Acts 13
The full text of Acts 13 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul.
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
4 So, sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.
5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
6 They traveled through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,
7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. The proconsul sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at him
10 and said, "You are full of every kind of deceit and trickery, you son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
11 Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you. You will be blind, unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, looking for someone to lead him by the hand.
12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
13 From Paphos, Paul and his companions set sail and came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
14 From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down.
15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent word to them: "Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak."
16 Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said: "Men of Israel and you Gentiles who fear God, listen to me!
17 The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors. He made the people great during their stay in Egypt, and with a mighty arm he led them out of it,
18 and for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
19 After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave their land to his people as an inheritance.
20 All this took about 450 years. After that he gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.
21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.
22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified about him: 'I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'
23 From this man's descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.
24 Before his coming, John preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 As John was completing his work, he said: 'Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one. No, but he is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.'
26 Brothers, children of Abraham's family, and you Gentiles who fear God, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.
27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.
28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.
29 When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.
30 But God raised him from the dead,
31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people.
32 We bring you the good news: what God promised our ancestors
33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'
34 God raised him from the dead, never to return to decay. As he has said: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'
35 So it is also stated elsewhere: 'You will not let your Holy One see decay.'
36 Now when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he died, was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed.
37 But the one whom God raised did not see decay.
38 Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from all that the law of Moses could not free you from —
39 everyone who believes is justified.
40 Watch out, then, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:
41 'Look, you scoffers, be amazed and perish! For I am doing something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.'
42 As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.
43 When the meeting broke up, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They contradicted what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
49 And the word of the Lord spread through the whole region.
50 But the Jews stirred up the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city. They incited persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Translation notes (15)
- Acts 13:1a Greek syntrophos (σύντροφος), 'one reared together with', describes Manaen's tie to Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. The word can denote a foster-brother raised in the same household or, as a court title in Hellenistic usage, an intimate companion of a ruler; either sense places a member of the Antioch church within Herod's inner circle.
- Acts 13:8a The Greek magos, 'magician' or 'sorcerer', is the same word used of the wise men in Matthew 2. Luke states that Elymas—likely a Semitic name, perhaps related to an Arabic or Aramaic root meaning 'wise' or 'skilled'—translates as magos, replacing the man's earlier name Bar-Jesus (verse 6). The verb diastrepsai, 'to turn aside' or 'pervert', describes his effort against the proconsul's faith.
- Acts 13:9a This is the first appearance of the name Paul; from this point Luke uses it exclusively. The Greek formula ho kai, 'who also', marks an alternative name, not a change of name at conversion. Like many Jews of the period, he bore both a Hebrew name, Saul, and a Roman one, Paulos, the latter fitting his ministry in the wider Greco-Roman world now beginning.
- Acts 13:14a Greek Antiocheian ten Pisidian, 'Pisidian Antioch', distinguishes this city from Antioch in Syria, the church's sending base named in Acts 13:1. This Antioch, a Roman colony in the province of Galatia near the region of Pisidia, was one of some sixteen cities founded under that name by the Seleucid rulers.
- Acts 13:15a Greek archisynagōgoi (ἀρχισυνάγωγοι), 'synagogue leaders', denotes the officials who presided over the service and could invite qualified visitors to address the assembly, a custom Luke's account reflects accurately. The phrase logos paraklēseōs, 'a message of encouragement', describes the customary sermon or exhortation that followed the appointed readings from the Law and the Prophets.
- Acts 13:18a This can also be translated as 'he cared for them' — some manuscripts read the Greek word etrophophoresen, meaning 'carried them like a nurse,' instead of etropophoresen, meaning 'put up with their conduct.'
- Acts 13:20a The placement of the phrase 'about 450 years' differs between various manuscript traditions; in the earliest text, it sums the period of the patriarchs, the time in Egypt, and the conquest, rather than the era of the judges.
- Acts 13:21a The length of Saul's reign is nowhere stated in the Hebrew Bible; the Masoretic Text of 1 Samuel 13:1 is defective at this point. The figure of forty years does not agree with Josephus (Antiquities 6.378), who gives twenty years, and likely reflects a Jewish tradition Paul shared with his synagogue audience.
- Acts 13:25a Greek ton dromon (τὸν δρόμον), 'the course' or 'race', an athletic metaphor rendered here as 'work'. Luke uses the same word of Paul's own ministry in Acts 20:24, and it recurs in 2 Timothy 4:7, 'I have finished the race'. John's reply, ouk eimi ego, is literally 'I am not he', echoing his denial in John 1:20.
- Acts 13:27a The Greek compresses two participles into one clause: agnoēsantes (ἀγνοήσαντες), 'failing to recognize', and krinantes (κρίναντες), 'by condemning', with the finite verb eplērōsan, 'they fulfilled'. Paul's point is ironic: the very act of judging Jesus in ignorance accomplished the prophetic scriptures being read aloud each Sabbath in the synagogues.
- Acts 13:29a Greek xylon (ξύλον), 'wood' or 'tree', stands here in place of the usual word for cross. The term deliberately recalls Deuteronomy 21:23 in the Septuagint, where one hanged on a tree is under a curse, an association Paul makes explicit in Galatians 3:13. Luke uses the same word for the crucifixion in Acts 5:30 and 10:39.
- Acts 13:33a This verse is quoting Psalm 2:7, which literally says 'today I have begotten you.' A few ancient copies of the text read 'in the first Psalm.'
- Acts 13:41a Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5 according to the Septuagint, which addresses kataphronetai (καταφρονηταί), 'scoffers', where the Masoretic Text reads baggoyim, 'among the nations'. The verb aphanisthete, 'perish', literally means 'vanish away', intensifying the prophet's warning of divine judgment on those who dismiss God's work.
- Acts 13:47a Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6, following the Septuagint wording tetheika se eis phos ethnon (τέθεικά σε εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν), 'I have set you as a light of the nations'. The oracle addresses the Lord's servant, and Paul applies it to the apostolic mission. The phrase heos eschatou tes ges, 'to the end of the earth', also echoes the commission of Acts 1:8.
- Acts 13:48a Tetagmenoi (τεταγμένοι), rendered here as 'appointed', is a perfect participle of tassō, 'to arrange, assign'. Its form may be read as passive, 'appointed' or 'ordained', or as middle, 'disposed' or 'inclined' toward eternal life; Greek does not distinguish the two morphologically. The passive sense, standard since the King James tradition, is retained, though the grammar leaves the agency unstated.
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