The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of Him who was speaking to me.

and saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste and at once get out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

So I said, 'Lord, they know for themselves that from one synagogue to another I used to imprison and flog those who believed in you,

They listened to him until he said this, and then all at once they shouted, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He is certainly not fit to live!"

While they were shouting and tossing their clothes about and flinging dust into the air,

the colonel ordered Paul to be brought into the barracks, and told them to examine him by flogging, in order that he might find out why they were crying out against him in such a way.

But when they had tied him for the flogging, Paul asked the captain who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman, and one who is uncondemned at that?"

After day had dawned, the Jews formed a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul.

They went to the high priests and elders and said to them, "We have taken a solemn oath not to taste a morsel till we have killed Paul.

But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him; they have taken an oath not to eat or drink till they have killed him. They are all ready now, just waiting for your promise."

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were on the point of killing him when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

As I wanted to know the exact charge they were making against him, I brought him before their council,

So the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and brought him by night as far as Antipatris.

The next day they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him;

they, on reaching Caesarea, delivered the letter to the governor and turned Paul over to him, too.

Five days later, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a prosecuting attorney, Tertullus, and through him they presented their case against Paul before the governor.

The Jews also joined in the charges and maintained that they were true.

and they have never found me debating with anybody in the temple nor making a disturbance in the synagogues or about the city,

and they cannot prove the charges they have just made against me.

But I certainly admit this as a fact that in accordance with The Way -- that they call heresy -- I continue to worship the God of my forefathers, and I still believe in everything taught in the law and written in the prophets,

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

While I was performing these duties they found me just as I had completed the rites of my purification in the temple; however, there was no crowd with me and no disturbance at all.

But there were some Jews from Asia who ought to be here before you and to present their charges, if they have any, against me.

Or let these men themselves tell what wrong they found in me when I appeared before the council --

and begged the governor as a favor to have Paul come to Jerusalem, because they were plotting an ambush to kill him on the way.

When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and continued to bring a number of serious charges against him, none of which they could prove.

and as they stayed for several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. He said, "There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix,

So they came back here with me, and I made no delay to take my seat on the judge's bench, and ordered the man to be brought in.

But when his accusers appeared before me, they did not charge him with the crimes of which I had been suspecting him.

They merely had a quarrel with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died, but who Paul kept saying was still alive.

for they have known all along from the first, if they would but testify to it, that I as a Pharisee have lived by the standard of the strictest sect of our religion.

That was what I did at Jerusalem; yes, I received authority from the high priests and shut behind the prison bars many of God's people. Yes, when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and often in all the synagogues

and after leaving the room, as they continued to talk the matter over together, they said, "This man has done nothing to deserve death or imprisonment."

When it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they turned over Paul and some other prisoners to a colonel of the imperial regiment, named Julius.

And as the harbor was not fit to winter in, the majority favored the plan to set sail from there and see if they could reach Phoenix and winter there, this being a harbor in Crete facing west-southwest and west-north-west.

When a light breeze from the south began to blow, thinking their purpose was about to be realized, they weighed anchor and coasted along by Crete, hugging the shore,

After hoisting it on board, they used ropes to brace the ship, and since they were afraid of being stranded on the Syrtis quicksands, they lowered the sail and let her drift.

The next day, because we were so violently beaten by the storm, they began to throw the cargo overboard,

and on the next day with their own hands they threw the ship's tackle overboard.

After they had gone a long time without any food, then Paul got up among them and said: "Men, you ought to have listened to me and not to have sailed from Crete, and you would have escaped this disaster and loss.

On taking soundings they found a depth of twenty fathoms; and a little later again taking soundings, they found it was fifteen.

Since they were afraid of our going on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and kept wishing for daylight to come.

Although the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had actually lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to run out anchors from the bow,

Then they all were cheered and took something to eat themselves.

When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.

When day broke, they could not recognize the land, but they spied a bay that had a beach, and determined, if possible, to run the ship ashore.

So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea; at the same time they undid the ropes of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail to the breeze they headed for the beach.

But they struck a shoal and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck and remained unmoved, while the stern began to break to pieces under the beating of the waves.

some on planks and others on various bits of the ship. And thus they all got safely to land.

Now the natives showed us remarkable kindness, for they made us a fire and welcomed us to it because of the downpouring rain and the cold.

When the natives saw the reptile hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "Beyond a doubt this man is a murderer, for though he has been rescued from the sea, justice will not let him live."

The natives kept on looking for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual take place on him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

They also honored us with many presents, and when we set sail, they supplied us with everything that we needed.

There we found some brothers, and they begged us to spend a week with them. In this way we finally reached Rome.

Because the brothers at Rome had heard of our coming, they came as far as Appius' Market and the Three Taverns to meet us, and as soon as Paul caught sight of them, he thanked God and took courage.

Three days later, he invited the leading men of the Jews to come to see him, and when they came, he said to them, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our forefathers; yet at Jerusalem I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner.

They answered him, "We have not received any letters from Judea about you, and not one of our Jewish brothers has come and reported or stated anything wicked about you.

So they set a day for him, and came in large numbers to see him at the place where he was lodging, and from morning till night he continued to explain to them the kingdom of God, at the same time giving them his own testimony and trying from the law of Moses and the prophets to convince them about Jesus.

Because they could not agree among themselves, they started to leave, when Paul had spoken one word more: "The Holy Spirit beautifully expressed it in speaking to your forefathers through the prophet Isaiah:

For this people's soul has grown dull, and they scarcely hear with their ears, and they have shut tight their eyes, so that they may never see with their eyes, and understand with their souls, and turn to me, that I may cure them."'

"So you must understand that this message of God's salvation has been sent to the heathen; and they will listen to it!"

Forever since the creation of the world, His invisible characteristics -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been made intelligible and clearly visible by His works. So they are without excuse,

because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness.

Though claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves,

So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another,

for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper;

because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will;

they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents,

Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves,

for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them,

They are great from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews are entrusted with the utterances of God.

What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin,

They all have turned aside, all have become corrupt; No one does good, not even one!

Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips.

They do not know the way of peace.

"Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up;

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God;

as the Scripture says, "I have made you the father of many nations." That is, the promise is in force in the sight of God in whom he put his faith, the God who can bring the dead to life and can call to Himself the things that do not exist as though they did.

What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death.

For they are Israelites; to them belong the privileges of sonship, God's glorious presence, the special covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, the promises,

nor are they all children of Abraham, because they are his descendants, but the promise was "In the line of Isaac your descendants will I be counted."

For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them,

And in the place where it was said, 'You are no people of mine,' they shall be called sons of the living God."

Why? Because they did not try through faith but through what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble,

Brothers, my heart's good will goes out for them, and my prayer to God is that they may be saved.

For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but they are not intelligently so.

For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing.

For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation.

But how can people call upon One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in One about whom they have not heard? And how can people hear without someone to preach to them?

And how can men preach unless they are sent to do so? As the Scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of men who bring the glad news of His good things!"

However, they have not all given heed to the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has put faith in what we told?"

But may I ask, They had no chance to hear, did they? Yes, indeed: "All over the earth their voices have gone, to the ends of the world their words."

But again I ask, Israel did not understand, did they? For in the first place Moses says: "I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation; I will provoke you to anger at a senseless nation."

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone have been left, and they are trying to kill me."

But if it is by His unmerited favor, it is not at all conditioned on what they have done. If that were so, His favor would not be favor at all.

Let their eyes be darkened, so they cannot see, and forever bend their backs beneath the load."

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall in utter ruin, did they? Of course not! On the contrary, because of their stumbling, salvation has come to heathen peoples, to make the Israelites jealous.

Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent,