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
Luke 12:32-40 (11th Saturday of Luke) 1 min 5,735
Luke 12:42-48 (8th Tuesday of Luke) 1 min 4,162
Luke 12:48-59 (8th Wednesday of Luke) 1 min 4,182
Luke 12:8-12 (7th Friday of Luke) 1 min 3,745
Luke 13:1-9 (8th Thursday of Luke) 1 min 5,271
Luke 13:10-17 (10th Sunday of Luke) 1 min 4,960
Luke 13:18-29 (12th Saturday of Luke) 2 mins 5,875
Luke 13:19-29 (Saturday before Nativity) 1 min 4,889
Luke 13:31-35 (8th Friday of Luke) 1 min 4,093
Luke 14:1-11 (13th Saturday of Luke) 1 min 5,570
Luke 14:12-15 (9th Monday of Luke) 1 min 4,339
Luke 14:16-24 (2 Sundays before the Nativity) 1 min 6,636
Luke 14:16-24 (11th Sunday of Luke) 1 min 4,013
Luke 14:25-35 (9th Tuesday of Luke) 1 min 5,372
Luke 15:1-10 (9th Wednesday of Luke) 1 min 5,260
Luke 15:11-32 (3rd Sunday before lent) 3 mins 6,766
Luke 16:1-9 (9th Thursday of Luke) 1 min 5,256
Luke 16:10-15 (14th Saturday of Luke) 1 min 4,443
Luke 16:15-18; 17:1-4 (9th Friday of Luke) 1 min 4,399
Luke 16:19-31 (5th Sunday of Luke) 2 mins 5,811
Luke 17:12-19 (12th Sunday of Luke) 1 min 5,067
Luke 17:20-25 (10th Monday of Luke) 1 min 4,501
Luke 17:26-37; 18:8 (10th Tuesday of Luke) 1 min 4,450
Luke 17:3-10 (15th Saturday of Luke) 1 min 4,537