Acts 15–16

The Council at Jerusalem

15Certain people^k came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers:^l “Unless you are circumcised,^m according to the custom taught by Moses,ⁿ you cannot be saved.” ²This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem^o to see the apostles and elders^p about this question. ³The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia^q and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.^r This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.^s

⁵Then some of the believers who belonged to the party^t of the Pharisees^u stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”^v

⁶The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.^{w 8}God, who knows the heart,^x showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them,^y just as he did to us. ⁹He did not discriminate between us and them,^z for he purified their hearts by faith.^{a 10}Now then, why do you try to test God^b by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke^c that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹No! We believe it is through the grace^d of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹²The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders^e God had done among the Gentiles through them.^{f 13}When they finished, James^g spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. ¹⁴Simon^a has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.^{h 15}The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

¹⁶“ ‘After this I will return

and rebuild David’s fallen tent.

Its ruins I will rebuild,

and I will restore it,

¹⁷that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,

even all the Gentiles who bear my name,

says the Lord, who does these things’^bi—

¹⁸things known from long ago.^cj

¹⁹“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols,^k from sexual immorality,^l from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.^{m 21}For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”ⁿ

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

²²Then the apostles and elders,^o with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch^p with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas,^q men who were leaders among the believers. ²³With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch,^r Syria^s and Cilicia:^t

Greetings.^u

²⁴We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.^{v 25}So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—²⁶men who have risked their lives^w for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas^x to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. ²⁸It seemed good to the Holy Spirit^y and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: ²⁹You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.^z You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

³⁰So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. ³¹The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. ³²Judas and Silas,^a who themselves were prophets,^b said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. ³³After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace^c to return to those who had sent them. ^{[34]d 35}But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached^d the word of the Lord.^e

Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas

³⁶Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns^f where we preached the word of the Lord^g and see how they are doing.” ³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark,^h with them, ³⁸but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted themⁱ in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. ³⁹They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, ⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas^j and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.^{k 41}He went through Syria^l and Cilicia,^m strengthening the churches.ⁿ

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra,^o where a disciple named Timothy^p lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer^q but whose father was a Greek. ²The believers^r at Lystra and Iconium^s spoke well of him. ³Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.^{t 4}As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders^u in Jerusalem^v for the people to obey.^{w 5}So the churches were strengthened^x in the faith and grew daily in numbers.^y

Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia

⁶Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia^z and Galatia,^a having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.^{b 7}When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus^c would not allow them to. ⁸So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.^{d 9}During the night Paul had a vision^e of a man of Macedonia^f standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we^g got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel^h to them.

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

¹¹From Troasⁱ we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. ¹²From there we traveled to Philippi,^j a Roman colony and the leading city of that district^a of Macedonia.^k And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath^l we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira^m named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heartⁿ to respond to Paul’s message. ¹⁵When she and the members of her household^o were baptized,^p she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶Once when we were going to the place of prayer,^q we were met by a female slave who had a spirit^r by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God,^s who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.^t

¹⁹When her owners realized that their hope of making money^u was gone, they seized Paul and Silas^v and dragged^w them into the marketplace to face the authorities. ²⁰They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar^{x 21}by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans^y to accept or practice.”^z

²²The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.^{a 23}After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer^b was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.^c

²⁵About midnight^d Paul and Silas^e were praying and singing hymns^f to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.^g At once all the prison doors flew open,^h and everyone’s chains came loose.^{i 27}The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.^{j 28}But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.^{k 30}He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”^l

³¹They replied, “Believe^m in the Lord Jesus, and you will be savedⁿ—you and your household.”^{o 32}Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ³³At that hour of the night^p the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.^{q 34}The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he^r was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

³⁵When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” ³⁶The jailer^s told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”^t

³⁷But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens,^u and threw us into…