Acts of the Apostles 13

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Sending Barnabas and Saul Out for Ministry

1 Now there were, among the believers at Antioch, prophets and teachers: Barnabas; Simeon, who was called the Black; Lucius, who was from Cyrenaica; Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the ruler;* and Saul. 2 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to undertake the ministry to which I have called them.” 3 So they fasted, placed their hands on them, prayed to God for them, and sent them off.*

In Cyprus

4 In this [way] the Holy Spirit sent them out. They went to Seleucia* and from there traveled by sea to Cyprus.* 5 They arrived at Salamis and proclaimed the good news of the word of God in the Jewish houses of worship. John* was with them as an assistant.

6 They traveled throughout the entire island as far as Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Joshua, who was a false prophet*. 7 He was with Sergius Paulus, the ruler. Now the ruler was an intelligent man. He sent for Barnabas and Saul and asked to hear the word of God. 8 Elymas, the sorcerer, which is the meaning of his name, opposed them and tried to keep the ruler from believing.

9 But Saul, whose name was also Paul,* was filled with the Holy Spirit, and said to the magician to his face, 10 “You son of the devil, you who are full of deceit and trickery, you enemy of everything right! Will you not refrain from distorting the straight ways of our Lord? 11 So now the Lord will strike you, and you will be blind. You will not see even the light of the sun for some time.” Suddenly a mist and darkness came over his eyes, and he began groping around trying to find someone to lead him by the hand. 12 The ruler saw what had happened; he was astonished at the teaching about our Lord Jesus, and he believed.

In Antioch of Pisidia

13 Paul and his two companions then sailed from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia.* But then John left Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem. 14 As for the two [apostles], they traveled on from Perga and arrived at Antioch of Pisidia.* They went to the house of worship on Saturday* and sat down. 15 After the public reading of a portion of the Torah and of the Writings of the Prophets, those in charge of the house of worship sent [a message] to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a word of encouragement for the people, then please speak.”

16 So Paul stood up, gestured with his hand, and said, “Listen to me, Children of Israel, and others who fear God*. 17 The God of the Children of Israel chose our forefathers. While this people lived in Egypt as strangers, he raised their status and brought them out from there with his great power. 18 He put up with them for about forty years in the desert. 19 After that, he destroyed seven nations* in the land of Canaan and gave their land to his people. 20 All this took about 450 years.

“After that, he gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 When [the people] requested a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, and he reigned for forty years. 22 Then God removed him and made David king over them. He bore witness about him, saying, ‘I have found David son of Jesse to be a man with whom my heart is content. He will do everything I want.’ 23 It is from the lineage of this man that God gave the Children of Israel a Savior, who is Jesus, as he had promised.*

24 “Before Jesus came, John called all the Children of Israel to repent and be immersed [in water]. 25 As John's ministry was nearing its end, he asked, ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the Messiah! But he will come after me, and I am not worthy [even] to untie the straps of his sandals.’*

26 “Brothers, you children of Abraham and others who fear God, it's to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 But the people of Jerusalem and their leaders didn't know the truth about Jesus, so they condemned him, and in so doing they fulfilled the words of the prophets, which are read every Saturday. 28 And even though they found no crime deserving his death, they asked Pilate to kill him. 29 When they had fulfilled all that the Scriptures said about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.* 30 But God raised him from death. 31 He appeared for many days to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now bearing witness about him among our people.

32 “Now we ourselves are informing you of this good news, that God made a promise to our forefathers, 33 and now he has fulfilled the promise for us, their descendants; he did so by raising Jesus from death. As the Scriptures say in the second Psalm: ‘You are my Son. Today I have crowned you as my Son.’* 34 For God raised him from death, and he will never return to the decay of death. In this regard God has said, ‘I will give you the good and assured blessings which I promised to David.’* 35 Just as it also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to decay in the grave.’* 36 David, however, died after he had served his generation according to God's purpose; he was buried with his forefathers, and he decayed in the grave. 37 But as for Jesus, whom God raised, he did not decay.

38 “So know, brothers, that we are proclaiming to you that it is through him that sins are forgiven; 39 and through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, which is something you were unable to achieve with the Law of Moses. 40 So then, take care that what the prophets said doesn't happen to you: 41 ‘Look, you scoffers! Be surprised and disappear! For I am going to do a work in your days that you would never believe, even if [people] informed you about it.’*”

42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the house of worship, the people asked them to speak on the same topic on the following Saturday. 43 When the meeting had finished, many Jews and godly converts to Judaism joined Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas began talking to them and encouraging them to always rely on the kindness of God.

44 The following Saturday, nearly all the city gathered to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, so they began to oppose what Paul said and to insult him. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly and said, “It was out of duty that we spoke to you first about the word of God. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will now go to the other ethnic groups. 47 For the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the nations, to carry salvation to the ends of the earth.’*”

48 The Gentiles rejoiced when they heard this, and they exalted the message of the Messiah. And all of those whom God had chosen for eternal life believed. 49 And the message of the Messiah spread throughout the region.

50 But the Jews incited the religious women of high standing and the male officials of the city, and they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region. 51 So Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with thfeet e Holy Spirit.

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Definitions

 *13:3 This journey began around AD 45. It was their first missionary journey.

 *13:4 Seleucia: a port city that served the city of Antioch. It was eight kilometers (five miles) upstream from the mouth of the Orontes River and twenty-six kilometers (sixteen miles) downstream from Antioch.

 *13:4 Cyprus: a large island in the Mediterranean Sea. The places mentioned in this chapter are shown on the map of the Roman Empire.

 *13:5 John: John Mark the Evangelist, the cousin of the Apostle Barnabas.

 *13:6 false prophet: Or fake prophet. This is someone who falsely claims to be a prophet of God.

 *13:9 Saul, whose name was also Paul: His Hebrew name was Saul, but his name as a Roman citizen was Paul.

 *13:14 Antioch of Pisidia: a city in what is now central Turkey. It was 177 kilometers (110 miles) from the city of Perga.

 *13:14 Saturday: Most English versions say Sabbath; this is the Hebrew term for Saturday. In the Hebrew language it means “rest” because it was a holy day on which people rested from work.

 *13:19 seven nations: See the Torah, Deuteronomy 7:1, where the seven nations are listed as the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. They were pagans who lived in parts of what are now called the Holy Lands.

 *13:23 as he had promised: One of the promises is in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 11:1-10.

 *13:25 See the Gospel, Luke 3:16.

 *13:29 tomb: a room in which a dead body is laid to rest. At that time, most tombs were made by digging a cave horizontally into the side of a rocky hill. The entrance to the tomb was closed by rolling a large stone across it, one shaped like a wheel. See the illustration. Today most people are buried in holes dug in the ground, and in English these holes are called graves.

 *13:33 This is quoted from the Book of Psalms 2:7. In Arabic, when the word ابن ibn  is used to describe relationships within a family, its use is limited to biological relationships, but the original Hebrew and Greek words were used broadly for any relationship like that of a loving father and a loyal son. Psalm 2 uses this term when it declares that God has made his beloved prophet David his servant king over all the nations. An equivalent Arabic expression is خَلِيفَةُ اللهِ فِي الأَرْضِ khalīfatu llāhi fī l-'arḍ. But in reality Psalm 2 is speaking of the descendant of David whom God will send as the Messiah. See also Psalm 89:20-28; Psalm 110; the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 9:6-7. See family in the glossary.

 *13:34 This is quoted from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 55:3.

 *13:35 This is quoted from the Book of Psalms 16:10.

 *13:41 This is quoted from the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk 1:5.

 *13:47 This is quoted from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 49:6.