Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea

²and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

³For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

⁴Now John had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

⁵Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were going out to him,

⁶and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

⁷When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.

⁹And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.

¹⁰The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

¹²His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.

¹⁴But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”

¹⁵Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized.

¹⁶When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.

¹⁷And a voice from heaven said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

¹“When the LORD your God annihilates the nations whose land he is giving you, so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses,

²you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

³You are to determine the distances and divide the land the LORD your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.

⁴“Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him:

⁵If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die, since he did not previously hate his neighbor.

⁷This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves.

⁸If the LORD your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land he promised to give them —

⁹provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the LORD your God and walking in his ways at all times — you are to add three more cities to these three.

¹⁰In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

¹¹But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities,

¹²the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die.

¹³Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

¹⁴“Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵“One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶“If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime,

¹⁷the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and judges in authority at that time.

¹⁸The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother,

¹⁹you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you.

²⁰Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.

²¹Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

¹Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.

²I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running, in vain.

³But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

⁴This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.

⁵But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you.

⁶Now from those recognized as important (what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism ) — they added nothing to me.

⁷On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised,

⁸since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles.

⁹When James, Cephas, and John  — those recognized as pillars  — acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

¹²For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party.

¹³Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

¹⁴But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

¹⁵We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,”

¹⁶and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

¹⁷But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not!

¹⁸If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.

³Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.

⁴The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools,

⁶for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

⁷Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

⁹Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.

¹⁰Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.

¹¹Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun,

¹²because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

¹³Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

¹⁶Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

¹⁹Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.

²⁰There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

²¹Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,

²²for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

²⁴What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?

²⁵I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,

²⁸which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

²⁹Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

¹For the choir director: “Do Not Destroy.” A of David. When Saul sent agents to watch the house and kill him. [1] Rescue me from my enemies, my God; protect me from those who rise up against me.

²Rescue me from those who practice sin, and save me from men of bloodshed.

³Because look, LORD, they set an ambush for me. Powerful men attack me, but not because of any sin or rebellion of mine.

⁴For no fault of mine, they run and take up a position. Awake to help me, and take notice.

⁵LORD God of Armies, you are the God of Israel. Rise up to punish all the nations; do not show favor to any wicked traitors. Selah

⁶They return at evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.

⁷Look, they spew from their mouths — sharp words from their lips. “For who,” they say, “will hear?”

⁸But you laugh at them, LORD; you ridicule all the nations.

⁹I will keep watch for you, my strength, because God is my stronghold.

¹⁰My faithful God will come to meet me; God will let me look down on my adversaries.

¹¹Do not kill them; otherwise, my people will forget. By your power, make them homeless wanderers and bring them down, Lord, our shield.

¹²For the sin of their mouths and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. They utter curses and lies.

¹³Consume them in rage; consume them until they are gone. Then people will know throughout the earth that God rules over Jacob. Selah

¹⁴And they return at evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.

¹⁵They scavenge for food; they growl if they are not satisfied.

¹⁶But I will sing of your strength and will joyfully proclaim your faithful love in the morning. For you have been a stronghold for me, a refuge in my day of trouble.

¹⁷To you, my strength, I sing praises, because God is my stronghold — my faithful God.

¹One who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.

²A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions.

³When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes, and along with dishonor, derision.

⁴The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.

⁵It is not good to show partiality to the guilty, denying an innocent person justice.

⁶A fool’s lips lead to strife, and his mouth provokes a beating.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his devastation, and his lips are a trap for his life.

⁸A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.

⁹The one who is lazy in his work is brother to a vandal.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected.

¹¹The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; in his imagination it is like a high wall.

¹²Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

¹³The one who gives an answer before he listens — this is foolishness and disgrace for him.

¹⁴A person’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

¹⁵The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it.

¹⁶A person’s gift opens doors for him and brings him before the great.

¹⁷The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

¹⁸Casting the lot ends quarrels and separates powerful opponents.

¹⁹An offended brother is harder to reach than a fortified city, and quarrels are like the bars of a fortress.

²⁰From the fruit of a person’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is filled with the product of his lips.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.

²³The poor person pleads, but the rich one answers roughly.

²⁴One with many friends may be harmed, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

¹Solomon began to build the temple for the LORD in the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month.

²The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was ninety feet long, thirty feet wide, and forty-five feet high.

³The portico in front of the temple sanctuary was thirty feet long extending across the temple’s width, and fifteen feet deep in front of the temple.

⁴He also made windows with beveled frames for the temple.

⁵He then built a chambered structure along the temple wall, encircling the walls of the temple, that is, the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around.

⁶The lowest chamber was 7½ feet wide, the middle was 9 feet wide, and the third was 10½ feet wide. He also provided offset ledges for the temple all around the outside so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

⁷The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

⁸The door for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the temple. They went up a stairway to the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third.

⁹When he finished building the temple, he paneled it with boards and planks of cedar.

