who was before appointed, Whom heaven must receive, till the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets.

It was to you first that He sent His Servant, after raising Him from the dead, to bless you by causing every one of you to turn from his wicked ways."

So they seized them and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening.

Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

And it was on the morrow, their rulers, and elders, and scribes, were gathered together at Jerusalem,

and Annas the high priest was there , and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest.

Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders:

If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man—by what means he was healed—

we want you men and all the people of Israel to know that this man was made completely well through the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth. [He is the One] whom you people put to death on the cross, but God raised from the dead.

This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

saying, "What should we do to these men? For we cannot deny that a significant miracle was performed by them, and everybody living in Jerusalem knows it.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.

for this sign of healing had been performed on a man over 40 years old.

When they heard it, with one impulse they all raised their voices to God and said, "Master, it was you who made heaven, earth, and sea, and everything that is in them,

for it was truly against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, that Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, united themselves in this city,

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message with boldness.

Now the large group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.

And the apostles were giving testimony with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.

For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,

and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed for each person’s basic needs.

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

having sold a field that was possessed by him, brought the money and placed it at the apostles' feet.

Now there was a certain man named Ananias who with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,

and he kept back for himself [some] of the proceeds, and [his] wife was aware of [it]. And he brought a certain part [and] placed [it] at the feet of the apostles.

Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!”

When Ananias heard these words he fell down and expired, and everyone who heard them spoken was appalled.

There was an interval of about three hours; then his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

And Peter said to her, Give me an answer: was this amount of money the price of the land? And she said, Yes, it was.

And Peter said unto her, 'How was it agreed by you, to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? lo, the feet of those who did bury thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee forth;'

And great fear was upon the whole church, and upon all having heard these things.

Many signs and wonders continued to occur among the people, through the instrumentality of the Apostles, whose custom it was to meet all together in the Colonnade of Solomon;

and of the rest no one was daring to join himself to them, but the people were magnifying them,

[One of the miracles performed was that] sick people were even carried into the streets on beds and couches so that, as he passed them, Peter's shadow would fall on someone [in hope of it producing a miraculous healing].

Moreover even the throng of the cities all round Jerusalem was coming together, bearing sick folk, and such as were harassed by impure spirits, - who, indeed, were being cured, one and all.

But the high priest arising, and all that were with him, which was the sect of the Saducees,

And when they heard it, they entered very early into the temple and taught. And when the high priest was come, and they that were with him, they called together the council and all the elderhood of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

saying, "The prison found we shut as sure as was possible and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened we found no man within."

A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while.

Not long ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his partisans were dispersed and came to nothing.

After this man, there was Judas of Galilee, at the time of the numbering, and some of the people went after him: he was put to death, and all his supporters were put to flight.

Every day, both in the temple [courts] and from house [to house], they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news [that] the Christ [was] Jesus.

In those days, as the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

And the thing was pleasing before all the multitude, and they did choose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch,

thus the word of God was spread; and the number of disciples encreased very much at Jerusalem; and a numerous body of priests embrac'd the faith.

Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

But some of those from the Synagogue of the Freedmen ({as it was called}), both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up [and] disputed with Stephen.

and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking;

And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

"The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, "Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I'll show you.'

Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

This was what God said: 'His descendants will be strangers, living in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and misused for four hundred years,

at length he gave him the covenant of circumcision: accordingly Abraham circumcised his son Isaac eight days after he was born, Isaac was father of Jacob, who was father of the twelve patriarchs.

“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

and God was with him, and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh the king of Egypt; and he placed him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food.

When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first time.

The second time, Joseph was revealed to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

Their bodies were carried back [from Egypt] to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had purchased in Shechem from the sons of Hamor for a sum of silver. [Note: "Shechem" was a town in Israel, the country which in New Testament times was known as Samaria].

“As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt

He, having evil designs against our nation, was cruel to our fathers, and they were forced to put out their young children, so that they might not go on living.

At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months,

and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.

So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.

“As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided to visit his brothers, the Israelites.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

and he was supposing his brethren to understand that God through his hand doth give salvation; and they did not understand.

And on the following day, he made an appearance to them [while they] were fighting and was attempting to reconcile them in peace, saying, 'Men [and] brothers, why are you doing wrong to one another?'

“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him away, saying:

Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

And forty years completed, a messenger of the Lord was seen to him in the desert of mount Sina, in a flame of fire in a bramble.

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came:

'I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses was so terrified that he did not dare to look at the bush.

That very Moses whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you our ruler and referee?' was the man whom God sent to be both their ruler and deliverer, by the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

he it was, who delivered them by doing prodigies and miracles in the land of Egypt, in the red sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

It was this Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet for you from among you, just as He did me.'

He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

That was the time when they made the Calf and offered sacrifice to their idol, and held festivities in honor of their own handiwork!

But God was turned from them and let them give worship to the stars of heaven, as it says in the book of the prophets, Did you make offerings to me of sheep and oxen for forty years in the waste land, O house of Israel?

No, it was the tent of Moloch and the star-symbol of Rephan your god that you carried, figures that you manufactured for worship. So now I will transport you beyond Babylon!

'The tabernacle of the testimony was among our fathers in the wilderness, according as He did direct, who is speaking to Moses, to make it according to the figure that he had seen;

which our fathers and Joshua having receiv'd, they carry'd it into the territory of those nations whom God drove out upon their arrival: where it staid to the time of David, who was favoured by God,

Who was pleasing to God; and he had a desire to make a holy tent for the God of Jacob.

But it was Solomon who built Him a house.

Was it not my hand that made them all?"'

was there ever any prophet whom your fathers did not persecute? have they not slain those who predicted the coming of that just person whom you have so lately betrayed and murder'd?

ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.

But he was full of the Holy Spirit, and looking up to heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God.

And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

Thus they stoned Stephen, while he was calling upon God, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And having said this, he fell asleep: And Saul was consenting to his death.

And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.

And Philip having gone down to a city of Samaria, was preaching to them the Christ,

The crowds paid attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the signs he was performing.

So there was great joy in that city.

But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:

Everyone, from the least to the greatest [in importance], was being impressed by him. They were saying, "This man is being called Great [and has] power from God."