Acts 11-12

Acts 11

¹Now the Apostles and the brothers who were in Judaea had news that the word of God had been given to the Gentiles.

²And when Peter came to Jerusalem, those who kept the rule of circumcision had an argument with him,

³Saying, You went to men without circumcision, and took food with them.

⁴But Peter gave them an account of it all in order, saying to them,

⁵I was in the town of Joppa, at prayer: and falling into a deep sleep, I saw in a vision a vessel like a great cloth let down from heaven, and it came down to me:

⁶And looking on it with attention I saw in it all sorts of beasts and birds.

⁷And a voice came to my ears saying, Come, Peter; take them for food.

⁸But I said, No, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever come into my mouth.

⁹But the voice, coming a second time from heaven, said, What God has made clean, do not you make common.

¹⁰And this was done three times, and they were all taken up again into heaven.

¹¹And at that minute, three men, sent from Caesarea, came to the house where we were.

¹²And the Spirit gave me orders to go with them, doubting nothing. And these six brothers came with me; and we went into that man's house:

¹³And he gave us an account of how he had seen the angel in his house, saying, Send to Joppa, and get Simon, named Peter, to come to you;

¹⁴Who will say words to you through which you and all your family may get salvation.

¹⁵And, while I was talking to them, the Holy Spirit came on them, as on us at first.

¹⁶And 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.

¹⁷If then God gave them, when they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the same as he gave to us, who was I to go against God?

¹⁸And 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.

¹⁹Then those who had gone away at the time of the trouble about Stephen, went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus, preaching to the Jews only.

²⁰But some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, when they came to Antioch, gave the good news about the Lord Jesus to the Greeks.

²¹And the power of the Lord was with them, and a great number had faith and were turned to the Lord.

²²And news of them came to the ears of the church at Jerusalem: and they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch:

²³Who, when he came and saw the grace of God, was glad; and he made clear to them the need of keeping near the Lord with all the strength of their hearts:

²⁴For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and a great number were joined to the Lord.

²⁵Then he went on to Tarsus, looking for Saul;

²⁶And when he had come across him, he took him to Antioch. And they were with the church there for a year, teaching the people; and the disciples were first given the name of Christians in Antioch.

²⁷Now in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸And one of them, named Agabus, said publicly through the Spirit that there would be serious need of food all over the earth: which came about in the time of Claudius.

²⁹And the disciples, everyone as he was able, made a decision to send help to the brothers living in Judaea:

³⁰Which they did, sending it to the rulers of the church by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 12

¹Now, about that time, Herod the king made cruel attacks on the Christians.

²And he put James, the brother of John, to death with the sword.

³And when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he went on to take Peter in addition. This was at the time of the feast of unleavened bread.

⁴And having taken him, he put him in prison, with four bands of armed men to keep watch over him; his purpose being to take him out to the people after the Passover.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison: but the church made strong prayer to God for him.

⁶And when Herod was about to take him out, the same night Peter was sleeping in chains between two armed men, and the watchmen were keeping watch before the door of the prison.

⁷And a great light was seen shining in the room, and an angel of the Lord came to Peter and, touching him on his side so that he came out of his sleep, said, Get up quickly. And his chains came off his hands.

⁸Then the angel said, Put on your shoes and get ready to go. And he did so. And he said, Put your coat round you and come with me.

⁹And he went out after him; and he was not certain if what was done by the angel was a fact, for it seemed to him that he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰And when they had gone past the first and second watchmen they came to the iron door into the town, which came open by itself: and they went out and down one street; and then the angel went away.

¹¹And when Peter came to his senses he said, Now, truly, I am certain that the Lord has sent his angel and taken me out of the hands of Herod, against all the hopes of the Jews.

¹²And when he became clear about this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John named Mark, where a number of them had come together for prayer.

¹³And he gave a blow on the door, and a young girl came to it, named Rhoda.

¹⁴And hearing the voice of Peter, in her joy she went running, without opening the door, to say that Peter was outside.

¹⁵And they said to her, You are off your head. But still she said, with decision, that it was so. And they said, It is his angel.

¹⁶But Peter went on giving blows on the door: and when it was open and they saw him, they were full of wonder.

¹⁷But he made a sign to them with his hand to be quiet, and gave them an account of how the Lord had taken him out of prison. And he said, Give the news to James and the brothers. And then he went away.

¹⁸Now when it was day, the armed men were greatly troubled about what had become of Peter.

¹⁹And Herod, when he sent for him, and he was not there, after questioning the watchmen, gave orders that they were to be put to death. Then he went down from Judaea to Caesarea for a time.

²⁰Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon: and they came to him, all together, and having made friends with Blastus, the controller of the king's house, they made a request for peace, because their country was dependent on the king's country for its food.

²¹And on the day which had been fixed, Herod, dressed in his robes and seated in his place, made a public statement to them.

²²And the people, with loud cries, said, It is the voice of a god, not of a man.

²³And straight away the angel of the Lord sent a disease on him, because he did not give the glory to God: and his flesh was wasted away by worms, and so he came to his end.

²⁴But the word of the Lord went on increasing.

²⁵And Barnabas and Saul came back from Jerusalem, when their work was ended, taking with them John named Mark.