"Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" "Thy name is like the sound of a trumpet." "But also sweet like the sound of the flute." "O Jerusalem!" "Thou art like a jewel on a brass dish!" "A hart crouching on the hill." " Jerusalem!" " Jerusalem!" " Jerusalem!" " Jerusalem!" "Let us go!" "Cover the signs!" "I would set this city on fire!" "Why ask us to cover our signs, before which all bow down in the other parts of the Empire?" "It is ridiculous to cover the images of the Emperor before entering Jerusalem!" "Sometimes it is wise to conduct a policy of prudence." "A prudence that could cost us dearly one day." "Let us go!" " Hail!" "Hail!" " I hope thou hadst a good trip." "Good but long." "I am happy to have finally arrived to Jerusalem." "I know not whether thou wilt be in a few weeks." "Of all the cities in the Empire, this is the most difficult to rule." "Although at first sight it will appear calm to thee." "Thou knowest we keep only 600 men here, not to hurt the Jews' feelings." "The bulk of our troops is placed in Syria, at Caesarea." "If we call them, they can reach us in a few days." "Here, anything might happen at any time." "Indeed." "But the scribe I assigned to thee will tell thee about this." "His name is Aristarchus." "He's Greek." "He knows Jerusalem better than all of us." " Whence art thou?" " From Corinth." " Thy condition?" "Slave." "Let us go!" "Here in Jerusalem liveth the proudest people on earth." "The Jews worship one God only." "They say they made a covenant with him." "Hence, from the tower of Antonia we look down over the Temple, which is the centre of the Jewish religion." "Solomon built it, one thousand years ago." "During the centuries it was destroyed many times... by the enemies of Israel, and then rebuilt by the people." "The Jews say that every time they are defeated, this happens because their God is jealous." "When they fall into impiety and vice," "God punishes them by delivering them into their enemies' hands." "So that in the pain of slavery they may return to being faithful to him." "Only then, they say, they can find the strength... to put their enemies into flight." "Here, behold, that is the wall of the Temple." "And this is the Court of the Gentiles." "Where even those like we, who do not belong to the Jewish people, may enter." "Tomorrow I will show thee the city." "Wear a toga without distinctions." "The Jews, who never accepted our presence, will know us anyway, but their pride at least will be spared." "If thou observe attentively their demeanour as they work, thou wilt understand much about them." "Behold, how attentive they are." "How instant and convinced of what they do." "And the reason is always the same:" "God." "It is God, their God, who prescribes the work, to earn their bread with their hands." "And this since the beginning of time." "When the first man..." "Adam, according to them, came forth of God's hands, and dwelt on the earth." "disobeyed to his maker and was punished." "The earth was filled with thorns, thistles, and weeds." "God said: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou take from the earth... the bread thou needest to live." "And then man had to work to approach God again." "It sounds like an amusing fable and I know it makes thee smile." "In Athens they say that a worker doth not make a citizen." "I know that for you Romans leisure is the privilege of the wise." "Here it is all... upside down!" "Thus, if labour be a duty for all, what need is for slaves?" "This is a people almost without slaves." "it is true that thou mayst become a slave for debt, for example." "But after six years, thou wilt be free again" "And even during the time of thy slavery... the law grants unto thee thy master's respect." "Even foreign slaves, bought or caught in war, are protected by the law." "But the most wondrous prescription is this:" "if thou make a concubine of thy slave, thou canst not sell her again." "Of course this diminishes the values of the slaves among the Jews... to a twentieth of that among the other peoples." "It is incredible how they waste so great wealth." "It is strange that thou, being a slave, shouldst speak like this." "Yea, I know my price." "And I know that the more a slave can become his master's master, the higher is his price." "In fact, in Rome today many slaves sit on their masters' seats." "Behold, this is the entrance of the Temple." "The temple for the Jews is not like for us Romans or Greeks." "They have only one." "And they come to pray their God from all lands where they have been scattered." "The Temple is the centre of the life of the city, of the Jewish nation." "The laws here are just the application of the Law that God gave unto them." "So that absolutely everything becomes an issuing of God:" "House, labour, food, family... dress." "Everything." "Even the way of expressing one's thoughts." "So that man from birth belongs to a pattern... whence he cannot escape but risking terrible punishment." "Now come, come." "Let us enter into the Temple." "Here also non Jews can enter." "The Temple as thou seest it was built by Herod the Great." "Knowest thou how Herod the Great came to power?" "It was at the time of the civil wars." "Julius Caesar had just died." "Octavianus and Antony were competing for power." "But Antony was spending time with Cleopatra." "Herod took advantage and had himself crowned king." "He drove away an Antigonus, who had usurped the power of king Hyrcanus years before." "Herod was the son of one of Hyrcanus's courtiers." "Pretending to avenge him, he was able to persuade Antony and obtain 11 legions and 600 horsemen." "Thus he could reach his goal and have himself crowned." "Now the Romans have taken away a part of the kingdom from Herod's' successors." "Now Jerusalem is ruled directly by the Roman Procurator of Caesarea." "But the Jews, relying on their law, form like a separate state, and they often claim to deal with Romans as equals." "Behold, this people with one God..." "It is divided into sects and rival factions:" "Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Hellenists..." "Herodians." "Those, for example, are Pharisees." "They keep the faith alive among the people." "Fanatically, even against us." "Those instead are Sadducees." "It is a sect more aristocratic than the others, they love power." "And they have been keeping it for many years." "They control the Temple." "The High Priest is always chosen among them." "And in politics the Sadducees collaborate with us." "I would also show thee a Zealot, but Zealots cannot be seen." "They are a secret sect, unyielding." "Their killers raise tumults against the Romans, remembering the ancient freedom of Israel." "Now, seest thou those two inscriptions in Greek and Latin?" "They say: whosoever a stranger unto our people shall cross this threshold..." "Beyond that door is the altar of sacrifice, the centre of the Temple." "Whosoever shall cross this threshold, shall do that in peril of his life." "These Jews are strange indeed!" "They refuse the census because they will not be counted." "They say that only God can count them." "And for this they circumcise their sons." "Circumcision is the sign of the flesh..." "Of the covenant the made with God." "It is a privilege, a magic circle that separates them from all other peoples on Earth." "In Rome they are accused of misanthropy and being the enemies of the human race." "They consider themselves the chosen people, while they are only different and separated." "Those wait for the Messias, or in Greek, the Christ." "The saviour of the people of Israel, who will free them from all slavery." "I know, but it is hundreds of years that they have been waiting in vain." "Yea, but somebody saith that the Messias is already come." "They are the followers of a new sect." "They say such incredible things that few listen to them." "Moreover they hide in fear." "He who for them is the Messias was condemned to death..." "And Jews themselves handed him over to the Romans like a thief." "This is doubtless one of the strangest stories in this strange country." "It is a story which began some year ago." "Lo, here He fell for the first time under the weight of the cross." "For they condemned him to die on the cross, the most shameful and horrible death." "His name was Jesus, He was a little over thirty years old, but He had been preaching only for a few years." "The captured him by deceit in the night and led him to Pilate, the Roman Proconsul in Jerusalem." "I remember very well." "Fifty days ago." "It was two days before the Pasch." "And I remember well also because the Romans... would have rather washed their hands of that trouble." "Fifty days ago!" "Looking carefully onto the ground..." "Traces of his blood can still be seen." "For first they scourged him and then put a crown of thorn on his head." "Lo, there He was crucified." "On that pile of stone and dirt which the Jews name Golgotha." "Knowest thou what it means?" "It means skull." "It is the place of execution." "There they kill thieves, murderers, rebels to the state." "And there they killed him, that Jesus whom his followers called Son of God." "Thus He died, between two thieves." "How to believe that one who ended so miserably be the Messias, the Redeemer of the people of Israel!" "?" "And yet some still believe it:" "men, women, boys..." "And this indeed doth not please the priests of the Temple." "That Jesus was accused of being the King of the Jews." "Pilate asked him." "He did not deny it." "But He was speaking of things incomprehensible, of a kingdom... that is not of this world." "The end is that He died here." "Crucified." "Come, let us ago." "This place makes me tremble." "Lo, seest?" "This is the house where the followers of Jesus the Nazarene gather." "They are not many, but every day a few more come." "After his death they were scattered, but now they gather again here." "The house belongs to a certain Mark." "Behold those two!" "Didst thou notice?" "They became alarmed." "Knowest why?" "Because they saw us." " There are two outside." " They stopped to observe our house." "They are not Jews, they are heathens." " Outside there are Romans watching us!" " What will happen?" "None of us knoweth what could happen." "I know only that Jesus bade us to wait." "We asked him: when wilt thou restore again the kingdom of Israel?" "He answered:" "It is not for you to know the time or moments." "Amen I say to you... you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost you shall be witnesses unto me in Judea, in Samaria... and even to the uttermost part of the earth." "Now we only have to wait." "We are all those who knew Jesus and followed him until the end." " None is missing." " Yea, Peter." "Judas Iscariot is missing." "Peace, brethren!" "For regarding Judas... the scripture must needs be fulfilled." "For he had been called by Jesus to be numbered among us." "The twelve witness of his word." "But he was tempted." "And for this he made himself the leader of them that lead the Lord to his death." "When he saw his crime, he was afraid of what he had done." "But it was too late." "So he killed himself." "A field was bought of the reward of his iniquity." "And in it he is now buried." "And the place he occupied among us is now empty." "Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein." "And his place among us let another take." "We need to choose one of those who have been with us from the beginning... and has seen all that the Lord Jesus did... that he be numbered among the Twelve,... and be made a witness with us of his resurrection." "Either Joseph, called Barsabas, the Just, or Matthias." "Let the Lord show us who must be chosen." "Yea." "The white for Matthias." "The black for Joseph." "He has chosen Matthias." "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel:" "because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people." "And hath raised up a horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant." "As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning." "Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us." "Watch!" "They are leaving." "Today thou seest an empty city, but tomorrow is the feast of Pentecost." "The feast of the Covenant that God made with Moses... when on mount Sinai He told him the Ten Commandments." "And thou wilt see Jerusalem full of pilgrims." "Uncircumcised, and unclean..." "Shake thyself from the dust, arise, O Jerusalem." "Loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion." "For thus saith the Lord:" "You were sold gratis... and you shall be redeemed, without money." "For the sake of Jerusalem, we will not rest till her just ones come forth as brightness." "And the Gentiles shall see thy just one, and all kings thy glorious one:" "and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name." "Pour!" "Enough!" "In thy future here I see a great event that, on a not distant day... will completely change for the better all the course of thy life." "It is not possible to foretell what kind of event." "I can only tell thee that it will neither be gold nor riches... that will make thee happy." "I see a long journey in thy life." "Thou wilt cross the desert." "This is written." "The Lord hath visited our house!" "The Lord hath visited his people!" "Blessed be our God who hath sent a Saviour for Israel!" "Praise and eternal glory to the Most High who had mercy on us!" "Blessed are Thou, God of our fathers, who didst fulfil the promise made to Abraham!" " But they are drunk!" " How can we be drunk at this time in the morning?" "Brethren!" "Ye men of Jerusalem, and all you that hear me!" "All this that happened was spoken of by the prophet Joel!" "We know what the prophet said!" " But we have not seen..." " Silence!" " Let him speak!" "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." "I will shew wonders in the heaven above." "And signs on the earth beneath." "And it shalt come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Ye men of Israel, hear these words:" "Jesus the Nazarene, of the house of David, the man sent by God among you, you betrayed him!" "You crucified him!" "You killed him!" " It was not us!" "They confounded our minds!" " Tell us what we shall do!" "And therefore God, faithful to the promise made unto king David, raised him up." "Having loosed the sorrows of death, for it was not possible that his flesh should suffer... the corruption of death!" "And all we are witnesses of what came to pass." "He whom you have crucified," "Who hath triumphed over death," "Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God... and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," "he hath poured forth this which you see and hear." "Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly that God hath made both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus... whom you have crucified." "He is the Messias, for whom all the people... of Israel have waited many centuries!" "Do penance:" "and be baptized every one of Jesus, for the remission of your sins." "And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." "We announce this promise in the name of Jesus, and this is for you and your children, and to all that are far off." "Save yourselves from this perverse generation!" "Come with us and you shall be saved!" " Men, brethren!" " Come with us!" " You shall be saved!" " We bring you good tidings!" " The Messias has come!" " Which Messias?" " He is dead, he is not the Messias!" " God willed to raise him up again!" " The Messias hath come!" "Peter, what hath happened in your house?" "A mighty wind coming filled the whole house, and tongues of fire sat upon every one of us!" "The arm of the Lord hath shewn his power!" "The Lord hath poured the Holy Spirit upon us!" "Have your the thunders and winds?" "The Messias hath come back!" "Follow us!" "You will be saved!" "The Messias hath come among us!" " We are filled with the Holy Spirit!" " The Lord hath visited our house!" "The Lord hath visited his people!" "The Most High hath done mercy on us." "The arm of the Lord hath shewn his power!" "The Messias hath come!" "The Lord hath shewn his justice!" "Come with us!" "The Messias hath come!" "The Lord hath shewn his justice!" "The crucified Nazarene was the Messias!" "The Lord had mercy on us!" " Come with us!" " Come with us and you will be saved!" "Come down, save yourselves from this perverse generation!" "Come with us and you will be saved!" "Do penance:" "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." "You were with Jesus on the morning he entered Jerusalem." "Brethren!" "You threw your mantles before his feet!" "Come and find him in his baptism!" "Jesus is risen!" "Sing ye to the Lord a new song!" "He remembered of his bounty towards the house of Israel!" "All the ends of the earth will see the salvation that cometh from heaven!" "Become brethren, come!" "There was a great commotion today in the city." "Then, it suddenly quieted as it had begun." "It is not the first and it will not be the last time." "I have already told thee." "This is the only city in the world.." "that a vain dispute on the nature of the Godhead can trouble at any moment." "Today one sect, tomorrow another!" "All the garrison is watching," "Dost thou think it must come forth?" "No!" "Those who caused the commotion... are the followers of that Jesus of whom I spoke yesterday." "Our spies told us that no cry against the Roman rulers has come from them." "On the contrary, it seemed they said:" "Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you." "I do not believe the Roman rulers can ask more of a subject