down to the day when, after issuing his orders by the holy Spirit to the disciples whom he had chosen, he was taken up to heaven.

After his sufferings he had shown them that he was alive by a number of proofs, revealing himself to them for forty days and discussing the affairs of God's Realm.

On entering the city they went to the upper room where they were in the habit of meeting; there were Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James (the son of Alphaeus) and Simon who had been a Zealot, with Judas the son of James.

"My brothers," said he, "it had to be fulfilled, that scripture which the holy Spirit uttered beforehand by the lips of David with regard to Judas who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus.

(He was a prophet; he knew God had sworn an oath to him that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne;

The believers all kept together; they shared all they had with one another,

and when they recognized this was the very man who used to sit and beg at the Gate Beautiful, they were lost in awe and amazement at what had happened to him.

But when Peter saw this, he said to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Why do you stare at us, as if we had made him walk by any power or piety of ours?

The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified Jesus his servant, whom you delivered up and repudiated before Pilate. Pilate had decided to release him,

Now I know, brothers, that you acted in ignorance, like your rulers ??18 though this was how God fulfilled what he had announced beforehand by the lips of all the prophets, namely the sufferings of his Christ.

but as they saw the man who had been healed standing beside them, they could say nothing.

However, to keep things from going any further with the people, we had better threaten them that they are not to tell anyone in future about this Name."

Then they threatened them still further and let them go; on account of the people they found themselves unable to find any means of punishing them, for everybody was glorifying God over what had happened

(the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed, being more than forty years old).

On being released they went to their friends and related what the high priests and elders had said;

mustering to carry out what thy hand had traced, thy purpose had decreed.

[Relocated to before vs 34] Now there was but one heart and soul among the multitude of the believers; not one of them considered anything his personal property, they shared all they had with one another.

But a man called Ananias, who with his wife Sapphira had sold some property,

After an interval of about three hours his wife happened to come in, quite unconscious of what had occurred.

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy of suffering dishonour for the sake of the Name;

they were carried across to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

As the time approached for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

When he had completed his fortieth year, it occurred to him to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

He saw one of them being badly treated, so he defended him, struck down the Egyptian, and thus avenged the man who had been wronged.

At that Moses fled; he became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he had two sons born to him.

The Moses they refused, when they said, 'Who made you ruler and umpire?' ??that was the very man whom God sent to rule and to redeem them, by aid of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

They actually made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to this idol, and grew festive over what their own hands had manufactured.

In the desert our fathers had the tent of witness as arranged by Him who told Moses to make it after the pattern he had seen.

For unclean spirits came screaming and shrieking out of many who had been possessed, and many paralytics and lame people were healed.

Now for some time previous a man called Simon had been practising magic arts in the town, to the utter astonishment of the Samaritan nation; he made himself out to be a great person,

They attached themselves to him because he had dazzled them with his skill in magic for a considerable time.

But when they believed Philip, who preached the gospel of the Reign of God and the name of Jesus, they had themselves baptized, both men and women;

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they despatched Peter and John,

(As yet it had not fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)

So he got up and went on his way. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a high official of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians (he was her chief treasurer), who had come to Jerusalem for worship

By humbling himself he had his doom removed. Who can tell his family? For his life is cut off from the earth.

and the Jews, after a number of days had elapsed, conspired to make away with him.

Barnabas, however, got hold of him and brought him to the apostles. To them he related how he had seen the Lord upon the road, how He had spoken to him, and how he had spoken freely in the name of Jesus at Damascus.

There he found a man called Aeneas who had been bed-ridden for eight years with paralysis.

When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his menservants and a religiously minded soldier who belonged to his personal retinue,

Peter was quite at a loss to know the meaning of the vision he had seen; but just then, the messengers of Cornelius, who had made inquiries for the house of Simon, stood at the door

They said, "Cornelius, a captain, a good man who reverences God and enjoys a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to his house and to listen to what you had to say."

and on the next day he reached Caesarea. [vs 24b transposed to follow vs 27] (For Cornelius had been expecting him and had called his kinsfolk and intimate friends together.)

not by all the People but by witnesses whom God had previously selected, by us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead,

Now the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed that the gift of the holy Spirit had actually been poured out on the Gentiles ??46 for they heard them speak with 'tongues' and magnify God. At this Peter asked,

Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is surnamed Peter;

Now those who had been scattered by the trouble which arose over Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they preached the word to none except Jews.

