Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished these words, He left Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan;

²and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

³Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”

⁴And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,

⁵and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?

⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.”

⁷They *said to Him, “Why, then, did Moses command to GIVE her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

⁸He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you todivorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

⁹And I say to you, whoeverdivorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another womancommits adultery.”

¹⁰The disciples *said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”

¹¹But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.

¹²For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by people; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”

¹³Then some children were brought to Him so that He would lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴But Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and do notforbid them to come to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

¹⁵After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

¹⁶And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do so that I may obtain eternal life?”

¹⁷And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT GIVE FALSE TESTIMONY;

¹⁹HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

²⁰The young man *said to Him, “All these I have kept; what am I still lacking?”

²¹Jesus said to him, “If you want to becomplete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

²²But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

²³And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁶And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

²⁷Then Peter responded and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”

²⁸And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in theregeneration when the Son of Man will sit onHis glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or motheror children or farms on account of My name, will receivemany times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

¹Now it came about on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel;

²and he said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a calf, a bull, as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering, both without defect, and offer them before the LORD.

³Then you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘Take a male goat as a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both one year old, without defect, as a burnt offering,

⁴and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today the LORD will appear to you.’ ”

⁵So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the whole congregation came near and stood before the LORD.

⁶And Moses said, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

⁷Moses then said to Aaron, “Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, so that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering for the people, so that you may make atonement for them, just as the LORD has commanded.”

⁸So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself.

⁹Aaron’s sons then presented the blood to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood and put some on the horns of the altar, and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

¹⁰The fat and the kidneys and the lobe of the liver of the sin offering he then offered up in smoke on the altar, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹¹The flesh and the hide, however, he burned with fire outside the camp.

¹²Then he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar.

¹³They brought the burnt offering to him in pieces, with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar.

¹⁴He also washed the entrails and the legs, and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵Then he presented the people’s offering, and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people, and slaughtered it and offered it for sin, like the first.

¹⁶He also presented the burnt offering, and offered it according to the ordinance.

¹⁷Next he presented the grain offering, and filled his hand with some of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it around on the altar.

¹⁹As for the portions of fat from the ox and from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver,

²⁰they now placed the portions of fat on the breasts; and he offered them up in smoke on the altar.

²¹But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron presented as a wave offering before the LORD, just as Moses had commanded.

²²Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.

²³And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.

²⁴Then fire went out from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell face downward.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

⁴just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love

⁵He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

⁶to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved.

⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace

⁸which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight

⁹He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him,

¹⁰regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

¹¹In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will,

¹²to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

¹³In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise,

¹⁴who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

¹⁵For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,

¹⁶do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

²⁰which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

²²And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church,

²³which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

¹What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?

²You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.

⁴You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?

⁶But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

⁷Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

¹¹Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you, judging your neighbor?

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

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

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

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

¹⁷So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

¹Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind and said,

²“Who is this who darkens the divine plan By words without knowledge?

³Now tighten the belt on your waist like a man, And I shall ask you, and you inform Me!

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,

⁵Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the measuring line over it?

⁶On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who enclosed the sea with doors When it went out from the womb, bursting forth;

⁹When I made a cloud its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling bands,

¹⁰And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors,

¹¹And I said, ‘As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; And here your proud waves shall stop’?

¹²“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, And made the dawn know its place,

¹³So that it would take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked would be shaken off from it?

¹⁴It is changed like clay under the seal; And they stand out like a garment.

¹⁵Their light is withheld from the wicked, And the uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered the springs of the sea, And walked in the depth of the ocean?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you, And have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹“Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place,

²⁰That you would take it to its territory, And discern the paths to its home?

²¹You know, for you were born then, And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, And have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³Which I have reserved for a time of distress, For a day of war and battle?

²⁴Where is the way that the light is divided, And the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵“Who has split open a channel for the flood, And a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a person in it,

²⁷To satisfy the waste and desolate land, And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Or who has fathered the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?

³⁰Water becomes hard like stone, And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.

³¹“Can you tie up the chains of the Pleiades, Or untie the cords of Orion?

³²Can you bring out a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites?

³³Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or do you establish their rule over the earth?

³⁴“Can you raise your voice to the clouds, So that an abundance of water will cover you?

³⁵Can you send flashes of lightning, so that they may go And say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, Or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can count the clouds by wisdom, And pour out the water jars of the heavens,

³⁸When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, Or satisfy the appetite of young lions,

⁴⁰When they crouch in their hiding places, And lie in wait in their lair?

⁴¹Who prepares feed for the raven When its young cry to God, And wander about without food?

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

²Give thanks to the God of gods, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

³Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

⁴To Him who alone does great wonders, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

⁵To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

⁶To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

⁷To Him who made the great lights, For His faithfulness is everlasting:

⁸The sun to rule by day, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

⁹The moon and stars to rule by night, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

¹⁰To Him who struck the Egyptians, that is, their firstborn, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

¹¹And brought Israel out from their midst, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

¹²With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

¹³To Him who divided the Red Sea in parts, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

¹⁴And allowed Israel to pass through the midst of it, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

¹⁵But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

¹⁶To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

¹⁷To Him who struck great kings, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

¹⁸And brought death to mighty kings, For His faithfulness is everlasting:

¹⁹Sihon, king of the Amorites, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

²⁰And Og, king of Bashan, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

²¹And gave their land as an inheritance, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

²²An inheritance to His servant Israel, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

²³Who remembered us in our lowliness, For His faithfulness is everlasting,

²⁴And has rescued us from our enemies, For His faithfulness is everlasting;

²⁵Who gives food to all flesh, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

²⁶Give thanks to the God of heaven, For His faithfulness is everlasting.

¹My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your intimate friend,

⁵So that they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,

⁷And I saw among the naive, And discerned among the youths A young man lacking sense,

⁸Passing through the street near her corner; And he walks along the way to her house,

⁹In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and the darkness.

¹⁰And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a prostitute and cunning of heart.

¹¹She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not remain at home;

¹²She is now in the streets, now in the public squares, And lurks by every corner.

¹³So she seizes him and kisses him, And with a brazen face she says to him:

¹⁴“I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence diligently, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt.

¹⁷I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning; Let’s delight ourselves with caresses.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. At the full moon he will come home.”

²¹With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him.

²²Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one walks in ankle bracelets to the discipline of a fool,

²³Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hurries to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For many are the victims she has brought to ruin, And numerous are all those slaughtered by her.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.

¹Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

²And there was a man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was infertile and had not given birth to any children.

³Then the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are infertile and have not given birth; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

⁴And now, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.

⁵For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. So I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

⁷But he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸Then Manoah pleaded with the LORD and said, “Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again so that he may teach us what we are to do for the boy who is to be born.”

⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰So the woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me!”

¹¹So Manoah got up and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.”

¹²Then Manoah said, “Now when your words are fulfilled, what shall be the boy’s way of life and his vocation?”

¹³And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “The woman shall pay attention to all that I said.

¹⁴She shall not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; she shall keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶But the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.

¹⁷And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that when your words are fulfilled, we may honor you?”

¹⁸But the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, for it is wonderful?”

¹⁹So Manoah took the young goat along with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD; and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹Now the angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.

²²So Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God.”

²³But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.”

²⁴So the woman gave birth to a son, and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the LORD blessed him.

²⁵And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him when he was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

¹Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the fuller’s field.

³Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.

⁴And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have?

⁵I say, ‘Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?

⁶Behold, you have relied on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

⁷But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

⁸Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

⁹How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁰And have I now come up without the LORD’S approval against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”

¹²But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you;

¹⁵and do not let Hezekiah lead you to rely on the LORD, saying, “The LORD will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!”

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the waters of his own cistern,

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The LORD will save us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they saved Samaria from my hand?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands have saved their land from my hand, that the LORD would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

²¹But they were silent and did not answer him so much as a word; for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹Now at this time, as the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint developed on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

²So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

³Instead, brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵The announcement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

⁶And they brought these men before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

⁷The word of God kept spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

⁸And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to cope with his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council.

¹³They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop speaking against this holy place and the Law;

¹⁴for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And all who were sitting in the Council stared at him, and they saw his face, which was like the face of an angel.