Acts 19:1–20

Paul in Ephesus

19While Apollos^a was at Corinth,^b Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.^c There he found some disciples ²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit^d when^a you believed?”

They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’s baptism,” they replied.

⁴Paul said, “John’s baptism^e was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”^{f 5}On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.^{g 6}When Paul placed his hands on them,^h the Holy Spirit came on them,ⁱ and they spoke in tongues^bj and prophesied. ⁷There were about twelve men in all.

⁸Paul entered the synagogue^k and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.^{l 9}But some of them^m became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way.ⁿ So Paul left them. He took the disciples^o with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰This went on for two years,^p so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia^q heard the word of the Lord.^r

¹¹God did extraordinary miracles^s through Paul, ¹²so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured^t and the evil spirits left them.

¹³Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits^u tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus^v whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” ¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” ¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

¹⁷When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus,^w they were all seized with fear,^x and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. ¹⁹A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.^{c 20}In this way the word of the Lord^y spread widely and grew in power.^z