and gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years. And after that He gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.

Then He deposed him and raised up for them David to be king, to whom He bore this testimony, 'I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all that my will requires.'

It is from this man's descendants that God, as He promised, has brought to Israel a Saviour in the person of Jesus,

Brothers, descendants of the race of Abraham, and all among you who reverence God, it is to us that the message of this salvation has been sent.

When they had carried out everything that had been written in the Scriptures about Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

So now we are bringing you the good news about the promise that was made to our forefathers,

that God has fulfilled it to us their children, by raising Jesus to life, just as the Scripture says in the Second Psalm, 'You are my Son, today I have become your Father.'

Now as a proof that He has raised Him from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken this, 'I will fulfill to you the holy promises made to David.'

So, my brothers, you must understand that through Him the forgiveness of your sins is now proclaimed to you,

and that through union with Him every one of you who believes is given right standing with God and freed from every charge from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

So take care that what is said in the prophets does not come upon you:

As they were leaving the synagogue, the people kept begging that all this be repeated to them the next sabbath,

For here are the orders that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light to the heathen, To be the means of salvation to the very ends of the earth.'"

At Iconium too they went to the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks came to believe.

He continued listening to Paul as he spoke, and as Paul by looking straight at him observed that he had faith that he would be cured,

and shouted, "Men, why are you doing this? We are merely men with natures like your own, who are telling you the good news, so that you may turn from these foolish things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain.

Even by saying this it was all that they could do to keep the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.

They told the good news in that town, and after winning many disciples there, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

strengthening the hearts of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith, and warning them that it is through enduring many hardships that we must get into the kingdom of God.

On arriving there they called the church together, and in detail reported to them all that God had done through them as instruments, and how He had opened to the heathen the door of faith.

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised in accordance with the custom that Moses handed down, you cannot be saved."

So, as a dire disturbance and a serious discussion had been created between Paul and Barnabas and them, they decided that Paul and Barnabas and some others from their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question.

But some members of the Pharisaic party, who had become believers, arose and said that such converts must be circumcised and told to keep the law of Moses.

After a lengthy discussion Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose among you that through me the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it.

In fact, we believe that it is through the favor of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

So that the rest of mankind may earnestly seek the Lord, Yes, all the heathen who are called by my name, says the Lord,

but we should write them to abstain from everything that is contaminated by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from tasting blood.

As we have heard that some of our number have disturbed you by their teaching, by continuing to unsettle your minds,

that you abstain from everything that is offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves free from these things, you will prosper. Good-by."

The disagreement was so sharp that they separated, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus.

Paul wanted this man to join him in his journey; so on account of the Jews in that district he took him and had him circumcised, for everybody knew that his father was a Greek.

As soon as he had this vision, we laid our plans to get off to Macedonia, because we confidently concluded that God had called us to tell them the good news.

From there we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony, the leading town in that part of Macedonia. In this town we stayed some days.

Among them was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods from the town of Thyatira, and she stayed to listen to us. She was already a worshiper of God, and the Lord so moved upon her heart that she accepted the message spoken by Paul.

When she and her household were baptized, she begged us by continuing to say, "If you have made up your mind that I am a real believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she continued to insist that we do so.

She kept this up for a number of days. Because Paul was so much annoyed by her, he turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her." And that very moment it came out.

But as the owners saw that the hope of their profit-making was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square, before the authorities,

suddenly there was an earthquake so great that it shook the very foundations of the jail, the doors all flew open, and every prisoner's chains were unfastened.

When the jailer awoke and saw that the jail doors were open, he drew his sword and was on the point of killing himself, because he thought that the prisoners had escaped.

Even at that time of the night he took them and washed their wounds, and he and all the members of his household at once were baptized.

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public and that without a trial, and put us in jail although we are Roman citizens! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

The policemen reported this message to the chiefs of the police court, and they became alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens,

explaining them and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and said, "This very Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ."

That night at once the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea, and on arriving there they went to the Jewish synagogue.

But when the Jews at Thessalonica learned that God's message had been proclaimed at Berea by Paul, they came there too to excite the masses and stir up a riot.

So Paul stood up in the center of the auditorium and said: "Men of Athens, at every turn I make I see that you are very religious.

For as I was going here and there and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' So it is about the Being whom you are in ignorance already worshiping that I am telling you.

The God who made the world and all that it contains, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by human hands,

so that they might search for God, possibly they might grope for Him, and find Him, though He is really not far from any of us.

For it is through union with Him that we live and move and exist, as some of your own poets have said, "'For we are His offspring too.'

