Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticoes.

³In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed.

⁴

⁵Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

⁶Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, *said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”

⁹Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was a Sabbath on that day.

¹⁰So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is a Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”

¹¹But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’”

¹²They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”

¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

¹⁴Afterward, Jesus *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

¹⁵The man went away, and informed the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on a Sabbath.

¹⁷But He answered them, “My Fatheris working until now, and I Myself am working.”

¹⁸For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whateverthe Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way.

²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.

²²For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,

²³so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁴“Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

²⁵Truly, truly, I say to you, a time is coming and even now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

²⁶For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;

²⁷and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He isthe Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this; fora time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,

²⁹and will come out: those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

³⁰“I can do nothing on My own. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.

³¹“If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.

³²There is another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.

³³You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth.

³⁴But the testimony I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

³⁵He was the lamp that was burning and shining, and you were willing to rejoice fora while in his light.

³⁶But the testimony I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.

³⁷And the Father who sent Me, He has testified about Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.

³⁸Also you do not have His word remaining in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent.

³⁹You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me;

⁴⁰and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

⁴¹I do not receive glory from people;

⁴²but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

⁴³I have come in My Father’s name, and you do notreceive Me; if another comes in his own name, you willreceive him.

⁴⁴How can you believe, when youacceptglory from one another and you do not seek theglory that is from the one and only God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have put your hope.

⁴⁶For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

⁴⁷But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

¹“You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a malicious witness.

²You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice;

³nor shall you show favor to a poor person in his dispute.

⁴“If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him.

⁵If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for its owner; you must arrange the load with him.

⁶“You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

⁷Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.

⁸“You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.

⁹“You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰“Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield,

¹¹but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves.

¹³Now concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.

¹⁴“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.

¹⁵You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. And no one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

¹⁶Also you shall keep the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

¹⁷Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

¹⁸“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning.

¹⁹“You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. “You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

²⁰“Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

²¹Be attentive to him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since My name is in him.

²²But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.

²⁴You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their memorial stones in pieces.

²⁵And you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.

²⁶There will be no one miscarrying or unable to have children in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

²⁸And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you.

²⁹I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you.

³⁰I will drive them out from you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.

³¹I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will drive them out from you.

³²You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

³³They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it is certain to be a snare to you.”

¹Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

²a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, not man.

³For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

⁴Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;

⁵who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “SEE,” He says, “THAT YOU MAKE all things BY THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN TO YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN.”

⁶But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, to the extent that He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

⁷For if that first covenant had been free of fault, no circumstances would have been sought for a second.

⁸For in finding fault with the people, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL BRING ABOUT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH,

⁹NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO BRING THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE ABOUT THEM, SAYS THE LORD.

¹⁰FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT WHICH I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, DECLARES THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

¹¹AND THEY WILL NOT TEACH, EACH ONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EACH ONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’ FOR THEY WILL ALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.

¹²FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TOWARD THEIR WRONGDOINGS, AND THEIR SINS I WILL NO LONGER REMEMBER.”

¹³When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite responded,

²“Shall a multitude of words go unanswered, And a talkative man be acquitted?

³Shall your boasts silence people? And will you scoff, and no one rebuke?

⁴For you have said, ‘My teaching is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’

⁵But if only God would speak, And open His lips against you,

⁶And show you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets part of your guilt.

⁷“Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are as high as the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know?

⁹Its measurement is longer than the earth And broader than the sea.

¹⁰If He passes by or apprehends people, Or calls an assembly, who can restrain Him?

¹¹For He knows false people, And He sees injustice without investigating.

¹²An idiot will become intelligent When a wild donkey is born a human.

¹³“If you would direct your heart rightly And spread out your hands to Him,

¹⁴If wrongdoing is in your hand, put it far away, And do not let malice dwell in your tents;

¹⁵Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral blemish, And you would be firmly established and not fear.

¹⁶For you would forget your trouble; Like waters that have passed by, you would remember it.

¹⁷Your life would be brighter than noonday; Darkness would be like the morning.

¹⁸Then you would trust, because there is hope; And you would look around and rest securely.

¹⁹You would lie down and none would disturb you, And many would flatter you.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail, And there will be no escape for them; And their hope is to breathe their last.”

¹God certainly is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart!

²But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped.

³For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For there are no pains in their death, And their belly is fat.

⁵They are not in trouble like other people, Nor are they tormented together with the rest of mankind.

⁶Therefore arrogance is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them.

⁷Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart overflow.

⁸They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high.

⁹They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore his people return here, And abundant waters are drunk by them.

¹¹They say, “How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?”

¹²Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.

¹³Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence;

¹⁴For I have been stricken all day long, And punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak this way,” Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

¹⁶When I thought of understanding this, It was troublesome in my sight

¹⁷Until I entered the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end.

¹⁸You indeed put them on slippery ground; You dropped them into ruin.

¹⁹How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!

²⁰Like a dream when one awakes, Lord, when stirred, You will despise their image.

²¹When my heart was embittered And I was pierced within,

²²Then I was stupid and ignorant; I was like an animal before You.

