Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God when it has come with power.”

²And six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter, James, and John, and *brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;

³and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

⁴And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵Peter responded and *said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here; let’s make three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁶For he did not know how to reply; for they became terrified.

⁷Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud: “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him!”

⁸And suddenly they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.

⁹As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead.

¹⁰They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.

¹¹And they asked Him, saying, “Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

¹²And He said to them, “Elijah does come first and he restores all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

¹³But I say to you that Elijah hasindeed come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it is written of him.”

¹⁴And when they came back to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them.

¹⁵Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him.

¹⁶And He asked them, “What are you disputing with them?”

¹⁷And one person from the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, because he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak;

¹⁸and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not do it.”

¹⁹And He answered them and *said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!”

²⁰And they brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, the spirit immediately threw him into convulsions, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth.

²¹And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.

²²It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

²³But Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.”

²⁴Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁵When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, Icommand you, come out of him and do not enter himagain!”

²⁶And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!”

²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him, and he got up.

²⁸When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, “Why is it that we could not cast it out?”

²⁹And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer.”

³⁰And from there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it.

³¹For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to behanded over to men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

³²But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

³³They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them: “What were you discussing on the way?”

³⁴But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.

³⁵And sitting down, He called the twelve and *said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

³⁶And He took a child and placed him among them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,

³⁷“Whoeverreceivesone child like this in My namereceives Me; and whoeverreceives Me does notreceive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

³⁸John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.”

³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.

⁴⁰For the one who is not against us isfor us.

⁴¹For whoever gives you a cup of water to drinkbecause of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.

⁴²“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him if a heavy millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea.

⁴³And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed, than, having your two hands, to go intohell, into the unquenchable fire.

⁴⁴

⁴⁵And if your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life without a foot, than, having your two feet, to be thrown intohell.

⁴⁶

⁴⁷And if your eye is causing you to sin, throw it away; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be thrown intohell,

⁴⁸where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT EXTINGUISHED.

⁴⁹For everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will youmake it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

¹Again, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the LORD.

³If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary.

⁴Or if the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels.

⁵And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels.

⁶But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver.

⁷If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels.

⁸But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; according to the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that one can present as an offering to the LORD, any such animal that one gives to the LORD shall be holy.

¹⁰He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.

¹¹If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which one does not present as an offering to the LORD, then he shall place the animal before the priest.

¹²And the priest shall assess it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be.

¹³But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.

¹⁴‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall assess it as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand.

¹⁵Yet if the one who consecrates it should want to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶‘Again, if someone consecrates to the LORD part of the field of his own property, then your assessment shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your assessment it shall stand.

¹⁸If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your assessment.

¹⁹If the one who consecrates it should ever want to redeem the field, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may belong to him.

²⁰Yet if he does not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed;

²¹and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the LORD, like a field banned from secular use; it shall be for the priest as his property.

²²Or if he consecrates to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property,

²³then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your assessment up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your assessment as holy to the LORD.

²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs.

²⁵Every assessment of yours, moreover, shall be by the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶‘However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no one may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’S.

²⁷But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall redeem it according to your assessment and add to it a fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸‘Nevertheless, anything which someone sets apart to the LORD for destruction out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the field of his own property, shall not be sold nor redeemed. Anything set apart for destruction is most holy to the LORD.

²⁹No one who may have been set apart among mankind shall be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰‘Now all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD.

³¹If, therefore, someone should ever want to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it a fifth of it.

³²For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.

³³He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; yet if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’ ”

³⁴These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai.

¹For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

²he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is clothed in weakness;

³and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins for himself, as well as for the people.

⁴And no one takes the honor for himself, but receives it when he is called by God, just as Aaron also was.

⁵So too Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a high priest, but it was He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE FATHERED YOU”;

⁶just as He also says in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

⁷In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior.

⁸Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

⁹And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him,

¹⁰being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹Concerning him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become poor listeners.

