Study Desk

Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.

Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly!" And his chains fell off his hands.

And when Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people."

But they said to her, "You are beside yourself!" Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, "It is his angel."

But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren." And he departed and went to another place.

So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them.

But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.

Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:

after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

And as John was finishing his course, he said, "Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.'

He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.

"For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;

Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked.

Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

"Known to God from eternity are all His works. [fn]

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.

And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself.