90 Fun Facts About Book of Acts

At which festival, with Jews 'from every nation under heaven' in Jerusalem, did the Holy Spirit fill the disciples?

Pentecost was the morning some onlookers decided the disciples had 'had too much wine', and Peter's reply was that it was only nine o'clock. The sound was 'like the blowing of a violent wind'.

What, in Acts 2, 'separated and came to rest on each of' the disciples after a violent wind filled the house?

Tongues of fire is the picture Acts gives, and at once the Galileans were speaking languages understood by Parthians, Medes, Egyptians, Cretans, Arabs and visitors from Rome.

Who was chosen by lot over Joseph called Barsabbas to replace Judas among the Twelve, in Acts 1?

Matthias won the lot before a group 'numbering about a hundred and twenty', the only qualification being to have been with Jesus from John's baptism to the day he was taken up.

Which field, where Acts says Judas 'fell headlong' and his body burst open, was bought with his reward for betrayal?

Akeldama, 'Field of Blood', gets a different origin in Matthew, where Judas hangs himself and the priests buy the field with the returned silver as a burial ground for foreigners.

Which wife in Acts 5 dropped dead at Peter's feet three hours after her husband, both having lied about a land sale?

Sapphira had 'full knowledge' that her husband Ananias kept back part of the money, and Peter told her the feet of the men who had just buried him were at the door. 'Great fear seized the whole church.'

Which of the Seven chosen to wait on tables, his face 'like the face of an angel', became the first Christian martyr?

Stephen died praying 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them', while the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who approved of the killing.

What does Acts 9 say fell from Saul's eyes when Ananias laid hands on him, ending three days of blindness in Damascus?

Something like scales fell away and Saul 'got up and was baptized', after Ananias had protested to the Lord that this was the man with authority to arrest everyone who called on the name.

In which city were followers first called Christians, after Barnabas fetched Saul to teach there for a whole year?

Antioch heard the name first, and the same church sent famine relief to Judea by Barnabas and Saul and later set the pair apart for the first missionary journey.

What happened to King Herod when a crowd hailed his speech as 'the voice of a god, not of a man'?

He was eaten by worms and died, struck by an angel 'because Herod did not give praise to God'; Josephus dates this king's sudden death to AD 44 and adds that he had just seen an owl, an ill omen.

On which island, whose people 'showed us unusual kindness', was Paul's ship wrecked after fourteen nights adrift?

Malta kept the castaways three months, until an Alexandrian ship that had wintered there sailed for Italy by way of Syracuse and Rhegium.

Which prophet's line 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people' did Peter quote to explain what the crowd was hearing?

Joel supplied the text, with its 'sons and daughters will prophesy' and a sun turned to darkness, and Peter's sermon ended with about three thousand people being baptized that day.

At which temple gate did Peter heal a man lame from birth, telling him 'Silver or gold I do not have'?

Beautiful was where the beggar had been carried every day, and the healed man went into the temple courts 'walking and jumping, and praising God'; he was over forty years old.

Which teacher of the law talked the Sanhedrin out of killing the apostles, citing the failed rebels Theudas and Judas?

Gamaliel is the teacher Paul later claims in Acts 22 to have studied under, and his advice got the apostles flogged and released rather than killed.

What did the sick, laid on mats in the streets of Jerusalem, hope would fall on them as Peter passed by?

His shadow was enough of a hope for people to bring the sick into the streets, at a time when 'no one else dared join' the believers meeting in Solomon's Colonnade.

Which word for buying church office comes from the Samaritan sorcerer who offered Peter money for the Spirit in Acts 8?

Simony takes its name from Simon Magus, whom Peter told 'May your money perish with you'; the sorcerer had earlier been hailed in Samaria as 'the Great Power of God'.

Which prophet was the Ethiopian treasury official reading aloud in his chariot when Philip ran up on the Gaza road?

Isaiah's 'led like a sheep to the slaughter' was the passage, and after Philip explained it the official was baptized in roadside water and 'went on his way rejoicing'.

