The next day he started off with them, and some of the brothers in Joppa went along with him. The day after that they reached Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for him, as he had invited in his kinsmen and close friends.

so I have come, since I was sent for, without any hesitation."

Then Cornelius said, "Four days ago, about this hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, I was praying in my house, and all at once a man in dazzling clothing stood before me,

how God consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and then He went about doing good and curing all who were overpowered by the devil, because God was with Him.

While Peter was still speaking these truths, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.

"I was praying in the town of Joppa, and while I was praying I fell in a trance and had a vision. I saw something like a great sheet coming down out of the sky, lowered by the four comers; and it came right down to me.

This took place three times; then all at once the whole thing was drawn back into the sky.

So if God had given them the same gift that He gave us when we believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try -- and how could I if I tried -- to thwart God?"

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

When he reached there and saw the spiritual blessing God had given them, he was delighted, and continuously encouraged them all with hearty purpose to continue to be devoted to the Lord;

for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. So a large number of people were united to the Lord.

and after he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. Now for a whole year their meeting with the church lasted, and they taught large numbers of people. It was at Antioch too that the disciples first came to be known as "Christians."

and one of them named Agabus got up and, through the Holy Spirit, foretold that there was going to be a great famine all over the world, which occurred in the reign of Claudius.

and when he saw that this was agreeable to the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too -- it was at the time of the feast of Unleavened Bread.

So Peter was being kept in prison, but earnest prayer to God for him was persistently made by the church.

Now just as Herod was going to bring him out, that is, the very night before, Peter was fastened with two chains and was sleeping between two soldiers, and the guards were at the door guarding the prison.

So he kept following him out, but he was not conscious that what was being done by the angel was real; he thought he was dreaming it.

When he became conscious of his situation, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, were a large number of people had met and were praying.

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!"

When morning came, there was no little commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

But the angel of the Lord at once struck him down, because he did not give the glory to God; he was eaten by worms, and so died.

When Barnabas and Saul had finished their helpful service, they returned from Jerusalem, and took along with them John who was called Mark.

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who is called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen who was an intimate friend of the governor, and Saul.

Then they went through the whole island as far as Paphos, and there they found a Jewish magician and false prophet whose name was Barjesus.

He was an intimate friend of the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul and in this way tried to hear God's message.

Then Saul, who was also called Paul, because he was full of the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye

The governor, because he saw what had occurred, was thunderstruck at the Lord's teaching, and so came to believe.

As John was closing his career, he said, 'What do you take me to be? I am not the Christ; no, but He is coming after me, and I am not fit to untie the shoes on His feet.'

So now we are bringing you the good news about the promise that was made to our forefathers,

For David, after having served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his forefathers, and so he did experience decay,

And so when there was a movement on the part of both the heathen and the Jews, along with their authorities, to insult and stone them,

They called Barnabas Zeus and Paul, because he was the principal speaker, Hermes.

Even by saying this it was all that they could do to keep the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.

But some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and won the crowds by persuasion, and they stoned Paul, and dragged him outside the town, supposing he was dead.

Then the apostles and elders in cooperation with the whole church passed a resolution to select and send some men of their number with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. These were Judas, who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers.

But Barnabas persisted in wanting to take along John who was called Mark.

The disagreement was so sharp that they separated, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus.

Now he went to Derbe and Lystra too. At Lystra there was a disciple named Timothy, whose mother was a Christian Jewess, but his father was a Greek.

Paul wanted this man to join him in his journey; so on account of the Jews in that district he took him and had him circumcised, for everybody knew that his father was a Greek.

On the sabbath we went outside the gate, to the bank of the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to talk with the women who had met there.

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.

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 as the owners saw that the hope of their profit-making was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square, before the authorities,

suddenly there was an earthquake so great that it shook the very foundations of the jail, the doors all flew open, and every prisoner's chains were unfastened.

When the jailer awoke and saw that the jail doors were open, he drew his sword and was on the point of killing himself, because he thought that the prisoners had escaped.

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

The Jews there were better disposed than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message with all eagerness and carried on a daily study of the Scriptures to see if Paul's message was true.

While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred to its depths to see the city completely steeped in idolatry.

Some of the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers began to debate with him; and some said, "What is this scraps-of-truth-picker trying to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities." They said so because he was telling the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

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.

