Acts 13-14

Acts 13

¹Now there were at Antioch, in the church there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon who was named Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, a relation of Herod the king, and Saul.

²And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.

³Then, after prayer and going without food they put their hands on them, and sent them away.

⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they went by ship to Cyprus.

⁵And at Salamis they were preaching the word of God in the Synagogues of the Jews: and John was with them, helping them.

⁶And when they had gone through all the island to Paphos, they came across a certain wonder-worker and false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus;

⁷Who 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.

⁸But Elymas, the wonder-worker (for that is the sense of his name), put himself against them, with the purpose of turning the ruler from the faith.

⁹But Saul, whose other name is Paul, being full of the Holy Spirit, looking hard at him, said,

¹⁰O you, who are full of false tricks and evil ways, a son of the Evil One, hating all righteousness, will you for ever be turning people from the right ways of the Lord?

¹¹And now, see, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind and not able to see the sun for a time. And straight away a dark mist came down on him; and he went about looking for a guide.

¹²Then the ruler, when he saw what was done, had faith, being full of wonder at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Then Paul and those who were with him went by ship from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia: and there John went away from them and came back to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But they, going through from Perga, came to Antioch in Pisidia; and they went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and were seated.

¹⁵And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the Synagogue sent to them, saying, Brothers, if you have a word of comfort for the people, say on.

¹⁶And Paul, getting up and making a sign with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who have the fear of God, give ear.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel made selection of our fathers, lifting the people up from their low condition when they were living in the land of Egypt, and with a strong arm took them out of it.

¹⁸And for about forty years he put up with their ways in the waste land.

¹⁹And having put to destruction seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them the land for their heritage for about four hundred and fifty years.

²⁰And after these things he gave them judges, till the time of Samuel the prophet.

²¹Then at their request for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the family of Benjamin, who was their king for forty years.

²²And having put him on one side, he made David their king, to whom he gave witness, saying, I have taken David, the son of Jesse, a man dear to my heart, who will do all my pleasure.

²³From this man's seed has God given to Israel a Saviour, even Jesus, as he gave his word;

²⁴For whose coming John made ready the way by preaching to all the people of Israel the baptism which goes with a change of heart.

²⁵And when John was completing his work, he said, What do I seem to you to be? I am not he; but one is coming after me, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo.

²⁶My 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.

²⁷For the men of Jerusalem and their rulers, having no knowledge of him, or of the sayings of the prophets which come to their ears every Sabbath day, gave effect to them by judging him.

²⁸And though no cause of death was seen in him, they made a request to Pilate that he might be put to death.

²⁹And when they had done all the things said in the Writings about him, they took him down from the tree, and put him in the place of the dead.

³⁰But God gave him back from the dead:

³¹And for a number of days he was seen by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses before the people.

³²And we are giving you the good news of the undertaking made to the fathers,

³³Which God has now put into effect for our children, by sending Jesus; as it says in the second Psalm, You are my Son; this day I have given you being.

³⁴And about his coming back from the dead, never again to go to destruction, he has said these words, I will give you the holy and certain mercies of David.

³⁵Because he says in another Psalm, You will not let your Holy One see destruction.

³⁶Now David, having done God's work for his generation, went to sleep, and was put with his fathers, and his body came to destruction:

³⁷But he, who was lifted up by God, did not see destruction.

³⁸And so, let it be clear to you, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is offered to you:

³⁹And through him everyone who has faith is made free from all those things, from which the law of Moses was not able to make you free.

⁴⁰So take care that these words of the prophets do not come true for you;

⁴¹See, you doubters, have wonder and come to your end; for I will do a thing in your days to which you will not give belief, even if it is made clear to you.

⁴²And when they went out, they made a request that these words might be said to them again on the Sabbath after.

⁴³Now when the meeting was ended, a number of the Jews and of the God-fearing Gentiles who had become Jews, went after Paul and Barnabas: who put before them how important it was to keep on in the grace of God.

⁴⁴And on the Sabbath after, almost all the town came together to give hearing to the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw such a great number of people, they were full of envy and said evil words against Paul's preaching.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas without fear said, It was necessary for the word of God to be given to you first; but because you will have nothing to do with it, and have no desire for eternal life, it will now be offered to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has given us orders, saying, I have given you for a light to the Gentiles so that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

⁴⁸And the Gentiles, hearing this, were glad and gave glory to the word of God: and those marked out by God for eternal life had faith.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord went through all the country.

⁵⁰But the Jews, working up the feelings of the God-fearing women of high position and of the chief men of the town, got an attack started against Paul and Barnabas, driving them out of those parts.

⁵¹But they, shaking off the dust of that place from their feet, came to Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were full of joy and of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 14

¹Now in Iconium they went together to the Synagogue of the Jews and gave such teaching that a great number of Jews and Greeks had faith.

²But those Jews who had not the faith, made the minds of the Gentiles bitter against the brothers.

³So they kept there for a long time, taking heart in the Lord, who gave witness to the word of his grace by causing signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

⁴But there was a division among the people of the town; some were on the side of the Jews and some on the side of the Apostles.

⁵And 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,

⁶Having got news of it, they went in flight to the towns of Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe, and the country round about:

⁷And went on preaching the good news there.

⁸And at Lystra there was a certain man, who from birth had been without the use of his feet, never having had the power of walking.

⁹This man was giving ear to the preaching of Paul, who, looking at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made well,

¹⁰Said in a loud voice, Get up on your feet. And, jumping up, he went walking about.

¹¹And when the people saw what Paul had done, they said in a loud voice, in the language of Lycaonia, The gods have come down to us in the form of men.

¹²And they gave the name of Jupiter to Barnabas, and to Paul that of Mercury, because he was the chief talker.

¹³And the priest of the image of Jupiter, which was before the town, took oxen and flowers to the doors of the town, and was about to make an offering with the people.

¹⁴But when this came to the ears of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, they went running out among the people, parting their clothing, and crying out,

¹⁵Good people, why are you doing these things? We are men with the same feelings as you, and we give you the good news so that you may be turned away from these foolish things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things in them:

¹⁶Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them.

¹⁷But he was not without witness, because he did good, and gave you rain from heaven and times of fruit, making your hearts full of food and joy.

¹⁸And even with these words, it was hard for them to keep the people from making an offering to them.

¹⁹But some Jews came to that place from Antioch and Iconium, and got control over the people; and after stoning Paul, they had him pulled out of the town, taking him for dead.

²⁰But when the disciples came round him, he got up and went into the town: and the day after he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.

²¹And having made a number of disciples through the preaching of the good news in that town, they went back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,

²²Making 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.

²³And when they had made selection of some to be rulers in every church, and had given themselves to prayer and kept themselves from food, they put them into the care of the Lord in whom they had faith.

²⁴And they went through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia.

²⁵And, after preaching the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia;

²⁶And from there they went by ship to Antioch, where they had been handed over to the grace of God for the work which they had not done.

²⁷And when they came there, and had got the church together, they gave them an account of all the things which God had done through them, and how he had made open a door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸And they were with the disciples there for a long time.