accompanied by some of the disciples from Caesarea, who conducted us to the house of Mnason, a Cypriote, with whom we were to lodge. He was a disciple of old standing.

The whole city was thrown into turmoil. The people rushed together, seized Paul and dragged him outside the temple; whereupon the doors were immediately shut.

They were attempting to kill him, when word reached the commander of the garrison that the whole of Jerusalem was in confusion.

Just as he was being taken into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, "May I say a word to you?" "You know Greek!" said the commander.

as the high priest and all the council of elders can testify. It was from them that I got letters to the brotherhood at Damascus, and then journeyed thither to bind those who had gathered there and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

And now, why do you wait? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins, invoking his name.'

When I returned to Jerusalem, it happened that while I was praying in the temple I fell into a trance

'But, Lord,' I said, 'they surely know it was I who imprisoned and flogged those who believed in you throughout the synagogues,

and that I stood and approved when the blood of your martyr Stephen was being shed, taking charge of the clothes of his murderers!'

They had strapped him up, when Paul said to the officer who was standing by, "Are you allowed to scourge a Roman citizen ??and to scourge him without a trial?"

The commander replied, "I had to pay a large sum for this citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," said Paul.

Then those who were to have examined him left him at once alone; even the commander was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Next day, as he was anxious to find out the real reason why the Jews accused him, he unbound him, ordered the high priests and all the Sanhedrin to meet, and brought Paul down, placing him in front of them.

"Brothers," said Paul, "I did not know he was high priest" (for it is written, You must not speak evil of any ruler of your people).

When he said this, a quarrel broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the meeting was divided.

The quarrel then became so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul in pieces; he therefore ordered the troops to march down and take him from them by force, bringing him inside the barracks.

This man had been seized by the Jews and was on the point of being murdered by them, when I came on them with the troops and rescued him, as I had ascertained that he was a Roman citizen.

where I found he was accused of matters relating to their Law but not impeached for any crime that deserved death or imprisonment.

On reading the letter he asked what province he belonged to, and finding it was Cilicia

he said, "I will go into your case whenever your accusers arrive," giving orders that he was to be kept in the praetorium of Herod.

So Paul was summoned, and then Tertullus proceeded to accuse him. "Your excellency," he said to Felix, "as it is owing to you that we enjoy unbroken peace, and as it is owing to your wise care that the state of this nation has been improved in every way and everywhere,

and it was in presenting these that I was found within the temple. I was ceremonially pure, I was not mixed up in any mob or riot; no, the trouble was caused by some Jews from Asia,

Failing them, let these men yonder tell what fault they found with my appearance before the Sanhedrin! ??21 unless it was with the single sentence I uttered, when I stood and said, 'It is for the resurrection of the dead that I am on my trial to-day before you.'"

Some days later Felix arrived with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and heard what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus;

But when two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and as Felix wanted to ingratiate himself with the Jews, he left Paul still in custody.

Paul's defence was, "I have committed no offence against the Law of the Jews, against the temple, or against Caesar."

As they were spending several days there, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. "There is a man," he said, "who was left in prison by Felix.

When I was at Jerusalem, the high priests and elders of the Jews informed me about him and demanded his condemnation.

The questions at issue referred to their own religion and to a certain Jesus who had died. Paul said he was alive.

there was not a synagogue where I did not often punish them and force them to blaspheme; and in my frantic fury I persecuted them even to foreign towns.

I was travelling to Damascus on this business, with authority and a commission from the high priests,

To this day I have had the help of God in standing, as I now do, to testify alike to low and high, never uttering a single syllable beyond what the prophets and Moses predicted was to take place.

Why, the king is well aware of this! To the king I can speak without the slightest hesitation. I do not believe any of it has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.

When it was decided we were to sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to an officer of the Imperial regiment called Julius.

Embarking in an Andramyttian ship which was bound for the Asiatic seaports, we set sail, accompanied by a Macedonian from Thessalonica called Aristarchus.

Putting to sea from there, we had to sail under the lee of Cyprus, as the wind was against us;

By this time it was far on in the season and sailing had become dangerous (for the autumn Fast was past), so Paul warned them thus:

and, as the harbour was badly placed for wintering in, the majority proposed to set sail and try if they could reach Phoenix and winter there (Phoenix is a Cretan harbour facing S.W. and N.W.).

the ship was caught and unable to face the wind, so we gave up and let her drive along.

once it was hoisted aboard, they used ropes to undergird the ship, and in fear of being stranded on the Syrtis they lowered the sail and lay to.

When the fourteenth night arrived, we were drifting about in the sea of Adria, when the sailors about midnight suspected land was near.

When day broke, they could not recognize what land it was; however, they noticed a creek with a sandy beach, and resolved to see if they could run the ship ashore there.

