Scripture Readings - New Testament Readings

New Testament Readings

The books of the Bible which contain the revelation of God since the coming of Christ: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the seven General Epistles, the fourteen Epistles of Saint Paul, and the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

The center of the New Testament part of the Bible is the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who are called the four evangelists, which means those who wrote the gospels. Gospel in Greek is ‘evangelion’ which, as we have seen, means the “glad tidings” or the “good news.”

In the New Testament scripture there is also the book of the Acts of the Apostles, written by St. Luke. There are fourteen letters called the epistles (which simply means letters) of the Apostle Paul, though perhaps some, such as the Letter to the Hebrews, were not written directly by him. Three letters are also ascribed to the Apostle John; two to the Apostle Peter; and one each to the Apostles James and Jude. Finally there is the Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, which is ascribed to St. John as well.

For the Orthodox, the Bible is the main written source of divine doctrine since God Himself inspired its writing by His Holy Spirit (see 2 Tim 3:16 and 2 Pet 1:20). This is the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible, namely that men inspired by God wrote the words which are truly their own human words—all words are human!—but which nevertheless may be called all together the Word of God. Thus, the Bible is the Word of God in written form because it contains not merely the thoughts and experiences of men, but the very self-revelation of God.

The center of the Bible as the written Word of God in human form is the person of the Living Word of God in human form, Jesus Christ. All parts of the Bible are interpreted in the Orthodox Church in the light of Christ, since everything in the Bible leads up to Christ and speaks about Him (Lk 24: 44). This fact is symbolized in the Orthodox Church by the fact that only the book of the four gospels is enthroned on the altars of our churches and not the entire Bible. This is so because everything in the Bible is fulfilled in Christ.

Reading Read Time Hit Count
Acts 1:1-12 (Holy Ascension Thursday) 1 min 6,549
Acts 1:1-8 (Sunday of Holy Pascha) 1 min 6,066
Acts 1:12-17, 21-26 (BRIGHT MONDAY) 1 min 4,855
Acts 10:1-16 (4th Monday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,597
Acts 10:21-33 (4th Tuesday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,092
Acts 10:34-43 (4th Thursday after Pascha) 1 min 3,900
Acts 10:44-48;11:1-10 (4th Friday after Pascha) 1 min 4,334
Acts 11:19-26,29-30 (Apostles) 1 min 4,875
Acts 11:19-30 (5th Sunday after Pascha) 1 min 5,678
Acts 12:1-11 (4th Saturday after Pascha) 2 mins 6,017
Acts 12:12-17 (5th Monday after Pascha) 1 min 5,035
Acts 12:25;13.1-12 (5th Tuesday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,331
Acts 13:13-24 (5th Wednesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,444
Acts 13.25-32 (Eve of Theophany) 1 min 9,604
Acts 14:20-27 (5th Thursday after Pascha) 1 min 4,312
Acts 14:6-18 (4th Wednesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,109
Acts 15:35-41 (5th Saturday after Pascha) 1 min 5,497
Acts 15:5-12 (5th Friday after Pascha) 1 min 4,721
Acts 16:16-34 (6th Sunday after Pascha) 2 mins 5,954
Acts 17:1-15 ( 6th Monday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,342
Acts 17:19-28 (6th Tuesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,599
Acts 18:22-28 (6th Wednesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,657
Acts 19:1-8 (6th Friday after Pascha) 1 min 4,414
Acts 19:1-8 (Eve of the Theophany) 1 min 5,201