They all broke into loud lamentation and falling upon the neck of Paul kissed him fondly,

sorrowing chiefly because he told them they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.

and had four unmarried daughters who prophesied). We stayed with him.

He came to us, took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands, saying, "Here is the word of the holy Spirit: 'So shall the Jews bind the owner of this girdle at Jerusalem and hand him over to the Gentiles'."

They glorified God when they heard it. Then they said to him, "Brother, you see how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, all of them ardent upholders of the Law.

The seven days were almost over when the Asiatic Jews, catching sight of him in the temple, stirred up all the crowd and laid hands on him,

(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian along with him in the city, and they supposed Paul had taken him inside the temple.)

The whole city was thrown into turmoil. The people rushed together, seized Paul and dragged him outside the temple; whereupon the doors were immediately shut.

They were attempting to kill him, when word reached the commander of the garrison that the whole of Jerusalem was in confusion.

Then the commander came up and seized him; he ordered him to be bound with a couple of chains, and asked "Who is he?" and "What has he done?"

for the whole mass of the people followed shouting, "Away with him!"

When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew they were all the more quiet. So he went on.

(My companions saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who talked to me.)

came to me and standing beside me said, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight!' The same moment I regained my sight and looked up at him.

Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, to see the Just One, and to hear him speak with his own lips.

For you are to be a witness for him before all men, a witness of what you have seen and heard.

and saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste, leave Jerusalem quickly, for they will not accept your evidence about me.'

Till he said that, they had listened to him. But at that they shouted, "Away with such a creature from the earth! He is not fit to live!"

till the commander ordered him to be taken inside the barracks and examined under the lash, so as to find out why the people shouted at him in this way.

They had strapped him up, when Paul said to the officer who was standing by, "Are you allowed to scourge a Roman citizen ??and to scourge him without a trial?"

When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and said to him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

So the commander went to him and said, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

Then those who were to have examined him left him at once alone; even the commander was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Next day, as he was anxious to find out the real reason why the Jews accused him, he unbound him, ordered the high priests and all the Sanhedrin to meet, and brought Paul down, placing him in front of them.

Then the high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next Paul to strike him on the mouth.

At this Paul said to him, "You whitewashed wall, God will strike you! You sit there to judge me by the Law, do you? And you break the Law by ordering me to be struck!"

Thus a loud clamour broke out. Some of the scribes who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and contended, "We find nothing wrong about this man. What if some spirit or angel has spoken to him?"

The quarrel then became so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul in pieces; he therefore ordered the troops to march down and take him from them by force, bringing him inside the barracks.

Now you and the Sanhedrin must inform the commander that you propose to investigate this case in detail, so that he may have Paul brought down to you. We will be all ready to kill him on the way down."

Paul summoned one of the officers and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has some news to give him."

So the officer took him to the commander, saying, "The prisoner Paul has summoned me to ask if I would bring this young man to you, as he has something to tell you."

The commander then took him by the hand aside and asked him in private, "What is the news you have for me?"

Now do not let them persuade you. More than forty of them are lying in ambush for him, and they have taken a solemn oath neither to eat nor to drink till they have murdered him. They are all ready at this moment, awaiting your consent."

Then the commander dismissed the youth, bidding him "Tell nobody that you have informed me of this."

Horses were also to be provided, on which they were to mount Paul and carry him safe to Felix the governor.

This man had been seized by the Jews and was on the point of being murdered by them, when I came on them with the troops and rescued him, as I had ascertained that he was a Roman citizen.

Anxious to find out why they accused him, I took him down to their Sanhedrin,

I am informed a plot is to be laid against him, so I am sending him to you at once, telling his accusers that they must impeach him before you. Farewell."

The soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

Next day the infantry returned to their barracks, leaving the troopers to ride on with him.

They reached Caesarea, presented the letter to the governor, and also handed Paul over to him.

