Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹At that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

²And he responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things?

³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.

⁴Or those eighteen that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed — do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.”

⁶And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none.

⁷He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

⁸“But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.

⁹Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’”

¹⁰As he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath,

¹¹a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

¹²When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, “Woman, you are free of your disability.”

¹³Then he laid his hands on her, and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God.

¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded by telling the crowd, “There are six days when work should be done; therefore come on those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, “Hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you untie his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it to water?

¹⁶Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham, for eighteen years — shouldn’t she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

¹⁷When he had said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated, but the whole crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things he was doing.

¹⁸He said, therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like, and what can I compare it to?

¹⁹It’s like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.”

²⁰Again he said, “What can I compare the kingdom of God to?

²¹It’s like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.” 

²²He went through one town and village after another, teaching and making his way to Jerusalem.

²³“Lord,” someone asked him, “are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them,

²⁴“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able

²⁵once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door. Then you will stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up for us! ’ He will answer you, ‘I don’t know you or where you’re from.’

²⁶Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷But he will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you’re from. Get away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown out.

²⁹They will come from east and west, from north and south, to share the banquet in the kingdom of God.

³⁰Note this: Some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”

³¹At that time some Pharisees came and told him, “Go, get out of here. Herod wants to kill you.”

³²He said to them, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work.’

³³Yet it is necessary that I travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.

³⁴“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

³⁵See, your house is abandoned to you. I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,’ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!”

¹Some time after this, Joseph was told, “Your father is weaker.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

³Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

⁴He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as a permanent possession to your future descendants.’

⁵Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do.

⁶Children born to you after them will be yours and will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance.

⁷When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

⁸When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?”

⁹And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons God has given me here.” So Israel said, “Bring them to me and I will bless them.”

¹⁰Now his eyesight was poor because of old age; he could hardly see. Joseph brought them to him, and he kissed and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.”

¹²Then Joseph took them from his father’s knees and bowed with his face to the ground.

¹³Then Joseph took them both — with his right hand Ephraim toward Israel’s left, and with his left hand Manasseh toward Israel’s right — and brought them to Israel.

¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and crossing his hands, put his left on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵Then he blessed Joseph and said: The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm  — may he bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow to be numerous within the land.

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, putting Ephraim before Manasseh when he said, “The nation Israel will invoke blessings by you, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

²¹Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

²²Over and above what I am giving your brothers, I am giving you the one mountain slope that I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God  —

²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures —

³concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh

⁴and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.

⁵Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles,

⁶including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.

⁷To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.

⁹God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son — that I constantly mention you,

¹⁰always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

¹²that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

¹³Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now ) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish.

¹⁵So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

¹⁸For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

¹⁹since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

²⁰For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

²¹For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

²⁶For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

²⁷The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error.

²⁸And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

²⁹They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

³¹senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.

³²Although they know God’s just sentence — that those who practice such things deserve to die  — they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him.

²This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands.

³For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,

⁴because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

⁵Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶Jesus Christ — he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

⁷For there are three that testify:

⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood  — and these three are in agreement.

⁹If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son.

¹⁰The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son.

¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹²The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him — to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

¹⁸We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one — that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

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

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.

³Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.

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

⁵It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools,

⁶for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

⁷Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

⁹Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.

¹⁰Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.

¹¹Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun,

¹²because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

¹³Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

¹⁶Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

¹⁹Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.

²⁰There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

²¹Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,

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

²³I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

²⁴What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?

²⁵I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,

²⁸which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

²⁹Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

¹For the choir director. A psalm of the sons of Korah. [1] LORD, you showed favor to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

²You forgave your people’s guilt; you covered all their sin. Selah

³You withdrew all your fury; you turned from your burning anger.

⁴Return to us, God of our salvation, and abandon your displeasure with us.

⁵Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger for all generations?

⁶Will you not revive us again so that your people may rejoice in you?

⁷Show us your faithful love, LORD, and give us your salvation.

⁸I will listen to what God will say; surely the LORD will declare peace to his people, his faithful ones, and not let them go back to foolish ways.

⁹His salvation is very near those who fear him, so that glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰Faithful love and truth will join together; righteousness and peace will embrace.

¹¹Truth will spring up from the earth, and righteousness will look down from heaven.

¹²Also, the LORD will provide what is good, and our land will yield its crops.

¹³Righteousness will go before him to prepare the way for his steps.

¹One who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.

²A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions.

³When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes, and along with dishonor, derision.

⁴The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.

⁵It is not good to show partiality to the guilty, denying an innocent person justice.

⁶A fool’s lips lead to strife, and his mouth provokes a beating.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his devastation, and his lips are a trap for his life.

⁸A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.

⁹The one who is lazy in his work is brother to a vandal.

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

¹¹The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; in his imagination it is like a high wall.

¹²Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

¹³The one who gives an answer before he listens — this is foolishness and disgrace for him.

¹⁴A person’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

¹⁵The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it.

¹⁶A person’s gift opens doors for him and brings him before the great.

¹⁷The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

¹⁸Casting the lot ends quarrels and separates powerful opponents.

¹⁹An offended brother is harder to reach than a fortified city, and quarrels are like the bars of a fortress.

²⁰From the fruit of a person’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is filled with the product of his lips.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.

²³The poor person pleads, but the rich one answers roughly.

²⁴One with many friends may be harmed, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

¹On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting, wearing sackcloth, and had put dust on their heads.

²Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

³While they stood in their places, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day and spent another fourth of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.

⁴Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the raised platform built for the Levites and cried out loudly to the LORD their God.

⁵Then the Levites — Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah  — said, “Stand up. Blessed be the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting.” Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

⁶You, LORD, are the only God. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and all the stars of heaven worship you.

⁷You, the LORD, are the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and changed his name to Abraham.

⁸You found his heart faithful in your sight, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites — to give it to his descendants. You have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous.

⁹You saw the oppression of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁰You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly they treated our ancestors. You made a name for yourself that endures to this day.

¹¹You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging water.

¹²You led them with a pillar of cloud by day, and with a pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way they should go.

¹³You came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them impartial ordinances, reliable instructions, and good statutes and commands.

¹⁴You revealed your holy Sabbath to them, and gave them commands, statutes, and instruction through your servant Moses.

¹⁵You provided bread from heaven for their hunger; you brought them water from the rock for their thirst. You told them to go in and possess the land you had sworn to give them.

¹⁶But our ancestors acted arrogantly; they became stiff-necked and did not listen to your commands.

¹⁷They refused to listen and did not remember your wonders you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, and you did not abandon them.

¹⁸Even after they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, “This is your god who brought you out of Egypt,” and they had committed terrible blasphemies,

¹⁹you did not abandon them in the wilderness because of your great compassion. During the day the pillar of cloud never turned away from them, guiding them on their journey. And during the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.

²⁰You sent your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.

²¹You provided for them in the wilderness forty years, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell.

²²You gave them kingdoms and peoples and established boundaries for them. They took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and of the land of King Og of Bashan.

²³You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky and brought them to the land you told their ancestors to go in and possess.

²⁴So their descendants went in and possessed the land: You subdued the Canaanites who inhabited the land before them and handed their kings and the surrounding peoples over to them, to do as they pleased with them.

²⁵They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took possession of well-supplied houses, cisterns cut out of rock, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate, were filled, became prosperous, and delighted in your great goodness.

²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against you. They flung your law behind their backs and killed your prophets who warned them in order to turn them back to you. They committed terrible blasphemies.

²⁷So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. In their time of distress, they cried out to you, and you heard from heaven. In your abundant compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the power of their enemies.

²⁸But as soon as they had relief, they again did what was evil in your sight. So you abandoned them to the power of their enemies, who dominated them. When they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven and rescued them many times in your compassion.

²⁹You warned them to turn back to your law, but they acted arrogantly and would not obey your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, which a person will live by if he does them. They stubbornly resisted, stiffened their necks, and would not obey.

³⁰You were patient with them for many years, and your Spirit warned them through your prophets, but they would not listen. Therefore, you handed them over to the surrounding peoples.

³¹However, in your abundant compassion, you did not destroy them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.

³²So now, our God — the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant  — do not view lightly all the hardships that have afflicted us, our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the Assyrian kings until today.

³³You are righteous concerning all that has happened to us, because you have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly.

³⁴Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors did not obey your law or listen to your commands and warnings you gave them.

³⁵When they were in their kingdom, with your abundant goodness that you gave them, and in the spacious and fertile land you set before them, they would not serve you or turn from their wicked ways.

³⁶Here we are today, slaves in the land you gave our ancestors so that they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness. Here we are — slaves in it!

³⁷Its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have set over us, because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress.

³⁸In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement in writing on a sealed document containing the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.

¹Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.

²The LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! May the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

³Now Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.

⁴So the angel of the LORD spoke to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to him, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with festive robes.”

⁵Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So a clean turban was placed on his head, and they clothed him in garments while the angel of the LORD was standing nearby.

⁶Then the angel of the LORD charged Joshua:

⁷“This is what the LORD of Armies says: If you walk in my ways and keep my mandates, you will both rule my house and take care of my courts; I will also grant you access among these who are standing here.

⁸“Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your colleagues sitting before you; indeed, these men are a sign that I am about to bring my servant, the Branch.

⁹Notice the stone I have set before Joshua; on that one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave an inscription on it” — this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies — “and I will take away the iniquity of this land in a single day.

¹⁰On that day, each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree.” This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

¹The apostles and the brothers and sisters who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

²When Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him,

³saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴Peter began to explain to them step by step:

⁵“I was in the town of Joppa praying, and I saw, in a trance, an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it came to me.

⁶When I looked closely and considered it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.

⁷I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’

⁸“‘No, Lord! ’ I said. ‘For nothing impure or ritually unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But a voice answered from heaven a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call impure.’

¹⁰“Now this happened three times, and everything was drawn up again into heaven.

¹¹At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were.

¹²The Spirit told me to accompany them with no doubts at all. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we went into the man’s house.

¹³He reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa, and call for Simon, who is also named Peter.

¹⁴He will speak a message to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as on us at the beginning.

¹⁶I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷If, then, God gave them the same gift that he also gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I possibly hinder God?”

¹⁸When they heard this they became silent. And they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles.”

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

²⁰But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.

²¹The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²News about them reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel as far as Antioch.

²³When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts,

²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And large numbers of people were added to the Lord.

²⁵Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul,

²⁶and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

²⁷In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine throughout the Roman world. This took place during the reign of Claudius.

²⁹Each of the disciples, according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers and sisters who lived in Judea.

³⁰They did this, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul.