Study Desk

But Paul said to the police officers, "We were not found guilty of any crime, yet they whipped us in public—and we are Roman citizens! Then they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Not at all! The Roman officials themselves must come here and let us out."

But some Jews were jealous and gathered worthless loafers from the streets and formed a mob. They set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the home of a man named Jason, in an attempt to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the people.

But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city authorities and shouted, "These men have caused trouble everywhere! Now they have come to our city,

But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul had preached the word of God in Berea also, they came there and started exciting and stirring up the mobs.

At once the believers sent Paul away to the coast; but both Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.

God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.

When they heard Paul speak about a raising from death, some of them made fun of him, but others said, "We want to hear you speak about this again."

One night Paul had a vision in which the Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking and do not give up,

But since it is an argument about words and names and your own law, you yourselves must settle it. I will not be the judge of such things!"

They all grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But that did not bother Gallio a bit.

The people asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent.

But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

But the evil spirit said to them, "I know Jesus, and I know about Paul; but you—who are you?"

There is the danger, then, that this business of ours will get a bad name. Not only that, but there is also the danger that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will come to mean nothing and that her greatness will be destroyed—the goddess worshiped by everyone in Asia and in all the world!"

Paul himself wanted to go before the crowd, but the believers would not let him.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted together the same thing for two hours: "Great is Artemis of Ephesus!"

But if there is something more that you want, it will have to be settled in a legal meeting of citizens.

But Paul went down and threw himself on him and hugged him. "Don't worry," he said, "he is still alive!"

But I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about the grace of God.

But when our time with them was over, we left and went on our way. All of them, together with their wives and children, went with us out of the city to the beach, where we all knelt and prayed.