Acts 9:26-38

²⁶When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he began trying to associate with other believers. However, almost all of them continued to be afraid of him, because they did not believe that he had become a believer.

²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He explained to the apostles how, while Saul was traveling along the road to Damascus, he had seen the Lord Jesus and how the Lord had spoken to him there. He also told them how Saul had preached boldly about Jesus MTY to people in Damascus. The apostles believed Barnabas and told the other believers about that.

²⁸So Saul began to associate with the apostles and other believers throughout Jerusalem, and he spoke boldly to people about MTY the Lord Jesus.

²⁹Saul was also speaking about Jesus with Jews who spoke Greek, and he was debating with them. But they were continually trying to think ◄ of a way to kill him/of how they could kill him►.

³⁰When the other believers heard that those Jews were planning to kill him, some of the believers took Saul down to Caesarea city. There they arranged for him to go by ship to Tarsus, his hometown.

³¹So the groups of believers throughout the entire regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria lived peacefully because no one was persecuting them anymore. The Holy Spirit was strengthening them spiritually and encouraging them. They were continuing to revere/honor the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was enabling many other people to become believers.

³²While Peter was traveling throughout those regions, once he went to the coastal plain to visit the believers who lived in Lydda town.

³³There he met a man whose name was Aeneas. Aeneas had not been able to get up from his bed for eight years, because he was paralyzed.

³⁴Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you (sg) right now! Get up and roll up your mat!” Right away Aeneas stood up.

³⁵Most of the people who lived in Lydda and on Sharon Plain saw Aeneas after the Lord had healed him, so they believed in the Lord Jesus.

³⁶In Joppa town there was a believer whose name was Tabitha. Her name in the Greek language was Dorcas. Both of these names mean gazelle/deer/antelope. That woman was continually doing good deeds for others. Specifically, she was helping poor people by giving them things that they needed.

³⁷During the time that Peter was in Lydda, she became sick and died. Some women there washed her body according to the Jewish custom so that the people could bury it. Then they covered her body with cloth and placed it in an upstairs room in her house.

³⁸Lydda was near Joppa, so when the believers heard that Peter was still in Lydda, they sent two men to go to Peter. When they arrived where Peter was, they repeatedly urged/begged him, “Please come immediately with us to Joppa!”