until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had given orders through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

And while staying with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," he said, "you heard of from me;

So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

And after he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.

"Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne,

And all who believed were together and had all things in common;

and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as anyone had need.

and they recognized him as the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

And when Peter saw this he addressed the people, "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

And when they had set them in the midst, they began to inquire, "By what power or by what name did you do this?"

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.

But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they conferred with one another,

And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for all the people were praising God for what had happened.

When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common.

and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,

The God of our fathers raised Jesuswhom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

So they took his advice, and they called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.

But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even though he had no child, he promised that he would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

They were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

"But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt

"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

"Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

Now there was a man named Simon, who had formerly practiced magic in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,

And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,

For he had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

So he got up and went. And there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship,

All those who heard him were amazed, and said, "Is this not he who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?"

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed.

And at that time she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her, they laid her body in an upper room.

About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius!"

When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,

and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, appeared at the gate.

On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.

Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

And he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is also called Peter;

and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year they met with the church and taught great numbers of people; and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

He had James the brother of John put to death with the sword.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went out and passed on through one street; and immediately the angel left him.

But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Tell this to James and to the brethren." Then he left and went to another place.

Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

When Herod had searched for him and could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while.

And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Then after they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John as their helper.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus,

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened, for he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years.

And after he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; concerning whom he testified and said, 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'

Before his coming John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers and saw decay;

At Lystra there was a man sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked.

He listened to Paul speaking; and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,

And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and entered the city. And the next day he went with Barnabas to Derbe.

After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed.

And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.

When they arrived, they gathered the church together and declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

All the assembly kept silent; and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

And after they had spent some time there, they were sent off in peace by the brethren to those who had sent them.

But Paul kept insisting that they should not take along one who had deserted them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.

As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions which had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

and on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had come together.

When she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.

It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination. She brought her owners much profit by fortune-telling.

and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, "These men are Jews and they are throwing our city into an uproar.

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to guard them securely.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with his whole household that he had believed in God.

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ."