¹⁴ They went on from Perga and arrived in Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down. ¹⁵ After the reading from the Law of Moses and from the writings of the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message: “Friends, we want you to speak to the people if you have a message of encouragement for them.” ¹⁶ Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak:

“Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me! ^17 (A)The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors and made the people a great nation during the time they lived as foreigners in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt by his great power, ^18 (B)and for forty years he endured^[a] them in the desert. ^19 (C)He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and made his people the owners of the land. ^20 (D)All of this took about 450 years.

“After this^[b] he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. ^21 (E)And when they asked for a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years. ^22 (F)After removing him, God made David their king. This is what God said about him: ‘I have found that David son of Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.’ ²³ It was Jesus, a descendant of David, whom God made the Savior of the people of Israel, as he had promised. ^24 (G)Before Jesus began his work, John preached to all the people of Israel that they should turn from their sins and be baptized. ^25 (H)And as John was about to finish his mission, he said to the people, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one you are waiting for. But listen! He is coming after me, and I am not good enough to take his sandals off his feet.’

²⁶ “My fellow Israelites, descendants of Abraham, and all Gentiles here who worship God: it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent! ²⁷ For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders did not know that he is the Savior, nor did they understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Yet they made the prophets' words come true by condemning Jesus. ^28 (I)And even though they could find no reason to pass the death sentence on him, they asked Pilate to have him put to death. ^29 (J)And after they had done everything that the Scriptures say about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from death, ^31 (K)and for many days he appeared to those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now witnesses for him to the people of Israel. ^32-33 (L)And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm,

³⁶ For David served God's purposes in his own time, and then he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body rotted in the grave. ³⁷ But this did not happen to the one whom God raised from death. ^38-39 All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free. ⁴⁰ Take care, then, so that what the prophets said may not happen to you:^[c]

⁴² As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to come back the next Sabbath and tell them more about these things. ⁴³ After the people had left the meeting, Paul and Barnabas were followed by many Jews and by many Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism. The apostles spoke to them and encouraged them to keep on living in the grace of God.

⁴⁴ The next Sabbath nearly everyone in the town came to hear the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵ When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him. ⁴⁶ But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles. ^47 (P)For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us:

⁴⁸ When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the Lord's message; and those who had been chosen for eternal life became believers.

⁴⁹ The word of the Lord spread everywhere in that region. ⁵⁰ But the Jews stirred up the leading men of the city and the Gentile women of high social standing who worshiped God. They started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and threw them out of their region. ^51 (Q)The apostles shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went on to Iconium. ⁵² The believers in Antioch were full of joy and the Holy Spirit.

^11 (A)my persecutions, and my sufferings. You know all that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the terrible persecutions I endured! But the Lord rescued me from them all.

In Iconium

14 The same thing happened in Iconium: Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of Jews and Gentiles became believers. ² But the Jews who would not believe stirred up the Gentiles and turned them against the believers. ³ The apostles stayed there for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who proved that their message about his grace was true by giving them the power to perform miracles and wonders. ⁴ The people of the city were divided: some were for the Jews, others for the apostles.

⁵ Then some Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, decided to mistreat the apostles and stone them. ⁶ When the apostles learned about it, they fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia and to the surrounding territory. ⁷ There they preached the Good News.

^11 (A)my persecutions, and my sufferings. You know all that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the terrible persecutions I endured! But the Lord rescued me from them all.

In Lystra and Derbe

⁸ In Lystra there was a crippled man who had been lame from birth and had never been able to walk. ⁹ He sat there and listened to Paul's words. Paul saw that he believed and could be healed, so he looked straight at him ¹⁰ and said in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” The man jumped up and started walking around. ¹¹ When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they started shouting in their own Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us!” ¹² They gave Barnabas the name Zeus, and Paul the name Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ The priest of the god Zeus, whose temple stood just outside the town, brought bulls and flowers to the gate, for he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice to the apostles.

¹⁴ When Barnabas and Paul heard what they were about to do, they tore their clothes and ran into the middle of the crowd, shouting, ^15 (A)“Why are you doing this? We ourselves are only human beings like you! We are here to announce the Good News, to turn you away from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven, earth, sea, and all that is in them. ¹⁶ In the past he allowed all people to go their own way. ¹⁷ But he has always given evidence of his existence by the good things he does: he gives you rain from heaven and crops at the right times; he gives you food and fills your hearts with happiness.” ¹⁸ Even with these words the apostles could hardly keep the crowd from offering a sacrifice to them.

¹⁹ Some Jews came from Antioch in Pisidia and from Iconium; they won the crowds over to their side, stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, thinking that he was dead. ²⁰ But when the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he and Barnabas went to Derbe.