Day 36 of 365

¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

²Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and demonstrating that the Messiah had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Messiah."

⁴Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.

⁵But the Jews, being moved with jealousy, took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.

⁶When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!"

⁸The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.

⁹When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.

¹⁵But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?

²⁰For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean."

²¹Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

²²Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

²³For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN God.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,

²⁵neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

²⁶He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,

²⁷that they should seek God, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'

²⁹Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

³⁰The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

³¹because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you again concerning this."

³³Thus Paul went out from among them.

³⁴But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

¹After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.

²He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

³and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

⁴He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

⁵But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.

⁶When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"

⁷He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Titus Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

⁹The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;

¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."

¹¹He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

¹³saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."

¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;

¹⁵but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I do not want to be a judge of these matters."

¹⁶He drove them from the judgment seat.

¹⁷Then all laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio did not care about any of these things.

¹⁸Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.

¹⁹They came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay a longer time, he declined;

²¹but taking his leave of them, and saying, "I will return again to you if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch.

²³Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

²⁴Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures.

²⁵This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

²⁷When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace;

²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

¹It happened that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples.

²He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They said to him, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

³He said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."

⁴Paul said, "John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus."

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages and prophesied.

⁷They were about twelve men in all.

⁸He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning the Kingdom of God.

⁹But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the evil spirits went out.

¹³But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."

¹⁴There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.

¹⁵The evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?"

¹⁶The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

¹⁸Many also of those who had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds.

¹⁹Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.

²¹Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

²²Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

²³About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way.

²⁴For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,

²⁵whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.

²⁶You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.

²⁷Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute; but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence, whom all Asia and the world worships."

²⁸When they heard this they were filled with anger, and began to shout, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

²⁹The city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel.

³⁰When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples did not allow him.

³¹Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.

³²Some therefore shouted one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people.

³⁴But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours shouted, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

³⁵When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

³⁶Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash.

³⁷For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess.

³⁸If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.

³⁹But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly.

⁴⁰For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day's riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we would not be able to give an account of this commotion."

⁴¹When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

¹An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: "There is no fear of God before his eyes."

²For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin.

³The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

⁴He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn't abhor evil.

⁵Your loving kindness, Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

⁶Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Lord, you preserve man and animal.

⁷How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.

⁸They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.

⁹For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.

¹⁰Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

¹¹Do not let the foot of pride come against me. Do not let the hand of the wicked drive me away.

¹²There the workers of iniquity are fallen. They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.