On which Damascus street, at the house of Judas, was Ananias sent to find Saul, blind and at prayer?

Straight Street survives as the old decumanus maximus, the main east-west Roman road of Damascus, and Acts adds that Saul had by then gone three days without food or drink.

Which disciple in Joppa, 'always doing good', did Peter raise from the dead as widows showed the robes she had made?

Tabitha, whose Greek name Dorcas likewise means 'gazelle', was raised after Peter sent everyone out of the upstairs room, knelt, and said 'Tabitha, get up'.

Which centurion of the Italian Regiment at Caesarea was told by an angel to send to Joppa for Peter?

Cornelius is counted by some as the first Gentile convert, and the Spirit fell on his whole household while Peter was still speaking, before anyone had been baptized.

What did Peter see let down from heaven by its four corners while hungry on a rooftop in Joppa?

A large sheet full of 'four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds' came with the command to kill and eat, and the voice answered Peter's refusal: 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'

Which prophet tied his own hands and feet with Paul's belt at Caesarea to act out the arrest awaiting him in Jerusalem?

Agabus had earlier predicted 'through the Spirit' a severe famine across the whole Roman world, and Paul answered the belt sign that he was ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem.

Which apostle, brother of John, did King Herod put to death with the sword in Acts 12 before moving to seize Peter?

James was killed 'with the sword', and when Herod 'saw that this met with approval among the Jews' he seized Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

Which servant girl, overjoyed to hear Peter's voice at the door after his escape, ran back without opening it?

Rhoda was told 'You're out of your mind', and when she kept insisting the people praying in the house decided 'It must be his angel' while Peter kept on knocking.

To which island, the home of Barnabas, did Paul and Barnabas sail from Seleucia to open the first missionary journey?

Cyprus was crossed from Salamis to Paphos, where the proconsul Sergius Paulus believed, and it is the island Barnabas sailed back to after his later split with Paul.

Which sorcerer did Paul strike blind 'for a time' for trying to turn the proconsul Sergius Paulus from the faith?

Elymas, also called Bar-Jesus, was told 'you are a child of the devil', and the mist that fell on him so impressed the proconsul that he believed; in that scene Saul is first called Paul.

Which god did a Lycaonian crowd take Paul for, 'because he was the chief speaker', while hailing Barnabas as Zeus?

Hermes got the title because the crowd had just watched Paul heal a man lame from birth, and the priest of Zeus arrived with bulls and wreaths before the two apostles tore their clothes in protest.

In which Lycaonian city was Paul stoned, dragged out and left for dead, only to get up and walk back in?

Lystra was where a crowd that had wanted to sacrifice to him was won over by Jews from Iconium; the next day Paul left for Derbe, and on a later visit he recruited a young disciple there.

Which helper, who had deserted them in Pamphylia, caused Paul and Barnabas to disagree so sharply that they parted?

Mark was the son of Mary, in whose Jerusalem house the church had prayed for Peter, and Barnabas took him to sea while Paul chose a new partner and went overland.

Which prophet, carrier of the Jerusalem council's letter, did Paul choose as his partner for the second journey?

Silas is the man beside Paul in the Philippi jail at midnight, and Paul's letters call him Silvanus; Acts names him one of two 'leaders among the believers' sent with the council's decision.

Which disciple, son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father, did Paul circumcise before taking him along on the road?

Timothy was circumcised 'because of the Jews who lived in that area', who all knew his father was Greek, and the believers of two towns had spoken well of him before Paul took him.

Which region did the man in Paul's night vision at Troas beg him to 'come over' to, taking the gospel into Europe?

Macedonia was the answer after the Spirit had twice blocked the party, from preaching in the province of Asia and from entering Bithynia, and the narrative switches to 'we' at this point.

Which purple-cloth dealer from Thyatira, baptized with her household at Philippi, persuaded Paul to stay at her house?

Lydia is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe, and after Paul's release from the city jail it was to her house that he went before leaving town.

