But the officers who went did not find them in the prison; so they came back and reported,

And some one came and told them that the very men whom they had put in prison were standing in the Temple, and teaching to the people.

"We must obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus, whom you slew by hanging him on a tree.

"And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

"So, brothers, find from among your own number seven men of good reputation who are full of the Spirit and of wisdom, and we will appoint them over this business.

These men they presented to the apostles who, when they had prayed, laid their hands upon them.

They also set up false witnesses who testified. "This fellow is continually talking against the Holy Place and against the law.

Then all who were sitting in the council at once fixed their eyes upon him, and saw his face like the face of an angel.

"Then he gave him a covenant of circumcision, and under this covenant he became the father of Isaac, whom he circumcised on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve Patriarchs.

"But God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him grace and wisdom, when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him Governor over Egypt, and over all the royal household.

"until there arose a king who knew not Joseph.

"In this time Moses was born, a divinely beautiful child, who was brought up for three months in his father's house.

"But the man who was ill-treating his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, "'Who made you a magistrate and ruler over us?

"This Moses whom they refused when they said, Who made you to be a ruler and a judge? that same Moses we find God sending as a ruler and a redeemer by the hand in the bush.

"This was he who brought them out, after he had shown signs and wonders in the wilderness, for forty years.

"It was this Moses who said to the Children of Israel, "God will raise up a Prophet for you from among your brothers, as he did me.

"This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness along with the angel who spoke to him in Mt. Sinai, and with our ancestors to whom he gave living words to hand down to us.

"Said they to Aaron. "Make Gods for us who shall march in front of us! As for this Moses who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him.

"In the wilderness our ancestors had the Tabernacle of Testimony built, as he appointed who told Moses to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

"That tabernacle was brought in by our ancestors, in their turn, when they under Joshua entered on the possession of the nations whom God thrust out before them, until the days of David.

"But it was Solomon who built him a house.

"Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become??53 "you who received the law, given through angels, and obeyed it not."

So those who were scattered abroad were going everywhere preaching the word.

But when they believed Philip, who was preaching glad tidings about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women.

Who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

So he arose and went. And behold an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, who was a high official (a chief treasurer) of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, who had come to Jerusalem to worship

In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will declare his posterity? For his life is cut off from the earth.

"Pray," asked the eunuch of Philip, "of whom is the prophet speaking? Of himself, or of some one else?"

And he said, "Who are you Lord?"

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he said: "Stand up and go into the city, and there you shall be told what you must do."

Meanwhile the men who were his fellow travelers stood speechless, hearing indeed the voice, but beholding no one.

"In this city, too, he has authority from the chief priests to arrest all those who call upon thy name."

And so Ananias went and entered into the house, and laying his hands on him, said, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared to you on your journey, has sent me that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

His hearers were all astonished, and began to say. "Is not this the very man who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called upon the Name? Did he not come hither for the express purpose of carrying them all in chains to the high priests?"

But Saul gained more and more influence, and kept putting the Jews who lived in Damascus to confusion by his proof that Jesus was the Christ.

Now Peter, as he was going from town to town, came down also to the saints who lived in Lydda.

"and now send men to Joppa and fetch one Simon, who is called Peter.

And after the angel who was speaking to him was gone, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier who was in constant attendance upon him,

and called and asked whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there.

So the Spirit said to Peter, who was still pondering over the vision.

"Three men are now looking for you. Rise, go down and go with them, nothing doubting; for it is I who have sent them."

"Cornelius," they answered, "a captain, a devout man, and God-fearing, of whom the whole, Jewish nation speaks well, was instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to listen to your message."

"'So send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter. He is lodging with Simon the tanner, in a house by the seaside.'

"but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.

"You cannot but know the message which he sent to the descendants of Israel, when he preached the gospel of peace by Jesus Christ who is Lord of all;

"how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about everywhere doing good, and curing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with him.

"not to all the people, but to witnesses??en previously chosen by God??hat is, to us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead;

"when he charged us to preach to the people, and to testify that this was he whom God ordained to be the judge of the living and of the dead.

