Now a man was sick; it was Lazarus who lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was the Mary who poured the perfume upon the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Now Jesus held in loving esteem Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life myself. Whoever continues to believe in me will live right on even though he dies,

On saying this she went back and called her sister Mary, whispering to her, "The Teacher is here and is asking for you."

So the Jews who were with her in the house sympathizing with her, when they saw Mary jump up and go out, followed her, because they supposed that she was going to the grave to pour out her grief there.

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she threw herself at His feet, and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

So when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping too, He sighed in sympathy and shook with emotion,

Jesus said to her, "Did I not promise you that if you would believe in me, you should see the glory of God?"

Then Mary took a pound of expensive perfume, made of the purest oil, and poured it on Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair; and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Then Jesus said, "Let her alone; let her keep it for the day of my funeral,

The crowd answered Him, "We have learned from the law that the Christ is to remain here forever, and so how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

When a woman is in labor, she is in pain, for her time has come, but when the baby is born, she forgets her pain because of her joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Listen! A time is coming, yea, it is right here, when you will all be scattered to your homes and will leave me alone. And yet, I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

I have glorified you down here upon the earth by completing the work which you have given me to do.

So Jesus came outside still wearing the crown of thorns and the purple coat. Then Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

Near Jesus' cross were standing His mother and her sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.

Then He said to His disciple, "There is your mother." And from that very hour His disciple took her to his own home.

And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have put Him."

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Because she supposed it was the gardener, she said to Him, "If it was you, sir, who carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will remove Him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" At once she turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" which means Teacher.

Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to me so, for I have not yet gone up to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them that I am going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had told her this.

Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and look at my hands, and take your hand and put it in my side, and stop being an unbeliever, but be a believer!"

"Fellow Israelites, listen to what I say. Jesus of Nazareth, as you yourselves well know, a man accredited to you by God through mighty deeds and wonders and wonder-works which God performed through Him right here among you,

"Brothers, I may confidently say to you about the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and that his grave is here among us to this very day.

you and all the people of Israel must know that it is by the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead -- yes, I repeat it, it is by His authority that this man stands here before you well.

Peter said to her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for such and such a sum?" She answered, "Yes, that is it."

Peter said to her, "How could both of you agree in such a way to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door; they will carry you out, too."

She instantly fell dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

But somebody came by and reported to them, "The men that you put in jail are standing right here in the temple square, teaching the people."

When he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. Thus

So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian official, a member of the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, her chief treasurer, who had come to Jerusalem to worship,

As they continued down the road, they came to some water, and the official said, "Look! here is some water! What is there to keep me from being baptized?"

Now there was in Damascus a disciple named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias!" And he answered, "Yes, Lord, I am here."

Now he is here and has authority from the high priests to put in chains all who call upon your name."

So Ananias left and went to that house, and there he laid his hands upon Saul, and said, "Saul, my. brother, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road on which you were coming here, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

And all who heard him were astounded and said, "Is not this the man who harassed those who called upon this name in Jerusalem, and has come here expressly for the purpose of putting them in chains and taking them back to the high priests?"

Now, as Peter was going here and there among them all, he finally went down to God's people who lived at Lydda.

At Joppa there was a woman, a disciple, whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek means Dorcas, that is, Gazelle. She had filled her life with good deeds and works of charity, which she was always doing.

Just at that time it happened that she had been taken ill and had died. They washed her body and laid her out in a room upstairs.

Then Peter put them all out of the room, knelt down and prayed, and, turning to the body, said, "Tabitha, get up!" Then she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

He gave her his hand and lifted her to her feet, and calling in the Lord's people and the widows, he gave her back to them alive.

So at once I sent for you, and you have been kind enough to come. So now we are all here in God's presence to listen to anything that the Lord has commanded you to say."

and on recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she failed to open the door but ran and told them that Peter was standing at the door.

They said to her, "You are crazy!" But she persistently insisted that it was so. Then they said, "It is his guardian angel!"

Then Paul and his party set sail from Paphos and crossed over to Perga in Pamphylia. Here John quit them and returned to Jerusalem,

Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.

For here are the orders that the Lord has given us: 'I have made you a light to the heathen, To be the means of salvation to the very ends of the earth.'"

Among them was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods from the town of Thyatira, and she stayed to listen to us. She was already a worshiper of God, and the Lord so moved upon her heart that she accepted the message spoken by Paul.

When she and her household were baptized, she begged us by continuing to say, "If you have made up your mind that I am a real believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she continued to insist that we do so.

Once as we were on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had the gift of magical fortune-telling, and continued to make great profits for her owners by fortune-telling.

