beginning from his baptism by John until the day he ¹  was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness of his resurrection together with us.”

So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab. ¹  (Now they ²  arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.) ³ 

He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ¹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ² 

He also said to me, “It is done! ¹  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water ²  free of charge ³  from the spring of the water of life.

So Philip started speaking, ¹  and beginning with this scripture ²  proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.

you know what happened throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ¹ 

God has made everything fit beautifully ¹  in its appropriate time, but ²  he has also placed ignorance ³  in the human heart ⁴  so that ⁵  people ⁶  cannot discover what God has ordained, ⁷  from the beginning to the end ⁸  of their lives. ⁹ 

Who acts and carries out decrees? ¹  Who ²  summons the successive generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning, and at the very end – I am the one. ³ 

who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand ¹  what has not yet occurred, who says, ‘My plan will be realized, I will accomplish what I desire,’

This is what we proclaim to you: ¹  what was from the beginning, ²  what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life –

I am writing to you, fathers, that ¹  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that ²  you have conquered the evil one. ³ 

The one who practices sin is of the devil, ¹  because the devil has been sinning ²  from the beginning. For this purpose ³  the Son of God was revealed: to destroy ⁴  the works of the devil.

But now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.

(Now this is love: that we walk ¹  according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; thus ²  you should walk in it. ³ 

But when he saw the strong wind he became afraid. And starting to sink, he cried out, ¹  “Lord, save me!”

Now all the Jews know the way I lived ¹  from my youth, spending my life from the beginning among my own people ²  and in Jerusalem. ³ 

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? ¹ 

a land the Lord your God looks after. ¹  He is constantly attentive to it ²  from the beginning to the end of the year. ³ 

I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹  Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?