So Ananias went, entered the house, and, placing his hands on Saul, said: "Saul, my Brother, I have been sent by the Lord--by Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here--so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

About three o'clock one afternoon [Note: This is based on Jewish time calculations; if Roman time were employed, it would have been

But he, having fixed his eyes upon him, and become full of fear, said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Thy prayers and thine alms have gone up for a memorial before God.

Now send men to Joppa and have them call for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter [and invite him here];

And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

And as Peter was perplexed in himself what the vision that he saw might be, then, lo, the men who have been sent from Cornelius, having made inquiry for the house of Simon, stood at the gate,

Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.

and Peter having come down unto the men who have been sent from Cornelius unto him, said, 'Lo, I am he whom ye seek, what is the cause for which ye are present?'

They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man well spoken of by all the Jewish people, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear what you have to say.”

And he said to them, You yourselves have knowledge that it is against the law for a man who is a Jew to be in the company of one who is of another nation; but God has made it clear to me that no man may be named common or unclean:

Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?

and said, Cornelius, thy prayer has been heard, and thy alms have come in remembrance before God.

Forthwith therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all things that have been commanded thee of the Lord.

ye -- ye have known; -- the word that came throughout all Judea, having begun from Galilee, after the baptism that John preached;

not of all the people, but of witnesses who were chosen before of God, us who have eaten and drunk with him after he arose from among the dead.

And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He [i.e., Jesus] is the One whom God ordained to be the Judge of people who are [now] alive and those who have [already] died.

To him all the prophets give witness, that through his name everyone who has faith in him will have forgiveness of sins.

Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

And he gave orders for them to have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they kept him with them for some days.

But I said, 'O no, Lord, for I have never even tasted anything ordinary or [ceremonially] unfit [for Jews to eat].'

The Spirit told me to have no hesitation in accompanying them; these six brothers went with me as well, and we entered the man's house.

And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

And the words of the Lord came into my mind, how he said, The baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Forasmuch then as God gave them like gifts, as he did unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ: what was I that I should have withstood God?"

And hearing these things they said nothing more, but gave glory to God, saying, Then to the Gentiles as to us has God given a change of heart, so that they may have life.

When he realized that this act pleased the Jews, he proceeded to have Peter arrested also. [This happened] during the Festival of Unleavened Bread [See Exodus 12:15ff].

So, Peter was arrested and put in jail with four groups of four soldiers each guarding him. Herod planned to have him brought before the people after the Passover Festival was over.

And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.

And Peter having come to himself, said, 'Now I have known of a truth that the Lord did sent forth His messenger, and did deliver me out of the hand of Herod, and all the expectation of the people of the Jews;'

And they said to her, Thou art mad. And she was strengthened to have it so. And they said, It is his messenger.

At daylight, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

Who was with the ruler, Sergius Paulus, an able man. This man sent for Barnabas and Saul, desiring to have knowledge of the word of God.

And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

And Paul, getting up and making a sign with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who have the fear of God, give ear.

And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who have the fear of God, to us the word of this salvation is sent.

For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

And though they found no cause or charge deserving death, they asked Pilate to have Him executed.

We also have good news to tell you, about the promise made to our ancestors--

God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

I would, therefore, have you know, brothers, that through Jesus forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you,

and [it is] by Him that every believer is made right with God in every way that he could not have been made right by [observing the requirements of] the law of Moses.

‘Look, you mockers, and marvel, and perish and vanish away;
For I am doing a work in your days,
A work which you will never believe, even if someone describes it to you [telling you about it in detail].’”

As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people earnestly begged to have all this repeated to them on the following Sabbath.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

And when a violent attempt was made by the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, to make an attack on them and have them stoned,

And the crowds, when they saw what Paul had done, raised their voices, shouting in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.

"Gentlemen, why are you doing these things? [Do you not know that] we are also human beings with the same kind of feelings that you have? And we are just bringing you the good news that you should turn away from these useless things [i.e., idol worship] and [turn] to the living God, who created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

who in the generations that have passed allowed all the nations to go in their own ways,

But there came Jews from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds and stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing him to have died.

Making strong the souls of the disciples, saying to them that they were to keep the faith, and that we have to go through troubles of all sorts to come into the kingdom of God.

And certain persons, having come down from Judaea, taught the brethren, If ye shall not have been circumcised according to the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

But some of the Pharisees, who were of the faith, got up and said, It is necessary for these to have circumcision and to keep the law of Moses.

And when there had been much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you have knowledge that some time back it was God's pleasure that by my mouth the good news might be given to the Gentiles so that they might have faith.

Now therefore why tempt ye God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

But we have faith that we will get salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they.

After they had finished speaking, James addressed the Council. "Brothers," he began, "hear what I have to say.

After these things [have transpired], I will return [to my people] and will rebuild the Tabernacle [i.e., the Temple] of David, which has been destroyed. I will rebuild it from its ruins and reestablish it,

so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, namely, all the Gentiles I have called to be my own,' says the Lord, who makes these things

known from long ago.

"Therefore, I have decided that we should not trouble these gentiles who are turning to God.

but that we write to them that they are to abstain from anything that has been contaminated by [being offered to] idols and from sexual impurity and from [eating the meat of] what has been strangled and from [the consumption of] blood.

For in every town, for generations past, there have been those who preach Moses, read as he is in the Synagogues every Sabbath."

Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:

we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,

Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no burden heavier than these necessary requirements--

that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from [consuming] blood, and from [eating the meat of] things that have been strangled, and from sexual impurity. If you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Farewell.”

And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.

But Paul kept insisting that they should not take along with them the one who had quit and deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

And as they were going on through the cities, they were delivering to them the decrees to keep, that have been judged by the apostles and the elders who are in Jerusalem,

we went out of town on the sabbath towards the river, where the Jews were allowed to have an oratory.

And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

Teaching rules of living which it is not right for us to have or to keep, being Romans.

After beating them severely, they threw them in jail and ordered the jailor to have them securely guarded.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

And took them out and said, Sirs, what have I to do to get salvation?

And they said, Have faith in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will have salvation.

And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.

Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

And have been harbored by Jason! They say that some one else is king--a man called Jesus!"

The men who escorted Paul took him all the way to Athens and, after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left.

Also certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers approached him for discussion. Some asked, "What will this know-it-all have to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating [a belief in] some different gods." [They said this] because he was proclaiming Jesus and the resurrection [of the dead].

For you seem to us to say strange things, and we have a desire to get the sense of them.

For all the Athenians and resident strangers have leisure for nothing else than to tell or to hear some new thing.

And Paul having stood in the midst of Mars' hill, said, Men, Athenians, I see that in all things ye have a superstitious fear of divinity.

he receives no service from their officiousness: he is self-sufficient: it is he that gives to all their life and breath and every thing they have.

To seek the Lord, if perchance indeed they have felt for him, and found, although not being far from each one of us:

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

If then we are the offspring of God, it is not right for us to have the idea that God is like gold or silver or stone, formed by the art or design of man.

One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid anymore, but go on speaking and do not be silent;

For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.