Acts 16–17

Acts 16–17 WEB

^16:1He 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 assemblies 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 didn’t 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 preach 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 outside of the city 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. The Lord opened her heart 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. ¹⁶As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. ¹⁷Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a 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 advocate 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 from them, then 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. ²⁴Having received such a command, he 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 cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!” ²⁹He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, ³⁰brought 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, most certainly, but 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, then departed.

^17:1Now 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 Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 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 unpersuaded Jews 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 didn’t 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 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 you are speaking about? 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 also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you. ²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. ²⁶He made from one blood 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 the Lord, 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, 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, including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.