Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?

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

⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

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

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

⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’

⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.

⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.”

¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?

¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

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

¹⁹It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

²⁰And again he said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God?

²¹It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

²²Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.

²³Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them,

²⁴“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

²⁵When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’

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

²⁹Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.

³⁰Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

³¹At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

³²He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.

³³Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’

³⁴Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

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

¹After this Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

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

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

⁴and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers; I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for a perpetual holding.’

⁵Therefore your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are now mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are.

⁶As for the offspring born to you after them, they shall be yours. They shall be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance.

⁷For when I came from Paddan, Rachel, alas, died in the land of Canaan on the way, while there was still some distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

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

⁹Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.”

¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, and he could not see well. So Joseph brought them near him; and he kissed them and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, “I did not expect to see your face; and here God has let me see your children also.”

¹²Then Joseph removed them from his father’s knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them near him.

¹⁴But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my ancestors 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, bless the boys; and in them let my name be perpetuated, and the name of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude on the earth.”

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father! Since 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 also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.”

²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will invoke blessings, saying, ‘God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

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

²²I now give to you one portion more than to your brothers, the portion that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

¹Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

³the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

⁴and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

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

⁶including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be 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 your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.

⁹For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers,

¹⁰asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you —

¹²or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

¹³I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish

¹⁵— hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse;

²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools;

²³and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves,

²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural,

²⁷and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.

²⁹They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,

³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

³²They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die — yet 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 parent loves the child.

²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

⁴for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

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

⁶This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

⁷There are three that testify:

⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.

⁹If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.

¹⁰Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.

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

¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

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

¹⁴And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.

¹⁶If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one — to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that.

¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

¹⁸We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.

¹⁹We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.

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

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

¹A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

⁶For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity.

⁷Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.

⁹Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

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

¹²For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it.

¹³Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them.

¹⁵In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.

¹⁶Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both.

¹⁹Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.

²⁰Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.

²¹Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you;

²²your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others.

²³All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

²⁴That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

²⁵I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

²⁷See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,

²⁸which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

²⁹See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.

¹LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

²You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. Selah

³You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.

⁴Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.

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

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

⁷Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.

⁸Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

⁹Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

¹¹Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.

¹²The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

¹³Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

¹The one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for all who have sound judgment.

²A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt comes also; and with dishonor comes disgrace.

⁴The words of the mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a gushing stream.

⁵It is not right to be partial to the guilty, or to subvert the innocent in judgment.

⁶A fool’s lips bring strife, and a fool’s mouth invites a flogging.

⁷The mouths of fools are their ruin, and their lips a snare to themselves.

⁸The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

⁹One who is slack in work is close kin to a vandal.

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

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

¹²Before destruction one’s heart is haughty, but humility goes before honor.

¹³If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame.

¹⁴The human spirit will endure sickness; but a broken spirit — who can bear?

¹⁵An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A gift opens doors; it gives access to the great.

¹⁷The one who first states a case seems right, until the other comes and cross-examines.

¹⁸Casting the lot puts an end to disputes and decides between powerful contenders.

¹⁹An ally offended is stronger than a city; such quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

²⁰From the fruit of the mouth one’s stomach is satisfied; the yield of the lips brings satisfaction.

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

²²He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD.

²³The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.

²⁴Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.

¹Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.

²Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.

³They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

⁴Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

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

⁶And Ezra said: “You are the LORD, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the host of heaven worships you.

⁷You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham;

⁸and you found his heart faithful before you, and made with him a covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite; and you have fulfilled your promise, for you are righteous.

⁹“And you saw the distress of our ancestors in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁰You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted insolently against our ancestors. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day.

¹¹And you divided the sea before them, so that they passed through the sea on dry land, but you threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.

¹²Moreover, you led them by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way in which they should go.

¹³You came down also upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

¹⁴and you made known your holy sabbath to them and gave them commandments and statutes and a law through your servant Moses.

¹⁵For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, and for their thirst you brought water for them out of the rock, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you swore to give them.

¹⁶“But they and our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments;

¹⁷they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.

¹⁸Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,

¹⁹you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go.

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

²¹Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

²²And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted to them every corner, so they took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan.

²³You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess.

²⁴So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased.

²⁵And they captured fortress cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses filled with all sorts of goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

²⁶“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their backs and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

²⁷Therefore you gave them into the hands of their enemies, who made them suffer. Then in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

²⁸But after they had rest, they again did evil before you, and you abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you rescued them according to your mercies.

²⁹And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, by the observance of which a person shall live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.

³⁰Many years you were patient with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the peoples of the lands.

³¹Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

³²“Now therefore, our God — the great and mighty and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love — do not treat lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until today.

³³You have been just in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly;

³⁴our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law or heeded the commandments and the warnings that you gave them.

³⁵Even in their own kingdom, and in the great goodness you bestowed on them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their wicked works.

³⁶Here we are, slaves to this day — slaves in the land that you gave to our ancestors to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts.

³⁷Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”

³⁸Because of all this we make a firm agreement in writing, and on that sealed document are inscribed the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests.

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

²And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?”

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

⁴The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And to him he said, “See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I will clothe you with festal apparel.”

⁵And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the LORD was standing by.

⁶Then the angel of the LORD assured Joshua, saying

⁷“Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.

⁸Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am going to bring my servant the Branch.

⁹For on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day.

¹⁰On that day, says the LORD of hosts, you shall invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree.”

¹Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him,

³saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”

⁴Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying,

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me.

⁶As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.

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

⁸But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

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

¹⁰This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

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

¹²The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.

¹³He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter;

¹⁴he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’

¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.

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

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

¹⁸When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

¹⁹Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews.

²⁰But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus.

²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord.

²²News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion;

²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord.

²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”

²⁷At that time 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 over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius.

²⁹The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea;

³⁰this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.