Acts 19

₁When Apollos was in the city of Corinth, Paul went to the towns that were far from the sea in the province of Asia. Later he came to the city of Ephesus where he met some believers. ₂Paul asked them: ‘Did the Holy_Spirit come into you when you started to believe in Jesus?’ They answered Paul: ‘No, we did not receive the Holy_Spirit and no one has ever told us about the Holy_Spirit.’

₃Paul asked them: ‘When you were baptised, what baptism was that?’ They said to Paul: ‘We were baptised by the baptism of John the Baptist.’

₄Then Paul said: ‘John baptised people so that they could turn to God and live as He wants. John also told the people that they must believe in the One who would come later. They must believe in Jesus.’

₅When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. ₆Paul put his hands on them and the Holy_Spirit came into them. They started to speak_in_other_languages and they preached the message of God. ₇There were about 12 men. ₈Paul went to the synagogue often and for 3 months he talked to the Jews. He was not afraid. He told them about God who is King over everyone and he tried very hard to help them believe. ₉But some of the Jews did not want to turn to God. They stayed stubborn and they did not believe in Him. They kept saying bad things about ‘The Way_of_the_Lord.’ They said these things in front of all the people. Then Paul went away from the Jews and all the believers went with him. He started to teach them every day in the school of Tyrannus. ₁₀Paul kept on teaching them for 2 years until all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the message of the Lord.

₁₁God gave Paul the power to do miracles and the people were amazed. ₁₂People also took the clothes that Paul had used and they put them on sick people and then the sick people were healed and the evil_spirits went out of people. ₁₃There were some Jews who went from one town to another town and they also tried to chase_evil_spirits_out of people, and they said the name of the Lord Jesus when they wanted to do it. They told the spirits: ‘You must go out of this person. We say it with the power of the name of Jesus that Paul preaches about.’

₁₄There was a Jewish chief_priest. His name was Sceva and he had 7 sons. It was these 7 sons who tried to chase_evil_spirits_out of people. ₁₅But the evil_spirit answered them and said: ‘I know who Jesus is and I know Paul, but I don't know you.’

₁₆Then the man who had the evil_spirit in him jumped on them and he attacked them all and beat them very badly. They ran away from that house. They were naked and full of wounds. ₁₇They told the Jews and Greeks in the city of Ephesus what had happened. They were all afraid and they respected the name of the Lord Jesus and they praised Him. ₁₈A lot of the people started to believe in Christ. They came and said that they were sorry for all the wrong things that they had done. ₁₉Many of the people who had used magic before took their books about magic and they burnt them in front of all the people. The price of all the books was 50 000 silver_coins. ₂₀Because this happened, more and more people heard the message of the Lord and believed it.

₂₁Then the Holy_Spirit told Paul to go to the province of Macedonia and Achaia and then to Jerusalem, and Paul decided to go. Paul said: ‘Later on I also want to go to the city of Rome.’

₂₂Paul sent his 2 helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia but he stayed in the province of Asia for a short while.

₂₃At that time there were big problems in Ephesus because a lot of people became angry about the things that Paul and the believers of The Way_of_the_Lord taught. ₂₄There was a silversmith named Demetrius. His work was to make small silver temples that looked like the temple of the goddess Artemis. He paid the people who worked for him a lot of money. ₂₅Demetrius called together all the people who did the same work as he did and he said: ‘Friends, you know that we get a lot of money for making these little temples. ₂₆And you have seen and heard what this man Paul has done in Ephesus and in other places in Asia. He teaches things that are wrong to the people. He says that it is people who made these gods with their hands. He says that therefore our gods are not_real gods. ₂₇This will bring big problems for the work that we do. People will say bad things about our work and they will stop respecting the temple of the goddess Artemis. Then all the people in Asia and all over the world will stop worshipping our great goddess and they will forget her.’

₂₈When the workers heard this, they got angry and started to shout. They said: ‘Artemis of the Ephesians is great and important.’ ₂₉All the people from the city started to shout. They grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, the 2 friends of Paul who had come with him from Macedonia, and they took them to the place where the people of the town came together for their meetings.

₃₀Paul wanted to go and speak to the people, but the believers said he must not go. ₃₁Some of the Roman officials were friends of Paul, and they sent a man to warn Paul not to go to the people.

₃₂Some of the people in the meeting shouted something and other people shouted something else. They did not know what was going on, and most of the people did not know why they were there.

₃₃The Jewish_leaders pushed a man with the name of Alexander to the front of the crowd of people and they told him what to say to the people. He put up his hand and tried to show the people that he wanted to talk and tell them what had happened. ₃₄But when the people saw that he was a Jew, they all shouted: ‘Artemis of the Ephesians is great and important.’

They shouted this for 2 hours.

₃₅Then a leader of the city told the crowd of people to be quiet and he said: ‘People of the city of Ephesus, all the people in the world know that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis. Everyone knows that we also keep her image that fell from heaven. ₃₆No one can say that this is not_true. You must be calm and you must not do something wrong. ₃₇You have brought these men in here, but they have not stolen anything from the temple, and they have not said anything bad against our goddess.

₃₈If Demetrius and his workers have a problem with these men, then they must take them to court where the judge can say if they have done something wrong. ₃₉And if you want to talk about other things, then you can bring the problems to the city council. ₄₀I am afraid that people will tell the Roman rulers that we want to rebel, and then we will not know what to say to them.’

₄₁Then the leader of the city told them: ‘All of you must go home now.’