Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus,

²and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

³Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,

⁴for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

⁵Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

⁶On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much

⁷that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

⁸Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

⁹The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted

¹⁰and had John beheaded in the prison.

¹¹His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother.

¹²John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

¹³When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

¹⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

¹⁵As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

¹⁶Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸“Bring them here to me,” he said.

¹⁹And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

²⁰They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

²¹The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

²²Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.

²³After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,

²⁴and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

²⁵Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

²⁷But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

²⁸“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

³²And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

³³Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

³⁴When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.

³⁵And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him

³⁶and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²“Say to the Israelites: ‘When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands—

³“ ‘If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.

⁴He is to present the bull at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the LORD. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it there before the LORD.

⁵Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and carry it into the tent of meeting.

⁶He is to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary.

⁷The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull’s blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

⁸He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering—all the fat that is connected to the internal organs,

⁹both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys—

¹⁰just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering.

¹¹But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the internal organs and the intestines—

¹²that is, all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap.

¹³“ ‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt

¹⁴and the sin they committed becomes known, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the tent of meeting.

¹⁵The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD.

¹⁶Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood into the tent of meeting.

¹⁷He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain.

¹⁸He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

¹⁹He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar,

²⁰and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the community, and they will be forgiven.

²¹Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community.

²²“ ‘When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, when he realizes his guilt

²³and the sin he has committed becomes known, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect.

²⁴He is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is a sin offering.

²⁵Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

²⁶He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the leader’s sin, and he will be forgiven.

²⁷“ ‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, when they realize their guilt

²⁸and the sin they have committed becomes known, they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed a female goat without defect.

²⁹They are to lay their hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.

³⁰Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

³¹They shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.

³²“ ‘If someone brings a lamb as their sin offering, they are to bring a female without defect.

³³They are to lay their hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.

³⁴Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

³⁵They shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the food offerings presented to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.

¹Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.

²I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.

³Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

⁴This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.

⁵We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

⁶As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message.

⁷On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.

⁸For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.

⁹James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

¹¹When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

¹²For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

¹⁵“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles

¹⁶know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

¹⁸If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

¹Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,

²to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

³At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,

⁵he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

⁶whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,

⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

⁸This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

⁹But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.

¹⁰Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.

¹¹You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.

¹²As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there.

¹³Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.

¹⁴Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.

¹⁵Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

¹“But now, Job, listen to my words; pay attention to everything I say.

²I am about to open my mouth; my words are on the tip of my tongue.

³My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵Answer me then, if you can; stand up and argue your case before me.

⁶I am the same as you in God’s sight; I too am a piece of clay.

⁷No fear of me should alarm you, nor should my hand be heavy on you.

⁸“But you have said in my hearing— I heard the very words—

⁹‘I am pure, I have done no wrong; I am clean and free from sin.

¹⁰Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy.

¹¹He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.’

¹²“But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal.

¹³Why do you complain to him that he responds to no one’s words?

¹⁴For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds,

¹⁶he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings,

¹⁷to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride,

¹⁸to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹“Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in their bones,

²⁰so that their body finds food repulsive and their soul loathes the choicest meal.

²¹Their flesh wastes away to nothing, and their bones, once hidden, now stick out.

²²They draw near to the pit, and their life to the messengers of death.

²³Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright,

²⁴and he is gracious to that person and says to God, ‘Spare them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for them—

²⁵let their flesh be renewed like a child’s; let them be restored as in the days of their youth’—

²⁶then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy; he will restore them to full well-being.

²⁷And they will go to others and say, ‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved.

²⁸God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’

²⁹“God does all these things to a person— twice, even three times—

³⁰to turn them back from the pit, that the light of life may shine on them.

³¹“Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

³²If you have anything to say, answer me; speak up, for I want to vindicate you.

³³But if not, then listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

¹A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

²But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

³Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

¹My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

²turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—

³indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

⁴and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

⁸for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

¹²Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,

¹³who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways,

¹⁴who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,

¹⁷who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.

¹⁸Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

²⁰Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

¹Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they challenged him vigorously.

²But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer?

³God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.

⁴Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it.

⁵He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

⁶But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”

⁷Then Gideon replied, “Just for that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”

⁸From there he went up to Peniel and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had.

⁹So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen.

¹¹Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army.

¹²Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.

¹³Gideon son of Joash then returned from the battle by the Pass of Heres.

¹⁴He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town.

¹⁵Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’ ”

¹⁶He took the elders of the town and taught the men of Sukkoth a lesson by punishing them with desert thorns and briers.

¹⁷He also pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town.

¹⁸Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one with the bearing of a prince.”

¹⁹Gideon replied, “Those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you.”

²⁰Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, “Kill them!” But Jether did not draw his sword, because he was only a boy and was afraid.

²¹Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Come, do it yourself. ‘As is the man, so is his strength.’ ” So Gideon stepped forward and killed them, and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.

²²The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

²³But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.”

²⁴And he said, “I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder.” (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)

²⁵They answered, “We’ll be glad to give them.” So they spread out a garment, and each of them threw a ring from his plunder onto it.

²⁶The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels’ necks.

²⁷Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

²⁸Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon’s lifetime, the land had peace forty years.

²⁹Jerub-Baal son of Joash went back home to live.

³⁰He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives.

³¹His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelek.

³²Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god

³⁴and did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.

³⁵They also failed to show any loyalty to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) in spite of all the good things he had done for them.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.

²Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers.

³But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together.

⁴This is what the LORD says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

⁵Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”

⁶Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against.

⁷For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

⁸“Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labor.

⁹Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

¹In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach

²until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

³After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

⁶Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

¹²Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.

¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

¹⁴They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)

¹⁶and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

¹⁸(With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.

¹⁹Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

²⁰“For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “ ‘May another take his place of leadership.’

²¹Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us,

²²beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

²³So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

²⁴Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.”

²⁶Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.