<t /><p class="bodytext">While Paul was waiting for them in Athens,<n id="1" /> his spirit was greatly upset<n id="2" /> because he saw<n id="3" /> the city was full of idols.

The God who made the world and everything in it,<n id="1" /> who is<n id="2" /> Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,<n id="3" />

For in him we live and move about<n id="1" /> and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, &#8216;For we too are his offspring.&#8217;<n id="2" />

But some people<n id="1" /> joined him<n id="2" /> and believed. Among them<n id="3" /> were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus,<n id="4" /> a woman<n id="5" /> named Damaris, and others with them.p>

So after sending<n id="1" /> two of his assistants,<n id="2" /> Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia,<n id="3" /> he himself stayed on for a while in the province of Asia.<n id="4" />p>

Even some of the provincial authorities<n id="1" /> who were his friends sent<n id="2" /> a message<n id="3" /> to him, urging him not to venture<n id="4" /> into the theater.

If then Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint<n id="1" /> against someone, the courts are open<n id="2" /> and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges against one another there.<n id="3" />

where he stayed<n id="1" /> for three months. Because the Jews had made<n id="2" /> a plot<n id="3" /> against him as he was intending<n id="4" /> to sail<n id="5" /> for Syria, he decided<n id="6" /> to return through Macedonia.<n id="7" />

Paul<n id="1" /> was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea,<n id="2" /> Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica,<n id="3" /> Gaius<n id="4" /> from Derbe,<n id="5" /> and Timothy, as well as Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.<n id="6" />

On the next day we left<n id="1" /> and came to Caesarea,<n id="2" /> and entered<n id="3" /> the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven,<n id="4" /> and stayed with him.

(For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him previously, and<n id="1" /> they assumed Paul had brought him into the inner temple courts.)<n id="2" />

the commanding officer<n id="1" /> ordered Paul<n id="2" /> to be brought back into the barracks.<n id="3" /> He told them<n id="4" /> to interrogate Paul<n id="5" /> by beating him with a lash<n id="6" /> so that he could find out the reason the crowd<n id="7" /> was shouting at Paul<n id="8" /> in this way.

Paul called<n id="1" /> one of the centurions<n id="2" /> and said, &#8220;Take this young man to the commanding officer,<n id="3" /> for he has something to report to him.&#8221;

and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations<n id="1" /> at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement<n id="2" /> at what had happened to him.p>

And on the basis of faith in Jesus&#8217;<n id="1" /> name,<n id="2" /> his very name has made this man &#8211; whom you see and know &#8211; strong. The<n id="3" /> faith that is through Jesus<n id="4" /> has given him this complete health in the presence<n id="5" /> of you all.

<t /><p class="bodytext">The group of those who believed were of one heart and mind,<n id="1" /> and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but everything was held in common.<n id="2" />

For some time ago<n id="1" /> Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He<n id="2" /> was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and nothing came of it.<n id="3" />

After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census,<n id="1" /> and incited people to follow him in revolt.<n id="2" /> He too was killed, and all who followed him were scattered.

Then God<n id="1" /> gave Abraham<n id="2" /> the covenant<n id="3" /> of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old,<n id="4" /> and Isaac became the father of<n id="5" /> Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.<n id="6" />

and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made<n id="1" /> him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.