so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send the Christ appointed for you--Jesus,

Heaven must welcome Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning.

Moses said:

The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you.

And everyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

“In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also announced these days.

God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

because they were provoked that they were teaching the people and proclaiming the resurrection from the dead, using Jesus as the example.

and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all those who were from the high priest's family.

let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing here before you healthy.

having therefore order'd them to withdraw from the council, they conferred among themselves,

But to keep it from spreading farther among the people, let us severely threaten them not to say anything at all to anyone else about this person."

For we are not able to refrain from speaking about [the things] that we have seen and heard."

When they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak messages from God boldly.

And with great power the Apostles gave witness of the coming back of the Lord Jesus from the dead; and grace was on them all.

For there was no one needy among them, because those who were owners of land or houses were selling them and bringing the proceeds from the sales

And Joseph, who was called by the apostles, Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), was a descendant of the Jewish tribe of Levi, whose family originated from [the island of] Cyprus.

and kept back from the price, his wife also having joint awareness. And having brought a certain part, he placed it at the apostles' feet.

Then Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds from the field?

And at these words, Ananias went down on the earth, and his life went from him: and great fear came on all who were present.

then Peter said to her, how comes it that you have conspir'd together, to tempt the spirit of the Lord? see there at the door the men that are come from burying thy husband, and they shall carry thee out likewise.

And straight away she went down at his feet, and her life went from her: and the young men came in and saw her dead, and they took her out and put her in the earth with her husband.

The others, in fear, kept back from joining them: but the people made much of them;

In addition, a large group came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Then the high priest and all those from the sect of the Sadducees who were with him were filled with jealousy. So they went out,

But an angel from the Lord one night [miraculously] opened the jail doors and released them, saying,

And then brought them before the Council. The High Priest demanded an explanation from them.

The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus [from the dead], whom you put to death by hanging Him on a tree [i.e., the cross].

God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior and Deliverer, in order to grant repentance to Israel, and [to grant] forgiveness of sins.

But a Pharisee of the name of Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, held in honour by all the people, rose from his seat and requested that they should be sent outside the court for a few minutes.

And now, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of men, it will be overthrown;

But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you even be found fighting against God." So they were persuaded by him.

after the apostles were called in, and scourged, they charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then releas'd them. out they went from the council,

Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the Name.

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.

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

So the Twelve called the whole group of disciples together and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect messages from God in order to wait on tables.

Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch.

Then some from what is called the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and disputed with Stephen.

for we [ourselves] heard him saying that this Jesus from Nazareth would destroy the Temple and change the customs handed down to us by Moses."

and said to him:

Get out of your country
and away from your relatives,
and come to the land
that I will show you.

“Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in.

and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.

were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

He took a cunning method with our race; he oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, to prevent them from surviving.

At which time Moses was born, and was endued with singular beauty from God, who was brought up three months in the house of his father:

assuming his relatives would understand that God was using him to rescue them [from such abuse], but they did not [seem to] understand.

Then he who did his neighbour wrong thrust him from him, saying, Who appointed thee a ruler and a judge over us?

"Alarmed at this question, Moses fled from the country and went to live in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

But when Moses saw it, he marvelled at the sight: and as he was drawing nearer to observe it, a voice from the Lord came to him,

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses, shaking with fear, kept his eyes from looking at it.

Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

But the Hebrews refused [to acknowledge Moses as their leader], saying, 'Who made you a ruler and judge [over us]?' [Nevertheless], God sent him [to Egypt] to be both a ruler and liberator [of the people] through the direction of [His] angel who appeared [to Moses] from the bush.

“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers.

This is the man who was with our forefathers and with the assembly [of Hebrews] in the wilderness [after] the angel had spoken to him at Mt. Sinai. He [is the one] who received the living messages [from God at Mt. Sinai] and gave them to us.

To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go on before us! For this Moses, who led us out from the land of Egypt--we do not know what has happened to him!'

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?

which also our fathers having in succession received, did bring in with Joshua, into the possession of the nations whom God did drive out from the presence of our fathers, till the days of David,

and casting him out from the city, they began to stone him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, called Saul:

But Saul was ravaging the church, entering from house to house. Dragging both men and women, he gave them over to prison.

Now those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.

Crowds of people, with one accord, gave attention to what they heard from him, listening, and witnessing the signs which he did.

for unclean spirits came forth from many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who have been paralytic and lame were healed,

But a certain man named Simon, from there in Samaria, who had been amazing the people with his magical powers, was claiming to be someone great.

They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God!”

His influence over them arose from their having been, for a long time, bewildered by his sorceries.

When these two apostles had come [to Samaria] they prayed for some [of the disciples] to receive [miraculous power from] the Holy Spirit,

Then the apostles placed their hands on [some of] them [and prayed, see verse 15] and they received [miraculous power from] the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, "You and your money will both be destroyed for thinking you could buy the gift from God with money.

reform, therefore, from this thy wickedness, and beseech God, if then the purpose of thy heart may be forgiven thee,

An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.)

He arose and went; and behold, there was a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.

Now he was returning home, seated in his chariot, and reading from the prophet Isaiah.

So, Philip ran over to it and [when he got near enough] he heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading from Isaiah the prophet and asked him, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

The passage of Scripture which he was reading was this--'Like a sheep, he was led away to slaughter, and as a lamb is dumb in the hands of its shearer, so he refrains from opening his lips.

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture.

As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?”

is absent from many manuscripts}}.

And when they went up from the water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more; for he went his way rejoicing.

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord [and relentless in his search for believers], went to the high priest,

and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

“Get up and go to the street called Straight,” the Lord said to him, “to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there.

“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

But his disciples took him by night and let him down from the wall in a basket.

So when the brothers found this out, they took him down to Caesarea, and from there sent him back to Tarsus.

The Church, however, throughout the whole of Judaea, Galilee and Samaria, had peace and was spiritually built up; and grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and receiving encouragement from the Holy Spirit.

As Peter was traveling from place to place, he also came down to the saints who lived in Lydda.

When the disciples heard that Peter was at Lydda (for Joppa is not far from Lydda), they sent two men to beg him to "Come on to us without delay."

And there was a certain man in Caesarea, by name Cornelius, a centurion from a band called Italian,

One afternoon, about three o'clock, he distinctly saw in a vision an angel from God come to him, and call him by name.

As he stared at [the angel] in fright, he asked, "What is it, Lord?" [Note: The word "Lord" here could also be translated "Sir," and its correct rendering depends on whether or not Cornelius understood the angel to be from God]. And the angel replied, "Your [continual] prayers and [generous] gifts to poor people have not gone unnoticed before God.

And when the angel who spoke to him departed, he summoned two of the household slaves and a devout soldier from those who attended him,

The next day, while those men were traveling on and not far from the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray.

Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate,