The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they stayed as foreigners in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, he led them out of it.

For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance

for about four hundred fifty years. After these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'

As John was fulfilling his course, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, one comes after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.'

and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.

that God has fulfilled the same to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, 'You are my Son. Today I have become your father.'

"Concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.'

Therefore he says also in another psalm, 'You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.'

For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was placed with his fathers, and saw decay.

But he whom God raised up saw no decay.

He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole,

said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." He leaped up and walked.

They called Barnabas "Jupiter," and Paul "Mercury," because he was the chief speaker.

Yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness."

But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe.

When they had arrived, and had gathered the church together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations.

God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.

He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

Simeon has reported how God first visited the nations, to take out of them a people for his name.

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing."

He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was a Greek.

Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.

She followed Paul and us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation."

He called for lights and sprang in, and, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,

He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.

He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,

neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

that they should seek God, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles."

He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Titius Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

He drove them from the judgment seat.

Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.

They came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

When they asked him to stay a longer time, he declined;

but taking his leave of them, and saying, "I will return again to you if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.

When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch.

Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;

for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They said to him, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

He said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."

He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning the Kingdom of God.

But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the crowd, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.

But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours shouted, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians."

When the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece.

When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.

He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead.

When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed.

But we who went ahead to the ship set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for he had so arranged, intending himself to go by land.

When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard, and came to Mitylene.

For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the church.

When they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,

how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Having found the disciples, we stayed there seven days. These said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

Coming to us, and taking Paul's belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit: 'So will the Jews in Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"

When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The Lord's will be done."

When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry.

They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law.

crying out, "Men of Israel, help. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the Law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place."

Immediately he took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul.

Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done.

Some shouted one thing, and some another, among the crowd. When he could not find out the truth because of the noise, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks.

When he came to the stairs, it happened that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd;

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commanding officer, "May I speak something to you?" He said, "Do you know Greek?

When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, beckoned with his hand to the people. When there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,

When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,

As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.

I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.'

He said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

"He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.'"