Beginning
7 ¶ Then the prince of the priests said, Are these things so?
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3 and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee.
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and dwelt in Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, in which ye now dwell.
5 And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
6 And God spoke thus, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into slavery and mistreat them four hundred years.
7 And the Gentiles unto whom they shall be in slavery I will judge, said God; and after that they shall come forth and serve me in this place.
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him grace and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great tribulation, and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was wheat in Egypt, he sent our fathers the first time.
13 And in the second Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s lineage was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob unto him and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers,
16 who were carried over into Shechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.
17 ¶ But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until another king arose, who did not know Joseph.
19 The same dealt subtly with our kindred and mistreated our fathers so that they exposed their babies to death, to the end that the generation would cease.
20 In which time Moses was born and was beautiful to God and was nourished in his father’s house three months;
21 and when he was put in danger, Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and nourished him as her own son.
22 And Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the sons of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and smote the Egyptian, avenging the oppressed;
25 for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God was to give them saving health by his hand, but they had not understood.
26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove and urged them to peace, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
28 Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then Moses fled at this word and became a sojourner in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
30 ¶ And when forty years were expired, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the vision; and as he drew near to consider it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
32 saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and dared not to behold.
33 Then the Lord said to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet; for the place where thou dost stand is holy ground.
34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
35 This Moses, whom they had refused, saying, Who made thee a prince and a judge? the same did God send as prince and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, showing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is that Moses, who said unto the sons of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, who was in the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers, who received the oracles of life to give unto us;
39 to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
41 And then they made a calf and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 ¶ Then God withdrew and gave them up to worship the host of the heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 On the contrary, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen,
45 which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus {Joshua in Heb.} into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David,
46 who found grace before God and asked to provide a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him a house.
48 Howbeit the most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool; what house will ye build me? saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?
51 ¶ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Who of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? and they have slain those who announced before the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers,
53 who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
54 ¶ When they heard these things, they were divided in their hearts and gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God
56 and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord;
58 and casting him out of the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, impute not this sin to their charge. And having said this, he fell asleep in the Lord.
8 ¶ And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him.
3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the congregation; {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} entering into the houses and dragging out men and women, he committed them to prison.
4 ¶ But those that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word of the gospel.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached the Christ unto them.
6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the signs which he did.
7 For many unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of those who were possessed with them, and many paralytics and that were lame were healed.
8 And there was great joy in that city.
9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who before this in the same city used magic arts and amazed the people of Samaria, giving out that he himself was some great one,
10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This is the great virtue of God.
11 And to him they had regard because for a long time he had amazed them with magic arts.
12 But when they believed Philip preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
13 Then Simon himself believed also; and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were being done.
14 ¶ Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John unto them,
15 who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them; they were baptized only in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
17 Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,
19 saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God, if perhaps this thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the prison of iniquity.
24 Then Simon answered and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.
25 And they, when they had testified and preached the word of God, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
26 ¶ And the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
27 Then he arose and went, and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
28 was returning and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot.
30 And Philip ran there to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, Dost thou understand what thou readest?
31 And he said, How can I, except someone should guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth;
33 in his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
34 And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom does the prophet speak this? of himself or of some other?
35 Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him the gospel of Jesus.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what hinders me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou dost believe with all thine heart, thou may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went both down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he preached the gospel in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
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