who said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back, just as you have seen him depart to heaven."

Then they made their way back to Jerusalem from the hill called 'The Olive-Orchard'; it is close to Jerusalem, only a sabbath day's journey from it.

from the baptism of John down to the day when he was taken up from us ??of these men one must join us as a witness to his resurrection."

and they prayed, "O Lord, who readest the hearts of all, do thou single out from these two men him whom thou hast chosen

when suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a violent blast of wind, which filled the whole house where they were seated.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.

in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the districts of Libya round Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes,

Uplifted then by God's right hand, and receiving from the Father the long-promised holy Spirit, he has poured on us what you now see and hear.)

And with many another appeal he urged and entreated them. "Save yourselves," he cried, "from this crooked generation!"

when a man lame from birth was carried past, who used to be laid every day at what was called the 'Beautiful Gate' of the temple, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.

The man attended, expecting to get something from them.

and you killed the pioneer of Life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can bear witness.

for Moses said, The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me: you must listen to whatever he may tell you.

Any soul that will not listen to this prophet shall be exterminated from the People;

It was for you first that God raised up his Servant, and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

who were annoyed at them teaching the people and proclaiming Jesus as an instance of resurrection from the dead.

you and the people of Israel must all understand that he stands before you strong and well, thanks to the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead.

Ordering them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin, they proceeded to hold a consultation.

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."

Though the people extolled them, not a soul from the outside dared to join them.

Crowds gathered even from the towns round Jerusalem, bringing invalids and people troubled with unclean spirits, all of whom were healed.

So I advise you to-day to leave these men to themselves. Let them alone. If this project or enterprise springs from men, it will collapse;

whereas, if it really springs from God, you will be unable to put them down. You may even find yourselves fighting God!"

This plan commended itself to the whole body, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nikolaos a proselyte from Antioch;

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. From Haran God shifted him, after his father's death, to this land which you now inhabit.

rescuing him from all his troubles and allowing him to find favour for his wisdom with Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him viceroy over Egypt and over all his own household.

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.

He took a cunning method with our race; he oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, to prevent them from surviving.

(This was the Moses who told the sons of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me.')

So God turned from them, abandoning them to the worship of the starry Host ??as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer me victims and sacrifices during the forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

but an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go south, along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza" (the desert-route).

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

Then Philip opened his lips, and starting from this scripture preached the gospel of Jesus to him.

When they came up from the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch lost sight of him. He went on his way rejoicing,

As he neared Damascus in the course of his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed round him;

Saul got up from the ground, but though his eyes were open he could see nothing; so they took his hand and led him to Damascus.

And in this city too he has authority from the high priests to put anyone in chains who invokes thy Name!"

In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized.

When the disciples heard that Peter was at Lydda (for Joppa is not far from Lydda), they sent two men to beg him to "Come on to us without delay."

Next day they were still on the road and not far from the town, when Peter went up to the roof of the house about noon to pray.

So he invited them in and entertained them. Next day he was up and off with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa;

you know how it spread over the whole of Judaea, starting from Galilee after the baptism preached by John ??38 how God consecrated Jesus of Nazaret with the holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and curing all who were harassed by the devil; for God was with him.

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,

"I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me,

At that very moment three men reached the house where I was living, sent to me from Caesarea.

During these days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch,

But an angel of the Lord flashed on him, and a light shone in the cell; striking Peter on the side he woke him, saying, "Quick, get up!" The fetters dropped from his hands,

Then Peter came to his senses and said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were anticipating."

but as soon as she recognized Peter's voice, instead of opening the door she ran inside from sheer joy and announced that Peter was standing in front of the porch.

Herod made inquiries for him but could not find him; so, after cross-examining the guards, he ordered them off to death. He then went down from Judaea to Caesarea, where he spent some time.

After fulfilling their commission, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, bringing with them John who is surnamed Mark.

Sent out thus by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith.

Setting sail from Paphos, Paul and his companions reached Perga in Pamphylia; John left them and went back to Jerusalem,

but they passed on from Perga and arrived at Pisidian Antioch. On the sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down;

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

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.

But God raised him from the dead.

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.

And as a proof that he has raised him from the dead, never to return to decay, he has said this: I will give you the holiness of David that fails not.

and that by him everyone who believes is absolved from all that the law of Moses never could absolve you from.

shouting, "Men, what is this you are doing? We are but human, with natures like your own! The gospel we are preaching to you is to turn from such futile ways to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

though as the bountiful Giver he did not leave himself without a witness, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and joy to your heart's content."

Even by saying this, it was all they could do to keep the crowds from sacrificing to them.

But Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived, who won over the crowds, and after pelting Paul with stones they dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead.

But certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and taught the brothers that "unless you get circumcised after the custom of Moses you cannot be saved."

and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it.

Symeon has explained how it was God's original concern to secure a People from among the Gentiles to bear his Name.

who makes this known from of old.

Hence, in my opinion, we ought not to put fresh difficulties in the way of those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,

but write them injunctions to abstain from whatever is contaminated by idols, from sexual vice, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from tasting blood;

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

The holy Spirit and we have decided not to impose any extra burden on you, apart from these essential requirements:

abstain from food that has been offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual vice. Keep clear of all this and you will prosper. Goodbye."

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;

They crossed Phrygia and the country of Galatia, the holy Spirit having stopped them from preaching the word in Asia;

Setting sail then from Troas we ran straight to Samothrace and on the following day to Neapolis.

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."

All nations he has created from a common origin, to dwell all over the earth, fixing their allotted periods and the boundaries of their abodes,

inasmuch as he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world justly by a man whom he has destined for this. And he has given proof of this to all by raising him from the dead."

So Paul withdrew from them.

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,

By the time Silas and Timotheus came south from Macedonia, Paul was engrossed in this preaching of the word, arguing to the Jews that the messiah was Jesus.

And he drove them from the tribunal.

he said goodbye to them, telling them, "I will come back to you, if it is the will of God." Then, sailing from Ephesus,

for he publicly refuted the Jews with might and main, showing from the scriptures that the messiah was Jesus.

But as some grew stubborn and disobedient, decrying the Way in presence of the multitude, he left them, withdrew the disciples, and continued his argument every day from eleven to four in the lecture-room of Tyrannus.

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.

Now the danger is not only that we will have our trade discredited but that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will fall into contempt and that she will be degraded from her majestic glory, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship."

but when they discovered he was a Jew, a roar broke from them all, and for about two hours they shouted, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus! Great is Artemis of Ephesus!"

The secretary of state then got the mob calmed down, and said to them, "Men of Ephesus, who on earth does not know that the city of Ephesus is Warden of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?

His company as far as Asia consisted of Sopater of Beroea (the son of Pyrrhus), Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timotheus, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.

while we sailed from Philippi, after the days of unleavened bread, and joined them five days later at Troas. There we spent seven days.

In the window sat a young man called Eutychus, and as Paul's address went on and on, he got overcome with drowsiness, went fast asleep, and fell from the third storey. He was picked up a corpse,

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the presbyters of the church.

how I never shrank from letting you know anything for your good, or from teaching you alike in public and from house to house,

But then, I set no value on my own life as compared with the joy of finishing my course and fulfilling the commission I received from the Lord Jesus to attest the gospel of the grace of God.

I never shrank from letting you know the entire purpose of God.

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;