Acts 3:1-11

New Testament for Everyone

More than he bargained for

3 One day, Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three o’clock in the afternoon, the time for prayer. ² There was a man being carried in who had been lame since birth. People used to bring him every day to the Temple gate called “Beautiful,” so that he could ask for alms from folk on their way in to the Temple. ³ When he saw Peter and John going in to the Temple, he asked them to give him some money. ⁴ Peter, with John, looked hard at him.

“Look at us,” he said.

⁵ The man stared at them, expecting to get something from them.

⁶ “I haven’t got any silver or gold,” Peter said, “but I’ll give you what I have got. In the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

⁷ He grabbed the man by his right hand and lifted him up. At once his feet and ankles became strong, ⁸ and he leaped to his feet and began to walk. He went in with them into the Temple, walking and jumping up and down and praising God. ⁹ All the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and they recognized him as the man who had been sitting begging for alms by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

An explanation is called for

¹¹ All the people ran together in astonishment towards Peter and John, and the man who was clinging onto them. They were in the part of the Temple known as Solomon’s Porch.