Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He entered Jericho and was passing through it.

²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.

³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.

⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

⁸Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

¹¹As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

¹²So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return.

¹³He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’

¹⁴But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

¹⁵When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading.

¹⁶The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’

¹⁷He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’

¹⁸Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’

¹⁹He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’

²⁰Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth,

²¹for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’

²²He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?

²³Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’

²⁴He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’

²⁵(And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’)

²⁶‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

²⁷But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them — bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.’”

²⁸After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,

³⁰saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

³¹If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

³²So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.

³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴They said, “The Lord needs it.”

³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,

³⁸saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”

⁴⁰He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

⁴¹As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it,

⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

⁴³Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.

⁴⁴They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

⁴⁵Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there;

⁴⁶and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him;

⁴⁸but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

¹Then Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”

²The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”

³And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it.

⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail” — so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand —

⁵“so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

⁶Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

⁷Then God said, “Put your hand back into your cloak” — so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body —

⁸“If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign.

⁹If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰But Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

¹²Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.”

¹³But he said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.”

¹⁴Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad.

¹⁵You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.

¹⁶He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him.

¹⁷Take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.”

¹⁸Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me go back to my kindred in Egypt and see whether they are still living.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

¹⁹The LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead.”

²⁰So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses carried the staff of God in his hand.

²¹And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

²²Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: Israel is my firstborn son.

²³I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’”

²⁴On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the LORD met him and tried to kill him.

²⁵But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

²⁶So he let him alone. It was then she said, “A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.”

²⁷The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went; and he met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

²⁸Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him.

²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites.

³⁰Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people.

³¹The people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had given heed to the Israelites and that he had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

¹Do you not know, brothers and sisters — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime?

²Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.

³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

⁷What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.

⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived

¹⁰and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.

¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.

²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,

²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

¹“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.

²Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.

³Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.

⁴Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

⁵If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.

⁶Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

⁷“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens:

⁸“I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

⁹I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying — I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.

¹⁰Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.

¹²If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

¹³Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

¹⁴“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:

¹⁵“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot.

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

¹⁸Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

¹⁹I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.

²⁰Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.

²¹To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²²Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

¹The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine,

³your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out; therefore the maidens love you.

⁴Draw me after you, let us make haste. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

⁵I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has gazed on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know, O fairest among women, follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are comely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹We will make you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

¹²While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh that lies between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-gedi.

¹⁵Ah, you are beautiful, my love; ah, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.

¹⁶Ah, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green;

¹⁷the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.

¹You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

²will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”

³For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence;

⁴he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

⁵You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day,

⁶or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

⁸You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹Because you have made the LORD your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place,

¹⁰no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.

¹¹For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

¹²On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.

¹³You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.

¹⁴Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.

¹⁵When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.

¹⁶With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.

¹Do not envy the wicked, nor desire to be with them;

²for their minds devise violence, and their lips talk of mischief.

³By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;

⁴by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵Wise warriors are mightier than strong ones, and those who have knowledge than those who have strength;

⁶for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too high for fools; in the gate they do not open their mouths.

⁸Whoever plans to do evil will be called a mischief-maker.

⁹The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to all.

¹⁰If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength being small;

¹¹if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death, those who go staggering to the slaughter;

¹²if you say, “Look, we did not know this” — does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all according to their deeds?

¹³My child, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

¹⁴Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, you will find a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against the home of the righteous; do no violence to the place where the righteous live;

¹⁶for though they fall seven times, they will rise again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble,

¹⁸or else the LORD will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them.

¹⁹Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not envy the wicked;

²⁰for the evil have no future; the lamp of the wicked will go out.

²¹My child, fear the LORD and the king, and do not disobey either of them;

²²for disaster comes from them suddenly, and who knows the ruin that both can bring?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: Partiality in judging is not good.

²⁴Whoever says to the wicked, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations;

²⁵but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶One who gives an honest answer gives a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field; and after that build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I will do to others as they have done to me; I will pay them back for what they have done.”

³⁰I passed by the field of one who was lazy, by the vineyard of a stupid person;

³¹and see, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.

³³A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

³⁴and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.

¹After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.

²Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king.

³And let the king appoint commissioners in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women; let their cosmetic treatments be given them.

⁴And let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.

⁵Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite.

⁶Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away.

⁷Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.

⁸So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.

⁹The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem.

¹⁰Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell.

¹¹Every day Mordecai would walk around in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was and how she fared.

¹²The turn came for each girl to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women.

¹³When the girl went in to the king she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.

¹⁴In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

¹⁵When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her.

¹⁶When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,

¹⁷the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

¹⁸Then the king gave a great banquet to all his officials and ministers — “Esther’s banquet.” He also granted a holiday to the provinces, and gave gifts with royal liberality.

¹⁹When the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.

²⁰Now Esther had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had charged her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.

²¹In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.

²²But the matter came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai.

²³When the affair was investigated and found to be so, both the men were hanged on the gallows. It was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.

¹An Oracle. The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For to the LORD belongs the capital of Aram, as do all the tribes of Israel;

²Hamath also, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.

³Tyre has built itself a rampart, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.

⁴But now, the Lord will strip it of its possessions and hurl its wealth into the sea, and it shall be devoured by fire.

⁵Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are withered. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

⁶a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod, and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.

⁷I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

⁸Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that no one shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again overrun them, for now I have seen with my own eyes.

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

¹³For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will arouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.

¹⁵The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar.

¹⁶On that day the LORD their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.

¹⁷For what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.

¹After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”

⁴Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house.

⁶When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.”

⁸The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this,

⁹and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds.

¹⁴Then the believers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³At that point Paul left them.

³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.