Beginning
Controversy and vindication
11 The apostles, and the brothers and sisters with them in Judaea, heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who wanted to emphasize circumcision took issue with him.
3 “Why did you do it?” they asked. “Why did you go in to visit uncircumcised men and eat with them?”
4 So Peter began to explain it all, step by step.
5 “I was in the town of Joppa,” he said, “and I was praying. I was in a trance, and I saw a vision: something like a great sail suspended by its four corners was let down from heaven, and came towards me. 6 I stared at it, then I began to look in, and I saw four-footed land animals, wild beasts, reptiles and birds of the air. 7 I heard a voice, saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter! Kill and eat!’ 8 ‘Certainly not, Lord,’ I replied. ‘Nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth!’ 9 Then the voice came from heaven a second time: ‘What God made clean, you must not regard as common.’ 10 All this happened three times, and then the whole lot was drawn back up into heaven.
11 “Just then, suddenly, three men appeared at the house where I was, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 The spirit told me to go with them, without raising scrupulous objections. These six brothers also came with me, and we went into the man’s house. 13 He told us that he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and fetch Simon called Peter, 14 who will speak to you words by which you and all your house will be saved.’ 15 As I began to speak, the holy spirit fell on them, just as the spirit did on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word which the Lord had spoken: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the holy spirit.’
17 “So, then,” Peter concluded, “if God gave them the same gift as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who was I to stand in the way of God?”
18 When they heard this, they had nothing more to say. They praised God.
“Well, then,” they declared, “God has given the Gentiles, too, the repentance that leads to life!”
Taking root—and a name!—in Antioch
19 The people who had been scattered because of the persecution that came about over Stephen went as far afield as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word only to Jewish people. 20 But some from among them, who were from Cyprus and Cyrene in the first place, arrived in Antioch and spoke to the Hellenists as well, announcing the good news of the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 News of all this reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw the grace of God he was glad, and he urged them all to stay firmly loyal to the Lord from the bottom of their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the holy spirit and faith. And a substantial crowd was added to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul 26 and, when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. They were there a whole year, and were received hospitably in the church, and taught a substantial crowd. And it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
27 Around that time, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, Agabus by name, stood up and gave an indication through the spirit that there would be a great famine over the whole world. (This took place in the reign of Claudius.) 29 Each of the disciples determined, according to their ability, to send what they could to help the brothers and sisters living in Judaea. 30 They carried out this plan, sending their gift to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Herod kills James
12 Around that time, King Herod began to use violence towards some members of the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Judaeans, he proceeded to arrest Peter, too. (This was around the time of the Festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4 So, when he had seized him, he put him in prison, and gave four squads of soldiers the job of guarding him, with the intention of bringing him out to the people after Passover. 5 So Peter was kept in prison. But the church prayed earnestly to God on his behalf.
Peter’s rescue and Rhoda’s mistake
6 On the night when Herod was intending to bring Peter out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. There were guards on the doors, watching the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there, and a light shone in the cell.
The angel hit Peter on the side and woke him up.
“Get up quickly!” he said.
The chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel spoke again.
“Get dressed and put on your sandals,” he said. So Peter did.
“Put on your cloak and follow me,” said the angel.
9 So he went out, following the angel. He didn’t think all this business with the angel was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They went through the first set of guards; then the second; and then they came to the iron gate that led into the city. It opened all by itself. They went out and walked along a street. Suddenly the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to his senses.
“Now I know it’s true!” he said. “The Lord sent his angel and snatched me out of Herod’s hands. He rescued me from all the things the Judaeans were intending to do.”
12 Once he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother. Lots of people were gathered there, praying. 13 Peter knocked at the door in the outer gate, and a maid called Rhoda came to answer it. 14 When she heard Peter’s voice, she was so excited that she didn’t open the gate. Instead, she ran back in and told them that Peter was standing outside the gate.
15 “You’re mad!” they said to her. But she insisted that it really was true.
“It must be his angel!” they said.
16 Meanwhile Peter carried on knocking. They opened the door and saw him, and were astonished. 17 He made a sign with his hand for them to be quiet. Then he told them how the Lord had led him out of the prison.
“Tell this to James, and to the other brothers and sisters,” he said.
Then he left, and went somewhere else.
18 When morning came, there was quite a commotion among the guards as to what had become of Peter. 19 Herod looked for him but couldn’t find him. He interrogated the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he left Judaea and went down to Caesarea, and stayed there.
Herod’s vanity and death
20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They all came together to meet him, and they persuaded Blastus, who was in charge of the king’s bedchamber, to seek a reconciliation. (They were, you see, dependent on the king’s country for their food.) 21 So a day was set, and Herod dressed himself in his royal robes and took his seat on the official platform to make a public address to them.
22 The people began to shout, “The voice of a god, not of a mortal!”
23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. He was eaten by worms and expired.