When they had passed the first guard and the second they came to the iron gate leading into the city, which opened to them of its own accord; they passed out, and after they had gone through one street, the angel immediately left him.

When he grasped the situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was surnamed Mark, where a number had met for prayer.

He beckoned to them to keep quiet and then described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Report this to James," he said, "and to the brothers." And off he went to another place.

and in a moment an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not given due glory to God; he was eaten up by worms and so expired.

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened; he was astounded at the doctrine of the Lord.

From his offspring God brought to Israel, as he had promised, a saviour in Jesus,

before whose coming John had already preached a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel.

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.

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.

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!

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;

He heard Paul speaking, and Paul, gazing steadily at him and noticing that he had faith enough to make him better,

Now when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

They chose presbyters for them in every church, and with prayer and fasting entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

thence they sailed for Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

On their arrival they gathered the church together and reported how God had been with them, what he had done, and how he had opened a door into faith for the Gentiles.

On arriving at Jerusalem they were received by the church, the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how God had been with them and what he had done.

So the whole meeting was quieted and listened to Barnabas and Paul recounting the signs and wonders God had performed by them among the Gentiles.

When they had finished speaking, James spoke. "Brothers," he said, "listen to me.

for Moses has had his preachers from the earliest ages in every town, where he is read aloud in the synagogues every sabbath."

Then after some time had passed the brothers let them go with a greeting of peace to those who had sent them.

Paul held they should not take a man with them who had deserted them in Pamphylia, instead of accompanying them on active service.

He had a good reputation among the brothers at Lystra and Iconium;

so, as Paul wished him to go abroad with him, he took and circumcised him on account of the local Jews, all of whom knew his father had been a Greek.

As they travelled on from town to town, they handed over to the people the resolutions which the apostles and the presbyters in Jerusalem had decided were to be obeyed;

As soon as he saw the vision, we made efforts to start for Macedonia, inferring that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

On the sabbath we went outside the gate to the bank of the river, where as usual there was a place of prayer; we sat down and talked to the women who had gathered.

had many lashes inflicted on them and put them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safe.

When the jailer started from his sleep and saw the prison-doors open, he drew his sword and was on the point of killing himself, supposing the prisoners had made their escape;

explaining and quoting passages to prove that the messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that "the Jesus I proclaim to you is the messiah."

There he came across a Jew called Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla, as Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul accosted them,

Paul was just on the point of opening his lips to reply, when Gallio said to the Jews, "If it had been a misdemeanour or wicked crime, there would be some reason in me listening to you,O Jews.

After waiting on for a number of days Paul said goodbye to the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. (As the latter was under a vow, he had his head shaved at Cenchreae.)

He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and he preached and taught about Jesus with ardour and accuracy, though all the baptism he knew was that of John.

As he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to give him a welcome. And on his arrival he proved of great service to those who by God's grace had believed,

When they heard this, they had themselves baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,

people even carried away towels or aprons he had used, and at their touch sick folk were freed from their diseases and evil spirits came out of them.

Some strolling Jewish exorcists also undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

and numbers who had practised magic arts collected their books and burned them in the presence of all. On adding up the value of them, it was found that they were worth two thousand pounds.

Some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority had no idea why they had met.

When the tumult had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them; he then took leave of them and went his way to Macedonia.

Now we had gone on beforehand to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there. This was his own arrangement, for he intended to travel by land.

This was because Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, to avoid any loss of time in Asia; he wanted to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

When we had torn ourselves away from them and set sail, we made a straight run to Cos, next day to Rhodes, and thence to Patara;

and had four unmarried daughters who prophesied). We stayed with him.

and after saluting them Paul described in detail what God had done by means of his ministry among the Gentiles.

Then Paul associated himself with the men next day; he had himself purified along with them and went into the temple to give notice of the time when the days of purification would be completed ??the time, that is to say, when the sacrifice could be offered for each one of them.

(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian along with him in the city, and they supposed Paul had taken him inside the temple.)

By the time he reached the steps, he had actually to be carried by the soldiers on account of the violence of the crowd,

as the high priest and all the council of elders can testify. It was from them that I got letters to the brotherhood at Damascus, and then journeyed thither to bind those who had gathered there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

Then a certain Ananias, a devout man in the Law, who had a good reputation among all the Jewish inhabitants,

Till he said that, they had listened to him. But at that they shouted, "Away with such a creature from the earth! He is not fit to live!"