Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,

²“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

⁴and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.

⁵“But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”

⁶While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper,

⁷a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.

⁹“This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

¹⁰Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

¹¹The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.

¹²When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

¹³Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁴Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests

¹⁵and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁶From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

¹⁷On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

¹⁸He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’ ”

¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

²⁰When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

²¹And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

²²They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”

²³Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.

²⁴The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

²⁵Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “You have said so.”

²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

²⁷Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

²⁸This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

²⁹I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

³⁰When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: “ ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

³²But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

³³Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

³⁴“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

³⁵But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

³⁶Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

³⁷He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.

⁴¹“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴²He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

⁴³When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

⁴⁵Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

⁴⁸Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.”

⁴⁹Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

⁵⁰Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.

⁵¹With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

⁵²“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

⁵³Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

⁵⁴But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

⁵⁵In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me.

⁵⁶But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

⁵⁷Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.

⁵⁸But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.

⁵⁹The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.

⁶⁰But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward

⁶¹and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ”

⁶²Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?”

⁶³But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.

⁶⁶What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.

⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him

⁶⁸and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?”

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

⁷⁰But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

⁷¹Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷²He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

⁷³After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

⁷⁴Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.

⁷⁵Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

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

²Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

³Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

⁴“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.

⁵No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.

⁶I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

⁷I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

⁹Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.

¹⁰This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

¹²For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.

¹³Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

¹⁵God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

¹⁹Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

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

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

²³On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

²⁶Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day.

²⁷And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

¹You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

²I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?

³Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

⁴Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?

⁵So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

⁶So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁷Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

⁸Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁹So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

¹⁰For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

¹¹Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”

¹²The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”

¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

¹⁵Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.

¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.

¹⁷What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.

²⁰A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

²²But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

²³Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.

²⁴So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

²⁵Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

²⁶So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

²⁷for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

²⁹If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

²To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer

⁴or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.

⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

⁶Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.

⁷They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

⁸We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.

⁹We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,

¹⁰for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine

¹¹that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

¹²I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.

¹³Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

¹⁴The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

¹⁶But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well,

¹⁹holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.

²⁰Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

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. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?” Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.

²Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.

³Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me— people without regard for God.

⁴Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.

⁵Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

⁶I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, LORD, for it is good.

⁷You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

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.

¹Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.

²Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.

³Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the LORD.

⁵He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites did not act at once.

⁶Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the LORD and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?”

⁷Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.

⁸At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the LORD.

⁹A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness.

¹⁰All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king’s officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who carried out the work required for the temple of the LORD. They hired masons and carpenters to restore the LORD’s temple, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the temple.

¹³The men in charge of the work were diligent, and the repairs progressed under them. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and reinforced it.

¹⁴When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the LORD’s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the LORD.

¹⁵Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty.

¹⁶He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.

¹⁸They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’ ”

²¹But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple.

²²King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.”

²³At the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus.

²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the LORD delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their ancestors, judgment was executed on Joash.

²⁵When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.

²⁷The account of his sons, the many prophecies about him, and the record of the restoration of the temple of God are written in the annotations on the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

¹Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”

²The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.

³You will each go straight out through breaches in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon,” declares the LORD.

⁴“Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.

⁵Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign LORD.

⁶“I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

⁷“I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.

⁸People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

⁹“Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁰“I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.

¹²“Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God.”

¹³He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the LORD God Almighty is his name.

¹And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

²Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.

³But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

⁴Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

⁵Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

⁶When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.

⁷For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,

¹⁰and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”

¹¹They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.

¹²But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

¹³Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

¹⁶because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money

¹⁹and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

²¹You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

²²Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.

²³For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

²⁸and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet.

²⁹The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”

³⁵Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”

³⁷

³⁸And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.