people." "They indeed will not change the world!" "Give alms!" "Give alms!" "Give alms!" "Give alms!" "Give alms!" "Give alms!" "Alms!" "Look at us!" "Silver and gold we have none,... but what we have, we give thee." "In the name of Jesus the Nazarene... walk!" "A miracle!" "A miracle!" "A miracle!" "A miracle!" "He told me: walk!" "And I stood up healed and I walked." "Here are those who healed me!" " Who are thou?" " How didst thou do it?" " Speak!" " How didst thou heal him?" "Men brethren!" "How can you still be blind?" "Ye men of Israel,... why wonder you at this?" "Or why look you upon us,... as if by our strength we had made this man to walk?" "God hath glorified Jesus through this miracle." "Whom you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate when he judged he should be released for he was innocent." "But you denied the Holy One and the Just:" "and desired a murderer to be granted unto you." "You have allowed the author of life to be killed." "And now in the faith of the raised Messias, pronouncing his name... in the sight of you strength hath returned into the limbs of this man." "Brethren,.." "I know that you denied Jesus through ignorance:" "you and your rulers, without knowing, fulfilled what had been shewed by the mouth of the prophets." "that his Christ should suffer" "Now that you know the truth, be penitent!" "Be converted, that your sins may be blotted out... and times of refreshment may come!" "You are the children of the prophets... and of the testament which God made to our fathers... saying to Abraham:" "And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." "To you, God hath sent his servant Jesus to convert you from your wickedness!" "Open!" "I know thee!" "Thou art John the son of Zebedee." "Yea, Caiphas." "And I wonder that thou, the high priest, shouldst come to the hold where they put us." "Perhaps,.." "thou hast come to tell us why we were apprehended." "And who art thou?" "Simon, called Peter" "I know thee too." "You are the Simon who yesterday spoke to the crowd in the streets of Jerusalem, and then lead it to the brook Cedron." "Is it for this that we were apprehended?" "You were apprehended, because you raise a tumult even within the sacred precinct of the temple." "We only healed a man." "By what power?" "By what name, have you done this?" "By the only man on earth, whereby men must be saved." "Peter!" "John!" "I know many things about you." "I know you are observing the law of our fathers." "I know you devoutly frequent the temple." "I know that since Jesus of Nazareth died, you have not given scandal." "You have not spoken in public of him." "You have behaved with great respect for the temple." "Until yesterday." "What hath happened now?" "Wherefore will you provoke the wrath of our justice?" "Because.." "yesterday.." "the Spirit was poured upon us." "Reflect," "You could return to your houses in peace..." "Dost thou think it is right, Caiphas, before God to listen to thee rather than to God himself?" "Today a miracle hath been worked in the temple." "Hundreds of people have seen a paralytic beggar walking, who had been begging for years before the Pearl door." "Two men were apprehended for this." "For healing a sick man?" "I personally spoke with those two men." "They are the same that yesterday drove the crowd to the Cedron valley." "and baptized in the name of Jesus the Nazarene." "That Jesus's disciples had been scattered, destroyed from the face of the earth." "and lo, they appear again coming forth like mice from the most miserable quarter of Jerusalem." "This I do not understand." "Something must have happened, which we ignore." "What fearest thou, Caiphas?" "Jesus of Nazareth is dead." "Thou condemnedst him." "The Romans crucified him." "Thousands of people saw him dead." "The dead cause no fear." "One of the two men I questioned said:" ""The only name under heaven, whereby men must be saved"" "The Saviour?" "The Messias!" "Now thou dost understand why I am worried." "It is hundreds of years that our people... have been waiting for the Messias announced by scripture." "It is hundreds of years that the prophets of Israel, the seers, the men inspired by God, have been foretelling the coming of the Saviour." "of him who will deliver Israel from servitude." "and give unto him glory over all the peoples." "and now these cry that the Messias hath come." "Thou speakest of the glory for Isreal, of liberation." "A man killed like a thief hath neither glory nor power." "They say that he hath been raised up." "that he hath been lifted up from death and exalted to the glory of God." "Dost thou understand the threat now?" "Dost thou comprehend the meaning they give, men with no learning, to the words:" "glory, and liberation?" "What wilt thou do of those two men?" "I know not." "They are obstinate." "They refuse every word of moderation and prudence." "Command that they should be admonished... not to enter the temple to preach their doctrines... and then set them free." "I fear that to punish severely would be unwise, at least for now." "The council let them go free." "Men, brethren!" "Matthias only came for thee." "May God be praised!" "James!" "Blessed be the Lord who maketh the corn grow and openeth his hand filleth with blessing every living creature." "When we heard you had been apprehended we feared for your life." "The news of your apprehension had filled all Jerusalem." "Many feared." "Last night many came to ask news of you." "They wanted to know what your destiny would be..." "And there was fear in their eyes." "It seemed to me to have gone back to the week before the Passover." "When they arrested Jesus." "The same anguish, the same giddiness." "Do you remember?" "However, in those days,.." "we had not yet received, the power of the Spirit." "and our congregation were made of few." "Now the baptized in Jerusalem are many." "The council cannot do whatever it willeth against us." "And we respect the law, pay the tributes, go to the temple." "None can accuse us of unfaithfulness to the law." "What troubleth them most, and offendedeth, is to see the power of the name of Jesus." "that our Lord confirmeth our testimony with the signs of power." "And many now praise the name of the Messias." "And in his faith they receive salvation." "And then they understood they would not stop us with threats." "We know not what the Master will command us tomorrow." "However, we are certain that, as he said, nobody will stop us from being his witnesses... in Jerusalem, in Galilee, in Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth." "I remember what Jesus said" "And all who heard him remember." "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you." "If you had been of the world, the world would love you." "but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you." "The servant is not greater than his master." "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." "The hour cometh that they will put you out of the synagogues that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God." "When the Master said these words their meaning seemed obscure to us." "But now we know what he meant." "He meant to warn us lest we be scandalized." "The future is in the hands of God." "But we have nothing to fear." "I still remember that morning when he said to us:" "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" "and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father." "better are you than two sparrows" "Fear not: the very hairs of your head are all numbered." "If ye confess me before men" "I will also confess you before my Father" "When we gather together like now, the nights spent with the Master come to my mind." "Through the streets of Galilee, and Samaria." "And after the resurrection when he would come to our houses and break the bread with us, to strengthen us in the faith." "I witness that also tonight the risen Master is with us" "He said:" "When two of you gathered together in my name... then am I in the midst of you." "Thomas is right." "Let us do as he would do." "He took some bread;" "blessed it, and then broke it;" "saying: take ye and eat it" "This is my body, which is given for you." "Do this for a commemoration of me." "Amen, amen, amen." "Then you all remember what he did." "He took a chalice full of wine" "He blessed it,.." "saying:" "This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed unto remission of sins." "Drink ye all." "Amen, amen, amen." "As often as we will eat this bread and drink the same chalice we will shew the death of the Lord," "until he come." "For we, being many, partake of one bread are all one body." "Lord, thou art he that didst make heaven and earth, the sea... and all things that are in them." "Thou, by the mouth of our father David, hast said:" "Why did the Gentiles rage:" "and the people meditate vain things?" "The kings of the earth stood up:" "and the princes assembled together against the Lord and his Christ." "Lord," "Thy enemies now assembled together against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed and sent amongst us," "To do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done." "And now Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all confidence they may speak thy word, show thy power that the blind may see, that the deaf may hear, that the lame may walk," "that the sinners may do penance, that the gospel may be preached to the poor." "In the name of thy holy servant, Jesus." "Mary!" "Brother!" "I bless the Lord who leads thee to our house." "May the Lord bless you all!" "Yea, it is true!" "We are poor." "Each of us selleth his possessions." "But each of us receiveth according as he hath need." "We have understood that nothing of what we have is ours." "It cometh from God and unto him we render it." "Everything we receive from the brethren," "We render unto them in the name of the Lord, for every one to have a bread to break." "And of every thing we receive, we keep a memory for all the brethren." "He fell as if struck by lightning." "Ananias died before us." "He had come to bring to the church the price of the land he sold." "He then died as if struck by lightning." "He had kept back for himself half of the price." "He died as if struck by lightning." "They could have sold the land saying they would keep back half the price." "Satan took his heart and pushed him to lie to the church and he died." " He died like the one..." " Also his wife lied." "And they both died before Peter and all of us." "As if struck by lightning." "Because they did not lie to us but to God!" "Peter!" "Nicodemus!" "God bless thee!" "Here is the price of my land." "Go!" "Sit!" "God bless the brethren like thee!" "And like Barnabas!" "Who have listened to the word of the Lord." "Also he, who is a Levite, hath sold his land in Jerusalem." "and gave the price to the church." "And we thank thee." "The kingdom of God is the kingdom of the poor." " Nicodemus!" " Yes." "Doth thy family need part of the price?" "Nothing." "Care not for it!" "I shall work with my son." "God bless thee!" "Go thou with him." "Let the brethren help him." "Here I am!" "Come, we were waiting for you." "Peace to this house!" "Peace to you!" "Peace to you!" "Go, bring your things to Procolus." "These are the offerings of the poor." "May they be blessed!" "But they are not enough for the life of the church." "I am leaving!" "Why art thou leaving?" "Canst thou see how we live?" "We devide all our possessions." "But we are often left in hunger!" "I own a field in Cades, in Galilee." "And an ass also." "I am going to sell them and I will bring hither the price." "Thus it will benefit all." "I also will go." "I have something to sell." "The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field." "But the enemy came and oversowed cockle." "And when the man went to gather... the wheat, he found it full of cockle." "Dost thou know who the enemy is?" "Satan!" "And the cockle is our avarice!" "Our false prudence." "The kingdom of heaven is for those who burn the cockle and live without avarice" "We must indeed return to our villages and sell all our things." "Everyone of us must do his part." "Jesus said that." "If thou wilt be perfect, go... go.." "sell what thou hast, and give to the poor." "thou shalt have treasure in the kingdom of heaven" "And you go, for you still have to sell." "Close!" "One day we asked Jesus how we should pray." "And Jesus said:" "Pray not as the heathens..." "For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard." "Be not you therefore like to them for your Father knoweth that is needful for you... before you ask him." "Thus therefore shall you pray:" "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come." "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well." "There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water." "Jesus saith to her:" "Give me to drink." "Then that Samaritan woman saith to him:" "How dost thou, being a Jew; ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman?" "Jesus answered and said to her:" "If thou didst know the gift of God and who he is that saith to thee:" "Give me to drink;" "thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." "Sir, the woman saith to him, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep." "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?" "Jesus answered:" "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:" "but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him... shall not thirst for ever." "Jesus said:" "In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true." "I am one that give testimony of myself and the Father that sent me giveth testimony of me." "These words Jesus spoke here in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come." "I would that Gamaliel should be present." "The matters we must discuss with those Galileans... become so subtle that the presence of the Rabbi is necessary." "Call Gamaliel!" "Lord our God, and God of our fathers, thou knowest our iniquities and our transgressions." "Accept this sacrifice, receive it as a sweet odour for thy praise, to blot out the sin of all the people thou didst call to salvation." "Gamaliel, Caiphas calleth thee." "Wait for me and after the sacrifice I will come with thee." "Lord our God, and God of our fathers, thou knowest..." " our iniquities and our transgressions," " Blessed be thou, Lord our God" " accept this sacrifice receive it, - king of the world," " as a sweet odour for thy praise, - that madest us live this day." "to blot out the sin of all the people thou didst call to salvation." "and partake with this sacrifice." "This animal was given to me by the Holy one." "May it be blessed." "And I render it to him." " Lord our God, and God of our fathers" " Thus saith the Lord:" " thou knowest our iniquities and our transgressions," " I am thy God" " accept this sacrifice, receive it" " I take the calf from thy house" " as a sweet odour for thy praise, - and the buck goats from thy lots." "to blot out the sin of all the people thou didst call to salvation." "Offer to me the sacrifice of praise:" "and pay to me the vows thou hast made." "And call upon me in the day of trouble:" "I will deliver thee." "Lord our God, and God of our fathers, thou knowest our iniquities and our transgressions." "Accept this sacrifice." "Receive it as a sweet odour for thy praise, to blot out the sin of all the people thou didst call to salvation." "Let us go!" "Lord our God, and God of our fathers, thou knowest our iniquities." "I spoke to you as a father, trying to withdraw you from falsehood." "I ordered you shouldn't enter the sacred precinct of the temple to sow scandal." "It availed nothing." "We already told thee, Caiphas." "We ought to obey God rather than men." "You are stiffened!" "And you fill the city with false doctrine!" "You keep speaking in the name of a man..." "In the name of whom you put to death, hanging him upon a tree." "You will put that man's blood upon us!" "We will only testify that Jesus is the Messias announced by the prophets." "Prove it!" "In Jerusalem there are at least 500 people... who have seen him raised from death." "Thou wilt compel us to punish thee with a severity we would have avoided." "Thou defiest not only our authority, but the very law of the God of our fathers." "But who hath raised Jesus if not the God of our fathers?" "How can you accuse us of offending God, if we proclaim that He hath exalted Jesus with his right hand and made him" "Prince and Christ Saviour." "Saviour of whom, if not of us?" "Of all of us!" "We are witnesses of what we proclaim." "We have heard them enough to judge them." "Let them wait outside for our judgement!" "Only eight weeks have passed since a man named Jesus was brought before me." "I sent him in chains back to thee, Caiphas." "And thou who hadst succeeded me as high priest, didst say:" ""It is expedient that one man should die for the people. "" "Dost thou confirm thy sentence, Caiphas, also for the two disciples of that man?" "You all can affirm that I judged Jesus of Nazareth with justice." "The witnesses accused him and he held his peace." "I cried to him:" "I adjure thee that thou tell us... if thou be the Christ the Son of God." "And he answered:" "Thou hast said it." "Nevertheless I say to you.." "hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power." "I rent my garments!" "That man condemned himself." "And now, we hear the same things." "Impiety, which we thought subdued, increaseth." "Blasphemy overfloweth." "That authority that even Rome recogniseth to us is threatened." "Our sentence cannot be but the same." "Ye men of