1 ARST While Apollos was still in the city of Corinth, Paul{ finished visiting the churches in Phrygia and Galatia. Then he} traveled through the province of Asia and came to the city of Ephesus. There he met some people who said that they were believers. BSB BSB: While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the interior and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples
2 ARST He asked them,“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed God’ s message?” They answered,“No, we did not. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” BSB BSB: and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “No,” they answered, “we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 ARST So Paul asked,“So when someone baptized you, what did you know?” They replied,“We believed what John the Baptizer taught.” BSB BSB: “Into what, then, were you baptized?” Paul asked. “The baptism of John,” they replied.
4 ARST Paul said,“John’ s baptism was a sign that people were giving up their evil thoughts and deeds and wanting to obey God. But John also told people that the Messiah would soon appear and that they should believe in him. He was talking about Jesus.” BSB BSB: Paul explained: “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
5 ARST When those men heard that, they believed in Jesus as the Messiah. Paul then baptized them because they believed. BSB BSB: On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 ARST After that, Paul placed his hands on their heads one by one, and each of them received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave them power to speak in languages that they had not learned. They also spoke messages that the Holy Spirit gave them. BSB BSB: And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
7 ARST There were about 12 men whom Paul baptized and who received the Holy Spirit. BSB BSB: There were about twelve men in all.
8 ARST For three months after that, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus on each Sabbath and preached there. He taught the people convincingly about how God should rule their lives. BSB BSB: Then Paul went into the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.
9 ARST But some of the Jews would not believe the message and did not want to hear it any more. In front of everyone in the synagogue, they said bad things about believing in Jesus. So Paul left them and took the believers with him to meet every day in a large room where a man whose name was Tyrannus usually taught people. BSB BSB: But when some of them stubbornly refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way, Paul took his disciples and left the synagogue to conduct daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
10 ARST For two years Paul taught people there. In this way, most of the Jews and non- Jews who lived in the region of Asia heard the message about Jesus. BSB BSB: This continued for two years, so that everyone who lived in the province of Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the word of the Lord.
11 ARST God also gave Paul the power to do great miracles. BSB BSB: God did extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul,
12 ARST If those who were sick could not come to Paul, people would take pieces of cloth that Paul had touched and place them on the sick people. When they did this, the sick people would become well and the evil spirits would leave them. BSB BSB: so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them.
13 ARST There were some Jews who traveled from place to place, commanding the evil spirits in those places to depart from people. Some of them tried to make evil spirits come out of people by commanding them to leave by the authority of Jesus. When those Jews were with a person who had an evil spirit, one of them would say,“I command you to come out by the authority of the man named Jesus whom Paul teaches about!” BSB BSB: Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I command you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.”
14 ARST Specifically, there were seven men who were doing this. They were the sons of a Jewish man named Sceva, who was a chief priest. BSB BSB: Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
15 ARST { One day two of the sons of Sceva were in the house of a man who had an evil spirit. They tried to make the spirit come out. But it did not come out.} Instead, the evil spirit said to them,“I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but no one has given you authority to make me leave this man!” BSB BSB: But one day the evil spirit responded, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
16 ARST { After the evil spirit said that,} suddenly it made the man jump on them. He knocked down these two sons of Sceva and hurt them. He tore off their clothes and wounded them. They ran out of the house{ to save their lives}. BSB BSB: Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. The attack was so violent that they ran out of the house naked and wounded.
17 ARST Soon people throughout Ephesus, both Jews and non- Jews, heard what had happened. They realized that they should regard Jesus with great awe, and they spoke of him very respectfully. BSB BSB: This became known to all the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, and fear came over all of them. So the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.
19 ARST Now many of the believers had been sorcerers. They took their scrolls that told about spells and curses and burned them in a place where everyone could see them. The believers added up how much the scrolls were worth. They were worth 50, 000 silver coins. BSB BSB: And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of the books was calculated, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.
20 ARST In this powerful way, many people heard the message about Jesus and believed in him. BSB BSB: So the word of the Lord powerfully continued to spread and prevail.