It was only after our escape that we found out the island was called Malta.

The natives showed us uncommon kindness, for they lit a fire and welcomed us all to it, as the rain had come on and it was chilly.

However, he shook off the creature into the fire and was not a whit the worse.

The natives waited for him to swell up or drop down dead in a moment, but after waiting a long while and observing that no harm had befallen him, they changed their minds and declared he was a god.

There was an estate in the neighbourhood which belonged to a man called Publius, the governor of the island; he welcomed us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

His father, it so happened, was laid up with fever and dysentery, but Paul went in to see him and after prayer laid his hands on him and cured him.

Three days later, he called the leading Jews together, and when they met he said to them, "Brothers, although I have done nothing against the People or our ancestral customs, I was handed over to the Romans as a prisoner from Jerusalem.

They meant to release me after examination, as I was innocent of any crime that deserved death.

But the Jews objected, and so I was obliged to appeal to Caesar ??not that I had any charge to bring against my own nation.

As they could not agree among themselves, they were turning to go away, when Paul added this one word: "It was an apt word that the holy Spirit spoke by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring by natural descent

and installed as Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness when he was raised from the dead ??concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

For whatever is to be known of God is plain to them; God himself has made it plain ??20 for ever since the world was created, his invisible nature, his everlasting power and divine being, have been quite perceptible in what he has made. So they have no excuse.

whom God put forward as the means of propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to demonstrate the justice of God in view of the fact that sins previously committed during the time of God's forbearance had been passed over;

it was to demonstrate his justice at the present epoch, showing that God is just himself and that he justifies man on the score of faith in Jesus.

This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God.

For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness.

Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness.

In what way? When he was a circumcised man or an uncircumcised man? Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised.

He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations ??even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be.

His faith never quailed, even when he noted the utter impotence of his own body (for he was about a hundred years old) or the impotence of Sara's womb;

and felt convinced that He was able to do what He had promised.

Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

Sin was indeed in the world before the Law, but sin is never counted in the absence of law.

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come,

Our baptism in his death made us share his burial, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live and move in the new sphere of Life.

the death he died was for sin, once for all, but the life he lives is for God.

It is the same in your case, my brothers. The crucified body of Christ made you dead to the Law, so that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might be fruitful to God.

Then did what was meant for my good prove fatal to me? Never! It was sin; sin resulted in death for me by making use of this good thing. This was how sin was to be revealed in its true nature; it was to use the command to become sinful in the extreme.

For creation was not rendered futile by its own choice, but by the will of Him who thus made it subject,

For when God said, I will come about this time and Sara shall have a son, that was a word of promise.

And further, when Rebecca became pregnant by our father Isaac, though one man was the father of both children,

she was told that the elder will serve the younger.

Why, scripture says to Pharaoh, It was for this that I raised you up, to display my power in you, and to spread news of my name over all the earth.

As indeed he says in Hosea, Those who were no people of mine, I will call 'my People,' and her 'beloved' who was not beloved;

it was for this that Christ died and rose and came to life, to be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

But if anyone has doubts about eating and then eats, that condemns him at once; it was not faith that induced him to eat, and any action that is not based on faith is a sin.

Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings.

Has Christ been parcelled out? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in Paul's name that you were baptized?

It was in weakness and fear and with great trembling that I visited you;

I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow.

Who singles you out, my brother? What do you possess that has not been given you? And if it was given you, why do you boast as if it had been gained, not given?

You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel.

Was a man circumcised at the time he was called? Then he is not to efface the marks of it. Has any man been called when he was uncircumcised? Then he is not to get circumcised.

Everyone must remain in the condition of life where he was called.

Brothers, everyone must remain with God in the condition of life where he was called.

Or is he speaking purely for our sakes? Assuredly for our sakes. This word was written for us, because the ploughman needs to plough in hope, and the thresher to thresh in the hope of getting a share in the crop.

and all drank the same supernatural drink (drinking from the supernatural Rock which accompanied them ??and that Rock was Christ),

still with most of them God was not satisfied; they were laid low in the desert.

It all happened to them by way of warning for others, and it was written down for the purpose of instructing us whose lot has been cast in the closing hours of the world.

But if someone tells you, 'This was sacrificial meat,' then do not eat it; you must consider the man who told you, and also take conscience into account ??29 his conscience, I mean, not your own; for why should one's own freedom be called in question by someone else's conscience?

(Man was not made from woman, woman was made from man;

and man was not created for woman, but woman for man.)

for as woman was made from man, so man is now made from woman, while both, like all things, come from God.)

I passed on to you what I received from the Lord himself, namely, that on the night he was betrayed the Lord Jesus took a loaf,

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I argued like a child; now that I am a man, I am done with childish ways.