Israel!" "Take heed to yourselves what you intend to do, as touching these men." "Ye remember, ye remember that long ago a man named Theodas, affirming himself to be somebody, could gather around himself about four hundred men." "But when he was slain, all that went with him were scattered." "Also in the days of the enrolling there was a rebellion." "Remember Judas of Galilee?" "He drew away many followers." "When he perished, all his were dispersed." "And therefore, therefore now, regarding the followers of that Jesus the Nazarene..." "I say to you:" "Refrain from these men and let them alone." "For if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought:" "But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it" "None can fight against God." "What Gamaliel said is right." "Let God take care of it." "But it is also right that the people... should know that the council punisheth the disobedient." "And it must be that these men today learn... that they are forbidden to speak of Jesus." "But, go brethren, this way." "And you, settle down here, go." "I am Mark." "This is my mother's house." "Welcome!" "My name is Philip." "I come from Galilee." "But I am circumcised and observant of the law, although I have always lived among the Greeks." " Art thou tired?" " Much!" "Peter told me I should find him in this house on the day I would live with him." "And now I have decided to follow him." "But he is not here." "They told me the ministers of the temple caught him." "Well, thou art my brother." "And I must be confident with thee." "The life thou wilt live with us will be very hard." "We are poor." "Most of us come from afar." "Many from Galilee." "And it will not be easy to find an occupation for each in a city like this." "It very difficult to find a roof for so many people." "And here in Jerusalem they do not love those from Galilee." "And they do not love most those who come certain that the Messias hath come, is died, and is risen." "I would not scare thee more than necessary." "As long as there is a piece of bread in our house... and in our brethren's houses, it will be also thine." "None owneth anything any more." "All things are common unto us." "And we earn it in the sweat of our face." "Thou shalt work too." "Tell me therefore what thou dost." "Many things: dyer, cobbler, I weave baskets, mats..." "Good!" "Now I shall go to the city... to seek occupations for thee and the other brethren." "As for Peter, he will be back soon." "Thou wilt see." "Here they are!" "They are coming!" "Away, away!" "... to live in Jesus." "We are with them!" "It is not right to forsake the brethren!" "It is not what we promised!" "The freed Peter!" "Peter!" "I was afraid I would not see you again!" "Blessed be the Lord!" "What hath happened had been foretold and filleth us with joy." "For we were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." "He said unto us:" "I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves." "But we will never stop to testify his word!" "The Spirit of God hath watched over you, but now we also wait for his help." "Why?" "What hath happened here?" "Somebody's unhappy." "Now that you're back you shall listen to us and help us." "Yes!" "When the Holy Ghost was poured upon us, the first time we were one hundred and twenty." "Now we are a multitude." "Many of us have shared all they had." "Houses, fields, animals." "And until today there was none to whom our church did not give what is right." "It is not true!" "This woman's child was sick but none helped her!" "Thus we are in opposition." "I agree with him." "I asked Andrew many times to send somebody to help the widow who liveth... by Aman's well." "Outside the walls." "Nobody went." "And what should I have done?" "I went who am old." "If I had not gone, none would have brought bread... and oil to that woman and her children." "We beseech our brethren if they were neglected." "But we are now too many." "And we need to share better the work among us, so that the church's help may reach all in time." "Those who are mostly forsaken in our church, were not born Jews, but other brethren coming from other cities." "They are all circumcised and baptised." "And all must receive what is right from the church." "You are right, but we are only twelve." "We cannot neglect announcing the word of God." "It will suffice to choose some brethren trusted by all." "It is right!" "Seven are enough." "We must choose brethren like Prochorus, Philip, Parmenas... who are Greek and know the language... of those who have been most neglected of all." "Also thou, Stephen, must be chosen." "All our Greek brethren know thee, and esteem thee most of all." "No!" "We cannot choose only Greeks." "There must be also one of us born in Jerusalem." "The most neglected were our Greek brethren." "We all born in this land know each other in Jerusalem... and know whom to ask for help." "And we need less of them, of the church's help." "I say Philip!" "I Stephen!" "I say Nicolas and Parmenas!" " I Prochorus." " Yea!" " Yea!" " Nicanor!" " Timon!" "The church hath chosen hath chosen who will be appointed to collect and distribute the offering for the brethren in need:" "Philip," "Stephen," "Prochorus," "Nicanor," "Timon," "Parmenas, and Nicolas." "Why didst not open?" "I brought to thee what I had promised." "No, not today!" "I understand thee." "I also know the Sabbath is of the Lord." "I know the law, but thou must feed thy children." "Let me in and take what we brought." " No." " No!" "Knowest thou not that the law forbids all work on the Sabbath?" "A man is worth more than the Sabbath!" "Let us in!" "Is it he who broke the sabbath?" " Did he speak also against the law?" " Yea, against the law!" "It is he!" "We recognize him!" "Stephen, hast thou done the things whereof these men accuse thee?" "What is lawful on the sabbath day?" "To do a good or to do evil?" "To save life, or to destroy?" "It is not I who speak, but Jesus Christ, whom you crucified." "And he said also:" "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." "I heard the witnesses!" "This man not only broke the sabbath," "He ceaseth not speaking against Moses." "He who speaketh Greek stirreth up the Greek Jews against the holy place!" "He said the Jesus the Nazerene shall destroy this temple!" "Stephen, I ask thee once again:" "Hast thou done the things whereof they accuse thee?" "What Saul of Tarsus said is grievous." "Thou art circumcised and believest in the temple like all." "Thou canst have done such crimes!" "For if it were so, we would never allow thee to stir up the Greek brethren, who live here in Jerusalem, and to speak with them against the holy place." "In the desert our fathers built an ark, in witness of their covenant with God." "And they put it under a tent." "Solomon took the ark from the tent and built him a house." "Yet the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands." "As the prophet saith:" "Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool." "Beware, Stephen!" "Thou acknowledgest the accusations." "Thou speakest against the temple." "Against the authority of its keepers." "Nobody hath ever dared so much!" "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you resist the Holy Ghost." "Tell me," "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" "And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One:" "of whom you have been now the murderers." "Who have received the law through the angels and have not kept it." "He blasphemeth!" "We cannot accept such insults!" "A lying spirit speaketh through his mouth!" "The heavens opened and the Son of man stands on the right hand of the Father!" " He blasphemeth" " He is guilty of death!" "Close not your ears!" "Hear!" "Are you perhaps afraid of condemning him as you were with Peter and John?" "But the law saith that the blasphemer shall be stoned!" "Away with him!" "Away with him!" "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." "Lord God, lay not his sin to their charge." "Lord, receive my spirit." "Men, brethren!" "Come!" "Come hither!" "Quickly leave Jerusalem, all ye who bear a Greek name." "Go the farthest possible." "My God, why do they persecute us?" "It is not easy to understand those who do evil thinking of honouring God." "Whither?" "What to do?" "I am scared!" "It is the first time that we separate!" "Peter and I have already lived a night like this." "The night when Jesus said:" "Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered... every man to his own and shall leave me alone." "And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." "These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace." "In the world you shall have distress." "But have confidence." "I have overcome the world." "Also we were scared on that night." "And we were dispersed." "But somebody made us find ourselves." "Peter, we cannot leave." "We were chosen to minister to the wants of the widows and the fatherless." "And now that so many women are left alone..." "We must leave." "By staying we shall end in the prisons of the council." "And those who need us most are our brethren about to leave Jerusalem." "And they know whither to go." "We shall go with them." "Understandest thou what thou readest?" "And how thou knowest what I read?" "Knowest thou what I read?" "I do!" "What have I to do with thee?" "To explain what thou readest." "But who art thou?" "My name is Philip." "Once I was a fisherman." "Now I come from Samaria and go whether I know not." "And thou a traveller seekest to explain to myself the scriptures?" "Yea!" "For all that is written and was prophetized hath already happened." "Come onto the chariot." "Stop!" "Quick, up!" "I give thee thanks!" "I was hungry indeed!" "An angel said to me: follow that man!" "An angel?" "Yea." "Thou art not a Jew?" "No." "I am not a Jew." "Moreover I live not in Jerusalem." "But I live very far away, at the court of the queen of Ethiopia." "I am her minister." "What then seekest thou in scripture?" "What?" "Truth!" "I believe in the word of the prophets." "But not all is clear to me." "Their words sometimes come to me uncertain, as from far away." "If thou seekest truth, worry not!" "Truth will meet thee." "Whence comest thou?" "From Jerusalem." "Wert thou at the temple?" "Yea." "Have they told thee of a man named Jesus who had been condemned by the council?" "Yea." "They told me of a man crucified by the Romans." "'Tis true." "He was crucified as an evildoer." "He who was the Son of God." "He did not defend himself." "He did not flee." "He did not shew his power." "He only said:" "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." "And now read what thou didst begin to read." "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter:" "and like a lamb without voice before his shearer." "Understandest now thou of whom the prophet Isaias spoke ages ago?" "No, I still do not understand." "Read further and thou wilt understand." "Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows," "Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows:" "by his bruises we are healed." "Seest?" "It was written that the Son of God would make himself a man." "To suffer in the flesh." "Only so he could free us from the affliction of the flesh." "Why art thou sure that the prophet Isaias truly spoke of him?" "The proof is that Jesus, as he had foretold, is risen from the dead." "Many of us saw." "Many have believed and many now baptize in his name." "What doth hinder me from being baptized?" "Nothing." "Stop!" "If thou believest what I say, I shall baptize thee." "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God." "Then, come!" "Allow me to pursue the blasphemers beyond the boundaries of Palestine." "Into Syria as far as Damascus." "I shall arrest them and bring them bound in fetters hither, to Jerusalem." "Stephen's example was not enough." "Why in Syria?" "Because after Stephen's trial, we heard that his followers flew eastward." "They are all Greeks and Syrians." "And they are all circumcised." "We must reach them and arrest them." "And the city where they may hide best is Damascus." "Thy zeal hath troubled the elders of the temple." "And thou, Caiphas, art thou troubled?" "Yet at another time thou knewst how to act with severity." "Gamaliel recommended moderation to us." "He was thy teacher." "But now I am a doctor of the law." "Of me also they will say:" "he defended the honour of the temple." "He preserved the purity of the law." "Caiphas!" "Our people hath a special end." "The only one on Earth." "It is the chosen people." "The people of the promise." "When the Messias cometh, here is the promise," "Israel will rule the Earth." "In wait thereof we live." "Thereto the law availeth, which we gave onto ourselves." "Most holy law." "And therefore, a covenant of salt." "This is why we must be merciless." "I give thee authority." "It is not enough." "Thou must give me letters for the elders of Damascus." "that I may have all the power over them." "All of them!" "Thou shalt have them." "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" "Who art thou?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "We have arrived at Damascus." "Bring me water." "Give me my mantle." "Whither goest?" "I go to seek a man who came from Jerusalem to bind us." "Why then goest thou to him?" "This man can do nothing to us now." "And then he must suffer for the Lord's sake." "Ananias!" "Is there a man of Tarsus named Saul?" "Yea!" "The ministers of the temple of Jerusalem brought him hither." "He was blinded by lightning." "It is three days since he hath eaten and spoken." "He is there." "Saul, my brother!" "The Lord that appeared to thee in the way to Damascus, hath sent me onto thee that thou mayest... receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost." "I can see!" "I can see!" "The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion:" "rule thou in the midst of thy enemies." "With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength:" "in the brightness of the saints:" "from the womb before the day star I begot thee." "The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent:" "Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." "The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath." "He shall judge among nations, he shall fill ruins:" "he shall crush the heads in the land of many." "He shall drink of the torrent in the way:" "therefore shall he lift up the head." "I came hither to persecute the followers of Jesus the Nazarene." "Here are the letters of the priest of the temple which give me the authority." "But on the way to Damascus," "Jesus appeared to me." "Now I know that Jesus is really the Messias of Israel." "And he is the Lord!" "Faith in his name is the only way to our salvation." "Jesus is risen!" "Now I can truly witness it." "If ye all be not baptised in his name, ye will not be saved." "Three days and three nights I have wept and prayed." "And now," "I witness truth!" "Thou blasphemest!" "He hath blasphemed!" "He is become foolish!" "He hath betrayed Moses!" "He hath rejected the law!" "Out of the synagogue!" "Out!" "Fools!" "Why do you drive him away?" "He must be arrested, bound, and sent back to Jerusalem, to the council that he hath betrayed." "Where is he?" "Where is he gone?" "He seemeth to have fled." "Go and open!" "The men of the synagogue seek thee to arrest thee." "They watch the doors of the city." "If thou hastest not to flee, thou wilt not be able to exit Damascus." "I stay to witness the truth." "But they will not listen to thee, and then?" "Thou tell him!" "Saul!" "They will kill thee!" "Or thou wilt be arrested and dragged to Jerusalem before Caiphas." "I know the Lord's will." "It is not here that thou must stay to witness the truth." "Today thou must save thy life so tomorrow thou mayest lead many others to salvation." "What I tell thee cometh from the Lord." "He chose thee as his instrument." "Seek not the sacrifice with pride." "And now go, go, go before it is too late." "Come!" "Three years have passed already since the master left us." "What foolishness still abideth in the world!" "In Rome emperor Caligula willeth us Jews to adore him as a god." "Seditions have been raised in all Palestine." "They say that Caligula the ungodly... willeth his statue to be in the temple of Jerusalem." "And we are in peace." "How long yet, I know not." "But now the church hath peace." "In Judea, Galilee, Samaria," "It is edified, walking in the fear of the Lord." "I leave." "Whither?" "Towards Joppe, I think." "We have not visited the brethren of Lidda in a long time." "All is quiet in Lidda." "Why wilt thou go?" "Our presence is useful here." "Let us stay." "No, John." "I must go." "I feel that I must go." "Now." "The scrip." "Dost thou leave?" "Yes, I do." "Doth the tanner live here?" "No, he doth not." "Where is his house?" "Further, knock the other door, down there." "Yes." "I seek the tanner's house." "They told me to come hither." "Is this his house?" "Yes." "May I see him?" "I am Simon called Peter." "Go to him and tell him I am a Galilean coming from Jerusalem." "Yes." "I seek an occupation." "Wait." "Enter." "Peace be to this house." "Peace to thee, Peter." "I will see Peter." "I go and call him." "Peter, Peter, Peter!" "They seek thee." "Come." "Hail, Peter!" "Be thou welcome!" "Centurion Cornelius hath sent us from Caesarea." "having good testimony from the Jews," "He sent me because an angel ordered him... to send for thee into his house and to hear words of thee." "I will come." "Peter!" "Go thou not to Cornelius's house for he is heathen." "Since I was born," "I have always observed the