Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and the power to heal diseases.

²And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.

³And He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor abag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have twotunics.

⁴And whatever house you enter, stay thereuntil you leave that city.

⁵And as for all who do not receive you, when you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

⁶And as they were leaving, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

⁷Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead,

⁸and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen.

⁹Herod said, “I myself had John beheaded; but who is this man about whom I hear such things?” And he kept trying to see Him.

¹⁰When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. And taking them with Him, He withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida.

¹¹But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and He welcomed them and began speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and curing those who had need of healing.

¹²Now the day was ending, and the twelve came up and said to Him, “Dismiss the crowd, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; because here, we are in a secluded place.”

¹³But He said to them, “You give them something to eat!” But they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.”

¹⁴(For there were about five thousand men.) But He said to His disciples, “Have them recline to eat in groups of about fifty each.”

¹⁵They did so, and had them all recline.

¹⁶And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and, looking up to heaven, He blessed them and broke them, and gave them to the disciples again and again, to serve the crowd.

¹⁷And they all ate and were satisfied; and the broken pieces which they had left over were picked up, twelve baskets full.

¹⁸And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do thepeople say that I am?”

¹⁹They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.”

²⁰And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

²¹But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,

²²saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day.”

²³And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

²⁴For whoever wants to save hislife will lose it, but whoever loses hislife for My sake, this is the one who will save it.

²⁵For what good does it do a person if he gains the whole world, but loses or forfeits himself?

²⁶For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.

²⁷But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

²⁸About eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter, John, and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.

²⁹And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.

³⁰And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah,

³¹who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

³²Now Peter and his companions had been overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who were standing with Him.

³³And as these two men were leaving Him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; and let’s make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not realizing what he was saying.

³⁴But while he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

³⁵And then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

³⁶And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent, and reported to no one in those days any of the things which they had seen.

³⁷On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him.

³⁸And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, because he is my only son,

³⁹and a spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth; and only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves.

⁴⁰And I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.”

⁴¹And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

⁴²Now while he was still approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

⁴³And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. But while everyone was astonished at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples,

⁴⁴“As for you, let these words sink into your ears: for the Son of Man is going to behanded over to men.”

⁴⁵But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not comprehend it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.

⁴⁶Now an argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.

⁴⁷But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts, took a child and had him stand by His side,

⁴⁸and He said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”

⁴⁹John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him, because he does not follow along with us.”

⁵⁰But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for the one who is not against you isfor you.”

⁵¹When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;

⁵²and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

⁵³And they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

⁵⁴When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

⁵⁵But He turned and rebuked them.

⁵⁶And they went on to another village.

⁵⁷As they were going on the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”

⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

⁵⁹And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at my home.”

⁶²But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

¹Now Moses was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²Then the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.

³So Moses said, “I must turn aside and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burning up!”

⁴When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

⁵Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

⁶And He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷And the LORD said, “I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.

⁸So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

⁹And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.

¹⁰And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

¹²And He said, “Assuredly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

¹³Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

¹⁴And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”

¹⁵God furthermore said to Moses, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is the name for all generations to use to call upon Me.

¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.

¹⁷So I said, I will bring you up out of the oppression of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

¹⁸Then they will pay attention to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.

²⁰So I will reach out with My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go.

²¹I will grant this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.

²²But every woman shall ask her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house for articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”

¹And you were dead in your offenses and sins,

²in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

³Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

⁵even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

⁶and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

¹¹Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—

¹²remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace;

¹⁶and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility.

¹⁷And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near;

¹⁸for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone,

²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,

²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

¹I saw another strong angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was on his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire;

²and he had in his hand a little scroll, which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land;

³and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.

⁴When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.”

⁵Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven,

⁶and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there will no longer be a delay,

⁷but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He announced to His servants the prophets.

⁸Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”

⁹And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. And he *said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

¹⁰I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

¹¹And they *said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

¹Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.

²Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

³If the clouds are full, they pour out rain on the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.

⁴One who watches the wind will not sow and one who looks at the clouds will not harvest.

⁵Just as you do not know the path of the wind, and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes everything.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether one or the other will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

⁷The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.

⁸Indeed, if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility.

⁹Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.

¹⁰So remove sorrow from your heart and keep pain away from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.

¹The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.

²God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of mankind To see if there is anyone who understands, Who seeks after God.

³Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

⁴Have the workers of injustice no knowledge, Who eat up My people like they ate bread, And have not called upon God?