Every sabbath it was Paul's habit to preach in the synagogue and to persuade both Jews and Greeks.

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

So he moved into the house of a pagan named Titus Justus, who worshiped the true God; his house was next to the synagogue.

While Gallio was governor of Greece, the Jews unanimously attacked Paul and one day brought him before the court,

As Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were some misdemeanor or underhanded rascality, O Jews, I would in reason listen to you;

Now Paul stayed a considerable time longer in Corinth, and then bade the brothers goodbye and set sail for Syria, accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.

Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was a native of Alexandria, a learned man, and skillful in the use of the Scriptures.

He had been instructed about the way of the Lord, and with spiritual fervor he was speaking and was accurately teaching some details about Jesus, although he knew of no baptism but John's.

for he successfully refuted the Jews in public and proved by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, by passing through the inland districts, came to Ephesus. He found a few disciples there

Then Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism that was an expression of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was to come after him; that is, in Jesus."

So the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped upon them and so violently overpowered two of them that they ran out of the house stripped of their clothes and wounded.

A silversmith named Demetrius, by manufacturing silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing in great profits to his workmen.

So the whole city was thrown into confusion and with one impulse the people rushed into the theatre and dragged with them two Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions.

So they kept on shouting, some one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority of them did not know why they had met.

Some of the crowd concluded that it was Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front, and since Alexander had made a gesture of the hand as though he would make a defense before the people.

But as soon as they saw that he was a Jew, a shout went up from them all as the shout of one man, lasting for two hours: "Great Artemis of Ephesus!"

where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.

On the first day of the week when we had met to break bread, Paul addressed them, since he was leaving the next day, and prolonged his speech till midnight.

and a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting by the window, was gradually overcome by heavy drowsiness, as Paul kept speaking longer and longer, and at last he went fast asleep and fell from the third story to the ground and was picked up dead.

For Paul's plan was to sail past Ephesus, so as not to lose any time in the province of Asia; for he was eager, if possible, to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost.

I never shrank from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public and in private,

There was loud weeping by them all, as they threw their arms around Paul's neck and kept on kissing him with affection,

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.

But when our time was up, we left there and went on, and all of them with their wives and children accompanied us out of town. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed;

The next day we left there and went on to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven, and stayed with him.

The whole city was stirred with excitement, and all at once the people rushed together, and seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and its gates at once were shut.

Now while they were trying to kill him, news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a ferment.

Then the colonel came up and seized Paul and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done.

When Paul got to the steps, he was actually borne by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob,

As he was about to be taken into the barracks, Paul said to the colonel, "May I say something to you?" The colonel asked, "Do you know Greek?

He granted the request, and Paul, as he was standing on the steps, made a gesture to the people, and after everybody had quieted down, he spoke to them in Hebrew as follows:

"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.

as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. Indeed, I had received letters from them to the brothers in Damascus, and I was on the way there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of Him who was speaking to me.

Since I could not see because of the dazzling sheen of that light, I was led by the hand by my companions and in this way I reached Damascus.

And now, why are you waiting? Get up and be baptized and wash your sins away by calling on His name.'

After I had come back to Jerusalem, one day while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance,

and when the blood of your martyr Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it, and held the clothes of those who killed him.'

But when they had tied him for the flogging, Paul asked the captain who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman, and one who is uncondemned at that?"

Then the colonel said, "I paid a large sum for this citizenship of mine." Paul said, "But I was born a citizen."

So the men who were going to examine him left him at once, and the colonel himself was frightened when he learned that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

Paul answered, "I did not know, brothers, that he was high priest, for the Scripture says, 'You must not speak evil against any ruler of your people.'"

When he said that, an angry dispute arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the crowded court was divided.

So there was a vociferous yelling until some of the scribes, belonging to the party of the Pharisees, got up and fiercely contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or angel has really spoken to him!"

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were on the point of killing him when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

He read the letter and asked Paul what province he was from, and on learning that he was from Cilicia,

When Paul was called, Tertullus opened the prosecution by saying: "Your Excellency, Felix, since we are enjoying perfect peace through you and since reforms for this nation are being brought about through your foresight,

While I was performing these duties they found me just as I had completed the rites of my purification in the temple; however, there was no crowd with me and no disturbance at all.