there was not a synagogue where I did not often punish them and force them to blaspheme; and in my frantic fury I persecuted them even to foreign towns.

Indeed, the King knows about these matters, so I speak before him without constraint. I am sure that there is nothing whatever of what I have been telling him that has escaped his attention; for all this has not been done in a corner.

And, after retiring, discussed the case among themselves. "There is nothing," they said, "deserving death or imprisonment in this man's conduct";

and having embarked in a ship of Adramyttium, we, being about to sail by the coasts of Asia, did set sail, there being with us Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica,

The next day, we arrived at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly allowing him to visit his friends there and to receive any care he needed.

After setting sail from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the wind was against us,

And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein.

"Men, I see that during this voyage there will be hardship and a heavy loss not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives."

And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter; which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the south west and north west.

But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.

and neither sun nor stars appearing for many days, and there being no small tempest on us, finally all hope of saving us was taken away.

And there having been long fasting, then Paul having stood in the midst of them, said, 'It behoved you, indeed, O men -- having hearkened to me -- not to set sail from Crete, and to save this hurt and damage;

And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.

For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

But when the fourteenth day came, while we were going here and there in the Adriatic sea, about the middle of the night the sailors had an idea that they were getting near land;

Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.

There were 276 of us on the ship.

When daylight came they could not recognize the coast, but they saw a bay with a beach and determined to run the ship ashore there if possible.

They got, however, into a kind of channel, and there ran the ship aground. The bows stuck fast and could not be moved, while the stern began breaking up under the strain.

And on the part of the soldiers there was a plan to kill the prisoners, lest any one should swim out and escape.

The people who lived there were unusually kind to us. It had started to rain and was cold, so they started a bonfire and invited us to join them around it.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

When the people who lived there saw the snake hanging from his hand, they told one another, "This man must be a murderer! He may have escaped from the sea, but Justice won't let him live."

The natives were expecting inflammation to set in, or that he would suddenly fall dead; but, after waiting for a long time, and seeing that there was nothing amiss with him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God.

Now near that place there was some land, the property of the chief man of the island, who was named Publius; who very kindly took us into his house as his guests for three days.

At the end of three months we set sail on a ship which had wintered at the island, an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers [Castor and Pollux] as its figurehead.

And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.

After weighing anchor and leaving there, we arrived at Rhegium. The next day, a south wind began to blow, and the following day we got to Puteoli.

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

The brothers there heard about us and came as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and felt encouraged.

And it happened after three days that Paul called together those who were the leading Jews, and when they assembled he said to them, "Brothers, although I had done nothing against the [Jewish] people or the customs of our forefathers, yet I was made a prisoner at Jerusalem, being placed in the custody of the Romans [while there].

Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.

They replied, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor have any of the brothers come from there and reported or said anything bad about you.

We think it only right to let you tell your own story; but as regards this sect, we are well aware that there are objections to it on all hands."

And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

And they went away, for there was a division among them after Paul had said this one thing: Well did the Holy Spirit say by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

Paul lived there two whole years in his own rented quarters and welcomed all who came to him,