¹⁰He built the chambers along the entire temple, joined to the temple with cedar beams; each story was 7½ feet high.

¹¹The word of the LORD came to Solomon:

¹²“As for this temple you are building — if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made to your father David.

¹³I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people Israel.”

¹⁴When Solomon finished building the temple,

¹⁵he paneled the interior temple walls with cedar boards; from the temple floor to the surface of the ceiling he overlaid the interior with wood. He also overlaid the floor with cypress boards.

¹⁶Then he lined thirty feet of the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the surface of the ceiling, and he built the interior as an inner sanctuary, the most holy place.

¹⁷The temple, that is, the sanctuary in front of the most holy place, was sixty feet long.

¹⁸The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with ornamental gourds and flower blossoms. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.

¹⁹He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to put the ark of the LORD’s covenant there.

²⁰The interior of the sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high; he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar.

²¹Next, Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold, and he hung gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold.

²²So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar that belongs to the inner sanctuary.

²³In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim 15 feet high out of olive wood.

²⁴One wing of the first cherub was 7½ feet long, and the other wing was 7½ feet long. The wingspan was 15 feet from tip to tip.

²⁵The second cherub also was 15 feet; both cherubim had the same size and shape.

²⁶The first cherub’s height was 15 feet and so was the second cherub’s.

²⁷Then he put the cherubim inside the inner temple. Since their wings were spread out, the first one’s wing touched one wall while the second cherub’s wing touched the other wall, and in the middle of the temple their wings were touching wing to wing.

²⁸He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹He carved all the surrounding temple walls with carved engravings — cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms — in the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³⁰He overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and the outer sanctuaries.

³¹For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors. The pillars of the doorposts were five-sided.

³²The two doors were made of olive wood. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold, hammering gold over the cherubim and palm trees.

³³In the same way, he made four-sided olive wood doorposts for the sanctuary entrance.

³⁴The two doors were made of cypress wood; the first door had two folding sides, and the second door had two folding panels.

³⁵He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carving.

³⁶He built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.

³⁷The foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid in Solomon’s fourth year in the month of Ziv.

³⁸In his eleventh year in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the temple was completed in every detail and according to every specification. So he built it in seven years.

¹When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God — all these words the LORD their God had sent him to give them —

²then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the other arrogant men responded to Jeremiah, “You are speaking a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to stay there for a while!’

³Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans to put us to death or to deport us to Babylon!”

⁴So Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies, and all the people failed to obey the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah.

⁵Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies led away the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to stay in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been banished.

⁶They led away the men, women, children, king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. They also led the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah away.

⁷They went to the land of Egypt because they did not obey the LORD. They went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes:

⁹“Pick up some large stones and set them in the mortar of the brick pavement that is at the opening of Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes. Do this in the sight of the Judean men

¹⁰and tell them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will place his throne on these stones that I have embedded, and he will pitch his pavilion over them.

¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt  — those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, to captivity; and those destined for the sword, to the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of Egypt’s gods, and he will burn them and take them captive. He will clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks lice off his clothes, and he will leave there unscathed.

¹³He will smash the sacred pillars of the sun temple in the land of Egypt and burn the temples of the Egyptian gods.’”

¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience to this day.”

²The high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next to him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there judging me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law are you ordering me to be struck?”

⁴Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare revile God’s high priest?”

⁵“I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “For it is written, You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”

⁶When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!”

⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all.

⁹The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently: “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

¹²When it was morning, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who had formed this plot.

¹⁴These men went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse that we won’t eat anything until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵So now you, along with the Sanhedrin, make a request to the commander that he bring him down to you as if you were going to investigate his case more thoroughly. But, before he gets near, we are ready to kill him.”

¹⁶But the son of Paul’s sister, hearing about their ambush, came and entered the barracks and reported it to Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander, because he has something to report to him.”

¹⁸So he took him, brought him to the commander, and said, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, led him aside, and inquired privately, “What is it you have to report to me?”

²⁰“The Jews,” he said, “have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as though they are going to hold a somewhat more careful inquiry about him.

²¹Don’t let them persuade you, because there are more than forty of them lying in ambush — men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

²²So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have informed me about this.”

²³He summoned two of his centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready with seventy cavalry and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.

²⁴Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”

²⁵He wrote the following letter:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, To the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷When this man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, I arrived with my troops and rescued him because I learned that he is a Roman citizen.

²⁸Wanting to know the charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down before their Sanhedrin.

²⁹I found out that the accusations were concerning questions of their law, and that there was no charge that merited death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you right away. I also ordered his accusers to state their case against him in your presence.

³¹So the soldiers took Paul during the night and brought him to Antipatris as they were ordered.

³²The next day, they returned to the barracks, allowing the cavalry to go on with him.

³³When these men entered Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

³⁴After he read it, he asked what province he was from. When he learned he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing whenever your accusers also get here.” He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.