Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box.

²Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.

³“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.

⁴For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”

⁵Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple and the memorial decorations on the walls. But Jesus said,

⁶“The time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will all this happen? What sign will show us that these things are about to take place?”

⁸He replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them.

⁹And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.”

¹⁰Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

¹¹There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.

¹²“But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons, and you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers.

¹³But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me.

¹⁴So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you,

¹⁵for I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you!

¹⁶Even those closest to you — your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends — will betray you. They will even kill some of you.

¹⁷And everyone will hate you because you are my followers.

¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish!

¹⁹By standing firm, you will win your souls.

²⁰“And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived.

²¹Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Those in Jerusalem must get out, and those out in the country should not return to the city.

²²For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.

²³How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people.

²⁴They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.

²⁵“And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides.

²⁶People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁷Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁸So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”

²⁹Then he gave them this illustration: “Notice the fig tree, or any other tree.

³⁰When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near.

³¹In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that the Kingdom of God is near.

³²I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things have taken place.

³³Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.

³⁴“Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware,

³⁵like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth.

³⁶Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷Every day Jesus went to the Temple to teach, and each evening he returned to spend the night on the Mount of Olives.

³⁸The crowds gathered at the Temple early each morning to hear him.

¹Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!”

²And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh — ‘the LORD.’

³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai — ‘God Almighty’ — but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.

⁴And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners.

⁵You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.

⁶“Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the LORD. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment.

⁷I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt.

⁸I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the LORD!’”

⁹So Moses told the people of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.

¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹¹“Go back to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave his country.”

¹²“But LORD!” Moses objected. “My own people won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I’m such a clumsy speaker! ”

¹³But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders for the Israelites and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The LORD commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the ancestors of some of the clans of Israel: The sons of Reuben, Israel’s oldest son, were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. Their descendants became the clans of Reuben.

¹⁵The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul. (Shaul’s mother was a Canaanite woman.) Their descendants became the clans of Simeon.

¹⁶These are the descendants of Levi, as listed in their family records: The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (Levi lived to be 137 years old.)

¹⁷The descendants of Gershon included Libni and Shimei, each of whom became the ancestor of a clan.

¹⁸The descendants of Kohath included Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. (Kohath lived to be 133 years old.)

¹⁹The descendants of Merari included Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites, as listed in their family records.

²⁰Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, and she gave birth to his sons, Aaron and Moses. (Amram lived to be 137 years old.)

²¹The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zicri.

²²The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she gave birth to his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

²⁴The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. Their descendants became the clans of Korah.

²⁵Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she gave birth to his son, Phinehas. These are the ancestors of the Levite families, listed according to their clans.

²⁶The Aaron and Moses named in this list are the same ones to whom the LORD said, “Lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt like an army.”

²⁷It was Moses and Aaron who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, about leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.

²⁸When the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹he said to him, “I am the LORD! Tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, everything I am telling you.”

³⁰But Moses argued with the LORD, saying, “I can’t do it! I’m such a clumsy speaker! Why should Pharaoh listen to me?”

¹With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

²My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

³for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed — cut off from Christ! — if that would save them.

⁴They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.

⁵Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

⁶Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!

⁷Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.

⁸This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.

⁹For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.

¹¹But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

¹²he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”

¹³In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

¹⁴Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!

¹⁵For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

¹⁶So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

¹⁷For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”

¹⁸So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

¹⁹Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

²⁰No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

²¹When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

²²In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

²³He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

²⁴And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

²⁵Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.”

²⁶And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

²⁷And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.

²⁸For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”

²⁹And Isaiah said the same thing in another place: “If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”

³⁰What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.

³¹But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

³²Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

³³God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

¹Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals.

²And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.

⁴Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it.

⁵But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.

⁷He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.

⁸And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

⁹And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.

¹²And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered — to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”

¹³And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

¹⁴And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

¹One night as I lay in bed, I yearned for my lover. I yearned for him, but he did not come.

²So I said to myself, “I will get up and roam the city, searching in all its streets and squares. I will search for the one I love.” So I searched everywhere but did not find him.

³The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”

⁴Then scarcely had I left them when I found my love! I caught and held him tightly, then I brought him to my mother’s house, into my mother’s bed, where I had been conceived.

⁵Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.

⁶Who is this sweeping in from the wilderness like a cloud of smoke? Who is it, fragrant with myrrh and frankincense and every kind of spice?

⁷Look, it is Solomon’s carriage, surrounded by sixty heroic men, the best of Israel’s soldiers.

⁸They are all skilled swordsmen, experienced warriors. Each wears a sword on his thigh, ready to defend the king against an attack in the night.

⁹King Solomon’s carriage is built of wood imported from Lebanon.

¹⁰Its posts are silver, its canopy gold; its cushions are purple. It was decorated with love by the young women of Jerusalem.

¹¹Come out to see King Solomon, young women of Jerusalem. He wears the crown his mother gave him on his wedding day, his most joyous day.

¹The LORD is king! He is robed in majesty. Indeed, the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength. The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.

²Your throne, O LORD, has stood from time immemorial. You yourself are from the everlasting past.

³The floods have risen up, O LORD. The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.

⁴But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore — the LORD above is mightier than these!

⁵Your royal laws cannot be changed. Your reign, O LORD, is holy forever and ever.

¹Honor is no more associated with fools than snow with summer or rain with harvest.

²Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.

³Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle, and a fool with a rod to his back!

⁴Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.

⁵Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation.

⁶Trusting a fool to convey a message is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!

⁷A proverb in the mouth of a fool is as useless as a paralyzed leg.

