Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside.

²Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.

⁴Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

⁵When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him,

⁶“Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”

⁷Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”

⁸But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.

⁹I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!

¹¹And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world — from east and west — and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.

¹²But many Israelites — those for whom the Kingdom was prepared — will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.

¹⁴When Jesus arrived at Peter’s house, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever.

¹⁵But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.

¹⁶That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick.

¹⁷This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, “He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.”

¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.

¹⁹Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

²⁰But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

²¹Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

²²But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead. ”

²³Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples.

²⁴Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.

²⁵The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

²⁶Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

²⁷The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

²⁸When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes, two men who were possessed by demons met him. They came out of the tombs and were so violent that no one could go through that area.

²⁹They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”

³⁰There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance.

³¹So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”

³²“All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

³³The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men.

³⁴Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.

¹But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede.

²The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped.

³So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days,

⁴exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.

⁶After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat

⁷and released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up.

⁸He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground.

⁹But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside.

¹⁰After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again.

¹¹This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone.

¹²He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.

¹³Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began, the floodwaters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.

¹⁴Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry!

¹⁵Then God said to Noah,

¹⁶“Leave the boat, all of you — you and your wife, and your sons and their wives.

¹⁷Release all the animals — the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground — so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.”

¹⁸So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.

¹⁹And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.

²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.

²¹And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.

²²As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

¹So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

²And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

³The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

⁴He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

⁵Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

⁶So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

⁷For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

⁸That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

⁹But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

¹⁰And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.

¹¹The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

¹²Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

¹³For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

¹⁵So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

¹⁶For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

¹⁷And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

¹⁸Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

¹⁹For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

²⁰Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope,

²¹the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

²²For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

²³And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

²⁴We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.

²⁵But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

²⁶And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

²⁷And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

²⁸And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

²⁹For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

³⁰And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

³¹What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

³²Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

³³Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one — for God himself has given us right standing with himself.

³⁴Who then will condemn us? No one — for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

³⁵Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?

³⁶(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” )

³⁷No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

³⁸And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow — not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

³⁹No power in the sky above or in the earth below — indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.

²Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.

³But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

⁴And we are confident in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we commanded you.

⁵May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.

⁶And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us.

⁷For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you.

⁸We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you.

⁹We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow.

¹⁰Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

¹¹Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business.

¹²We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living.

¹³As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

¹⁴Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed.

¹⁵Don’t think of them as enemies, but warn them as you would a brother or sister.

¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING — PAUL. I DO THIS IN ALL MY LETTERS TO PROVE THEY ARE FROM ME.

¹⁸May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job:

²“How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind.

³Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right?

⁴Your children must have sinned against him, so their punishment was well deserved.

⁵But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty,

⁶and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home.

⁷And though you started with little, you will end with much.

⁸“Just ask the previous generation. Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors.

⁹For we were born but yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow.

¹⁰But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you the wisdom of old.

¹¹“Can papyrus reeds grow tall without a marsh? Can marsh grass flourish without water?

¹²While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither more quickly than grass.

¹³The same happens to all who forget God. The hopes of the godless evaporate.

¹⁴Their confidence hangs by a thread. They are leaning on a spider’s web.

¹⁵They cling to their home for security, but it won’t last. They try to hold it tight, but it will not endure.

¹⁶The godless seem like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, its branches spreading across the garden.

¹⁷Its roots grow down through a pile of stones; it takes hold on a bed of rocks.

¹⁸But when it is uprooted, it’s as though it never existed!

¹⁹That’s the end of its life, and others spring up from the earth to replace it.

²⁰“But look, God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will he lend a hand to the wicked.

²¹He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the home of the wicked will be destroyed.”

¹O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.

²You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.

³When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place —

⁴what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?

⁵Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority —

⁷the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals,

⁸the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.

⁹O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

¹Listen as Wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice!

²On the hilltop along the road, she takes her stand at the crossroads.

