Acts 1-3

Acts 1

¹I have given an earlier account, O Theophilus, of all the things which Jesus did, and of his teaching from the first,

²Till the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had given his orders, through the Holy Spirit, to the Apostles of whom he had made selection:

³And to whom he gave clear and certain signs that he was living, after his death; for he was seen by them for forty days, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God:

⁴And when they were all together, with him, he gave them orders not to go away from Jerusalem, but to keep there, waiting till the word of the Father was put into effect, of which, he said, I have given you knowledge:

⁵For the baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit, after a little time.

⁶So, when they were together, they said to him, Lord, will you at this time give back the kingdom to Israel?

⁷And he said to them, It is not for you to have knowledge of the time and the order of events which the Father has kept in his control.

⁸But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

⁹And when he had said these things, while they were looking, he was taken up, and went from their view into a cloud.

¹⁰And while they were looking up to heaven with great attention, two men came to them, in white clothing,

¹¹And said, O men of Galilee, why are you looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come again, in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

¹²Then they went back to Jerusalem from the mountain named Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.

¹³And when they came in, they went up into the room where they were living; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

¹⁴And they all with one mind gave themselves up to prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

¹⁵And in those days Peter got up among the brothers (there were about one hundred and twenty of them), and said,

¹⁶My brothers, the word of God had to be put into effect, which the Holy Spirit had said before, by the mouth of David, about Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus,

¹⁷For he was numbered among us, and had his part in our work.

¹⁸(Now this man, with the reward of his evil-doing, got for himself a field, and falling head first, came to a sudden and violent end there.

¹⁹And this came to the knowledge of all those who were living in Jerusalem, so that the field was named in their language, Akel-dama, or, The field of blood.)

²⁰For in the book of Psalms it says, Let his house be waste, and let no man be living in it: and, Let his position be taken by another.

²¹For this reason, of the men who have been with us all the time, while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

²²Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death.

²³And they made selection of two, Joseph, named Barsabbas, whose other name was Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴And they made prayers and said, Lord, having knowledge of the hearts of all men, make clear which of these two has been marked out by you,

²⁵To take that position as a servant and Apostle, from which Judas by his sin was shut out, so that he might go to his place.

²⁶And they put it to the decision of chance, and the decision was given for Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.

Acts 2

¹And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all together in one place.

²And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rushing of a violent wind, and all the house where they were was full of it.

³And they saw tongues, like flames of fire, coming to rest on every one of them.

⁴And they were all full of the Holy Spirit, and were talking in different languages, as the Spirit gave them power.

⁵Now there were living at Jerusalem, Jews, God-fearing men, from every nation under heaven.

⁶And when this sound came to their ears, they all came together, and were greatly surprised because every man was hearing the words of the disciples in his special language.

⁷And they were full of wonder and said, Are not all these men Galilaeans?

⁸And how is it that every one of us is hearing their words in the language which was ours from our birth?

⁹Men of Parthia, Media, and Elam, and those living in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰In Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and those who have come from Rome, Jews by birth and others who have become Jews,

¹¹Men of Crete and Arabia, to all of us they are talking in our different languages, of the great works of God.

¹²And they were all surprised and in doubt saying to one another, What is the reason of this?

¹³But others, making sport of them, said, They are full of new wine.

¹⁴But Peter, getting up, with the eleven, said in a loud voice, O men of Judaea, and all you who are living in Jerusalem, take note of this and give ear to my words.

¹⁵For these men are not overcome with wine, as it seems to you, for it is only the third hour of the day;

¹⁶But this is the thing which was said by the prophet Joel;

¹⁷And it will come about, in the last days, says God, that I will send out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams:

¹⁸And on my men-servants and my women-servants I will send my Spirit, and they will be prophets.

¹⁹And wonders will be seen in heaven, and signs on the earth, blood and fire and smoke:

²⁰The sun will become dark and the moon will be turned to blood, before that great day of the Lord comes in glory:

²¹And whoever makes his prayer to the Lord will have salvation.

²²Men of Israel, give ear to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man who had the approval of God, as was made clear to you by the great works and signs and wonders which God did by him among you, as you yourselves have knowledge,

²³Him, when he was given up, by the decision and knowledge of God, you put to death on the cross, by the hands of evil men:

²⁴But God gave him back to life, having made him free from the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be overcome by it.

