Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul.

 

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

 

Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

 

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

 

And they had John also to assist them.

 

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

 

But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

 

But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen– the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun."

 

Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand.

 

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

 

Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work."

 

"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

 

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent).

 

Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

 

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?"

 

Some were saying, "It is he."

 

Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him."

 

He kept saying, "I am the man."

 

But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

 

He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."

 

They said to him, "Where is he?"

 

He said, "I do not know."

 

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight.

 

He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see."

 

Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath."

 

But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?"

 

And they were divided.

 

So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened."