When they had finished speaking, James said:

And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let is go back and visit the brothers in every city in which we have proclaimed the word of the Lord. Let us see how they fare."

Among them was a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, who belonged to the town of Thyatira. She, since she was a worshiper of God, listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart to attend to what Paul said.

She persisted in this for many days, until Paul, worn out, turned round and said to the spirit, "I charge you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her." In that very hour it came out of her.

But Paul said: "They have flogged us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Roman citizens; and have thrown us into prison. Are they now going to get rid of us secretly? No, indeed! Let them come here, themselves and take us out."

A few of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him again and again. Some were saying, "What has this beggarly fellow to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

So Paul stood up in the center of Mars Hill, and said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all respects you are remarkably religious.

"for in him we live and move and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, "'For we also are his offspring.'

But on hearing of the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock; but others said, "We will hear you again on that subject."

But as they opposed him and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, and said: "Your blood be upon your own hands. I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

And the Lord said to Paul in a vision, by night. "Have no fear; go on speaking, and do not keep silent;

"This fellow," they said, "is persuading men to offer unlawful worship to God."

Paul was about to open his mouth, when Gallio said to the Jews. "If it had been some misdemeanor or wicked villainy, it would have been within reason for me to listen to you Jews;

but said, as he took leave of them, "I will return again to you, if God will."

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them. "No" said they, "we did not even hear that there is a Holy Spirit."

"Into what, then, were you baptized?" he asked. And they said, "Into the baptism of John."

Now after these things were ended, Paul resolved in his spirit to travel through Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. "After I get there," he said, "I must see Rome, too."

He gathered them together with others of like occupation, and said: "Men, you know that by this business we make our money.

At length the recorder got them quiet. "Men of Ephesus," he said, "who here does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-guardian of the great Diana and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Then Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and embracing him, said: "Do not lament; his life is still in him."

and when they arrived, he said to them. "You yourselves know quite well, how I lived among you, from the first day that I set foot in Asia,

"In all things I have set you an example, how that so toiling, you ought to help the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

When he had so said, Paul kneeled down, and prayed with them.

and said good-bye, and went on board the ship, while they returned home again.

And they, when they heard it, glorified God, and said to him. "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews, of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.

Just as he was about to be taken into the barracks, Paul said to the tribune, "May I speak to you?"

"Do you know Greek?" said the tribune; "Are you not, then, the Egyptian who in days gone by stirred up to sedition, and let into the wilderness the four thousand cutthroats?"

"I am a Jew," he said, "born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strict manner of the Law of our forefathers, ardent for God, even as you all are this day.

"And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' and the Lord said to me, 'Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about all that you are destined to do.'

"came to me, and standing by me, said to me, "'Brother Saul, receive your sight' "In that very hour I regained my sight and looked up at him.

"Then he said: "'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to know his will; and to see the righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

"'Depart,' he said to me, 'for I will send you forth, far hence, to the Gentiles.'"

But when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing near, "If a man is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned, is it lawful for you to scourge him?"

When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him. "What are you intending to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

So the tribune came to Paul and asked him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

"I paid a large sum to get this citizenship," said the tribune. "But I was citizen-born," said Paul.

With a stedfast gaze at the Sanhedrin, Paul said, "Brothers, I have lived with a good conscience before God to this day."

"Do you rail at God's high priest?" said the bystanders.

When he said this, there arose a quarrel between the Pharisees and Sadducees; the meeting was divided.

And the following night the Lord stood by him and said: "Be of good courage; for as you have borne faithful witness concerning me at Jerusalem, so you must testify at Rome also."

They went to the high priests and elders, and said to them. "We have bound ourselves by a solemn oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

And Paul called one of the centurions, and said, "Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him."

So he took him, and brought his to the tribune, and said, "Paul, the prisoner, called me to him, and begged me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you."

Then he called two centurions to him and said: "Get ready by nine o'clock tonight two hundred infantry to march as far as Caesarea, and also seventy troopers and two hundred spearmen."

After reading the letter, he asked to what province he belonged, and when he understood that he was of Cilicia, he said,

And as he reasoned about morality, self-control, and the future judgment, Felix was terrified, and said, "For the present go on your way, and when I find a convenient season, I will send for you."

"Let those then," he said, "who are in authority among you, go down with me, and if there is anything amiss in the man, let them accuse him."

Paul said in his defense, "I have committed no crime against the Law of the Jews, against the Temple, or against Caesar."

But Festus, wishing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, answered Paul and said, "Will you go up to Jerusalem and be tried there by me upon these charges?"

And while they tarried many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. "There is a man here," he said, "whom Felix left a prisoner.

