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 6:8-15;7:1-5,47-60 (3rd Monday after Pascha) 3 mins 6,436
Acts 8:18-25 (3rd Wednesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,271
Acts 8:26-39 (3rd Thursday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,513
Acts 8:40-9:19 (3rd Friday after Pascha) 2 mins 4,369
Acts 8:5-17 (3rd Tuesday after Pascha) 1 min 4,650
Acts 9:10-19 1 min 3,133
Acts 9:19-31 (3rd Saturday after Pascha) 2 mins 6,089
Acts 9:32-42 (4th Sunday after Pascha) 1 min 5,789
Colossians 1:1-3; 7-11 (21th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,000
Colossians 1:18-23 (21th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,281
Colossians 1:24-29 (21 Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,379
Colossians 1:3-6 (31st Saturday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,262
Colossians 2:1-7 (21th Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,295
Colossians 2:13-20 (22nd Monday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,485
Colossians 2:20-23; 3:1-3 (22nd Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,550
Colossians 2:8-12 (Circumcision) 1 min 5,214
Colossians 3:12-16 (30th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 5,232
Colossians 3:17-25; 4:1 (22nd Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,312
Colossians 3:4-11 (2 Sundays before the Nativity) 1 min 6,189
Colossians 3:4-11 (29th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,485
Colossians 4:10-18 (22nd Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,021
Colossians 4:2-9 (22nd Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4,243
Colossians 4:5-9, 14, 18 (Apostle Luke) 1 min 4,041
Colossians 5:1-10 (22nd Saturday after Pentecost) 1 min 2,713