21 ARST And after all of this happened, the Holy Spirit led Paul to decide to go to Jerusalem. Paul planned to visit the believers in the regions of Macedonia and Achaia first. He said,“After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also go to Rome.” BSB BSB: After these things had happened, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must see Rome as well.”
22 ARST So Paul sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to the province of Macedonia. But he stayed for a while in the city of Ephesus in the province of Asia. BSB BSB: He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed for a time in the province of Asia.
23 ARST But soon after that, people in Ephesus began to make a great amount of trouble because of Jesus and the teaching about him. BSB BSB: About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.
25 ARST Demetrius called together the craftsmen and the workers who made the idols. He said to them,“You all know that we make a lot of money doing our work. BSB BSB: Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity.
26 ARST But you know very well that Paul has led many people in Ephesus not to buy the statues that we make. In fact, the people from many other towns in our province no longer want to buy what we make. Paul tells people that the gods that we make are not gods{ and that we should not worship them}. BSB BSB: And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
27 ARST { If people keep listening to Paul,} there is a risk that we will go out of business. Even worse, people will no longer come to the temple of our great goddess Artemis. They will not believe that she is worthy to worship. They will believe that she is not a goddess at all. Yet people throughout the province of Asia and even the whole world worship her!” BSB BSB: There is danger not only that our business will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and her majesty deposed—she who is worshiped by all the province of Asia and the whole world.”
28 ARST Then all the people there became very angry at Paul when they heard what Demetrius said. They began to shout,“The goddess Artemis of the Ephesians is great!” BSB BSB: When the men heard this, they were enraged and began shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
30 ARST Now Paul wanted to go into the stadium to talk to the people. However, the other believers would not let him go there. BSB BSB: Paul wanted to go before the assembly, but the disciples would not allow him.
31 ARST Also, some city rulers who were friends of Paul heard what was happening. They sent someone to warn Paul not to go into the theater. BSB BSB: Even some of Paul’s friends who were officials of the province of Asia sent word to him, begging him not to venture into the theatre.
32 ARST In the stadium, the people were very confused. Because they were confused, some were shouting one thing while others were shouting something else. But most of them did not even know why they were all in the stadium! BSB BSB: Meanwhile the assembly was in turmoil. Some were shouting one thing and some another, and most of them did not even know why they were there.
33 ARST Then some of the Jews in the stadium pushed a man whose name was Alexander to the front of the crowd so that he could speak to the people. Some of the others there told him how he could do that. So Alexander put his hands up to get the crowd to stop shouting. He wanted to tell them that the Jews had not caused the trouble. BSB BSB: The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander forward to explain himself, and he motioned for silence so he could make his defense to the people.
34 ARST But many of the non- Jewish people knew that Alexander was a Jew.{ They knew that the Jews did not worship the goddess Artemis.} So for two hours the non- Jews shouted together,“Great is the goddess Artemis of the Ephesians!” BSB BSB: But when they realized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
36 ARST These are established facts. So you should be quiet now. Do not do anything foolish. BSB BSB: Since these things are undeniable, you ought to be calm and not do anything rash.
37 ARST You should not have brought these two men here. They work together with Paul, but they have not done anything evil. They have not gone into our temples and taken things from there, and they have not spoken evil of our goddess. BSB BSB: For you have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed our temple nor blasphemed our goddess.
38 ARST If Demetrius and his fellow workmen want to accuse anyone of doing anything bad, they should do it in the right way. The courts are in session. There are judges present whom the government has appointed. They can present their case before the judges in court. BSB BSB: So if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and proconsuls are available. Let them bring charges against one another there.
39 ARST And if you are concerned about anything else, you should ask your rulers about it when those rulers meet together. BSB BSB: But if you are seeking anything beyond this, it must be settled in a legal assembly.
40 ARST You should really not have rushed here shouting, because the Roman government may accuse us of having a riot today. If the rulers ask me what you were all shouting about, I will not know how to answer them. There was no good reason for it.” BSB BSB: For we are in jeopardy of being charged with rioting for today’s events, and we have no justification to account for this commotion.”
41 ARST That is what the city ruler said to the crowd. Then he told them all to go home{, and they did go to their homes}. BSB BSB: After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.