Acts 16:1–28:31
16 Then he came to aDerbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, bnamed Timothy, cthe son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he dtook him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. 4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the edecrees to keep, fwhich were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. 5 gSo the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of hGalatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in 1Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the 2Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they icame down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A jman of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go kto Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
11 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, 12 and from there to lPhilippi, which is the 3foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. 14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of mThyatira, who worshiped God. nThe Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So oshe persuaded us.
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl ppossessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters qmuch profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days.
But Paul, rgreatly 4annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” sAnd he came out that very hour. 19 But twhen her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and udragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, vexceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes wand commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 xSuddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately yall the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”
29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, z“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 So they said, a“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, bhe set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the 5officers, saying, “Let those men go.”
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned cRomans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and dasked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison eand entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
Preaching Christ at Thessalonica
17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to aThessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, bwent in to them, and for three Sabbaths creasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating dthat the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 eAnd some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and fSilas.
5 But the Jews 1who were not persuaded, 2becoming genvious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of hJason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, i“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has 3harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, jsaying there is another king—Jesus.” 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 Then kthe brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more 4fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and lsearched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. 14 mThen immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and nreceiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, ohis spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was 5given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 6Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this 7babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them pJesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the 8Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the 9Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 qGod, who made the world and everything in it, since He is rLord of heaven and earth, sdoes not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He tgives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one 1blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and uthe boundaries of their dwellings, 27 vso that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, wthough He is not far from each one of us; 28 for xin Him we live and move and have our being, yas also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, zwe ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, athese times of ignorance God overlooked, but bnow commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which cHe will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by draising Him from the dead.”
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will