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The Acts of the Apostles 9

9 Meanwhile, Saul continued angrily threatening to kill those who believed in the Lord Jesus. He went to the high priest in Jerusalem 2 and requested him to write letters introducing Saul to the leaders of the Jewish synagogues in the city of Damascus. The letters would ask them to give Saul the authority to seize any man or woman who followed the teachings of Jesus and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. There the Jewish leaders could judge and punish them. The high priest gave Saul the letters he asked for.

3 While Saul and those with him were traveling, they were approaching Damascus. Suddenly a brilliant light from heaven shone around Saul. 4 Immediately he fell onto the ground. Then he heard the voice of someone say to him, “Saul, Saul, stop trying to hurt me!” 5 Saul asked him, “Lord, who are you?” He replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are hurting. 6 Now stand up and go into the city of Damascus! Someone there will tell you what I want you to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with Saul were so astonished that they could not say anything. They just stood there. This was because they heard someone speaking, but they did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could not see anything. So the men with him took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. 9 For the next three days Saul could not see anything, and he did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a man who believed in Jesus named Ananias. Jesus made him see a vision and in it he called to him, “Ananias!” Ananias replied, “Lord, I am listening.” 11 Jesus told him, “Go to Straight Street, to the house that belongs to Judas. Ask someone there if you can talk to a man named Saul who is from the city of Tarsus. Saul is praying to me at this moment. 12 Saul has seen a vision in which a man named Ananias entered the house where he was staying and put his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 Ananias answered, “But Lord, many people have told me about this man! He has done many bad things to the people in Jerusalem who believe in you! 14 The chief priests have given him permission to come here to Damascus and take prisoner all those who believe in you!” 15 But Jesus told Ananias, “Go visit Saul! Do what I say, because I have chosen him to serve me. I want him to speak about me to non-Jewish people and their leaders and to the Israelite people. 16 I myself will tell him that he must often suffer in order to tell people about me.” 17 So Ananias went, and after he found the house where Saul was, he entered it. Then, as soon as he met Saul, he put his hands on him, and he said, “Saul, you are already like a brother to me. Jesus himself commanded me to come to you. Jesus is the one who appeared to you while you were traveling along the road to Damascus. He sent me to you to restore your sight, and he wants the Holy Spirit to lead and empower you.” 18 Instantly, what seemed like flakes fell from Saul’s eyes, and he was able to see again. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 After Saul ate some food, he became strong again. Saul stayed with the other believers in Damascus for several days.

20 Right away he began to preach about Jesus in the Jewish synagogues. He told the people there that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 The people who heard him preach were amazed. Some of them were saying, “We can hardly believe that this is the same man who persecuted the believers in Jerusalem! And he came here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests in Jerusalem!” 22 But God enabled Saul to preach to many people even more convincingly. He was proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. The Jewish leaders in Damascus became angry because they could not disprove what he said.

23 Some time later, the Jewish leaders there plotted to kill him. 24 Those Jewish leaders were continually watching the people passing through the city gates so that if they saw Saul there, they could kill him. However, someone told Saul what they planned to do. 25 So some of those whom he had led to believe in Jesus took him one night to the high stone wall that surrounded the city. They used ropes to lower him in a large basket through an opening in the wall. In this way he escaped from Damascus.

26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the other believers there. However, almost all of them continued to be afraid of him. They were not convinced that he had become a believer. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He explained to the apostles how, while Saul was traveling along the road to Damascus, he had seen Jesus, who had spoken to him there. He also told them how Saul had preached boldly about Jesus to people in Damascus. 28 So Saul began to meet with the apostles and other believers throughout Jerusalem. He spoke boldly to the people there about Jesus.

29 Saul was also speaking about Jesus with Jews who spoke Greek, and he was debating with them. They could not answer his arguments, so they were continually trying to think of a way to kill him. 30 But the other believers found out that the Jews who spoke Greek were planning to kill Saul. So some of them took him to the city of Caesarea. There they put him on a ship that was going to Tarsus, his hometown.

31 Since no one was persecuting them anymore, the believers throughout the entire regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria were able to live peacefully. The Holy Spirit was strengthening them and encouraging them. They were honoring the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was leading many other people to become believers.

32 Those peaceful conditions allowed Peter to travel throughout those regions. Once he went to the coastal plain to visit the believers who lived in the town of Lydda. 33 There he met a man whose name was Aeneas. Aeneas was not able to walk or stand, and so he had not been able to get up from his bed for eight years. 34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Messiah heals you! Get up and roll up your own mat!” Right away Aeneas stood up. 35 Most of the people who lived in Lydda and on the Plain of Sharon saw Aeneas after the Lord had healed him, so they believed in the Lord Jesus.

36 In the town of Joppa there was a believer whose name was Tabitha. Her name in the Greek language was Dorcas. She was always doing good deeds for poor people by giving them things that they needed. 37 During the time that Peter was in Lydda, she became sick and died. Some women there washed her body according to the Jewish custom. Then they covered her body with cloth and placed it in an upstairs room in her house.

38 Lydda was near the city of Joppa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was still in Lydda, they sent two men to go to Peter. When they arrived where Peter was, they urged him, “Please come immediately with us to Joppa!” 39 Peter got ready right away and went with them. When he arrived at the house in Joppa, they took him to the upstairs room where the body of Dorcas was lying. All the widows there stood around him. They were crying and showing him the tunics and other garments that Dorcas had made for people while she was still alive. 40 But Peter sent them all out of the room so that he could pray. Then he got down on his knees and prayed. Then, turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, stand up!” Immediately she opened her eyes and, when she saw Peter, she sat up. 41 He grasped one of her hands and helped her to stand up. After he had summoned the believers and especially the widows among them to come back in, he showed them that she was alive again. 42 Soon people everywhere in Joppa knew about that miracle and, as a result, many people believed in Jesus. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa many days with a man named Simon, who made leather from animal skins.

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