1 Now in the local church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Symeon (called Niger) and Lucius the Cyrenian, besides Manaen (a foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.
2 As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and let them go.
4 Sent out thus by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
5 On reaching Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues, with John as their assistant.
6 They covered the whole island as far as Paphos, where they fell in with a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet called Bar-Jesus;
7 he belonged to the suite of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and demanded to hear the word of God.
8 But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith.
9 So Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the holy Spirit, looked steadily at him
10 and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord?
11 See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand.
12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened; he was astounded at the doctrine of the Lord.
13 Setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions reached Perga in Pamphylia; John left them and went back to Jerusalem,
14 but they passed on from Perga and arrived at Pisidian Antioch. On the sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down;
15 and, after the reading of the Law and the prophets, the presidents of the synagogue sent to tell them, "Brothers, if you have any word of counsel for the people, say it."
16 So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, "Listen, men of Israel and you who reverence God.
17 The God of this People Israel chose our fathers; he multiplied the people as they sojourned in the land of Egypt and with arm uplifted led them out of it.
18 For about forty years he bore with them in the desert,
19 and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years.
20 After that he gave them judges, down to the prophet Samuel.
21 Then it was that they begged for a king, and God gave them forty years of Saul, the son of Kish, who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.
22 After deposing him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he bore this testimony that 'In David, the son of Jessai, I have found a man after my own heart, who will obey all my will.'
23 From his offspring God brought to Israel, as he had promised, a saviour in Jesus,
24 before whose coming John had already preached a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel.
25 And as John was closing his career he said, 'What do you take me for? I am not He; no, he is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the sandals on his feet!'
26 Brothers, sons of Abraham's race and all among you who reverence God, the message of this salvation has been sent to us.
27 The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their rulers, by condemning him in their ignorance, fulfilled the words of the prophets which are read every sabbath;
28 though they could find him guilty of no crime that deserved death, they begged Pilate to have him put to death,
29 and, after carrying out all that had been predicted of him in scripture, they lowered him from the gibbet and laid him in a tomb.
30 But God raised him from the dead.
31 For many days he was seen by those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem; they are now his witnesses to the People.
32 So we now preach to you the glad news that the promise made to the fathers
33 has been fulfilled by God for us their children, when he raised Jesus. As it is written in the second psalm, thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father.
34 And as a proof that he has raised him from the dead, never to return to decay, he has said this: I will give you the holiness of David that fails not.
35 Hence in another psalm he says, thou wilt not let thy holy One suffer decay.
36 Of course David, after serving God's purpose in his own generation, died and was laid beside his fathers; he suffered decay,
37 but He whom God raised did not suffer decay.
38 So you must understand, my brothers, that remission of sins is proclaimed to you through him,
39 and that by him everyone who believes is absolved from all that the law of Moses never could absolve you from.
40 Beware then in case the prophetic saying applies to you:
41 Look, you disdainful folk, wonder at this and perish for in your days I do a deed, a deed you will never believe, not though one were to explain it to you."
42 As Paul and Barnabas went out, the people begged to have all this repeated to them on the following sabbath.
43 After the synagogue broke up, a number of the Jews and the devout proselytes followed them; Paul and Barnabas talked to them and encouraged them to hold by the grace of God.
44 And on the next sabbath nearly all the town gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy; they began to contradict what Paul said and to abuse him.
46 So Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "The word of God," they said, "had to be spoken to you in the first instance; but as you push it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, well, here we turn to the Gentiles!
47 For these are the Lord's orders to us: I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the end of the earth."
48 When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life;
49 and the word of the Lord went far and wide over the whole country.
50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high rank and the leading men in the town, who stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their territory.
51 They shook the dust off their feet as a protest and went to Iconium.
52 As for the disciples, they were filled with joy and the holy Spirit.