Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him,

And the crowds attended like one man to what was said by Philip, listening to him and watching the miracles he performed.

and all sorts and conditions of people attached themselves to him, declaring he was that Power of God which is known as 'the Great Power.'

They attached themselves to him because he had dazzled them with his skill in magic for a considerable time.

Peter said to him, "Death to you and your money, for dreaming you could buy the gift of God!

When Philip ran up, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. "Do you really understand what you are reading?"

he asked. "Why, how can I possibly understand it," said the eunuch, "unless some one puts me on the right track?" And he begged Philip to get up and sit beside him.

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,

and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus empowering him to put any man or woman in chains whom he could find belonging to the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem.

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

he dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

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.

Now there was a disciple called Ananias in Damascus. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He said, "I am here, Lord."

And the Lord said to him, "Go away to the street called 'The Straight Street,' and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus called Saul. He is praying at this very moment,

and he has seen a man called Ananias enter and lay his hands upon him to bring back his sight."

But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel.

I will show him all he has to suffer for the sake of my Name."

So Ananias went off and entered the house, laying his hands on him with these words, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord, by Jesus who appeared to you on the road, to let you regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit."

and the Jews, after a number of days had elapsed, conspired to make away with him.

But their plot came to the ears of Saul, and, although they kept watch on the gates day and night in order to make away with him,

his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket.

He got to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, unable to believe he was really a disciple.

Barnabas, however, got hold of him and brought him to the apostles. To them he related how he had seen the Lord upon the road, how He had spoken to him, and how he had spoken freely in the name of Jesus at Damascus.

he also held conversations and debates with the Hellenists. But when the brothers learned that the Hellenists were attempting to make away with him,

they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

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."

So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him up to the room, where all the widows stood beside him crying as they showed him the garments and dresses that Dorcas used to make when she was with them.

About three o'clock in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God entering and saying to him, "Cornelius."

When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his menservants and a religiously minded soldier who belonged to his personal retinue,

He became very hungry and longed for some food. But as they were getting the meal ready, a trance came over him.

A voice came to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat."

A second time the voice came back to him, "What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common."

and on the next day he reached Caesarea. [vs 24b transposed to follow vs 27] (For Cornelius had been expecting him and had called his kinsfolk and intimate friends together.)

Peter was just going into the house when Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshipped him;

but Peter raised him, saying, "Get up, I am only a man myself."

Then talking to him he entered the house, to find a large company assembled.

but that he who reverences Him and lives a good life in any nation is welcomed by Him.

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.

As for what he did in the land of the Jews and of Jerusalem, we can testify to that. They slew him by hanging him on a gibbet,

but God raised him on the third day, and allowed him to be seen

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,

All the prophets testify that everyone who believes in him is to receive remission of sins through his Name."

And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they begged him to remain for some days.

So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party fell foul of him.

and on finding him he brought him to Antioch, where for a whole year they were guests of the church and taught considerable numbers. It was at Antioch too that the disciples were originally called "Christians."

After arresting him he put him in prison, handing him over to a guard of sixteen soldiers, with the intention of producing him to the People after the passover.

So Peter was closely guarded in prison, while earnest prayer for him was offered to God by the church.

The very night before Herod meant to have him produced, Peter lay asleep between two soldiers; he was fastened by two chains, and sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.

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,

and the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." He did so. Then said the angel, "Put on your coat and follow me."

And he followed him out, not realizing that what the angel did was real, but imagining that he saw a vision.

When they had passed the first guard and the second they came to the iron gate leading into the city, which opened to them of its own accord; they passed out, and after they had gone through one street, the angel immediately left him.

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door they were amazed to see him.

He beckoned to them to keep quiet and then described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Report this to James," he said, "and to the brothers." And off he went to another place.

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.

As there was a bitter feud between him and the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, they waited on him unanimously, and after conciliating the royal chamberlain Blastus they made overtures for peace, as their country depended for its food-supply upon the royal territory.

and in a moment an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not given due glory to God; he was eaten up by worms and so expired.

So Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the holy Spirit, looked steadily at him

See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand.

After deposing him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he bore this testimony that 'In David, the son of Jessai, I have found a man after my own heart, who will obey all my will.'

The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their rulers, by condemning him in their ignorance, fulfilled the words of the prophets which are read every sabbath;

though they could find him guilty of no crime that deserved death, they begged Pilate to have him put to death,

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.

So you must understand, my brothers, that remission of sins is proclaimed to you through him,

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

But when the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy; they began to contradict what Paul said and to abuse him.

He heard Paul speaking, and Paul, gazing steadily at him and noticing that he had faith enough to make him better,

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.

However, as the disciples gathered round him, he got up and went into the town. Next day he went off with Barnabas to Derbe,

So in irritation they parted company, Barnabas taking Mark with him and sailing for Cyprus,

so, as Paul wished him to go abroad with him, he took and circumcised him on account of the local Jews, all of whom knew his father had been a Greek.

A vision appeared to Paul by night, the vision of a Macedonian standing and appealing to him with the words, "Cross to Macedonia and help us."

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all in his house.

Paul's escort brought him as far as Athens and left with instructions that Silas and Timotheus were to join him as soon as possible.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, "Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection').

Then taking him to the Areopagus they asked, "May we know what is this novel teaching of yours?

meaning them to seek for God on the chance of finding him in their groping for him. Though indeed he is close to each one of us,

for it is in him that we live and move and exist ??as some of your own poets have said, 'We too belong to His race.'

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."

Some men, however, did join him and believe, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman called Damaris, and some others.

But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not responsible! After this I will go to the Gentiles."

But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia the Jews without exception rose against Paul and brought him up before the tribunal,

Then all [the Greeks] caught hold of Sosthenes the president of the synagogue and beat him in front of the tribunal; but Gallio took no notice.

who asked him to stay for a while. But he would not consent;

In the synagogue he was very outspoken at first; but when Aquila and Priscilla listened to him, they took him home and explained more accurately to him what the Way of God really meant.

As he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to give him a welcome. And on his arrival he proved of great service to those who by God's grace had believed,

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

(Paul wanted to enter the popular assembly, but the disciples would not allow him.

Some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, also sent to beg him not to venture into the amphitheatre.)

Some of the mob concluded it must be Alexander, as the Jews pushed him to the front. So Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to defend himself before the people;

where he spent three months. Just as he was on the point of sailing for Syria, the Jews laid a plot against him. He therefore resolved to return through Macedonia.

but Paul went downstairs, threw himself upon him, and embraced him. "Do not lament," he said, "the life is still in him."

As for the lad, they took him away alive, much to their relief.

So when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and got to Mitylene.

When they came to him, he said, "You know quite well how I lived among you all the time ever since I set foot in Asia,