Division over John Mark

³⁶ Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.” ³⁷ Now Barnabas ^[a]was determined to take with them ^(A)John called Mark. ³⁸ But Paul insisted that they should not take with them ^(B)the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. ³⁹ Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to ^(C)Cyprus; ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and departed, ^(D)being ^[b]commended by the brethren to the grace of God. ⁴¹ And he went through Syria and Cilicia, ^(E)strengthening the churches.

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16 Then he came to ^(F)Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, ^(G)named Timothy, ^(H)the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. ² He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he ^(I)took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. ⁴ And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the ^(J)decrees to keep, ^(K)which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. ^5 (L)So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

The Macedonian Call

⁶ Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of ^(M)Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in ^[c]Asia. ⁷ After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the ^[d]Spirit did not permit them. ⁸ So passing by Mysia, they ^(N)came down to Troas. ⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A ^(O)man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go ^(P)to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Lydia Baptized at Philippi

¹¹ Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to ^(Q)Philippi, which is the ^[e]foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. ¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. ¹⁴ Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of ^(R)Thyatira, who worshiped God. ^(S)The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. ¹⁵ And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So ^(T)she persuaded us.

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

¹⁶ Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl ^(U)possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters ^(V)much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days.

But Paul, ^(W)greatly ^[f]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” ^(X)And he came out that very hour. ¹⁹ But ^(Y)when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and ^(Z)dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, ^(AA)exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹ and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²² Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes ^(AB)and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴ Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The Philippian Jailer Saved

²⁵ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. ^26 (AC)Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately ^(AD)all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. ²⁷ And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. ²⁸ But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.”

²⁹ Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ And he brought them out and said, ^(AE)“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ So they said, ^(AF)“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. ³⁴ Now when he had brought them into his house, ^(AG)he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Paul Refuses to Depart Secretly

³⁵ And when it was day, the magistrates sent the ^[g]officers, saying, “Let those men go.”

³⁶ So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”

³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned ^(AH)Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”

³⁸ And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. ³⁹ Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and ^(AI)asked them to depart from the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison ^(AJ)and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

Preaching Christ at Thessalonica

17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to ^(AK)Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² Then Paul, as his custom was, ^(AL)went in to them, and for three Sabbaths ^(AM)reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and demonstrating ^(AN)that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” ^4 (AO)And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and ^(AP)Silas.

Assault on Jason’s House

⁵ But the Jews ^[h]who were not persuaded, ^[i]becoming ^(AQ)envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of ^(AR)Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. ⁶ But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ^(AS)“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. ⁷ Jason has ^[j]harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, ^(AT)saying there is another king—Jesus.” ⁸ And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. ⁹ So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Ministering at Berea

¹⁰ Then ^(AU)the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ¹¹ These were more ^[k]fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and ^(AV)searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. ¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. ^14 (AW)Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵ So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and ^(AX)receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

The Philosophers at Athens

¹⁶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, ^(AY)his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was ^[l]given over to idols. ¹⁷ Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. ^18 [m]Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this ^[n]babbler want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them ^(AZ)Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the ^[o]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹ For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

²² Then Paul stood in the midst of the ^[p]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ^24 (BA)God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^(BB)Lord of heaven and earth, ^(BC)does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^(BD)gives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶ And He has made from one ^[q]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^(BE)the boundaries of their dwellings, ^27 (BF)so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^(BG)though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for ^(BH)in Him we live and move and have our being, ^(BI)as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^(BJ)we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. ³⁰ Truly, ^(BK)these times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^(BL)now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which ^(BM)He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^(BN)raising Him from the dead.”

³² And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” ³³ So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴ However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Ministering at Corinth

18 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. ² And he found a certain Jew named ^(BO)Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. ³ So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them ^(BP)and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. ^4 (BQ)And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

^5 (BR)When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was ^(BS)compelled ^[r]by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. ⁶ But ^(BT)when they opposed him and blasphemed, ^(BU)he shook his garments and said to them, ^(BV)“Your blood be upon your own heads; ^(BW)I am clean. ^(BX)From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ⁷ And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named ^[s]Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. ^8 (BY)Then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

⁹ Now ^(BZ)the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; ^10 (CA)for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” ¹¹ And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.