¹ And God blesseth Noah, and his sons, and saith to them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth;

² and your fear and your dread is on every beast of the earth, and on every fowl of the heavens, on all that creepeth on the ground, and on all fishes of the sea -- into your hand they have been given.

³ Every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food; as the green herb I have given to you the whole;

⁴ only flesh in its life -- its blood -- ye do not eat.

⁵ `And only your blood for your lives do I require; from the hand of every living thing I require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother I require the life of man;

⁶ whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man is his blood shed: for in the image of God hath He made man.

⁷ And ye, be fruitful and multiply, teem in the earth, and multiply in it.'

⁸ And God speaketh unto Noah, and unto his sons with him, saying,

⁹ `And I, lo, I am establishing My covenant with you, and with your seed after you,

¹⁰ and with every living creature which [is] with you, among fowl, among cattle, and among every beast of the earth with you, from all who are going out of the ark -- to every beast of the earth.

¹¹ And I have established My covenant with you, and all flesh is not any more cut off by waters of a deluge, and there is not any more a deluge to destroy the earth.'

¹² And God saith, `This is a token of the covenant which I am giving between Me and you, and every living creature that [is] with you, to generations age-during;

¹³ My bow I have given in the cloud, and it hath been for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth;

¹⁴ and it hath come to pass (in My sending a cloud over the earth) that the bow hath been seen in the cloud,

¹⁵ and I have remembered My covenant which is between Me and you, and every living creature among all flesh, and the waters become no more a deluge to destroy all flesh;

¹⁶ and the bow hath been in the cloud, and I have seen it -- to remember the covenant age-during between God and every living creature among all flesh which [is] on the earth.'

¹⁷ And God saith unto Noah, `This [is] a token of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.'

¹⁸ And the sons of Noah who are going out of the ark are Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is father of Canaan.

¹⁹ These three [are] sons of Noah, and from these hath all the earth been overspread.

²⁰ And Noah remaineth a man of the ground, and planteth a vineyard,

²¹ and drinketh of the wine, and is drunken, and uncovereth himself in the midst of the tent.

²² And Ham, father of Canaan, seeth the nakedness of his father, and declareth to his two brethren without.

²³ And Shem taketh -- Japheth also -- the garment, and they place on the shoulder of them both, and go backward, and cover the nakedness of their father; and their faces [are] backward, and their father's nakedness they have not seen.

²⁴ And Noah awaketh from his wine, and knoweth that which his young son hath done to him,

²⁵ and saith: `Cursed [is] Canaan, Servant of servants he is to his brethren.'

²⁶ And he saith: `Blessed of Jehovah my God [is] Shem, And Canaan is servant to him.

²⁷ God doth give beauty to Japheth, And he dwelleth in tents of Shem, And Canaan is servant to him.'

²⁸ And Noah liveth after the deluge three hundred and fifty years;

²⁹ and all the days of Noah are nine hundred and fifty years, and he dieth.

¹ And certain having come down from Judea, were teaching the brethren -- `If ye be not circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye are not able to be saved;'

² there having been, therefore, not a little dissension and disputation to Paul and Barnabas with them, they arranged for Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of them, to go up unto the apostles and elders to Jerusalem about this question,

³ they indeed, then, having been sent forward by the assembly, were passing through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the nations, and they were causing great joy to all the brethren.

⁴ And having come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly, and the apostles, and the elders, they declared also as many things as God did with them;

⁵ and there rose up certain of those of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying -- `It behoveth to circumcise them, to command them also to keep the law of Moses.'

⁶ And there were gathered together the apostles and the elders, to see about this matter,

⁷ and there having been much disputing, Peter having risen up said unto them, `Men, brethren, ye know that from former days, God among us did make choice, through my mouth, for the nations to hear the word of the good news, and to believe;

⁸ and the heart-knowing God did bare them testimony, having given to them the Holy Spirit, even as also to us,

⁹ and did put no difference also between us and them, by the faith having purified their hearts;

¹⁰ now, therefore, why do ye tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

¹¹ but, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe to be saved, even as also they.'

¹² And all the multitude did keep silence, and were hearkening to Barnabas and Paul, declaring as many signs and wonders as God did among the nations through them;

¹³ and after they are silent, James answered, saying, `Men, brethren, hearken to me;

¹⁴ Simeon did declare how at first God did look after to take out of the nations a people for His name,

¹⁵ and to this agree the words of the prophets, as it hath been written:

¹⁶ After these things I will turn back, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, that is fallen down, and its ruins I will build again, and will set it upright --

¹⁷ that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the nations, upon whom My name hath been called, saith the Lord, who is doing all these things.

¹⁸ `Known from the ages to God are all His works;

¹⁹ wherefore I judge: not to trouble those who from the nations do turn back to God,

²⁰ but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;

²¹ for Moses from former generations in every city hath those preaching him -- in the synagogues every sabbath being read.'

²² Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, chosen men out of themselves to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas -- Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren --

²³ having written through their hand thus: `The apostles, and the elders, and the brethren, to those in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, brethren, who [are] of the nations, greeting;

²⁴ seeing we have heard that certain having gone forth from us did trouble you with words, subverting your souls, saying to be circumcised and to keep the law, to whom we did give no charge,

²⁵ it seemed good to us, having come together with one accord, chosen men to send unto you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul --

²⁶ men who have given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ --

²⁷ we have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, and they by word are telling the same things.

²⁸ `For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, no more burden to lay upon you, except these necessary things:

²⁹ to abstain from things offered to idols, and blood, and a strangled thing, and whoredom; from which keeping yourselves, ye shall do well; be strong!'

³⁰ They then, indeed, having been let go, went to Antioch, and having brought the multitude together, did deliver the epistle,

³¹ and they having read, did rejoice for the consolation;

³² Judas also and Silas, being themselves also prophets, through much discourse did exhort the brethren, and confirm,

³³ and having passed some time, they were let go with peace from the brethren unto the apostles;

³⁴ and it seemed good to Silas to remain there still.

³⁵ And Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming good news -- with many others also -- the word of the Lord;

³⁶ and after certain days, Paul said unto Barnabas, `Having turned back again, we may look after our brethren, in every city in which we have preached the word of the Lord -- how they are.'

³⁷ And Barnabas counseled to take with [them] John called Mark,

³⁸ and Paul was not thinking it good to take him with them who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and did not go with them to the work;

³⁹ there came, therefore, a sharp contention, so that they were parted from one another, and Barnabas having taken Mark, did sail to Cyprus,

⁴⁰ and Paul having chosen Silas, went forth, having been given up to the grace of God by the brethren;

⁴¹ and he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the assemblies.