and he said, 'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn his will and to see his Righteous One and hear him speak,

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

and when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it, and took charge of the clothes of the men who killed him.'

They had listened to him until he said that, but then they shouted, "Kill him and get him out of the world! A creature like that ought not to be allowed to live!"

the colonel ordered Paul brought into the barracks, and gave directions that he should be examined under the lash, so that he might find out why they made such an outcry against him.

But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?"

Then the men who had been going to examine him immediately left him, and the colonel himself was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

The next day, as he wished to find out the real reason why the Jews denounced him, he had him unbound and ordered the high priests and the whole council to assemble, and took Paul down and brought him before them.

At this the high priest Ananias ordered the people who were standing nearest to him to strike him on the mouth.

Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you white-washed wall! Do you sit there to try me by the Law, and order them to strike me in violation of the Law?"

But the people who stood near him said, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?"

So there was a great uproar, and some scribes of the Pharisees' party got up and insisted, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose some spirit or angel really spoke to him!"

As the dispute was becoming violent, the colonel began to be afraid that they would tear Paul in pieces, and ordered the soldiers to go down and get him away from them and bring him into the barracks.

On the following night the Lord stood beside him and said, "Courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you must testify in Rome also."

Now you and the council must suggest to the colonel that he should have Paul brought down to you, as you mean to look into his case more carefully, and we will be ready to kill him before he gets down."

Paul called one of the officers and said to him, "Take this young man to the colonel, for he has something to tell him."

So he took him to the colonel, and said, "The prisoner Paul called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you."

So the colonel took him by the arm and stepping aside where they could be alone, asked, "What is it that you have to tell me?"

But do not let them persuade you, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him, and they have taken an oath not to eat or drink till they have killed him. They are all ready now, and are only waiting to get your promise."

So the colonel sent the youth away, directing him not to tell anyone that he had given him this information.

They were also to provide horses for Paul to ride, so that they might take him in safety to Felix, the governor,

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were just going to kill him when I came upon them with my men and rescued him, as I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

As I wanted to learn what charge they made against him, I had him brought before their council,

As I have been informed that a plot against him is brewing, I am sending him on to you at once, and directing his accusers to present their charges against him before you."

Then the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and escorted him as far as Antipatris that night.

The next day, they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him,

and they on reaching Caesarea delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.

and actually tried to desecrate the Temple, but we caught him.

If you will examine him yourself you will be able to find out from him all about the things we charge him with."

He ordered the officer to keep Paul in custody, but to allow him some freedom, and not to prevent his friends from looking after him.

At the same time he hoped to get money from Paul, and for that reason he used to send for him very often and talk with him.

and begged him as a favor to order Paul to come to Jerusalem, plotting to kill him on the way.

"So have your principal men go down with me," he said, "and present charges against the man, if there is anything wrong with him."

When he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and made a number of serious charges against him, which they could not substantiate.

and when I was at Jerusalem the Jewish high priests and elders presented their case against him, and asked for his conviction.

But when his accusers got up, they did not charge him with any such crimes as I had expected.

Their differences with him were about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died but who Paul said was alive.

I was at a loss as to how to investigate such matters, and I asked him if he would like to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges there.

But Paul appealed to have his case reserved for his Majesty's decision, and I have ordered him kept in custody until I can send him to the emperor."

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

I could not find that he had done anything for which he deserved death, but as he appealed to his Majesty I decided to send him to him.

Yet I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. So I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, in order to get from your examination of him something to put in writing.

For it seems to me absurd to send a prisoner on, without stating the charges against him."

The king knows about this, and I can speak to him with freedom. I do not believe that he missed any of this, for it did not happen in a corner!

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "This man is undoubtedly a murderer, for though he has been saved from the sea, justice will not let him live."

They expected to see him swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

Publius' father happened to be sick in bed with fever and dysentery, and Paul went to see him and after praying laid his hands on him and cured him.

When we reached Rome, Paul was given permission to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

Three days later, he invited the leading Jews to come to see him, and when they came he said to them, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people, or the customs of our forefathers, yet I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner at Jerusalem.

So he stayed for two full years in rented lodgings of his own, and welcomed everybody who came to see him,

for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark.

For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.

for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness."

but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness.

Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness.

For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith.

He did not incredulously question God's promise, but his faith gave him power and he praised God

That was why it was credited to him as uprightness.

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written,

but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus,

So if we have already been made upright by his death, it is far more certain that through him we shall be saved from God's anger!

If, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, it is far more certain that now that we are reconciled we shall be saved through sharing in his life!

Through baptism we have been buried with him in death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the Father's glory, we too may live a new life.

For if we have grown into union with him by undergoing a death like his, of course we shall do so by being raised to life like him,

for we know that our old self was crucified with him, to do away with our sinful body, so that we might not be enslaved to sin any longer,

If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,

for we know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more hold on him.

and you must not offer the parts of your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrong, but offer yourselves to God as men brought back from death to life, and offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of uprightness.

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you.

For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope

We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good.

Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything?

But in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants."

For if with your lips you acknowledge the message that Jesus is Lord, and with your mind you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the Scripture says, "No one who has faith in him will be disappointed."

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek for they all have the same Lord, and he is generous to all who call upon him.

But how are they to call upon him if they have not believed in him? And how are they to believe him if they have never heard him? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches to them?

From the point of view of the good news they are treated as enemies of God on your account; but from the point of view of God's choice, they are dear to him because of their forefathers,

"Who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, or advised him?

"Or who has advanced anything to him, for which he will have to be repaid?"

For from him everything comes; through him everything exists; and in him everything ends! Glory to him forever! Amen.

By the favor that God has shown me, I would tell every one of you not to think too highly of himself, but to think reasonably, judging himself by the degree of faith God has allowed him.

No! If your enemy is hungry, feed him! If he is thirsty, give him something to drink! For if you do, you will heap burning coals upon his head!

Everyone must obey the authorities that are over him, for no authority can exist without the permission of God; the existing authorities have been established by him,

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself in opposition to what God has ordained, and those who oppose him will bring down judgment upon themselves.

One man's faith allows him to eat anything, while the overscrupulous man eats nothing but vegetables.

The man who will eat anything must not look down on the man who abstains from some things, and the man who abstains from them must not criticize the one who does not, for God has accepted him.

Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? It is for his own master to say whether he succeeds or fails; and he will succeed, for the Master can make him do so.

The man who observes the day does it in the Lord's honor. The man who eats does it in the Lord's honor, for he gives God thanks, and the man who abstains does it in the Lord's honor, and gives him thanks.

if we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and if we die, we are responsible to him; so whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Everyone of us must try to please his neighbor, to do him good, and help in his development.

Again Isaiah says, "The descendant of Jesse will come, The one who is to rise to rule the heathen; The heathen will set their hopes on him."

As the Scripture says, "They who have never been told of him will see, And they who have never heard will understand!"

To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed,

For you have grown rich in everything through union with him??n power of expression and in capacity for knowledge.

For since in God's providence the world with all its wisdom did not come to know God, God chose, through the folly of the gospel message, to save those who had faith in him.

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who would boast, boast of the Lord!"

But, as the Scripture says, there are things "Which no eye ever saw and no ear ever heard, And never occurred to the human mind, Which God has provided for those who love him."