King James Version › Acts › 15

Acts

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1 And cer­tain men which came down from Ju­daea taught the brethren, and said, Ex­cept ye be cir­cum­cised af­ter the man­ner of Moses, ye can­not be saved. 2 When there­fore Paul and Barn­abas had no small dis­sen­sion and dis­pu­ta­tion with them, they de­ter­mined that Paul and Barn­abas, and cer­tain oth­er of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apos­tles and el­ders about this ques­tion. 3 And be­ing brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declar­ing the con­ver­sion of the Gen­tiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. 4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were re­ceived of the church, and of the apos­tles and el­ders, and they de­clared all things that God had done with them. 5 But there rose up cer­tain of the sect of the Phar­isees which be­lieved, say­ing, That it was need­ful to cir­cum­cise them, and to com­mand them to keep the law of Moses. 6 And the apos­tles and el­ders came to­geth­er for to con­sid­er of this mat­ter. 7 And when there had been much dis­put­ing, Pe­ter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gen­tiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and be­lieve. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them wit­ness, giv­ing them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no dif­fer­ence be­tween us and them, pu­ri­fy­ing their hearts by faith. 10 Now there­fore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the dis­ci­ples, which nei­ther our fa­thers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we be­lieve that through the grace of the Lord Je­sus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. 12 Then all the mul­ti­tude kept si­lence, and gave au­di­ence to Barn­abas and Paul, declar­ing what mir­a­cles and won­ders God had wrought among the Gen­tiles by them. 13 And af­ter they had held their peace, James an­swered, say­ing, Men and brethren, hear­ken unto me: 14 Sime­on hath de­clared how God at the first did vis­it the Gen­tiles, to take out of them a peo­ple for his name. 15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is writ­ten, 16 Af­ter this I will re­turn, and will build again the taber­na­cle of David, which is fall­en down; and I will build again the ru­ins there­of, and I will set it up: 17 That the residue of men might seek af­ter the Lord, and all the Gen­tiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. 18 Known unto God are all his works from the be­gin­ning of the world. 19 Where­fore my sen­tence is, that we trou­ble not them, which from among the Gen­tiles are turned to God: 20 But that we write unto them, that they ab­stain from pol­lu­tions of idols, and from for­ni­ca­tion, and from things stran­gled, and from blood. 21 For Moses of old time hath in ev­ery city them that preach him, be­ing read in the syn­a­gogues ev­ery sab­bath day. 22 Then pleased it the apos­tles and el­ders, with the whole church, to send cho­sen men of their own com­pa­ny to An­ti­och with Paul and Barn­abas; namely, Ju­das sur­named Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren: 23 And they wrote letters by them af­ter this man­ner; The apos­tles and el­ders and brethren send greet­ing unto the brethren which are of the Gen­tiles in An­ti­och and Syr­ia and Cili­cia: 24 Foras­much as we have heard, that cer­tain which went out from us have trou­bled you with words, sub­vert­ing your souls, say­ing, Ye must be cir­cum­cised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such com­mand­ment: 25 It seemed good unto us, be­ing as­sem­bled with one ac­cord, to send cho­sen men unto you with our beloved Barn­abas and Paul, 26 Men that have haz­ard­ed their lives for the name of our Lord Je­sus Christ. 27 We have sent there­fore Ju­das and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater bur­den than these nec­es­sary things; 29 That ye ab­stain from meats of­fered to idols, and from blood, and from things stran­gled, and from for­ni­ca­tion: from which if ye keep your­selves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. 30 So when they were dis­missed, they came to An­ti­och: and when they had gath­ered the mul­ti­tude to­geth­er, they de­liv­ered the epis­tle: 31 Which when they had read, they re­joiced for the con­so­la­tion. 32 And Ju­das and Silas, be­ing prophets also them­selves, ex­hort­ed the brethren with many words, and con­firmed them. 33 And af­ter they had tar­ried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apos­tles. 34 Notwith­stand­ing it pleased Silas to abide there still. 35 Paul also and Barn­abas con­tin­ued in An­ti­och, teach­ing and preach­ing the word of the Lord, with many oth­ers al­so. 36 And some days af­ter Paul said unto Barn­abas, Let us go again and vis­it our brethren in ev­ery city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. 37 And Barn­abas de­ter­mined to take with them John, whose sur­name was Mark. 38 But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who de­part­ed from them from Pam­phylia, and went not with them to the work. 39 And the con­tention was so sharp be­tween them, that they de­part­ed asun­der one from the oth­er: and so Barn­abas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; 40 And Paul chose Silas, and de­part­ed, be­ing rec­om­mend­ed by the brethren unto the grace of God. 41 And he went through Syr­ia and Cili­cia, con­firm­ing the church­es.