The Early Church

then the proconsul having seen what hath come to pass, did believe, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

And those about Paul having set sail from Paphos, came to Perga of Pamphylia, and John having departed from them, did turn back to Jerusalem,

and they having gone through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia, and having gone into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, they sat down,

and after the reading of the law and of the prophets, the chief men of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, `Men, brethren, if there be a word in you of exhortation unto the people--say on.'

And Paul having risen, and having beckoned with the hand, said, `Men, Israelites, and those fearing God, hearken:

the God of this people Israel did choose our fathers, and the people He did exalt in their sojourning in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm did He bring them out of it;

and about a period of forty years He did suffer their manners in the wilderness,

and having destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He did divide by lot to them their land.

`And after these things, about four hundred and fifty years, He gave judges--till Samuel the prophet;

and thereafter they asked for a king, and God did give to them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years;

and having removed him, He did raise up to them David for king, to whom also having testified, he said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My heart, who shall do all My will.

`Of this one's seed God, according to promise, did raise to Israel a Saviour--Jesus,

John having first preached, before his coming, a baptism of reformation to all the people of Israel;

and as John was fulfilling the course, he said, Whom me do ye suppose to be? I am not he , but, lo, he doth come after me, of whom I am not worthy to loose the sandal of his feet.

`Men, brethren, sons of the race of Abraham, and those among you fearing God, to you was the word of this salvation sent,

for those dwelling in Jerusalem, and their chiefs, this one not having known, also the voices of the prophets, which every sabbath are being read--having judged him --did fulfil,

and no cause of death having found, they did ask of Pilate that he should be slain,

and when they did complete all the things written about him, having taken him down from the tree, they laid him in a tomb;

and God did raise him out of the dead,

and he was seen for many days of those who did come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.

`And we to you do proclaim good news--that the promise made unto the fathers,

God hath in full completed this to us their children, having raised up Jesus, as also in the second Psalm it hath been written, My Son thou art--I to-day have begotten thee.

`And that He did raise him up out of the dead, no more to return to corruption, he hath said thus--I will give to you the faithful kindnesses of David;

wherefore also in another place he saith, Thou shalt not give Thy kind One to see corruption,

for David, indeed, his own generation having served by the will of God, did fall asleep, and was added unto his fathers, and saw corruption,