Acts 11 (New American Standard)

Peter Reports at Jerusalem

1 Now the apostles and ¹the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, ^a2those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3 saying, "³You ^bwent to uncircumcised men and ate with them." 4 But Peter began speaking ^cand proceeded to explain to them ⁴in orderly sequence, saying, 5 "⁵I was in the city of Joppa praying ; and in a trance I saw ⁶a vision, an ^dobject coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from ^ethe sky ; and it came right down to me, 6 and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it ^fI saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the ^gcrawling creatures and the birds of the ^hair. 7 "I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter ; ⁱkill and eat.' 8 "But I said, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing ^junholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 "But a voice from heaven answered a second time, '⁷What God has cleansed, no longer ^kconsider unholy.' 10 "This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into ^lthe sky. 11 "And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from ⁸Caesarea. 12 "⁹The Spirit told me to go with them ^m10without misgivings. ¹¹These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man's house. 13 "And he reported to us how he had seen the angel ⁿstanding in his house, and saying, 'Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here ; 14 and he will speak ¹²words to you by which you will be saved, you and ¹³all your household.' 15 "And as I began to speak, ¹⁴the Holy Spirit fell upon them just ¹⁵as He did upon us at the beginning. 16 "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, '¹⁶John baptized with water, but you will be baptized ^owith the Holy Spirit.' 17 "Therefore if ¹⁷God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁸who was I that I could ^pstand in God's way ?" 18 When they heard this, they ^qquieted down and ¹⁹glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the ²⁰repentance that leads to life."

The Church at Antioch

19 ²¹So then those who were scattered because of the ^rpersecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way ^sto ²²Phoenicia and ²³Cyprus and ²⁴Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. 20 But there were some of them, men of ²⁵Cyprus and ²⁶Cyrene, who came to ²⁷Antioch and began speaking to the ^t28Greeks also, ^u29preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And ³⁰the hand of the Lord was with them, and ³¹a large number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The ^vnews about them ^wreached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent ³²Barnabas off ^xto ³³Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and ^ywitnessed ³⁴the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with ^zresolute heart to remain true to the Lord ; 24 for he was a good man, and ³⁵full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And ³⁶considerable ^aanumbers were ^bbbrought to the Lord. 25 And he left for ³⁷Tarsus to look for Saul ; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to ³⁸Antioch. And for an entire year they ^ccmet with the church and taught considerable ^ddnumbers ; and ³⁹the disciples were first called ⁴⁰Christians in ⁴¹Antioch. 27 Now ^eeat this time ⁴²some prophets came down from Jerusalem to ⁴³Antioch. 28 One of them named ⁴⁴Agabus stood up and began to indicate ^ffby the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine ⁴⁵all over the ^ggworld. ^hhAnd this took place in the reign of ⁴⁶Claudius. 29 And in the proportion that any of ⁴⁷the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the ⁱⁱrelief of ⁴⁸the brethren living in Judea. 30 ⁴⁹And this they did, sending it ^jjin charge of ⁵⁰Barnabas and Saul to the ⁵¹elders.