She kept this up for a number of days. Because Paul was so much annoyed by her, he turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her." And that very moment it came out.

But Paul at once shouted out to him, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here!"

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public and that without a trial, and put us in jail although we are Roman citizens! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

Now they traveled on through Amphipolis and Apollonia until they reached Thessalonica. Here there was a Jewish synagogue.

They stopped at Jason's house and tried to bring them out to the people. So, as they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the town magistrates, shouting, "These fellows, who have turned the world topsy-turvy, have come here too,

For as I was going here and there and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' So it is about the Being whom you are in ignorance already worshiping that I am telling you.

Now the danger facing us is, not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into contempt and that she whom all Asia and all the world now worship will soon be dethroned from her majestic glory!"

For you have brought these men here, although they are not guilty of sacrilege or of abusive speech against our goddess.

And I am here now on my way to Jerusalem, because I am impelled by the Spirit to do so, though I am not aware what will befall me there,

After sighting Cyprus and leaving it on our left, we sailed on for Syria, and put in at Tyre, for the ship was to unload her cargo there.

On finishing the sail from Tyre we landed at Ptolemais. Here we greeted the brothers and spent a day with them.

While we were spending some days here, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Now you must do just what we tell you. We have here four men who are under a vow.

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in this city, and carefully educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, as all of you are today.

But there were some Jews from Asia who ought to be here before you and to present their charges, if they have any, against me.

unless it is for one thing that I shouted out as I stood among them, 'It is for the resurrection of the dead that I am here on trial before you today.'"

Then Felix, who had a fairly clear conception of the principles involved in The Way, adjourned the trial, saying to the Jews, "When Lysias, the colonel, comes down here, I will carefully look into your case."

and as they stayed for several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. He said, "There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix,

So they came back here with me, and I made no delay to take my seat on the judge's bench, and ordered the man to be brought in.

Then Festus said: "King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you now see this man about whom the whole Jewish nation made suit to me, both in Jerusalem and here, continuously clamoring that he ought not to live any longer.

And now it is for the hope of the promise made by God to our forefathers that I stand here on trial,

As I have gotten help from God clear down to this very day, I stand here to testify to high and low alike, without adding a syllable to what Moses and the prophets said should take place,

There the colonel found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, and put us on board her.

The ship was snatched along by it and since she could not face the wind, we gave up and let her drive.

After hoisting it on board, they used ropes to brace the ship, and since they were afraid of being stranded on the Syrtis quicksands, they lowered the sail and let her drift.

So here is the comparison: As through one man sin came into the world, and death as the consequence of sin, and death spread to all men; because all men sinned.

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond.

So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man.

Just as He says in Hosea: "I will call a people that was not mine, my people, and her who was not beloved, my beloved,

But here is what the faith-way to right standing says, "Do not say to yourself, 'Who will go up to heaven?'" that is, to bring Christ down;

that you may give her a Christian welcome in a manner becoming God's people, and give her whatever help she needs from you, for she herself has given protection to many, including myself.

Gaius, my host, and host of the whole church here, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does our brother Quartus.

Or, are you not aware that a man who has to do with a prostitute makes his body one with hers? For God says, "The two shall be physically one."

but because of so much sexual immorality every man should have a wife of his own, and every woman a husband of her own.

The husband must always give his wife what is due her, and the wife too must do so for her husband.

The wife does not have the right to do as she pleases with her own body; the husband has his right to it. In the same way the husband does not have the right to do as he pleases with his own body; the wife has her right to it.

To the people already married I give this instruction -- no, not I but the Lord -- that a wife is not to leave her husband.

But if she does leave him, she must remain single, or better, be reconciled to her husband. I instruct the husband too not to divorce his wife.

To the rest of the people I myself would say -- though the Lord Himself has said nothing about it -- if a Christian has a wife that is not a believer and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her;

and a woman who has a husband that is not a believer, but he consents to live with her, must not divorce her husband.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated by union with his wife and the unbelieving wife by union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but in this way they are consecrated.

An unmarried woman or a girl is concerned about the affairs of the Lord, so as to be consecrated in body and spirit, but a married woman is concerned about the affairs of the world, and how she can please her husband.

Now if a father thinks that he is not doing the proper thing regarding his single daughter, if she is past the bloom of her youth, and she ought to do so, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin. Let the daughter and her suitor marry.

But the father who stands firm in his purpose, without having any necessity for doing so, and he has made the decision in his own heart to keep her single, will do what is right.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases, except that he must be a Christian.

and any woman who prays or prophesies bareheaded dishonors her head, for it is one and the same thing with having her head shaved.