Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.

²When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands?

³Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.

⁴Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.”

⁵He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

⁶And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.

⁷He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

⁸He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a staff — no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts,

⁹but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.

¹⁰He said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place.

¹¹If any place does not welcome you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹²So they went out and preached that people should repent.

¹³They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

¹⁴King Herod heard about it, because Jesus’s name had become well known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that’s why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

¹⁵But others said, “He’s Elijah.” Still others said, “He’s a prophet, like one of the prophets from long ago.”

¹⁶When Herod heard of it, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised!”

¹⁷For Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.

¹⁸John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

¹⁹So Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not,

²⁰because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing he was a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard him he would be very perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹An opportune time came on his birthday, when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee.

²²When Herodias’s own daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.”

²³He promised her with an oath: “Whatever you ask me I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

²⁴She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” “John the Baptist’s head,” she said.

²⁵At once she hurried to the king and said, “I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter immediately.”

²⁶Although the king was deeply distressed, because of his oaths and the guests he did not want to refuse her.

²⁷The king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John’s head. So he went and beheaded him in prison,

²⁸brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother.

²⁹When John’s disciples heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught.

³¹He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

³²So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place,

³³but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

³⁴When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.

³⁵When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late.

³⁶Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷“You give them something to eat,” he responded. They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

³⁸He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”

³⁹Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.

⁴⁰So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.

⁴¹He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²Everyone ate and was satisfied.

⁴³They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish.

⁴⁴Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.

⁴⁵Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.

⁴⁶After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land.

⁴⁸He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them.

⁴⁹When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out,

⁵⁰because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

⁵¹Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded,

⁵²because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret and anchored there.

⁵⁴As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him.

⁵⁵They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

⁵⁶Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. And everyone who touched it was healed.

¹Leah’s daughter Dinah, whom Leah bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

²When Shechem — son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region’s chieftain — saw her, he took her and raped her.

³He became infatuated with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴“Get me this girl as a wife,” he told his father.

⁵Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

⁶Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

⁷Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and very angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.

⁸Hamor said to Jacob’s sons, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

⁹Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here, move about, and acquire property in it.”

¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I’ll give you whatever you say.

¹²Demand of me a high compensation and gift; I’ll give you whatever you ask me. Just give the girl to be my wife!”

¹³But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

¹⁴“We cannot do this thing,” they said to them. “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.

¹⁵We will agree with you only on this condition: if all your males are circumcised as we are.

¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters, take your daughters for ourselves, live with you, and become one people.

¹⁷But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”

¹⁸Their words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹The young man did not delay doing this, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most important in all his father’s family.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city.

²¹“These men are peaceful toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and move about in it, for indeed, the region is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as our wives and give our daughters to them.

²²But the men will agree to live with us and be one people only on this condition: if all our men are circumcised as they are.

²³Won’t their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live with us.”

²⁴All the men who had come to the city gates listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all those men were circumcised.

²⁵On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away.

²⁷Jacob’s sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled.

²⁸They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.

²⁹They captured all their possessions, dependents, and wives and plundered everything in the houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

³¹But they answered, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

¹In fact, I made up my mind about this: I would not come to you on another painful visit.

²For if I cause you pain, then who will cheer me other than the one being hurt by me?

³I wrote this very thing so that when I came I wouldn’t have pain from those who ought to give me joy, because I am confident about all of you that my joy will also be yours.

⁴For I wrote to you with many tears out of an extremely troubled and anguished heart — not to cause you pain, but that you should know the abundant love I have for you.

⁵If anyone has caused pain, he has caused pain not so much to me but to some degree — not to exaggerate  — to all of you.

⁶This punishment by the majority is sufficient for that person.

⁷As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief.

⁸Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

⁹I wrote for this purpose: to test your character to see if you are obedient in everything.