¹²For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

¹³For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

¹The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,

²who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

³Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

⁴John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—

⁶and He made us into a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and whois to come, the Almighty.”

⁹I, John, your brother and fellow participant in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And after turning I saw seven golden lampstands;

¹³and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden sash.

¹⁴His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

¹⁵His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

¹⁶In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

¹⁸and the living One; and Iwas dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

¹⁹Therefore write the things which you have seen,and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹“I am the rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys.”

²“Like a lily among the thorns, So is my darling among the young women.”

³“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the young men. In his shade I took great delight and sat down, And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

⁴He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love.

⁵Refresh me with raisin cakes, Sustain me with apples, Because I am lovesick.

⁶His left hand is under my head, And his right hand embraces me.”

⁷“Swear to me, you daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the does of the field, That you will not disturb or awaken my love Until she pleases.”

⁸“Listen! My beloved! Behold, he is coming, Leaping on the mountains, Jumping on the hills!

⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he is standing behind our wall, He is looking through the windows, He is peering through the lattice.

¹⁰“My beloved responded and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along.

¹¹For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.

¹²The blossoms have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree has ripened its fruit, And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along!’ ”

¹⁴“My dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding place of the mountain pathway, Let me see how you look, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is pleasant, And you look delightful.”

¹⁵“Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, While our vineyards are in blossom.”

¹⁶“My beloved is mine, and I am his; He pastures his flock among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the cool of the day, when the shadows flee, Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.”

¹Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

²You sons of man, how long will my honor be treated as an insult? How long will you love what is worthless and strive for a lie? Selah

³But know that the LORD has set apart the godly person for Himself; The LORD hears when I call to Him.

⁴Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah

⁵Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the LORD.

⁶Many are saying, “Who will show us anything good?” Lift up the light of Your face upon us, LORD!

⁷You have put joy in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine are abundant.

⁸In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For You alone, LORD, have me dwell in safety.

¹These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed.

²It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

³As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, So the heart of kings is unsearchable.

⁴Take away the impurities from the silver, And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

⁵Take away the wicked before the king, And his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Do not boast in the presence of the king, And do not stand in the same place as great people;

⁷For it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” Than for you to be placed lower in the presence of the prince, Whom your eyes have seen.

⁸Do not go out hastily to argue your case; Otherwise, what will you do in the end, When your neighbor humiliates you?

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor, And do not reveal the secret of another,

¹⁰Or one who hears it will put you to shame, And the evil report about you will not pass away.

¹¹Like apples of gold in settings of silver, Is a word spoken at the proper time.

¹²Like an earring of gold and a jewelry piece of fine gold, Is a wise person who offers rebukes to a listening ear.

¹³Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest Is a faithful messenger to those who send him, For he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rain Is a person who boasts of his gifts falsely.

¹⁵Through patience a ruler may be persuaded, And a gentle tongue breaks bone.

¹⁶Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, So that you do not have it in excess and vomit it.

¹⁷Let your foot rarely be in your neighbor’s house, Or he will become weary of you and hate you.

¹⁸Like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow Is a person who gives false testimony against his neighbor.

¹⁹Like a bad tooth and an unsteady foot Is confidence in a treacherous person in time of trouble.

²⁰Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, Is one who sings songs to a troubled heart.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;

²²For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you.

²³The north wind brings rain, And a gossiping tongue brings an angry face.

²⁴It is better to live on a corner of the roof, Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

²⁵Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land.

²⁶Like a trampled spring and a polluted well, So is a righteous person who gives way before the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey, Nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.

²⁸Like a city that is broken into and without walls So is a person who has no self-control over his spirit.

¹Now the ark of the LORD had been in the territory of the Philistines for seven months.

²And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What are we to do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we may send it to its place.”

³And they said, “If you are going to send the ark of the God of Israel away, do not send it empty; but you shall certainly return to Him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be revealed to you why His hand does not leave you.”

