Therefore I am decided, that we give no unnecessary disquietude to those who from the heathen have turned to God:

Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain persons who went out from us have disturbed you with discourses, unsettling your minds, insisting, that you should be circumcised, and observe the law: to whom we gave no such charge:

men who have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, and they by word of mouth will tell you the same things.

Then after certain days said Paul to Barnabas, Let us now return and visit our brethren in every city among whom we have preached the word of the Lord, that we may see how they hold on.

So when she was baptised, and her house, she entreated, saying, Since ye have judged that I am faithful to the Lord, come and abide at my house. And she constrained us.

But Paul said to them, They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Roman citizens, and have cast us into prison; and would they now clandestinely send us away? no, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.

for from him we derive life, and power of motion, and existence; as also some of your own poets have said, "For we are even his offspring."

for I am with thee, and no man shall set himself against thee to do thee harm; because I have much people in this city.

said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not even heard if the Holy Ghost is [given].

Now when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed by the Spirit, passing through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, That after I have been there, I must see Rome also.

Then out of the crowd they brought forward Alexander, the Jews pushing him on: and Alexander, waving his hand, would fain have addressed his apology to the people.

For ye have brought hither these men, neither robbers of the temple, nor blasphemers of your goddess.

If then indeed Demetrius and the artificers that are with him have a charge against any man, the courts are held, and there are proconsuls: let them implead one another.

And if ye have any dispute about other matters, it shall be terminated in a lawful assembly,

And when they were come unto him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the very first day in which I entered into Asia, how I have been among you at every season,

serving the Lord with all humility, and with many tears and trials, which have befallen me through the lying in wait of the Jews:

and that I have suppressed nothing which could conduce to your profiting; not desisting from preaching to you, and teaching you in public, and from house to house,

Yet I make no account of any [suffering], nor regard my life as of any value to myself, farther than as I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord, to testify fully the Gospel of the grace of God.

And now behold, I know that ye shall see my face no more, even ye all, among whom I have gone in and out preaching the kingdom of God.

For I have concealed nothing, so as not repeatedly to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Therefore watch, remembering that for three years, by night and by day, I have never ceased with tears to admonish every individual.

The silver, or gold, or apparel of no man have I coveted:

but ye yourselves know that these hands have by labour furnished necessaries for my own wants, and for those who were with me.

In all things I have set you the example, that so labouring hard ye ought to help the infirm, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, because he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

And they, when they heard it, glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many myriads there are of Jews who have believed; and they are all zealots for the law:

And they have been informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews, who are among the Gentiles, apostacy from Moses, saying, That they should not circumcise the children, nor walk after the usual practices.

Do this therefore which we say to thee: we have four men, who have a vow upon themselves;

Concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we have already written, deciding that they should observe no such thing, except that they should guard themselves from idol sacrifices, and blood, and what is strangled, and from whoredom.

THEN Paul, looking earnestly at the sanhedrim, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience unto God even to this day.

And a great clamour arose: and the scribes rising up who were of the party of the Pharisees, contended stoutly, saying, We find no fault in this man: but if a spirit have spoken to him, or an angel, let us not fight against God.

So they came to the high-priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves by the direst imprecation, to taste nothing till we have killed Paul.

And he said, The Jews have agreed together to entreat thee that to-morrow thou wouldest bring down Paul into the sanhedrim, as about to make some more accurate inquiry concerning him.

But do not thou consent to them: for more than forty men of them are lying in wait for him, who have bound themselves under an anathema, neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now they are in readiness, waiting only to procure the promise from thee.

and found him accused of some disputed points of their law; but to have no charge laid against him worthy of death or of bonds.

But it being discovered to me that a design was forming against the man's [life] by the Jews, immediately I sent him to thee, commanding his accusers also to produce what they have against him before thee. Farewel.

Who ought to have appeared before thee, and prefer their accusation, if they had any thing against me.

And he commanded the centurion that Paul should be safe kept, yet have no close confinement, and not to hinder any of his friends from supplying his wants, or visiting him.

But he pleaded in his defence, That neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I committed the least offence.

Then said Paul, I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar, where I have a right to be judged: against the Jews I have committed no offence, as thou also clearly perceivest.

For indeed if I have committed any crime, or done aught worthy of death, I object not to be put to death: but if there is nothing in those things whereof they accuse me, no man dare gratify them by abandoning me to them.

To whom I replied, That it was not customary for Romans to give up any man gratuitously to destruction, before that the person accused should have his accusers produced face to face, and be allowed opportunity to defend himself against the charge.

And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all you, sirs, who are present with us, behold the man, concerning whom the whole multitude of the Jews have set upon me, both at Jerusalem and in this place, clamouring that he ought not to live a moment longer.

