Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.

²So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.

³Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

⁴And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.

⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,

⁷“Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?

¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the paralytic —

¹¹“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”

¹²And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.

¹⁴As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples — for there were many who followed him.

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

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

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

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

²³One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees said 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 and his companions were hungry and in need of food?

²⁶He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”

²⁷Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;

²⁸so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

¹The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

²Say further to the people of Israel: Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death.

³I myself will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people, because they have given of their offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.

⁴And if the people of the land should ever close their eyes to them, when they give of their offspring to Molech, and do not put them to death,

⁵I myself will set my face against them and against their family, and will cut them off from among their people, them and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech.

⁶If any turn to mediums and wizards, prostituting themselves to them, I will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people.

⁷Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God.

⁸Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the LORD; I sanctify you.

⁹All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

¹¹The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion, their blood is upon them.

¹³If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁴If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death, both he and they, that there may be no depravity among you.

¹⁵If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal.

¹⁶If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.

¹⁷If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall be subject to punishment.

¹⁸If a man lies with a woman having her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has laid bare her flow of blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people.

¹⁹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to lay bare one’s own flesh; they shall be subject to punishment.

²⁰If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall be subject to punishment; they shall die childless.

²¹If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

²²You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them, so that the land to which I bring you to settle in may not vomit you out.

²³You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

²⁴But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God; I have separated you from the peoples.

²⁵You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; you shall not bring abomination on yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean.

²⁶You shall be holy to me; for I the LORD am holy, and I have separated you from the other peoples to be mine.

²⁷A man or a woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death, their blood is upon them.

¹For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face.

²I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself,

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

⁴I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.

⁵For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

⁶As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

¹⁰and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

¹²when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,

¹⁴erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

¹⁷These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,

²¹“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”?

²²All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.

²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.

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

²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

³Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.

⁴Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist;

⁵but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:

⁶whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.

⁷Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard.

⁸Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

⁹Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.

¹⁰Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.

¹¹But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one.

¹⁴I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world;

¹⁶for all that is in the world — the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches — comes not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.

²⁰But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.

²¹I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.

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

²³No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.

²⁶I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you.

²⁷As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need 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, abide in him.

²⁸And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him.

¹A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death, than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.

⁴The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

⁵It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.

⁶For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity.

⁷Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; the patient in spirit are better than the proud in spirit.

⁹Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

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

¹¹Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun.

¹²For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to the one who possesses it.

¹³Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them.

¹⁵In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.

¹⁶Do not be too righteous, and do not act too wise; why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you should take hold of the one, without letting go of the other; for the one who fears God shall succeed with both.

¹⁹Wisdom gives strength to the wise more than ten rulers that are in a city.

²⁰Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.

²¹Do not give heed to everything that people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you;

²²your heart knows that many times you have yourself cursed others.

²³All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

²⁴That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

²⁵I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

²⁷See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,

²⁸which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

²⁹See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.

¹Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.

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

³He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

⁴He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.

⁵Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

⁶The LORD lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre.

⁸He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.

⁹He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.

¹⁰His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;

¹¹but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

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

¹³For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.

¹⁴He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.

¹⁵He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.

¹⁶He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.

¹⁷He hurls down hail like crumbs — who can stand before his cold?

¹⁸He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.

²⁰He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!

¹The one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for all who have sound judgment.

²A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt comes also; and with dishonor comes disgrace.

⁴The words of the mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a gushing stream.

⁵It is not right to be partial to the guilty, or to subvert the innocent in judgment.

⁶A fool’s lips bring strife, and a fool’s mouth invites a flogging.

⁷The mouths of fools are their ruin, and their lips a snare to themselves.

⁸The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

⁹One who is slack in work is close kin to a vandal.

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

¹¹The wealth of the rich is their strong city; in their imagination it is like a high wall.

¹²Before destruction one’s heart is haughty, but humility goes before honor.

¹³If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame.

¹⁴The human spirit will endure sickness; but a broken spirit — who can bear?

¹⁵An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A gift opens doors; it gives access to the great.

¹⁷The one who first states a case seems right, until the other comes and cross-examines.

¹⁸Casting the lot puts an end to disputes and decides between powerful contenders.

¹⁹An ally offended is stronger than a city; such quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

²⁰From the fruit of the mouth one’s stomach is satisfied; the yield of the lips brings satisfaction.

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

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

²³The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.

²⁴Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.

¹Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I need to seek some security for you, so that it may be well with you.

²Now here is our kinsman Boaz, with whose young women you have been working. See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

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

⁴When he lies down, observe the place where he lies; then, go and uncover his feet and lie down; and he will tell you what to do.”

⁵She said to her, “All that you tell me I will do.”

⁶So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her.

⁷When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and he was in a contented mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down.

⁸At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet, was a woman!

⁹He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant, for you are next-of-kin.”

¹⁰He said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.

¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman.

¹²But now, though it is true that I am a near kinsman, there is another kinsman more closely related than I.

¹³Remain this night, and in the morning, if he will act as next-of-kin for you, good; let him do it. If he is not willing to act as next-of-kin for you, then, as the LORD lives, I will act as next-of-kin for you. Lie down until the morning.”

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

¹⁵Then he said, “Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley, and put it on her back; then he went into the city.

¹⁶She came to her mother-in-law, who said, “How did things go with you, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her,

¹⁷saying, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, ‘Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today.”

¹Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter Babylon! Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter Chaldea! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

²Take the millstones and grind meal, remove your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.

³Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one.

⁴Our Redeemer — the LORD of hosts is his name — is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter Chaldea! For you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.

⁷You said, “I shall be mistress forever,” so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.

⁸Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children” —

⁹both these things shall come upon you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.

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

¹¹But evil shall come upon you, which you cannot charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to ward off; and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing.

¹²Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror.

¹³You are wearied with your many consultations; let those who study the heavens stand up and save you, those who gaze at the stars, and at each new moon predict what shall befall you.

¹⁴See, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!

¹⁵Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth; they all wander about in their own paths; there is no one to save you.

¹After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”

⁴Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house.

⁶When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.”

⁸The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this,

⁹and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds.

¹⁴Then the believers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³At that point Paul left them.

³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.