law of Moses." "I have never entered a heathen's house." "Nor broken bread with one of them." "But now I must go." "Yea, I also am scared." "But I also know that the Lord willeth me to go to Cornelius's." "No, no, Cornelius, arise!" "I am a man like unto thou." "Come!" "Sit!" "Peter, I am a heathen." "But an angel sent from high bade me to send someone to call thee." "From a long time I know that the Most High... is the true God, the creator of heaven and earth." "Thy prayers and thy alms, said the angel to me, are ascended in the sight of God." "And now he biddeth thee to send men to Joppe... and call hither one Simon, who is surnamed Peter." "And he told me also where they would find thee." "He knoweth thou hast something to tell me." "Thou shalt tell me of the Nazarene, of Jesus." "who was condemned to the cross." "I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons." "I followed Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem, of Judea, of Galilee, and of Samaria," "who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him and with the multitude following him." "The proud though lead him to death." "The imprisoned him in Jerusalem and hanged him on a cross." "But he showed his power." "Three days after his death we went to see his sepulchre." "And we found it was empty." "And an angel of the Lord told us:" "He who ye seek is not here." "For he is risen." "Risen?" "!" "Yea!" "After his resurrection Jesus came to our houses, so we might become his witnesses." "He lived with us for forty days." "Then he left us," "And he commanded us to preach to the people the way of slavation, and to testify as I do before you that it is he who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead." "Thus" "God willed to shew to all the men of the earth the power of Jesus." "I already feel peace filling my heart." "It is a day of joy for us." "It is a day of joy for us and for our children." "It is a day of joy for all." "Yea, the Lord is sweet!" "The Lord is sweet to all." "I must needs baptise you." "I must tell you what hath happened to me." "I was in the city of Joppe praying, when suddenly I had a vision." "I saw before me a great linen sheet let down from heaven by the four corners." "On this great linen were all manner of beasts, all the beasts which the law forbids us to eat." "And there came a voice to me:" "Kill and eat." "I said:" "Not so, Lord:" "For I nothing common or unclean hath ever entered my mouth." "Not so." "And the voice that spoke to me said:" "What God hath made clean, do not thou call common." "And do not thou cast off." "And this was done thrice." "And presently the vessel was taken up into heaven." "And for that didst thou go in to an uncircumcised man?" "I would not have dared, if immediately other things had not happened." "Three men came to seek me and invited me to go to Caesarea." "To the house of a heathen, named Cornelius." "And the Spirit enlightened me" "And I understood the meaning of the words:" "What God hath made clean, do not thou call common." "I decided to go to Cornelius." "It was the Lord that commanded it." "How can thou be sure it was the Lord who enlightened thee?" "Cornelius, seeking faith, sent his men to call me, for an angel had commanded him to do it." "And then all was clear when... with Cornelius and his family I began to speak about Jesus." "At that moment, the Spirit fell on them as it had fallen on us." "And then I decided to baptize them." "How could I not do it, If then God gave them.." "the same grace as to us?" "Who was I, that could withstand God?" "What I saw at Joppe and Caesarea hath enlightened me." "I perceived that God is not a respecter of persons." "But in every nation, those that fear him and work justice are acceptable to him." "They are all the same before him, Jews and uncircumcised men." "As the prophet said:" "all the nations shall sing his praises and his glory shall be made manifest in all the earth." "Peter obeyed the will of the Lord." "But it will be a scandal for those who will see that the tradition of Moses hath not been observed." "Well," "God's will be done." "My father taught me never to go in to men uncircumcised, and I taught my children the same law." "But now I understand what we must do." "I remembered the word of Jesus." "He said to us:" "baptize all the nations." "And while Peter was speaking," "It seemed to me to hear again his words, as if he were among us." "When I return home," "I shall teach my children that in the name of Jesus... they can go in to men uncircumcised." "For we are all children of the same Father." "Come, quick, the gate is closing, come!" "Let us go, come!" "Quick, come!" "Come!" "Saul, let us go!" "Barnabas!" "One moment!" "Too late!" "Who might be?" "At this hour?" "Who is it?" "Do not open!" "Who is it?" "I am Barnabas, open!" "Whom bringest thou with thee?" "I am Saul of Tarsus." "Saul heard the voice of the Lord on the way to Damascus." "It is three years since we had news of him." "Where hast thou been, Saul?" "In the desert." "To listen to the voice of Him who separated me from my mother's womb... and called me by his grace." "Welcome among us!" "Thou art worn and tired." "But here thou wilt recover." "Thou art our brother." "And art in need of a clean garment." "As soon as he arrived in Jerusalem," "Saul knocked at the door of many disciples." "All have rejected him." "None believeth in his conversion." "I said that here he is among his brethren." "Maybe they are still afraid of him." "They did not forget Stephen's blood." "Thou shalt not stay in Jerusalem for long." "Thou shalt go to thy brethren of Syria and Cilicia." "And they will say:" "he who once persecuted us now preacheth our faith." "And they will glorify God through thee." "That is wheat!" "Yea, yea, it is wheat!" "Whither do they carry it?" "They let us die of hunger!" "I have not eaten in three days!" "Neither have I." "Herod letteth us die by famine!" "Back off!" "Give us this wheat!" "Back off!" "Bread!" "Our children die by hunger!" "Back off!" "God have mercy on our people!" "They have covered their face with shame!" "Ye mighty ones!" "Ye who rule this city, what have ye done?" "Clean your hands, sinners!" "Cleanse your hearts!" "You covet, and have not: you kill!" "You envy!" "Aand cannot obtain." "You contend and war!" "Ye call yourselves wise and industrious." "Then shew that!" "But only with works... accomplished in meekness, which belongeth to wisdom." "For yours is not wisdom, descending from above:" "but earthly, carnal, devilish." "But the wisdom that is from above, first indeed is chaste." "then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, full of mercy" "And the fruit of justice is sown in peace." "Clean your hands!" "Go to now, ye rich men:" "weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you." "Your riches are corrupted:" "and your garments are motheaten." "Your gold and silver is cankered:" "and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you... and shall eat your flesh like fire." "What shall we do now that we have captured that man?" "An act of a wise ruler." "Thou art king of Judea, as thy grandfather Herod the Great, who killed the firstborn of Israel, as thy uncle, who beheaded John the Baptist." "Wisdom hath always been in your ancestors." "That man stirreth up strife." "And the Romans, by whose good will we rule, like order." "That man is a follower of Jesus the Nazarene." "And the high priest hath condemned as blasphemers the followers of the Galilean." "We shall do something pleasing to both." "An act of a wise ruler." "Command that he be beheaded." "Why do you weep?" "James, the brother of John..." "I know." "James is dead." "Herod's guards look for us." "We must leave Jerusalem." "I should not be here, if an angel had not freed me last night." "This is a sign!" "It was the Lord's will." "On coming Passover, they would have put me to death also like James." "If the angel hath freed me, it is a sign we must go far away." "And we will go." "The Lord said:" "I will not leave you orphans:" "I will come to you." "John, John!" "The Master said:" "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you." "The servant is not greater than his master." "For if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." "An thee, Peter, first of all." "Thou wilt be Herod's first victim." "Indeed." "But if we leave, it is not out of fear, but the Lord sendeth us." "Each by a different way." "Yea verily." "And when we shall be far hence, and break the bread" "with our new brethren, in that bread we shall be" "all one." "In this faith, many will find their salvation." "We must be as newborn babes," "and desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby we may grow unto salvation." "To leave, but whither to go?" "Whither?" "The Spirit will command where to testify the risen Master." "Yes, it is nothing whither we go." "Yes, let us go!" "And may all the tribulations, which we shall face, be blessed, so that our faith, more precious than gold, may be tried, as gold is tried by fire before it shineth." "And now let us go." "Let us go before it be exceedingly late." "John is right." "Therefore let us leave the holy city, the temple where we have praised the God of our fathers, let us leave our houses and our children." "We know not whether we shall be back." "But it is accomplished what Jesus said:" "in his name we shall pass through Galilee and Samaria, we shall go until the end of the earth, until he cometh again and all the Gentiles... will praise the glory of the Lord." "Barnabas!" "My brother!" "Come, let us go." "Before receiving thy message in Tarsus, I thought thou hadst forgotten me." "None can forget thee." "Not for what thou wert before Ananias baptized thee in Damascus." "That man, the persecutor of Christians, is no more." "For none of us." "I wish that thou would forget him." "For us thou art just a man that hath accepted the tidings of salvation." "I know not what I am." "I know not whither the Lord will lead my steps." "When we separated in Jerusalem and thou suggested I should return to Tarsus..." "I said:" "In the city where I was born, where all know me," "I shall wait for the end of my days." "Witnessing the faith of the saviour Messias." "I shall shout the declaration that I myself heard from heaven, I shall say:" "You know me, you must believe me." "But it was not so." "Few believed me." "Jesus said: they will not believe you." "They will put you out of the synagogues." "You will be persecuted." "And this will happen often, as it happened to him." "We should already be in Syria." "Tell me, Barnabas, why wilt thou that I should come to live so far from my city?" "We are Jews, Paul." "Children of Abraham." "Abraham had a house in the land of the Chaldeans." "But one day God called him and said go forth out of thy house, thy kindred, the land where thou wert born, and come into the land which I shall shew thee." "And Abraham obeyed." "He went out, asking not where that land would be." "That commandment hath always been with our people." "But now let us keep our feet on the ground." "Let us go to Antioch." "We shall abide there a long time." "There is already a church of our brethren." "I was with them more than one year." "They are many." "Full of faith." "They need help." "Thou wilt be able... to work like them." "Therefore I summoned thee from Tarsus." "So let us walk." "Antioch is over there, beyond the mountains and the plain." "Antioch is a different city from Jerusalem." "There are people of all races, there are many Gentiles." "What thou hast told me, that many Gentiles have accepted the baptism of Jesus, and live with the Jews who are our brethren, this maketh me praise the Lord." "I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me." "Thus spoke God to Moses." "Behold Antioch!" "We are at the end of our journey." "Behold the brethren of Antioch." "Peace to you, brethren!" "Welcome to our home!" "This is Titus, one of our brethren." "I live here." "I will host you in my house." "I am only a poor potter." "And I shall not have but clay to offer you to work." "I am a tentmaker, but I will gladly be a potter." "It is not necessary." "We will take care of thy needs." "Thy task is another now:" "to tell us about God." "I believe that each of us should work with his hands." "As our fathers have always believed." "On the other hand, if I preach salvation, I do not do it by my will." "I was commanded to do it." "And therefore, why should I receive a reward?" "This is my daughter." "She is with child." "See you soon." "See you soon." "We shall meet again." "The house of Manahen, who took us in, is very different from our houses of Jerusalem." "Here Gentile and Jew brethren work together without distinction." "And yet there is none who is scandalized." "Hast thou seen?" "I also have taken notice." "It is written by the prophet Osee:" "And I will say to that which is not my people:" "Thou art my people:" "And her who was not dear to me I will call beloved." "So, those to whom it was said that they did not belong to the people of God," "He will call them sons, sons of the living God." "If thou explainest to me what thou hast said, I shall understand it." "Thou speakest words of wisdom, obscure to us." "Believest thou in the Messias?" "Indeed I do!" "Would thy faith be different, if thou wert a Gentile?" "Wouldst not thou be sister... to those who believe in the same Messias?" "If the Lord didst call Jews and Gentiles to the same faith, it meaneth that they are brethren, and that the can work together." "Thou meanest this." "See now, what I saw in your houses in Antioch hath not scandalized me." "On the contrary, it made me praise the Lord." "Not all men think as thou, Saul." "Also in Antioch, there are those who believe unlawful... for a Jew brother to work and eat with a Gentile brother." "I would that all men understand." "But thou knowest:" "God's voice doth not reach all men in the same day." "Thou also seest how different are the people of Antioch, from the people of Jerusalem." "Here a Gentile may work with a Jew, if he willeth." "None thinketh of forbidding him." "Indeed the Jews more holding to tradition do not accept this all." "Through here all the companies pass traveling from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof and back." "There is much exchange of news, mingling of counsels, and of customs." "This mingling with the Gentiles maketh me... doubt some times." "For I remember the law of Moses." "But Jesus also said:" "whosoever, whosoever shall call upon my name shall be saved." "They have fasted three days." "But why do they hide?" "Because Jesus said:" "Appear thou not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret." "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence." "He shall call heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people." "And the heavens shall declare his justice:" "for God is judge." "He shall call heaven from above, and the earth." "The Holy Ghost hath said to us:" "Separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have taken them." "Barnabas and Saul, you will leave us." "We shall see you leaving with much pain." "Our church is young and needeth you." "But the Lord hath spoken." "Hence, may His will be done." "You will go preaching His word far hence, whither the Spirit, who today hath called you, will lead you." "To him all the ends of the earth will convert and will be saved." "They shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded." "Barnabas and Saul!" "Now you will leave us and go far away." "We know not whether you will be back." "We know not whither you will go." "But you must go." "And we impose our hands upon you." "Come!" "The fever hath weakened thee." "I am cold." "The Lord killeth and maketh alive." "What is beyond those mountains?" "Pisidia." "Let us go on." "I shall be better up there." "Help me, I beseech thee." "Peace be with thee!" "May this bread and this salt testify our covenant before God." "Art thou a Jew?" "Yes." "How hast thou come hither, to Pisidia?" "So far from Palestine." "Our father was an wandering Jew." "Knowest thou whether Jewish synagogues be near?" "Yonder, over that mountain, there is Antioch of Pisidia." "There is a synagogue." "There are many brethren." "You can seek hospitality among them." "Whence come ye?" "We left from Antioch of Syria." "We sailed the sea." "We were in Cyprus." "Cyprus is my country." "Hence, we sailed again and came down to the coasts of Asia." "You have no baggage." "Therefore you are not merchants." "You have no weapons." "Therefore you are not robbers." "Who are you?" "Whither go you?" "We are men of God." "He that neglecteth a loss for the sake of a friend, is just:" "but the way of the wicked shall deceive them." "My name is Paul." "This is Barnabas, my friend." "Before my name was Saul." "Now Paul." "My name hath changed as my heart hath changed." "The heart that knoweth the bitterness of his own soul, in his joy the stranger shall not intermeddle." "Thy proverb is not true for me." "I travel so that every man on earth... may partake of my joy." "Lord, thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation." "Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed;" "from eternity and to eternity thou art God." "Turn not man away to be brought low:" "and thou hast said:" "Be converted, O ye sons of men." "For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past." "And as a watch in the night," "Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be." "In the morning man shall grow up like grass;" "in the morning he shall flourish and pass