Acts 18

After that, Paul left the city of Athens and went to the city of Corinth.

In Corinth Paul met a Jew whose name was Aquila. He was from the region of Pontus. Aquila and his wife Priscilla had recently come from the city of Rome in Italy. They left Rome because Claudius, the Roman emperor, had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul introduced himself to Aquila and Priscilla.

Aquila and Priscilla made tents to earn money. Paul also made tents. So he stayed with them and they worked together. \*

Every Sabbath, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place. There he conversed with both Jews and non-Jews. He helped many of them to believe in Jesus.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from the region of Macedonia, Paul felt strongly that he should devote all of his time to proclaiming the good news. So he kept telling the Jews sincerely that Jesus was the Messiah.

But the Jews argued with Paul and said bad things about him. So he shook the dust off his clothes {to show that he wanted to have nothing to do with them any more}. He said to them, “If God punishes you, it is your responsibility! I have done everything I could to show you the truth! From now on I will talk to people who are not Jewish!” \*

So Paul left the Jewish meeting place and went into a house that was next to it, and he preached there. Titius Justus, the owner of the house, was a non-Jewish man who worshiped God.

After that, the ruler of the Jewish meeting place, whose name was Crispus, and all of his family believed in Jesus. Many other people in Corinth heard about Crispus and his family. They also believed in Jesus and Paul baptized them. \*

One night Paul had a vision in which Jesus spoke to him. He said, “Do not be afraid {of the people who are against you}. Keep telling people about me.

{You can keep speaking confidently} because I will help you. No one will be able to attack you and hurt you, because there are many people in this city who love me {and will defend you}.”

So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half. He shared the good news about Jesus with the people there. \*

Then a man named Gallio became the Roman governor of the province of Achaia. The Jewish leaders {thought he would take their side so they} got together and seized Paul. They brought him to the governor and made accusations against him.

They said, “This man is teaching people to worship God in ways that Roman law does not permit.” \*

Paul was about to say something to defend himself. But Gallio said to the Jewish leaders, “If this man had done something terribly wrong that broke our Roman laws, naturally I would listen to what you Jews want to tell me.

However, you are only complaining about things that Paul has been saying. You are arguing about who deserves what name. These are disputes about your own Jewish laws. So you must settle this yourselves. These are not the kind of things that deserve my attention!” \*

After Gallio said that, he told some soldiers to make the Jewish leaders leave the court.

But instead of leaving right away, the Jewish leaders grabbed the man who was in charge of their synagogue. His name was Sosthenes. They beat him right there in front of the judge’s seat {because they thought Paul had persuaded him to believe in Jesus}. Gallio did nothing to stop them. \*

Paul stayed with the believers in Corinth for many more days. Then he got on a ship with Priscilla and Aquila and sailed for the province of Syria. {Paul left Silas and Timothy in Corinth.} He got his hair cut off in Cenchrea because of a vow that he had made.

They arrived at the city of Ephesus, and Priscilla and Aquila stayed there. Paul himself entered the Jewish meeting place and had conversations with the Jews there about Jesus. \*

They asked him to stay longer, but he told them that he could not stay.

But as Paul left, he told the Jews in Ephesus, “I promise that I will come back if God wants me to.” Then Paul got on a ship and sailed away from Ephesus. \*

When the ship came to the city of Caesarea, Paul got off. He went from there to Jerusalem and visited with the believers there. Then he returned to the city of Antioch{, where he had begun his trip}.

Paul remained for some time with the believers in Antioch. Then he left and traveled to many cities in the regions of Galatia and Phrygia. He helped the believers in each city to believe more steadfastly in Jesus. \*

While Paul was going through Galatia and Phrygia, a Jewish man named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was from the city of Alexandria, and he spoke very well. He had carefully studied the Scriptures.

Other believers had taught Apollos how Jesus wanted people to live. He enthusiastically taught those things correctly to the people in Ephesus. However, he was not teaching everything about Jesus. He only knew that John the Baptizer had said to repent and receive baptism to get ready for Jesus the Messiah.

Apollos went to the Jewish meeting place and told the people there the things he had learned about Jesus. When Priscilla and Aquila heard what he taught, they asked him to come to their home. There they taught him more about Jesus. \*

When Apollos decided that he would like to go to the region of Achaia, the believers in Ephesus told him that it would be good for him to do that. So they wrote a letter to the believers in Achaia saying that they should welcome Apollos. After he got there, he did much to help those whom God had kindly enabled to believe in Jesus.

The leaders of the Jews were denying that Jesus was the Messiah. But as many other people listened, Apollos showed convincingly that they were wrong. He did that by proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. \*