Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.

³In these lay many invalids — blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁴

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

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

⁹At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.

¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”

¹¹But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”

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

¹³Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”

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

¹⁶Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”

¹⁸For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

¹⁹Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

²⁰The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.

²¹Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.

²²The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,

²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

²⁵“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, 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 has granted the Son also to have life in himself;

²⁷and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

²⁹and will come out — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

³²There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true.

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

³⁴Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

³⁵He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

³⁶But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.

³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form,

³⁸and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

³⁹“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.

⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings.

⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you.

⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.

⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

¹You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness.

²You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice;

³nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.

⁴When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.

⁵When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.

⁶You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.

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

⁸You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

⁹You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield;

¹¹but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

¹²Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.

¹³Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

¹⁴Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me.

¹⁵You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

¹⁶You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.

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

¹⁸You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning.

¹⁹The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²⁰I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

²¹Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him.

²²But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

²³When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,

²⁴you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.

²⁵You shall worship the LORD your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you.

²⁶No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷I will send my terror in front of you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

²⁸And I will send the pestilence in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.

²⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you.

³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.

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

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

³³They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me; for if you worship their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

¹Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

²a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up.

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

⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

⁵They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent, was warned, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

⁶But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises.

⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

⁸God finds fault with them when he says: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

⁹not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.

¹⁰This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

¹¹And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

¹²For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

²“Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and should one full of talk be vindicated?

³Should your babble put others to silence, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?

⁴For you say, ‘My conduct is pure, and I am clean in God’s sight.’

⁵But O that God would speak, and open his lips to you,

⁶and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For wisdom is many-sided. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.

⁷“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

⁸It is higher than heaven — what can you do? Deeper than Sheol — what can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes through, and imprisons, and assembles for judgment, who can hinder him?

¹¹For he knows those who are worthless; when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it?

¹²But a stupid person will get understanding, when a wild ass is born human.

¹³“If you direct your heart rightly, you will stretch out your hands toward him.

¹⁴If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let wickedness reside in your tents.

¹⁵Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure, and will not fear.

¹⁶You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.

¹⁷And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.

¹⁸And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in safety.

¹⁹You will lie down, and no one will make you afraid; many will entreat your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail; all way of escape will be lost to them, and their hope is to breathe their last.”

¹Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.

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

⁴For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.

⁵They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.

⁶Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.

⁷Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.

⁸They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.

⁹They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.

¹⁰Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.

¹¹And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

¹²Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

¹⁴For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,” I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.

¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,

¹⁷until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.

¹⁸Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.

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

²⁰They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.

²¹When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,

²²I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.

²³Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.

²⁴You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.

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

²⁷Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you.

²⁸But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, to tell of all your works.

¹A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is his delight.

²When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble.

³The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

⁴Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless keeps their ways straight, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright saves them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their schemes.

⁷When the wicked die, their hope perishes, and the expectation of the godless comes to nothing.

⁸The righteous are delivered from trouble, and the wicked get into it instead.

⁹With their mouths the godless would destroy their neighbors, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.

¹⁰When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.

¹¹By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Whoever belittles another lacks sense, but an intelligent person remains silent.

¹³A gossip goes about telling secrets, but one who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a confidence.

¹⁴Where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

¹⁵To guarantee loans for a stranger brings trouble, but there is safety in refusing to do so.

¹⁶A gracious woman gets honor, but she who hates virtue is covered with shame. The timid become destitute, but the aggressive gain riches.

¹⁷Those who are kind reward themselves, but the cruel do themselves harm.

¹⁸The wicked earn no real gain, but those who sow righteousness get a true reward.

¹⁹Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but whoever pursues evil will die.

²⁰Crooked minds are an abomination to the LORD, but those of blameless ways are his delight.

²¹Be assured, the wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will escape.

²²Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without good sense.

²³The desire of the righteous ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked in wrath.

²⁴Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and only suffer want.

²⁵A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.

²⁶The people curse those who hold back grain, but a blessing is on the head of those who sell it.

²⁷Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to the one who searches for it.

²⁸Those who trust in their riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.

²⁹Those who trouble their households will inherit wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but violence takes lives away.

³¹If the righteous are repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!

¹When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.”

²Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

³He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.

⁴The men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’” Then David went and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.

⁵Afterward David was stricken to the heart because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak.

⁶He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the LORD’s anointed.”

⁷So David scolded his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave, and went on his way.

⁸Afterwards David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.

⁹David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm’?

¹⁰This very day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s anointed.’

¹¹See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak, and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life.

¹²May the LORD judge between me and you! May the LORD avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you.

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

¹⁴Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A single flea?

¹⁵May the LORD therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it, and plead my cause, and vindicate me against you.”

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

¹⁷He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.

¹⁸Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the LORD put me into your hands.

¹⁹For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

²⁰Now I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

²¹Swear to me therefore by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not wipe out my name from my father’s house.”

²²So David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home; but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD.

³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.

⁴Do not trust in these deceptive words: “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 doings, if you truly act justly one with another,

⁶if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,

⁷then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

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

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!” — only to go on doing all these abominations?

¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.

¹²Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,

¹⁴therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.

¹⁶As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

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

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

¹⁹Is it I whom they provoke? says the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own hurt?

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

²¹Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.

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

²³But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”

²⁴Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward.

²⁵From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day;

²⁶yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

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

²⁸You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away; raise a lamentation on the bare heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation that provoked his wrath.

³⁰For the people of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name, defiling it.

³¹And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire — which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

³²Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth until there is no more room.

³³The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

³⁴And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste.

¹After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”

⁴Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house.

⁶When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.”

⁸The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this,

⁹and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds.

¹⁴Then the believers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.

²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³At that point Paul left them.

³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.