The populace shouted, "It is a god's voice, not a man's!"

After fulfilling their commission, Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, bringing with them John who is surnamed Mark.

As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

On reaching Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues, with John as their assistant.

They covered the whole island as far as Paphos, where they fell in with a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet called Bar-Jesus;

But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith.

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

The God of this People Israel chose our fathers; he multiplied the people as they sojourned in the land of Egypt and with arm uplifted led them out of it.

and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan he gave them their land as an inheritance for about four hundred and fifty years.

From his offspring God brought to Israel, as he had promised, a saviour in Jesus,

before whose coming John had already preached a baptism of repentance for all the people of Israel.

And as John was closing his career he said, 'What do you take me for? I am not He; no, he is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the sandals on his feet!'

Brothers, sons of Abraham's race and all among you who reverence God, the message of this salvation has been sent to us.

has been fulfilled by God for us their children, when he raised Jesus. As it is written in the second psalm, thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father.

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.

As Paul and Barnabas went out, the people begged to have all this repeated to them on the following sabbath.

So Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "The word of God," they said, "had to be spoken to you in the first instance; but as you push it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, well, here we turn to the Gentiles!

For these are the Lord's orders to us: I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the end of the earth."

When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life;

They shook the dust off their feet as a protest and went to Iconium.

As for the disciples, they were filled with joy and the holy Spirit.

Now when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!"

shouting, "Men, what is this you are doing? We are but human, with natures like your own! The gospel we are preaching to you is to turn from such futile ways to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

though as the bountiful Giver he did not leave himself without a witness, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and joy to your heart's content."

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

As a sharp dispute and controversy sprang up between them and Paul and Barnabas, it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas, along with some others of their number, should go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and presbyters at Jerusalem about this question.

The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us;

in cleansing their hearts by faith he made not the slightest distinction between us and them.

No, it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we believe and are saved, in the same way as they are."

This agrees with the words of the prophets; as it is written,

but write them injunctions to abstain from whatever is contaminated by idols, from sexual vice, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from tasting blood;

for Moses has had his preachers from the earliest ages in every town, where he is read aloud in the synagogues every sabbath."

Having learned that some of our number, quite unauthorized by us, have unsettled you with their teaching and upset your souls,

and as Judas and Silas were themselves prophets, they encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many a counsel.

Some days later, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come and let us go back to visit the brothers in every town where we have proclaimed the word of the Lord. Let us see how they are doing."

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.

As they travelled on from town to town, they handed over to the people the resolutions which the apostles and the presbyters in Jerusalem had decided were to be obeyed;

They crossed Phrygia and the country of Galatia, the holy Spirit having stopped them from preaching the word in Asia;

when they got as far as Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them,

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."

As soon as he saw the vision, we made efforts to start for Macedonia, inferring that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

We then came to the Roman colony of Philippi, which is the foremost town of the district of Macedonia. In this town we spent some days.

On the sabbath we went outside the gate to the bank of the river, where as usual there was a place of prayer; we sat down and talked to the women who had gathered.

When she was baptized, along with her household, she begged us, saying, "If you are convinced I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." She compelled us to come.

Now it happened as we went to the place of prayer that a slave-girl met us, possessed by a spirit of ventriloquism, and a source of great profit to her owners by her power of fortune-telling.

She followed Paul and the rest of us, shrieking, "These men are servants of the Most High God, they proclaim to you the way of salvation!"

they are proclaiming customs which as Romans we are not allowed to accept or observe!"

But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God, while the prisoners listened,

"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," they said, "and then you will be saved, you and your household as well."

But Paul replied, "They flogged us in public and without a trial, flogged Roman citizens! They put us in prison, and now they are going to get rid of us secretly! No indeed! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

and Paul as usual went in; for three sabbaths he argued with them on the scriptures,

explaining and quoting passages to prove that the messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that "the Jesus I proclaim to you is the messiah."

but as they failed to find Paul and Silas they haled Jason and some of the brothers before the politarchs, yelling, "These upsetters of the whole world have come here too!

Jason has welcomed them! They all violate the decrees of Caesar by declaring someone else called Jesus is king."

where the people were more amenable than at Thessalonica; they were perfectly ready to receive the Word and made a daily study of the scriptures to see if it was really as Paul said.

But when the Jews of Thessalonica heard that Paul was proclaiming the word of God at Beroea as well, they came to create a disturbance and a riot among the crowds at Beroea too.

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.

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

You talk of some things that sound strange to us; so we want to know what they mean."

Why, as I passed along and scanned your objects of worship, I actually came upon an altar with the inscription TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Well, I proclaim to you what you worship in your ignorance.

The God who made the world and all things in it, he, as Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in shrines that are made by human hands;

he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for it is he who gives life and breath and all things to all men.

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.'

Well, as the race of God, we ought not to imagine that the divine nature resembles gold or silver or stone, the product of human art and invention.

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."

There he came across a Jew called Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla, as Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul accosted them,

and as he belonged to the same trade he stayed with them and they all worked together. (They were workers in leather by trade.)

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 Crispus the president of the synagogue believed in the Lord, as did all his household, and many of the Corinthians listened, believed, and were baptized.

But as these are merely questions of words and persons and your own Law, you can attend to them for yourselves. I decline to adjudicate upon matters like that."

After waiting on for a number of days Paul said goodbye to the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. (As the latter was under a vow, he had his head shaved at Cenchreae.)

he said goodbye to them, telling them, "I will come back to you, if it is the will of God." Then, sailing from Ephesus,

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."

But as some grew stubborn and disobedient, decrying the Way in presence of the multitude, he left them, withdrew the disciples, and continued his argument every day from eleven to four in the lecture-room of Tyrannus.

This went on for two years, so that all the inhabitants of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

This came to the ears of all the inhabitants of Ephesus, Jews as well as Greeks; awe fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

So he despatched two of his assistants to Macedonia, Timotheus and Erastus, while he himself stayed on awhile in Asia.

So he got them together, along with the workmen who belonged to similar trades, and said to them: "My men, you know this trade is the source of our wealth.

You also see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost all over Asia this fellow Paul has drawn off a considerable number of people by his persuasions. He declares that hand-made gods are not gods at all.

Now the danger is not only that we will have our trade discredited but that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will fall into contempt and that she will be degraded from her majestic glory, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship."

When they heard this they were filled with rage and raised the cry, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus!"

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;

but when they discovered he was a Jew, a roar broke from them all, and for about two hours they shouted, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus! Great is Artemis of Ephesus!"

The secretary of state then got the mob calmed down, and said to them, "Men of Ephesus, who on earth does not know that the city of Ephesus is Warden of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?

All this is beyond question. So you should keep calm and do nothing reckless.

Indeed there is a danger of our being charged with riot over to-day's meeting; there is not a single reason we can give for this disorderly gathering."

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.

His company as far as Asia consisted of Sopater of Beroea (the son of Pyrrhus), Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timotheus, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.

They went on to wait for us at Troas,

On the first day of the week we met for the breaking of bread; Paul addressed them, as he was to leave next day, and he prolonged his address till midnight

In the window sat a young man called Eutychus, and as Paul's address went on and on, he got overcome with drowsiness, went fast asleep, and fell from the third storey. He was picked up a corpse,

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.

This was because Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, to avoid any loss of time in Asia; he wanted to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

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,