M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The death of Judas
27 When dawn broke, all the chief priests and elders of the people held a council meeting about Jesus, in order to have him put to death. 2 They tied him up, took him off, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
3 Meanwhile Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, and was filled with remorse. He took the thirty pieces of silver back to the high priests and elders.
4 “I’ve sinned!” he said. “I betrayed an innocent man, and now I’ve got his blood on my hands!”
“See if we care!” they replied. “Deal with it yourself.”
5 And he threw down the money in the Temple, and left, and went and hanged himself.
6 “Well now,” said the chief priests, picking up the money. “According to the law, we can’t put it into the Temple treasury. It’s the price of someone’s blood.”
7 So they had a discussion, and used it to buy the Potter’s Field, as a burial place for foreigners. 8 (That’s why that field is called Blood Field, to this day.) 9 Then the word that was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet came true:
They took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of the one who was valued,
valued by the children of Israel;
10 and they gave them for the potter’s field,
as the Lord instructed me.
Jesus and Barabbas before Pilate
11 So Jesus stood in front of the governor.
“Are you the King of the Jews?” the governor asked him.
“If you say so,” replied Jesus.
12 The chief priests and elders poured out their accusations against him, but he made no answer.
13 Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear all this evidence they’re bringing against you?”
14 He gave him no answer, not even a word, which quite astonished the governor.
15 Now the governor had a custom. At festival time he used to release one prisoner for the crowd, whoever they chose. 16 Just then they had a famous prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the people were all gathered there, Pilate said to them, “Who do you want me to release for you? Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus the so-called Messiah?” 18 (He knew that they’d handed him over out of sheer envy.)
19 While he was presiding in the court, his wife sent a message to him.
“Don’t have anything to do with that man,” she said. “He’s innocent! I’ve had a really bad time today in a dream, all because of him.”
20 The high priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and to have Jesus killed. 21 So when the governor came back to them again, and asked, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” they said, “Barabbas!”
22 “So what shall I do with Jesus the so-called Messiah?” asked Pilate.
“Let him be crucified!” they all said.
23 “Why?” asked Pilate. “What’s he done wrong?”
But they shouted all the louder, “Let him be crucified!”
24 Pilate saw that it was no good. In fact, there was a riot brewing. So he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd.
“I’m not guilty of this man’s blood,” he said. “It’s your problem.”
25 “Let his blood be on us!” answered all the people. “And on our children!”
26 Then Pilate released Barabbas for them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Jesus mocked and crucified
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the barracks, and gathered the whole regiment together. 28 They took off his clothes and dressed him up in a scarlet military cloak. 29 They wove a crown out of thorns and stuck it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. Then they knelt down in front of him.
“Greetings, King of the Jews!” they said, making fun of him.
30 They spat on him. Then they took the reed and beat him about the head. 31 When they had finished mocking him, they took off the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes again, and led him off to crucify him.
32 As they were going out they found a man from Cyrene, called Simon. They forced him to carry his cross.
33 When they came to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place, 34 they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitter herbs. When he tasted it, he refused to drink it.
35 So then they crucified him. They divided up his clothes by casting lots, 36 and they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And they placed the written charge above his head: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
38 Then they crucified two brigands alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.
Jesus mocked on the cross
39 The people who were going by shouted blasphemies at Jesus. They shook their heads at him.
40 “So!” they said. “You were going to destroy the Temple and build it in three days, were you? Save yourself, if you’re God’s son! Come down from the cross!”
41 The chief priests, too, and the scribes and the elders, mocked him.
42 “He rescued others,” they said, “but he can’t rescue himself! All right, so he’s the King of Israel!—well, let him come down from the cross right now, and then we’ll really believe that he is! 43 He trusted in God; let God deliver him now, if he’s so keen on him—after all, he did say he was God’s son!”
44 The brigands who were crucified alongside him heaped insults on him as well.
The death of God’s son
45 From noon until mid-afternoon there was darkness over the whole land. 46 About the middle of the afternoon Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani!”—which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”
47 Some of the people who were standing there heard it and said, “This fellow’s calling Elijah!”
48 One of them ran at once and got a sponge. He filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.
49 The others said, “Wait a bit. Let’s see if Elijah is going to come and rescue him!”
50 But Jesus shouted out loudly one more time, and then breathed his last gasp.
51 At that instant the Temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks were split, 52 and the tombs burst open. Many bodies of the sleeping holy ones were raised. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection, and went into the holy city, where they appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and the others with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they were scared out of their wits.
“He really was God’s son!” they said.
55 There were several women there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee, helping to look after his needs. 56 They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The burial of Jesus
57 When evening came, a rich man from Arimathea arrived. He was called Joseph, and he, too, was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. Pilate gave the order that it should be given to him.
59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. 60 He laid it in his own new tomb, which he had carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the doorway of the tomb, and went away.
61 Mary Magdalene was there, and so was the other Mary. They were sitting opposite the tomb.
62 On the next day (that is, the day after Preparation Day), the chief priests and the Pharisees went as a group to Pilate.