"I should like to hear the man, myself," said Agrippa to Festus. Festus answered, "You shall hear him tomorrow."

"King Agrippa," said Festus, "and all men who are present with us, you see here the man about whom the entire body of the Jews at Jerusalem, and here also, sent to me, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself." So Paul stretched forth his hand and began to make his defense.

"'Who are you, Lord?' I said." And the Lord said: 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

"But having obtained the help that comes from God, I stand even to this day witnessing both to small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said should come;

"I am not mad, most noble Festus," said Paul,

When they had withdrawn they continued talking to one another. "This man is doing nothing," they said, "for which he deserves death or imprisonment."

And Agrippa said to Festus, "If he had not appealed to Caesar, he might have been set free."

"Sirs," he said to them, "I perceive that the voyage will be attended with injury and serious loss, not only to the cargo and to the ship, but also to our own lives."

When for a long time they had been without food, Paul stood among them and said: "Men, you ought to have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete, and so have spared yourselves this injury and loss.

"for last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me and said:

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, "Unless these men remain on the ship, you cannot be saved."

And while day was dawning, Paul kept urging them all to take some food. "This is the fourteenth day," he said, "that you have been on the watch, fasting, having eaten nothing.

When he had so said and had taken bread, he gave thanks to God before them all, and broke it and began to eat.

But they kept expecting him to swell up or fall down dead suddenly. But after waiting a long time, and seeing no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said over and over that he was a god.

Now three days later he called the leading Jews together, and when they were come together he said to them. "Brothers, I was delivered a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of your fathers.

They said to him. "We neither received any letters about you from Judea nor has any brother come hither to report or speak any harm of you.

Some began to believe what he said, but some were unbelieving.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary I should not have become acquainted with sin had it not been for the Law; for except the Law had repeatedly said, "Thou shalt not lust," I should never have known the sin of lust.

it was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger.

As he also said in Hosea. Those who were not my people I will call "my people," And her "beloved" who was not beloved;

And yet they did not all hearken to the good news; for Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our message?

God did not cast off his people whom he foreknew. For do you not know what is said in the Scripture about Elijah? how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

But what I have just said is by way of concession, not command.

Is it the oxen that God is thinking about, or is it really said for our sakes? It was written for us; because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of getting a share of the crop.

For however many are the promises of God, in him they are "Yes." Therefore also through him let the Amen be said by our voices to the glory of God.

For God who said, "Out of darkness light shall shine," is he who has shone in my heart, that the sunrise of the knowledge of God may shine forth in the face of Christ.

For this reason, as I have said, I do not lose courage, but even though my outward man is wasting away, my inward man is being renewed, day by day.

For he said: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation!

And what compact has God's temple with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, as he has said: I will dwell among them, and walk about among them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

I am not saying this to blame you, for as I have already said, I hold you in my heart to live together and to die together.

I have said formerly, and I now forewarn you as when I was present the second time, so now when I am absent the second time, so now when I am absent, saying to those who had sinned before, and to all the rest, "If I come again, I will not spare,"

I have said it before, and I now repeat it, if any one is preaching a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

only they used to hear it said, "He who was once persecuting us is now preaching the gospel of the very faith which he once tried to ruin."

But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, in the presence of the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all. "If you, although you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you try to compel the Gentiles to become Jews?

Thus it is said, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

For this reason it is said, "Awake, thou sleeper! Arise from the dead; And Christ shall shine upon thee!"

If any man does not give heed to what I have said in this letter, mark that man; do not associate with him, so as to make him feel ashamed;

By one of their own number, by a prophet of their own, it has been said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons."

And further, when he brought the firstborn into the habitable world, he said, Let all the angels of God worship him.

While of the angels he said, He makes his angels into winds, His ministering servants into flames of fire.

To which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand, Till I make thy foes a footstool for thy feet?

For this reason I was sore displeased with that generation, And said, "They are always wandering in their hearts; They have never learned my ways";

We are actually entering into that rest, we who have believed, as God has said,??n my wrath I swore??They shall not enter into my Rest

So even the Christ was not raised to the high glory of the priesthood by himself, but on the contrary by Him who said to him. Thou art my Son; this day have I become thy Father;

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe of which Moses said nothing concerning the priesthood.

For although those priests became such without an oath, He had an oath form God who said to him, The Lord hath sworn and will not change, Thou art a priest forever.

Then I said, "I am come??n the roll of the book it is written of me??o do thy will, O God."

First when it is said, Thou hast no longing for, thou takest no delight in Sacrifices and offerings, or whole burnt offerings and sin offerings,

And the Holy Spirit also gives his testimony, when he said: