Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus came back to Capernaum a few days later, it was heard that He was at home.

²And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer space, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.

³And some people *came, bringing to Him a man who was paralyzed, carried by four men.

⁴And when they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and after digging an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralyzed man was lying.

⁵And Jesus, seeing their faith, *said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking it over in their hearts,

⁷“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

⁸Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were thinking that way within themselves, *said to them, “Why are you thinking about these things in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralyzed man,

¹¹“I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet, and go home.”

¹²And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.

¹⁴As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax office, and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

¹⁵And it *happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷And hearing this, Jesus *said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them,the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

²¹“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.

²²And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

²³And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

²⁵And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;

²⁶how he entered the house of God in thetime of Abiathar the high priest, and ate theconsecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”

²⁷Jesus said to them, “The Sabbathwas madefor man, and not manfor the Sabbath.

²⁸So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“You shall also say to the sons of Israel: ‘Anyone from the sons of Israel or from the strangers residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech, shall certainly be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

³I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name.

⁴If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his children to Molech, so as not to put him to death,

⁵then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the prostitute with him, by playing the prostitute with Molech.

⁶‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the prostitute with them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

⁷You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.

⁸So you shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

⁹‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall certainly be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and has brought his own death upon himself.

¹⁰‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

¹¹If there is a man who sleeps with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be put to death, they have brought their own deaths upon themselves.

¹²If there is a man who sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed incest, and have brought their own deaths upon themselves.

¹³If there is a man who sleeps with a male as those who sleep with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they must be put to death. They have brought their own deaths upon themselves.

¹⁴If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is an outrageous sin; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no such outrageous sin in your midst.

¹⁵If there is a man who has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death; you shall also kill the animal.

¹⁶If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they must be put to death. They have brought their own deaths upon themselves.

¹⁷‘If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt.

¹⁸If there is a man who sleeps with a menstruous woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; so both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

¹⁹You shall also not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt.

²⁰If there is a man who sleeps with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless.

²¹If there is a man who takes his brother’s wife, it is detestable; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They will be childless.

²²‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

²³Furthermore, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I am going to drive out before you, because they did all these things; therefore I have felt disgust for them.

²⁴So I have said to you, “You are to take possession of their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the LORD your God, who has singled you out from the peoples.

²⁵You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have distinguished for you as unclean.

²⁶So you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have singled you out from the peoples to be Mine.

²⁷‘Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist must be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; they have brought their own deaths upon themselves.’ ”

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have in your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,

²that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and that they would attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments.

⁵For even though I am absent in body, I am nevertheless with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your orderly manner and the stability of your faith in Christ.

⁶Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

⁷having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

⁸See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.

⁹For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

¹⁰and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over every ruler and authority;

¹¹and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,

¹²having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

¹³And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings,

¹⁴having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

¹⁵When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

¹⁶Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day—

¹⁷things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

¹⁹and not holding firmly to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

²⁰If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

²¹“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”

²²(which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of man?

²³These are matters which do have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

²and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

³By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

⁴The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

⁵but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

⁶the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

⁷Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

⁸On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

⁹The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now.

¹⁰The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling.

¹¹But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

¹⁴I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

¹⁷The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us.

²⁰But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

²¹I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

²²Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

²³Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴As for you, see that what you heard from the beginning remains in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

²⁶These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him.

²⁸Now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not draw back from Him in shame at His coming.

²⁹If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been born of Him.

¹A good name is better than good oil, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every person, And the living takes it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.

⁴The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise person Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

⁶For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool; And this too is futility.

⁷For oppression makes a wise person look foolish, And a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit.

⁹Do not be eager in your spirit to be angry, For anger resides in the heart of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

¹¹Wisdom along with an inheritance is good, And an advantage to those who see the sun.

¹²For wisdom is protection just as money is protection, But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom keeps its possessors alive.

¹³Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

¹⁴On the day of prosperity be happy, But on the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other So that a person will not discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁵I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous person who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?

¹⁷Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp one thing while not letting go of the other; for one who fears God comes out with both of them.

¹⁹Wisdom strengthens a wise person more than ten rulers who are in a city.

²⁰Indeed, there is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and does not ever sin.

²¹Also, do not take seriously all the words which are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you,

²²for you know that even you have cursed others many times as well.

²³I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but wisdom was far from me.

²⁴What has been is remote and very mysterious. Who can discover it?

²⁵I directed my mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity.

²⁶And I discovered as more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

²⁸which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these.

²⁹Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

¹Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is beautiful.

²The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel.

³He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

⁴He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.

⁵Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.