Since then we are God's offspring, we ought not to suppose that His nature is like gold or silver or stone or anything carved by man's art and thought.

By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was wholly absorbed in preaching the message and was enthusiastically assuring the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.

and said, "This fellow is inducing people to worship God in ways that violate our laws."

for he successfully refuted the Jews in public and proved by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, by passing through the inland districts, came to Ephesus. He found a few disciples there

and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered him, "So far from that, we never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

Then Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism that was an expression of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was to come after him; that is, in Jesus."

This went on for two years, so that everybody living in the province of Asia, Greeks as well as Jews, heard the Lord's message.

as an instrument that the people carried off to the sick, towels or aprons used by him, and at their touch they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits went out of them.

But some wandering Jews who claimed to be driving out the evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus on those who had evil spirits in them, saying, "I command you by that Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

So the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped upon them and so violently overpowered two of them that they ran out of the house stripped of their clothes and wounded.

Now just about that time a great commotion arose about The Way.

He called together his workmen, and others engaged in similar trades, and said to them: "Men, you well know that our prosperity depends on this business of ours,

and you see and hear that, not only in Ephesus but all over the province of Asia, this man Paul has led away a vast number of people by persuading them, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all.

Now the danger facing us is, not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into contempt and that she whom all Asia and all the world now worship will soon be dethroned from her majestic glory!"

Some of the crowd concluded that it was Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front, and since Alexander had made a gesture of the hand as though he would make a defense before the people.

But as soon as they saw that he was a Jew, a shout went up from them all as the shout of one man, lasting for two hours: "Great Artemis of Ephesus!"

At last the city recorder quieted the mob and said: "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image that fell down from heaven?

to serve the Lord with all humility and in tears, through the trials that befell me because of the plots of the Jews.

I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public and in private,

except that in town after town the Holy Spirit emphatically assures me that imprisonment and sufferings are awaiting me.

And now I know that none of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will ever see my face again.

I therefore protest to you today that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

Because I know that after I have gone violent wolves will break in among you and will not spare the flock.

So ever be on your guard and always remember that for three years, night and day, I never ceased warning you one by one, and that with tears.

You know yourselves that these hands of mine provided for my own needs and for my companions.

In everything I showed you that by working hard like this we must help those who are weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It makes one happier to give than to get.'"

(44:37) because they were especially pained at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they went down to the ship with him.

They have been repeatedly told about you that you continuously teach the Jews who live among the heathen to turn their backs on Moses, and that you continue to tell them to stop circumcising their children, and to stop observing the cherished customs.

What is your duty, then? They will certainly hear that you have come.

Take them along with you, purify yourself with them, and bear the expense for them of having their heads shaved. Then everybody will know that none of those things they have been told about you are so, but that you yourself are living as a constant observer of the law.

As for the heathen who have become believers, we have sent them our resolution that they must avoid anything that is contaminated by idols, the tasting of blood, the meat of strangled animals, and sexual immorality."

as they kept shouting, "Men of Israel, help! help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the law and this place; yea, more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and desecrated this sacred place."

For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus in the city with him, and so they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

Now while they were trying to kill him, news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a ferment.

Since I could not see because of the dazzling sheen of that light, I was led by the hand by my companions and in this way I reached Damascus.

So I said, 'Lord, they know for themselves that from one synagogue to another I used to imprison and flog those who believed in you,

the colonel ordered Paul to be brought into the barracks, and told them to examine him by flogging, in order that he might find out why they were crying out against him in such a way.

But when they had tied him for the flogging, Paul asked the captain who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman, and one who is uncondemned at that?"

When the captain heard that, he went to the colonel and reported it. Then he asked him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

So the men who were going to examine him left him at once, and the colonel himself was frightened when he learned that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

Paul answered, "I did not know, brothers, that he was high priest, for the Scripture says, 'You must not speak evil against any ruler of your people.'"

Because Paul knew that part of them were Sadducees and part of them Pharisees, he began to cry out in the council chamber, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a Pharisee's son, and now I am on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead."

When he said that, an angry dispute arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the crowded court was divided.

For the Sadducees hold that there is no resurrection, and no such thing as an angel or spirit, but the Pharisees believe in all of them.

Since the dispute kept growing hotter and hotter, the colonel became alarmed that Paul might be torn in pieces by them, and so ordered the army to march down and take him out of their hands and bring him back to the barracks.

But that same night the Lord stood by Paul's side and said, "Courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you must testify for me in Rome, too."

So the colonel sent the young man away, with strict directions not to tell anybody that he had notified him of this plot.

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were on the point of killing him when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

He read the letter and asked Paul what province he was from, and on learning that he was from Cilicia,