away:" "in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither." "May ye be welcome to the house of our prayer." "Ye, who have prayed with us." "I am Paul of Tarsus, doctor of the law." "Barnabas of Cyprus is a Levite of the temple of Jerusalem." "Come and sit hither, next to me, according to our custom." "The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name." "Pharao's chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea:" "his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea." "The depths have covered them, they are sunk to the bottom like a stone." "Thy right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength:" "thy right hand, O Lord, hath slain the enemy." "Having read the sacred book, I ask the brethren who have come from Jerusalem... whether they have any thing to say to our synagogue." "If that be, let them speak." "We will hear them." "Men, brethren," "The God of Israel brought our fathers out of Egypt." "He endured their manners in the desert." "And, destroying seven nations in the land of Chaanan, divided their land among them by lot." "God gave unto us judges, until Samuel the prophet." "And He gave us a king, Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin." "And then David." "As it is written:" "I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills." "It is written as well that of David's seed" "God, according to his promise, would raise a Saviour." "Men, brethren, to you the word of this salvation is sent." "the promise which was made by God to our fathers," "God hath fulfilled to us children," "The Saviour hath now come." "And in him, Jesus of Nazareth, you will have that salvation that the law of Moses could not give unto you." "Jesus was born of the seed of David, as it had been foretold." "Jesus was humbled and killed, as it had been foretold." "In Jerusalem He is risen." "And now the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again," "to the poor the gospel is preached." "For David, when he was laid unto his fathers, his body saw the corruption of death." "David was not the Messias." "But Jesus was raised from the dead." "Jesus IS the Messias!" "Your preaching confoundeth us." "Let us think." "Come and speak to us." "Return to the synagogue on the next sabbath." "Have you a house wherein to dwell?" "No, we have just come." "Then come to my house." "What is thy occupation?" "I am a tentmaker." "So am I." "Come." "The synagogue is split in two factions." "Some believe what you said." "But some believe not your preaching." "Many are troubled." "it hath never happened, in the memory of man, that we Jews of this city were divided." "Paul, try to understand us." "We are poor." "We live among idolater heathens." "Jerusalem is far, humbled, oppressed." "Since we were born a hope supporteth us:" "Let the saviour of the people of Israel come one day." "He who will make him great among all the nations." "Where is the saviour of whom thou speakest?" "Where is the power for us?" "Dost thou believe in the resurrection of the dead?" "At the end of times." "Jesus is risen today." "This is the glory of his power." "But thou askest:" "where is his power for us?" "I tell thee that Christ is risen first." "His resurrection is the the promise of the resurrection of all of us." "And the enemy, death, shall be destroyed last" "So he shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father." "when he shall have brought to nought all principality, and power and virtue." "Paul of Tarsus, Barnabas." "We have hearkened to your preaching with great commotion." "We live far from Jerusalem, from the temple." "And we have to wrestle hard to preserve the integrity and purity of our faith." "For this cause, we have long pondered before answering." "We have compared the ancient books of our people with what you have said." "No!" "We cannot believe you." "For it is written:" "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." "How could a Messias be cursed?" "If thou hadst read the scriptures well, thou would give answer to thyself." "As they that inhabit Jerusalem killed Jesus, not knowing that they had fulfilled all things that were written." "Read psalm 21." "Doth it not speak of a humbled Messias?" "The council of the malignant hath besieged me." "They have dug my hands and feet." "They have numbered all my bones." "And they have looked and stared upon me." "They parted my garments amongst them;" "and upon my vesture they cast lots." "This was written more than one thousand years ago." "This happened yesterday, before the people of Jerusalem." "It is thou, Paul, who sayest that this hath happened." "But now tell me whether the wolf dwelleth with the lamb." "It is written that this will be the kingdom of God." "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb:" "and the leopard shall lie down with the kid:" "the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them." "The earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea." "Look around!" "Canst thou see the peace and justice prophesied by Isaias?" "Bring hither the wolf and the lamb lead by a child and I shall believe thee." "Doubt ye not!" "This will happen at the end of times." "When the Lord will return." "But now, to you it behoved us first to speak the word of God:" "but if you reject it, what shall we do?" "Turn to the others, to the Gentiles?" "Who know not the true God?" "Leaving you?" "Thou wilt shake thy Jewish brethren in their faith!" "This is a day of discord!" "The Lord said to Israel:" "I have set thee to be the light of the Gentiles." "that thou mayest be for salvation unto the utmost part of the earth." "We will preach to the Gentiles the word that you reject!" "Away with you!" "Now you scandalize!" "Thou canst understan me!" "Away with you!" "Away!" "Out!" "Paul, Barnabas!" "Wait!" "Your scrips." "You left them at my home." "Thank thee." "And now whither will you go?" "We know not." "Perhaps, it will be good if you go back, towards the coast." "In the way you have taken, the peoples are ever wilder, heathen, idolatrous." "It will be ever harder to find synagogues of brethren of Israel." "Synagogues become rare." "Turn back." "I fear much for you." "You will only find enemies that way." "Turn back." "No, we must go thither." "But fear not for us." "We shall meet again." "We have waited three days to join you." "The company wherewith we came went to Damascus." "But if had tarried longer, we should not have known what to do." "Somebody refused to draw water... because the well is in the hands of the Roman soldiers." "The impatience for the foreigner increaseth." "Yet we should all be grateful to the Romans:" "The land is full of robbers" "At least the Romans keep them away from the wells." "'Tis true." "It is the only way to fight them." "But thou, stranger, art not thou Zacharias?" "Friend of Peter and John?" "One of those who saw Jesus?" "Yes, I am Zacharias." "Brother!" "Know that also I am baptized." "Also I know John, Peter, and Paul." "Paul of Tarsus." "He was known by all by the name of Saul." "Along the road we shall find more water." "In the mean time, have some of mine." "Thank thee, Zacharias!" "Whence comest?" "I come from Jerusalem." "I must often travel for family's business." "In one of the same travels, one day on the way to Istra," "I met Paul and Barnabas." "Paul was sick." "We all feared for his health." "Much time hath passed since, about three years." "I have had no more news of him." "Paul is returning." "And I go to Antioch, hoping to meet him." "Then he is alive!" "I am happy!" "Paul and Barnabas had to take a long journey." "I know." "My occupation maketh me live always on the paths crossing" "Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor." "Even to the great pastures at the end of the desert." "I meet all kind of people:" "travellers, shepherds, even robbers." "Many tell me of Paul and Barnabas." "I know they were in the island of Cyprus and then came to the coasts of Pamphylia" "They went in Anatolia even to Antiochia of Pisidia." "Then they turned to west to Derbe." "Paul hath made prodigies." "He hath made churches of brethren in Christ." "He had the priests ordained in every church." "Paul and Barnabas have gone far." "And everywhere they have baptized a great number of Gentiles." "This confoundeth me." "Hath perhaps the people of Israel ceased to be the only chosen by God?" "And the promised land?" "Is that not what God gave to Abraham?" "I wonder this." "I will ask Paul." "They have come back!" "Paul and Barnabas have come back!" "Paul and Barnabas have come back!" "When you left this child was still in his mother's womb." "Now he is three years old." "We have baptized and circumcised him." "Thou didst well." "They are not circumcised." "They were Greeks, Syrians, Phrygians." "But they have believed and are baptized." "I have not laid no further burden of the law upon them." "Perhaps I have sinned of weakness." "No, thou hast not sinned." "For in Christ you were circumcised, not by hand of man." "Also you were buried in baptism, and you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Christ up from the dead." "And so you, being aliens from the conversation of Israel and strangers to the testament, are now children of Abraham." "You, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Jesus." "And through him, both the first" "and the latter, they who were afar, and they who were nigh, are now children of the Father in one Spirit." "For in Jesus neither being a Jew availeth any thing, nor being a Gentile." "but being a new creature availeth." "Come, Paul!" "Enter!" "This is my body, which is given for you." "Do this for a commemoration of me." "This chalice is the new testament in my blood." "This do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me." "Paul!" "Paul!" "Thou knowest not how long I waited for this!" "I am glad to see thee again." "And you all brethren of Antioch!" "Sit with us at this table." "I cannot accept, Paul." "Thou knowest well it is not allowed to me." "Sit with us, I beseech thee!" "Eat with us!" "No, the law forbiddeth it to me." "Thou, Zacharias, wilt not sit at our table because brethren who were heathens sit with us." "Who now have accepted the word of the Lord, but were not circumcised." "Nor ought they, for it is not necessary." "Faith is sufficient, faith in Christ." "For by faith we are saved." "In these years I followed thy journeys from afar, with anxiety and admiration." "But Jesus would not abolish the law of Moses." "And thou didst allow it to be violated." "I even saw thee breaking bread in the name of the Lord with the uncircumcised." "My conscience telleth me that entering this house I was made unclean." "If I divided food with them, it would be a scandal." "All this brought me anguish and confusion." "Ask this women if she will circumcise her son." "If thou commandest her, she will do it." "But I know she thinketh that useless." "For she knoweth that Jesus hath pulled down the wall dividing two people." "We and the others, the Gentiles." "And of two people, He hath made one." "If thou tellest her that she should impress a sign in her son's flesh, she will not understand." "Yes, I know." "I know." "But I fear that thou and Barnabas have gone far off." "I fear that you be polluted by the heathens." "And it is time now that these occasions of scandal, these doubts of ours, these torments, be brought before the priests, the apostles, to Jerusalem." "Yes, this seemeth right to me." "Our churches have been divided for too long." "Let them show unto us which is God's will, to find anew the unity of the people of God." "Let us pitch the tent." "Why we do not see them?" "Yet they promised they would come!" "Antioch is far off." "They also promised they would arrive before night." "Thou art impatient." "No." "I am only concerned." "They will certainly come." "But perhaps thou fearest... that they of the city, the ministers of the temples, and the council... discover that we assemble here." "We have been persecuted for years." "Nevertheless... the faith hath been spread." "In lands ever farther." "In lands which we knew not twenty years ago, when the Lord was still with us." "Now that we all assemble here for the first time, with the apostles and the priests, for such a great matter, shall we be as one as then?" "John, shall we be as one?" "Peter, I also have asked the same question." "I am not afraid." "No, John." "I am not afraid lest the Lord might abandon us in doubt," "I am only afraid of deceit coming from our flesh." "A deceit... that can confuse minds." "Yes, Peter." "For the seed must die so that a new harvest later come." "Shall we have the strength, the patience, to be the seed willing to die?" "The lord hath called all the nations, with all the customs, with all the languages and different races, to be one people." "But we today are divided." "For this indeed we assemble to be again as one." "No." "No, John." "No." "I am afraid of false prophets." "Of they who have ears to hear, but hear not." "The Lord will speak through the mouth of our brethren." "The Lord will not abandon us." "But I am afraid there might be somebody who will not hearken to him." "With Paul and Barnabas others will come... in great number from the farthest countries." "After so many years we shall see again many brethren, whom we have left in Galilee, in Judea, them of Damascus and Antioch!" "And Philip." "Dost thou remember Philip, Stephen's friend?" "Philip was so young!" "But dost not thou think it would have been better to assemble only the ancients to consider and in a closed place." "It is a great matter!" "No!" "It is necessary and right that all the brethren... wishing so might take part in our decisions." "And the most humble will not cry scandal." "They will be troubled, astonished!" "No, I do not believe that." "We are all simple men." "We shall speak of what toucheth all in the same way." "We shall speak of the tradition of Moses, and of what Jesus taught us after him." "And what we shall say about them, all must hear." "For Jesus loved us all." "Soever as we are made, in the humility of our condition." "What he told us when he came, we have all understood." "I am certain that also our brethren will understand." "They will understand." "Philip!" "Years have not signed thy face." "Thou hast not changed." "Whence comest thou?" "From Caesarea." "I have lived there for some years." "I am married." "I have four daughters." "But I have often left my house, and I have gone to Galilee and Samaria to preach the word." "Peter!" "Philip!" "Brother!" "He is now come." "Peter, I return to the city, to Jerusalem." "It is necessary to keep communication with the ancients." "Come!" "Come with me!" "John, tell them I will warn them when the time cometh." "But we shall meet in a spirit of moderation." "Without fear." "Without distrust." "Let us hope that the seed of wickedness will never take root amongst us." "Go!" "I have gone from city to city." "When there was a synagogue," "I entered the synagogue and spoke to the Jewish brethren." "When there was not, I spoke in the street." "Some times helped by the Spirit, some times not." "Some times they drove me away." "Other times they hearkened to me." "And the poor and the mourner were the most attentive of all." "The servants more than the masters." "If thou hadst seen what sort of men I met!" "Thou wouldst not have called them even heathen." "Thou wouldst hardly have said they were... men!" "Who knoweth whence they come, having been fed with profane food, not knowing that the heavens are." "I often feared lest they would not understand what I was telling." "And yet, they understood, and I lead them to the water." "Didst thou baptize them?" "Yes." "The rain falling upon them was the same rain falling upon me." "Thou art right." "Paul!" "Barnabas!" "Ten years!" "Ten years since we parted, there, in Jerusalem, at Mark's house." "Thou camest from the desert, torn and faint." "But I had received salvation." "We pitched our tent here now." "We haved dared not to assemble in Jerusalem." "I understand." "This is the youngest of my disciples," "Titus." "Brother!" "But you must be hungry." "I go and find something for you." "Peter, we are tired to stop." "At home they wait for us." "We enter Jerusalem." "They will not eat with us." "For Titus is here and they know he is uncircumcised." "Before we eat this food," "Let us pray together the Lord who hath assembled us." "In thy mercy thou hast been a leader to the people which thou hast redeemed:" "and in thy strength thou hast carried them to thy holy habitation." "Too late!" "The door is already closed." "We shall sleep here tonight." "Men, brethren!" "James, the brother of the Lord, will be chief of this assembly." "Before we all together, as brethren," "deliberate things that will be important for what is to come... of all of us, who were chosen by Jesus," "I must tell you that there are uncircumcised men among us." "It is true that they are our brethren." "We know them very well." "And we can testify for their piety and faith." "They are brethren." "They are like all of us." "Like us, they followed the teaching of Jesus." "Like all of us, they were baptized in his name." "But they are not circumcised." "Is it their fault if they did not receive in the flesh... the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham?" "No, indeed." "For they were born heathens, and only of late they embraced our faith." "Brethren, I know they are innocent of their birth." "It is useless to repeat." "But it is for that that we here, outside the walls of the holy city, ask that they be circumcised." "So that they may, by