13
“Now Set Apart for Me Barnabas and Saul”
1 Now there were in Antioch, in the assembly that gathered there, some prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon (also called Niger, “the Black”) and Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (who had grown up in the same household as Herod Antipas, the regional governor), and Saul.
2 On one occasion as they were rendering service to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Now set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which I have called them.”
3 Then, after they had fasted and prayed and commissioned the men to the task by laying hands on them, they let them go.
“They Sailed to the Island of Cyprus”
4 While the two men themselves, therefore, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Antioch’s port city, Seleucia, and from there sailed to the island of Cyprus,
5 where, upon arriving at the southeastern coast city of Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues, they had with them, too, John Mark as a helper.
6 When they had traveled across the whole island to the southwestern coast city of Paphos, they encountered a certain sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus,
7 who was one of the attendants of the island’s governor Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. The governor, having sent for Barnabas and Saul, was eager to hear the word of God,
8 but Elymas (this was the sorcerer’s name in Greek) began to oppose them, trying to keep the governor from believing.
9 Saul, however, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at the sorcerer and
10 said, “You who are full of every kind of deceit and trickery and fraud! You son of the devil! You enemy of all that is good and right! Will you not stop corrupting the straight paths of the Lord?
11 Now hear this: The power of the Lord is against ˢyou; you will be blind, unable to see the sun for an appointed period of time.” Mist and darkness came over the sorcerer’s eyes immediately, and groping about, he tried to find someone to lead him by the hand.
12 When the governor saw what happened, he believed, in awe at the teaching about the Lord.
“They Arrived at Another City Called Antioch”
13 Departing from Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed north to the city of Perga in the province of Pamphylia. John Mark, however, deserting them, went back to Jerusalem.
14 As for Paul and Barnabas, moving north from Perga, they arrived at another city called Antioch, near the region of Pisidia, and going into the synagogue on the Sabbath, they took a seat.
15 Following the public reading from the Torah and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders had someone tell the two men, “Brothers, if you have any message at all that will strengthen and encourage the people, please share it.”
16 Paul, then, after he had stood up and motioned with his hand, said, “Men of Israel and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen!
17 The God of this people, Israel, chose for himself our ancestors; the people he made numerous and strong during their time as foreigners in the land of Egypt, and it was with great acts of power and judgment that he led them out of that land.
18 It was for a period of about forty years that he put up with their stubborn conduct in the wilderness,
19 and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he caused them to inherit the land inhabited by those peoples.
20 All this took about four hundred fifty years. After this, he appointed judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.
21 Then they demanded a king, and God appointed for them Saul the son of Kish, a man who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and kept him in power for forty years.
22 After removing Saul, he raised up David to be their king, a man about whom he spoke very highly, saying, ‘I have found David’+ the son of Jesse ‘to be a man who is fully loyal to me,’+ who ‘will carry out all my wishes.’+
23 From the seed of this man God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised,
24 after John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance, just before Jesus began his work, to all the people of Israel.
25 Now as John was about to finish his race, he said again and again, ‘Who do ᵖyou think I myself am? I am not the one. No, but he is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie even the sandals on his feet.’
26 “Brothers, people of the family line of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is us to whom the message of this salvation has been sent.
27 The residents of Jerusalem and their leaders, you see, this man’s true identity failing to understand—and likewise the words of the prophets that are read publicly Sabbath after Sabbath—by condemning him helped bring those words to fulfillment.
28 Although they found nothing to warrant the death penalty, they asked Pilate to have him executed.
29 Now when they had carried out all the things that had about him been written, they took him down from ‘the tree’+ and placed him in a tomb.
30 God, however, raised him from the dead,
31 and he appeared over a period of many days to those who had traveled up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who at the present time are witnesses on his behalf to the people.
32 And we ourselves, to ᵖyou, are proclaiming the gospel concerning the promise that was made to our ancestors:
33 This promise God has fulfilled before the eyes of their descendants, that is, before us, by ‘raising up’+ Jesus. As it is written, too, in the second Psalm:
“ ‘ˢYou are my Son!
I, on this day, anoint ˢyou as my chosen king.’+
34 That God would certainly raise him from the dead, moreover, never to experience decay, he states in this way: I will grant ᵖyou
“ ‘the faithful covenant blessings promised to David.’+
35 That is why it is stated, likewise, in another Psalm:
“ ‘ˢYou will not allow your Holy One to experience decay.’
+
36 Whereas David, you see, after serving God’s purpose in indeed his own time and generation, died and was laid to rest with his ancestors and did ‘experience decay,’
37 the one whom God ‘raised up’ did not ‘experience decay.’
38 “In light of these things, know this and know it well, brothers: Through this man, to ᵖyou, it is the forgiveness of sins that is being proclaimed.
39 All the culpabilities of which the Torah of Moses was not itself able to clear ᵖyou so as for you to be held righteous, by this man are removed from all who place their faith in him.
40 Be careful, therefore, lest there come upon you what is spoken about in the Prophets:
41 “ ‘Take note, you scoffers!
Be astonished and destroyed!
For I am going to perform in ᵖyour lifetime
a shocking act of judgment,
something ᵖyou would surely not believe
even if someone were to forewarn ᵖyou in detail.’”+
42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, people kept begging the two men to come back and tell them more about these matters on the following Sabbath.
43 When the synagogue was dismissed, a large number of Jews and God-fearing converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, while speaking with them, urged them again and again to continue relying on the gift of God.
44 On the following Sabbath it was nearly the whole city that gathered to hear the word of God.
45 Well, when the Jewish leaders saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to voice objections to the things Paul himself was saying, speaking slanderous things against him.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas boldly said, “It was to ᵖyou that the word of God had to be declared first and first of all. Since ᵖyou reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of the life of the coming age, take note of this: We are turning to the Gentiles.
47 This, after all, is what the Lord has commanded us:
“ ‘I will surely appoint ˢyou as a light for the Gentiles;
I will appoint ˢyou as salvation to the ends of the earth.’+”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they began to rejoice and give honor to the message about the Lord, and as many as were appointed to life in the coming age believed.
49 The message about the Lord spread more and more throughout the whole region.
50 The Jewish authorities, however, incited the God-fearing women of high social standing and the prominent men of the city and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
51 Paul and Barnabas, shaking the dust off their feet as a sign against them, went southeast to the city of Iconium.
52 And as for the disciples in Antioch, they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.