This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.
Readers’ Version
Literal Version
5:12 Ongoing miracles and healings
12The missionaries went on to do many miracles and amazing things, and all the people who gathered in Solomon’s Porch had a united vision,13but no one else dared to join them. However, the people were talking positively about them14and more were becoming believers in the master—big numbers of both men and women.15Some would even bring those who were sick out to the side of the road, lying them on beds and mats waiting for Peter to come past so that even his shadow might touch them.16More crowds were coming from the towns around Yerushalem, bringing those who were sick and those tormented by demons, and they were all getting healed.
The Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, where all Israelite males were commanded to offer sacrifices to the Lord (Exodus 23:14-19; Deuteronomy 16:16-17), underwent several stages of reconstruction and development over hundreds of years. The first Temple was built by King Solomon to replace the aging Tabernacle, and it was constructed on a threshing floor on high ground on the north side of the city (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). Hundreds of years later King Hezekiah expanded the platform surrounding the Temple. When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the Temple was completely destroyed (2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Jeremiah 39:1-10; 52:1-30). It was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after a group of Jews returned to Judea from exile in Babylon (Ezra 1:5-6:15; Nehemiah 7:5-65). Herod the Great completely rebuilt and expanded the Temple once again around 20 B.C., making it one of the largest temples in the Roman world. Jesus’ first believers often met together in Solomon’s Colonnade, a columned porch that encircled the Temple Mount, perhaps carrying on a tradition started by Jesus himself (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). But Herod’s Temple did not last long: After many Jews revolted against Rome, the Romans eventually recaptured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70.
