Acts 18

₁After Paul had talked to the people of the Areopagus, he went away from the city of Athens to Corinth. ₂In Corinth Paul met a Jew. His name was Aquila and his family came from the province of Pontus. Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, had come from the land of Italy not long before that, because the ruler, Claudius, had told all the Jews to leave the city of Rome. Paul went to Aquila and Priscilla. ₃They did the same work as Paul. They also made tents. Paul stayed with them and they worked together. ₄Every Sabbath day Paul went to the synagogue and he talked to the people. He talked to Jews and Greeks because he wanted them all to believe the Good_News about Jesus. ₅After Silas and Timothy had come from the province of Macedonia, Paul stopped making tents. He started to preach the message of Jesus to the people every day and he told the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. ₆But then the Jews started to argue with Paul and they were against him and said bad things about him. Then Paul cleaned the dust from his clothes and he said to them: ‘You are lost and it is not my fault. It is you who are guilty. From now on I will go and preach to the Gentiles.’

₇Then Paul went and he stayed in the house of a man named Titius Justus, who also worshipped God. His house was next to the synagogue. ₈The leader of the synagogue was Crispus. He and his family started to believe in the Lord, with a lot of other people of the city of Corinth, and they were baptised. ₉One night the Lord gave Paul a vision. It was like a dream. The Lord said to Paul: ‘Do not be afraid. You must keep on telling the people about Me. You must not stop ₁₀because I am with you. No one will attack you and no one will do bad things to you, because in this city there are many people who belong to Me.’

₁₁Paul stayed in Corinth for one year and 6 months and he preached and taught them about the message of God. ₁₂When Gallio was governor of the province of Achaia, all the Jews came together and they grabbed Paul and took him to court. ₁₃The Jews said: ‘This man, Paul, teaches people to serve God in a wrong way, a way that is not the same as the way that the laws of Moses say.’

₁₄When Paul wanted to talk, Gallio said to the Jews: ‘No, I will listen to you only if this man did wrong or something bad. ₁₅But you argue with each other about words and names and about your own laws. You must go out and decide what is right and what is wrong. I will not judge things like this.’

₁₆Gallio then chased them out of the court. ₁₇Then the crowd of people grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and they beat him in front of the court. But Gallio did not worry about that.

₁₈Paul stayed with the believers in the city of Corinth for a long time and then he said goodbye to them and he sailed to the province of Syria. Priscilla and Aquila went with him. But before he sailed, he shaved off all the hair on his head at the town of Cenchreae because he had made a vow to God. ₁₉When they came into the city of Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla stayed there. Paul went alone to the synagogue and he talked to the Jews. ₂₀The Jews asked Paul to stay longer with them, but he said no. ₂₁He said goodbye to them and told them: ‘If God wants me to come back, then I will come back to you.’

Then he sailed in a boat from the city of Ephesus. ₂₂Paul sailed to the city of Caesarea and then he went to Jerusalem. When he got there he went to the congregation and greeted them. Then he went to the city of Antioch ₂₃and he stayed there for a long time.

Later Paul went away from the city of Antioch and he went to a lot of places through the lands of Galatia and Phrygia. He visited the believers and he encouraged them.

₂₄There was a Jew who came to the city of Ephesus. His name was Apollos. He was born in the city of Alexandria and he could speak very well and he also knew the Old_Testament very well. ₂₅The believers helped Apollos and they taught him how God wants his people to live. When he preached, he spoke like someone who knew that the things he said were very important. He told the people the right things about Jesus, but he knew only part of the message. He knew what John the Baptist had said and how John had baptised people but he did not know that the apostles baptised people in the name of Jesus. ₂₆Apollos started to preach in the synagogue. He was not afraid of people. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him talk, they took him to their home and they started to teach him more correctly about the things of God. ₂₇Apollos said he wanted to go to the land of Achaia and the believers in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They also wrote a letter to the believers in Achaia and asked them to welcome Apollos. When Apollos came to Achaia he helped all the believers, who had started to believe because God had given them his gift, his grace that no one can work for. ₂₈Apollos was not afraid. He argued strongly with the Jews in front of all the people. He showed them from the Old_Testament that they were wrong. He showed them that Jesus is the Christ whom the Jews had been waiting for.