right, take part to this our assembly not like strangers but like each of us." "No!" "If they ask it not, they must not be circumcised." "I," "Paul of Tarsus, after ten years of apostleship done in Palestine, Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor," "I declare unto you that these brethren, if not willingly, shall not be circumcised." "Because that would mean that here, by the wall of the holy city, we force them to follow the traditions of the law of Moses." "We would do them violence without a reason." "For also without observing the tradition of the law they can be saved." "Jesus alone is our salvation and for this I beseech you not to do it!" "You ought not follow the letter of the law that divideth, but ought instead judge according to the Spirit that maketh as one, in the love of God." "And now hear me, I pray you." "Men!" "Brethren!" "You went far off from Jerusalem because the Spirit led you." "He, with an irresistible force, hath pushed your steps so that you might become light and enlighten the Gentiles." "You have known peoples that you knew not." "Peoples worshipping idols." "The heathens!" "And moved by the Spirit, you have preached the word, and have baptized those who did accept it." "What should you have done different?" "Was it not wherefore you were sent?" "But now some say that salvation, which you preached, is possible, and it can be fully reached, even if the covenant made by the Most High with Moses be not observed." "They affirm that the Gentiles, whom you baptized, should not be circumcised, should not become Jewish." "But in Jerusalem they have always deemed otherwise." "The Messias hath come, 'tis true." "The Messias hath authority over the law." "But He also said:" "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil." "Therefore, brethren, the Gentiles that we convert, are they exempt, in the name of the Messias announced in the scriptures, from the law put forth in the scriptures, or ought they observe the law preceding the coming of the Messias?" "Of this matter we must discuss." "We are at a turn in our way." "After we have answered this question, only after, we can ask our brethren that are here with us to be circumcised." "Before thou answer this question," "I will tell thee that this morning, before I came hither, I went to the temple." "As my father did, and my father's father." "How can I stop the observance of the covenant kept for so many ages?" "How can I become unfaithful to the covenant of Moses, kept by Israel from generation to generation?" "Thou sayest that by requiring the circumcision of the brethren... we do violence to them." "But circumcision is not violence!" "It is the sign of the covenant with God, cut in the flesh of our people!" "I have this blessed sign in my flesh." "For I am an Hebrew like you." "I come of the tribe of Benjamin" "And as all of you, I believe in the promise contained in the scripture." "And I honour the tradition of Abraham and Moses." "But today I tell you:" "the promise made by God unto Abraham was that the Messias would come." "And so that our people might faithfully wait for the day of His coming, the law was given to us in which we were concluded." "We were kept like prisoners." "This law for ages" "hath lead our people looking for the Messias." "But now the Messias hath come!" "And not by observing the letter of the law, but by faith in Him, we receive salvation." "By faith in Him!" "For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ!" "There is neither Jew nor Greek:" "there is neither bond nor free:" "there is neither male nor female!" "For you are all one in Christ Jesus!" "We are the generation of Abraham!" "Then I propose that the counsel be deferred to tomorrow." "Thou spokest with much zeal, Paul!" "But I know not whether thou did convince all." "Why didst not thou open thy mouth, having been present with Jesus?" "What fearest thou?" "The affection of our Jewish brethren for the ancient law... is sincere and deep." "But what doth circumcision or uncircumcision profit, if Jesus came to die for all men?" "What I have feared a long time, that is being done, alas!" "Our church, yet so young, is in danger to be divided into two." "Wert also thou afraid today that the division among us be incurable." "Yes." "And I say with pain." "I have visited many people and I have seen... the wickedness of the heathen." "But I am also witness of the purity of the faith and charity... of them who have believed in Jesus." "For being full of virtues, they grew not in the tradition of Moses." "And it is impossible for them to accept the rules and customs of our people." "Many brethren of Jerusalem have not seen this!" "in the cities where I have been, in the farthest lands, the preaching of the word beginneth in the Jewish synagogues, but then... it goeth out, surpasseth them, is spread!" "And soon, there no more hence Hebrews enclosed in the synagogues... and thence the Gentiles." "There is but one people, made one in love!" "The people of God!" "The poor, they that mourn, the peacemakers, the hungry!" "All those who wait for the kingdom of God." "All this thou toldest me." "Jesus preached it in the sermon of the mountain." "When you were in Galilee." "Galilee!" "The sweetness of Galilee!" "A resting place of sweetness in the desert of my memory!" "When Jesus was with us, he would tell us of his childhood." "And he made us understand the happiness of being born in such a humble place, where we all knew each other." "His preaching of mercy went straight to our hearts." "To me, to Andrew, to James, to John!" "And then you all came to Jerusalem." "In Jerusalem," "In Jerusalem Jesus tasted the full bitterness of solitude." "The humble would have followed him, they would not have abandoned him if the pride of some wise men... had not confounded them." "But he tasted an even fuller bitterness before the doctors of the law." "In Galilee it was different from that in Jerusalem." "The synagogues were our schools." "There were no ministers to guard them!" "And the true meaning of the law of Moses was clear and simple for all." "Thou canst not imagine how much I have suffered, not having been... with you then." "I know." "Did not Jesus say that his Father would speak to him directly?" "Yes!" "To me Jesus spoke on the road to Damascus." "And in a moment the rigour of the law and my pride, fell from my heart." "And it was in that moment that thou beganst... to live in love." "Jesus taught us to live this commandment." "In the ancient law and in the practice." "Dost thou remember rabbi Gamaliel?" "He was my teacher!" "I know." "One day, a heathen went to visit the teacher Gamaliel and, challenging him, said to him:" "If thou canst explain all the law while I stand thus on one foot," "then" "I shall convert to the law of Moses." "And rabbi Galamaliel answering said:" "Love thy neighbour as God commandeth." "All the rest is but commentary." "In simplicity." "This is what Jesus shewed us." "Thus we must live." "All are asleep but they keep talking." "I met Paul when he came to Jerusalem." "We went to hear him for his eloquence." "I knew him when he was a man of the temple." "He hath changed much." "It was the hand of the Lord." "Men, brethren," "you know that in former days" "God made choice among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe." "And then we did not know the counsels of God." "When I went into the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion at Joppe," "Many brethren contended with me." "For the law of Moses forbiddeth it." "I myself was unsure." "But God, who knoweth the hearts, gave unto those Gentiles the Holy Ghost." "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." "Now therefore, why will you put a yoke upon the neck of these brethren... which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" "We believe, by the grace of God," "Jews and Gentiles will be saved in like manner." "Is there any one else who will speak of the matter?" "We will only give testimony for what we have seen and heard in our journeys." "that God hath manifested Himself to the Gentiles, with signs and wonders." "As it was written." "Hundreds of years have passed since the prophet said:" "I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David." "I will raise up the tabernacle of David that the residue of men may seek after the Lord... and all nations upon whom my name is invoked may find Him." "After what I have heard," "I tell you, brethren, they who from among the Gentiles are... converted to God are not to be disquieted:" "I propose that we should write to the brethren of the Gentiles... that it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us... to lay no further burden upon them than these necessary things:" "To abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from fornication." "Let those who agree shew it moving one step towards me." "We shall write to the brethren of Antioch what we have decided all together." "The boat is ready." "I have always been called by the sea." "Thou hast walked through all Asia Minor." "Yes." "It was a long journey." "Antioch, Tarsus, Lystra," "Caesarea, Pergamon, Troy..." "I would visit the churches I left after my first journey." "My heart hath stayed with them." "The sea calleth me for another cause." "It embraceth all the lands as the Spirit embraceth all creatures." "His name is Silas." "When we left Jerusalem after meetings with the ancients and the apostles, he was given to me as a companion so that... he might give testimony at Antioch of the deliberations of the assembly." "How he hath come with me, taking the place of Barnabas." "And I declare to thee, travelling pleaseth me." "But not alone." "For," "I keep suffering of sudden illnesses." "And also I need to have by my side a devout person." "It is comforting to me." "Beyond the strait, there is Greece, Rome." "It is another world." "Which thou knowest not." "Which none of us knoweth." "The preaching of the gospel of Jesus hath now spread within Palestine and Asia Minor, on the land trodden also by our fathers." "The Gentiles to whom we preached the gospel already knew the God of Israel." "In their lands already were our synagogues." "With no stone idols." "But beyond the sea, for us there is... a new world." "These few miles of sea for us are as large as... the heaven." "For this cause I go." "One night a man of Macedonia appeared to me." "He was seeking help." "Then I understood that God calleth us beyond this sea." "so that in all the world the gospel may be preached." "I thank thee." "Thou canst not imagine how happy I am." "Didst thou perhaps fear I could not take thee to Macedonia?" "No, no!" "I have never doubted thee, my friend!" "I am in haste like in a fever, which is the anxiety to set foot in Europe." "Listen, is it true that a road to Rome beginneth here?" "Yes, the Egnatia." "This is the name of the road built by the Romans, which passeth through Macedonia to Dyrrachium." "There is, however, another sea, called Adriatic." "If thou pass through it, thou wilt find a city:" "Brundisium." "Your name?" "Paul of Tarsus." "My companion is Silas." "Whence come you?" "From Troas." "We came to Samothracia." "The wind was good." "It was an excellent travel." " Jews?" " Yes." "Why?" "Why this violence?" "They will know what sort of people you are." "We are men of God." "The Jews of Rome have made so much noise that they deserved to be expelled." "Hast thou heard talk about the edict of emperor Claudius?" "No." "I will believe you." "Tell us whither you intend to go in Greece." "They told me there is a city behind the hills." "Yes, Philippi." "Well!" "We go to Philippi." "Excuse me, friend, we are Jews." "Knowest thou if there be a synagogue in this city?" "Not here at Neapolis." "This is but the port of Philippi." "I do not know in Philippi." "Wait, drink something." "But we have no money." "It doth not matter." "You will pay another time." "Now you must celebrate the good luck to have come to Philippi." "The emperor of Rome loveth Philippi much." "More than all the other cities of Greece and Macedonia." "Because of what happened." "It happened more than one hundred years ago." "In Rome some evil men had killed a god." "A god?" "Yes, Julius Caesar." "That was his name." "Now our city is filled with his statues." "For right here in Philippi his killers were defeated." "And then they took their lives away." "For this fact even today we enjoy many privileges." "Now I know of what thou speakest." "The great battle." "Antony and Octavianus hence," "Brutus and Cassius thence." "Here began the history of the Caesars." "The history of man began elsewhere." "What sayest thou?" "I was thinking with a loud voice." "It is the custom of him who travelleth much." "I thank thee." "Fare well!" "Those women yonder are Jewish." "They come hither to pray." "Peace be with you, brethren!" "My companion and I come from Jerusalem, bringing good news to you and your husbands." "Where can I find them?" "Coming from the east, thou art not used to speak to women, art thou?" "Yes." "This is a new world for me." "But I am sure that your faith in the God of Israel is not less." "I will speak to you first." "Apollo, Apollo!" "God of the streets, my perdition, into which house hast thou pushed me?" "Macedonians, Greeks, foreigners!" "Hearken!" "Python the serpent, huge and terrible, prophesied at the foot of Parnassus, devouring men and animals." "Hera, the mighty goddess, was protecting Python, but an oracle foretold that the serpent would be killed by the son of Leto." "Poseidon received pregnant Leto on the wandering island of Ortygia." "And Leto bore Apollo and Artemides." "Three days after birth," "Apollo killed Python, burned the corpse, burying the ashes under the temple of Delphi." "Whither have we come, Paul?" "To the ancient heart of Greece and of the heathen world." "This is what is left of the gods of Olympus." "To appease the wrath of the slain monster," "Apollo instituted the Pythian Games." "But the spirit of Python is not dead!" "It liveth within this maiden's body." "It speaketh through her mouth." "It prophesieth." "Come friends, ask!" "The pythoness will answer." "The oracle will speak in her." "And it will only cost you a few drachmas." "The tree spreadeth out its roots towards the salt." "The waters will not open up where giddiness sleepeth over the fire and where pain hath conquered death." "What doth it mean?" "Fool, that thy wife is faithful." "Give me the money!" " Let another come!" " ... perdition, into which house hast thou pushed me?" "What an unworthy sight!" "To this hath Greece turned herself?" "It is but a fraud, a trick to gain money." "The girl is but a poor creature in bondage." "Although, although it is true that someone speaketh in her." "Who?" "Thou knowest well, Silas." "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood;" "but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places." "No, not thou!" "I know who you are!" "You are the servants of the Most High God!" "That is what you are!" " Hast thou heard, Paul?" " I know, I know!" " Let us go." " Yes!" "We must find a roof before night." "Stop, stop!" "I know thee!" "Thou art Paul!" "Thou wert Saul!" "Thou hast left they people." " Thou hast killed, betrayed!" " Go away!" "These men are the servants of the Most High God... who preach unto you the way of salvation." "Thou art Saul, thou hast left thy people." "Thou hast betrayed!" "In the name of Jesus," "In the name of Jesus," "In the name of Jesus, I command thee." "Behold, it is they!" "Robbers!" "Thieves!" "See what you have made of my slave!" "How you have left her!" "She yieldeth nothing!" "She is worth nothing!" "Not even to play the whore!" "We shall sell her for little money!" "Pigs!" "Pigs!" "Thief!" "Why takest so much care of us?" "We know not even who thou art." "The Jews call proselytes those who belong not to their people... and yet believe in God." "Behold, I am one of them." "Yesterday at the river I believed that you are the servants of God Most High." "Therefore I beseech you:" "abide a little in my house." "Thy house... is very beautiful." "Philippi hath been a Roman colony for almost a hundred years." "We build our houses in the way of Rome." "Our houses in Palestine are different." "Poorer, whiter." "But as beautiful for me." "See:" "I already have a longing." "I beseech thee:" "accept my hospitality." "I am a widow and rich." "I own a purple works" "All this I lay at your feet to do whatsoever pleaseth you." "For the church, for the brethren." "For the faith you bring to the world." "If thou art faithful to the Lord, as we believe, thou thyself wilt do all that thou thinkest we should do for thee." "Excuse me." "I compare not thy wealth to my poverty." "I know very well they are both in the service of the Lord." "Furthermore," "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content therewith." "I know both how to be brought low, and I know how to abound." "Every where and in all things I am instructed... both to be full and to be hungry." "If thou art convinced that I am faithful to the Lord, accept my hospitality!" "The two magistrates ruling the city of Philippi... beseech you and desire you to depart in peace." "What doth departing in peace mean?" "Do they throw us out of the city?" "Or do they let us stay, if we will." "I told you they beseech you for what happened." "Is that not enough for thee?" "No, it is not." "For this is not the way to judge the justice of Rome, the famous justice of Rome!" "We have been publicly beaten." "We have been cast into prison without trial." "Only when we have proclaimed we are