When they entered the city they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. There were Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

when suddenly there came from the sky a sound like a violent blast of wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Now there were devout Jews from every part of the world living in Jerusalem.

greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and declaring that in the case of Jesus there had been a resurrection from the dead.

There is no salvation through anyone else, for there is no one else in the world who has been named to men as their only means of being saved."

There was but one heart and soul in the multitude who had become believers, and not one of them claimed anything that belonged to him as his own, but they shared everything they had with one another.

Peter said to her, "How could you two agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? There at the door are the footsteps of the men who buried your husband, and they will carry you out also."

So he left the country of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran, and from there after the death of his father, God caused him to move into this country where you now live.

Then a famine spread all over Egypt and Canaan, and there was great suffering, and our forefathers could not find any food.

But Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, and he sent our forefathers on their first visit there.

and Jacob came down to Egypt. There he and our forefathers died,

At those words Moses fled, and went and lived for a time in Midian, and two sons were born to him there.

It was he who brought them out of Egypt, and did wonders and signs there, and at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the desert.

" 'The sky is my throne, And the earth a footstool for my feet. What house can you build for me? says the Lord, Or what place is there where I can rest?

So there was great rejoicing in that city.

There was a man named Simon in the town, who had been amazing the Samaritan people by practicing magic there, and who made great pretensions.

Everyone there, high and low, made much of him, and said, "He must be what is known as the Great Power of God!"

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there.

So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a member of the court of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, her chief treasurer, who had come up to Jerusalem to worship,

As they went on along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Here is some water! What is there to prevent my being baptized?"

and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women there who belonged to the Way, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem.

"But get up and go into the city, and there you will be told what you ought to do."

There was at Damascus a disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias!" And he answered, "Yes, Lord!"

The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called the Straight Street, and ask at the house of Judas for a man named Saul, from Tarsus, for he is there praying.

Ananias set out and went to the house, and there he laid his hands upon Saul, and said to him, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your journey, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit."

There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years.

Among the disciples at Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha, which is in Greek Dorcas, that is, gazelle. She had devoted herself to doing good and to acts of charity.

As Joppa was near Lydda, the disciples heard that Peter was there, and they sent two men to him, urging him to come over without delay.

There was at Caesarea a man named Cornelius, a captain in what was known as the Italian regiment.

and they called out to ask if Simon who was called Peter was staying there.

As Peter was pondering over his vision, the Spirit said to him, "There are two men looking for you.

And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on there a few days.

There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord's hand was with them, and there were a great many who believed and turned to the Lord.

When he reached there and saw the favor God had shown them, he was delighted, and encouraged them all to be resolute and steadfast in their devotion to the Lord,

and one of them named Agabus got up and under the influence of the Spirit revealed the fact that there was going to be a great famine all over the world. This was the famine that occurred in the reign of Claudius.

But when morning came, there was no little commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.

Herod had inquiries made for him, and when he could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he left Judea for Caesarea, and stayed there.

There were at Antioch in the church there a number of prophets and teachers??arnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the governor, and Saul.

Being sent out in this way by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.

They went through the whole island as far as Paphos, and there they came across a Jewish magician and false prophet named Barjesus.

Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

but they went on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue there and took seats.

They spent some time there, speaking fearlessly and relying upon the Lord, who bore witness to his gracious message by letting signs and wonders be done by them.

And when there was a movement on the part of both the heathen and the Jews with the authorities to insult and stone them,

and there they went on preaching the good news.

and from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God's favor for the work which they had now finished.

When they arrived there, they called the church together, and reported how God had worked with them, and how he had opened the way to faith for the heathen.

There they stayed for a long time with the disciples.

He went to Derbe and Lystra also. At Lystra there was a disciple named Timothy whose mother was a Jewish Christian while his father was a Greek,

There Paul had a vision one night; a Macedonian was standing appealing to him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

From there we went to Philippi, a Roman garrison town, and the principal place in that part of Macedonia. In this town we stayed for some days.

On the Sabbath we went outside the gates, to the bank of the river where we supposed there was a praying place, and we sat down and talked with the women who gathered there.

suddenly there was such an earthquake that the jail shook to its foundations; all the doors flew open, and everybody's chains were unfastened.

The brothers sent Paul and Silas away immediately, in the course of the following night, to Berea. On arriving there they went to the Jewish synagogue.

The Jews there were more high-minded than those at Thessalonica, and received the message with great eagerness and studied the Scriptures every day, to find out whether it was true.

But when the Jews at Thessalonica found out that God's message had been delivered at Berea by Paul, they came there too, to excite and stir up the populace.

For all Athenians and all visitors there from abroad used to spend all their time telling or listening to something new.

There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

So he settled there for a year and a half, and taught them God's message.

When they reached Ephesus he left them there. He went to the synagogue there and had a discussion with the Jews.

After spending some time there, he started out again, and traveled systematically through Galatia and Phrygia, reassuring all the disciples.

As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God's favor had become believers,

It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, after passing through the interior, reached Ephesus. Finding some disciples there,

he said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" "No," they said to him, "we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit."

There were about twelve of them in all.

He went to the synagogue there, and for three months spoke confidently, holding discussions and trying to persuade them about the Kingdom of God.

After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."

There is danger, therefore, not only that this business of ours will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be neglected and the magnificence of her whom all Asia and the world worship will be a thing of the past!"

If Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen have a charge to bring against anyone, there are the courts and the governors; let them take legal action.

For we are in danger of being charged with rioting in connection with today's events, though there is really nothing about this commotion that we will not be able to explain."

They went on to Troas and waited for us there,

while we sailed from Philippi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and joined them at Troas five days later. There we stayed a week.

There were a great many lamps in the upstairs room where we met

We had already gone on board the ship and sailed for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there, for that was the arrangement he had made, as he intended to travel there by land.

Sailing from there, we arrived off Chios on the following day. On the next we crossed to Samos, and on the next we reached Miletus.

I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, for the Spirit compels me to go there, though I do not know what will happen to me there,

When the parting was over and we had sailed, we made a straight run to Cos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara.

There we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, and we went on board and sailed on it.

After sighting Cyprus and leaving it on our left, we sailed for Syria, and put in at Tyre, for the ship was to unload her cargo there.

So we looked up the disciples there and stayed a week with them. Instructed by the Spirit, they warned Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem.

But when our time was up, we left there and went on, and all of them with their wives and children escorted us out of the town. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed;

The next day we left there and went on to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the missionary, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

We spent a number of days there, and in the course of them a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

When we heard this, we and the people there all begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by crying and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound at Jerusalem but to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."

When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers there gave us a hearty welcome.

They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law.

Join them, undergo the rites of purification with them, and pay their expenses so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will understand that there is no truth in the stories about you, but that you yourself observe the Law.

as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. In fact, they gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus and I went there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

Then I said, 'What am I to do, sir?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told of all you are destined to do.'

There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the Law, highly respected by all the Jews who lived there,

Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you white-washed wall! Do you sit there to try me by the Law, and order them to strike me in violation of the Law?"

For the Sadducees hold that there is no resurrection and that there are no angels or spirits, while the Pharisees believe in all three.

So there was a great uproar, and some scribes of the Pharisees' party got up and insisted, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose some spirit or angel really spoke to him!"

There were more than forty of them involved in this plot,

and I have the same hope in God that they themselves hold, that there is to be a resurrection of the upright and the wicked.

I had undergone the rites of purification and was occupied with these matters when they found me in the Temple, with no crowd or disturbance at all. But there were some Jews from Asia

Festus answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there soon.

"So have your principal men go down with me," he said, "and present charges against the man, if there is anything wrong with him."