Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

³They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.

⁶But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.

⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

⁸So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. THE SHORTER ENDING OF MARK [[And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]]

⁹[[Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

¹⁰She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping.

¹¹But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

¹²After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country.

¹³And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

¹⁴Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

¹⁵And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

¹⁶The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.

¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

¹⁹So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

²⁰And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.]]

¹God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

²So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes;

³then come, let us go up to Bethel, that I may make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

⁴So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak that was near Shechem.

⁵As they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities all around them, so that no one pursued them.

⁶Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,

⁷and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

⁸And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So it was called Allon-bacuth.

⁹God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him.

¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he was called Israel.

¹¹God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall spring from you.

¹²The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”

¹³Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.

¹⁴Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.

¹⁵So Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor.

¹⁷When she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid; for now you will have another son.”

¹⁸As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem),

²⁰and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.

²¹Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

²³The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had resided as aliens.

²⁸Now the days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

²⁹And Isaac breathed his last; he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

¹Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,

²but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.

³He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

⁴having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?

⁶And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

⁷Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.”

⁸But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.

⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

¹⁰And, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

¹¹they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing;

¹²like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end.”

¹³But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

¹⁴Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

¹Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you.

²Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.

³Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.

⁴Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

⁵You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

⁷Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

⁸You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

⁹Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!

¹⁰As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

¹¹Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

¹²Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

¹³Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

¹⁴Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

¹⁸Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

¹⁹My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,

²⁰you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

¹Elihu continued and said:

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.

³I will bring my knowledge from far away, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Surely God is mighty and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.

⁷He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸And if they are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction,

⁹then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

¹⁰He opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen, and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.

¹²But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword, and die without knowledge.

¹³“The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in their youth, and their life ends in shame.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear by adversity.

¹⁶He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no constraint, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.

¹⁸Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing, and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

¹⁹Will your cry avail to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength?

²⁰Do not long for the night, when peoples are cut off in their place.

²¹Beware! Do not turn to iniquity; because of that you have been tried by affliction.

²²See, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴“Remember to extol his work, of which mortals have sung.

²⁵All people have looked on it; everyone watches it from far away.

²⁶Surely God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water; he distills his mist in rain,

²⁸which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰See, he scatters his lightning around him and covers the roots of the sea.

³¹For by these he governs peoples; he gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.

³³Its crashing tells about him; he is jealous with anger against iniquity.

¹Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son.

²May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

³May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

⁴May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.

⁵May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

⁶May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

⁷In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

⁸May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

⁹May his foes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust.

¹⁰May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.

¹¹May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service.

¹²For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper.

¹³He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.

¹⁴From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.

¹⁵Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all day long.

¹⁶May there be abundance of grain in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field.

¹⁷May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun. May all nations be blessed in him; may they pronounce him happy.

¹⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.

²⁰The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

¹My child, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

²so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol.

⁶She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, my child, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house;

⁹or you will give your honor to others, and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;

¹¹and at the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin in the public assembly.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love.

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

²¹For human ways are under the eyes of the LORD, and he examines all their paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them, and they are caught in the toils of their sin.

²³They die for lack of discipline, and because of their great folly they are lost.

¹Then King Darius made a decree, and they searched the archives where the documents were stored in Babylon.

²But it was in Ecbatana, the capital in the province of Media, that a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record.

³In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought; its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

⁴with three courses of hewn stones and one course of timber; let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

⁵Moreover, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God.”

⁶“Now you, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and you, their associates, the envoys in the province Beyond the River, keep away;

⁷let the work on this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

⁸Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God: the cost is to be paid to these people, in full and without delay, from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province Beyond the River.

⁹Whatever is needed — young bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests in Jerusalem require — let that be given to them day by day without fail,

¹⁰so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his children.

¹¹Furthermore I decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of the house of the perpetrator, who then shall be impaled on it. The house shall be made a dunghill.

¹²May the God who has established his name there overthrow any king or people that shall put forth a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

¹³Then, according to the word sent by King Darius, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what King Darius had ordered.

¹⁴So the elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building by command of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia;

¹⁵and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

¹⁶The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

¹⁷They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁸Then they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles kept the passover.

²⁰For both the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. So they killed the passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.

²¹It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by all who had joined them and separated themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the LORD, the God of Israel.

²²With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread seven days; for the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:

²“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,

³because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.

⁵They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors,

⁷a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews!

⁸Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹“Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.

¹¹By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

¹²“With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.

¹⁴When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

¹⁷I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles — to whom I am sending you

¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place:

²³that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.

²⁶Indeed the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I am certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?”

²⁹Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king got up, and with him the governor and Bernice and those who had been seated with them;

³¹and as they were leaving, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to the emperor.”