Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.

²It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

³So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.

⁴Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?

⁸Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?

⁹Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

¹⁰So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance

¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

¹⁸Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”

¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

²⁰Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,

²¹nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

²²Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

²³People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them.

²⁴For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.

²⁵But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.

²⁷People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

²⁹But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

³⁰“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

³¹On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.

³²Remember Lot’s wife!

³³Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

³⁴I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.

³⁵Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

³⁶

³⁷“Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

¹Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman,

²and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.

³But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

⁴His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.

⁶She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

⁷Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

⁸“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.

⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

¹⁰When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

¹²Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

¹³The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

¹⁴The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

¹⁶Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

¹⁷Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

¹⁸When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰“And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.

²²Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

²³During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

²⁴God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.

²⁵So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

³Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.

⁵And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

¹⁰For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

¹¹Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

¹³To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.

¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

¹⁶Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

²who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

⁴John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

⁶and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

⁹I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

¹¹which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

¹²I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

¹³and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.

¹⁴The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.

¹⁵His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

¹⁸I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

¹⁹“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.

²⁰The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.

²Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

³If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

⁴Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

⁵As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

⁷Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

⁸However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

⁹You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

¹⁰So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.

¹A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

²I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

³You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant,

⁴‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’ ”

⁵The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?

⁷In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.

⁸Who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

⁹You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies.

¹¹The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.

¹²You created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name.

¹³Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

¹⁵Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, LORD.

¹⁶They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness.

¹⁷For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.

¹⁸Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people.

²⁰I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him.

²¹My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him.

²²The enemy will not get the better of him; the wicked will not oppress him.

²³I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries.

²⁴My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted.

²⁵I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.

²⁶He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’

²⁷And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.

²⁸I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail.

²⁹I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure.

³⁰“If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes,

³¹if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands,

³²I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging;

³³but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.

³⁴I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered.

³⁵Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness— and I will not lie to David—

³⁶that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun;

³⁷it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”

³⁸But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one.

³⁹You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins.

⁴¹All who pass by have plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice.

⁴³Indeed, you have turned back the edge of his sword and have not supported him in battle.

⁴⁴You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.

⁴⁵You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame.

⁴⁶How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity!

⁴⁸Who can live and not see death, or who can escape the power of the grave?

⁴⁹Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?

⁵⁰Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,

⁵¹the taunts with which your enemies, LORD, have mocked, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.

⁵²Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.

¹A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

²Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.

³The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

⁴Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life.

⁵In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls, but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.

⁶Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

⁷The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

⁸Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

⁹The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.

¹¹One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”

¹⁴The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the LORD’s wrath falls into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

¹⁶One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.

¹⁷Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach,

¹⁸for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips.

¹⁹So that your trust may be in the LORD, I teach you today, even you.

²⁰Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge,

²¹teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve?

²²Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court,

²³for the LORD will take up their case and will exact life for life.

²⁴Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered,

²⁵or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.

²⁶Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts;

²⁷if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

²⁸Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors.

²⁹Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.

¹On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,

²because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)

³When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.

⁴Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,

⁵and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

⁶But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission

⁷and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God.

⁸I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.

⁹I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

¹⁰I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.

¹¹So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

¹²All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms.

¹³I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.

¹⁴Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day.

¹⁶People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah.

¹⁷I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day?

¹⁸Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”

¹⁹When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day.

²⁰Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem.

²¹But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath.

²²Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

²³Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

²⁴Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah.

²⁵I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.

²⁶Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.

²⁷Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.

²⁹Remember them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

³⁰So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task.

³¹I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me with favor, my God.

¹In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.

²The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD

³by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

⁴Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:

⁵“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?

⁶And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?

⁷Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’ ”

⁸And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:

⁹“This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

¹⁰Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

¹¹“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears.

¹²They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

¹³“ ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.

¹⁴‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ ”

¹Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

³The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad.

⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

⁵Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and elders met to consider this question.

⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.

⁸God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

⁹He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

¹¹No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹²The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

¹³When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me.

¹⁴Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.

¹⁵The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

¹⁶“ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,

¹⁷that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’—

¹⁸things known from long ago.

¹⁹“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

²⁰Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

²¹For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

²²Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers.

²³With them they sent the following letter: The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings.

²⁴We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.

²⁵So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—

²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing.

²⁸It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:

²⁹You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

³⁰So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter.

³¹The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message.

³²Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.

³³After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

³⁶Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them,

³⁸but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

³⁹They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus,

⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.