Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Barnabas and Saul Are Chosen and Sent
1 In the church at Antioch
there were some prophets
and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon
(called the Black), Lucius (from Cyrene),
Manaen (who had been
brought up with Governor Herod note),
and Saul.
2 While they were serving
the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit
said to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas
and Saul, to do the work to
which I have called them.”
3 They fasted and prayed, placed
their hands on them, and sent them
off.
In Cyprus
4 Having been sent by the Holy
Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went to
Seleucia and sailed from there to the
island of Cyprus.
5 When they arrived
at Salamis, they preached the
word of God in the synagogues.
They had John Mark with them to
help in the work.
6 They went all the way across the
island to Paphos, where they met a
certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a
Jew who claimed to be a prophet.
7 He was a friend of the governor of
the island, Sergius Paulus, who was
an intelligent man. The governor
called Barnabas and Saul before him
because he wanted to hear the word
of God.
8 But they were opposed by
the magician Elymas (that is his
name in Greek), who tried to turn
the governor away from the faith.
9 Then Saul—also known as Paul—
was filled with the Holy Spirit; he
looked straight at the magician
10 and said, “You son of the Devil!
You are the enemy of everything
that is good. You are full of all kinds
of evil tricks, and you always keep
trying to turn the Lord's truths into
lies!
11 The Lord's hand will come
down on you now; you will be blind
and will not see the light of day for a
time.”
11 At once Elymas felt a dark mist
cover his eyes, and he walked
around trying to find someone to
lead him by the hand.
12 When the
governor saw what had happened,
he believed; for he was greatly
amazed at the teaching about the
Lord.
In Antioch in Pisidia
13 Paul and his companions sailed
from Paphos and came to Perga, a
city in Pamphylia, where John Mark
left them and went back to Jerusalem.
14 They went on from Perga and
arrived in Antioch in Pisidia, and on
the Sabbath they went into the synagogue
and sat down.
15 After the
reading from the Law of Moses and
from the writings of the prophets,
the officials of the synagogue sent
them a message: “Brothers, we want
you to speak to the people if you
have a message of encouragement
for them.”
16 Paul stood up, motioned
with his hand, and began to
speak:
16 “Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles
here who worship God: hear me!
17 The God of the people of Israel
chose our ancestors and made the
people a great nation during the
time they lived as foreigners in
Egypt. God brought them out of
Egypt by his great power, note
18 and for
-- --
forty years he endured note them in the
desert. note
19 He destroyed seven nations
in the land of Canaan and made his
people the owners of the land. note
20 All
of this took about 450 years.
20 “After this note he gave them judges
until the time of the prophet Samuel. note
21 And when they asked for a king,
God gave them Saul son of Kish
from the tribe of Benjamin, to be
their king for forty years. note
22 After removing
him, God made David their
king. This is what God said about
him: ‘I have found that David son of
Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man
who will do all I want him to do.’ note
23 It
was Jesus, a descendant of David,
whom God made the Savior of the
people of Israel, as he had promised.
24 Before Jesus began his work, John
preached to all the people of Israel
that they should turn from their sins
and be baptized. note
25 And as John was
about to finish his mission, he said to
the people, ‘Who do you think I am?
I am not the one you are waiting for.
But listen! He is coming after me,
and I am not good enough to take his
sandals off his feet.’ note
26 “My fellow Israelites, descendants
of Abraham, and all Gentiles
here who worship God: it is to us
that this message of salvation has
been sent!
27 For the people who live
in Jerusalem and their leaders did
not know that he is the Savior, nor
did they understand the words of the
prophets that are read every Sabbath.
Yet they made the prophets'
words come true by condemning
Jesus.
28 And even though they could
find no reason to pass the death sentence
on him, they asked Pilate to
have him put to death. note
29 And after
they had done everything that the
Scriptures say about him, they took
him down from the cross and placed
him in a tomb. note
30 But God raised him
from death,
31 and for many days he
appeared to those who had traveled
with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.
They are now witnesses for him to
the people of Israel. note
32
33 And we are
here to bring the Good News to you:
what God promised our ancestors he
would do, he has now done for us,
who are their descendants, by raising
Jesus to life. As it is written in
the second Psalm,
‘You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.’ note
34 And this is what God said about
raising him from death, never to rot
away in the grave:
‘I will give you the sacred and sure blessings
that I promised to David.’ note
35 As indeed he says in another passage,
‘You will not allow your devoted servant to rot in the grave.’ note
36 For David served God's purposes
in his own time, and then he died,
was buried with his ancestors, and
his body rotted in the grave.
37 But
this did not happen to the one whom
God raised from death.
38
39 All of
you, my fellow Israelites, are to
know for sure that it is through
Jesus that the message about
forgiveness of sins is preached to
you; you are to know that everyone
who believes in him is set free from
all the sins from which the Law of
Moses could not set you free.
40 Take
care, then, so that what the prophets
said may not happen to you: note
41
‘Look, you scoffers! Be astonished and die!
For what I am doing today
is something that you will not believe,
even when someone explains it to you!’” note
42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving
the synagogue, the people invited
them to come back the next
Sabbath and tell them more about
-- --
these things.
43 After the people had
left the meeting, Paul and Barnabas
were followed by many Jews and by
many Gentiles who had been converted
to Judaism. The apostles
spoke to them and encouraged them
to keep on living in the grace of God.
44 The next Sabbath nearly everyone
in the town came to hear the
word of the Lord.
45 When the Jews
saw the crowds, they were filled
with jealousy; they disputed what
Paul was saying and insulted him.
46 But Paul and Barnabas spoke out
even more boldly: “It was necessary
that the word of God should be spoken
first to you. But since you reject
it and do not consider yourselves
worthy of eternal life, we will leave
you and go to the Gentiles.
47 For this
is the commandment that the Lord
has given us:
‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
so that all the world may be saved.’” note
48 When the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and praised the
Lord's message; and those who had
been chosen for eternal life became
believers.
49 The word of the Lord spread
everywhere in that region.
50 But the
Jews stirred up the leading men of
the city and the Gentile women of
high social standing who worshiped
God. They started a persecution
against Paul and Barnabas and
threw them out of their region.
51 The apostles shook the dust off
their feet in protest against them
and went on to Iconium. note
52 The believers
in Antioch were full of joy
and the Holy Spirit.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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