FOUNDING THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH

18 After this, heD left Athens and went to Corinth,q 2 where he found a Jew named Aquila,r a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them, 3 and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he stayed with them and worked.s 4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.t

5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself to preaching the wordE and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.u 6 When they resisted and blasphemed,v he shook out his clothesw and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads!x I am innocent.F From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”y 7 So he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, along with his whole household.z Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

9 The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”aa 11 He stayed there a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them.

12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the tribunal.a 13 “This man,” they said, “is persuading people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

14 As Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or of a serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. 15 But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of such things.”b 16 So he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they allA seized Sosthenes,c the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal, but none of these things mattered to Gallio.