Acts 3
1 [One day] Peter and John were going to the Temple [courtyard]. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, which was the time when people prayed [there publicly].
One day, as Peter and John were going up into the Temple Courts for the three o’clock Prayers, a man, who had been lame from his birth, was being carried by.
2 There was a man there who had been lame from the time he was born. He [was sitting by] the gate called Beautiful [Gate], at the entrance to the Temple [area]. People put him there every day, so that he could ask those who were entering [or leaving] the temple courtyard to give him some money.
This man used to be set down every day at the gate of the Temple called ‘the Beautiful Gate,’ to beg of those who went in.
3 As Peter and John were about to enter [the Temple courtyard], the lame man saw them and asked them several times to give him some money. (OR, The lame man said to them several times, “Please give me some money!”)
Seeing Peter and John on the point of entering, he asked them to give him something.
4 As Peter and John looked directly at him, Peter said to him, “Look at us!”
Peter fixed his eyes on him, and so did John, and then Peter said: “Look at us.”
5 So he looked directly at them, expecting to get some [money] from them.
The man was all attention, expecting to get something from them;
6 Then Peter said to him, “I do not have any money [MTY], but what I [can do], I will [do] for you. Jesus Christ, [who was] from Nazareth [town], has authorized [MTY] me [to heal you! So get up and] walk!”
but Peter added: “I have no gold or silver, but I give you what I have. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I bid you walk.”
7 Then Peter grasped the man’s right hand and helped him to stand up. Immediately the man’s feet and ankles became strong.
Grasping the lame man by the right hand, Peter lifted him up. Instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong,
8 He jumped up and began to walk! Then he entered the Temple [area] with them, walking and leaping and praising God!
and, leaping up, he stood and began to walk about, and then went with them into the Temple Courts, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
9 All the people [there] saw that man walking and praising God.
All the people saw him walking about and praising God;
10 They recognized that he was the man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate in the Temple [courtyard] and ask [people] for money! So all the people there were greatly amazed at what had happened to him.
and, when they recognised him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, they were utterly astonished and amazed at what had happened to him.
11 As the man clung to Peter and John, all the people were so surprised [that they did not know what to think] So they ran to the two apostles at the place [in the Temple courtyard] that is called {that [people] call} Solomon’s Porch.
While the man still clung to Peter and John, the people all quickly gathered round them in the Colonnade named after Solomon, in the greatest astonishment.
12 When Peter saw that, he said to the crowd, “Fellow Israelites, (you should not be surprised about what has happened to this man!/why are you so surprised about what has happened to this man?) [RHQ] And you should not stare at us, either! You seem to [RHQ] think that the two of us enabled this man to walk because we [(exc)] ourselves are powerful or because we please God very much!
On seeing this, Peter said to the people: “Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? and why do you stare at us, as though we, by any power or piety of our own, had enabled this man to walk?
13 [So I will tell you what is really happening]. Our ancestors, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, worshipped God. And now he has greatly honored Jesus, who always served him. Your [leaders] brought Jesus [to the governor, Pilate], so that [his soldiers would kill him]. And [God considers that] in front of Pilate you [were the ones who rejected] Jesus [as your king], after Pilate had decided that he should release Jesus.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has done honour to his Servant Jesus — him whom you gave up and disowned before Pilate, when he had decided to set him free.
14 [Although Jesus] always did what was right/just and good, you rejected him. [Pilate wanted to release him, but] you urgently asked Pilate to release (a murderer/someone who had killed people)!
You, I say, disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for the release of a murderer!
15 [God considers that] you killed [Jesus], the one who gives people [eternal] life. But God has greatly honored him (by causing him to become alive again after he died/by raising him from the dead). Many of us saw [him after that, and now] we [(exc)] are telling [you] about it.
The very Guide to Life you put to death! But God raised him from the dead — and of that we are ourselves witnesses.
16 It is because [we two] trusted in what Jesus [MTY, PRS] [could do, that he] made this man, whom you see and know, strong again. Yes, it is because we [(exc)] trusted in Jesus that he has completely healed this man for all of you to see.”
And it is by faith in the Name of Jesus, that this man, whom you all see and know, has — by his Name — been made strong. Yes, it is the faith inspired by Jesus that has made this complete cure of the man, before the eyes of you all.
17 “Now, my fellow-countrymen, I know that you and your leaders did that [to Jesus] because you [and they] did not know [that he was the Messiah].
And yet, my Brothers, I know that you acted as you did from ignorance, and your rulers also.
18 However, [your putting him to death] was what God had predicted that people would do. [Long ago] he told all the prophets [MTY] to write [what people would do to the Messiah. They wrote] that the Messiah, whom God [would send], would suffer [and die].
But it was in this way that God fulfilled all that he had long ago foretold, as to the sufferings of his Christ, by the lips of all the Prophets.
19 So, turn away from your sinful behavior and ask God [to help you] do what pleases [him], in order that he may completely forgive you for your sins.
Therefore, repent and turn, that your sins may be wiped away; so that happier times may come from the Lord himself,
20 [If you do that], there will be times [when you will know that] the Lord [God is] helping [you]. And some day he will [again] send back [to earth] the Messiah, whom he appointed for you. That person is Jesus.
and that he may send you, in Jesus, your long-appointed Christ.
21 Jesus must stay in heaven until the time when God will cause all that he has created to become new. Long ago God promised [to do that, and] he chose holy prophets to tell [that to people]. (aiōn g165)
But Heaven must be his home, until the days of the Universal Restoration, of which God has spoken by the lips of his holy Prophets from the very first. (aiōn g165)
22 For [example, the prophet] Moses said [this about the Messiah]: ‘The Lord (your God/the God whom you [worship]) will cause someone to become a prophet to tell you [God’s message. God will send him] as [he sent] me, [and he will be] from among your own people. You must listen to everything that this prophet tells you [and obey him] [SYN].
Moses himself said — ‘The Lord your God will raise up from among your brothers a Prophet, as he raised me. To him you will listen whenever he speaks to you.
23 [Those who] do not listen to [that prophet and obey] him will no longer belong to God’s people, and [God] will get rid of them’.”
And it shall be that should any one among the people not listen to that Prophet, he will be utterly destroyed.’
24 [Peter continued], “All the prophets have told [about what would happen during] the time [MTY] [in which we(inc) are living. Those prophets include] Samuel [and all the others who] later also spoke [about these events] before they happened.
Yes, and all the Prophets from Samuel onwards, and all their successors who had a message to deliver, told of these days.
25 You [as well as we(exc)] are the people [to whom God sent the Messiah, as] the prophets said [MTY] [that he would]. And when God strongly promised [to bless] our ancestors, he also surely promised to bless you. He said to Abraham [concerning the Messiah], ‘[I] will bless all people on the earth as a result of [what] your descendant [will do].’”
You yourselves are the heirs of the Prophets, and heirs, too, of the Covenant which God made with your ancestors, when he said to Abraham — ‘In your descendants will all the nations of the earth be blessed.’
26 [Peter concluded], “[So] when God sent [to the earth] (Jesus, the one who always obeys him/his servant Jesus), he sent him first to you [Israelites] to bless you. [God will] enable you to stop doing what is wicked [and to start doing what pleases him].”
For you, first, God raised up his Servant, and sent him to bless you, by turning each one of you from his wicked ways.”
