Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up

²and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”

³He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me,

⁴was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”

⁵And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’

⁶But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

⁷So they answered that they did not know where it came from.

⁸And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

⁹And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.

¹⁰When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

¹¹ And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

¹² And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.

¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’

¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’

¹⁵And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

¹⁶ He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

¹⁷But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

¹⁹The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

²⁰So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

²¹So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

²²Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

²³But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them,

²⁴“Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.”

²⁵He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

²⁶And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

²⁷There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,

²⁸and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children.

³⁰And the second

³¹and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.

³²Afterward the woman also died.

³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

³⁴And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,

³⁵but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,

³⁶for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

³⁷But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

³⁸Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

³⁹Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”

⁴⁰For they no longer dared to ask him any question.

⁴¹But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son?

⁴²For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

⁴³until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

⁴⁴David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

⁴⁵And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples,

⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,

⁴⁷ who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

²“Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea.

³For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’

⁴And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.

⁵When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

⁶So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him,

⁷and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

⁸And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

⁹The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

¹⁰When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.

¹¹They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

¹²Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

¹³And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.

¹⁴The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

¹⁵The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

¹⁶Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.

¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

¹⁹Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,

²⁰coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

²²And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

²³The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

²⁴And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,

²⁵clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”

²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

²⁸The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.

²⁹But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

³⁰Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

³¹Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

⁷In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

⁸But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

¹¹Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

¹²Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

¹³bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

¹⁴And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

¹⁸Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

²¹Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

²²Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

²³Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

²⁴knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

²⁵For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

⁵And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

⁶And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

⁷The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

⁸But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

⁹Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

¹¹having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

¹²It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed —

¹³on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

¹⁴And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.

¹⁶The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.

¹⁷He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement.

¹⁸The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.

²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

²⁴By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,

²⁵and its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there.

²⁶They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

¹Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.

²And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

³And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

⁴Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.

⁵But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

⁶And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

⁸And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

⁹Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

¹⁰But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

¹¹Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

¹²And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

¹³And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

¹Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

²Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,

³who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,

⁴shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

⁵They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, “Who can see them?”

⁶They search out injustice, saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.” For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.

⁷But God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.

⁸They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them; all who see them will wag their heads.

⁹Then all mankind fears; they tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done.

¹⁰Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!

¹My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

²making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

³yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

¹²delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;

¹⁹none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD.

²Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.

³Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

⁴So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

⁶Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

⁷And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

⁸And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.

⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

¹⁰The word of the LORD came to Samuel:

¹¹“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.

¹²And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”

¹³And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.”

¹⁴And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”

¹⁵Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

¹⁷And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel.

¹⁸And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’

¹⁹Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?”

²⁰And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

²¹But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

²²And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”

²⁴Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

²⁵Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.”

²⁶And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

²⁷As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.

²⁸And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

²⁹And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

³⁰Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God.”

³¹So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the LORD.

³²Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

³⁴Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

¹Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence —

²as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil — to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

³When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

⁴From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

⁵You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?

⁶We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

⁷There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

⁸But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

⁹Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

¹⁰Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

¹²Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

¹And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

²Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

³But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

⁴Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

⁶And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

⁷For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

⁸So there was much joy in that city.

⁹But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

¹⁰They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”

¹¹And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

¹²But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

¹³Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

¹⁴Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,

¹⁵who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

¹⁶for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

¹⁹saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

²¹You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

²²Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

²³For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

²⁴And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

²⁵Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place.

²⁷And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

²⁸and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

³⁰So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

³³In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

³⁵Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

³⁷

³⁸And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

³⁹And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.