Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali; The road by the Lake; the country beyond Jordan; Galilee of the Gentiles!

"Even the tax-gatherers do that, do they not? And if you show courtesy to your brother only, what are you doing more than others? Even the Gentiles do that, do they not?

"While praying do not say the same words over and over again, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that by their much speaking they will gain attention.

"For all these are things that the Gentiles are eagerly seeking; for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of them all.

These men, the Twelve, Jesus sent forth, after giving them the following instructions. "Do not go among the Gentiles, or enter any Samaritan town,

"And you will be taken before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

Behold my servant whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom my soul delights; I will breathe my spirit upon him, and he shall announce justice to the Gentiles.

And in his name shall the Gentiles hope.

"but if he will not heed the church, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax-gatherer.

"and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise from the grave."

but Jesus called them to him and said: "You know how the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole inhabited earth, for a testimony to the Gentiles, and then will come the end.

"See," said he, "we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be betrayed to the high priests and the Scribes. They will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles,

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers among the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make them feel their authority.

"A light for the unveiling of the Gentiles And the glory of thy people Israel."

"He will be betrayed to the Gentiles, and be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon;

"They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive among the Gentiles, and Jerusalem shall be trampled under foot by the Gentiles, until the appointed times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

and he said to them. "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have who have authority over them are called Benefactors.

"who saidest through the Holy Spirit, by the lips of thy servant David, our forefather. "Why did the Gentiles rage, And the peoples form futile plans?

"In this very city they did gather together against thy holy Servant, Jesus whom thou hast anointed??erod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and also the tribes of Israel??28 "to do all that thy power and thy will had predetermined should be done.

And all the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Gentiles also.

Now the apostles and the brothers that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God;

On hearing this they held their peace and glorified God, saying, "Forsooth then, to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life."

So Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly. "It was necessary," they said, "first to proclaim the word of God to you. But since you push it away from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

"For such is God's command to us, saying, "I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, That thou shouldest be for salvation to the uttermost part of the earth."

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who had been ordained to eternal life, believed.

In Iconium it happened that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great number both of Jews and of Gentiles believed.

But the disobedient Jews stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and embittered them against them against the brothers.

And when both the Gentiles and the Jews with their ruler made a hostile move to maltreat and to stone them,

On their arrival they assembled the church and reported all things that God had done through them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

So the church saw them off on their journey, and they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria. Here they set forth the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.

But certain men who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, but were now believers, stood up and said, "It is necessary to circumcise Gentile, and to order them to keep the Law of Moses."

and after there had been a long discussion, Peter rose and said: "Brothers, you know how a good while ago God made choice among you, that from my lips the Gentiles were to hear the message of the gospel and believe.

Then the whole assembly remained silent, and listened to Barnabas and Saul as they told the signs and wonders which God had wrought among the Gentiles through them.

"Brothers, listen to me. Symeon has told how God first looked graciously upon the Gentiles, to take out from among them a people to be called by his name.

"So that the rest of men may seek after the Lord, Even all the Gentiles, who are called by my name,

"My judgment therefore, is against troubling those who turn to God from among the Gentiles;

They took with them the following letter. "The apostles and older brothers send greeting to the Gentile Brotherhood throughout Antioch and Syria and Cilicia;

But as they opposed him and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, and said: "Your blood be upon your own hands. I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

He came to us, and taking Paul's girdle, he bound his own feet and hands, saying, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'so will the Jews at Jerusalem bind the owner of this girdle, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"

After saluting them Paul rehearsed, one by one, the things that God had done among the Gentiles by his ministry.

"Now what they have been told about you, again and again, is that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles, to forsake Moses, and not to circumcise their children, nor to follow the old customs.

"As for the Gentile believers, we wrote giving judgment that they should abstain from anything sacrificed to an idol, from blood, from what is strangled, and from fornication."

"Men of Israel, help! This is the man who goes everywhere preaching to everybody against the people, and the Law, and this place. And he has actually brought Gentiles even into the temple, and has desecrated the holy place."

"'Depart,' he said to me, 'for I will send you forth, far hence, to the Gentiles.'"

"'I will deliver you from the Jewish people, and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes

"but I proceeded to preach, first to those in Damascus, and then in Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they must repent and turn to God and do deeds worthy of repentance.

"how that the Christ must suffer, and how he should be the first to rise from the dead, and should bring a message of light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

"Be fully assured, therefore, that this salvation of God is now sent unto the Gentiles. They will listen to it."