⁶The LORD supports the afflicted; He brings the wicked down to the ground.

⁷Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre;

⁸It is He who covers the heavens with clouds, Who provides rain for the earth, Who makes grass sprout on the mountains.

⁹It is He who gives an animal its food, And feeds young ravens that cry.

¹⁰He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.

¹¹The LORD favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His faithfulness.

¹²Praise the LORD, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion!

¹³For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your sons among you.

¹⁴He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.

¹⁵He sends His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.

¹⁶He showers snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

¹⁷He hurls His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold?

¹⁸He sends His word and makes them melt; He makes His wind blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.

²⁰He has not dealt this way with any other nation; And as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!

¹One who separates himself seeks his own desire; He quarrels against all sound wisdom.

²A fool does not delight in understanding, But in revealing his own mind.

³When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes, And with dishonor comes taunting.

⁴The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters; The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

⁵To show partiality to the wicked is not good, Nor to suppress the righteous in judgment.

⁶A fool’s lips bring strife, And his mouth invites beatings.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his ruin, And his lips are the snare of his soul.

⁸The words of a gossiper are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

⁹He also who is lax in his work Is a brother to him who destroys.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.

¹¹A rich person’s wealth is his strong city, And like a high wall in his own imagination.

¹²Before destruction the heart of a person is haughty, But humility goes before honor.

¹³One who gives an answer before he hears, It is foolishness and shame to him.

¹⁴The spirit of a person can endure his sickness, But as for a broken spirit, who can endure it?

¹⁵The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A person’s gift makes room for him And brings him before great people.

¹⁷The first to plead his case seems right, Until another comes and examines him.

¹⁸The cast lot puts an end to quarrels, And decides between the mighty ones.

¹⁹A brother who is offended is harder to be won than a strong city, And quarrels are like the bars of a citadel.

²⁰With the fruit of a person’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds a good thing And obtains favor from the LORD.

²³A poor person utters pleadings, But a rich person answers defiantly.

²⁴A person of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

¹Then her mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may go well for you?

²Now then, is Boaz not our relative, with whose young women you were? Behold, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight.

³Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor; but do not reveal yourself to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.

⁴And it shall be when he lies down, that you shall take notice of the place where he lies, and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down; then he will tell you what you should do.”

⁵And she said to her, “All that you say I will do.”

⁶So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law had commanded her.

⁷When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain; and she came secretly, and uncovered his feet and lay down.

⁸And it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward; and behold, a woman was lying at his feet.

⁹So he said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth your slave. Now spread your garment over your slave, for you are a redeemer.”

¹⁰Then he said, “May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first, by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.

¹¹So now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you say, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence.

¹²But now, although it is true that I am a redeemer, yet there is also a redeemer more closely related than I.

¹³Remain this night, and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good; let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the LORD lives. Lie down until morning.”

¹⁴So she lay at his feet until morning, and got up before one person could recognize another; and he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵Again he said, “Give me the shawl that is on you and hold it.” So she held it, and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then she went into the city.

¹⁶When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did it go, my daughter?” And she told her all that the man had done for her.

¹⁷She also said, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ”

¹⁸Then she said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.”

¹“Come down and sit in the dust, Virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.

²Take the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.

³Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame will also be exposed; I will take vengeance and will not spare anyone.”

⁴Our Redeemer, the LORD of armies is His name, The Holy One of Israel.

⁵“Sit silently, and go into darkness, Daughter of the Chaldeans; For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And handed them over to you. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.

⁷Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.

⁸“Now, then, hear this, you luxuriant one, Who lives securely, Who says in her heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, Nor know the loss of children.’

⁹But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells.

¹⁰You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have led you astray; For you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’

¹¹But evil will come on you Which you will not know how to charm away; And disaster will fall on you For which you cannot atone; And destruction about which you do not know Will come on you suddenly.

¹²“Persist now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to benefit, Perhaps you may cause trembling.

¹³You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.

¹⁴Behold, they have become like stubble, Fire burns them; They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before!

¹⁵So have those become to you with whom you have labored, Those who have done business with you from your youth; Each has wandered in his own way; There is no one to save you.

¹Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And according to Paul’s custom, he visited them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and they attacked the house of Jason and were seeking to bring them out to the people.

⁶When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;

⁷and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

⁹And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

¹²Therefore, many of them believed, along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then immediately the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

¹⁸And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

²⁰For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

²²So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.

²³For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands;

²⁵nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

²⁶and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

²⁷that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

²⁸for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

²⁹Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.

³⁰So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent,

³¹because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you again concerning this.”

³³So Paul went out from among them.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.