Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling.

²They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God.

³They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or me.

⁴But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

⁶Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

⁷Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.

⁸When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:

⁹About sin, because they do not believe in me;

¹⁰about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;

¹¹and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

¹²“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.

¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.

¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

¹⁵Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

¹⁶“A little while and you will no longer see me; again a little while and you will see me.”

¹⁷Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this he’s telling us: ‘A little while and you will not see me; again a little while and you will see me’ and, ‘because I am going to the Father’ ?”

¹⁸They said, “What is this he is saying, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

¹⁹Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, and so he said to them, “Are you asking one another about what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me; again a little while and you will see me’?

²⁰Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.

²¹When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.

²²So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.

²³“In that day you will not ask me anything. Truly I tell you, anything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

²⁴Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

²⁵“I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶On that day you will ask in my name, and I am not telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

²⁷For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

²⁸I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples said, “Look, now you’re speaking plainly and not using any figurative language.

³⁰Now we know that you know everything and don’t need anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”

³¹Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe?

³²Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

³³I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

¹“Therefore, love the LORD your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands.

²Understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

³his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

⁴what he did to Egypt’s army, its horses and chariots, when he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and he destroyed them completely;

⁵what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when in the middle of the whole Israelite camp the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.

⁷Your own eyes have seen every great work the LORD has done.

⁸“Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit,

⁹and so that you may live long in the land the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.

¹²It is a land the LORD your God cares for. He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year.

¹³“If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil.

¹⁵I will provide grass in your fields for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, serve, and bow in worship to other gods.

¹⁷Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you. He will shut the sky, and there will be no rain; the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

²⁰Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates,

²¹so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your fathers.

²²For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow — to love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, and remain faithful to him —

²³the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are.

²⁴Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.

²⁶“Look, today I set before you a blessing and a curse:

²⁷there will be a blessing, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you today,

²⁸and a curse, if you do not obey the commands of the LORD your God and you turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods you have not known.

²⁹When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.

³⁰Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you possess it and settle in it,

³²be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances I set before you today.

¹So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one.

³I don’t say this to condemn you, since I have already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴I am very frank with you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.

⁵In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were troubled in every way: conflicts on the outside, fears within.

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

⁷and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he received from you. He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I regretted it — since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a while —

⁹I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us.

¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.

¹¹For consider how much diligence this very thing — this grieving as God wills — has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.

¹²So even though I wrote to you, it was not because of the one who did wrong, or because of the one who was wronged, but in order that your devotion to us might be made plain to you in the sight of God.

¹³For this reason we have been comforted. In addition to our own comfort, we rejoiced even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you.

¹⁴For if I have made any boast to him about you, I have not been disappointed; but as I have spoken everything to you in truth, so our boasting to Titus has also turned out to be the truth.

¹⁵And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

¹What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

²You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

⁶But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

¹⁴Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

¹Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie his tongue down with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he beg you for mercy or speak softly to you?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you so that you can take him as a slave forever?

⁵Can you play with him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain for him or divide him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay a hand on him. You will remember the battle and never repeat it!

⁹Any hope of capturing him proves false. Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

¹⁰No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan; who then can stand against me?

¹¹Who confronted me, that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

¹²I cannot be silent about his limbs, his power, and his graceful proportions.

¹³Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?

¹⁴Who can open his jaws, surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

¹⁵His pride is in his rows of scales, closely sealed together.

¹⁶One scale is so close to another that no air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined to one another, so closely connected they cannot be separated.

¹⁸His snorting flashes with light, while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

¹⁹Flaming torches shoot from his mouth; fiery sparks fly out!

²⁰Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot or burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour out of his mouth.

²²Strength resides in his neck, and dismay dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are joined together, solid as metal and immovable.

²⁴His heart is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

²⁵When Leviathan rises, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw because of his thrashing.

²⁶The sword that reaches him will have no effect, nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.

²⁷He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him.

²⁹A club is regarded as stubble, and he laughs at the sound of a javelin.

³⁰His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like an ointment jar.

³²He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had gray hair!

³³He has no equal on earth — a creature devoid of fear!

³⁴He surveys everything that is haughty; he is king over all the proud beasts.

¹For the choir director. A psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba. [1] Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.

²Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me.

⁴Against you — you alone — I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge.

⁵Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁶Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within.

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

⁹Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.

¹⁰God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you.

¹⁴Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God — God of my salvation — and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

¹⁵Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

¹⁸In your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

¹Solomon’s proverbs: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.

²Ill-gotten gains do not profit anyone, but righteousness rescues from death.

³The LORD will not let the righteous go hungry, but he denies the wicked what they crave.

⁴Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.

⁵The son who gathers during summer is prudent; the son who sleeps during harvest is disgraceful.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

⁷The remembrance of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸A wise heart accepts commands, but foolish lips will be destroyed.

⁹The one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰A sly wink of the eye causes grief, and foolish lips will be destroyed.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

¹²Hatred stirs up conflicts, but love covers all offenses.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of the one who lacks sense.

¹⁴The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool hastens destruction.

¹⁵The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; the poverty of the poor is their destruction.

¹⁶The reward of the righteous is life; the wages of the wicked is punishment.

¹⁷The one who follows instruction is on the path to life, but the one who rejects correction goes astray.

¹⁸The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is prudent.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is pure silver; the heart of the wicked is of little value.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

²²The LORD’s blessing enriches, and he adds no painful effort to it.

²³As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool, so wisdom is for a person of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked dreads will come to him, but what the righteous desire will be given to them.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so the slacker is to the one who sends him on an errand.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.

