Acts 18–19

Paul in Corinth

18After this Paul¹ left Athens and went to Corinth. ²And he found a Jew named ^vAquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife ^vPriscilla, because ^wClaudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, ³and ^xbecause he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. ⁴And ^yhe reasoned in the synagogue ^yevery Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

^5zWhen Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul ^awas occupied with the word, ^btestifying to the Jews that the Christ was ^cJesus. ⁶And when they opposed and reviled him, ^dhe shook out his garments and said to them, ^e“Your blood be on your own heads! ^fI am innocent. ^gFrom now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ⁷And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius ^hJustus, ⁱa worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. ^8jCrispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together ^kwith his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. ⁹And the Lord said to Paul ^lone night in ^ma vision, ⁿ“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰ⁿfor I am with you, and ^ono one will attack you to harm you, for ^pI have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was ^qproconsul of Achaia, ^rthe Jews² made a united attack on Paul and ^sbrought him before the tribunal, ¹³saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to ^tthe law.” ¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious ^ucrime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. ¹⁵But ^vsince it is a matter of questions about words and names and ^wyour own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” ¹⁶And he drove them from the tribunal. ¹⁷And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

Paul Returns to Antioch

¹⁸After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of ^xthe brothers³ and set sail for Syria, and with him ^yPriscilla and Aquila. At ^zCenchreae ^ahe had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. ¹⁹And they came to ^bEphesus, and he left them there, but ^che himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. ²⁰When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. ²¹But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you ^dif God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he ^ewent up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. ²³After spending some time there, he departed and ^fwent from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, ^gstrengthening all the disciples.

Apollos Speaks Boldly in Ephesus

²⁴Now a Jew named ^hApollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, ⁱcompetent in the Scriptures. ²⁵He had been instructed in ^jthe way of the Lord. And ^kbeing fervent in spirit,⁴ he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only ^lthe baptism of John. ²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when ^mPriscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him ⁿthe way of God more accurately. ²⁷And when he wished to cross to ^oAchaia, ^pthe brothers encouraged him and ^qwrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, ^rhe greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures ^sthat the Christ was Jesus.

Paul in Ephesus

19And it happened that while ^tApollos was at Corinth, Paul passed ^uthrough the inland¹ country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ²And he said to them, ^v“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, ^wwe have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³And he said, ^x“Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into ^yJohn’s baptism.” ⁴And Paul said, ^y“John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people ^zto believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵On hearing this, ^athey were baptized in² the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And ^bwhen Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and ^cthey began speaking in tongues and ^dprophesying. ⁷There were about twelve men in all.

⁸And ^ehe entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them ^fabout the kingdom of God. ^9gBut when some became stubborn and ^hcontinued in unbelief, speaking evil of ⁱthe Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.^{3 10}This continued for ^jtwo years, so that ^kall the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹And ^lGod was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12lso that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and ^mthe evil spirits came out of them. ¹³Then some of the itinerant Jewish ⁿexorcists ^oundertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ^p“I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵But the evil spirit answered them, ^q“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all⁴ of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and ^rthe name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸Also many of those who were now believers came, ^sconfessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰So the word of the Lord ^tcontinued to increase and prevail mightily.

A Riot at Ephesus

²¹Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit ^uto pass through ^vMacedonia and Achaia and ^wgo to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, ^xI must also see Rome.” ²²And having sent into Macedonia two of ^yhis helpers, ^zTimothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia ^afor a while.

²³About that time ^bthere arose no little disturbance concerning ^cthe Way. ²⁴For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, ^dbrought no little business to the craftsmen. ^25dThese he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, ^esaying that ^fgods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ^ggreat goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ^g“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and ^hAristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s ⁱcompanions in travel. ³⁰But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹And even some of the Asiarchs,⁵ who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. ^32jNow some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, ^kmotioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. ³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ^l“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from ^mthe sky?^{6 36}Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷For you have brought ⁿthese men here who are neither ^osacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are ^pproconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹But if you seek anything further,⁷ it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.