What burst open every door of the Philippi jail at midnight as Paul and a companion sang hymns to God?

An earthquake so violent that 'the foundations of the prison were shaken' loosed everyone's chains, and the jailer was about to kill himself, thinking the prisoners had escaped, before being baptized that same night.

In which city did Jews 'of more noble character' than those in Thessalonica examine the Scriptures daily to test Paul?

Berea is today's Veria in northern Greece, and the agitators from Thessalonica soon followed Paul there, so the believers hurried him to the coast while his companions stayed behind.

What inscription did Paul say he had found on an Athenian altar, in his speech to the Areopagus?

To an unknown god was the text Paul used to introduce 'the God who made the world', and the speech ended with sneers at the resurrection, though a member of the Areopagus and a woman named Damaris believed.

Which two schools of philosophers debated Paul in the Athens marketplace, some calling him a 'babbler'?

Epicureans and Stoics heard Paul as 'advocating foreign gods' because he preached 'Jesus and the resurrection', and Acts notes that Athenians spent their time on nothing but the latest ideas.

What trade did Paul share with Aquila and Priscilla, the couple arrived from Italy whom he lodged with in Corinth?

Tentmaking let Paul pay his own way, as he told the Ephesian elders 'these hands of mine have supplied my own needs', and the couple later sailed with him as far as Ephesus and stayed there.

Which proconsul of Achaia dismissed the Jews' case against Paul in Corinth as 'questions about words and names'?

Gallio's name on a letter of the emperor found at Delphi, dated 52 CE, is the anchor for dating Paul's life; the crowd then beat the synagogue leader in front of him and 'Gallio showed no concern whatever'.

Which emperor 'ordered all Jews to leave Rome', which is why Aquila and Priscilla were in Corinth when Paul arrived?

Claudius's expulsion is also recorded by the Roman historian Suetonius, who ties it to disturbances 'at the instigation of Chrestus', and Acts earlier dates a famine foretold by a prophet to the same emperor's reign.

Which Alexandrian Jew, who 'knew only the baptism of John', did Priscilla and Aquila take aside in Ephesus to teach?

Apollos went on to Corinth, where Paul's first letter to that church names him as an important figure, and Acts says he 'vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate'.

Which goddess's name did an Ephesian mob chant for about two hours in the theater, stirred up by a silversmith?

Artemis of the Ephesians had a temple counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and the riot began because Paul's preaching threatened the trade in silver shrines of the goddess.

What fastened on Paul's hand as he fed a brushwood blaze, making the islanders who watched call him a murderer?

A viper, 'driven out by the heat', hung from his hand until Paul shook it off into the flames; when he neither swelled up nor dropped dead, the islanders changed their minds and called him a god.

To whom did Paul appeal when Festus proposed a trial in Jerusalem, settling that he would be sent on to Rome?

Caesar was Paul's choice, in the words 'I appeal to Caesar!', and it was binding: Festus was later told 'This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar'.

Which companion of Paul, 'the doctor' of Colossians, is by tradition the author of Acts and its 'we' passages?

Luke's Gospel and Acts together make up about a quarter of the New Testament, the largest share credited to one author, and both books open with a dedication to a Theophilus.

Which young man, seated in a window at Troas, fell dead from the third story as Paul 'talked on and on'?

Eutychus means 'fortunate' in Greek, and Paul threw himself on the body, declared 'He's alive!', went back upstairs, broke bread and kept talking until daylight.

Which governor, hearing Paul with his Jewish wife Drusilla, kept him at Caesarea two years hoping for a bribe?

Felix 'was afraid' when Paul spoke of righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, and when he left office two years later he left Paul in prison 'to grant a favor to the Jews'.

Which king, beside Bernice at Caesarea, asked if Paul thought he could 'in such a short time' make him a Christian?

Agrippa, the last ruler of the Herodian dynasty, heard Paul wish that everyone listening might become 'what I am, except for these chains', and privately agreed he had done nothing deserving death.

