Acts 13:1-27

¹Now there were at Antioch, in the church there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon who was named Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, a relation of Herod the king, and Saul.

²And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.

³Then, after prayer and going without food they put their hands on them, and sent them away.

⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they went by ship to Cyprus.

⁵And at Salamis they were preaching the word of God in the Synagogues of the Jews: and John was with them, helping them.

⁶And when they had gone through all the island to Paphos, they came across a certain wonder-worker and false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus;

⁷Who was with the ruler, Sergius Paulus, an able man. This man sent for Barnabas and Saul, desiring to have knowledge of the word of God.

⁸But Elymas, the wonder-worker (for that is the sense of his name), put himself against them, with the purpose of turning the ruler from the faith.

⁹But Saul, whose other name is Paul, being full of the Holy Spirit, looking hard at him, said,

¹⁰O you, who are full of false tricks and evil ways, a son of the Evil One, hating all righteousness, will you for ever be turning people from the right ways of the Lord?

¹¹And now, see, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind and not able to see the sun for a time. And straight away a dark mist came down on him; and he went about looking for a guide.

¹²Then the ruler, when he saw what was done, had faith, being full of wonder at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Then Paul and those who were with him went by ship from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia: and there John went away from them and came back to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But they, going through from Perga, came to Antioch in Pisidia; and they went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and were seated.

¹⁵And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the Synagogue sent to them, saying, Brothers, if you have a word of comfort for the people, say on.

¹⁶And Paul, getting up and making a sign with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who have the fear of God, give ear.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel made selection of our fathers, lifting the people up from their low condition when they were living in the land of Egypt, and with a strong arm took them out of it.

¹⁸And for about forty years he put up with their ways in the waste land.

¹⁹And having put to destruction seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them the land for their heritage for about four hundred and fifty years.

²⁰And after these things he gave them judges, till the time of Samuel the prophet.

²¹Then at their request for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the family of Benjamin, who was their king for forty years.

²²And having put him on one side, he made David their king, to whom he gave witness, saying, I have taken David, the son of Jesse, a man dear to my heart, who will do all my pleasure.

²³From this man's seed has God given to Israel a Saviour, even Jesus, as he gave his word;

²⁴For whose coming John made ready the way by preaching to all the people of Israel the baptism which goes with a change of heart.

²⁵And when John was completing his work, he said, What do I seem to you to be? I am not he; but one is coming after me, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo.

²⁶My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who have the fear of God, to us the word of this salvation is sent.

²⁷For the men of Jerusalem and their rulers, having no knowledge of him, or of the sayings of the prophets which come to their ears every Sabbath day, gave effect to them by judging him.