Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he told his disciples,

²“You know that the Passover takes place after two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas,

⁴and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill him.

⁵“Not during the festival,” they said, “so there won’t be rioting among the people.”

⁶While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman approached him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She poured it on his head as he was reclining at the table.

⁸When the disciples saw it, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.

⁹“This might have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor.”

¹⁰Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a noble thing for me.

¹¹You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.

¹²By pouring this perfume on my body, she has prepared me for burial.

¹³Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

¹⁴Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver for him.

¹⁶And from that time he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

¹⁸“Go into the city to a certain man,” he said, “and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time is near; I am celebrating the Passover at your place with my disciples.’”

¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

²⁰When evening came, he was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

²¹While they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

²²Deeply distressed, each one began to say to him, “Surely not I, Lord?”

²³He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl — he will betray me.

²⁴The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”

²⁵Judas, his betrayer, replied, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” “You have said it,” he told him.

²⁶As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.”

²⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you.

²⁸For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

²⁹But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

³⁰After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus said to them, “Tonight all of you will fall away because of me, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

³²But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

³³Peter told him, “Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away.”

³⁴“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to him, “tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

³⁵“Even if I have to die with you,” Peter told him, “I will never deny you,” and all the disciples said the same thing.

³⁶Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

³⁷Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

³⁸He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”

³⁹Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour?

⁴¹Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴²Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

⁴³And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open.

⁴⁴After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

⁴⁵Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. A large mob with swords and clubs was with him from the chief priests and elders of the people.

⁴⁸His betrayer had given them a sign: “The one I kiss, he’s the one; arrest him.”

⁴⁹So immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

⁵⁰“Friend,” Jesus asked him, “why have you come?” Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested him.

⁵¹At that moment one of those with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear.

⁵²Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.

⁵³Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels?

⁵⁴How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”

⁵⁵At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs, as if I were a criminal, to capture me? Every day I used to sit, teaching in the temple, and you didn’t arrest me.

⁵⁶But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.

⁵⁷Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had convened.

⁵⁸Peter was following him at a distance right to the high priest’s courtyard. He went in and was sitting with the servants to see the outcome.

⁵⁹The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death,

⁶⁰but they could not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. Finally, two who came forward

⁶¹stated, “This man said, ‘I can destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

⁶²The high priest stood up and said to him, “Don’t you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?”

⁶³But Jesus kept silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴“You have said it,” Jesus told him. “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? See, now you’ve heard the blasphemy.

⁶⁶What is your decision?” They answered, “He deserves death!”

⁶⁷Then they spat in his face and beat him; others slapped him

⁶⁸and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah! Who was it that hit you?”

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl approached him and said, “You were with Jesus the Galilean too.”

⁷⁰But he denied it in front of everyone: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

⁷¹When he had gone out to the gateway, another woman saw him and told those who were there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene!”

⁷²And again he denied it with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

⁷³After a little while those standing there approached and said to Peter, “You really are one of them, since even your accent gives you away.”

⁷⁴Then he started to curse and to swear with an oath, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed,

⁷⁵and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

¹There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

²The LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

³stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,

⁵because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.”

⁶So Isaac settled in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”

⁸When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

¹¹So Abimelech warned all the people, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹²Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred times what was sown. The LORD blessed him,

¹³and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy.

¹⁴He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him.

¹⁵Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt.

¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

¹⁷So Isaac left there, camped in the Gerar Valley, and lived there.

¹⁸Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there.

²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek because they argued with him.

²¹Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah.

²²He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “For now the LORD has made space for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³From there he went up to Beer-sheba,

²⁴and the LORD appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham.”

²⁵So he built an altar there, called on the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s servants also dug a well there.

²⁶Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

²⁷Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

²⁸They replied, “We have clearly seen how the LORD has been with you. We think there should be an oath between two parties — between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you:

²⁹You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the LORD.”

³⁰So he prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

³²On that same day Isaac’s servants came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

³³He called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city is still Beer-sheba today.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hethite.

³⁵They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

¹Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea,

²and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

³They all ate the same spiritual food,

⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.

⁷Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.

⁸Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died.

⁹Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes.

¹⁰And don’t complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

¹²So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

¹³No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.

¹⁴So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I am speaking as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I am saying.

¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

¹⁹What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons!

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

²²Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up.

²⁴No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.

²⁵Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience,

²⁶since the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it.

²⁷If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience.

²⁹I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience?

³⁰If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks?

³¹So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

³²Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God,

³³just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.

¹What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

²You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

⁶But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

¹⁴Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

¹Then Job answered:

²How you have helped the powerless and delivered the arm that is weak!

³How you have counseled the unwise and abundantly provided insight!

⁴With whom did you speak these words? Whose breath came out of your mouth?

⁵The departed spirits tremble beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches the northern skies over empty space; he hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He wraps up the water in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.

⁹He obscures the view of his throne, spreading his cloud over it.

¹⁰He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars that hold up the sky tremble, astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stirred the sea, and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.

¹³By his breath the heavens gained their beauty; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴These are but the fringes of his ways; how faint is the word we hear of him! Who can understand his mighty thunder?

¹Of David. [1] Vindicate me, LORD, because I have lived with integrity and have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

²Test me, LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.

³For your faithful love guides me, and I live by your truth.

⁴I do not sit with the worthless or associate with hypocrites.

⁵I hate a crowd of evildoers, and I do not sit with the wicked.

⁶I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, LORD,

⁷raising my voice in thanksgiving and telling about your wondrous works.

⁸LORD, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides.

⁹Do not destroy me along with sinners, or my life along with men of bloodshed

¹⁰in whose hands are evil schemes and whose right hands are filled with bribes.

