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 6428
Acts 8:18-25 (3rd Wednesday after Pascha) 1 min 4262
Acts 8:26-39 (3rd Thursday after Pascha) 2 mins 4507
Acts 8:40-9:19 (3rd Friday after Pascha) 2 mins 4359
Acts 8:5-17 (3rd Tuesday after Pascha) 1 min 4642
Acts 9:10-19 1 min 3126
Acts 9:19-31 (3rd Saturday after Pascha) 2 mins 6082
Acts 9:32-42 (4th Sunday after Pascha) 1 min 5781
Colossians 1:1-3; 7-11 (21th Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 3993
Colossians 1:18-23 (21th Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4269
Colossians 1:24-29 (21 Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4373
Colossians 1:3-6 (31st Saturday after Pentecost) 1 min 4254
Colossians 2:1-7 (21th Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 4287
Colossians 2:13-20 (22nd Monday after Pentecost) 1 min 4476
Colossians 2:20-23; 3:1-3 (22nd Tuesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4545
Colossians 2:8-12 (Circumcision) 1 min 5203
Colossians 3:12-16 (30th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 5216
Colossians 3:17-25; 4:1 (22nd Wednesday after Pentecost) 1 min 4305
Colossians 3:4-11 (2 Sundays before the Nativity) 1 min 6182
Colossians 3:4-11 (29th Sunday after Pentecost) 1 min 4479
Colossians 4:10-18 (22nd Friday after Pentecost) 1 min 4016
Colossians 4:2-9 (22nd Thursday after Pentecost) 1 min 4235
Colossians 4:5-9, 14, 18 (Apostle Luke) 1 min 4035
Colossians 5:1-10 (22nd Saturday after Pentecost) 1 min 2709