After some time had passed, the Jews made a plot to kill him,

but Saul found out about the plot. They watched the city gates day and night, in order to kill him,

but his disciples took him one night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket.

When he reached Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they could not believe that he was really a disciple.

But Barnabas got hold of him and introduced him to the apostles, and he told them how on his journey he had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken to him, and how boldly he had spoken for the cause of Jesus at Damascus.

and spoke boldly for the Lord's cause, talking and debating with the Greek-speaking Jews. But they tried to kill him.

When the brothers found this out, they took him down to Caesarea, and sent him away to Tarsus.

Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you! Get up, and make your bed!" And he got up immediately.

And everybody who lived in Lydda or in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

As Joppa was near Lydda, the disciples heard that Peter was there, and they sent two men to him, urging him to come over without delay.

Peter went with them at once. When he arrived, they took him up to the room and all the widows stood around him crying and showing him the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made when she was still with them.

One afternoon, about three o'clock, he had a vision, and distinctly saw an angel of God come into his room and say to him, "Cornelius!"

He stared at him in terror, and said, "What is it, sir?" "Your prayers and charities," the angel answered, "have gone up and been remembered before God.

When the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants, and a devout soldier who was one of his personal attendants,

And a voice came to him, "Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it!"

The voice came to him again a second time, "Do not call what God has cleansed unclean."

As Peter was pondering over his vision, the Spirit said to him, "There are two men looking for you.

When Peter actually came in, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet and made obeisance to him.

But Peter lifted him to his feet, and said, "Get up! I am only human myself."

but welcomes the man of any nation who reveres him and does what is right.

about Jesus of Nazareth, and how God endowed him with the power of the holy Spirit, and he went about doing good and curing all who were in the power of the devil, because God was with him.

We are witnesses of everything that he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Yet they put him upon a cross and killed him.

But God raised him to life on the third day and caused him to be plainly seen,

not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead.

It is of him that all the prophets bear witness that everyone that believes in him will have his sins forgiven in his name."

And he directed that they should be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on there a few days.

and when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the advocates of circumcision took him to task,

charging him with having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

and found him and brought him to Antioch. The result was that for a whole year they met with the church, and taught large numbers of people, and it was at Antioch that the disciples first came to be known as Christians.

He had him seized and put in jail, with four squads of soldiers to guard him, meaning after the Passover to bring him out before the people.

So Peter was kept in the jail, but the church was praying earnestly to God for him.

The night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter was asleep between two soldiers, and fastened with two chains, and watchmen were at the door, guarding the jail,

when an angel of the Lord stood at his side, and a light shone in the room, and striking Peter on the side, he woke him, and said to him, "Get up quickly!" The chains dropped from his hands,

and the angel said to him, "Put on your belt and your sandals!" And he did so. Then he said to him, "Put on your coat and follow me!"

So he followed him out without knowing that what the angel was doing was real, for he thought he was having a vision.

They passed the first guard and then the second, and came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened to them of itself, and they passed out and went along one street, when suddenly the angel left him.

But Peter kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him they were amazed.

He motioned to them to be quiet, and then related to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Tell all this to James and the brothers," he said. Then he left them and went somewhere else.

Herod had inquiries made for him, and when he could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he left Judea for Caesarea, and stayed there.

Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came before him in a body, and after winning over Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for a reconciliation, because their country depended upon the king's dominions for its food supply.

But the angel of the Lord struck him down immediately, because he did not give the honor to God; and he was eaten by worms and died.

He was attached to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul and asked them to let him hear God's message.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, was filled with the holy Spirit, and looked at him

The Lord's hand is right upon you, and you will be blind and unable even to see the sun for a time." Instantly a mist of darkness fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to lead him by the hand.

Then he removed him and raised David up to be their king, bearing this testimony to him: 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, who will do all that I desire.'

For the people of Jerusalem and their leaders refused to recognize him, and condemned him, thus fulfilling the very utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath,

and though they could find no ground for putting him to death, they demanded of Pilate that he be executed.

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

But God raised him from the dead,

and for many days he appeared to those who had come up to Jerusalem with him from Galilee, and they are now witnesses for him to the people.

Now as evidence that he has raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: 'I will fulfil to you my sacred promises to David.'

You must understand therefore, my brothers, that through him the forgiveness of your sins is announced to you,

and that through union with him everyone who believes is cleared of every charge of which the Law of Moses could not clear you.

But when the Jews saw the crowd, they were very jealous, and they contradicted what Paul said and abused him.

He was listening to Paul as he talked, when Paul looked at him and, seeing that he had faith that he would be cured,

said to him loudly, "Stand on your feet!" And he sprang up and began to walk.

But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and won the people over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.

But the brothers gathered about him, and he got up and re-entered the town. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

But Paul selected Silas and set out, the brothers commending him to the Lord's favor.

Paul wished to take this man on with him, and so on account of the Jews in that district he had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

There Paul had a vision one night; a Macedonian was standing appealing to him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

Then they told God's message to him and to all the members of his household.

The men who went with Paul took him all the way to Athens, and came back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him as soon as possible.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some of them said, "What is this rag-picker trying to make out?" Others said, "He seems to be preaching some foreign deities." This was because he was telling the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

So they took him and brought him to the council of the Areopagus and said, "May we know just what this new teaching of yours is?

so that they might search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him, though he is never far from any of us.

For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said, " 'For we are also his offspring.'

since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead."

Some persons joined him, however, and became believers, among them Dionysius, a member of the council, and a woman named Damaris, and some others.

But as they contradicted and abused him, he shook his clothes in protest, and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not to blame for it! After this I will go to the heathen."

While Gallio was governor of Greece the Jews made a concerted attack upon Paul, and brought him before the governor.

Then they all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio paid no attention to it.

They asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent.

He spoke very confidently in the synagogue at first, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained the Way of God to him more correctly.

As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God's favor had become believers,

he said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" "No," they said to him, "we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit."

"John's baptism was a baptism in token of repentance," said Paul, "and he told the people to believe in him who was to follow him, that is, in Jesus."

Some of the religious authorities also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.

Some of the crowd called upon Alexander, as the Jews had pushed him to the front, and he made a gesture with his hand and was going to speak in defense of them to the people.

where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia.

But Paul went downstairs, and threw himself upon him, and put his arms around him. "Do not be alarmed," he said, "he is still alive."

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

They all wept aloud, and throwing their arms about Paul's neck they kissed him affectionately,

for they were especially saddened at his saying that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

The next day we left there and went on to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the missionary, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

He came to see us and took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, "This is what the holy Spirit says: 'The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt like this, and will hand him over to the heathen!' "

When we heard this, we and the people there all begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

So as he would not yield, we gave up urging him, and said, "The Lord's will be done!"

They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law.

The seven days were almost over when the Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple, and stirred up all the crowd and seized him,

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

The whole city was thrown into confusion, and the people hurried together, and seized Paul and dragged him outside of the Temple, the gates of which were immediately shut.

They were trying to kill him when the news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a tumult.

Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing.

Some of the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and as he could not find out the facts on account of the confusion, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks.

for the mass of people followed them shouting, "Kill him!"

Just as they were going to take him into the barracks, Paul said to the colonel, "May I say something to you?" "Do you know Greek?" the colonel asked.

He gave him permission, and Paul standing on the steps made a gesture to the people, and when they had become quiet he spoke to them in Hebrew.

When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he said,

came to see me, and standing by my side, said to me, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight!' Then instantly I regained my sight and looked at him,