“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and when he has become one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Now a certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the countryside. The soldiers pressed him into service, forcing him to carry Jesus' cross,
But there were some Cypriot and Cyrenian men among them who went to Antioch and began speaking to the Hellenists, preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus.
Now at the church in Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (who was called Niger), Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch), and Saul.
And when the meeting of the synagogue was dispersed, many of the Jews and the devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
(Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who dwelt there would spend their time in nothing else but talking about and listening to whatever the newest idea might be.)
There he found a Jew named Aquila, of Pontus by birth, who had recently come from Italy along with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them,
After spending some time there, he departed and went from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage, Paul, for as yoʋ have testified about me in Jerusalem, so yoʋ must also testify in Rome.”
When the brothers from Rome heard the news about us, they came out as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he gave thanks to God and took courage.
This proposal pleased the whole multitude, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, an Antiochean convert to Judaism.
But some men from the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), along with some of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some men from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and began to argue with Stephen.