So Paul was summoned, and then Tertullus proceeded to accuse him. "Your excellency," he said to Felix, "as it is owing to you that we enjoy unbroken peace, and as it is owing to your wise care that the state of this nation has been improved in every way and everywhere,

He actually tried to desecrate the temple, but we got hold of him.

Examine him for yourself and you will be able to find out about all these charges of ours against him."

He gave orders to the officer to have Paul kept in custody but to allow him some freedom and not to prevent any of his own people from rendering him any service.

(though at the same time he hoped Paul would give him a bribe). So he did send for him pretty frequently and conversed with him.

The high priests and the Jewish leaders laid information before him against Paul, and begged him,

as a special favour, to send for him to Jerusalem, meaning to lay an ambush for him and murder him on the road.

After staying not more than eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea. Next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought before him.

When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and brought a number of serious charges against him, none of which they were able to prove.

When I was at Jerusalem, the high priests and elders of the Jews informed me about him and demanded his condemnation.

but when his accusers stood up they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I had expected.

But Paul entered an appeal for his case to be reserved for the decision of the emperor; so I ordered him to be detained till I could remit him to Caesar."

"I should like to hear the man myself," said Agrippa to Festus. "You shall hear him to-morrow," said Festus.

I could not find he had done anything that deserved death, so I decided to send him, on his own appeal, to the emperor.

Only, I have nothing definite to write to the sovereign about him. So I have brought him up before you all, and especially before you, O king Agrippa, in order that I may have something to write as the result of your cross-examination.

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer! He has escaped the sea, but Justice will not let him live."

The natives waited for him to swell up or drop down dead in a moment, but after waiting a long while and observing that no harm had befallen him, they changed their minds and declared he was a god.

His father, it so happened, was laid up with fever and dysentery, but Paul went in to see him and after prayer laid his hands on him and cured him.

When we did reach Rome, Paul got permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

So they fixed a day and came to him at his quarters in large numbers. From morning to evening he explained the Reign of God to them from personal testimony, and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets.

For two full years he remained in his private lodging, welcoming anyone who came to visit him;

Though they knew God, they have not glorified him as God nor given thanks to him; they have turned to futile speculations till their ignorant minds grew dark.

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness.

Now a worker has his wage counted to him as a due, not as a favour;

but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness.

Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered!

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count to him.

Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness.

He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.

no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God

Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

And these words counted to him have not been written for him alone

but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

Through him we have got access to this grace where we have our standing, and triumph in the hope of God's glory.

Much more then, now that we are justified by his blood, shall we be saved by him from Wrath.

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come,

For if we have grown into him by a death like his, we shall grow into him by a resurrection like his,

knowing as we do that our old self has been crucified with him in order to crush the sinful body and free us from any further slavery to sin

We believe that as we have died with Christ we shall also live with him;

for we know that Christ never dies after his resurrection from the dead ??death has no more hold over him;

It is the same in your case, my brothers. The crucified body of Christ made you dead to the Law, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might be fruitful to God.

God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! [Move second part of this vers to follow vs 23] (Thus, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.)

But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells within you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies live by his indwelling Spirit in your lives.

For creation was not rendered futile by its own choice, but by the will of Him who thus made it subject,

The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

No, in all this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

they are not all children of Abraham because they are descended from Abraham. No, it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??8 meaning that instead of God's children being the children born to him by natural descent, it is the children of the Promise who are reckoned as his true offspring.

But who are you, my man, to speak back to God? Is something a man has moulded to ask him who has moulded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

Confess with your mouth that 'Jesus is Lord,' believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved;

No one who believes in him, the scripture says, will ever be disappointed. No one ??12 for there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of them all, with ample for all who invoke him.

Who has first given to him and has to be repaid?

All comes from him, all lives by him, all ends in him. Glory to him for ever, Amen!

Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely, what is good and acceptable to him and perfect.

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

The eater must not look down upon the non-eater, and the non-eater must not criticize the eater, for God has welcomed him.

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.