Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

²This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

³Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴“How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

⁶Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.

⁸The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰“Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied.

¹¹“Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven — the Son of Man.

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

¹⁸Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

¹⁹This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

²¹But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

²²After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent time with them and baptized.

²³John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were coming and being baptized,

²⁴since John had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification.

²⁶So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing — and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’

²⁹He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The one who comes from heaven is above all.

³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, and yet no one accepts his testimony.

³³The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true.

³⁴For the one whom God sent speaks God’s words, since he gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands.

³⁶The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

¹The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

²“This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.

³Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family.

⁴If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.

⁵You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats.

⁶You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

⁷They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them.

⁸They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

⁹Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire — its head as well as its legs and inner organs.

¹⁰You must not leave any of it until morning; any part of it left until morning you must burn.

¹¹Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the LORD’s Passover.

¹²“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the LORD; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.

¹³The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the LORD. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

¹⁵You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat — you may do only that.

¹⁷“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

¹⁸You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day.

¹⁹Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.

²⁰Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”

²¹Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.

²²Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning.

²³When the LORD passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.

²⁴“Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants.

²⁵When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony.

²⁶When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’

²⁷you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” So the people knelt low and worshiped.

²⁸Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

²⁹Now at midnight the LORD struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.

³⁰During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead.

³¹He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get out immediately from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship the LORD as you have said.

³²Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

³³Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!”

³⁴So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing.

³⁶And the LORD gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand able-bodied men on foot, besides their families.

³⁸A mixed crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds.

³⁹The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they were driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared provisions for themselves.

⁴⁰The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years.

⁴¹At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the LORD’s military divisions went out from the land of Egypt.

⁴²It was a night of vigil in honor of the LORD, because he would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the LORD, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.

⁴³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it.

⁴⁴But any slave a man has purchased may eat it, after you have circumcised him.

⁴⁵A temporary resident or hired worker may not eat the Passover.

⁴⁶It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones.

⁴⁷The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

⁴⁸If an alien resides among you and wants to observe the LORD’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

⁴⁹The same law will apply to both the native and the alien who resides among you.”

⁵⁰Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹On that same day the LORD brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.

¹Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

²Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

³For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

⁴For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.

⁵Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,

⁶so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

⁷Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.

⁸For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers,

⁹and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to your name.

¹⁰Again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people!

¹¹And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples praise him!

¹²And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles will hope in him.

¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

¹⁵Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God

¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. My purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷Therefore I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God.

¹⁸For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me by word and deed for the obedience of the Gentiles,

¹⁹by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum.

²⁰My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation,

²¹but, as it is written, Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

²²That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you.

²³But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you

²⁴whenever I travel to Spain. For I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while.

²⁵Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints,

²⁶because Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

²⁷Yes, they were pleased, and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to them in material needs.

²⁸So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds to them, I will visit you on the way to Spain.

²⁹I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

³⁰Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in fervent prayers to God on my behalf.

³¹Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

³²and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.

³³May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

¹Then I was given a measuring reed like a rod, with these words: “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there.

²But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Don’t measure it, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

³I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.”

⁴These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

⁵If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies; if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

⁶They have authority to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the days of their prophecy. They also have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague whenever they want.

⁷When they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, conquer them, and kill them.

⁸Their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city, which figuratively is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

⁹And some of the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will view their bodies for three and a half days and not permit their bodies to be put into a tomb.

¹⁰Those who live on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send gifts to one another because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

¹¹But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.

¹²Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.

¹³At that moment a violent earthquake took place, a tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake. The survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second woe has passed. Take note: The third woe is coming soon!

¹⁵The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.

¹⁶The twenty-four elders, who were seated before God on their thrones, fell facedown and worshiped God,

¹⁷saying, We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.

¹⁸The nations were angry, but your wrath has come. The time has come for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your servants the prophets, to the saints, and to those who fear your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.

¹⁹Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.

¹There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.

²He had seven sons and three daughters.

³His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.

⁴His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

⁵Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

⁶One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.

⁷The LORD asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

⁸Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

⁹Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

¹⁰Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

¹¹But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

¹²“Very well,” the LORD told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.

¹³One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

¹⁴a messenger came to Job and reported: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby,

¹⁵the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁶He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁷That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁸He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house.

¹⁹Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

²⁰Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,

²¹saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.

²²Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

¹The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth quake.

²The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted above all the peoples.

³Let them praise your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy.

⁴The mighty King loves justice. You have established fairness; you have administered justice and righteousness in Jacob.

⁵Exalt the LORD our God; bow in worship at his footstool. He is holy.

⁶Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also was among those calling on his name. They called to the LORD and he answered them.

⁷He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees and the statutes he gave them.

⁸LORD our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their sinful actions.