24 But God’s word grew and multiplied. 25 Barnabas and Saul had by now accomplished their ministry in Jerusalem, and they came back to Antioch, bringing John Mark with them.
Mission and magic
13 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Symeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen from the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy spirit said, “Set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So they fasted and prayed; and then they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
4 So off they went, sent out by the holy spirit, and arrived at Seleucia. From there they set sail to Cyprus, 5 and when they arrived in Salamis they announced God’s word in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their assistant. 6 They went through the whole of the island, all the way to Paphos. There they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. He called Barnabas and Saul and asked to hear the word of God. 8 The magician Elymas (that is the translation of his name) was opposing them, and doing his best to turn the governor away from the faith. 9 But Saul, also named Paul, looked intently at him, filled with the holy spirit.
10 “You’re full of trickery and every kind of villainy!” he said. “You’re a son of the devil! You’re an enemy of everything that’s right! When are you going to stop twisting the paths that God has made straight? 11 Now see here: the Lord’s hand will be upon you, and you will be blind for a while; you won’t even be able to see the sun!”
At once mist and darkness fell on him, and he went about looking for someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the governor saw what had happened, he believed, since he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Address in Antioch
13 Paul and his companions set off from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and went back to Jerusalem. 14 But they came through from Perga and arrived in Antioch of Pisidia, where they went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and sat down. 15 After the reading of the law and the prophets, the ruler of the synagogue sent word to them.
“My brothers,” he said, “if you have any word of exhortation for the people, let us hear it.”
16 So Paul stood up and motioned with his hand for attention.
“Fellow Israelites,” he said, “and the godfearers among you: listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors, and he raised the people up to greatness during their stay in the land of Egypt. Then he led them out from there with his outstretched hand, 18 and for about forty years he put up with them in the desert. 19 He drove out seven nations from the land of Canaan, and gave them the land as their inheritance 20 for about four hundred and fifty years. After that, he gave them judges, up until Samuel the prophet. 21 After that, they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin. He ruled for forty years, 22 and after God had removed him he raised up for them David as king. He is the one to whom God bore witness when he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will accomplish all my purpose.’
23 “From this man’s offspring, in accordance with his promise, God has produced a savior for Israel: Jesus! 24 Before he appeared, John had announced a baptism of repentance for the whole people of Israel. 25 As John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose I am? I am not the one. But look: someone is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.’ ”
The messianic challenge
26 “My brothers and sisters,” Paul continued, “children of Abraham’s family, and the godfearers among you: it is to us that the word of this salvation has been sent! 27 The people who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, didn’t recognize him, and they fulfilled the words of the prophets which are read to them every sabbath by condemning him. 28 Even though they found no reason to condemn him to death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 When they had completed everything that had been written about him in prophecy, they took him down from the cross and put him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and he was seen for several days by those who had come with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people.
32 “We are here now to bring you the good news which was promised to our ancestors, 33 that God has fulfilled this promise to us, their children, by raising Jesus. This corresponds, indeed, to what is written in the second Psalm:
You are my son; this day I have begotten you.
34 “That he raised him from the dead, never more to return to corruption, conforms to what was written:
I will give you the holy and faithful mercies of David.
35 “Because, as it says in another place,
You will not hand over your holy one to see corruption.
36 “Now David served his own generation, and in the purposes of God he fell asleep and was gathered to his fathers. He did experience corruption. 37 But the one God raised up did not experience corruption. 38,39 “So let it be known to you, my brothers and sisters, that forgiveness of sins is announced through him.
“Everyone who believes is set right in relation to all the things which the law of Moses could not put right.
40 “Beware, then, lest what the prophets foretold comes true of you:
41 Look out, you scoffers—be amazed, and disappear!
I am doing something in your days, a work which you wouldn’t believe
even if someone were to explain it to you.”
42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, they begged them to come back the next sabbath and tell them more about these things. 43 Many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed them once the synagogue was dismissed. They spoke to them some more, and urged them to remain in God’s grace.
A light to the Gentiles
44 On the next sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with righteous indignation, and spoke blasphemous words against what Paul was saying.
46 Paul and Barnabas grew very bold.
“God’s word had to be spoken to you first,” they declared. “But since you are rejecting it, and judging yourselves unworthy of the life of God’s new age, look! We are turning to the Gentiles! 47 This is what the Lord has commanded, you see:
I have set you for a light to the nations,
so that you can be salvation-bringers to the end of the earth.”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were thrilled, and they praised the word of the Lord. All those who were marked out for the life of God’s new age became believers. 49 And the word of the Lord spread through the whole land.
50 But the Jews incited the devout aristocratic women and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 They, however, shook the dust off their feet and went on to Iconium. 52 The disciples were filled with joy and with the holy spirit.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.