Acts 19-20

Acts 19

¹And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having gone through the higher country, came to Ephesus, where there were certain disciples:

²And he said to them, Did you get the Holy Spirit when you had faith? And they said to him, No, we have had no knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

³And he said, What sort of baptism did you have? And they said, The baptism of John.

⁴And Paul said, John gave a baptism which goes with a change of heart, saying to the people that they were to have faith in him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.

⁵And hearing this, they had baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul had put his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they had the power of talking in tongues, and acting like prophets.

⁷And there were about twelve of these men.

⁸And he went into the Synagogue, and for three months he was preaching there without fear, reasoning and teaching about the kingdom of God.

⁹But because some of the people were hard-hearted and would not give hearing, saying evil words about the Way before the people, he went away from them, and kept the disciples separate, reasoning every day in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰And this went on for two years, so that all those who were living in Asia had knowledge of the word of the Lord, Greeks as well as Jews.

¹¹And God did special works of power by the hands of Paul:

¹²So that bits of linen and clothing from his body were taken to people who were ill, and their diseases went away from them and the evil spirits went out.

¹³But some of the Jews who went from place to place driving out evil spirits, took it on themselves to make use of the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I give you orders, by Jesus, whom Paul is preaching.

¹⁴And there were seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jew and a chief priest, who did this.

¹⁵And the evil spirit, answering, said to them, I have knowledge of Jesus, and of Paul, but who are you?

¹⁶And the man in whom the evil spirit was, jumping on them, was stronger than the two of them, and overcame them, so that they went running from that house, wounded and without their clothing.

¹⁷And this came to the ears of all those, Jews and Greeks, who were living at Ephesus; and fear came on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was made great.

¹⁸And a number of those who had faith came and made a public statement of their sins and all their acts.

¹⁹And a great number of those who were experts in strange arts took their books and put them on the fire in front of everyone: and when the books were valued they came to fifty thousand bits of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord was increased very greatly and was full of power.

²¹Now after these things were ended, Paul came to a decision that when he had gone through Macedonia and Achaia he would go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I have a desire to see Rome.

²²And having sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, into Macedonia, he himself went on living in Asia for a time.

²³And about that time a great outcry took place about the Way.

²⁴For there was a certain man named Demetrius, a silver-worker, who made silver boxes for the images of Diana, and gave no small profit to the workmen;

²⁵Whom he got together, with other workmen of the same trade, and said to them, Men, it is clear that from this business we get our wealth.

²⁶And you see, for it has come to your ears, that not only at Ephesus, but almost all through Asia, this Paul has been teaching numbers of people and turning them away, saying that those are not gods who are made by men's hands:

²⁷And there is danger, not only that our trade may be damaged in the opinion of men, but that the holy place of the great goddess Diana may be no longer honoured, and that she to whom all Asia and the world give worship, will be put down from her high position.

²⁸And hearing this, they were very angry, crying out and saying, Great is Diana of Ephesus.

²⁹And the town was full of noise and trouble, and they all came running into the theatre, having taken by force Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia who were journeying in company with Paul.

³⁰And when Paul was about to go in to the people, the disciples did not let him.

³¹And some of the rulers of Asia, being his friends, sent to him, requesting him seriously not to put himself in danger by going into the theatre.

³²And some said one thing, and some another: for there was no order in the meeting; and most of them had no idea why they had come together.

³³Then they took Alexander out from among the people, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander, making a sign with his hand, was about to make a statement to the people in answer:

³⁴But when they saw that he was a Jew, all of them with one voice went on crying out for about two hours, Great is Diana of Ephesus.

³⁵And when the chief secretary had got the people quiet, he said, Men of Ephesus, is any man without knowledge that the town of Ephesus is the keeper of the holy place of the great Diana, who was sent down from Jupiter?

³⁶So then, because these things may not be doubted, it would be better for you to be quiet, and do nothing unwise.

³⁷For you have taken these men, who are not doing damage to the holy place or talking against our goddess.

³⁸If, then, Demetrius and the workmen who are with him have a protest to make against any man, the law is open to them, and there are judges; let them put up a cause at law against one another.

³⁹But if any other business is in question, let it be taken up in the regular meeting.

⁴⁰For, truly, we are in danger of being made responsible for this day's trouble, there being no cause for it: and we are not able to give any reason for this coming together.

⁴¹And when he had said this, he sent the meeting away.

Acts 20

¹And after the noise had come to an end, Paul, having sent for the disciples and given them comfort, went away from them to Macedonia.

²And when he had gone through those parts and given them much teaching, he came into Greece.

³And when he had been there three months, because the Jews had made a secret design against him when he was about to take ship for Syria, he made a decision to go back through Macedonia.

⁴And Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia, went with him as far as Asia.

⁵But these had gone before, and were waiting for us at Troas.

⁶And we went away from Philippi by ship after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them at Troas in five days; and we were there for seven days.

⁷And on the first day of the week, when we had come together for the holy meal, Paul gave them a talk, for it was his purpose to go away on the day after; and he went on talking till after the middle of the night.

⁸And there were a number of lights in the room where we had come together.

⁹And a certain young man named Eutychus, who was seated in the window, went into a deep sleep; and while Paul went on talking, being overcome by sleep, he had a fall from the third floor, and was taken up dead.

¹⁰And Paul went down and, falling on him, took him in his arms and said, Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.

¹¹And when he had gone up, and had taken the broken bread, he went on talking to them for a long time, even till dawn, and then he went away.

¹²And they took the boy in, living, and were greatly comforted.

¹³But we, going before him by ship, went to Assos with the purpose of taking Paul in there: for so he had given orders, because he himself was coming by land.

¹⁴And when he came up with us at Assos, we took him in the ship and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵And going from there by sea, we came on the day after opposite Chios, and touching at Samos on the day after that, we came on the third day to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul's purpose was to go past Ephesus, so that he might not be kept in Asia; for he was going quickly, in order, if possible, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the rulers of the church.

¹⁸And when they had come, he said to them, You yourselves have seen what my life has been like all the time from the day when I first came into Asia,

¹⁹Doing the Lord's work without pride, through all the sorrow and troubles which came on me because of the evil designs of the Jews:

²⁰And how I kept back nothing which might be of profit to you, teaching you publicly and privately,

²¹Preaching to Jews and to Greeks the need for a turning of the heart to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

²²And now, as you see, I am going to Jerusalem, a prisoner in spirit, having no knowledge of what will come to me there:

²³Only that the Holy Spirit makes clear to me in every town that prison and pains are waiting for me.

²⁴But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God.

²⁵And now I am conscious that you, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom, will not see my face again.

²⁶And so I say to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men.

²⁷For I have not kept back from you anything of the purpose of God.

²⁸Give attention to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has given into your care, to give food to the church of God, for which he gave his blood.

²⁹I am conscious that after I am gone, evil wolves will come in among you, doing damage to the flock;

³⁰And from among yourselves will come men who will give wrong teaching, turning away the disciples after them.

³¹So keep watch, having in mind that for three years without resting I was teaching every one of you, day and night, with weeping.

³²And now, I give you into the care of God and the word of his grace, which is able to make you strong and to give you your heritage among all the saints.

³³I have had no desire for any man's silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves have seen that with these hands I got what was necessary for me and those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I was an example to you of how, in your lives, you are to give help to the feeble, and keep in memory the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, There is a greater blessing in giving than in getting.

³⁶And having said these words, he went down on his knees in prayer with them all.

³⁷And they were all weeping, falling on Paul's neck and kissing him,

³⁸Being sad most of all because he had said that they would not see his face again. And so they went with him to the ship.