Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

²And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

³And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”

⁴And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

⁵And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

⁷Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea

⁸and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.

⁹And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him,

¹⁰for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

¹¹And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

¹²And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

¹³And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.

¹⁴And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach

¹⁵and have authority to cast out demons.

¹⁶He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);

¹⁷James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);

¹⁸Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

²⁰Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.

²¹And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

²³And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.

²⁷But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

²⁸ “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter,

²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” —

³⁰for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.

³²And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.”

³³And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

¹And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people,

²except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

³or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean).

⁴He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

⁵They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.

⁶They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the LORD's food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

⁷They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

⁸You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.

⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes.

¹¹He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother.

¹²He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the LORD.

¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,

¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.

¹⁸For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long,

¹⁹or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand,

²⁰or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.

²¹No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

²²He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,

²³but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”

²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

⁷In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

⁸But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

¹¹Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

¹²Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

¹⁴And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

¹⁸Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

²¹Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

²²Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

²³Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

²⁴knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

²⁵For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

²Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

⁵You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

⁸Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

⁹No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

¹¹For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

¹²We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

¹⁷But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

²³And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

¹Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

²I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him.

³Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases.

⁴For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.

⁶For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him.

⁷For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

⁸No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

⁹All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

¹¹Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

¹²Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

¹³But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep,

¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

¹Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights!

²Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts!

³Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!

⁴Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!

⁵Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created.

⁶And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps,

⁸fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

⁹Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!

¹⁰Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!

¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!

¹²Young men and maidens together, old men and children!

¹³Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.

¹⁴He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the LORD!

¹Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

²Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

³When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.

⁴Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

⁷All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.

⁸Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.

¹⁰It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes.

¹¹Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²A king's wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.

¹⁴House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

¹⁶Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die.

¹⁷Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.

¹⁸Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

¹⁹A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

²¹Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

²²What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.

²⁴The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

²⁵Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

²⁶He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach.

²⁷Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks at justice, and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.

²⁹Condemnation is ready for scoffers, and beating for the backs of fools.

¹Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down.

²And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down.

³Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech.

⁴So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.”

⁵Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”

⁶Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

⁷Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel.

⁸So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.

⁹Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon.

¹⁰Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

¹¹Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem,

¹²and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman.”

¹³So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.

¹⁴Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!

¹⁵He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.

¹⁷And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,

¹⁹Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,

²⁰Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,

²¹Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,

²²Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

¹Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

²For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name.

³“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

⁴Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

⁵I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

⁶“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.

⁷They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

⁸You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

⁹“For my name's sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

¹⁰Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

¹²“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.

¹³My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.

¹⁴“Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

¹⁶Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

¹⁹your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”

²⁰Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.

²²“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

¹After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them,

³and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

⁴And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

⁶And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

⁹And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,

¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

¹¹And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal,

¹³saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”

¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

¹⁵But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.”

¹⁶And he drove them from the tribunal.

¹⁷And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

¹⁸After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

¹⁹And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.

²¹But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.

²³After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.

²⁵He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

²⁷And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,

²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.