When that sound came, a crowd quickly gathered, startled because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language.

Cretans, and Arabs, listening to them talk in our own languages about the great deeds of God?"

The sun will become dark, and the moon turn to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.

When the crowd that had gathered heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"

With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was on them all,

When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized everyone who heard about it.

And great fear seized the whole church and everyone else who heard about this.

Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

"But a famine spread throughout Egypt and Canaan, and with it great suffering, and our ancestors couldn't find any food.

"Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people's population increased a great deal in Egypt.

So Moses learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man, both in words and in deeds.

As a result, there was great rejoicing in that city.

Now in that city there was a man named Simon. He was practicing occult arts and thrilling the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.

Everyone from the least to the greatest paid close attention to him, saying, "This is what we call the great power of God!"

Even Simon believed, and after he was baptized he became devoted to Philip. He was amazed to see the signs and great miracles that were happening.

So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, who was a member of the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasures and had come up to Jerusalem to worship.

When he arrested Peter, Herod put him in prison and turned him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, planning to bring him out to the people after Passover season.

They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened by itself for them, and they went outside and proceeded one block when the angel suddenly left him.

When morning came, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

"Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen! The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made them a great people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with a public display of power he led them out of there.

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.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting,

They were sent on their way by the church, and as they were going through Phoenicia and Samaria they told of the conversion of the gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers.

The whole crowd was silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul tell about all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the gentiles.

Once, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling and who had brought her owners a great deal of money by predicting the future.

The crowd joined in the attack against them. Then the magistrates had Paul and Silas stripped of their clothes and ordered them beaten with rods.

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.

The crowd and the city officials were upset when they heard this,

Now about that time a great commotion broke out concerning the Way.

You also see and hear that, not only in Ephesus, but almost all over Asia, this man Paul has won over and taken away a large crowd by telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all.

There is a danger not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into disrepute and that she will be robbed of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her."

When they heard this, they became furious and began to shout, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

Paul wanted to go into the crowd, but the disciples wouldn't let him.

Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing and some another, since the crowd was confused, and most of them didn't know why they were meeting.

Some of the crowd concluded it was because of Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front. So Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people.

But when they found out that he was a Jew, they all started to shout in unison for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

When the city recorder had quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world doesn't know that this city of Ephesus is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell down from heaven?

When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the Temple, stirred up a large crowd. They grabbed Paul,

The crowd was trying to kill Paul when a report reached the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

Immediately the tribune took some soldiers and officers and ran down to the crowd. When the people saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

Some of the crowd shouted this and some that. Since the tribune couldn't learn the facts due to the confusion, he ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks.

The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, "Kill him!"

There was a great deal of shouting until some of the scribes who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and argued forcefully, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

This man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I went with the guard and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

They never found me debating with anyone in the Temple or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or throughout the city,

They found me in the Temple doing these things just as I had completed the purification ceremony. No crowd or noisy mob was present.

He ordered the centurion to guard Paul but to let him have some freedom and not to keep any of his friends from caring for his needs.

We sailed slowly for a number of days and with difficulty arrived off Cnidus. Then, because the wind was against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of Crete off Cape Salome.

When a gentle breeze began to blow from the south, they thought they could make it to Phoenix, so they hoisted anchor and began sailing along the shore of Crete.

After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood among his shipmates and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete. You would have avoided this hardship and damage.

The governor of the island, whose name was Publius, owned estates in that part of the island. He welcomed us and entertained us with great hospitality for three days.