Then the voice from heaven answered again, 'Do not call what God has cleansed unclean!'

Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea to find me, reached the house where we were staying,

The fugitives from the persecution that had broken out over Stephen went all the way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message to none but Jews.

There were some men from Cyprus and Cyrene among them, however, who when they reached Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, and told them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

About that time some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch,

when an angel of the Lord stood at his side, and a light shone in the room, and striking Peter on the side, he woke him, and said to him, "Get up quickly!" The chains dropped from his hands,

Then Peter came to himself, and he said, "Now I am certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the power of Herod and all that the Jewish people were expecting."

Being sent out in this way by the holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.

But Elymas the magician??or that is the meaning of his name??pposed them, and tried to keep the governor from accepting the faith.

Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and went to Perga in Pamphylia. There John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

but they went on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue there and took seats.

It is from his descendants that God has brought to Israel as he promised to do, a savior in Jesus,

When they had carried out everything that had been said about him in the Scriptures, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead,

and for many days he appeared to those who had come up to Jerusalem with him from Galilee, and they are now witnesses for him to the people.

Now as evidence that he has raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: 'I will fulfil to you my sacred promises to David.'

They shook off the dust from their feet in protest, and went to Iconium.

In the streets of Lystra a man used to sit who had not the use of his feet. He had been lame from his birth, and had never been able to walk.

and shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are only human beings like you, and we bring you the good news that you should turn from these follies to a living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain.

though he did not fail to give some evidence about himself, through his kindnesses to you, in sending you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and happiness to your heart's content."

Even with these words they could hardly restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them.

But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and won the people over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead.

and from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God's favor for the work which they had now finished.

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved.

After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it.

Symeon has told how God first showed an interest in taking from among the heathen a people to bear his name.

who has been making this known from of old.'

As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds,

that you avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. Keep yourselves free from these things and you will get on well. Goodbye."

As they traveled on from one town to another, they passed on to the brothers for their observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

So the churches became stronger and stronger in the faith, and their numbers increased from day to day.

Thus they crossed Phrygia and Galatia. The holy Spirit prevented them from delivering the message in Asia,

So we sailed from Troas, and ran a straight course to Samothrace, and next day to Neapolis.

From there we went to Philippi, a Roman garrison town, and the principal place in that part of Macedonia. In this town we stayed for some days.

One of our hearers was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple goods, from the town of Thyatira. She was a believer in God, and the Lord touched her heart, and led her to accept Paul's teaching.

explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "Jesus," he said, "of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!"

For all Athenians and all visitors there from abroad used to spend all their time telling or listening to something new.

Then Paul stood up in the middle of the council and said, "Men of Athens, from every point of view I see that you are extremely religious.

From one forefather he has created every nation of mankind, and made them live all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands,

so that they might search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him, though he is never far from any of us.

since he has fixed a day on which he will justly judge the world through a man whom he has appointed, and whom he has guaranteed to all men by raising him from the dead."

There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was absorbed in preaching the message, emphatically assuring the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

And he drove them away from the court.

He bade them goodbye, saying, "I will come back to you again if it is God's will." Then he sailed from Ephesus.

for he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, and showed from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Some Jews who went from place to place casting out demons tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in the cases of people who had evil spirits in them, saying, "I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

But when they saw that he was a Jew, a great shout went up from them all, and they cried for two hours, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!"

At last the recorder quieted the mob and said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky?

He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia.

while we sailed from Philippi after the festival of Unleavened Bread, and joined them at Troas five days later. There we stayed a week.

and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting at the window, became very drowsy as Paul's address grew longer and longer, and finally went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground, and was picked up for dead.

Sailing from there, we arrived off Chios on the following day. On the next we crossed to Samos, and on the next we reached Miletus.

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

When they came, he said to them, "You know well enough how I lived among you all the time from the first day I set foot in Asia,

I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public or at your houses,

for I have not shrunk from letting you know God's purpose without reserve.

and from your own number men will appear and teach perversions of the truth in order to draw the disciples away after them.

When the parting was over and we had sailed, we made a straight run to Cos and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara.

After making the run from Tyre, we landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and spent a day with them.

We spent a number of days there, and in the course of them a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and took us to the house of Mnason, a man from Cyprus, one of the early disciples, to spend the night.

They have been told that you teach all Jews who live among the heathen to turn away from Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the old customs.

The seven days were almost over when the Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple, and stirred up all the crowd and seized him,

"I am a Jew," Paul answered, "from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you to let me speak to the people."

But on my way, as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly about noon, a blaze of light flashed around me from heaven,

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.

After reading the letter, he asked Paul what province he belonged to, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia,

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

I had undergone the rites of purification and was occupied with these matters when they found me in the Temple, with no crowd or disturbance at all. But there were some Jews from Asia

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.

Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem,

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.

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.

The way I lived from my youth up, spending my early life among my own nation and at Jerusalem, is well known to all Jews,

for they have known from the first, if they are willing to give evidence, that I was a Pharisee and my life was that of the strictest sect of our religion.

when on the road at noon, your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun flash around me and my fellow-travelers.

I will save you from your people and from the heathen, to whom I will send you

to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan's control to God, so that they may have their sins forgiven and have a place among those who are consecrated through faith in me.'

if the Christ was to suffer and by being the first to rise from the dead was to proclaim the light to our people and to the heathen."

We went on board an Adramyttian ship bound for the ports of Asia, and put to sea. We had a Macedonian from Thessalonica, named Aristarchus, with us.

Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, as the wind was against us,

For a number of days we made slow progress and had some difficulty in arriving off Cnidus. Then as the wind kept us from going on, we sailed under the lee of Crete, off Cape Salmone,

But very soon a violent wind which they call a Northeaster rushed down from it.

Then, when they had gone a long time without food, Paul got up among them, and said, "Gentlemen, you ought to have listened to me and not to have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss.

Then as they were afraid we might go on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and waited anxiously for daylight.

The sailors wanted to escape from the ship, and actually lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to run out anchors from the bow,

but the officer wanted to save Paul, and so he prevented them from doing this, and ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land,

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."

"We have had no letters about you from Judea," they answered, "and none of the brothers who have come here has reported or said anything against you.

So they fixed a day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying, and from morning till night he explained to them the Kingdom of God and gave his testimony, trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.

about his Son, who was physically descended from David,

and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord,

For God's anger is breaking forth from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth.

and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right,

The real Jew is the man who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, a spiritual, not a literal, thing. Such a man receives his praise not from men, but from God.

A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God.

Is this using faith to overthrow law? Far from it. This confirms the Law.

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.