63 “Sir,” they said, “when that deceiver was still alive, we recall that he said, ‘After three days, I’ll rise again.’ 64 So please give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples might come and steal him away, and then tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead!’ and so the last deception would be worse than the first.”
65 “You can have a guard,” said Pilate; “go and make it as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and putting a guard on watch.
All at sea
27 When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul over, along with some other prisoners, to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Cohort. 2 They got into a ship from Adramyttium, which was intending to sail to various places along the coast of Asia. So off we set. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, came too.
3 Next day we put in at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul, and allowed him to go to his friends to be cared for. 4 When we left Sidon, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us, 5 and then crossed the sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, arriving at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found a ship going from Alexandria to Italy, and we got on board.
7 After a few days we were making very heavy weather of it, and only got to the shore at Cnidus. Since the wind was not helping us, we sailed under the lee of Crete, off the coast from Salmone. 8 Getting past that point with some difficulty, we came to a place called “Fair Havens,” not far from the town of Lasea.
9 Quite a bit of time had now elapsed, and sailing was becoming dangerous. The Fast had already come and gone. Paul gave his advice.
10 “Men,” he said, “I can see we’re going to have trouble on this voyage. It’s going to be dangerous. We may well sustain heavy losses both to the cargo and to the ship, not to mention to human life.”
11 But the centurion put his faith in the helmsman and the ship-owner rather than in what Paul had said. 12 Unfortunately, the harbor was not suitable for wintering, so most people were in favor of going on from there to see if they could get to Phoenix, a Cretan harbor which faces both south-west and north-west. They would then be able to spend the winter there.
The storm and the angel
13 Well, a moderate southerly breeze sprang up, and they thought they had the result they wanted. So they lifted the anchor and sailed along, hugging the shore of Crete. 14 But before long a great typhoon—they call it “Eurakylon,” the Northeaster—swept down from Crete, 15 and the ship was caught up by it. Since the ship couldn’t turn and face into the wind, it had to give way and we were carried along.
16 When we came in behind an island called Cauda, we were just able to get the ship’s boat under control. 17 They pulled it up, and did what was necessary to undergird the ship. Then, because they were afraid that we would crash into the Syrtis sandbanks, they lowered the sea-anchor and allowed the ship to be driven along. 18 The storm was so severe that on the next day they began to throw cargo overboard, 19 and on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard as well, with their own hands. 20 We then went for a good many days without seeing either the sun or the stars, with a major storm raging. All hope of safety was finally abandoned.
21 We had gone without food a long time. Then Paul stood up in the middle of them all.
“It does seem to me, my good people,” he said, “that you should have taken my advice not to leave Crete. We could have managed without this damage and loss. 22 But now I want to tell you: take heart! No lives will be lost—only the ship. 23 This last night, you see, an angel of the God to whom I belong, and whom I worship, stood beside me. 24 ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul,’ he said. ‘You must appear before Caesar, and let me tell you this: God has granted you all your traveling companions.’ 25 So take heart, my friends. I believe God, that it will be as he said to me. 26 We must, however, be cast up on some island or other.”
27 On the fourteenth night we were being carried across the sea of Adria when, around the middle of the night, the sailors reckoned that we were getting near some land. 28 They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; then, a little bit further, they took soundings again and found fifteen fathoms. 29 They were afraid that we might crash into a rocky place, so they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. 30 The sailors wanted to escape from the ship, and let down the boat into the sea under the pretense of going to put out anchors from the bow. 31 But Paul spoke to the centurion and the soldiers.
“If these men don’t stay in the ship,” he said, “there is no chance of safety.”
32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes of the boat, and let it fall away.
Shipwreck
33 When it was nearly daytime, Paul urged all of them to eat something.
“It’s now all of fourteen days,” he said, “that you’ve been hanging on without food, not eating a thing. 34 So let me encourage you to have something to eat. This will help you get rescued. No hair of any of your heads will be lost.”
35 So saying, he took some bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke the bread and ate it. 36 Then all of them cheered up and took some food. 37 The whole company on board was two hundred and seventy-six. 38 When we had eaten enough food, they threw the grain overboard to lighten the ship.
39 When day came, they didn’t recognize the land. It appeared to have a bay with a sandy shore, and that was where they hoped, if possible, to beach the ship. 40 They let the anchors drop away into the sea, and at the same time slackened the ropes on the rudders, hoisted the foresail, and headed for the beach. 41 But they crashed into a reef and ran the ship aground. The prow stuck fast and wouldn’t budge, while the strong waves were smashing the stern to bits. 42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none of them would swim away and escape. 43 But the centurion wanted to rescue Paul, and refused permission for them to carry out their intention. Instead, he ordered all who were able to swim to leap overboard first and head for land, 44 while the rest were to come after, some on boards and some on bits and pieces of the ship. And so everyone ended up safely on land.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.