⁹Exalt the LORD our God; bow in worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

¹The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

²For learning wisdom and discipline; for understanding insightful sayings;

³for receiving prudent instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity;

⁴for teaching shrewdness to the inexperienced, knowledge and discretion to a young man —

⁵let a wise person listen and increase learning, and let a discerning person obtain guidance —

⁶for understanding a proverb or a parable, the words of the wise, and their riddles.

⁷The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.

⁸Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,

⁹for they will be a garland of favor on your head and pendants around your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, don’t be persuaded.

¹¹If they say — “Come with us! Let’s set an ambush and kill someone. Let’s attack some innocent person just for fun!

¹²Let’s swallow them alive, like Sheol, whole, like those who go down to the Pit.

¹³We’ll find all kinds of valuable property and fill our houses with plunder.

¹⁴Throw in your lot with us, and we’ll all share the loot”  —

¹⁵my son, don’t travel that road with them or set foot on their path,

¹⁶because their feet run toward evil and they hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷It is useless to spread a net where any bird can see it,

¹⁸but they set an ambush to kill themselves; they attack their own lives.

¹⁹Such are the paths of all who make profit dishonestly; it takes the lives of those who receive it.

²⁰Wisdom calls out in the street; she makes her voice heard in the public squares.

²¹She cries out above the commotion; she speaks at the entrance of the city gates:

²²“How long, inexperienced ones, will you love ignorance? How long will you mockers enjoy mocking and you fools hate knowledge?

²³If you respond to my warning, then I will pour out my spirit on you and teach you my words.

²⁴Since I called out and you refused, extended my hand and no one paid attention,

²⁵since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction,

²⁶I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you,

²⁷when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when trouble and stress overcome you.

²⁸Then they will call me, but I won’t answer; they will search for me, but won’t find me.

²⁹Because they hated knowledge, didn’t choose to fear the LORD,

³⁰were not interested in my counsel, and rejected all my correction,

³¹they will eat the fruit of their way and be glutted with their own schemes.

³²For the apostasy of the inexperienced will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

³³But whoever listens to me will live securely and be undisturbed by the dread of danger.”

¹King Ahasuerus imposed a tax throughout the land even to the farthest shores.

²All of his powerful and magnificent accomplishments and the detailed account of Mordecai’s great rank with which the king had honored him, have they not been written in the Book of the Historical Events of the Kings of Media and Persia?

³Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus. He was famous among the Jews and highly esteemed by many of his relatives. He continued to pursue prosperity for his people and to speak for the well-being of all his descendants.

¹“See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in — see, he is coming,” says the LORD of Armies.

²But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will be able to stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s bleach.

³He will be like a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

⁴And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD as in days of old and years gone by.

⁵“I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless; and against those who deny justice to the resident alien. They do not fear me,” says the LORD of Armies.

⁶“Because I, the LORD, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

⁷“Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Armies. Yet you ask, “How can we return?”

⁸“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.

⁹You are suffering under a curse, yet you — the whole nation — are still robbing me.

¹⁰Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the LORD of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.

¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Armies.

¹²“Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Armies.

¹³“Your words against me are harsh,” says the LORD. Yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?”

¹⁴You have said: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Armies?

¹⁵So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.”

¹⁶At that time those who feared the LORD spoke to one another. The LORD took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the LORD and had high regard for his name.

¹⁷“They will be mine,” says the LORD of Armies, “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

¹⁸So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

¹Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

²The chief priests and the leaders of the Jews presented their case against Paul to him; and they appealed,

³asking for a favor against Paul, that Festus summon him to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, preparing an ambush along the road to kill him.

⁴Festus, however, answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he said, “let those of you who have authority go down with me and accuse him, if he has done anything wrong.”

⁶When he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea. The next day, seated at the tribunal, he commanded Paul to be brought in.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

⁸Then Paul made his defense: “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way.”

⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me there on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul replied: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you yourself know very well.

¹¹If then I did anything wrong and am deserving of death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹²Then after Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go.”

¹³Several days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid a courtesy call on Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus presented Paul’s case to the king, saying, “There’s a man who was left as a prisoner by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews presented their case and asked that he be condemned.

¹⁶I answered them that it is not the Roman custom to give someone up before the accused faces the accusers and has an opportunity for a defense against the charges.

¹⁷So when they had assembled here, I did not delay. The next day I took my seat at the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸The accusers stood up but brought no charge against him of the evils I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had some disagreements with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man Paul claimed to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss in a dispute over such things, I asked him if he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding these matters.

²¹But when Paul appealed to be held for trial by the Emperor, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow you will hear him,” he replied.

²³So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the auditorium with the military commanders and prominent men of the city. When Festus gave the command, Paul was brought in.

²⁴Then Festus said: “King Agrippa and all men present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has appealed to me concerning him, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he should not live any longer.

²⁵I found that he had not done anything deserving of death, but when he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination is over, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”