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

And all the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Gentiles also.

Then Peter said, "Can any one refuse water for the baptism of these men who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?"

"And lo! at that very moment, three men who had been sent for me from Caesarea stood before the house in which I was.

"Then he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying. "'Send to Joppa and fetch Simon who is also called Peter.

"So if God gave them the same gift as he gave to us, when we first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?"

Then those who had been scattered by the trouble that arose over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch; but they preached the word to none except Jews.

Some of them, however, were Cyprians and Cyrenaeans, who, on reaching Antioch, began to tell the Greeks also the Good News concerning the Lord Jesus.

The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

One of them, who was Agabus, rose up, and being instructed by the Spirit, predicted that a great famine was about to come upon the whole inhabited earth. (It came in the reign of Claudius.)

who belonged to the suite of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. He summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God.

So Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily at him, and said:

So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said: "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

After deposing him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also bore witness, when he said, "I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, and who will obey all my will.

"And John, when he was finishing his race, repeatedly asked the people. "'Who do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold there comes One after me, whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten.'

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

"For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

but he whom God raised up saw no corruption.

When the congregation broke up, many of the Jews, and of the devout proselytes, followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked to them, and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who had been ordained to eternal life, believed.

Long time, therefore, they tarried there, speaking fearlessly in the Lord, who attested the word of his grace by permitting signs and wonders to be performed by their hands.

Now at Lystra there used to sit a certain man, lame in his feet, a cripple from birth, who had never walked.

"Men, why are you doing all this? We also are men, with natures like your own! We are bringing you good tidings, that you are to turn from these empty things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is.

They chose elders for them in every church, after prayer and fasting, and commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

But certain men who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, but were now believers, stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise Gentile, and to order them to keep the Law of Moses."

"And God, who knows the hearts of all, gave this testimony in their behalf, by bestowing upon them the Holy Spirit just as he did upon us;

"So that the rest of men may seek after the Lord, Even all the Gentiles, who are called by my name,

"Says the Lord, who has been making this known from the beginning of the world.

"My judgment therefore, is against troubling those who turn to God from among the Gentiles;

"as we have heard that some of your number who went out from us have troubled you with words and upset your souls, without having received any such instruction from us;

"men who have risked their very lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many a good counsel.

After spending some time there the brothers let them go with a greeting of peace to those who had sent them.

Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John, who was called Mark.

But Paul thought it unwise to take with them one who had deserted them to the Pamphylia, and had not gone on with them to the work.

Now Paul, wishing that this man should accompany him on his journey, took him and circumcised him because of the local Jews, who all knew that his father was a Greek.

On the Sabbath Day we went outside the city gate, to a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and talked to the women who had gathered there.

Among them was a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, who belonged to the town of Thyatira. She, since she was a worshiper of God, listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart to attend to what Paul said.

Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl met us, who had a spirit of divination, and who brought her masters great gain by fortune-telling.

She used to follow after Paul and us, crying out again and again, "These men are servants of the most high God, who proclaimed to you the way of salvation."

Then they brought them before the praetors, saying. "These fellows are Jews, who are making a great disturbance in our city.

Then they spoke the message of the Lord to him, as well as to all who were in his house.

The lictors reported these words to the praetors, who were frightened when they heard that they were Romans.

explaining and quoting passages to prove that the Messiah had to suffer and to rise again from the dead and that "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming unto you is the Messiah."

And when they had failed to find Paul and Silas, they began to drag Jason and some of the brethren before the politarchs, shouting. "These fellows who have upset the habitable earth are come hither also.

Those who were caring for Paul brought him as far as Athens, and there left him, with instructions to Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed.

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

inasmuch as he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world justly, by the Man whom he has ordained, and he has given proof of all this by raising him from the dead."

A few, however, attached themselves to him and believed, among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and some others.

Here he found a certain 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.

When he wished to cross over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples in Corinth to receive him. On his arrival he mightily helped those who through grace had believed,

"John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance," answered Paul, "telling the people to believe on One who was coming after him, namely, on Jesus."