使徒行传 1
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
应许圣灵降临
1 提阿非罗啊，在前一封信中，我从耶稣的生平和教导开始， 2 一直谈到祂借着圣灵吩咐了自己选立的使徒，然后被接回天上。 3 祂受难后用许多确凿的证据证实自己活着，在四十天之内屡次向使徒显现，与他们谈论上帝的国。 4 有一次，耶稣和他们在一起吃饭的时候，叮嘱他们：“你们不要离开耶路撒冷，要在那里等候我对你们说过的天父的应许。 5 因为从前约翰用水给你们施洗，但再过几天，你们要受圣灵的洗。”
6 他们跟耶稣在一起的时候问祂：“主啊，你要在这时候复兴以色列国吗？” 7 耶稣回答说：“天父照祂的权柄定下的时间、日期不是你们可以知道的。 8 但圣灵降临在你们身上后，你们必得到能力，在耶路撒冷、犹太全境和撒玛利亚，直到地极，做我的见证人。”
9 耶稣说完这番话，就在他们眼前被提升天，被一朵云彩接去，离开了他们的视线。 10 祂上升时，他们都定睛望着天空，忽然有两个身穿白衣的人站在他们身旁， 11 说：“加利利人啊！你们为什么站在这里望着天空呢？这位离开你们被接到天上的耶稣，你们看见祂怎样升天，将来祂还要怎样回来。”
选立新使徒
12 于是，他们从橄榄山回到耶路撒冷。橄榄山距离耶路撒冷不远，约是安息日允许走的路程[a]。 13 他们进城后，来到楼上自己住的房间。当时有彼得、约翰、雅各、安得烈、腓力、多马、巴多罗买、马太、亚勒腓的儿子雅各、激进党人西门、雅各的儿子犹大。 14 他们和耶稣的母亲玛丽亚、耶稣的弟弟们及几个妇女在一起同心合意地恒切祷告。
15 那时，约有一百二十人在聚会，彼得站起来说： 16 “弟兄们，关于带人抓耶稣的犹大，圣灵借着大卫的口早已预言，这经文必须要应验。 17 这人原本是我们中间的一员，与我们同担使徒的职分。”
18 犹大用作恶得来的钱买了一块田，他头朝下栽倒在那里，肚破肠流。 19 这消息很快传遍了耶路撒冷，当地人称那块田为“亚革大马”，就是“血田”的意思。
20 彼得继续说：“诗篇上写道，‘愿他的家园一片荒凉，无人居住’，又说，‘愿别人取代他的职位。’ 21-22 所以，我们必须另选一个人代替犹大，与我们一同为主耶稣的复活做见证。他必须是从主耶稣接受约翰的洗礼起一直到主升天，始终与我们在一起的人。”
23 被提名的有别号巴撒巴又叫犹士都的约瑟和马提亚两个人。 24-25 大家便祷告说：“主啊！你洞悉人的内心，求你指明这两个人中你要拣选哪一个来担负使徒的职分。犹大丢弃了这职分，去了他该去的地方。” 26 然后，他们抽签，抽中了马提亚，就把他列入十一使徒中。
Footnotes
- 1:12 按犹太人的传统，在安息日只能走约一公里远。
Acts 1
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
I. The Preparation for the Christian Mission
Chapter 1[a]
The Promise of the Spirit. 1 In the first book,(A) Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught 2 until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.(B) 3 He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days[b] and speaking about the kingdom of God.(C) 4 While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father[c] about which you have heard me speak;(D) 5 for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.”(E)
The Ascension of Jesus. 6 When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going[d] to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 [e]He answered them,(F) “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. 8 [f]But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you,(G) and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.(H) 10 While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.(I) 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”(J) 12 (K)Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.
The First Community in Jerusalem. 13 When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.(L)
The Choice of Judas’s Successor. 15 During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, 16 “My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.(M) 17 He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. 18 (N)He bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out.[g] 19 This became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem, so that the parcel of land was called in their language ‘Akeldama,’ that is, Field of Blood. 20 For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘Let his encampment become desolate,
and may no one dwell in it.’
And:
‘May another take his office.’(O)
21 Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.”(P) 23 So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” 26 [h](Q)Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
Footnotes
- 1:1–26 This introductory material (Acts 1:1–2) connects Acts with the Gospel of Luke, shows that the apostles were instructed by the risen Jesus (Acts 1:3–5), points out that the parousia or second coming in glory of Jesus will occur as certainly as his ascension occurred (Acts 1:6–11), and lists the members of the Twelve, stressing their role as a body of divinely mandated witnesses to his life, teaching, and resurrection (Acts 1:12–26).
- 1:3 Appearing to them during forty days: Luke considered especially sacred the interval in which the appearances and instructions of the risen Jesus occurred and expressed it therefore in terms of the sacred number forty (cf. Dt 8:2). In his gospel, however, Luke connects the ascension of Jesus with the resurrection by describing the ascension on Easter Sunday evening (Lk 24:50–53). What should probably be understood as one event (resurrection, glorification, ascension, sending of the Spirit—the paschal mystery) has been historicized by Luke when he writes of a visible ascension of Jesus after forty days and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost. For Luke, the ascension marks the end of the appearances of Jesus except for the extraordinary appearance to Paul. With regard to Luke’s understanding of salvation history, the ascension also marks the end of the time of Jesus (Lk 24:50–53) and signals the beginning of the time of the church.
- 1:4 The promise of the Father: the holy Spirit, as is clear from the next verse. This gift of the Spirit was first promised in Jesus’ final instructions to his chosen witnesses in Luke’s gospel (Lk 24:49) and formed part of the continuing instructions of the risen Jesus on the kingdom of God, of which Luke speaks in Acts 1:3.
- 1:6 The question of the disciples implies that in believing Jesus to be the Christ (see note on Lk 2:11) they had expected him to be a political leader who would restore self-rule to Israel during his historical ministry. When this had not taken place, they ask if it is to take place at this time, the period of the church.
- 1:7 This verse echoes the tradition that the precise time of the parousia is not revealed to human beings; cf. Mk 13:32; 1 Thes 5:1–3.
- 1:8 Just as Jerusalem was the city of destiny in the Gospel of Luke (the place where salvation was accomplished), so here at the beginning of Acts, Jerusalem occupies a central position. It is the starting point for the mission of the Christian disciples to “the ends of the earth,” the place where the apostles were situated and the doctrinal focal point in the early days of the community (Acts 15:2, 6). The ends of the earth: for Luke, this means Rome.
- 1:18 Luke records a popular tradition about the death of Judas that differs from the one in Mt 27:5, according to which Judas hanged himself. Here, although the text is not certain, Judas is depicted as purchasing a piece of property with the betrayal money and being killed on it in a fall.
- 1:26 The need to replace Judas was probably dictated by the symbolism of the number twelve, recalling the twelve tribes of Israel. This symbolism also indicates that for Luke (see Lk 22:30) the Christian church is a reconstituted Israel.
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