²⁵For David said of him, I saw the Lord before my face at all times, for he is at my right hand, so that I may not be moved:

²⁶And for this cause my heart was glad and my tongue full of joy, and my flesh will be resting in hope:

²⁷For you will not let my soul be in hell and you will not give up your Holy One to destruction.

²⁸You have made me see the ways of life; I will be full of joy when I see your face.

²⁹My brothers, I may say to you openly that David came to his death, and was put in the earth, and his resting-place is with us today.

³⁰But being a prophet, and having in mind the oath which God had given to him, that of the fruit of his body one would take his place as a king,

³¹He, having knowledge of the future, was talking of the coming again of Christ from the dead, that he was not kept in hell and his body did not see destruction.

³²This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses.

³³And so, being lifted up to the right hand of God, and having the Father's word that the Holy Spirit would come, he has sent this thing, which now you see and have knowledge of.

³⁴For David has not gone up into heaven, but says, himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand,

³⁵Till I put all those who are against you under your feet.

³⁶For this reason, let all Israel be certain that this Jesus, whom you put to death on the cross, God has made Lord and Christ.

³⁷Now when these words came to their ears their hearts were troubled, and they said to Peter and the other Apostles, Brothers, what are we to do?

³⁸And Peter said, Let your hearts be changed, every one of you, and have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will have the Holy Spirit given to you.

³⁹For the word of God is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, even all those who may be marked out by the Lord our God.

⁴⁰And with more such words he gave his witness, offering them salvation and saying, Come out from this evil generation.

⁴¹Then those who gave hearing to his words had baptism: and about three thousand souls were joined to them that day.

⁴²And they kept their attention fixed on the Apostles' teaching and were united together in the taking of broken bread and in prayer.

⁴³But fear came on every soul: and all sorts of wonders and signs were done by the Apostles.

⁴⁴And all those who were of the faith kept together, and had all things in common;

⁴⁵And exchanging their goods and property for money, they made division of it among them all, as they had need.

⁴⁶And day by day, going in agreement together regularly to the Temple and, taking broken bread together in their houses, they took their food with joy and with true hearts,

⁴⁷Giving praise to God, and having the approval of all the people; and every day the number of those who had salvation was increased by the Lord.

Acts 3

¹Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer;

²And a certain man who from birth had had no power in his legs, was taken there every day, and put down at the door of the Temple which is named Beautiful, requesting money from those who went into the Temple;

³He then, seeing Peter and John going into the Temple, made a request to them.

⁴And Peter, looking at him, with John, said, Keep your eyes on us.

⁵And he gave attention to them, hoping to get something from them.

⁶But Peter said, I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up on your feet.

⁷And he took him by his right hand, lifting him up; and straight away his feet and the bones of his legs became strong,

⁸And, jumping up, he got on to his feet and went into the Temple with them, walking and jumping and giving praise to God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God:

¹⁰And they saw that it was the man who made requests for money at the door of the Temple, and they were full of wonder and surprise at what had taken place.

¹¹And while he kept his hands on Peter and John, all the people came running together to the covered way which is named Solomon's, full of wonder.

¹²And when Peter saw it he said to the people, You men of Israel, why are you so greatly surprised at this man? or why are you looking at us as if by our power or virtue we had given him the use of his legs?

¹³The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given glory to his servant Jesus; whom you gave up, turning your backs on him, when Pilate had made the decision to let him go free.

¹⁴But you would have nothing to do with the Holy and Upright One, and made request for a man of blood to be given to you,

¹⁵And put to death the Lord of life; whom God gave back from the dead; of which fact we are witnesses.

¹⁶And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and have knowledge of: yes, the faith which is through him has made him well, before you all.

¹⁷And now, my brothers, I am conscious that you did this, as did your rulers, without knowledge.

¹⁸But the things which God had made clear before, by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ would have to undergo, he has put into effect in this way.

¹⁹So then, let your hearts be changed and be turned to God, so that your sins may be completely taken away, and times of blessing may come from the Lord;

²⁰And that he may send the Christ who was marked out for you from the first, even Jesus:

²¹Who is to be kept in heaven till the time when all things are put right, of which God has given word by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the earliest times.

²²For Moses said, The Lord will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to everything which he will say to you.

²³And every soul who does not give attention to that prophet, will be cut off from among the people.

²⁴And all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after, every one of them, gave word of these days.

²⁵You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth.

²⁶To you, first, God sent his servant, blessing you by turning every one of you from his sins.