And we are witnesses of all the things which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they put to death, hanging him on a tree.

Who will say words to you through which you and all your family may get salvation.

And one of them, named Agabus, said publicly through the Spirit that there would be serious need of food all over the earth: which came about in the time of Claudius.

Which they did, sending it to the rulers of the church by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

And when they had gone past the first and second watchmen they came to the iron door into the town, which came open by itself: and they went out and down one street; and then the angel went away.

And on the day which had been fixed, Herod, dressed in his robes and seated in his place, made a public statement to them.

And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.

For whose coming John made ready the way by preaching to all the people of Israel the baptism which goes with a change of heart.

For the men of Jerusalem and their rulers, having no knowledge of him, or of the sayings of the prophets which come to their ears every Sabbath day, gave effect to them by judging him.

Which God has now put into effect for our children, by sending Jesus; as it says in the second Psalm, You are my Son; this day I have given you being.

And through him everyone who has faith is made free from all those things, from which the law of Moses was not able to make you free.

See, you doubters, have wonder and come to your end; for I will do a thing in your days to which you will not give belief, even if it is made clear to you.

And the priest of the image of Jupiter, which was before the town, took oxen and flowers to the doors of the town, and was about to make an offering with the people.

Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them.

And from there they went by ship to Antioch, where they had been handed over to the grace of God for the work which they had not done.

And when they came there, and had got the church together, they gave them an account of all the things which God had done through them, and how he had made open a door of faith to the Gentiles.

And when they came to Jerusalem, they had a meeting with the church and the Apostles and the rulers, and they gave an account of all the things which God had done through them.

And all the people were quiet while Barnabas and Paul gave an account of the signs and wonders which God had done among the Gentiles by them.

After these things I will come back, and will put up the tent of David which has been broken down, building up again its broken parts and making it complete:

To keep from things offered to false gods, and from blood, and from things put to death in ways which are against the law, and from the evil desires of the body; if you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. May you be happy.

And on their way through the towns, they gave them the rules which had been made by the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem, so that they might keep them.

And from there to Philippi, which is the most important town of Macedonia and a Roman colony: and we were there for some days.

And a certain woman named Lydia, a trader in purple cloth of the town of Thyatira, and a God-fearing woman, gave ear to us: whose heart the Lord made open to give attention to the things which Paul was saying.

And when we were going to the place of prayer, we came across a girl with a spirit which gave knowledge of the future, whose masters made great profit from her power.

Teaching rules of living which it is not right for us to have or to keep, being Romans.

For when I came by, I was looking at the things to which you give worship, and I saw an altar with this writing on it, TO THE GOD OF WHOM THERE IS NO KNOWLEDGE. Now, what you, without knowledge, give worship to, I make clear to you.

Because a day has been fixed in which all the world will be judged in righteousness by the man who has been marked out by him for this work; of which he has given a sign to all men by giving him back from the dead.

Saying, This man is teaching the people to give worship to God in a way which is against the law.

And Paul said, John gave a baptism which goes with a change of heart, saying to the people that they were to have faith in him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.

Doing the Lord's work without pride, through all the sorrow and troubles which came on me because of the evil designs of the Jews:

And how I kept back nothing which might be of profit to you, teaching you publicly and privately,

But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God.

Give attention to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has given into your care, to give food to the church of God, for which he gave his blood.

And now, I give you into the care of God and the word of his grace, which is able to make you strong and to give you your heritage among all the saints.

And when we had come in view of Cyprus, going past it on our left, we went on to Syria, and came to land at Tyre: for there the goods which were in the ship had to be taken out.

And when he had said how glad he was to see them, he gave them a detailed account of the things which God had done through his work among the Gentiles.

Do this, then, which we say to you: We have four men who have taken an oath;

But Paul said, I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, which is not an unimportant town: I make a request to you to let me say a word to the people.

My brothers and fathers, give ear to the story of my life which I now put before you.

Of which the high priest will be a witness, and all the rulers, from whom I had letters to the brothers; and I went into Damascus, to take those who were there as prisoners to Jerusalem for punishment.

Then it became clear to me that it was a question of their law, and that nothing was said against him which might be a reason for prison or death.

And from whom you will be able, by questioning him yourself, to get knowledge of all the things which we say against him.

And they are not able to give facts in support of the things which they say against me now.