Romans, they beseech us." "But you ignored that two wandering Jews, citizens of the heavenly kingdom, were also citizens of Rome." "Only then the rulers beseech for their injustice." "As if just being men were not enough to have justice." "This woman sent a servant to succour us outside the prison." "She knoweth that true justice is in charity." "Greece hath been a Roman colony many years." "I hope I shall find enough dignity to refer your words to the two magistrates." "What shall we do now, Paul?" "We shall obey the rulers." "But you are Roman citizens." "They cannot do that!" "I know, thou speakest justly." "But if we stay, we shall do harm to you." "To you who are the first friends found, on the road of Europe." "Paul!" "Silas!" "Come with us to the shore." "We shall leave to thee a sign that cannot be erased." "How far is Athens?" "So far that thou mightest not reach her." "For the same reason wherefore Achilles never reached the turtle." "Let me explain to thee." "Let there be one hundred steps between Achilles and the turtle." "Achilles beginneth the race and runneth 50 steps." "Hence, Achilles hath run half of the ground dividing him from the turtle." "Then, he will run half of the half." "Then, half of the half of the half." "And so on." "And there will always be half of something between him and the turtle." "Thou hast understood nothing." "Therefore thou art not a sophist." "Nor a Greek." "For what dost thou go to Athens?" "I had a travel companion named Silas." "We parted at Berea." "He was certainly wiser than thou but less pleasant." "Let us walk together a little." "I have come hither, to Athens, with great anxiety." "This city full of knowledge hath drawn me, not resisting." "For here I can sow the truth better then elsewhere." "Therefore I have accepted to speak to you Athenians." "But first I will speak to you of charity." "If one should speak with the tongues of men and of angels," "and have not charity, he would become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." "More." "If one should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if he should have all faith, so that he could remove mountains, and have not charity, he is nothing." "And if one should distribute all his goods to the poor... and if he should deliver his body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth him nothing." "Charity is patient, charity is kind:" "it envieth not, charity dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up," "refuseth no service to the brethren." "Charity seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no coming evil:" "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but on the contrary rejoiceth with the truth:" "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." "Prophecies shall be made void, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall be destroyed." "But charity, charity never faileth away." "For now we know in part:" "and we prophesy in part." "But when perfect knowledge is come of God that which is in part shall be done away." "As I." "When I was a child," "I spoke as a child," "I thought as a child." "But, when I became a man," "I put away the things of a child." "He seemeth to reason well." "But I will warn you:" "as far as I know, he belongeth to a sect of the Jews affirming... that their God hath sent to world a saviour of mankind." "They call him Messias." "Some in our tongue call him Christ." "Which is the anointed of God." "Now, according to what they tell me," "The men of this sect affirm that flesh, our miserable, rotting flesh, will rise up one day after death." "They deny, they refuse to accept that for the immortal soul, beyond the death of the body, there should be oblivion." "Soon you will meet him at the Areopagus, where we have summoned him." "I shall not be there." "I will not account him worthy of my presence." "About the matter of the resurrection of the body, you must ask him, if he should not speak of it." "In these latter days, too many oriental religions have poisoned the minds of too many of our citizens." "Athenians," "I perceive that in all things you are the most religious of men." "In this city of yours, Athens, passing by and seeing your sacred monuments," "I found an altar also, on which was written:" "To the Unknown God." "That God that you worship without knowing Him, that I preach to you:" "He who made the world and all things therein, he being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." "Neither is he served with men's hands, as though he needed any thing." "He hath given to all life and breath" "This God hath made of one man all mankind, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth." "determining for each people appointed times and the limits of their habitation." "So that each man should seek God, if haply they may feel after him or find him." "God!" "Although He be not far from every man, for in him we live and move and are!" "And, as some also of your own poets said:" "For we are also his offspring." "Being therefore his offspring, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold silver the graving of art and device of man." "And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men that all should do penance." "Because he hath appointed a day wherein the world will be judged in equity." "by the man whom He," "He Himself, hath raised up from the dead, giving faith that it was He who sent him." "Yea!" "He hath raised him up from the dead!" "Thou hast revealed incredible things to us." "Which amaze us." "Dost thou take us for children?" "We never heard such things spoken." "A man was risen up from the dead." "Thus thou didst say, is it true?" "Yes." "Well, then!" "We will hear thee again concerning." "Having meditated well, we will speak again." "We shall not be weary of listening to thee." "I beseech thee, friend!" "What city is this?" "Corinth indeed!" "Then we have arrived!" "But from what village come you, not knowing Corinth?" "From Rome!" "I thank thee!" "Stop!" "You have no baggage?" "No, nothing." "Pass!" "From Rome?" "I think you are hiding something to me." "No, no, you are not Romans!" "Yes, we are Romans, but Jews, Roman Jews." "Jews?" "Jews and nothing more?" "A sailor told me there was an uproar in Rome... because of a certain Chrestus or Christus, a name like that, which also in Latin may mean fool." "But that is your business." "In this our inn, it is enough that you pay and none will meddle with you." "Therefore, if you have no money, or only have little, it doth not matter:" "have you an occupation at least?" "We are weavers." "We are tentmakers." "Good also!" "Well, well!" "We shall see!" "One last warning." "You look like you were newly married." "Well, think not that Corinth be a city of philosophers." "Corinth is a port." "And this is the worst quarter of the port." "Know how to behave." "Thanks." "Thanks." "Behold, those two are Jews." "He is one of yours: make room for him." "Peace be with you." "My name is Aquila." "This is Priscilla, my wife." "We have arrived at Corinth today." "We come from far away." "I come from Athens, but I departed from Jerusalem long ago." "It seemeth to me at least." "My name is Paul." "Paul?" "Which Paul?" "Paul of Tarsus?" "You know my name." "How can this be?" "You said that you come from far away." "From Rome, Paul." "There we had news of thee and of the gospel thou preachest in the world." "Then you are Christians!" "Christians of Rome!" "I thank thee, o Lord!" "Sit and share our bread." "Then we shall tell thee." "I do not know him who brought the gospel to Rome." "They say Peter, but I never saw him." "Thou knowest not Rome." "She is immense, she is Babylon." "And humble people like us know little of what happeneth outside her walls." "And, then not living in the Jewish quarter, when Claudius issued his edict, we were taken by surprise." "Yes, I was told of the edict." "But I do not understand." "What hath happened?" "The Roman have never persecuted us." "When the preaching of the gospel stirred ever more violent disputes among us, the imperial authority was troubled." "But the Romans understood not what was happening." "They made no distinction between the ones and the others." "They issued a edict commanding all Jews to leave." "Therefore, thou seest us here, in Corinth." "Hence, the same strife wherein I live day by day is renewed in Rome." "The people of Israel torn into two." "And all around the heathen caring not." "Why sayest that?" "Even thou?" "We call thee the apostle of the Gentiles." "I received signs, visions, enlightening, which have bid me to the Gentiles." "I have suffered mocking and beating." "Even my own brethren did not understand." "I have had super-abounding fruit, it is true." "Not only in Asia, but in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea..." "Yet... yet now..." "It seemeth I am not sufficient to the purpose that God hath given me." "Did I already tell you that I come from Athens?" "Athens!" "The seat of wisdom of the world." "How I desired to arrive thither to the Areopagus!" "It seemed natural to me that where Socrates and Plato lived, there the wisdom of God would be known." "Athens is the only city whence I was not cast out." "But it is the only city whence I left empty handed, brethren, like a beggar." "The wisdom of men rejected the wisdom of the cross." "Paul!" "Paul, what happeneth?" "I have had a vision." "The Lord hath appeared to me to tell me:" "Do not fear, but speak." "And hold not thy peace," "Because I am with thee and no man shall set upon thee, to hurt thee." "For I have much people in this city." "What meaneth this?" "Where is this "much people"?" "There is not, Paul." "Or at least I cannot see it." "I only see this:" "Poor people, imprisoned by avarice and poverty." "Aquila!" "And they that were troubled with unclean spirits... were cured." "And all the multitude sought to touch him:" "for virtue went out from him and healed all." "Art thou afraid?" "No." "And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said:" "Blessed are ye poor:" "for yours is the kingdom of God." "Blessed are ye that hunger now:" "for you shall be filled." "Blessed are ye that weep now:" "for you shall laugh." "Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake." "What happeneth tonight?" "Paul hath found his people of Corinth." "Be glad in that day and rejoice:" "for behold, your reward is great in heaven," "For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets." "But woe to you that are rich:" "for you have your consolation." "Woe to you that are filled:" "for you shall hunger." "Woe to you that now laugh:" "for you shall mourn and weep." "Woe to you when men shall bless you:" "for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets." "But I say to you that hear:" "Love your enemies." "Do good to them that hate you." "Bless them that curse you and pray for them that calumniate you." "Blessed art thou, God of Israel, because thou hast hid these things from the wise, and hast revealed them to the unwise." "Blessed be thou, people of Israel!" "And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other." "And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also." "Give to every one that asketh thee:" "and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again." "Judge not: and you shall not be judged." "Condemn not:" "and you shall not be condemned." "Forgive: and you shall be forgiven." "Give: and it shall be given to you." "Go and urge the last yonder." "Tell them that if they be cut from the company... they will be in danger to be fall among robbers." "I have never seen you." "Whence do you come?" "We come from Damascus." "If had known that I would happily meet thee here," "I would have come to these parts sooner." "Wantest thou my eggs?" "Surely." "I will pay thee a hundredfold their price, if thou wilt bring them to me tonight." "And wantest thou not my eggs?" "No, I want nothing." "Why wantest thou nothing?" "Art not thou a man like the others?" "Here my help is useful to all!" "In the day there is sun, burning heat, walking." "At night, when we wish to rest, there is always some one who preventeth us." "And then there are worms and all sorts of mice to keep one awake." "We must have patience, for only big companies protect one from robbers." "And these horrible mansions will make thy night calm enough." "For thy life and thy merchandise." "The life of a merchant is hard." "But we shall arrive soon." "Twenty more days." "We have passed through whole Anatolia." "Beyond those mountains there is the lonic shore: the Aegean Sea." "Hence we shall go up north, towards Macedonia." "Now, come with me." "Zacharias, hast thou precious merchandise?" "Linen from Galilee." "Dost thou sleep on it, lest some one steal it?" "Hast not thy Messias said that no man can serve two masters?" "God and mammon?" "How can thou still be a merchant?" "I was a merchant when I met the Lord:" "he did not tell me to change occupation." "He taught me to be honest." "Thus I earn the bread." "And dost thou not know that the law of Moses forbiddeth usury?" "If I lend my money to them in need," "I remove it from my business." "Thus thou earnest twentyfold and thirtyfold... than thou wouldst earn by thy traffic and with less danger." "Thou art such as to abuse... the affliction of the widows and the poor!" "Violating the law of God, thou behavest in thy occupation worse than the Greeks and the heathens!" "Another day hath passed." "Yes, and the toil to find food is always the same." "Who knoweth when the end of times will come?" "Maybe soon." "Many believe so." "They believe we shall see Jesus coming again to judge the living and the dead, announced by the heavenly trumpets, before our death." "Stop dreaming." "Let us go." "Why should I not believe it?" "We shall all be equal in the glory of God." "But when shall it come?" "It is said: the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night." "They are Phrygians." "When there is one of them in the company, in the evening they come to the lake to sacrifice an animal to their god, to the moon or to the sun." "Who knoweth whether they will know salvation in time?" "It is prescribed by the law:" "go to the synagogue of thy city and pray." "And if thou canst not do it, pray in thy field." "For us travellers the road is our field." "Let us then turn towards Jerusalem, and let us take up all together as brethren the prayer of our people." "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength." "And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart:" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." "Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come." "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." "Give us this day our daily bread;" "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." "And lead us not into temptation." "But deliver us from evil." "So be it." "If it be true that thou wert born in the rainy season, thou art a liar and thou shalt repent!" "The Pleiades have made a sign on thy mother's womb... and thou wilt have wealth, but it will be devoured by worms." "Laugh not, ye fools!" "I can bring evil upon his house." "When the Great Bear turneth towards the Taurus Mountains, take a tooth of the asp, and throw it behind thy back." "Otherwise thy children shall be the portions of foxes on the night of solstice." "Turn and look at the sky:" "What seest thou?" "Orion shineth." "Thou art handsome and lucky, shameless and stout." "For Orion bestoweth this upon his children." "It is not true at all:" "I saw it with my own eyes." "It shineth in the sky like a sun." "They saw a comet in Egypt:" "it meaneth famine." "The merchants are preparing wheat to send it to that country." "I bought a Cyprian handmaid in Thessalonica." "I took her to Jericho and the women of the house beat her." "Then it was made known that she was Jewish." "So now I have a handmaid with one eye only because of the stripes, whom I cannot sell because she is Jewish, because she saith that she was my concubine, and morover because she shaith I must pay her for the eye." "Hast thou understood well?" "One must never buy a handmaid, not being sure of her nation and faith." "I say to thee:" "against falling from horse, there is nothing like tying a fox tail between the beast's eyes." "It would take thee 500 years to go from earth to the first heaven, then 500 more to reach the second, then 500 again until the third." "And so on until seven." "For seven are the heavens, as all know." "I bought the crop still on tree." "The hail came and I lost the crop." "The judge judged me wrong." "Therefore I cannot return to Cappadocia." "What is it?" "What happeneth?" "Two camel drivers of the company are fist fighting." "Enough!" "Stop!" "Go away!" "Go back to the company!" "Go back to the company!" "Thou should not have provoked us." "But we only spoke of Paul of Tarsus." "Yes, your Paul." "It is eight years since he passed into Europe." "Dost thou think we know not?" "We know that he did nothing but preached that all men are brethren, that, if an enemy should offend thee, thou must forgive him." "But instead the Romans forgive not." "Thou shouldst know me well." "I fought Paul a long time ago, although he was a Jew like unto me, a convert to Christ like unto me." "Then I also believed that he departed too far from our own country, Sion, from our people, to carry the Messias unto others." "The Messias?" "But that indead was his treason." "A Messias for all, the same Messias that should have been the deliverer of our people." "And then you wonder at us rejecting him." "You understand not the intolerable