Acts 16–20

CHAPTER 16

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

¹Now Paul also arrived at ^aDerbe and at ^bLystra. And behold, a disciple was there, named ^cTimothy, the son of a ^dJewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek,

²and he was well spoken of by ^athe brothers who were in ^bLystra and ^cIconium.

³Paul wanted this man to ¹go with him, and he ^atook him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering ^athe decrees which had been decided upon by ^bthe apostles and ^celders who were in Jerusalem, for them to keep.

⁵So ^athe churches were being strengthened ¹in the faith, and were ^babounding in number daily.

The Macedonian Vision

⁶And they passed through the ^1aPhrygian and ^bGalatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in ^2cAsia;

⁷and after they came to ^aMysia, they were trying to go into ^bBithynia, and the ^cSpirit of Jesus did not permit them;

⁸and passing by ^aMysia, they came down to ^bTroas.

^9aAnd a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of ^bMacedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

¹⁰And when he had seen ^athe vision, immediately ^bwe sought to ¹go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to ^cproclaim the gospel to them.

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi

¹¹So setting sail from ^aTroas, we ran ^ba straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis;

¹²and from there to ^aPhilippi, which is a leading city of the district of ^bMacedonia, ^ca Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days.

¹³And on ^athe Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and sitting down, we began speaking to the women who had assembled.

¹⁴And a woman named Lydia, from the city of ^aThyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, ^ba worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the Lord ^copened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul.

¹⁵And when she and ^aher household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶Now it happened that as we were going to ^athe place of prayer, a servant-girl having ^ba spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

¹⁷Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are slaves of ^athe Most High God, who are proclaiming to you ¹the way of salvation.”

¹⁸And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed, Paul turned and said to the spirit, “I command you ^ain the name of Jesus Christ to leave her!” And it left at that very ¹moment.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that their hope of ^aprofit had left, they seized ^bPaul and Silas and ^cdragged them into the marketplace before the authorities,

²⁰and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,

²¹and ^aare proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being ^bRomans.”

²²And the crowd joined together to attack them, and the chief magistrates, tearing their garments off of them, proceeded to order them to be ^abeaten with rods.

²³And when they had inflicted them with many wounds, they threw them into prison, commanding ^athe jailer to guard them securely,

²⁴who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in ^athe ¹stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Converted

²⁵But about midnight ^aPaul and Silas were praying and ^bsinging hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶And suddenly ^athere came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the jailhouse were shaken; and immediately ^ball the doors were opened and everyone’s ^cchains were unfastened.

²⁷And when ^athe jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about ^bto kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”

²⁹And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before ^aPaul and Silas,

³⁰and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, ^awhat must I do to be saved?”

³¹And they said, “^aBelieve in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and ^byour house.”

³²And they spoke the word of ¹the Lord to him together with all who were in his household.

³³And he took them ^athat very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

³⁴And he brought them into his house and set ¹food before them, and rejoiced ²greatly with ^ahis whole household, because he had believed in God.

³⁵Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, “Release those men.”

³⁶And ^athe jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go ^bin peace.”

³⁷But Paul said to them, “Having beaten us in public without trial, ^amen who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison. And now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”

³⁸And the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. ^aThey were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,

³⁹and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept requesting them ^ato leave the city.

⁴⁰And they went out of the prison and entered the house of ^aLydia, and when they saw ^bthe brothers, they ¹encouraged them and left.

CHAPTER 17

Paul and Silas in Thessalonica

¹Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to ^aThessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And ^aaccording to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three ^bSabbaths reasoned with them from ^cthe Scriptures,

³¹explaining and setting before them that the ²Christ ^ahad to suffer and ^brise again from the dead, and saying, “^cThis Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is that ³Christ.”

^4aAnd some of them were persuaded and joined ^bPaul and Silas, ¹along with a great multitude of the ^cGod-fearing ^dGreeks and not a few of the ^eleading women.

⁵But ^athe Jews, becoming jealous, taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, and forming a mob, set the city in an uproar. And attacking the house of ^bJason, they were seeking to bring them out to the assembly.

⁶And when they did not find them, they began ^adragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset ^1bthe world have come here also;

⁷¹and Jason ^ahas welcomed them, and they all act ^bcontrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸And they disturbed the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

⁹And when they had received the bond from ^aJason and the others, they released them.

In Berea

^10aAnd the brothers immediately sent ^bPaul and Silas away by night to ^cBerea, ¹and when they arrived, they went into ^dthe synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹Now these were more noble-minded than those in ^aThessalonica, ¹for they received the word with ²great eagerness, ³examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

¹²Therefore ^amany of them believed, along with not a few ^bprominent Greek ^cwomen and men.

¹³But when the Jews of ^aThessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in ^bBerea also, they came there as well, shaking up and disturbing the crowds.

¹⁴Then immediately ^athe brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and ^bSilas and ^cTimothy remained there.

¹⁵Now ^athose who escorted Paul brought him as far as ^bAthens; and after receiving a command for ^cSilas and Timothy to ^dcome to him as soon as possible, they left.

In Athens

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at ^aAthens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.

¹⁷So he was reasoning ^ain the synagogue with the Jews and ^bthe God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

¹⁸And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were ¹conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would ^athis ²idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was proclaiming the good news of ^bJesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they ^atook him and brought him ¹to the ^2bAreopagus, saying, “May we know what ^cthis new teaching is ³which you are speaking?

²⁰“For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers ^avisiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)

²²So Paul stood in the midst of the ¹Areopagus and said, “Men of ^aAthens, I observe that you are very ^breligious in all respects.

²³“For while I was passing through and examining the ^aobjects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what ^byou worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴“^aThe God who made the world and all things in it, since He is ^bLord of heaven and earth, does not ^cdwell in temples made with hands;

²⁵nor is He served by human hands, ^aas though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

²⁶and ^aHe made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having ^bdetermined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

²⁷that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, ^athough He is not far from each one of us;

²⁸for ^ain Him we live and move and ¹exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’

²⁹“Being then the offspring of God, we ^aought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man.

³⁰“Therefore having ^aoverlooked ^b…