Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!

³Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

⁴Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”

⁵And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.

⁶And he was amazed at their unbelief. The Mission of the Twelve Then he went about among the villages teaching.

⁷He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

⁸He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;

⁹but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

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

¹¹If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹²So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent.

¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

¹⁴King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.”

¹⁵But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”

¹⁶But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

¹⁷For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.

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

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

²⁰for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.

²²When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.”

²³And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.”

²⁴She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.”

²⁵Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.

²⁷Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison,

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

²⁹When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.

³¹He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

³²And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

³³Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

³⁵When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late;

³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.”

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

³⁸And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

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

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

⁴¹Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²And all ate and were filled;

⁴³and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.

⁴⁴Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

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

⁴⁶After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.

⁴⁸When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by.

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

⁵⁰for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

⁵¹Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,

⁵²for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.

⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him,

⁵⁵and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

⁵⁶And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

¹Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the region.

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force.

³And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl to be my wife.”

⁵Now Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.

⁶And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him,

⁷just as the sons of Jacob came in from the field. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The heart of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage.

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

¹⁰You shall live with us; and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it, and get property in it.”

¹¹Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor with you, and whatever you say to me I will give.

¹²Put the marriage present and gift as high as you like, and I will give whatever you ask me; only give me the girl to be my wife.”

¹³The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

¹⁴They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

¹⁵Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male among you be circumcised.

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

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

¹⁸Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

¹⁹And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

²¹“These people are friendly with us; let them live in the land and trade in it, for the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters in marriage, and let us give them our daughters.

²²Only on this condition will they agree to live among us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.

²³Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live among us.”

²⁴And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.

²⁷And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.

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

²⁹All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

³¹But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?”

¹So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.

²For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?

³And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.

⁴For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

⁵But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent — not to exaggerate it — to all of you.

⁶This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person;

⁷so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

⁸So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

⁹I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.

¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.

¹¹And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

¹²When I came to Troas to proclaim the good news of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord;

¹³but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.

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

¹⁶to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.

¹But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned.

³And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;

⁵and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly;

⁶and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless

⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard),

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

¹⁰— especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,

¹¹whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord.

¹²These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed,

¹³suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you.

¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

¹⁵They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong,

¹⁶but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.

¹⁸For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

²⁰For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”

¹Then Elihu continued and said:

²“Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know;

³for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right;

⁶in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’

⁷Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water,

⁸who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked?

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’

¹⁰“Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

¹¹For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them.

¹²Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world?

¹⁴If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath,

¹⁵all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust.

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

¹⁷Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn one who is righteous and mighty,

¹⁸who says to a king, ‘You scoundrel!’ and to princes, ‘You wicked men!’;

¹⁹who shows no partiality to nobles, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?

²⁰In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

²¹“For his eyes are upon the ways of mortals, and he sees all their steps.

²²There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.

²³For he has not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in judgment.

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

²⁵Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.

²⁶He strikes them for their wickedness while others look on,

²⁷because they turned aside from following him, and had no regard for any of his ways,

²⁸so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted —

²⁹When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or an individual? —

³⁰so that the godless should not reign, or those who ensnare the people.

³¹“For has anyone said to God, ‘I have endured punishment; I will not offend any more;

³²teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

³³Will he then pay back to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know.

³⁴Those who have sense will say to me, and the wise who hear me will say,

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’

³⁶Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”

¹I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

²My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.

³O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

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

⁵Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.

⁶This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble.

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

⁸O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.

⁹O fear the LORD, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want.

¹⁰The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

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

¹²Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good?

¹³Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.

¹⁴Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

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

¹⁶The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

¹⁷When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.

¹⁸The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all.

²⁰He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken.

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

²²The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

¹My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;

²for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you.

³Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and of people.

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

⁶In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

⁷Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

⁸It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.

⁹Honor the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce;

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

¹¹My child, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,

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

¹³Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding,

¹⁴for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold.

¹⁵She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

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

¹⁷Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.

¹⁹The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;

²⁰by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.

²¹My child, do not let these escape from your sight: keep sound wisdom and prudence,

²²and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.

²³Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble.

²⁴If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the storm that strikes the wicked;

²⁶for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

²⁷Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

²⁸Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it” — when you have it with you.

²⁹Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you.

³⁰Do not quarrel with anyone without cause, when no harm has been done to you.

³¹Do not envy the violent and do not choose any of their ways;

³²for the perverse are an abomination to the LORD, but the upright are in his confidence.

³³The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.

³⁴Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favor.

³⁵The wise will inherit honor, but stubborn fools, disgrace.

¹After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, who lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel.

²He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died, and was buried at Shamir.

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

⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty towns, which are in the land of Gilead, and are called Havvoth-jair to this day.

⁵Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.

⁶The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Thus they abandoned the LORD, and did not worship him.

⁷So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites,

⁸and they crushed and oppressed the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

⁹The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was greatly distressed.

¹⁰So the Israelites cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.”

¹¹And the LORD said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?

¹²The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

¹³Yet you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more.

¹⁴Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”

¹⁵And the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you; but deliver us this day!”

¹⁶So they put away the foreign gods from among them and worshiped the LORD; and he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer.

¹⁷Then the Ammonites were called to arms, and they encamped in Gilead; and the Israelites came together, and they encamped at Mizpah.

¹⁸The commanders of the people of Gilead said to one another, “Who will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

¹Draw near, O nations, to hear; O peoples, give heed! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.

²For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their hordes; he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.

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

⁴All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall wither like a leaf withering on a vine, or fruit withering on a fig tree.

⁵When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, lo, it will descend upon Edom, upon the people I have doomed to judgment.

⁶The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood, it is gorged 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.

⁷Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their soil made rich with fat.

⁸For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of vindication by Zion’s cause.

⁹And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the hawk and the hedgehog shall possess it; the owl and the raven shall live in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles.

¹²They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.

¹⁴Wildcats shall meet with hyenas, goat-demons shall call to each other; there too Lilith shall repose, and find a place to rest.

¹⁵There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow; there too the buzzards shall gather, each one with its mate.

¹⁶Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without its mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation they shall live in it.

¹Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

²And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

³Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,

⁴while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.”

⁵What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

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

⁷The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen.

¹⁰But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

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

¹²They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council.

¹³They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law;

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

¹⁵And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.