⁴Then they said, “What is to be the guilt offering that we shall return to Him?” And they said, “Five gold tumors and five gold mice corresponding to the number of the governors of the Philistines, since one plague was on all of you and on your governors.

⁵So you shall make likenesses of your tumors and likenesses of your mice that are ruining the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, your gods, and your land.

⁶Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not let the people go, and they left?

⁷Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves back home, away from them.

⁸Then take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a saddlebag by its side. Then send it away that it may go.

⁹But watch: if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done this great evil to us. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”

¹⁰Then the men did so: they took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut in their calves at home.

¹¹And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the saddlebag with the gold mice and the likenesses of their tumors.

¹²Now the cows went straight in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went on the same road, bellowing as they went, and did not turn off to the right or to the left. And the governors of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were gathering in their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced at seeing it.

¹⁴And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stopped there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹⁵And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the saddlebag that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the LORD.

¹⁶When the five governors of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

¹⁷Now these are the gold tumors which the Philistines returned as a guilt offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron;

¹⁸and the gold mice, corresponding to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five governors, both of fortified cities and of country villages. The large stone on which they placed the ark of the LORD is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

¹⁹Now He fatally struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

²⁰And the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom will He go up from us?”

²¹So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up to yourselves.”

¹“Shout for joy, infertile one, you who have not given birth to any child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.

²“Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare them; Lengthen your ropes And strengthen your pegs.

³For you will spread out to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate cities.

⁴“Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.

⁵For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of armies; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.

⁶For the LORD has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” Says your God.

⁷“For a brief moment I abandoned you, But with great compassion I will gather you.

⁸In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting favor I will have compassion on you,” Says the LORD your Redeemer.

⁹“For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor rebuke you.

¹⁰For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My favor will not be removed from you, Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.

¹¹“Afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And I will lay your foundations with sapphires.

¹²Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, And your gates of crystal, And your entire wall of precious stones.

¹³All your sons will be taught by the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

¹⁴In righteousness you will be established; You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; And from terror, for it will not come near you.

¹⁵If anyone fiercely attacks you, it will not be from Me. Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.

¹⁶Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows on the fire of coals And produces a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer to inflict ruin.

¹⁷No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; And you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

¹Now after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought charges against Paul to the governor.

²After Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began accusing him, saying to the governor, “Since we have attained great peace through you, and since reforms are being carried out for this nation by your foresight,

³we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness.

⁴But, that I may not weary you further, I beg you to grant us a brief hearing, by your kindness.

⁵For we have found this man a public menace and one who stirs up dissensions among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

⁶And he even tried to desecrate the temple, so indeed we arrested him.

⁷

⁸By interrogating him yourself concerning all these matters, you will be able to ascertain the things of which we are accusing him.”

⁹The Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so.

¹⁰And when the governor had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded: “Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation, I cheerfully make my defense,

¹¹since you can take note of the fact that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

¹²And neither in the temple did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or causing a riot, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city itself.

¹³Nor can they prove to you the things of which they now accuse me.

¹⁴But I confess this to you, that in accordance with the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and is written in the Prophets;

¹⁵having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

¹⁶In view of this I also do my best to maintain a blameless conscience both before God and before other people, always.

¹⁷Now after several years I came to bring charitable gifts to my nation and to present offerings,

¹⁸in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified, without any crowd or uproar. But there were some Jews from Asia—

¹⁹who ought to have been present before you and to have been bringing charges, if they should have anything against me.

²⁰Or else have these men themselves declare what violation they discovered when I stood before the Council,

²¹other than in regard to this one declaration which I shouted while standing among them, ‘For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today!’ ”

²²But Felix, having quite accurate knowledge about the Way, adjourned them, saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.”

²³He gave orders to the centurion for Paul to be kept in custody and yet have some freedom, and not to prevent any of his friends from providing for his needs.

²⁴Now some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla his wife, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and responded, “Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, I will summon you.”

²⁶At the same time he was also hoping that money would be given to him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and talk with him.

²⁷But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul imprisoned.