Acts 15–16

CHAPTER 15

The Jerusalem Council

^1aSome men came down from Judea and began teaching ^bthe brothers, “Unless you are ^ccircumcised according to ^dthe custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²And when Paul and Barnabas had not a little dissension and ^adebate with them, ^bthe brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the ^capostles and elders concerning this issue.

³Therefore, being ^asent on their way by the church, they were passing through both ^bPhoenicia and Samaria, ^crecounting in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all ^dthe brothers.

⁴When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and ^athe apostles and the elders, and they ^breported all that God had done with them.

⁵But some of ^athe sect of the ^bPharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to ^ccircumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses.”

^6aBoth the apostles and the elders came together to ¹look into this ²matter.

⁷And after there had been much ^adebate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that ¹in the early days ^bGod made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of ^cthe gospel and believe.

⁸“And God, ^awho knows the heart, testified to them ^bgiving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;

⁹and ^aHe made no distinction between us and them, ^bcleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰“Now therefore why do you ^aput God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which ^bneither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹“But we believe that we are saved through ^athe grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

¹²And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were ^arelating what ^bsigns and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

James Issues a Judgment

¹³Now after they had stopped speaking, ^aJames answered, saying, “Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴“^aSimeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.

¹⁵“And with this the words of ^athe Prophets agree, just as it is written,

¹⁶‘^aAfter these things ^bI will return,

And I will rebuild the ^cfallen ¹booth of David,

And I will rebuild its ruins,

And I will restore it,

^17aSo that the rest of ¹mankind may seek the Lord,

And all the Gentiles ^2bwho are called by My name,’

^18aSays the ¹Lord, who ^2bmakes these things known from long ago.

¹⁹“Therefore ^aI judge that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,

²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from ^athings contaminated by idols and from ^bsexual immorality and from ^cwhat is strangled and from blood.

²¹“For from ancient generations, ^aMoses has those who preach him in every city, since ¹he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²²Then it seemed good to ^athe apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them—Judas called Barsabbas, and ^bSilas, leading men among ^cthe brothers—to send to ^dAntioch with Paul and Barnabas,

²³and they ¹sent this letter by them,

“^aThe apostles and the brothers who are elders, to ^bthe brothers in ^cAntioch and ^dSyria and ^eCilicia who are from the Gentiles, ^fgreetings.

²⁴“Since we have heard that ^asome of us, to whom we gave no instruction, have gone out and ^bdisturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,

^25ait seemed good to us, having ¹come to one accord, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶men who have ^1arisked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷“Therefore we have sent ^aJudas and ^bSilas, and they themselves will report the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸“For ^ait seemed good to ^bthe Holy Spirit and to ^cus to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:

²⁹that you abstain from ^athings sacrificed to idols and from ^bblood and from ^cthings strangled and from ^dsexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰So when they were sent away, ^athey went down to Antioch; and having gathered the ¹congregation together, they delivered the letter.

³¹And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its ¹encouragement.

^32aAnd both Judas and ^bSilas, also being ^cprophets themselves, ¹encouraged and strengthened ^dthe brothers with a lengthy message.

³³And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brothers ^ain peace to those who had ^bsent them.

³⁴¹[But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.]

³⁵But ^aPaul and Barnabas spent a long time in Antioch, teaching and ^1bpreaching with many others also, ^cthe word of the Lord.

Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas

³⁶Now after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in ^aevery city in which we proclaimed ^bthe word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

³⁷And Barnabas wanted to take ^aJohn, called Mark, along with them also.

³⁸But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had ^adeserted them ¹in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

³⁹And there was such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took ^aMark with him and sailed away to ^bCyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose ^aSilas and left, being ^bcommitted by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹And he was traveling through ^aSyria and ^bCilicia, strengthening the churches.

CHAPTER 16

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

¹Now Paul also arrived at ^aDerbe and at ^bLystra. And behold, a disciple was there, named ^cTimothy, the son of a ^dJewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek,

²and he was well spoken of by ^athe brothers who were in ^bLystra and ^cIconium.

³Paul wanted this man to ¹go with him, and he ^atook him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering ^athe decrees which had been decided upon by ^bthe apostles and ^celders who were in Jerusalem, for them to keep.

⁵So ^athe churches were being strengthened ¹in the faith, and were ^babounding in number daily.

The Macedonian Vision

⁶And they passed through the ^1aPhrygian and ^bGalatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in ^2cAsia;

⁷and after they came to ^aMysia, they were trying to go into ^bBithynia, and the ^cSpirit of Jesus did not permit them;

⁸and passing by ^aMysia, they came down to ^bTroas.

^9aAnd a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of ^bMacedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

¹⁰And when he had seen ^athe vision, immediately ^bwe sought to ¹go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to ^cproclaim the gospel to them.

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

¹¹So setting sail from ^aTroas, we ran ^ba straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis;

¹²and from there to ^aPhilippi, which is a leading city of the district of ^bMacedonia, ^ca Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days.

¹³And on ^athe Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and sitting down, we began speaking to the women who had assembled.

¹⁴And a woman named Lydia, from the city of ^aThyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, ^ba worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the Lord ^copened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul.

¹⁵And when she and ^aher household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶Now it happened that as we were going to ^athe place of prayer, a servant-girl having ^ba spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

¹⁷Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are slaves of ^athe Most High God, who are proclaiming to you ¹the way of salvation.”

¹⁸And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed, Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I command you ^ain the name of Jesus Christ to leave her!” And it left at that very ¹moment.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that their hope of ^aprofit had left, they seized ^bPaul and Silas and ^cdragged them into the marketplace before the authorities,

²⁰and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,

²¹and ^aare proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being ^bRomans.”

²²And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be ^abeaten with rods.

²³And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding ^athe jailer to guard them securely,

²⁴who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in ^athe ¹stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Converted

²⁵But about midnight ^aPaul and Silas were praying and ^bsinging hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶And suddenly ^athere came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the jailhouse were shaken; and immediately ^ball the doors were opened and everyone’s ^cchains were unfastened.

²⁷And when ^athe jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about ^bto kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”

²⁹And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before ^aPaul and Silas,

³⁰and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, ^awhat must I do to be saved?”

³¹And they said, “^aBelieve in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and ^byour house.”

³²And they spoke the word of ¹the Lord to him together with all who were in his household.

³³And he took them ^athat very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he…