¹¹But I live with integrity; redeem me and be gracious to me.

¹²My foot stands on level ground; I will bless the LORD in the assemblies.

¹Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, honor is inappropriate for a fool.

²Like a flitting sparrow or a fluttering swallow, an undeserved curse goes nowhere.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.

⁴Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.

⁵Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

⁶The one who sends a message by a fool’s hand cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

⁷A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like lame legs that hang limp.

⁸Giving honor to a fool is like binding a stone in a sling.

⁹A proverb in the mouth of a fool is like a stick with thorns, brandished by the hand of a drunkard.

¹⁰The one who hires a fool or who hires those passing by is like an archer who wounds everyone.

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

¹²Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The slacker says, “There’s a lion in the road — a lion in the public square!”

¹⁴A door turns on its hinges, and a slacker, on his bed.

¹⁵The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he is too weary to bring it to his mouth!

¹⁶In his own eyes, a slacker is wiser than seven who can answer sensibly.

¹⁷A person who is passing by and meddles in a quarrel that’s not his is like one who grabs a dog by the ears.

¹⁸Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows,

¹⁹so is the person who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

²⁰Without wood, fire goes out; without a gossip, conflict dies down.

²¹As charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.

²²A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.

²³Smooth lips with an evil heart are like glaze on an earthen vessel.

²⁴A hateful person disguises himself with his speech and harbors deceit within.

²⁵When he speaks graciously, don’t believe him, for there are seven detestable things in his heart.

²⁶Though his hatred is concealed by deception, his evil will be revealed in the assembly.

²⁷The one who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever rolls a stone — it will come back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

¹The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your fathers. I also said: I will never break my covenant with you.

²You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars. But you have not obeyed me. What is this you have done?

³Therefore, I now say: I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.”

⁴When the angel of the LORD had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

⁵So they named that place Bochim and offered sacrifices there to the LORD.

⁶Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

⁷The people worshiped the LORD throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the LORD’s great works he had done for Israel.

⁸Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.

⁹They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works he had done for Israel.

¹¹The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. They worshiped the Baals

¹²and abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the LORD,

¹³for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.

¹⁴The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies.

¹⁵Whenever the Israelites went out, the LORD was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

¹⁶The LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the power of their marauders,

¹⁷but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods, bowing down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commands. They did not do as their fathers did.

¹⁸Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for the Israelites, the LORD was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The LORD was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them.

¹⁹Whenever the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their fathers, following other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.

²⁰The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he declared, “Because this nation has violated my covenant that I made with their fathers and disobeyed me,

²¹I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.

²²I did this to test Israel and to see whether or not they would keep the LORD’s way by walking in it, as their fathers had.”

²³The LORD left these nations and did not drive them out immediately. He did not hand them over to Joshua.

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city. Salvation is established as walls and ramparts.

²Open the gates so a righteous nation can come in — one that remains faithful.

³You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever, because in the LORD, the LORD himself, is an everlasting rock!

⁵For he has humbled those who live in lofty places — an inaccessible city. He brings it down; he brings it down to the ground; he throws it to the dust.

⁶Feet trample it, the feet of the humble, the steps of the poor.

⁷The path of the righteous is level; you clear a straight path for the righteous.

⁸Yes, LORD, we wait for you in the path of your judgments. Our desire is for your name and renown.

⁹I long for you in the night; yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you, for when your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

¹⁰But if the wicked man is shown favor, he does not learn righteousness. In a righteous land he acts unjustly and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹LORD, your hand is lifted up to take action, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame. Let fire consume your adversaries.

¹²LORD, you will establish peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us.

¹³LORD our God, lords other than you have owned us, but we remember your name alone.

¹⁴The dead do not live; departed spirits do not rise up. Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them; you have wiped out all memory of them.

¹⁵You have added to the nation, LORD. You have added to the nation; you are honored. You have expanded all the borders of the land.

¹⁶LORD, they went to you in their distress; they poured out whispered prayers because your discipline fell on them.

¹⁷As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so we were before you, LORD.

¹⁸We became pregnant, we writhed in pain; we gave birth to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen.

¹⁹Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.

²¹For look, the LORD is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal the blood shed on it and will no longer conceal her slain.

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

²“I consider myself fortunate, that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,

³especially since you are very knowledgeable about all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.

⁵They have known me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand on trial because of the hope in what God promised to our ancestors,

⁷the promise our twelve tribes hope to reach as they earnestly serve him night and day. King Agrippa, I am being accused by the Jews because of this hope.

⁸Why do any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

⁹In fact, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰I actually did this in Jerusalem, and I locked up many of the saints in prison, since I had received authority for that from the chief priests. When they were put to death, I was in agreement against them.

¹¹In all the synagogues I often punished them and tried to make them blaspheme. Since I was terribly enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

¹²“I was traveling to Damascus under these circumstances with authority and a commission from the chief priests.

¹³King Agrippa, while on the road at midday, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me.

¹⁴We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “And the Lord replied: ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.

¹⁷I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

²⁰Instead, I preached to those in Damascus first, and to those in Jerusalem and in all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to kill me.

²²To this very day, I have had help from God, and I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place  —

²³that the Messiah must suffer, and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴As he was saying these things in his defense, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much study is driving you mad.”

²⁵But Paul replied, “I’m not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. On the contrary, I’m speaking words of truth and good judgment.

²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I can speak boldly to him. For I am convinced that none of these things has escaped his notice, since this was not done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe.”

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you going to persuade me to become a Christian so easily?”

²⁹“I wish before God,” replied Paul, “that whether easily or with difficulty, not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰The king, the governor, Bernice, and those sitting with them got up,

³¹and when they had left they talked with each other and said, “This man is not doing anything to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”