⁸Honoring a fool is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.

⁹A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.

¹⁰An employer who hires a fool or a bystander is like an archer who shoots at random.

¹¹As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.

¹²There is more hope for fools than for people who think they are wise.

¹³The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road! Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”

¹⁴As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed.

¹⁵Lazy people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth.

¹⁶Lazy people consider themselves smarter than seven wise counselors.

¹⁷Interfering in someone else’s argument is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.

¹⁸Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon

¹⁹is someone who lies to a friend and then says, “I was only joking.”

²⁰Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.

²¹A quarrelsome person starts fights as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.

²²Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart.

²³Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.

²⁴People may cover their hatred with pleasant words, but they’re deceiving you.

²⁵They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them. Their hearts are full of many evils.

²⁶While their hatred may be concealed by trickery, their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.

²⁷If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.

²⁸A lying tongue hates its victims, and flattering words cause ruin.

¹When Mordecai learned about all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the city, crying with a loud and bitter wail.

²He went as far as the gate of the palace, for no one was allowed to enter the palace gate while wearing clothes of mourning.

³And as news of the king’s decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in burlap and ashes.

⁴When Queen Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was deeply distressed. She sent clothing to him to replace the burlap, but he refused it.

⁵Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been appointed as her attendant. She ordered him to go to Mordecai and find out what was troubling him and why he was in mourning.

⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square in front of the palace gate.

⁷Mordecai told him the whole story, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.

⁸Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people.

⁹So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.

¹⁰Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai:

¹¹“All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.”

¹²So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.

¹³Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.

¹⁴If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

¹⁵Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:

¹⁶“Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”

¹⁷So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

¹Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedar forests.

²Weep, you cypress trees, for all the ruined cedars; the most majestic ones have fallen. Weep, you oaks of Bashan, for the thick forests have been cut down.

³Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their rich pastures are destroyed. Hear the young lions roaring, for their thickets in the Jordan Valley are ruined.

⁴This is what the LORD my God says: “Go and care for the flock that is intended for slaughter.

⁵The buyers slaughter their sheep without remorse. The sellers say, ‘Praise the LORD! Now I’m rich!’ Even the shepherds have no compassion for them.

⁶Likewise, I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” says the LORD. “I will let them fall into each other’s hands and into the hands of their king. They will turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not rescue them.”

⁷So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter — the flock that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd’s staffs and named one Favor and the other Union.

⁸I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these sheep, and they hated me, too.

⁹So I told them, “I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And let those who remain devour each other!”

¹⁰Then I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the nations.

¹¹That was the end of my covenant with them. The suffering flock was watching me, and they knew that the LORD was speaking through my actions.

¹²And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter ” — this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the LORD.

¹⁴Then I took my other staff, Union, and cut it in two, showing that the bond of unity between Judah and Israel was broken.

¹⁵Then the LORD said to me, “Go again and play the part of a worthless shepherd.

¹⁶This illustrates how I will give this nation a shepherd who will not care for those who are dying, nor look after the young, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy. Instead, this shepherd will eat the meat of the fattest sheep and tear off their hooves.

¹⁷“What sorrow awaits this worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! The sword will cut his arm and pierce his right eye. His arm will become useless, and his right eye completely blind.”

¹While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers.

²“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³“Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.”

⁴Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”

⁵As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.

⁷There were about twelve men in all.

⁸Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God.

⁹But some became stubborn, rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the Way. So Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This went on for the next two years, so that people throughout the province of Asia — both Jews and Greeks — heard the word of the Lord.

¹¹God gave Paul the power to perform unusual miracles.

¹²When handkerchiefs or aprons that had merely touched his skin were placed on sick people, they were healed of their diseases, and evil spirits were expelled.

¹³A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!”

¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this.

¹⁵But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.

¹⁷The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored.

¹⁸Many who became believers confessed their sinful practices.

¹⁹A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars.

²⁰So the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect.

²¹Afterward Paul felt compelled by the Spirit to go over to Macedonia and Achaia before going to Jerusalem. “And after that,” he said, “I must go on to Rome!”

²²He sent his two assistants, Timothy and Erastus, ahead to Macedonia while he stayed awhile longer in the province of Asia.

²³About that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus concerning the Way.

²⁴It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy.

²⁵He called them together, along with others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows: “Gentlemen, you know that our wealth comes from this business.

²⁶But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!

²⁷Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis — this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world — will be robbed of her great prestige!”

²⁸At this their anger boiled, and they began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

²⁹Soon the whole city was filled with confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, who were Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.

³⁰Paul wanted to go in, too, but the believers wouldn’t let him.

³¹Some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life by entering the amphitheater.

³²Inside, the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.

³³The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander forward and told him to explain the situation. He motioned for silence and tried to speak.

³⁴But when the crowd realized he was a Jew, they started shouting again and kept it up for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. “Citizens of Ephesus,” he said. “Everyone knows that Ephesus is the official guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell down to us from heaven.

³⁶Since this is an undeniable fact, you should stay calm and not do anything rash.

³⁷You have brought these men here, but they have stolen nothing from the temple and have not spoken against our goddess.

³⁸“If Demetrius and the craftsmen have a case against them, the courts are in session and the officials can hear the case at once. Let them make formal charges.

³⁹And if there are complaints about other matters, they can be settled in a legal assembly.

⁴⁰I am afraid we are in danger of being charged with rioting by the Roman government, since there is no cause for all this commotion. And if Rome demands an explanation, we won’t know what to say.”

⁴¹Then he dismissed them, and they dispersed.