M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 3
Expulsion from Eden. 1 Now the snake was the most cunning[a] of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 (A)it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die!(B) 5 God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know[b] good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.(C) 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day,[c] the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.(D) 9 The Lord God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat? 12 The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” 13 The Lord God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate it.”(E)
14 Then the Lord God said to the snake:
Because you have done this,
cursed are you
among all the animals, tame or wild;
On your belly you shall crawl,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.[d](F)
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head,
while you strike at their heel.[e](G)
16 To the woman he said:
I will intensify your toil in childbearing;
in pain[f] you shall bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.
17 To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it,
Cursed is the ground[g] because of you!
In toil you shall eat its yield
all the days of your life.(H)
18 Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you,
and you shall eat the grass of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you shall eat bread,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.(I)
20 The man gave his wife the name “Eve,” because she was the mother of all the living.[h]
21 The Lord God made for the man and his wife garments of skin, with which he clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said: See! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil! Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever?(J) 23 The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. 24 He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.
II. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
Chapter 3
The Preaching of John the Baptist.[a](A) 1 In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea[b] 2 [and] saying, “Repent,[c] for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”(B) 3 [d]It was of him that the prophet Isaiah(C) had spoken when he said:
“A voice of one crying out in the desert,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.’”
4 [e](D)John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him 6 and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.[f]
7 When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees[g] coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?(E) 8 Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.(F) 10 Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 (G)I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.[h] 12 [i](H)His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
The Baptism of Jesus.[j] 13 (I)Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 [k]John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” 15 Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. 16 [l](J)After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. 17 And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son,[m] with whom I am well pleased.”(K)
Chapter 3
Restoration of Worship. 1 (A)Now when the seventh month[a] came, after the Israelites had settled in their cities, the people gathered as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua, son of Jozadak, together with his kinsmen the priests, and Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, together with his kinsmen, began building the altar of the God of Israel in order to offer on it the burnt offerings prescribed in the law of Moses, the man of God. 3 (B)They set the altar on its foundations, for they lived in fear of the peoples of the lands,[b] and offered burnt offerings to the Lord on it, both morning and evening. 4 (C)They also kept the feast of Booths in the manner prescribed, and they offered the daily burnt offerings in the proper number required for each day. 5 Thereafter they offered regular burnt offerings, the sacrifices prescribed for the new moons and all the festivals sacred to the Lord, and those which anyone might bring as a voluntary offering to the Lord.
Laying the Foundations of the Temple. 6 From the first day of the seventh month they reinstituted the burnt offering to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. 7 (D)Then they hired stonecutters and carpenters, and sent food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians that they might ship cedar trees from the Lebanon to the port of Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had authorized. 8 In the year after their coming to the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, son of Jozadak, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and Levites and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem, began by appointing the Levites twenty years of age and over to supervise the work on the house of the Lord. 9 Jeshua and his sons and kinsmen, with Kadmiel and Binnui, son of Hodaviah, and their sons and their kindred, the Levites, together undertook to supervise those who were engaged in the work on the house of God. 10 (E)While the builders were laying the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests in their vestments were stationed with trumpets and the Levites, sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the Lord in the manner laid down by David, king of Israel. 11 (F)They alternated in songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, “for he is good, for his love for Israel endures forever”;[c] and all the people raised a great shout of joy, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. 12 (G)Many of the priests, Levites, and heads of ancestral houses, who were old enough to have seen the former house, cried out in sorrow as they watched the foundation of the present house being laid. Many others, however, lifted up their voices in shouts of joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from the sound of those who were weeping; for the people raised a mighty clamor which was heard far away.
Chapter 3
Cure of a Crippled Beggar. 1 [a]Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer.[b] 2 (A)And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. 4 But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 [c]Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.”(B) 7 Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. 8 He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.(C) 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.
Peter’s Speech. 11 As he clung to Peter and John, all the people hurried in amazement toward them in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”(D) 12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why are you amazed at this, and why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?(E) 13 The God of Abraham, [the God] of Isaac, and [the God] of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified[d] his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence, when he had decided to release him.(F) 14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One[e] and asked that a murderer be released to you.(G) 15 [f]The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.(H) 16 And by faith in his name, this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong, and the faith that comes through it has given him this perfect health, in the presence of all of you. 17 Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance,[g] just as your leaders did;(I) 18 but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets,[h] that his Messiah would suffer.(J) 19 Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,(K) 20 and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus,[i] 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration[j] of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. 22 For Moses said:[k]
‘A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kinsmen;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.(L)
23 Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.’(M)
24 Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days. 25 You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’(N) 26 For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”(O)
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.