Acts 15 - Plain English Version(PEV)

The church leaders had a meeting in Jerusalem

1At that time, some men came to Antioch from Judea country, and they started to teach the Christian men, “If you don’t have the young man operation that Moses wrote about, God will not save you. That operation is in our law.”

That’s all in God’s book.”

19And James kept on talking. He said, “I think we shouldn’t make it hard for people that are not Jews, when they turn to God.

20We have to write them a letter, to tell them not to worry about getting that young man operation. But we’ll tell them to follow just these rules,

– If somebody reckons that a statue is a god, and if they give food to that statue to show respect to it, don’t eat any of that food.

– And don’t sleep with somebody that you are not married to, as if they are your wife or husband.

– And if somebody holds an animal’s neck really tight to kill it, don’t eat its meat.

– And don’t eat the blood of animals.

21You see, every Saturday the Jewish people read the law of Moses out loud in their meeting houses, and this happens in all the towns where those people live. They have been doing that for a long time, and people that are not Jews have already heard those rules.”

The church leaders wrote to the Christians that are not Jews

22Then Jesus’s special workers, the church leaders, and all the Christians in Jerusalem picked 2 of their leaders to go with Paul and Barnabas, and take this news to the Christians in the city called Antioch, in Syria country. One man was Judas Barsabbas, and the other man was Silas.

23So the church leaders wrote a letter for them to take with them. They wrote,

“This letter is from Jesus’s special workers, and from the other church leaders in Jerusalem. We are writing to you Christian people that are not Jews, that live in Antioch, and in the rest of Syria country, and in Cilicia country. You are like brothers and sisters to us.

24Listen, we heard that some men from here went to you and told you things that worried you and upset you. But those things are not true. We didn’t send those men.

25So we met together and picked some messengers, and we are sending them with our good friends Barnabas and Paul.

26You know, Barnabas and Paul work for our leader Jesus Christ, and people tried to kill them for doing that.

27We are sending Judas and Silas with them, and they will tell you the same things that we are writing in this letter.

28The Holy Spirit told us that you don’t need to get that young man operation. And that’s what we think too. So we are telling you to just follow these rules,

–

29If somebody reckons that a statue is a god, and if they give food to that statue to show respect to it, don’t eat any of that food.

– And don’t eat the blood of animals.

– And if somebody holds an animal’s neck really tight to kill it, don’t eat its meat.

– And don’t sleep with somebody that you are not married to, as if they are your wife or husband.

Make sure you don’t do those things, and you will be all right.

That’s our message to you now.

Goodbye.”

30Then Judas and Silas went with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They called all the Christians there to come to a meeting, then they gave them the letter.

31Those Christians read that letter, and they were very happy.

32Judas and Silas were men that told God’s messages to people, and they talked a lot to those Christians. They helped them to be happy and to believe strongly in Jesus.

33After that, Judas and Silas left Antioch to go back to the church in Jerusalem. The Antioch Christians said to them, “We pray you will have a safe and happy trip.”

34-35But Paul and Barnabas stayed there in Antioch, and they kept on teaching the people the message from God about Jesus. And a lot of other Christians helped them do that too.

Paul and Barnabas stopped working with each other

36Some time later, Paul said to Barnabas, “You know all those towns we went to before, where we told the people the message about Jesus, well, let’s go back and find out if the Christians are all right.”

37Barnabas said, “Yes. And let’s take John Mark with us.”

38But Paul didn’t think that was a good idea. He said, “John Mark went with us before, but he didn’t stay with us. In Pamfilia country he left us and went home.”

39Paul and Barnabas didn’t agree with each other about John Mark, and they had a big argument. They got very upset with each other, so they each went a different way. Barnabas and John Mark got on a ship and went to the island called Cyprus.

40-41Paul picked Silas to go with him. The Antioch Christians asked God to look after Paul and Silas, then those 2 men left there and went through Syria and Cilicia countries. Paul talked to the Christians in every place, and he helped them be strong for Jesus.