But finding on inquiry that he had done nothing worthy of death, and he himself indeed having appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.

Respecting whom I have nothing determinate to write to my sovereign. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and especially before thee, king Agrippa, that on a fresh examination taken, I might have something to write.

Notwithstanding, arise, and stand on thy feet: for to this end have I appeared to thee, to ordain thee both a minister and a witness of the things which thou hast seen, and of those which I will shew thee;

For the king is well acquainted with these things, before whom also I speak with the greatest freedom. For I am persuaded that none of these events have escaped his notice; for this thing was not done in a corner.

And Agrippa said to Festus, This man might have been discharged, if he had not appealed to Caesar.

Now after being a long while without food, then stood up Paul in the midst of them, and said, Ye ought, my friends, to have been persuaded by me, and not have sailed from Crete, and got this loss and damage.

Then the soldiers' design was to have murdered the prisoners, lest any of them should swim ashore and escape.

Now they expected that a violent inflammation would ensue, or that he would have fallen suddenly dead: but when, after waiting a considerable time, they saw no inconvenience arise to him, they changed their opinion, and said that he was a divinity.

And when we were come to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but he permitted Paul to have an apartment by himself, with a soldier only who guarded him.

Now it came to pass that after three days Paul called together the principal persons of the Jews. And when they were assembled, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have done nothing contrary to the people and the customs of our ancestors, yet have I been delivered up a prisoner into the hands of the Romans.

Who, after a full examination, would have discharged me, because there was not the least cause found in me for death.

But when the Jews opposed it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I have any accusation to bring against my countrymen.

For this cause therefore have I invited you hither, to see and to converse with you; for on account of the hope of Israel am I bound with this chain.

Then they said to him, We have neither received letters concerning thee from Judea, nor hath any one of the brethren who is arrived reported or spoken any thing evil of thee.

For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and with their ears they are thick of hearing, and their eyes have they shut; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and become converts, and I should heal them."

through whom we have received grace and apostolic mission among all nations for his name, to bring them to the obedience of faith:

always in my prayers entreating that haply now at last I may have a prosperous journey by the will of God, to come to you.

But I would not that ye should be unacquainted, brethren, that oftentimes I have been purposing to come to you (and have been prevented until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the other Gentile nations.

For as many as have sinned without the law, shall perish also without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law;

(for when the Gentiles, who have not the law naturally, do the things of the law, these, though not having the law, are a law unto themselves:

What then? have we pre-eminence? Not at all: for we have before proved that both the Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have spoken craftily; the poison of asps is under their lips:

And they have not known the way of peace:

for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

(as it is written "that I have constituted thee father of many nations,") before God, in whom he trusted, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth things that are not as if existing.

BEING justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

by whom also we have had an introduction through faith into this grace in which we have stood fast, and are rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And not so only, but we exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom already we have received reconciliation.

Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; even so death passed into all men through him, in whom all have sinned.

But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over those who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him that was to come.

Do ye not know, that as many as have been baptised into Christ Jesus have been baptised into his death?

We have been buried therefore with him by baptism into death: that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted with him in the likeness of his death, so shall we be also of his resurrection:

But if we have been dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

But thanks be to God, that though ye were the servants of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart the model of doctrine into which ye were delivered.

I speak humanly, because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have presented your members servants to impurity and iniquity for iniquity; so now present your members servants to righteousness for holiness.

But now being set at liberty from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and at the end life eternal.

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye might be for another, who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit for God.

But now we have been discharged from the law, that being dead by which we were held fast; that we should serve in renovation of spirit, and not in the antiquity of the letter.

For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have received a Spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father.

And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, expecting the adoption, the redemption of our body.

For by hope we have been saved: now hope seen is not hope; for that which any man seeth how doth he yet hope for?

As it is written, "That for thy sake we have been put to death the whole day long; we have been reckoned indeed as sheep for slaughter."

For the word of promise is this, At that time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

For he saith to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

For the scripture saith to Pharaoh, "That for this very end have I raised thee up, that I might display in thee my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth."

Even as Isaiah had said before, "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left unto us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrha."

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who pursued not after righteousness, have attained unto righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith.

For I am a witness for them, that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For being ignorant of the righteousness which is of God, and seeking to establish a righteousness of their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard? but how shall they hear without a preacher?

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, "Lord, who hath believed our report?"

But I say, Have they not heard? Yea verily, "the sound of their voice is gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."

But Isaiah is very bold, and saith, "I have been found by those who sought me not; I have become manifest to those who inquired not after me."

But unto Israel he saith, "All the day long have I stretched out my hands unto a people disobedient and contradicting."