M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Preamble. The Creation of the World
Chapter 1
The Story of Creation.[a] 1 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth(A)— 2 [b]and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters—(B)
3 Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light.(C) 4 God saw that the light was good. God then separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” Evening came, and morning followed—the first day.[c]
6 Then God said: Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other. 7 God made the dome,[d] and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened.(D) 8 God called the dome “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.
9 Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared.(E) 10 God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water he called “sea.” God saw that it was good. 11 (F)Then God said: Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. And so it happened: 12 the earth brought forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw that it was good. 13 Evening came, and morning followed—the third day.
14 Then God said: Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the seasons, the days and the years,(G) 15 and serve as lights in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth. And so it happened: 16 God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars.(H) 17 God set them in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19 Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day.
20 (I)Then God said: Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky. 21 God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of crawling living creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw that it was good, 22 and God blessed them, saying: Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth.(J) 23 Evening came, and morning followed—the fifth day.
24 (K)Then God said: Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: tame animals, crawling things, and every kind of wild animal. And so it happened: 25 God made every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, and every kind of thing that crawls on the ground. God saw that it was good. 26 (L)Then God said: Let us make[e] human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.
27 God created mankind in his image;
in the image of God he created them;
male and female[f] he created them.
28 God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.[g] Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.(M) 29 [h](N)God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; 30 and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. 31 God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day.(O)
I. The Infancy Narrative
Chapter 1
The Genealogy of Jesus.[a] 1 (A)The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.[b]
2 (B)Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.(C) 3 Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.(D) Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 (E)Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 (F)Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, 6 (G)Jesse the father of David the king.
David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. 7 [c](H)Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. 8 Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos,[d] Amos the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.
12 (I)After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.[e]
The Birth of Jesus.[f] 18 Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,[g] but before they lived together, she was found with child through the holy Spirit. 19 Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,[h] yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. 20 (J)Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord[i] appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. 21 She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,[j] because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
which means “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. 25 He had no relations with her until she bore a son,[l] and he named him Jesus.(L)
I. The Return from Exile
Chapter 1
The Decree of Cyrus. 1 (A)In the first year of Cyrus,[a] king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven,[b] has given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Those among you who belong to any part of his people, may their God be with them! Let them go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build the house of the Lord the God of Israel, that is, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 Let all those who have survived, in whatever place they may have lived, be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, together with voluntary offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.’”
5 Then the heads of ancestral houses[c] of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and Levites—everyone, that is, whose spirit had been stirred up by God—prepared to go up to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. 6 (B)All their neighbors gave them help in every way, with silver, gold, goods, livestock, and many precious gifts, besides all their voluntary offerings. 7 (C)King Cyrus, too, had the vessels of the house of the Lord brought forth that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his god. 8 Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought forth by the treasurer Mithredath, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar, prince of Judah.[d] 9 This was the inventory: baskets of goldware, thirty; baskets of silverware, one thousand and twenty-nine; 10 golden bowls, thirty; silver bowls, four hundred and ten; other vessels, one thousand. 11 Total of the gold and silver vessels: five thousand four hundred.[e] All these Sheshbazzar took with him when the exiles were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
I. The Preparation for the Christian Mission
Chapter 1[a]
The Promise of the Spirit. 1 In the first book,(A) Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught 2 until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.(B) 3 He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days[b] and speaking about the kingdom of God.(C) 4 While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father[c] about which you have heard me speak;(D) 5 for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.”(E)
The Ascension of Jesus. 6 When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going[d] to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 [e]He answered them,(F) “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. 8 [f]But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you,(G) and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.(H) 10 While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.(I) 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”(J) 12 (K)Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.
The First Community in Jerusalem. 13 When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.(L)
The Choice of Judas’s Successor. 15 During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, 16 “My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.(M) 17 He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. 18 (N)He bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out.[g] 19 This became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem, so that the parcel of land was called in their language ‘Akeldama,’ that is, Field of Blood. 20 For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘Let his encampment become desolate,
and may no one dwell in it.’
And:
‘May another take his office.’(O)
21 Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”(P) 23 So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” 26 [h](Q)Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.