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
Matthew 10:9-15 (3rd Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 5,096
Matthew 11:16-20 (4th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,661
Matthew 11:2-15 (Forerunner) 1 min 5,188
Matthew 11:20-26 (4th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,752
Matthew 11:27-30 (Saint) 1 min 7,140
Matthew 12:1-8 (4th Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,660
Matthew 12:14-16, 22-30 (5th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,537
Matthew 12:15-21 (Saturday after Nativity) 1 min 5,332
Matthew 12:30-37 (8th Saturday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,474
Matthew 12:38-45 (5th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,575
Matthew 12:46-13:3 (5th Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,443
Matthew 12:9-13 (5th Monday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,175
Matthew 13:10-23 (6th Monday after Pentecost) 2 mins 4,250
Matthew 13:24-30 (6th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,912
Matthew 13:31-36 (6th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 5,228
Matthew 13:36-43 (6th Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,143
Matthew 13:4-9 (5th Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 5,618
Matthew 13:44-54 (6th Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 6,023
Matthew 13:54-58 (Apostle) 1 min 4,907
Matthew 14:1-13 (7th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,133
Matthew 14:14-22 (8th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,654
Matthew 14:22-34 (9th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 5,051
Matthew 14:35-15:11 (7th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,706
Matthew 15:12-21 (7th Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 3,573