Acts

The Acts of the Apostles

1 I made my first relation, Theophilus, about all that Jesus had begun both doing and teaching 2 as far as to the day that he was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given injunctions to the apostles whom he had chosen; 3 to whom also, after he had suffered, he presented himself alive with many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and telling them the things that relate to the Reign of God; 4 and, while eating with them, he instructed them not to leave Jerusalem, but to “await the Father’s promise, which you heard from me, 5 ‘John baptized with water but you shall be baptized in Holy Spirit,’ not many days from now.” 6 So those who were together asked him “Lord, is it during this time that you restore the sovereignty to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not yours to know times and dates, which the Father has put under his own jurisdiction. 8 But you shall receive power, having the Holy Spirit come upon you, and shall be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and throughout Judea and Samaria and to the remotest part of the earth.” 9 And, having said this, he was lifted up before their eyes, and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they had their gaze fixed on the sky as he went, lo, there were two men in white costumes standing by them; 11 who said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing and looking up into the sky? this Jesus who has been taken up from you into the sky shall come in the same way as you viewed him going into the sky.” 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain known as Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath-day’s journey off; 13 and when they came in they went up to the upper room where they were keeping themselves: Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alpheus and Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James. 14 All these were unitedly devoting themselves to prayer, with the women and Jesus’s mother Mary, and with his brothers.

15 And in those days Peter stood up among the brothers and said, there being together a multitude of names, about a hundred and twenty: 16 “Brethren, the text which the Holy Spirit uttered beforehand through the mouth of David about Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus, 17 that he was counted among us and was allotted this commission, had to be fulfilled.” 18* (Now this man acquired a piece of land with the pay of his misdoing; and, coming down flat, he burst open in the middle, and all his entrails gushed out; 19 and it became well known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that that piece of land was called in their language “Hakeldamach,” that is “the blood lot.”) 20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms ‘May his homestead be desolate and have no one living in it,’ and ‘Let another take his office.’ 21 So of the men who went with us at every time when the Lord Jesus was among us coming in and going out, 22 beginning with John’s baptizing and down to the day that he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness of his resurrection with us.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph known as Bar-Sabbas, who was also named Justus, and Matthias; 24 and they offered prayer, and said “Lord, knower of the hearts of all, do thou designate the one of these two whom thou hast called 25 to take the place in this commission and apostleship, from which Judas passed to go to his own place.” 26 And they took lots for them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted in with the eleven apostles.