Seven sons of which chief priest were beaten in Ephesus by a possessed man they tried to exorcise in Jesus' name?

Sceva's sons were answered 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?' before fleeing naked and bleeding, after which former sorcerers burned scrolls worth fifty thousand drachmas.

Which Areopagus member became a follower of Paul after the Athens speech and is by tradition the city's first bishop?

Dionysius is 'sometimes counted as the second' bishop, after Hierotheus, and Acts pairs him with 'a woman named Damaris' among the few converts Paul won in Athens.

Which 2nd-century bishop of Lyon is the first writer known to have used the title 'Acts of the Apostles' for the book?

Irenaeus may have coined the name: the Greek word for 'acts' appears only once in the book, and there it refers to deeds confessed by believers, not to anything the apostles did.

Which saying of Jesus, absent from all four Gospels, does Paul quote in his farewell to the Ephesian elders?

It is more blessed to give than to receive is missing from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Acts 20:35 is its only source. Paul calls it 'the words the Lord Jesus himself said' after noting he had worked with his own hands to support himself.

Which twin gods were the figurehead of the Alexandrian ship that took Paul on from the island where he was wrecked?

Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, were the sailors' patron gods, so Luke's detail has the apostle carried to Italy under pagan protectors. The ship had wintered in the island's harbour for three months before it sailed.

Which items that had merely touched Paul were carried to the sick, curing them and expelling evil spirits, in Acts 19?

Handkerchiefs and aprons, the sweat-cloths and work aprons of a craftsman, became relics while their owner was still alive, in miracles Acts 19 calls 'extraordinary'. Luke adds that the evil spirits left the sick as well.

Hearing Paul speak Greek after rescuing him from a temple riot, the Roman commander admitted he had taken him for whom?

An Egyptian rebel leader who had led 'four thousand terrorists' into the wilderness was the commander's guess; Paul replied that he was a Jew from Tarsus, 'a citizen of no ordinary city', and asked to address the crowd.

Which relative of Paul overheard the plot to ambush him in Jerusalem and carried the warning into the Roman barracks?

His sister's son is the only relative of Paul to appear in Acts, and he surfaces for this single errand. The commander responded by moving Paul out of the city under a heavy night escort.

What name does Acts 9 give the movement whose members Paul, then still a persecutor, got letters to arrest abroad?

The Way is what Acts calls the movement before anyone had coined the word Christian, and the label recurs in chapters 19, 22 and 24. The letters were addressed to the synagogues of Damascus.

What did Governor Festus shout at Paul in the middle of his defence, blaming the apostle's 'great learning'?

You are out of your mind was Festus's verdict on Paul's account of the resurrection, and Paul's reply was that what he said was 'true and reasonable'. He then asked the king beside Festus whether he believed the prophets.

What did a band of Jerusalem conspirators swear to forgo until they had killed Paul, in the plot Acts 23 describes?

Food and drink were sworn off by more than forty men, who asked the Sanhedrin to lure Paul to a hearing so they could kill him on the way. The vow presumably lapsed once Paul left for the coast under guard.

Which party, says an aside in Acts 23, holds that 'there are neither angels nor spirits' and no resurrection?

The Sadducees' denial of resurrection let Paul split the Sanhedrin: by declaring himself a Pharisee on trial 'because of the hope of the resurrection', he set the two parties shouting at each other.

Acts 1:8 lays out the book's whole plan: witnesses in Jerusalem, then in the neighbouring provinces, and finally where?

To the ends of the earth is the last stage of a programme the book then follows chapter by chapter, ending with Paul preaching in the empire's capital. The promise comes with 'power when the Holy Spirit comes on you'.

In Acts 1, what hid Jesus from the apostles' sight as he was taken up 'before their very eyes'?

A cloud hid him from their sight, the same image Daniel uses for the Son of Man coming 'with the clouds of heaven'. Two men in white then told the apostles to stop staring at the sky.

What did the two men in white tell the apostles as they stood staring into the sky after Jesus was taken up?

