Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

²This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

²¹But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized

²⁴(for John had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness — look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”

²⁷John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

²⁹The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

³²He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

³³Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

¹“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

²When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

³If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone.

⁵But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’

⁶then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

⁷“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

⁸If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.

⁹If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter.

¹⁰If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

¹¹And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

¹²“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.

¹³But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.

¹⁴But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁵“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁶“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.

¹⁷“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁸“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed,

¹⁹then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.

²⁰“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.

²¹But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

²²“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

²³But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,

²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.

²⁷If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

²⁸“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable.

²⁹But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him.

³¹If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule.

³²If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³“When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵“When one man's ox butts another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share.

³⁶Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.

¹Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

²and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

³And this we will do if God permits.

⁴For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,

⁵and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,

⁶and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

⁷For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

⁸But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

⁹Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things — things that belong to salvation.

¹⁰For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

¹¹And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,

¹²so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,

¹⁴saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

¹⁵And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

¹⁶For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

¹⁷So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

¹⁹We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

²⁰where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?

³If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

⁴He is wise in heart and mighty in strength — who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded? —

⁵he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,

⁶who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

⁷who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;

⁸who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;

⁹who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

¹⁰who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.

¹¹Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³“God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

¹⁴How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?

¹⁵Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;

¹⁸he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

²⁰Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

²³When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges — if it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵“My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.

²⁶They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.

²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’

²⁸I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.

³³There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.

³⁵Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

¹In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame!

²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!

³Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.

⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

⁶Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you.

⁷I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.

⁹Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.

¹⁰For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together

¹¹and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.”

¹²O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.

¹⁴But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.

¹⁵My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.

¹⁶With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

¹⁷O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

¹⁸So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

²⁰You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

²¹You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.

²²I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.

²⁴And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.

²She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

³She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,

⁴“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

⁶Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

⁷Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

⁸Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

¹³The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,

¹⁵calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,

¹⁶“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

¹⁸But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

²And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

³And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.”

⁴And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.

⁵Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.

⁶Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.

⁷And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds,

⁸that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day.”

⁹Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub,

¹⁰and he inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

¹¹Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king.

¹²And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.”

¹³And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?”

¹⁴Then Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house?

¹⁵Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.”

¹⁶And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.”

¹⁷And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the LORD.

¹⁸Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.

¹⁹And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.

²⁰But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.

²¹And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD.

²²And David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house.

²³Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”

¹Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.

²Though they say, “As the LORD lives,” yet they swear falsely.

³O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

⁵I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they all alike had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.

⁷“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.

⁸They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the LORD's.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly treacherous to me, declares the LORD.

¹²They have spoken falsely of the LORD and have said, ‘He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.

¹³The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!’”

¹⁴Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: “Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open tomb; they are all mighty warriors.

¹⁷They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword.”

¹⁸“But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah:

²¹“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

²²Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

²³But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

²⁴They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’

²⁵Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you.

²⁶For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

²⁷Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich;

²⁸they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

²⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”

³⁰An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

³¹the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁸known from of old.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

³⁴

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

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

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

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

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

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

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