When it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And even after the sale, was the money not yours to do as you pleased about it? How could you think of doing a thing like this? You have not defrauded men but God."

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and expired. (Great awe came over all who heard of it.)

Great awe came over the whole church and over all who heard about this.

This filled the high priest Annas and his allies, the Sadducean party, with bitter jealousy;

"Go and stand in the temple, telling the people all about this Life."

On hearing this the commander of the temple and the high priests were quite at a loss to know what to make of it.

At this the commander went off with the attendants and fetched them ??but without using violence, for fear that the people would pelt them with stones.

"We strictly forbade you to teach about this Name, did we not? And here you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine! You want to make us responsible for this man's death!"

When they heard this, they were so furious that they determined to make away with the apostles.

So I advise you to-day to leave these men to themselves. Let them alone. If this project or enterprise springs from men, it will collapse;

Brothers, look out seven of your own number, men of good reputation who are full of the Spirit and of wisdom. We will appoint them to this duty,

This plan commended itself to the whole body, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nikolaos a proselyte from Antioch;

In this way they excited the people, the elders, and the scribes, who rushed on him, dragged him away, and took him before the Sanhedrin.

They also brought forward false witnesses to say, "This fellow is never done talking against this holy Place and the Law!

Why, we have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this Place and change the customs handed down to us by Moses!"

Said the high priest, "Is this true?"

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. From Haran God shifted him, after his father's death, to this land which you now inhabit.

What God said was this: 'His offspring will sojourn in a foreign land, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

But,' said God, 'I will pass sentence on the nation that has made them slaves, and then they will get away to worship me in this Place.'

It was at this period that Moses was born, a divinely beautiful child. For three months he was brought up in his father's house;

When Moses saw this, he marvelled at the sight; and as he went up to look at it, the voice of the Lord said,

(This was the Moses who told the sons of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brotherhood, as he raised me.')

This was the man who at the assembly in the desert intervened between the angel who spoke to him on mount Sinai and our fathers; he received living Words to be given to us.

They told Aaron, 'Make gods that will march in front of us! As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him!'

They actually made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to this idol, and grew festive over what their own hands had manufactured.

Did not my hand make all this?

When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.

Then he knelt down and cried aloud, "Lord, let not this sin stand against them!" With these words he slept the sleep of death.

saying, "Let me share this power too, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the holy Spirit."

You come in for no share or lot in this religion. Your heart is all wrong in the sight of God.

So repent of this wickedness of yours, and ask God whether you cannot be forgiven for your heart's purpose.

Then Philip opened his lips, and starting from this scripture preached the gospel of Jesus to him.

And the Lord said to him, "Go away to the street called 'The Straight Street,' and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus called Saul. He is praying at this very moment,

"But, Lord," Ananias answered, "many people have told me about all the mischief this man has done to thy saints at Jerusalem!

And in this city too he has authority from the high priests to put anyone in chains who invokes thy Name!"

He lost no time in preaching throughout the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God ??21 to the amazement of all his hearers, who said, "Is this not the man who in Jerusalem harried those who invoke this Name, the man who came here for the express purpose of carrying them all in chains to the high priests?"

She happened to take ill and die at this time, and after washing her body they laid it in an upper room.

This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

This happened three times; then the vessel was at once raised to heaven.

"Three days ago," said Cornelius, "at this very hour I was praying in my house at three o'clock in the afternoon, when a man stood before me in shining dress,

when he enjoined us to preach to the People, testifying that this was he whom God has appointed to be judge of the living and of the dead.

Now the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed that the gift of the holy Spirit had actually been poured out on the Gentiles ??46 for they heard them speak with 'tongues' and magnify God. At this Peter asked,

This happened three times, and then the whole thing was drawn back into heaven.

On hearing this they desisted and glorified God, saying, "So God has actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live!"

The news of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they despatched Barnabas to Antioch.

This they carried out, sending their contribution to the presbyters by Barnabas and Saul.

and when he saw this pleased the Jews, he went on to seize Peter. (This was during the days of unleavened bread.)

He beckoned to them to keep quiet and then described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Report this to James," he said, "and to the brothers." And off he went to another place.

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.

After deposing him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he bore this testimony that 'In David, the son of Jessai, I have found a man after my own heart, who will obey all my will.'

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

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.

Look, you disdainful folk, wonder at this and perish for in your days I do a deed, a deed you will never believe, not though one were to explain it to you."

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

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;

But when the apostles, Paul and Barnabas, heard this they rent their clothes and sprang out among the crowd,

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.

Even by saying this, it was all they could do to keep the crowds from sacrificing to them.

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 apostles and the presbyters met to investigate 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;

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

After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent, its ruins I will rebuild and erect it anew,

who makes this known from of old.

abstain from food that has been offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual vice. Keep clear of all this and you will prosper. Goodbye."

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.

She did this for a number of days. Then Paul turned in annoyance and told the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you out of her!" And it left her that very moment.

The jailer repeated this to Paul. "The praetors," he said, "have sent to release you. So come out and go in peace?"

The lictors reported this to the praetors, who, on hearing the men were Roman citizens, became alarmed;

Both the crowd and the politarchs were disturbed when they heard this;

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, "Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection').

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

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."

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

By the time Silas and Timotheus came south from Macedonia, Paul was engrossed in this preaching of the word, arguing to the Jews that the messiah was Jesus.

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."

for I am with you, and no one shall attack and injure you; I have many people in this city."

crying, "This fellow incites men to worship God contrary to the Law."

When they heard this, they had themselves baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,

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

The seven sons of Sceuas, a Jewish high priest, used to do this.

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.

It was about that time that a great commotion arose over the Way. This was how it happened.

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.

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

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."

Now we had gone on beforehand to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there. This was his own arrangement, for he intended to travel by land.

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.

Only, I know this, that in town after town the holy Spirit testifies to me that bonds and troubles are awaiting me.

Therefore do I protest before you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you;

I showed you how this was the way to work hard and succour the needy, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who said, 'To give is happier than to get.'"

He came to us, took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands, saying, "Here is the word of the holy Spirit: 'So shall the Jews bind the owner of this girdle at Jerusalem and hand him over to the Gentiles'."

Now when we heard this, we and the local disciples besought Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

shouting, "To the rescue, men of Israel! Here is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the People and the Law and this Place! And he has actually brought Greeks inside the temple and defiled this holy Place!"

"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral Law, ardent for God as you all are to-day.

I persecuted this Way of religion to the death, chaining and imprisoning both men and women,

till the commander ordered him to be taken inside the barracks and examined under the lash, so as to find out why the people shouted at him in this way.

When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and said to him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."