Acts 10-12

Acts 10

¹Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius, the captain of the Italian band of the army;

²A serious-minded man, fearing God with all his family; he gave much money to the poor, and made prayer to God at all times.

³He saw in a vision, clearly, at about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of the Lord coming to him and saying to him, Cornelius!

⁴And he, looking on him in fear, said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your offerings have come up to God, and he has kept them in mind.

⁵Now send men to Joppa, and get one Simon, named Peter,

⁶Who is living with Simon, a leather-worker, whose house is by the sea.

⁷And when the angel who said these words to him had gone away, he sent for two of his house-servants, and a God-fearing man of the army, one of those who were waiting on him at all times;

⁸And having given them an account of everything, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹Now the day after, when they were on their journey and were near the town, Peter went up to the top of the house for prayer, about the sixth hour:

¹⁰And he was in need of food: but while they were getting it ready, a deep sleep came on him;

¹¹And he saw the heavens opening, and a vessel coming down, like a great cloth let down on the earth,

¹²In which were all sorts of beasts and birds.

¹³And a voice came to him, saying, Come, Peter; take them for food.

¹⁴But Peter said, No, Lord; for I have never taken food which is common or unclean.

¹⁵And the voice came to him a second time, What God has made clean, do not you make common.

¹⁶And this was done three times: and then the vessel was taken back into heaven.

¹⁷Now while Peter was in doubt as to the purpose of this vision, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made search for Simon's house, came to the door,

¹⁸To see if Simon, named Peter, was living there.

¹⁹And, while Peter was turning the vision over in his mind, the Spirit said to him, See, three men are looking for you.

²⁰Go down, then, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.

²¹And Peter went down to the men, and said, I am the man you are looking for: why have you come?

²²And they said, Cornelius, a captain, an upright and God-fearing man, respected by all the nation of the Jews, had word from God by an angel to send for you to his house, and to give hearing to your words.

²³So he took them in for the night. And the day after, he went with them, taking some of the brothers from Joppa with him.

²⁴And the day after that, they came to Caesarea. And Cornelius was waiting for them, having got together his relations and his near friends.

²⁵And when Peter came in, Cornelius came to him and, falling down at his feet, gave him worship.

²⁶But Peter, lifting him up, said, Get up, for I am a man as you are.

²⁷And saying these words, he went in, and saw that a great number of people had come together;

²⁸And he said to them, You yourselves have knowledge that it is against the law for a man who is a Jew to be in the company of one who is of another nation; but God has made it clear to me that no man may be named common or unclean:

²⁹And so I came without question, when I was sent for. What then is your purpose in sending for me?

³⁰And Cornelius said, Four days from now I was in my house in prayer at the ninth hour; and I saw before me a man in shining clothing,

³¹Who said, Cornelius, your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your offerings are kept in his memory.

³²Send, then, to Joppa, and get Simon, named Peter, to come to you; he is living in the house of Simon, a leather-worker, by the sea.

³³So, straight away, I sent for you; and you have done well to come. And now, we are all present before God, ready to give attention to all the things which the Lord has given you to say.

³⁴Then Peter said, Truly, I see clearly that God is no respecter of persons:

³⁵But in every nation, the man who has fear of him and does righteousness is pleasing to him.

³⁶The word which he sent to the children of Israel, giving the good news of peace through Jesus Christ (who is Lord of all) —

³⁷That word you yourselves have knowledge of, which was made public through all Judaea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism of which John was the preacher,

³⁸About Jesus of Nazareth, how God gave the Holy Spirit to him, with power: and how he went about doing good and making well all who were troubled by evil spirits, for God was with him.

³⁹And we are witnesses of all the things which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they put to death, hanging him on a tree.

⁴⁰On the third day God gave him back to life, and let him be seen,

⁴¹Not by all the people, but by witnesses marked out before by God, even by us, who took food and drink with him after he came back from the dead.

⁴²And he gave us orders to give news of this to the people, and to give public witness that this is he whom God has made judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³To him all the prophets give witness, that through his name everyone who has faith in him will have forgiveness of sins.

⁴⁴While Peter was saying these words, the Holy Spirit came on all those who were hearing the word.

⁴⁵And the Jews of the faith, who had come with Peter, were full of wonder, because the Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles,

⁴⁶And they were talking in tongues, and giving glory to God. Then Peter said,

⁴⁷Will any man say that these may not have baptism who have been given the Holy Spirit as we have?

⁴⁸And he gave orders for them to have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they kept him with them for some days.

Acts 11

¹Now the Apostles and the brothers who were in Judaea had news that the word of God had been given to the Gentiles.

²And when Peter came to Jerusalem, those who kept the rule of circumcision had an argument with him,

³Saying, You went to men without circumcision, and took food with them.

⁴But Peter gave them an account of it all in order, saying to them,

⁵I was in the town of Joppa, at prayer: and falling into a deep sleep, I saw in a vision a vessel like a great cloth let down from heaven, and it came down to me:

⁶And looking on it with attention I saw in it all sorts of beasts and birds.