conditions wherein we live." "When you began preaching your follies, Tiberius ruled in Rome, which seemed to be the worst that might happen to us." "Then came Caligula, Cladius, Nero!" "And it was ever worse." "Caligula gave us a king, Antipa, the ill-circumcised." "He died being eaten up by worms." "We have returned under governors, who are extortioners, corrupt, profane!" "Alexander worse then Pontius Pilate." "Cumanus who is worse than Alexander." "And now Felix." "The worst of all." "Nero hath reigned one year now, and we already know what to expect from him." "Meanwhile our promised land hath become the land of the dead." "Judas of Gamala," "Teudas the Egyptian, and all those who have rebelled and willed and known to fight, have been slaughtered with all their followers." "In the last rebellion only, 20,000 of us Jews were crucified." "And yet, we must continue to fight." "The kingdom of God is not of this world." "Shall we then cease?" "I know not, it is hard to say." "No, now you cannot pull back." "We are preparing the great rebellion with the Zealots." "We belong to the people of Israel." "We share the evils and the tears." "And it is in the faith of the Messias and not in weapons... that our people will have salvation." "But yours is not the Messias of Israel." "You are obstinate:" "I give counsel thee to stay away from Jerusalem." "The people are now ready to drive away the Romans... and suffer not them abiding who will not fight." "Yours is pure folly." "Where is the wise?" "Where is the scribe?" "Where is the disputer of this world?" "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" "For the world, by wisdom, knew not God." "It pleased God to save them that believe." "by the foolishness of our preaching." "For both the Jews require signs:" "and the Greeks seek after wisdom." "But we preach Christ crucified:" "unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness." "These are Paul's words." "I know them by heart." "Right now I have learned from one yonder that Paul of Tarsus is in Miletus." "On the other side of the lake." "Paul is not far hence, in Miletus." "Come with me." "I will that thou see him." "No, not I. Why should I?" "I will not come." "Going is useless." "Paul of Tarsus in on the other side of the lake, in Miletus." "Come!" "I will that thou speak to him." "No, I will not." "But I would that thou toldest him what thou didst say to me last night." "No, I will not see him." "If you really consider yourselves as Jews, behave yourselves as Jews, and think of our nation." "Thou oughtest tell him this." "I am passing through the lake." "I am going to Paul, to Miletus." "Thou take care of all." "We shall meet in Ephesus." "I shall see thee soon!" "I could not leave Miletus and Asia without seeing you for the last time." "You know from the first day that I came" "I have always testified to all, to Jews and Greeks, penance towards God and faith in Jesus." "And now," "I go to Jerusalem:" "not knowing the things which shall befall me." "I now for sure that you shall see my face no more." "Wherefore I called." "To tell you take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock." "wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops." "Ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock." "And of your own selves shall arise men speaking perverse things." "Therefore watch." "keeping in memory that for years, night and day," "I ceased not with tears to admonish every one of you." "Yes, Paul." "We shall keep it in memory." "But thus speaking, thou causest us to fear things to come." "Fear not!" "I commend you to God and his grace." "If you will be faithful and honest, you will not be lost." "I have not coveted any man's silver, gold or apparel." "I could have lived out of the alms of the church." "But I used not my power." "I willed not." "I worked." "Working with my hands, I provided for my needs." "You also, do as I did." "Labouring at the peril of your lives." "Support the poor, the weak." "Remember the words of Jesus, who said:" "It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive." "And then," "When you will be alone, troubled in your soul, and persecuted, invoke the presence of the Master, as I taught you." "Paul!" "Paul!" "I go back to Jerusalem." "Come with me!" "I will come!" "Take." "I am going with Paul." "My men are in a company going to Ephesus." "Go and find them and tell them that I follow Paul." "'Tis well." "Worry not." "I was in Syria, in Asia Minor, in Macedonia, and in Achaia." "And before all" "I testified the risen Messias." "In Asia and Greece there are many" "Gentiles who have accepted the gospel of Jesus." "Glory be to God!" "Also here in Jerusalem very many have accepted the word of Jesus." "But they are Jews." "And they are all zealous for the tradition of Moses." "Some of them accuse you of going to the synagogues in the cities of the Gentiles to cause departing from the traditions of the fathers." "This is not true." "We know that the Lord hath filled thee with blessings." "But I will speak with them who accuse me." "I will tell them that I came to Jerusalem to go up to the temple, nor I have ever spoken against Moses, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city." "None!" "None can prove the things whereof they accuse me." "I, Paul of Tarsus, reject such accusations." "I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets:" "Having hope in the promise that there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust." "Now after many years," "I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings of our brethren of the farthest churches." "Indeed Paul, it is not we who accuse thee." "I know." "We all know that thou art a just man." "But for the peace of our church, we beseech thee to give a public testimony... that thou hast not abandoned the law of Moses." "Four men have made a vow to come to the temple to sanctify themselves." "Go with them" "Shave thy head with them according to the law." "and bestow on them to pay the sacrifice at the temple." "And all will know that the things which they have heard of these are false but that thou thyself also walkest keeping the law, enriched by faith." "But I reject not to honour the Most High in the temple." "But you know to what danger I expose myself." "Yes." "Therefore we are uncertain and fear for thee." "However, I will do what you tell me." "But at the temple the Jews of the Council will know thee." "The Council hath not yet forgiven the insult thou didst offer to it." "It is true." "But I will go." "The peace of my brethren is more dear to me than my life." "But thou art Rabbi Saul of Tarsus!" "Yes." "Come." "Come!" "Israelites!" "This is that Saul who hath betrayed!" "He hath preached everywhere against our people!" "Against the law and against the temple!" "It is he:" "Saul of Tarsus!" "Let us kill him!" "Out of the temple!" "Scourge him!" "You cannot scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned." "Hast thou said that thou art Roman?" "Yea, I am Roman." "Many here in Jerusalem can testify." "I am from Tarsus." "And as a Roman citizen, I appeal to Caesar." "Of what do these Jews accuse thee?" "To profane the temple" "But I call God to witness" "Tomorrow thou shalt leave and be brought to Caesarea." "Governor Felix will judge." "Thou shalt be judged by Roman justice." "Away with him!" "Hast thou ever heard of that man?" "Yes, he is a Jew, he is Paul of Tarsus." "They lead them to Rome so that..." "If he had not appealed to Caesar, Festus the procurator would have freed him." "The message from Puteoli was sent by our brethren, the third day before the Nones, the day when he left." "He will not delay but come hither, to Rome." "It is likely that he came by boat from Terracina unto the Appii Forum." "Yes, right." "The road is usually flooded in this season." "Therefore, reckoning:" "Three days ago he should have left the Three Taverns, hence, he should have arrived yesterday." "If he come not today, tomorrow I will meet him." "What could have happened?" "Nothing: if the road is flooded, the canal is full of people." "For they must carry also the travellers, beside the merchandise." "This can explain his delay." "But I will meet him tomorrow." "I also am anxious to meet Paul." "I know that with him we'll have the same joy that we had when Peter was here." "Since when I heard the epistle that Paul sent us through Phebe the widow, telling us his desire to come unto us," "I am anxious to embrace him." "Even if a prisoner and a sick man, it will be he who giveth us comfort." "For we are powerless before this heathen city." "Maranatha." "Art thou Paul?" "Yes." "Our Lord is with us!" "My love in Christ Jesus is with you all." "I have travelled much before I arrived here." "I have come in chains, but it is the same Lord who hath lead me to you." "It is He who chooseth the time and moments." "I am guilty of no crime, except I gave testimony unto him." "And now," "I am here." "Our sect faceth opposition everywhere." "It is God who sendeth thee to Rome, Paul!" "Let us go." "This is the Capena gate." "We are going to the circus." "Come!" "In this city virtue hath been swallowed, drown in the exceeding riches that she hath hoarded." "Luxury hath fallen upon Rome as a curse." "It seems the revenge of the poor, simple and noble world that she has subdued." "Because of riches, avarice and ambition have increased." "And excessive luxury and thirst after dominion." "In this city there are 182 holidays per year." "And 300,000 portions of bread are distributed for free." "This is what profiteth." "It profiteth nothing, as my father saith, to have breathed in childhood the air from Aventinus, and to have eaten olives from Sabina." "And then, where are the Romans now?" "Behold!" "That maybe cometh from high Sicyon, that from Samo, and that again from Amidon." "They all come up against the Esquilinus, or the other hill, named after wickers." "They come to conquer the soul of great things and so to become masters." "Quick mind, shameless boldness, ready tongue." "Each is within himself all the works." "They can change the white into black... and can contract the cleaning of temples, rivers, ports, and sewers." "Indeed!" "They hoard money by carrying the dead to the fire and slaves to the market." "And they empty the purses of these crooked children of Romolus." "And thus in a little time they can afford to offer gladiatorial games." "And they condemn to death with thumb down to appear to be somebody." "They hoard more gold and live in vice." "Then they return home." "And the offspring of the richest rejoice." "Canst thou hear them?" "They all wish to speak Greek." "A Tuscan woman believeth not to be beautiful unless she be taken for Greek." "And one from Sulmo for a trueborn Athenian woman." "Modesty is dead." "My father also saith so." "He saith that modesty was dwelling on earth... when a cold cave gathered under the same shade... the fire, the lares, the flock, and the shepherd, while the mountain wife prepared with leaves and straw a couch like a wood." "and offered the swelling teats to the babes." "But now modesty is dead." "These fool men can neither see nor know God," "Who is always manifest in all." "Yet these men cannot see Him." "For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." "And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God... into the images of corruptible men, of birds, and of fourfooted beasts and of creeping things." "Their throat is an open sepulchre: their tongues have dealt deceitfully." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:" "Their feet swift to shed blood:" "For this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections." "I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart." "They seem very far, far away from God." "Yet He seeketh them one by one, so they also may be of his flock." "The will of my heart indeed and my prayer to God is for them unto salvation." "Thou must stay among us to enlighten us and lead us on the road of truth." "Behold, this is Rome!" "The most famous and powerful city in the world." "Whose citizens believe in iniquity." "And we ourselves once lived like as they do." "As idolaters, walking in lusts, in revellings, in banquetings." "Now they think it strange that we run not with them into the same riotousness:" "speaking evil of us." "They understand not what meaneth to seek in love the life of the immortal soul." "They understand not." "Neither my father understandeth." "And yet he is man of the days of old." "He complaineth because the Roman peasant now weareth transparent gowns." "But he understandeth not what I say." "Even his slaves laugh at me." "They understand not what meaneth to preach the gospel to the poor." "to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." "They know not that they are the poor, the captives, the blind and the bruised." "They know not what liberty meaneth." "Too many things they don't know or too many the things they can't understand." "They understand not that Jesus became obedient to his Father," "God, unto crucifixion of his own flesh." "And that we must dedicate the time of our mortal life... not to concupiscence but to doing God's will." "Indeed it is not easy." "Believe me." "Only now, and after so much time with him, I begin to understand something." "You say things which none of us had thought before." "Thou canst ask to stay out of the camp and dwell wheresoever thou wilt, with the only condition of a soldier that will keep thee at all times." "Ask for the custody by a soldier." "Can he ask for the custody by a soldier?" "Yes, he can." "We shall take care of your dwellings." "Hail!" "Behold Paul of Tarsus." "A Jew." "Judged at Caesarea by procurator Porcius Festus and sent to Rome." "And the papers of the trial?" "They were lost in a shipwreck three months ago, off Melita." "I was charged to refer to thee in word." "The prisoner was accused by other Jews." "Things pertaining to the Jews, not Rome." "I am a Roman citizen." "I have appealed to Caesar." "The prisoner was in the custody of centurion Julius." "And the centurion... hath charged me to tell thee this:" "This man hath done no evil." "He would be free, if he had not appealed to Caesar." "I ask for the custody by a soldier." "This can be granted to thee, but at the provided conditions:" "namely, thou must have a house wherein to dwell, and the money to pay for it." "Further, you must be tied to the soldier who will escort thee until the end." "Jerusalem!" "Jerusalem!" "Thou art like a hart crouching on the hills." "Thy name is like the blare of a trumpet, but sweet like the sound of the flutes." "It giveth me a great joy that thou shouldst go in pilgrimage to Jerusalem." "What will the course of thy ship be?" "Corinth, Thessalonica, and Troas." "If thou go to Troas, seek one named Carpus." "I left him a cloak." "Tell him to send it to me:" "it is cold in Rome." "The ship will travel as far as Miletus." "Then, we shall continue by land." "How well I know that road!" "Ephesus, Iconium," "Lystra." "Thou shalt find many people who will ask for news about me." "Tell them that I will write." "In the mean time tell them that I am in health, that I have lived almost two years in this lodging," "and the trial seemeth to be about to end favourably;" "that my captivity is sweet." "That will surprise them." "Who knoweth what they imagine!" "Surely they imagine not that I may receive whomsoever I will." "And that the Rome of the Caesars cometh up to my lodging." "Whence take you these things?" "From Caesar's storeroom?" "This is strange indeed:" "Some food cometh hither for all people passing through this lodging." "Eat that morsel of meat in peace." "It cometh not from an animal sacrificed to idols." "Yes, but it could come from a strangled animal." "We respect the law of thy people." "Eat in peace with us." "Eat!" "In Jerusalem they'll ask for news about my behaviour with the Jews of Rome." "Tell them the truth." "The ancients of the synagogue have come to the lodging since the first day." "Rememberest thou?" "They said:" "we have nothing against thee." "But they left as they had come:" "without believing." "Things have not changed." "Also here as everywhere, a great part of the people of Israel continueth to reject the Messias." "But ye, boast not!" "Who were the wild olive tree and were grafted into the Lord's olive." "You who bear not the root, but the root beareth you." "You will say then:" "The branches were broken off that we might be grafted in." "Well:" "because of unbelief the branches of Israel were broken off." "However, be not highminded, but fear." "For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps also he spare not thee." "For the gifts and the calling of God to Israel are without repentance." "Wait a moment more." "I shall give thee an epistle." "I have to finish to dictate." "Where were we?" "Know also this, that in the last days shall come dangerous times." "Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, ungrateful," "Having an appearance indeed of godliness but denying the power thereof." "For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears:" "And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables." "As for myself," "As for myself," "My blood is already being poured as a libation." "It is time for me to take up the anchor." "I have fought a good fight:" "I have finished my course:" "I have kept the faith." "Salute Aquila and Priscilla and the household of Onesiphorus." "Erastus remained at Corinth." "And Trophimus" "I left sick at Miletus." "Make haste to come before winter." "The Lord be with thy spirit."