Day 21 of 30

¹It happened in Iconium that they entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and so spoke that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed.

²But the disbelieving Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers.

³Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

⁴But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

⁵When some of both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, made a violent attempt to mistreat and stone them,

⁶they became aware of it, and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.

⁷There they preached the Good News.

⁸At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.

⁹He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole,

¹⁰said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet!" He leaped up and walked.

¹¹When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

¹²They called Barnabas "Jupiter," and Paul "Mercury," because he was the chief speaker.

¹³The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes.

¹⁴But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out,

¹⁵"Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;

¹⁶who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

¹⁷Yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness."

¹⁸Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.

¹⁹But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

²⁰But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe.

²¹When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

²²confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God.

²³When they had appointed elders for them in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

²⁴They passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia.

²⁵When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled.

²⁷When they had arrived, and had gathered the church together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations.

²⁸They stayed there with the disciples for a long time.

¹Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."

²Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.

³They, being sent on their way by the church, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers.

⁴When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the Law of Moses."

⁶The apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.

⁷When there had been much discussion, Peter rose up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News, and believe.

⁸God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are."

¹²All the multitude kept silence, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul reporting what signs and wonders God had done among the nations through them.

¹³After they were silent, Jacob answered, "Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has reported how God first visited the nations, to take out of them a people for his name.

¹⁵This agrees with the words of the prophets. As it is written,

¹⁶'After these things I will return. I will again build the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up,

¹⁷That the rest of men may seek after the Lord; All the Gentiles who are called by my name,' Says the Lord, who makes these things

¹⁸known from of old.

¹⁹"Therefore my judgment is that we do not trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

²¹For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who proclaim him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."

²²Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers.

²³They wrote these things by their hand: "The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.

²⁴Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, to whom we gave no commandment;

²⁵it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:

²⁹that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell."

³⁰So, when they were sent off, they came to Antioch. Having gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they had read it, they rejoiced over the encouragement.

³²Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers with many words, and strengthened them.

³³After they had spent some time there, they were sent back with greetings from the brothers to those that had sent them forth.

³⁴No text for this verse number in this edition.

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord, with many others also.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing."

³⁷Barnabas planned to take John, who was called Mark, with them also.

³⁸But Paul did not think that it was a good idea to take with them someone who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and did not go with them to do the work.

³⁹Then the contention grew so sharp that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus,

⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas, and went out, being commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

¹He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was a Greek.

²The brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium gave a good testimony about him.

³Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them to keep which had been ordained by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

⁶When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

⁷When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

⁸Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

⁹A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him, and saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us."

¹⁰When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.

¹¹Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis;

¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the foremost of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city.

¹³On the Sabbath day we went forth outside of the gate by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together.

¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.

¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay." So she persuaded us.

¹⁶It happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling.

¹⁷She followed Paul and us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation!"

¹⁸She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" It came out that very hour.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

²⁰When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men, being Jews, are agitating our city,

²¹and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans."

²²The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

²³When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,

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

²⁵But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were loosened.

²⁷The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul shouted loudly, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!"

²⁹He called for lights and sprang in, and, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,

³⁰and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

³¹They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."

³²They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

³³He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.

³⁴He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.

³⁵But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, "Let those men go."

³⁶The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out, and go in peace."

³⁷But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and bring us out!"

³⁸The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,

³⁹and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city.

⁴⁰They went out of the prison, and entered into Lydia's house. When they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, and departed.

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.