm of darkness and is banished from the world.

¹⁹He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived.

²⁰People of the west are appalled at his fate; those of the east are seized with horror.

²¹Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; such is the place of one who does not know God.”

¹For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, LORD, my strength.

²The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

⁵The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.

⁶In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

⁷The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

⁸Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

⁹He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

¹⁰He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky.

¹²Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

¹³The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁴He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.

¹⁵The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

²⁰The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I am not guilty of turning from my God.

²²All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.

²³I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.

²⁴The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

²⁶to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.

²⁷You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

²⁸You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

²⁹With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?

³²It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

³³He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.

³⁴He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great.

³⁶You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.

³⁷I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

³⁸I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.

³⁹You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me.

⁴⁰You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.

⁴¹They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the LORD, but he did not answer.

⁴²I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them like mud in the streets.

⁴³You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me,

⁴⁴foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.

⁴⁵They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁶The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!

⁴⁷He is the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me,

⁴⁸who saves me from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me.

⁴⁹Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.

⁵⁰He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing love to his anointed, to David and to his descendants 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.

¹The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The country was brought under their control,

²but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance.

³So Joshua said to the Israelites: “How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you?

⁴Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me.

⁵You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the tribes of Joseph in their territory on the north.

⁶After you have written descriptions of the seven parts of the land, bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the LORD our God.

⁷The Levites, however, do not get a portion among you, because the priestly service of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. Moses the servant of the LORD gave it to them.”

⁸As the men started on their way to map out the land, Joshua instructed them, “Go and make a survey of the land and write a description of it. Then return to me, and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh in the presence of the LORD.”

⁹So the men left and went through the land. They wrote its description on a scroll, town by town, in seven parts, and returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions.

¹¹The first lot came up for the tribe of Benjamin according to its clans. Their allotted territory lay between the tribes of Judah and Joseph:

¹²On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan, passed the northern slope of Jericho and headed west into the hill country, coming out at the wilderness of Beth Aven.

¹³From there it crossed to the south slope of Luz (that is, Bethel) and went down to Ataroth Addar on the hill south of Lower Beth Horon.

¹⁴From the hill facing Beth Horon on the south the boundary turned south along the western side and came out at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town of the people of Judah. This was the western side.

¹⁵The southern side began at the outskirts of Kiriath Jearim on the west, and the boundary came out at the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.

¹⁶The boundary went down to the foot of the hill facing the Valley of Ben Hinnom, north of the Valley of Rephaim. It continued down the Hinnom Valley along the southern slope of the Jebusite city and so to En Rogel.

¹⁷It then curved north, went to En Shemesh, continued to Geliloth, which faces the Pass of Adummim, and ran down to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben.

¹⁸It continued to the northern slope of Beth Arabah and on down into the Arabah.

¹⁹It then went to the northern slope of Beth Hoglah and came out at the northern bay of the Dead Sea, at the mouth of the Jordan in the south. This was the southern boundary.

²⁰The Jordan formed the boundary on the eastern side. These were the boundaries that marked out the inheritance of the clans of Benjamin on all sides.

²¹The tribe of Benjamin, according to its clans, had the following towns: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,

²²Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

²³Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,

²⁴Kephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba—twelve towns and their villages.

²⁵Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²⁶Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,

²⁷Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,

²⁸Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath—fourteen towns and their villages. This was the inheritance of Benjamin for its clans.

¹Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush,

²which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it.

⁴This is what the LORD says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

⁶They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter.

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.

¹After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

³and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

⁴Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.

⁶But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

⁸Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

⁹One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.

¹⁰For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

¹¹So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

¹²While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.

¹³“This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

¹⁴Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you.

¹⁵But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.”

¹⁶So he drove them off.

¹⁷Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.

¹⁸Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.

¹⁹They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.

²¹But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

²³After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

²⁵He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

²⁷When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.

²⁸For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.