⁷And a voice came to my ears saying, Come, Peter; take them for food.

⁸But I said, No, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever come into my mouth.

⁹But the voice, coming a second time from heaven, said, What God has made clean, do not you make common.

¹⁰And this was done three times, and they were all taken up again into heaven.

¹¹And at that minute, three men, sent from Caesarea, came to the house where we were.

¹²And the Spirit gave me orders to go with them, doubting nothing. And these six brothers came with me; and we went into that man's house:

¹³And he gave us an account of how he had seen the angel in his house, saying, Send to Joppa, and get Simon, named Peter, to come to you;

¹⁴Who will say words to you through which you and all your family may get salvation.

¹⁵And, while I was talking to them, the Holy Spirit came on them, as on us at first.

¹⁶And the words of the Lord came into my mind, how he said, The baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷If then God gave them, when they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the same as he gave to us, who was I to go against God?

¹⁸And hearing these things they said nothing more, but gave glory to God, saying, Then to the Gentiles as to us has God given a change of heart, so that they may have life.

¹⁹Then those who had gone away at the time of the trouble about Stephen, went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus, preaching to the Jews only.

²⁰But some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, when they came to Antioch, gave the good news about the Lord Jesus to the Greeks.

²¹And the power of the Lord was with them, and a great number had faith and were turned to the Lord.

²²And news of them came to the ears of the church at Jerusalem: and they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch:

²³Who, when he came and saw the grace of God, was glad; and he made clear to them the need of keeping near the Lord with all the strength of their hearts:

²⁴For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and a great number were joined to the Lord.

²⁵Then he went on to Tarsus, looking for Saul;

²⁶And when he had come across him, he took him to Antioch. And they were with the church there for a year, teaching the people; and the disciples were first given the name of Christians in Antioch.

²⁷Now in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸And one of them, named Agabus, said publicly through the Spirit that there would be serious need of food all over the earth: which came about in the time of Claudius.

²⁹And the disciples, everyone as he was able, made a decision to send help to the brothers living in Judaea:

³⁰Which they did, sending it to the rulers of the church by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 12

¹Now, about that time, Herod the king made cruel attacks on the Christians.

²And he put James, the brother of John, to death with the sword.

³And when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he went on to take Peter in addition. This was at the time of the feast of unleavened bread.

⁴And having taken him, he put him in prison, with four bands of armed men to keep watch over him; his purpose being to take him out to the people after the Passover.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison: but the church made strong prayer to God for him.

⁶And when Herod was about to take him out, the same night Peter was sleeping in chains between two armed men, and the watchmen were keeping watch before the door of the prison.

⁷And a great light was seen shining in the room, and an angel of the Lord came to Peter and, touching him on his side so that he came out of his sleep, said, Get up quickly. And his chains came off his hands.

⁸Then the angel said, Put on your shoes and get ready to go. And he did so. And he said, Put your coat round you and come with me.

⁹And he went out after him; and he was not certain if what was done by the angel was a fact, for it seemed to him that he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰And when they had gone past the first and second watchmen they came to the iron door into the town, which came open by itself: and they went out and down one street; and then the angel went away.

¹¹And when Peter came to his senses he said, Now, truly, I am certain that the Lord has sent his angel and taken me out of the hands of Herod, against all the hopes of the Jews.

¹²And when he became clear about this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John named Mark, where a number of them had come together for prayer.

¹³And he gave a blow on the door, and a young girl came to it, named Rhoda.

¹⁴And hearing the voice of Peter, in her joy she went running, without opening the door, to say that Peter was outside.

¹⁵And they said to her, You are off your head. But still she said, with decision, that it was so. And they said, It is his angel.

¹⁶But Peter went on giving blows on the door: and when it was open and they saw him, they were full of wonder.

¹⁷But he made a sign to them with his hand to be quiet, and gave them an account of how the Lord had taken him out of prison. And he said, Give the news to James and the brothers. And then he went away.

¹⁸Now when it was day, the armed men were greatly troubled about what had become of Peter.

¹⁹And Herod, when he sent for him, and he was not there, after questioning the watchmen, gave orders that they were to be put to death. Then he went down from Judaea to Caesarea for a time.

²⁰Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon: and they came to him, all together, and having made friends with Blastus, the controller of the king's house, they made a request for peace, because their country was dependent on the king's country for its food.

²¹And on the day which had been fixed, Herod, dressed in his robes and seated in his place, made a public statement to them.

²²And the people, with loud cries, said, It is the voice of a god, not of a man.

²³And straight away the angel of the Lord sent a disease on him, because he did not give the glory to God: and his flesh was wasted away by worms, and so he came to his end.

²⁴But the word of the Lord went on increasing.

²⁵And Barnabas and Saul came back from Jerusalem, when their work was ended, taking with them John named Mark.