Study Desk

But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to send us away secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out.”

The police reported these words to the magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

So they came to appease them, and escorting them from prison, they urged them to leave town.

After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia’s house, where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and departed.

After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly.

When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,

and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.”

After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and upsetting the crowds.

Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.

They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?

From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he stayed with them and worked.

When they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, along with his whole household. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

And they all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal, but none of these things mattered to Gallio.