It is through him, even Jesus Christ our Lord, that I received grace and apostleship to promote obedience to the faith among all the Gentiles, for his name's sake;

I want you to know, brothers, that many a time I have planned to come to you??hough until now I have been hindered??o as to have some harvest-fruit among you also, even as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

FOR I AM PROUD OF THE GOSPEL. IT IS GOD'S SAVING POWER FOR EVERY ONE WHO BELIEVES. FOR THE JEW FIRST, AND ALSO FOR THE GENTILE.

Anguish and calamity will be upon every soul of man who practices evil, upon the Jew first, and also upon the Gentile;

but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

For when Gentiles, who have no law, obey by natural instinct the commands of the Law, they even though they have no law, are a law to themselves.

For the name of God is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as the Scripture itself says.

What then? Are we Jews in a better position? Not at all, for I have already charged all, both Jews and Gentiles, with being under sin.

I mean a righteousness coming from God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe. For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile,

Is God then the God of the Jews alone, and not of the Gentiles also? He is God of the Gentiles also,

This is why righteousness is of faith, that it may be a free gift; so that the promise stands firm to all Abraham's posterity; not to his children of his faith. For in the sight of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead, and calls into being that which is not, Abraham is the father of us all both Jews and Gentiles,

Now such are we whom he has called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles.

What then shall we say? That Gentiles who never pursed righteousness have overtaken it, even the righteousness of faith?

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, because the same Lord Jesus is all over, and is rich unto all who call upon Him;

But I say, Did Israel not know? First Moses says. I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation; Against a Gentile nation, void of understanding, will I anger you.

I ask then, "Have they stumbled so as to fall?" No indeed; but by their lapse salvation has come unto Gentiles, "to provoke Israel to jealousy."

Now if their stumbling enriches the world, and their loss enriches the Gentiles, how much more must their fulness do!

For to you who are Gentiles I say that since I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry,

For I would not, my brothers, have you ignorant of this hidden truth, for fear that you become wise in your own conceits. that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles is come in.

and so that the Gentiles also should praise God for his mercy, as it is written, Therefore I will offer praise to thee among the Gentiles, And sing to thy name.

Or again, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.

Or again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, And let all the people extol him.

Or again, as Isaiah says. There shall be the root of Jesse, And he that arises to rule over the Gentiles; On him shall the Gentiles hope.

Still I have written unto you the more boldly, in part, by way of reminding you, because of that gift of grace which God bestowed upon me, in making me a priest of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles.

I act as priest of the gospel of God; so that the Gentiles, when offered before him, may be an acceptable sacrifice, because consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

For I will not dare to speak of any thing except that which Christ has done through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,

Yes, it has been made their good pleasure, and their debt, too. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual riches, they owe it to them also to minister to them the Jews in worldly goods.

but by all the churches among the Gentiles. Salute likewise the church that meets in their home. Salute Epaenetus, my dearly beloved, the first man in Roman Asia to believe in Christ.

but now has been brought to light, and by command of the eternal God made known to the Gentiles by the scriptures of the Prophets, so that the Gentiles might hold obedience of the faith.

Do not be a cause of stumbling either to Jews of to Gentiles, or to the church of God.

And we can see this, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

and had called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach his gospel among the Gentiles, without consulting a human being,

(I went up at that time in obedience to a revelation). And I laid before them the gospel which I am wont to preach among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those in authority, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

(for he who has equipped Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised, equipped me also for the apostleship to the Gentiles),

and when they recognized the grace which had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, then thought to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.

For until certain men came from James he used to eat with the Gentile Christians, but when they came, he began to draw back and to separate himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, in the presence of the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all. "If you, although you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you try to compel the Gentiles to become Jews?

"We are Jews by birth, and not 'Gentile sinners';

And the Scripture, anticipating God's justification of the Gentiles by faith, announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand in the words, In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed.

to the end that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

And in him, because you listened to the proclamation of the truth, the evangel of your salvation, and trusted it, you Gentiles too were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

And so God has given life to you Gentiles also, who were once dead in your trespasses and sins,

Do not forget then, that you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by the "circumcision" made in flesh by man's hand,

For he is our Peace, who has made the two of us Jew and Gentile one, and has broken down the party-wall of partition between us.

So he came preaching "Peace" to you Gentiles who were afar off, and "Peace" to us Jews who were near;

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles??2 for surely you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God entrusted to me for you?

namely, that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles form one body with us the Jews, and are coheirs and copartners in the promise, through the gospel.

To me, who am less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, that I should proclaim among the Gentiles the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ;

This then I tell you and implore you in the Master's name, to pass your lives no longer as the Gentiles do in the perverseness of their minds;

To them God willed to make known among the Gentiles how glorious are the riches of that secret truth, which is "Christ in you, the hope of glory."