Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

² They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

³And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

⁴But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. The Work of the Holy Spirit “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

⁶But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

⁷Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

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

¹⁰ concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;

¹¹ concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot 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 authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

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

¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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

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

¹⁸So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

¹⁹Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?

²⁰Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

²¹ When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

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

²³ In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

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

²⁵“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;

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

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

²⁹His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!

³⁰Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

³¹Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

³²Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

³³I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

¹“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

²And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,

³his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land,

⁴and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day,

⁵and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place,

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel.

⁷For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,

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

¹⁰For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.

¹¹But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,

¹²a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.

¹⁵And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

¹⁶Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;

¹⁷then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

¹⁹You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

²⁰You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

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

²²For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,

²³then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.

²⁵No one shall be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.

²⁶“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today,

²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

²⁹And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?

³¹For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,

³²you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

¹Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

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

³I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn — fighting without and fear within.

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

⁷and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

⁸For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it — though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.

⁹As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

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

¹¹For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

¹²So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.

¹³Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true.

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

¹⁶I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.

¹What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

²You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

⁴You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves therefore 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be wretched 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.

¹¹Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is only one lawgiver and judge, he 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 go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” —

¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

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

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

¹⁷So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

⁶Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?

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

⁸Lay your hands on him; remember the battle — you will not do it again!

⁹Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him.

¹⁰No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

¹¹Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹²“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

¹⁵His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth.

²⁰Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

²²In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.

²⁴His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

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

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

²⁹Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

³⁰His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

³¹He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired.

³³On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear.

³⁴He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”

¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

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

⁹Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

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

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

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

¹⁶For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

¹⁸Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;

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

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

²Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.

³The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

⁴A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

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

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

⁸The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

⁹Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

¹⁰Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

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

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

¹³On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

¹⁴The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.

¹⁵A rich man's wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

¹⁶The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin.

¹⁷Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.

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

¹⁹When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth.

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

²²The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

²³Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

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

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

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

¹And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.

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

³my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.

⁴I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

⁵“For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me;

⁶the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

⁷“In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.

⁸“Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

⁹Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.

¹¹He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind.

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

¹³Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice.

¹⁵And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them.

¹⁶Then the channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷“He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.

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

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

²⁰He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

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

²²For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside.

²⁴I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt.

²⁵And the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

²⁶“With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;

²⁷with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.

²⁸You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

²⁹For you are my lamp, O LORD, and my God lightens my darkness.

³⁰For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.

³¹This God — his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

³²“For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?

³³This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless.

³⁴He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.

³⁵He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great.

³⁷You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip;

³⁸I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed.

³⁹I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise; they fell under my feet.

⁴⁰For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me.

⁴¹You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them.

⁴²They looked, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.

⁴³I beat them fine as the dust of the earth; I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

⁴⁴“You delivered me from strife with my people; you kept me as the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.

⁴⁵Foreigners came cringing to me; as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.

⁴⁶Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.

⁴⁷“The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,

⁴⁸the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me,

⁴⁹who brought me out from my enemies; you exalted me above those who rose against me; you delivered me from men of violence.

⁵⁰“For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.

⁵¹Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”

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

²“Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.”

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

⁴I brought them to the house of the LORD into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold.

⁵Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.”

⁶But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever.

⁷You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’

⁸We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed,

¹⁰but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

¹¹But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the LORD.

¹⁴The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me.

¹⁵I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me.

¹⁶The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me.

¹⁷Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.”

¹⁸But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.”

¹But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

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

⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

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

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

⁷And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

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

⁹and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

¹²And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.

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

¹⁶“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it,

¹⁷that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things

¹⁸known from of old.’

¹⁹Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.

²¹For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

²²Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,

²³with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,

²⁵it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

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

²⁷We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:

²⁹that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

³¹And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

³²And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.

³³And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.

³⁴

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

³⁶And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

³⁷Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

³⁸But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

³⁹And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus,

⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.