Acts 9

Moffatt^{(i) 1} Meanwhile Saul still breathed threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus empowering him to put any man or woman in chains whom he could find belonging to the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem. ³ As he neared Damascus in the course of his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed round him; ⁴ he dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" ⁵ "Who are you?" he asked. "I am Jesus," he said, "and you persecute me. ⁶ Get up and go into the city. There you will be told what you have to do." ⁷ His fellow-travellers stood speechless, for they heard the voice but they could not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but though his eyes were open he could see nothing; so they took his hand and led him to Damascus. ⁹ For three days he remained sightless, he neither ate nor drank. ¹⁰ Now there was a disciple called Ananias in Damascus. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He said, "I am here, Lord." ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, "Go away to the street called 'The Straight Street,' and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus called Saul. He is praying at this very moment, ¹² and he has seen a man called Ananias enter and lay his hands upon him to bring back his sight." ¹³ "But, Lord," Ananias answered, "many people have told me about all the mischief this man has done to thy saints at Jerusalem! ¹⁴ And in this city too he has authority from the high priests to put anyone in chains who invokes thy Name!" ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel. ¹⁶ I will show him all he has to suffer for the sake of my Name." ¹⁷ So Ananias went off and entered the house, laying his hands on him with these words, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord, by Jesus who appeared to you on the road, to let you regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit." ¹⁸ In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized. ¹⁹ Then he took some food and felt strong again. For several days he stayed at Damascus with the disciples. ²⁰ He lost no time in preaching throughout the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God — ²¹ to the amazement of all his hearers, who said, "Is this not the man who in Jerusalem harried those who invoke this Name, the man who came here for the express purpose of carrying them all in chains to the high priests?" ²² Saul became more and more vigorous. He put the Jewish residents in Damascus to confusion by his proof that Jesus was the Christ; ²³ and the Jews, after a number of days had elapsed, conspired to make away with him. ²⁴ But their plot came to the ears of Saul, and, although they kept watch on the gates day and night in order to make away with him, ²⁵ his disciples managed one night to let him down over the wall by lowering him in a basket. ²⁶ He got to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, unable to believe he was really a disciple. ²⁷ Barnabas, however, got hold of him and brought him to the apostles. To them he related how he had seen the Lord upon the road, how He had spoken to him, and how he had spoken freely in the name of Jesus at Damascus. ²⁸ He then went in and out among them at Jerusalem, speaking freely in the name of the Lord; ²⁹ he also held conversations and debates with the Hellenists. But when the brothers learned that the Hellenists were attempting to make away with him, ³⁰ they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. ³¹ Now, all over Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria, the church enjoyed peace; it was consolidated, inspired by reverence for the Lord and by its invocation of the holy Spirit, and so increased in numbers. ³² Peter moved here and there among them all, and it happened that in the course of his tours he came down to visit the saints who stayed at Lydda. ³³ There he found a man called Aeneas who had been bed-ridden for eight years with paralysis. ³⁴ "Aeneas," said Peter, "Jesus the Christ cures you! Get up and make your bed!" He got up at once. ³⁵ And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron saw him, and they turned to the Lord. ³⁶ At Joppa there was a disciple called Tabitha (which may be translated Dorcas, or 'Gazelle'), a woman whose life was full of good actions and of charitable practices. ³⁷ She happened to take ill and die at this time, and after washing her body they laid it in an upper room. ³⁸ When the disciples heard that Peter was at Lydda (for Joppa is not far from Lydda), they sent two men to beg him to "Come on to us without delay." ³⁹ So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him up to the room, where all the widows stood beside him crying as they showed him the garments and dresses that Dorcas used to make when she was with them. ⁴⁰ Peter put them all outside; then he knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body said, "Tabitha, rise." She opened her eyes, and on seeing Peter she sat up. ⁴¹ Then he gave her his hand, raised her, and, after calling the saints and the widows he presented her to them alive. ⁴² This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. ⁴³ In Joppa Peter stayed for some time, at the house of Simon a tanner.