³By the gates at the entrance to the town, on the road leading in, she cries aloud,

⁴“I call to you, to all of you! I raise my voice to all people.

⁵You simple people, use good judgment. You foolish people, show some understanding.

⁶Listen to me! For I have important things to tell you. Everything I say is right,

⁷for I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception.

⁸My advice is wholesome. There is nothing devious or crooked in it.

⁹My words are plain to anyone with understanding, clear to those with knowledge.

¹⁰Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with it.

¹²“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.

¹³All who fear the LORD will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech.

¹⁴Common sense and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine.

¹⁵Because of me, kings reign, and rulers make just decrees.

¹⁶Rulers lead with my help, and nobles make righteous judgments.

¹⁷“I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me.

¹⁸I have riches and honor, as well as enduring wealth and justice.

¹⁹My gifts are better than gold, even the purest gold, my wages better than sterling silver!

²⁰I walk in righteousness, in paths of justice.

²¹Those who love me inherit wealth. I will fill their treasuries.

²²“The LORD formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else.

²³I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began.

²⁴I was born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their waters.

²⁵Before the mountains were formed, before the hills, I was born —

²⁶before he had made the earth and fields and the first handfuls of soil.

²⁷I was there when he established the heavens, when he drew the horizon on the oceans.

²⁸I was there when he set the clouds above, when he established springs deep in the earth.

²⁹I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries. And when he marked off the earth’s foundations,

³⁰I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence.

³¹And how happy I was with the world he created; how I rejoiced with the human family!

³²“And so, my children, listen to me, for all who follow my ways are joyful.

³³Listen to my instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it.

³⁴Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!

³⁵For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD.

³⁶But those who miss me injure themselves. All who hate me love death.”

¹Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land.

²You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”

³So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night

⁴with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action.

⁵When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them.

⁶We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them,

⁷you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the LORD your God will give it to you.

⁸Set the town on fire, as the LORD has commanded. You have your orders.”

⁹So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.

¹⁰Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel.

¹¹All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.

¹²That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.

¹³So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town.

¹⁵Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.

¹⁶Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.

¹⁷There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.

¹⁸Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded.

¹⁹As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.

²²Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped.

²³Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

²⁴When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.

²⁵So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day — 12,000 in all.

²⁶For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

²⁷Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burned the town of Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.

²⁹Joshua impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body, as Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen today.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.

³¹He followed the commands that Moses the LORD’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.” Then on the altar they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD.

³²And as the Israelites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the instructions Moses had given them.

³³Then all the Israelites — foreigners and native-born alike — along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the LORD, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel.

³⁴Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction.

³⁵Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. ”

²I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.

³Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”

⁵Then the LORD spoke to me again and said,

⁶“My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah.

⁷Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels

⁸and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel.

⁹“Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified. Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, but you will be crushed! Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed!

¹⁰Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless. Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed. For God is with us! ”

¹¹The LORD has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,

¹²“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.

¹³Make the LORD of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble.

¹⁴He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

¹⁵Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared and captured.”

¹⁶Preserve the teaching of God; entrust his instructions to those who follow me.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD, who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my hope in him.

¹⁸I and the children the LORD has given me serve as signs and warnings to Israel from the LORD of Heaven’s Armies who dwells in his Temple on Mount Zion.

¹⁹Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

²⁰Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.

²¹They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven

²²and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

¹Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. Persecution Scatters the Believers A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

²(Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.)

³But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

⁴But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.

⁵Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah.

⁶Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did.

⁷Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed.

⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great.

¹⁰Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One — the Power of God.”

¹¹They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

¹²But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.

¹³Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there.

¹⁵As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power.

¹⁹“Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”

²⁰But Peter replied, “May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought!

²¹You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.

²²Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts,

²³for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.”

²⁴“Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things you’ve said won’t happen to me!”

²⁵After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News.

²⁶As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

²⁷So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

²⁸and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

³⁰Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

³²The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

³³He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”

³⁵So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

³⁶As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”

³⁷

³⁸He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.