The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (139 page)

Paul in Athens

16
 Now while Paul was waiting for them at
Athens
, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
¹⁷
So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there.
¹⁸
Some also of the
Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers met him. And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"—because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
¹⁹
And they took hold of him and brought him to
the Are-op'agus
, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present?
²⁰
For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean."
²¹
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

22
 So Paul, standing in the middle of the Are-op'agus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
²³
For as I passed along, and observed
the objects of your worship
, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
²⁴
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man,
²⁵
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
²⁶
And he made from one
every nation of men
to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation,
²⁷
that
they should seek God
, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us,
²⁸
for

  
'
In him we live and move and have our being
';

as even some of your poets have said,

  
'For we are indeed his offspring.'

²⁹
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.
³⁰
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent,
³¹
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead."

32
 Now when they heard of
the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We will hear you again about this."
³³
So Paul went out from among them.
³⁴
But some men joined him and believed, among them
Dionys'ius
the Are-op'agite and a woman named Dam'aris and others with them.

Paul in Corinth

18
  
After this he left Athens and went to
Corinth
.
²
And he found a Jew named
Aqui'la
, a native of Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them;
³
and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers.
⁴
And he argued in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

5
 When
Silas and Timothy
arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
⁶
And when they opposed and reviled him, he
shook out his garments
and said to them, "Your blood be upon your heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
⁷
And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius
^q
Justus,
a worshiper of God
; his house was next door to the synagogue.
⁸
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
⁹
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;
¹⁰
for
I am with you
, and no man shall attack you to harm you; for I have many people in this city."
¹¹
And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

12
 But when
Gallio
was proconsul of Acha'ia, the Jews made a united attack upon Paul and brought him before the tribunal,
¹³
saying, "This man is persuading men to worship God
contrary to the law
."
¹⁴
But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, I should have reason to bear with you, O Jews;
¹⁵
but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I refuse to be a judge of these things."
¹⁶
And he drove them from the tribunal.
¹⁷
And they all seized
Sos'thenes
, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to this.

Paul's Return to Antioch

18
 After this Paul stayed many days longer, and then took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aqui'la. At
Cen'chre-ae
he cut his hair, for he had a vow.
¹⁹
And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself went into the synagogue and argued with the Jews.
²⁰
When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined;
²¹
but on taking leave of them he said, "I will return to you if God wills," and he set sail from Ephesus.

22
 When he had landed at Caesare'a,
he went up
and greeted the Church, and then went down to Antioch.
²³
After spending some time there
he departed and went
from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phryg'ia, strengthening all the disciples.

Ministry of Apollos

24
 Now a Jew named
Apol'los
, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the Scriptures.
²⁵
He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
²⁶
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aqui'la heard him, they took him and expounded to him
the way
of God more accurately.
²⁷
And when he wished to cross to Acha'ia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,
²⁸
for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Paul in Ephesus

19
  
While Apol'los was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to
Ephesus
. There he found some disciples.
²
And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have
never even heard
that there is a Holy Spirit."
³
And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."
⁴
And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."
⁵
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
⁶
And when Paul had
laid his hands
upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
⁷
There were about twelve of them in all.

8
 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God;
⁹
but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of
the Way
before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyran'nus.
^r
10
This continued for
two years
, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

11
 And God did
extraordinary miracles
by the hands of Paul,
¹²
so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
¹³
Then some of the itinerant
Jewish exorcists
undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."
¹⁴
Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named
Sceva
were doing this.
¹⁵
But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?"
¹⁶
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
¹⁷
And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
¹⁸
Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.
¹⁹
And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and
burned them
in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
²⁰
So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.

The Riot in Ephesus

21
 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Acha'ia and go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there,
I must also see Rome
."
²²
And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Eras'tus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

23
 About that time there arose no little stir concerning
the Way
.
²⁴
For a man named Deme'trius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of
Ar'temis
, brought no little business to the craftsmen.
²⁵
These he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth.
²⁶
And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.
²⁷
And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Ar'temis may count for nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship."

28
 When they heard this they were enraged, and cried out, "Great is Ar'temis of the Ephesians!"
²⁹
So the city was filled with the confusion; and they rushed together into
the theater
, dragging with them Ga'ius and Aristar'chus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel.
³⁰
Paul wished to go in among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him;
³¹
some of the A'si-archs also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.
³²
Now some cried one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
³³
Some of the crowd prompted
Alexander
, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to make a defense to the people.
³⁴
But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, "Great is Ar'temis of the Ephesians!"
And when the
town clerk
had quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Ar'temis, and of the sacred stone 
*
that fell from the sky?
 
^s
36
Seeing then that these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash.
³⁷
For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess.
³⁸
If therefore Deme'trius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against any one, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges against one another.
³⁹
But if you seek anything further,
^t
it shall be settled in the regular assembly.
⁴⁰
For we are in danger of being
charged with rioting
today, there being no cause that we can give to justify this commotion."
⁴¹
And when he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.