¹⁷ If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church.^[a](A) If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.^(B)

¹¹ Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things.

³⁸ He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors.^(A) He received living oracles to give to us.^(B)

Saul the Persecutor

8 Saul agreed with putting him to death.

On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.^(A)

³ Saul,^(A) however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.^(B)

The Church’s Growth

³¹ So the church^(A) throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

²² News about them reached^[a] the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel^[b] as far as Antioch.

²⁶ and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples^(A) were first called Christians at Antioch.^(B)