But this I will say openly to you, that I do give worship to the God of our fathers after that Way, which to them is not the true religion: but I have belief in all the things which are in the law and in the books of the prophets:

Hoping in God for that which they themselves are looking for, that there will be a coming back from the dead for upright men and wrongdoers.

But only this one thing which I said among them in a loud voice, I am this day being judged on the question of the coming back from the dead.

And while he was talking about righteousness and self-control and the judging which was to come, Felix had great fear and said, Go away for the present, and when the right time comes I will send for you.

So Festus, having come into that part of the country which was under his rule, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

And when he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem came round him, and made all sorts of serious statements against him, which were not supported by the facts.

In my opinion I am happy, King Agrippa, to be able to give my answer before you today to all these things which the Jews say against me:

And they are able to say, if they would give witness, that I was living as a Pharisee, in that division of our religion which is most regular in the keeping of the law.

For the effecting of which our twelve tribes have been working and waiting night and day with all their hearts. And in connection with this hope I am attacked by the Jews, O king!

And when we had all gone down on the earth, a voice came to me, saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? It is hard for you to go against the impulse which is driving you.

But get up on your feet: for I have come to you for this purpose, to make you a servant and a witness of the things in which you have seen me, and of those in which you will see me;

And when they had gone away they said to one another, This man has done nothing which might give cause for death or prison.

And we went to sea in a ship of Adramyttium which was sailing to the sea towns of Asia, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

And sailing down the side of it, as well as we were able, we came to a certain place named Fair Havens, near which was the town of Lasea.

And as the harbour was not a good one in which to be for the winter, the greater number of them were for going out to sea, in order, if possible, to put in for the winter at Phoenix, a harbour of Crete, looking to the north-east and south-east.

And after three months we went to sea in a ship of Alexandria sailing under the sign of the Dioscuri, which had been at the island for the winter.

And for the space of two years, Paul was living in the house of which he had the use, and had talk with all those who went in to see him,

Of which God had given word before by his prophets in the holy Writings,

That is to say, that all of us may be comforted together by the faith which is in you and in me.

For which reason I have the desire, as far as I am able, to give the knowledge of the good news to you who are in Rome.

For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing:

And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed and made into the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.

Because by them the true word of God was changed into that which is false, and they gave worship and honour to the thing which is made, and not to him who made it, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.

For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural:

And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right;

In the day when God will be a judge of the secrets of men, as it says in the good news of which I am a preacher, through Jesus Christ.

And have knowledge of his desires, and are a judge of the things which are different, having the learning of the law,

You who take pride in the law, are you doing wrong to the honour of God by behaviour which is against the law?

The true Jew is not one who is only so publicly, and circumcision is not that which may be seen in the flesh:

Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment.

But now without the law there is a revelation of the righteousness of God, to which witness is given by the law and the prophets;

And they may have righteousness put to their credit, freely, by his grace, through the salvation which is in Christ Jesus:

And he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account;

And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who keep to the way of that faith which our father Abraham had before he underwent circumcision.

For this reason it is of faith, so that it may be through grace; and so that the word of God may be certain to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

(As it is said in the holy Writings, I have made you a father of a number of nations) before him in whom he had faith, that is, God, who gives life to the dead, and to whom the things which are not are as if they were.

For which reason it was put to his account as righteousness.

For which reason, because we have righteousness through faith, let us be at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

Through whom, in the same way, we have been able by faith to come to this grace in which we now are; and let us have joy in hope of the glory of God.

And hope does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

For his death was a death to sin, but his life now is a life which he is living to God.

For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires;

But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed;

What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death.

But now, being free from sin, and having been made servants to God, you have your fruit in that which is holy, and the end is eternal life.

For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death.

But now we are free from the law, having been made dead to that which had power over us; so that we are servants in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the letter.

But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead.

For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law.

Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil.

And I have no clear knowledge of what I am doing, for that which I have a mind to do, I do not, but what I have hate for, that I do.

But, if I do that which I have no mind to do, I am in agreement with the law that the law is good.

For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.

But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh.

But if the Spirit of him who made Jesus come again from the dead is in you, he who made Christ Jesus come again from the dead will in the same way, through his Spirit which is in you, give life to your bodies which now are under the power of death.

For you did not get the spirit of servants again to put you in fear, but the spirit of sons was given to you, by which we say, Abba, Father.

I am of the opinion that there is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future.