Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!

²It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

³Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.

⁴And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

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

⁶The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

⁷“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’?

⁸Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’?

⁹Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?

¹⁰So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

¹¹On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance,

¹³they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

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

¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

¹⁶He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?

¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

¹⁹Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

²⁰Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed;

²¹nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

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

²³They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go, do not set off in pursuit.

²⁴For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.

²⁵But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.

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

²⁷They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them.

²⁸Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,

²⁹but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them

³⁰— it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

³¹On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back.

³²Remember Lot’s wife.

³³Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.

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

³⁵There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.”

³⁶

³⁷Then they asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

¹Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.

²The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.

³When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

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

⁵The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.

⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said.

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

⁸Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.

⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it.

¹⁰When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk.

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

¹³When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?”

¹⁴He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

¹⁶The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?”

¹⁹They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.”

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

²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”

²³After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.

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

²⁵God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

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

²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.

⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

⁹Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.

¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

¹¹But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —

¹³sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.

¹⁴Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

¹⁵But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.

¹⁶And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.

¹⁷If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.

¹⁹For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

²⁰But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

²¹so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹The revelation of 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 testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

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

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

⁶and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to 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 who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

¹¹saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,

¹³and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.

¹⁴His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,

¹⁵his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

¹⁸and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

¹⁹Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this.

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

¹Send out your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will get it back.

²Divide your means seven ways, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.

³When clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

⁴Whoever observes the wind will not sow; and whoever regards the clouds will not reap.

⁵Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.

⁶In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

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

⁸Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

⁹Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

¹⁰Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

¹I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.

²I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

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

⁴‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

⁵Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD,

⁷a God feared in the council of the holy ones, great and awesome above all that are around him?

⁸O LORD God of hosts, who is as mighty as you, O LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds you.

⁹You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

¹⁰You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

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

¹²The north and the south — you created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.

¹³You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.

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

¹⁵Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance;

¹⁶they exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness.

¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.

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

¹⁹Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said: “I have set the crown on one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people.

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

²¹my hand shall always remain with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.

²²The enemy shall not outwit him, the wicked shall not humble him.

²³I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.

²⁴My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him; and in my name his horn shall be exalted.

²⁵I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.

²⁶He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’

²⁷I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him, and my covenant with him will stand firm.

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

³⁰If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my ordinances,

³¹if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,

³²then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with scourges;

³³but I will not remove from him my steadfast love, or be false to my faithfulness.

³⁴I will not violate my covenant, or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

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

³⁶His line shall continue forever, and his throne endure before me like the sun.

³⁷It shall be established forever like the moon, an enduring witness in the skies.” Selah

³⁸But now you have spurned and rejected him; you are full of wrath against your anointed.

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

⁴⁰You have broken through all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

⁴¹All who pass by plunder 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.

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

⁴⁴You have removed the scepter from his hand, and hurled his throne to the ground.

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

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

⁴⁷Remember how short my time is — for what vanity you have created all mortals!

⁴⁸Who can live and never see death? Who can escape the power of Sheol? Selah

⁴⁹Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

⁵⁰Remember, O Lord, how your servant is taunted; how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples,

⁵¹with which your enemies taunt, O LORD, with which they taunted the footsteps of your anointed.

⁵²Blessed be the LORD forever. Amen and Amen.

¹A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

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

³The clever see danger and hide; but the simple go on, and suffer for it.

⁴The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; the cautious will keep far from them.

⁶Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.

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

⁸Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.

⁹Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out a scoffer, and strife goes out; quarreling and abuse will cease.

¹¹Those who love a pure heart and are gracious in speech will have the king as a friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless.

¹³The lazy person says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”

¹⁴The mouth of a loose woman is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry falls into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy, but the rod of discipline drives it far away.

¹⁶Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.

¹⁷The words of the wise: Incline your ear and hear my words, and apply your mind to my teaching;

¹⁸for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have made them known to you today — yes, to you.

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

²¹to show you what is right and true, so that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?

²²Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate;

²³for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

²⁴Make no friends with those given to anger, and do not associate with hotheads,

²⁵or you may learn their ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

²⁶Do not be one of those who give pledges, who become surety for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?

²⁸Do not remove the ancient landmark that your ancestors set up.

²⁹Do you see those who are skillful in their work? They will serve kings; they will not serve common people.

¹On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

²because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them — yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.

³When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.

⁴Now before this, the priest Eliashib, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah,

⁵prepared for Tobiah a large room where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.

⁶While this was taking place I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon I went to the king. After some time I asked leave of the king

⁷and returned to Jerusalem. I then discovered the wrong that Eliashib had done on behalf of Tobiah, preparing a room for him in the courts of the house of God.

⁸And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the room.

⁹Then I gave orders and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

¹⁰I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them; so that the Levites and the singers, who had conducted the service, had gone back to their fields.

¹¹So I remonstrated with the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.

¹²Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.

¹³And I appointed as treasurers over the storehouses the priest Shelemiah, the scribe Zadok, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and as their assistant Hanan son of Zaccur son of Mattaniah, for they were considered faithful; and their duty was to distribute to their associates.

¹⁴Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his service.

¹⁵In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys; and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I warned them at that time against selling food.

¹⁶Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of merchandise and sold them on the sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

¹⁷Then I remonstrated with the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day?

¹⁸Did not your ancestors act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the sabbath.”

¹⁹When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I set some of my servants over the gates, to prevent any burden from being brought in on the sabbath day.

²⁰Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.

²¹But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the sabbath.

²²And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.

²³In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab;

²⁴and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples.

²⁵And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

²⁶Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin.

²⁷Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

²⁸And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me.

²⁹Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.

³⁰Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;

³¹and I provided for the wood offering, at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

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

²Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD,

³and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

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

⁵Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?

⁶And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?

⁷Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited?

⁸The word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying:

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;

¹⁰do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

¹¹But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.

¹²They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

¹³Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts,

¹⁴and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.

¹Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders.

³So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers.

⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

⁵But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.

⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers.

⁸And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us;

⁹and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.

¹⁰Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

¹²The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name.

¹⁵This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written,

¹⁶‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up,

¹⁷so that all other peoples may seek the Lord — even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things

¹⁸known from long ago.’

¹⁹Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God,

²⁰but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.

²¹For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.”

²²Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers,

²³with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds,

²⁵we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

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

²⁷We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:

²⁹that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation.

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

³³After they had been there for some time, they were sent off in peace by the believers to those who had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

³⁸But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

³⁹The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord.

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