²³Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand.

²⁴You will guide me with Your plan, And afterward receive me to glory.

²⁵Whom do I have in heaven but You? And with You, I desire nothing on earth.

²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.

²⁸But as for me, the nearness of God is good for me; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, So that I may tell of all Your works.

¹A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.

²When pride comes, then comes dishonor; But with the humble there is wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the treacherous will destroy them.

⁴Riches do not benefit on the day of wrath, But righteousness rescues from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way, But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright will rescue them, But the treacherous will be caught by their own greed.

⁷When a wicked person dies, his expectation will perish, And the hope of strong people perishes.

⁸The righteous is rescued from trouble, But the wicked takes his place.

⁹With his mouth the godless person destroys his neighbor, But through knowledge the righteous will be rescued.

¹⁰When things go well for the righteous, the city rejoices, And when the wicked perish, there is joyful shouting.

¹¹By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, But by the mouth of the wicked, it is torn down.

¹²One who despises his neighbor lacks sense, But a person of understanding keeps silent.

¹³One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, But one who is trustworthy conceals a matter.

¹⁴Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in an abundance of counselors there is victory.

¹⁵One who is a guarantor for a stranger will certainly suffer for it, But one who hates being a guarantor is secure.

¹⁶A gracious woman attains honor, And ruthless men attain riches.

¹⁷A merciful person does himself good, But the cruel person does himself harm.

¹⁸A wicked person earns deceptive wages, But one who sows righteousness gets a true reward.

¹⁹One who is steadfast in righteousness attains life, But one who pursues evil attains his own death.

²⁰The perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, But the blameless in their walk are His delight.

²¹Be assured, the evil person will not go unpunished, But the descendants of the righteous will be rescued.

²²As a ring of gold in a pig’s snout So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

²³The desire of the righteous is only good, But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.

²⁴There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in poverty.

²⁵A generous person will be prosperous, And one who gives others plenty of water will himself be given plenty.

²⁶One who withholds grain, the people will curse him, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

²⁷One who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But one who seeks evil, evil will come to him.

²⁸One who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.

²⁹One who troubles his own house will inherit wind, And the foolish will be servant to the wise-hearted.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And one who is wise gains souls.

³¹If the righteous will be repaid on the earth, How much more the wicked and the sinner!

¹Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, it was reported to him, saying, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.”

²Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to search for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats.

³And he came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave.

⁴Then David’s men said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to hand your enemy over to you, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” Then David got up and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly.

⁵But it came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe.

⁶So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the LORD that I would do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to reach out with my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed.”

⁷And David rebuked his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul got up, left the cave, and went on his way.

⁸Afterward, however, David got up and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

⁹And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David is seeking to harm you’?

¹⁰Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had handed you over to me today in the cave, and someone said to kill you, but I spared you; and I said, ‘I will not reach out with my hand against my lord, because he is the LORD’S anointed.’

¹¹So, my father, look! Indeed, look at the edge of your robe in my hand! For by the fact that I cut off the edge of your robe but did not kill you, know and understand that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life, to take it.

¹²May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you for me; but my hand shall not be against you.

¹³As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you.

¹⁴After whom has the king of Israel gone out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, a single flea?

¹⁵May the LORD therefore be judge and decide between you and me; and may He see and plead my cause and save me from your hand.”

¹⁶When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Then Saul raised his voice and wept.

¹⁷And he said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt maliciously with you.

¹⁸You have declared today that you have done good to me, that the LORD handed me over to you and yet you did not kill me.

¹⁹Though if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? May the LORD therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day.

²⁰Now, behold, I know that you will certainly be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand.

²¹So now swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not eliminate my name from my father’s household.”

²²And David swore an oath to Saul. Then Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²“Stand at the gate of the LORD’S house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!’ ”

³This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

⁴Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

⁵For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a person and his neighbor,

⁶if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor follow other gods to your own ruin,

⁷then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are saved!’—so that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I Myself have seen it,” declares the LORD.

¹²“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

¹³And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I called you but you did not answer,

¹⁴therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.

¹⁶“As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you.

¹⁷Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger.

¹⁹Are they provoking Me?” declares the LORD. “Is it not themselves instead, to their own shame?”

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.

²²For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

²³But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may go well for you.’

²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they went backward and not forward.

²⁵Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again.

²⁶Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.

²⁷“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

²⁸And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept discipline; trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away, And take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the LORD has rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.’

³⁰For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the LORD. “They have put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.

³²“Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place.

³³The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

³⁴Then I will eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a site of ruins.

¹Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And according to Paul’s custom, he visited them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and they attacked the house of Jason and were seeking to bring them out to the people.

⁶When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;

⁷and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

⁹And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

¹²Therefore, many of them believed, along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then immediately the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

¹⁸And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

²⁰For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

²²So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.

²³For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands;

²⁵nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

²⁶and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

²⁷that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

²⁸for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

²⁹Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.

³⁰So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent,

³¹because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you again concerning this.”

³³So Paul went out from among them.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.