Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.

²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.

³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

⁹“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹²When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”

¹³So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

¹⁸The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

¹⁹When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.

²⁰But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

²¹Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

²²The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

²³Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

²⁴So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

²⁶Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

²⁷Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

³⁰So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³²Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

³⁶But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

³⁷Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away;

³⁸for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

⁴⁰This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves.

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day;

⁵⁵for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.

⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.

⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

⁶⁰When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

⁶¹But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?

⁶²Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

⁶³It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

⁶⁴But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.

⁶⁵And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

⁶⁶Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.

⁶⁷So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

⁷¹He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

¹Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

²The LORD is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

³The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name.

⁴“Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

⁵The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

⁶Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power — your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy.

⁷In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.

⁸At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

⁹The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’

¹⁰You blew with your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

¹¹“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

¹²You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

¹³“In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

¹⁴The peoples heard, they trembled; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; trembling seized the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

¹⁶Terror and dread fell upon them; by the might of your arm, they became still as a stone until your people, O LORD, passed by, until the people whom you acquired passed by.

¹⁷You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession, the place, O LORD, that you made your abode, the sanctuary, O LORD, that your hands have established.

¹⁸The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁹When the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his chariot drivers went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

²⁰Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.

²¹And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

²²Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

²³When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter. That is why it was called Marah.

²⁴And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

²⁵He cried out to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test.

²⁶He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.”

²⁷Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the water.

¹When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.

²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

³And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

⁴My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

⁵so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish.

⁷But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

¹³And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

²And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps,

³and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth.

⁴It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb,

⁵and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.

⁶Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth — to every nation and tribe and language and people.

⁷He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

⁸Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

⁹Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands,

¹⁰they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

¹¹And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

¹²Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.

¹³And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”

¹⁴Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand!

¹⁵Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

¹⁶So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

¹⁷Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

¹⁸Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”

¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

²⁰And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking?

³See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

¹²“Now a word came stealing to me, my ear received the whisper of it.

¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals,

¹⁴dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:

¹⁷‘Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker?

¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;

¹⁹how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth.

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it.

²¹Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.’

¹Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you.

²Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call.

³For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.

⁴My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my bread.

⁵Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my skin.

⁶I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.

⁷I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.

⁸All day long my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.

⁹For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink,

¹⁰because of your indignation and anger; for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.

¹¹My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.

¹²But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your name endures to all generations.

¹³You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor it; the appointed time has come.

¹⁴For your servants hold its stones dear, and have pity on its dust.

¹⁵The nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory.

¹⁶For the LORD will build up Zion; he will appear in his glory.

¹⁷He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.

¹⁸Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD:

¹⁹that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,

²⁰to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die;

²¹so that the name of the LORD may be declared in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem,

²²when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.

²³He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days.

²⁴“O my God,” I say, “do not take me away at the midpoint of my life, you whose years endure throughout all generations.”

²⁵Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁶They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away;

²⁷but you are the same, and your years have no end.

²⁸The children of your servants shall live secure; their offspring shall be established in your presence.

¹Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight;

²for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother’s favorite,

⁴he taught me, and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.

⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.

⁹She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.

¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evildoers.

¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what they stumble over.

²⁰My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

²³Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

²⁴Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

²⁶Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

¹Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over.

²At the end of three days the officers went through the camp

³and commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it,

⁴so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it.”

⁵Then Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁶To the priests Joshua said, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on in front of the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went in front of the people.

⁷The LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.

⁸You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹Joshua then said to the Israelites, “Draw near and hear the words of the LORD your God.”

¹⁰Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites:

¹¹the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan.

¹²So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

¹³When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.”

¹⁴When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people.

¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water,

¹⁶the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

¹The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

³Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁴He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

⁵O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

⁶For you have forsaken the ways of your people, O house of Jacob. Indeed they are full of diviners from the east and of soothsayers like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with foreigners.

⁷Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

⁸Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

⁹And so people are humbled, and everyone is brought low — do not forgive them!

¹⁰Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty.

¹¹The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low, and the pride of everyone shall be humbled; and the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

¹²For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high;

¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;

¹⁴against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills;

¹⁵against every high tower, and against every fortified wall;

¹⁶against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.

¹⁷The haughtiness of people shall be humbled, and the pride of everyone shall be brought low; and the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

¹⁸The idols shall utterly pass away.

¹⁹Enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰On that day people will throw away to the moles and to the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship,

²¹to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts in the crags, from the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

²²Turn away from mortals, who have only breath in their nostrils, for of what account are they?

¹After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

²The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it.

³Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

⁶They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

⁷Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

⁸It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him.

⁹After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

¹⁰They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed.

¹¹Three months later we set sail on a ship that had wintered at the island, an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there for three days;

¹³then we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day there a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found believers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.

¹⁶When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

¹⁸When they had examined me, the Romans wanted to release me, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to the emperor — even though I had no charge to bring against my nation.

²⁰For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the sake of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken anything evil about you.

²²But we would like to hear from you what you think, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

²³After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.

²⁵So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah,

²⁶‘Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

²⁷For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn — and I would heal them.’

²⁸Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

²⁹

³⁰He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him,

³¹proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.