¹⁰Anyone you forgive, I do too. For what I have forgiven — if I have forgiven anything — it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ,

¹¹so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹²When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord opened a door for me,

¹³I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find my brother Titus. Instead, I said good-bye to them and left for Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

¹⁵For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

¹⁶To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. Who is adequate for these things?

¹⁷For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ, as from God and before God.

¹There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.

³They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

⁴For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;

⁵and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;

⁶and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral

⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard ) —

⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

¹⁰especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;

¹¹however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.

¹²But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.

¹³They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you.

¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

¹⁵They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness

¹⁶but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.

¹⁸For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.

²⁰For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

¹Then Elihu continued, saying:

²Hear my words, you wise ones, and listen to me, you knowledgeable ones.

³Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

⁴Let us judge for ourselves what is right; let us decide together what is good.

⁵For Job has declared, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.

⁶Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.”

⁷What man is like Job? He drinks derision like water.

⁸He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men.

⁹For he has said, “A man gains nothing when he becomes God’s friend.”

¹⁰Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding. It is impossible for God to do wrong, and for the Almighty to act unjustly.

¹¹For he repays a person according to his deeds, and he gives him what his conduct deserves.

¹²Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly and the Almighty does not pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him authority over the earth? Who put him in charge of the entire world?

¹⁴If he put his mind to it and withdrew the spirit and breath he gave,

¹⁵every living thing would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.

¹⁶If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I have to say.

¹⁷Could one who hates justice govern the world? Will you condemn the mighty Righteous One,

¹⁸who says to a king, “Worthless man!” and to nobles, “Wicked men!”?

¹⁹God is not partial to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.

²⁰They die suddenly in the middle of the night; people shudder, then pass away. Even the mighty are removed without effort.

²¹For his eyes watch over a man’s ways, and he observes all his steps.

²²There is no darkness, no deep darkness, where evildoers can hide.

²³God does not need to examine a person further, that one should approach him in court.

²⁴He shatters the mighty without an investigation and sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore, he recognizes their deeds and overthrows them by night, and they are crushed.

²⁶In full view of the public, he strikes them for their wickedness,

²⁷because they turned aside from following him and did not understand any of his ways

²⁸but caused the poor to cry out to him, and he heard the outcry of the needy.

²⁹But when God is silent, who can declare him guilty? When he hides his face, who can see him? Yet he watches over both individuals and nations,

³⁰so that godless men should not rule or ensnare the people.

³¹Suppose someone says to God, “I have endured my punishment; I will no longer act wickedly.

³²Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I won’t do it again.”

³³Should God repay you on your terms when you have rejected his? You must choose, not I! So declare what you know.

³⁴Reasonable men will say to me, along with the wise men who hear me,

³⁵“Job speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.”

³⁶If only Job were tested to the limit, because his answers are like those of wicked men.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin; he scornfully claps in our presence, while multiplying his words against God.

¹Concerning David, when he pretended to be insane in the presence of Abimelech, who drove him out, and he departed. [1] I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

²I will boast in the LORD; the humble will hear and be glad.

³Proclaim the LORD’s greatness with me; let us exalt his name together.

⁴I sought the LORD, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.

⁵Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.

⁶This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him from all his troubles.

⁷The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.

⁸Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!

⁹You who are his holy ones, fear the LORD, for those who fear him lack nothing.

¹⁰Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the LORD will not lack any good thing.

¹¹Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

¹²Who is someone who desires life, loving a long life to enjoy what is good?

¹³Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.

¹⁴Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁵The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help.

¹⁶The face of the LORD is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth.

¹⁷The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.

¹⁸The LORD is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.

¹⁹One who is righteous has many adversities, but the LORD rescues him from them all.

²⁰He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken.

²¹Evil brings death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

²²The LORD redeems the life of his servants, and all who take refuge in him will not be punished.

¹My son, don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands;

²for they will bring you many days, a full life, and well-being.

³Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Then you will find favor and high regard with God and people.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding;

⁶in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

⁷Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

⁸This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

⁹Honor the LORD with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest;

¹⁰then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

¹¹Do not despise the LORD’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline;

¹²for the LORD disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

¹³Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding,

¹⁴for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold.

¹⁵She is more precious than jewels; nothing you desire can equal her.

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor.

¹⁷Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.

¹⁹The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding.

²⁰By his knowledge the watery depths broke open, and the clouds dripped with dew.

²¹Maintain sound wisdom and discretion. My son, don’t lose sight of them.

²²They will be life for you and adornment for your neck.

²³Then you will go safely on your way; your foot will not stumble.

²⁴When you lie down, you will not be afraid; you will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant.

²⁵Don’t fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes,

²⁶for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare.

²⁷When it is in your power, don’t withhold good from the one to whom it belongs.

²⁸Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go away! Come back later. I’ll give it tomorrow” — when it is there with you.

²⁹Don’t plan any harm against your neighbor, for he trusts you and lives near you.

³⁰Don’t accuse anyone without cause, when he has done you no harm.

³¹Don’t envy a violent man or choose any of his ways;

³²for the devious are detestable to the LORD, but he is a friend to the upright.

³³The LORD’s curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous;

³⁴He mocks those who mock, but gives grace to the humble.

³⁵The wise will inherit honor, but he holds up fools to dishonor.

¹After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo became judge and began to deliver Israel. He was from Issachar and lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

²Tola judged Israel twenty-three years and when he died, was buried in Shamir.

³After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.

⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. They had thirty towns in Gilead, which are still called Jair’s Villages today.

⁵When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

⁶Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned the LORD and did not worship him.

⁷So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites.

⁸They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they did the same to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead.

⁹The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed,

¹⁰so they cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you. We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”

¹¹The LORD said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines,

¹²Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not deliver you from them?

¹³But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. Therefore, I will not deliver you again.

¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.”

¹⁵But the Israelites said, “We have sinned. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!”

¹⁶So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the LORD, and he became weary of Israel’s misery.

¹⁷The Ammonites were called together, and they camped in Gilead. So the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.

¹⁸The rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

¹You nations, come here and listen; you peoples, pay attention! Let the earth and all that fills it hear, the world and all that comes from it.

²The LORD is angry with all the nations, furious with all their armies. He will set them apart for destruction, giving them over to slaughter.

³Their slain will be thrown out, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.

⁴All the stars in the sky will dissolve. The sky will roll up like a scroll, and its stars will all wither as leaves wither on the vine, and foliage on the fig tree.

⁵When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, it will then come down on Edom and on the people I have set apart for destruction.

⁶The LORD’s sword is covered with blood. It drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild oxen will be struck down with them, and young bulls with the mighty bulls. Their land will be soaked with blood, and their soil will be saturated with fat.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a time of paying back Edom for its hostility against Zion.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her soil into sulfur; her land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It will never go out — day or night. Its smoke will go up forever. It will be desolate, from generation to generation; no one will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹Eagle owls and herons will possess it, and long-eared owls and ravens will dwell there. The LORD will stretch out a measuring line and a plumb line over her for her destruction and chaos.

¹²No nobles will be left to proclaim a king, and all her princes will come to nothing.

¹³Her palaces will be overgrown with thorns; her fortified cities, with thistles and briers. She will become a dwelling for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

¹⁴The desert creatures will meet hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. Indeed, the night birds will stay there and will find a resting place.

¹⁵Sand partridges will make their nests there; they will lay and hatch their eggs and will gather their broods under their shadows. Indeed, the birds of prey will gather there, each with its mate.

¹⁶Search and read the scroll of the LORD: Not one of them will be missing, none will be lacking its mate, because he has ordered it by my mouth, and he will gather them by his Spirit.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them; his hand allotted their portion with a measuring line. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.

¹In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

²The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

³Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

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

⁵This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

⁶They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

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

⁹Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin.

¹³They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.