He will come back the same way 'you have seen him go into heaven', the men said, addressing the disciples as 'Men of Galilee'. The apostles then returned to an upstairs room in Jerusalem and gave themselves to prayer.

What did Peter and the apostles reply when the Sanhedrin reminded them of its order not to teach in Jesus' name?

We must obey God rather than human beings became the classic defence of conscience against the state, and it nearly got the apostles killed until a respected rabbi urged restraint. They left after a flogging, rejoicing.

In the New Testament's traditional running order of 27 books, Acts comes in which position?

Fifth place puts Acts straight after John, splitting it from Luke even though the two books open with the same dedication and were written as one two-volume work by the same author.

How many chapters does Acts run to, from the ascension in Jerusalem to Paul under house arrest in the imperial capital?

28 chapters take the story from Jerusalem to the heart of the empire, and the book stops abruptly with Paul still awaiting trial, a silence that keeps scholars arguing about its date. Luke's Gospel, by contrast, has 24.

After Paul and a companion were beaten with rods, in what did their jailer fasten their feet inside the inner cell?

Stocks held the pair's legs apart while they prayed and sang at midnight, until the prison's foundations shook, every door flew open and every chain came loose. The jailer nearly killed himself before Paul shouted that no one had fled.

After Peter vanished from his cell on the eve of a public trial, what did King Herod order done with the guards?

They were executed after a thorough search failed, Roman practice holding guards liable for a prisoner's escape. Herod then left for the coast, where his own sudden death is the chapter's closing scene.

With a man of which trade did Peter lodge 'for some time' in Joppa, just before his vision about unclean animals?

A tanner named Simon hosted Peter, a trade that handled dead animals' hides — an odd lodging for a man about to have his purity rules overturned. The centurion's messengers found him at that house by the sea.

After an angel let the apostles out of the public jail overnight, where did officers find them at daybreak?

Teaching in the temple courts, exactly where they had been arrested, is where the apostles went at dawn, while the Sanhedrin sat waiting for prisoners the jailers could not find behind still-locked doors.

What did the Lord call the newly blinded Paul when telling a wary disciple to go and lay hands on him?

My chosen instrument 'to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings' was the Lord's answer to the disciple's protest that this man had come to arrest believers. He added how much Paul would have to suffer.

Which bedridden man in Lydda, paralysed for eight years, did Peter tell to 'get up and roll up your mat'?

Aeneas shares his name with Virgil's Trojan hero, and his healing turned the whole plain of Sharon to the faith, Acts says. It is followed at once by the raising of a much-loved seamstress in nearby Joppa.

Besides idol food, sexual immorality and blood, what did the Jerusalem council's letter tell Gentiles to avoid?

Meat of strangled animals still held its blood, which is why the ban sits beside blood itself in a list that otherwise waved away circumcision and the rest of the law for Gentiles. The letter ended simply: 'Farewell.'

Whose house did a Thessalonian mob storm looking for Paul, dragging the owner before the city officials instead?

Jason had to post bond before the officials let him go, and the charge shouted against his guests was that they defied Caesar's decrees by 'saying that there is another king'. Paul was smuggled out of town that night.

Which silversmith started a riot by warning fellow craftsmen that Paul's preaching threatened their shrine trade?

Demetrius's speech mixed piety with profit, admitting 'we receive a good income from this business' before invoking the goddess's honour. The city clerk finally dispersed the two-hour riot by warning of Roman reprisals.

What did Paul warn the Ephesian elders would 'come in among you and will not spare the flock' once he had gone?

Savage wolves would even rise 'from your own number', Paul added, making the Miletus farewell a warning about insiders as much as persecutors. The elders wept because he said they would never see his face again.

What did Paul call the high priest who ordered him struck on the mouth at his hearing before the Sanhedrin?

A whitewashed wall — a crumbling wall painted to look sound — was Paul's insult, and when told he had abused the high priest he claimed not to have known who the man was, citing the law against cursing a ruler of the people.

In the conversion story Paul told a visiting king, what did the heavenly voice say it was hard for him to do?

