Acts of the Apostles 3

¹ Once, when Peter and John were going up to the Temple for the prayers at the ninth hour,[*a]

² it happened that there was a man being carried past. He was a cripple from birth; and they used to put him down every day near the Temple entrance called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from the people going in.

³ When this man saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple he begged from them.

⁴ Both Peter and John looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us’.

⁵ He turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them,

⁶ but Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!’

⁷ Peter then took him by the hand and helped him to stand up. Instantly his feet and ankles became firm,

⁸ he jumped up, stood, and began to walk, and he went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God.

⁹ Everyone could see him walking and praising God,

¹⁰ and they recognised him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were all astonished and unable to explain what had happened to him.

¹¹ Everyone came running towards them in great excitement, to the Portico of Solomon, as it is called, where the man was still clinging to Peter and John.

¹² When Peter saw the people he addressed them, ‘Why are you so surprised at this? Why are you staring at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or holiness?

¹³ You are Israelites, and it is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant[*b] Jesus, the same Jesus you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after Pilate had decided to release him.

¹⁴ It was you who accused the Holy One, the Just One, you who demanded the reprieve of a murderer

¹⁵ while you killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses;

¹⁶ and it is the name of Jesus which, through our faith in it, has brought back the strength of this man whom you see here and who is well known to you. It is faith in that name that has restored this man to health, as you can all see.

¹⁷ ‘Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing;

¹⁸ this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.

¹⁹ Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,

²⁰ and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then he will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus,

²¹ whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets.

²² Moses, for example, said: The Lord God will raise up a prophet like myself for you, from among your own brothers; you must listen to whatever he tells you.

²³ The man who does not listen to that prophet is to be cut off from the people.[*c]

²⁴ In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onwards, have predicted these days.

²⁵ ‘You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with our ancestors when he told Abraham: in your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.[*d]

²⁶ It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.’