In those days, as the number of the disciples was growing larger and larger, a complaint was made by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

But among them were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began proclaiming the Lord Jesus even to the Hellenistic Jews.

Every Sabbath, he would speak in the synagogue, trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks.

Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well.

For the one who worked through Peter by making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me by sending me to the gentiles.

For the one who worked through Peter by making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me by sending me to the gentiles.

Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female.

he has now reconciled by the death of his physical body, so that he may present you holy, blameless, and without fault before him.

Now I am rejoicing while suffering for you as I complete in my flesh whatever remains of the Messiah's sufferings on behalf of his body, which is the church.

Always set an example for others by doing good actions. Teach with integrity and dignity.

Paul also went to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish wife whose husband was a Greek.

Paul wanted this man to go with him, so he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who lived in that region, since everyone knew that Timothy's father was a Greek.

Then all of them took Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and began beating him in front of the judge's seat. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor.

from whom the coastal nations spread into their own lands and nations, each with their own language and family groups.

At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch was king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer was king of Elam, and Tidal was king of the Goiim,

Furthermore, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my command."

And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the nations, because the whole earth belongs to me, but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.' These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis."

"If, despite all of this, you still don't listen to me, then I'll punish you seven times more on account of your sins.

"If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I'll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. I'll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate. read more. "If, despite these things, you still won't return to me, but live life contrary to me, then I'll certainly oppose you. I'll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins.

The king of Dor in the Dor heights: 1 The king of various gentiles in Gilgal: 1

so the LORD turned them over to domination by King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commanding officer of his army, lived in Harosheth-haggoyim.

I accused them, "To the best of our ability, we've been buying back our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. Even now you're selling your fellow countrymen, only for them to be sold back to us!" They kept quiet and never spoke a word.

He declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and decrees to Israel. He has not dealt with any other nation like this; they never knew his decrees. Hallelujah!

He has raised up a source of strength for his people, an object of praise for all of his holy ones, that is, for the people of Israel who are near him. Hallelujah!

"It will come about in the last days that the mountain that is the LORD's Temple will be established as the highest of mountains, and will be raised above the hills; all the nations will stream to it. Many groups of people will come, commenting, "Come! Let's go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let's walk in his paths." "Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. read more. He will judge between the nations, and will render verdicts for the benefit of many. "They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations will not raise swords against nations, and they will not learn warfare anymore.

But there will be no gloom for her who was in distress. Formerly, he brought contempt to the region of Zebulun and the region of Naphtali, but in the future he will have made glorious the way of the sea, the territory beyond the Jordan Galilee of the nations.

But as for you, you will be called priests of the LORD, and you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of the nations, and you will boast about their riches.

Now I've given all these lands to my servant, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I've even given him the wild animals to serve him. All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until his country's time also comes, and then many nations and great kings will use him as a slave.

A ruin! A ruin! I'm bringing about ruin!' But this also will not happen until he who has authority over it arrives, because I'll give it to him."

The survivors of Jacob will live among many nations, as dew from the LORD, as showers upon the grass. They will look to no one, and will place no hope in human beings.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be carried off as captives among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the unbelievers until the times of the unbelievers are fulfilled."

In Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

Some of them were persuaded and began to be associated with Paul and Silas, especially a large crowd of devout Greeks and the wives of many prominent men.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well.

There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well,

What advantage, then, does the Jew have, or what value is there in circumcision? There are all kinds of advantages! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the utterances of God.

There is no difference between Jew and Greek, because they all have the same Lord, who gives richly to all who call on him.

And so I ask, "They have not stumbled so as to fall, have they?" Of course not! On the contrary, because of their stumbling, salvation has come to the gentiles to make the Jews jealous. Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their fall means riches for the gentiles, how much more will their full participation mean! read more. I am speaking to you gentiles. Because I am an apostle to the gentiles, I magnify my ministry in the hope that I can make my people jealous and save some of them. For if their rejection results in reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance bring but life from the dead? If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch. If the root is holy, so are the branches. Now if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive branch, have been grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do not boast about being better than the other branches. If you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were cut off so that I could be grafted in." That's right! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you remain only because of faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid! For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly will not spare you, either. Consider, then, the kindness and severity of God: his severity toward those who fell, but God's kindness toward you if you continue receiving his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. If the Jews do not persist in their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, because God is able to graft them in. After all, if you were cut off from what is naturally a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much easier it will be for these natural branches to be grafted back into their own olive tree! For I want to let you know about this secret, brothers, so that you will not claim to be wiser than you are: Stubbornness has come to part of Israel until the full number of the gentiles comes to faith. In this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake, but as far as election is concerned, they are loved for the sake of their ancestors. For God's gifts and calling never change. For just as you disobeyed God in the past but now have received his mercy because of their disobedience, so they, too, have now disobeyed. As a result, they may receive mercy because of the mercy shown to you. For God has locked all people in the prison of their own disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. O how deep are God's riches, and wisdom, and knowledge! How unfathomable are his decisions and unexplainable are his ways! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his advisor? Or who has given him something only to have him pay it back?"

But don't measure the courtyard outside the Temple. Leave that out, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months. I will give my two witnesses who wear sackcloth the authority to prophesy for 1,260 days." read more. These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth. And if anyone should want to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed in this manner. These witnesses have authority to close the heavens in order to keep rain from falling while they are prophesying. They also have authority to turn bodies of water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they desire. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will wage war against them, conquer them, and kill them. Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some members of the nations, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead bodies and will not allow them to be placed in a tomb. Those living on earth will gloat over them, celebrate, and send gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those living on earth. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Those who watched them were terrified. Then the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven calling to them, "Come up here!" So they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second catastrophe is over. The third catastrophe is coming very soon. When the seventh angel blew his trumpet, there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The world's kingdom has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will rule forever and ever."

"When you enter the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't learn the detestable practices of those nations there.

Then you are to affirm and declare in the presence of the LORD your God:

"Sing for joy, nations! Sing for joy, people who belong to him! For he'll avenge the blood of his servants, turn on his adversary, and cleanse both his land and his people."

Nations will come to your light, and kings before your dawn.

The nations will see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and people will call you by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.

The LORD will say to his people, "Look! I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be content with them. I will no longer cause you to be a disgrace among the nations."

because he loves our people and built our synagogue for us."

Then the Jewish leaders asked one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we won't be able to find him? Surely he's not going to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he?

If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation."

Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God.

When they heard this, they calmed down, and praised God by saying, "So God has given repentance that leads to life even to gentiles."

You must understand that this message about God's salvation has been sent to the gentiles, and they will listen."

There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well,

What, then, does this mean? Are we Jews any better off? Not at all! For we have already accused everyone, both Jews and Greeks, of being under the power of sin.

Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female.

For it is he who is our peace. Through his mortality he made both groups one by tearing down the wall of hostility that divided them.