²⁸The hope of the righteous is joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the honorable, but destruction awaits the malicious.

³⁰The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not remain on the earth.

³¹The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is appropriate, but the mouth of the wicked, only what is perverse.

¹David spoke the words of this song to the LORD on the day the LORD rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the grasp of Saul.

²He said: The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,

³my God, my rock where I seek refuge. My shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, you save me from violence.

⁴I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I was saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of destruction terrified me.

⁶The ropes of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

⁷I called to the LORD in my distress; I called to my God. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry for help reached his ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and quaked; the foundations of the heavens trembled; they shook because he burned with anger.

⁹Smoke rose from his nostrils, and consuming fire came from his mouth; coals were set ablaze by it.

¹⁰He bent the heavens and came down, total darkness beneath his feet.

¹¹He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness a canopy around him, a gathering of water and thick clouds.

¹³From the radiance of his presence, blazing coals were ignited.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High made his voice heard.

¹⁵He shot arrows and scattered them; he hurled lightning bolts and routed them.

¹⁶The depths of the sea became visible, the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he pulled me out of deep water.

¹⁸He rescued me from my powerful enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.

¹⁹They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.

²⁰He brought me out to a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

²¹The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; he repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.

²²For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not turned from my God to wickedness.

²³Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me and have not disregarded his statutes.

²⁴I was blameless before him and kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁵So the LORD repaid me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

²⁶With the faithful you prove yourself faithful, with the blameless you prove yourself blameless,

²⁷with the pure you prove yourself pure; but with the crooked you prove yourself shrewd.

²⁸You rescue an oppressed people, but your eyes are set against the proud — you humble them.

²⁹LORD, you are my lamp; the LORD illuminates my darkness.

³⁰With you I can attack a barricade, and with my God I can leap over a wall.

³¹God — his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is pure. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

³²For who is God besides the LORD? And who is a rock? Only our God.

³³God is my strong refuge; he makes my way perfect.

³⁴He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me securely on the heights.

³⁵He trains my hands for war; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have given me the shield of your salvation; your help exalts me.

³⁷You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps, and my ankles do not give way.

³⁸I pursue my enemies and destroy them; I do not turn back until they are wiped out.

³⁹I wipe them out and crush them, and they do not rise; they fall beneath my feet.

⁴⁰You have clothed me with strength for battle; you subdue my adversaries beneath me.

⁴¹You have made my enemies retreat before me; I annihilate those who hate me.

⁴²They look, but there is no one to save them — they look to the LORD, but he does not answer them.

⁴³I pulverize them like dust of the earth; I crush them and trample them like mud in the streets.

⁴⁴You have freed me from the feuds among my people; you have preserved me as head of nations; a people I had not known serve me.

⁴⁵Foreigners submit to me cringing; as soon as they hear, they obey me.

⁴⁶Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their fortifications.

⁴⁷The LORD lives — blessed be my rock! God, the rock of my salvation, is exalted.

⁴⁸God — he grants me vengeance and casts down peoples under me.

⁴⁹He frees me from my enemies. You exalt me above my adversaries; you rescue me from violent men.

⁵⁰Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, LORD; I will sing praises about your name.

⁵¹He is a tower of salvation for his king; he shows loyalty to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²“Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to one of the chambers of the temple of the LORD to offer them a drink of wine.”

³So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons — the entire house of the Rechabites —

⁴and I brought them into the temple of the LORD to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, who had a chamber near the officials’ chamber, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

⁵I set jars filled with wine and some cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites and said to them, “Drink wine!”

⁶But they replied, “We do not drink wine, for Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, commanded: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine.

⁷You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a resident alien.’

⁸We have obeyed Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, in all he commanded us. So we haven’t drunk wine our whole life — we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters.

⁹We also have not built houses to live in and do not have vineyard, field, or seed.

¹⁰But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us.

¹¹However, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched into the land, we said, ‘Come, let’s go into Jerusalem to get away from the Chaldean and Aramean armies.’ So we have been living in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³“This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go, say to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not accept discipline by listening to my words? — this is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁴The words of Jonadab, son of Rechab, have been carried out. He commanded his descendants not to drink wine, and they have not drunk to this day because they have obeyed their ancestor’s command. But I have spoken to you time and time again, and you have not obeyed me!

¹⁵Time and time again I have sent you all my servants the prophets, proclaiming, “Turn, each one from his evil way, and correct your actions. Stop following other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay attention or obey me.

¹⁶Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out their ancestor’s command he gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.

¹⁷Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring on Judah and on all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster I have pronounced against them because I have spoken to them, but they have not obeyed, and I have called to them, but they did not answer.’”

¹⁸But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your ancestor Jonadab and have kept all his commands and have done everything he commanded you,

¹⁹this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before me always.’”

¹Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue.

³When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

⁴When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.

⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: “Brothers and sisters, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.

⁸And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”

¹²The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they stopped speaking, James responded: “Brothers and sisters, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name.

¹⁵And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

¹⁶After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again,

¹⁷so the rest of humanity may seek the Lord — even all the Gentiles who are called by my name — declares the Lord who makes these things

¹⁸known from long ago.

¹⁹Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.

²¹For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”

²²Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.

²³They wrote: “From the apostles and the elders, your brothers, To the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts,

²⁵we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision — and ours — not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements:

²⁹that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.”

³⁰So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

³²Both Judas and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters and strengthened them with a long message.

³³After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark.

³⁸But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

³⁹They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and departed, after being commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹He traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.