Acts 16–20

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

¹⁶Paul^h went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.^{* 2}He was well spoken of by the brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium. ³Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.^{* 4}As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.^{* 5}So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.^*

Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia

⁶They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.^{* 7}When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them;^{* 8}so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.^{* 9}During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”^{* 10}When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.^*

The Conversion of Lydia

¹¹We thereforeⁱ set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis,^{* 12}and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.^{* 13}On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed^j there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.^*

Paul and Silas in Prison

¹⁶One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a female slave who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.^{* 17}While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you^k the way of salvation.”^{* 18}She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

¹⁹But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.^{* 20}When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men, these Jews, are disturbing our city^{* 21}and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to adopt or observe.” ²²The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.^{* 23}After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.^{* 24}Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.^*

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.^{* 26}Suddenly there was an earthquake so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.^{* 27}When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.^{* 28}But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹The jailer^l called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”^{* 31}They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”^{* 32}They spoke the word of the Lord^m to him and to all who were in his house. ³³At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. ³⁴He brought them up into the house and set food before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.^*

³⁵When morning came, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” ³⁶And the jailer reported the message to Paul, saying, “The magistrates sent word to let you go; therefore come out now and go in peace.”^{* 37}But Paul replied, “They have beaten us in public, uncondemned, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison, and now are they going to discharge us in secret? Certainly not! Let them come and take us out themselves.”^{* 38}The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,^{* 39}so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.^{* 40}After leaving the prison they went to Lydia’s home, and when they had seen and encouraged the brothers and sisters there, they departed.^*

The Uproar in Thessalonica

¹⁷After Paul and Silasⁿ had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.^{* 2}And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures,^{* 3}explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah^o to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, “This is the Messiah,^p Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”^{* 4}Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.^{* 5}But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house.^{* 6}When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers and sisters before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,^{* 7}and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.”^{* 8}The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this, ⁹and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

Paul and Silas in Beroea

¹⁰That very night the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea, and when they arrived they went to the Jewish synagogue.^{* 11}These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.^{* 12}Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. ¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there, too, to stir up and incite the crowds. ¹⁴Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind. ¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and, after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.^*

Paul in Athens

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.^{* 17}So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and also in the marketplace^q every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this pretentious babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ¹⁹So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” ²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. ²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,^{* 25}nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.^{* 26}From one ancestor^r he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,^{* 27}so that they would search for God^s and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.^{* 28}For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we, too, are his offspring.’^*

²⁹“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.^{* 30}While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,^{* 31}because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”^*

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the…