⁵They were in great fear there, where no fear had been; For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you; You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.

⁶Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.

¹A good name is to be more desired than great wealth; Favor is better than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor have a common bond, The LORD is the Maker of them all.

³A prudent person sees evil and hides himself, But the naive proceed, and pay the penalty.

⁴The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD Are riches, honor, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; One who guards himself will be far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he grows older he will not abandon it.

⁷The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.

⁸One who sows injustice will reap disaster, And the rod of his fury will perish.

⁹One who is generous will be blessed, Because he gives some of his food to the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the scoffer, and strife will leave, Even quarreling and dishonor will cease.

¹¹One who loves purity of heart And whose speech is gracious, the king is his friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD protect knowledge, But He overthrows the words of the treacherous person.

¹³The lazy one says, “There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!”

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; He who is cursed of the LORD will fall into it.

¹⁵Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

¹⁶One who oppresses the poor to make more for himself, Or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

¹⁷Extend your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your mind to my knowledge;

¹⁸For it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, So that they may be ready on your lips.

¹⁹So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have taught you today, you indeed.

²⁰Have I not written to you excellent things Of counsels and knowledge,

²¹To make you know the certainty of the words of truth, So that you may correctly answer him who sent you?

²²Do not rob the poor because he is poor, Nor crush the needy at the gate;

²³For the LORD will plead their case And take the life of those who rob them.

²⁴Do not make friends with a person given to anger, Or go with a hot-tempered person,

²⁵Or you will learn his ways And find a snare for yourself.

²⁶Do not be among those who shake hands, Among those who become guarantors for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to repay, Why should he take your bed from under you?

²⁸Do not move the ancient boundary Which your fathers have set.

²⁹Do you see a person skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure people.

¹So the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and they camped beside Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped in Aphek.

²Then the Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

³When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s take the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that He may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent men to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of armies who is enthroned above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵And as the ark of the covenant of the LORD was coming into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.

⁶And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.

⁷So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

⁸Woe to us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

⁹Take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; so be men and fight!”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the defeat was very great, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.

¹¹Moreover, the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

¹²Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn, and dust on his head.

¹³When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road keeping watch, because his heart was anxious about the ark of God. And the man came to give a report in the city, and all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the noise of this commotion mean?” Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli.

¹⁵Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were fixed and he could not see.

¹⁶The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today.” And he said, “How are things, my son?”

¹⁷Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are also dead; and the ark of God has been taken.”

¹⁸When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. And so he judged Israel for forty years.

¹⁹Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, because her pains came upon her.

²⁰And about the time of her death the women who were standing by her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention.

²¹And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

²²So she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been taken.”

¹Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

²For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

³He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.

⁴However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated.

⁵But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.

⁶All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?

⁹And His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰But the LORD desired To crush Him, causing Him grief; If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

¹¹As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings.

¹²Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers.

¹Festus, then, after arriving in the province, went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea three days later.

²And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul, and they were pleading with Festus,

³requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way).

⁴Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself was about to leave shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he *said, “have the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, have them bring charges against him.”

⁶After Festus had spent no more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered that Paul be brought.

⁷After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many, and serious, charges against him which they could not prove,

⁸while Paul said in his own defense, “I have not done anything wrong either against the Law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against Caesar.”

⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?”

¹⁰But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

¹¹If, therefore, I am in the wrong and have committed something deserving death, I am not trying to avoid execution; but if there is nothing to the accusations which these men are bringing against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

¹²Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.”

¹³Now when several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea, paying their respects to Festus.

¹⁴And while they were spending many days there, Festus presented Paul’s case to the king, saying, “There is a man who was left as a prisoner by Felix;

¹⁵and when I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.

¹⁶I replied to them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any person before the accused meets his accusers face to face, and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges.

¹⁷So after they had assembled here, I did not delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered that the man be brought.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they did not begin bringing any charges against him of crimes that I suspected,

¹⁹but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive.

²⁰And being at a loss how to investigate such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these matters.

²¹But when Paul appealed to be held in custody for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered that he be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

²²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he *said, “you shall hear him.”

²³So, on the next day when Agrippa and Bernice came amid great pomp and entered the auditorium, accompanied by the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought before them.

²⁴And Festus *said, “King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen present with us, you see this man about whom all the people of the Jews appealed to me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But I found that he had committed nothing deserving death; and since he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶Yet, I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore, I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to indicate the charges against him as well.”