Kick against the goads pictures an ox fighting the driver's pointed stick, and the line appears only in this retelling in Acts 26, not in the Acts 9 narrative of the same event. The voice, Paul says, spoke 'in Aramaic'.

What name does Acts 27 give the hurricane-force wind that swept Paul's ship away after it left Fair Havens?

The Northeaster, Euroclydon in the Greek, drove the ship off its course along Crete toward the open sea; the crew passed ropes under the hull and threw the tackle overboard to ride it out. They saw neither sun nor stars for days.

How many people does Acts 27 count aboard Paul's ship, all of whom reached land after it broke up in the surf?

276 is a precise head count from one of the book's 'we' passages, and every one of them reached shore, some swimming and the rest on planks. The centurion stopped his soldiers killing the prisoners to prevent escapes.

Whose father, sick with fever and dysentery, did Paul heal on the island that took in the shipwreck survivors?

Publius, the chief official, had hosted the survivors for three days, and after his father's healing the rest of the island's sick came to be cured too. Local tradition makes him the island's first bishop.

In whose lecture hall did Paul hold daily discussions in Ephesus after the synagogue turned against him?

Tyrannus's hall, used for two years, gave Paul a base from which Acts says 'all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia' heard the word. Nothing else is known of the man whose name means 'tyrant'.

Across which sea does Acts 27 say the ship was 'still being driven' on the fourteenth night of the storm?

The Adriatic in ancient usage stretched far south of today's sea, taking in the open water between Crete, Sicily and Malta, which is why a ship blown off Crete could still be 'in Adria'. Sailors sensed land that midnight.

Which Jewish observance had already passed when Acts 27 says 'sailing had already become dangerous' for Paul's ship?

The Day of Atonement falls in late September or October, when ancient shipping began shutting down for the winter, so Paul's warning of disaster was seasoned advice. The centurion trusted the ship's owner and pilot instead.

How many Roman troops in all — foot soldiers, horsemen and spearmen — marched Paul out of Jerusalem at nine at night?

470 men — 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen — guarded one prisoner against a plot by a few dozen, a measure of how seriously the commander took his duty toward a Roman citizen. The infantry turned back at Antipatris.

Which of the Seven picked in Acts 6 to oversee the daily food distribution is singled out as 'a convert to Judaism'?

Nicolas, 'from Antioch', is the only one of the Seven described as a proselyte rather than born Jewish, and all seven bear Greek names, picked to serve the Greek-speaking widows who had complained of being overlooked.

Which group's synagogue, with members from Alexandria and Asia, supplied the false witnesses against one of the Seven?

The Freedmen were Jews descended from former slaves — 'as it was called', Acts notes of their synagogue — and after losing the argument with the deacon they arranged witnesses to say he spoke against Moses and God.

Which prophet-teacher in the church that sent Paul out had been 'brought up with Herod the tetrarch'?

Manaen grew up alongside Herod Antipas, the tetrarch who had John the Baptist beheaded, yet ended up a leader of the Syrian church that commissioned the first missionary journey. The same list names Simeon called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene.

Which Stoic poet's line 'We are his offspring' did Paul quote to the Athenians as from 'some of your own poets'?

Aratus opened his astronomical poem Phaenomena with the line, in praise of Zeus, and Paul lifted it to argue that God's children should not imagine him as gold, silver or stone. The same speech also borrows from the Cretan Epimenides.

To which port did Paul walk overland from Troas while his companions went ahead by ship to pick him up?

Assos lay a day's walk across the peninsula from Troas, and Acts gives no reason for Paul's choice to go on foot, only that 'he had made this arrangement'. From there the party island-hopped down the coast to Miletus.

Believers from the capital walked out to meet Paul at the Forum of Appius and at which other halt on the road?

The Three Taverns was a post station on the Appian Way south of Rome, and meeting the brothers there, Acts says, made Paul thank God and take courage. He entered the city as a prisoner with a single soldier to guard him.