Acts 16-17 (Contemporary English Version)

Acts 16

Timothy Works with Paul and Silas

 ¹Paul and Silas went back to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a follower named Timothy. His mother was also a follower. She was Jewish, and his father was Greek. ²The Lord's followers in Lystra and Iconium said good things about Timothy, ³and Paul wanted him to go with them. But Paul first had him circumcised, because all the Jewish people around there knew that Timothy's father was Greek. ^{[a] 4}As Paul and the others went from city to city, they told the followers what the apostles and leaders in Jerusalem had decided, and they urged them to follow these instructions. ⁵The churches became stronger in their faith, and each day more people put their faith in the Lord.

   

Paul's Vision in Troas

 ⁶Paul and his friends went through Phrygia and Galatia, but the Holy Spirit would not let them preach in Asia. ⁷After they arrived in Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not let them. ⁸So they went on through ^[b] Mysia until they came to Troas. ⁹During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" ¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. We were sure that God had called us to preach the good news there.

   

Lydia Becomes a Follower of the Lord

 ¹¹We sailed straight from Troas to Samothrace, and the next day we arrived in Neapolis. ¹²From there we went to Philippi, which is a Roman colony in the first district of Macedonia. ^[c] We spent several days in Philippi. ¹³Then on the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to a place by the river, where we thought there would be a Jewish meeting place for prayer. We sat down and talked with the women who came. ¹⁴One of them was Lydia, who was from the city of Thyatira and sold expensive purple cloth. She was a worshiper of the Lord God, and he made her willing to accept what Paul was saying. ¹⁵Then after she and her family were baptized, she kept on begging us, "If you think I really do have faith in the Lord, come stay in my home." Finally, we accepted her invitation.

   

Paul and Silas Are Put in Jail

 ¹⁶One day on our way to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl. She had a spirit in her that gave her the power to tell the future. By doing this she made a lot of money for her owners. ¹⁷The girl followed Paul and the rest of us and kept yelling, "These men are servants of the Most High God! They are telling you how to be saved."

    ¹⁸This went on for several days. Finally, Paul got so upset that he turned and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to leave this girl alone!" At once the evil spirit left her.

    ¹⁹When the girl's owners realized that they had lost all chances for making more money, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them into court. ²⁰They told the officials, "These Jews are upsetting our city! ²¹They are telling us to do things we Romans are not allowed to do."

    ²²The crowd joined in the attack on Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off the two men and ordered them to be beaten with a whip. ²³After they had been badly beaten, they were put in jail, and the jailer was told to guard them carefully. ²⁴The jailer did as he was told. He put them deep inside the jail and chained their feet to heavy blocks of wood.

    ²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God, while the other prisoners listened. ²⁶Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the jail to its foundations. The doors opened, and the chains fell from all the prisoners.

    ²⁷When the jailer woke up and saw that the doors were open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped. He pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. ²⁸But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! No one has escaped."

    ²⁹The jailer asked for a torch and went into the jail. He was shaking all over as he knelt down in front of Paul and Silas. ³⁰After he had led them out of the jail, he asked, "What must I do to be saved?"

    ³¹They replied, "Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! This is also true for everyone who lives in your home."

    ³²Then Paul and Silas told him and everyone else in his house about the Lord. ³³While it was still night, the jailer took them to a place where he could wash their cuts and bruises. Then he and everyone in his home were baptized. ³⁴They were very glad that they had put their faith in God. After this, the jailer took Paul and Silas to his home and gave them something to eat.

    ³⁵The next morning the officials sent some police with orders for the jailer to let Paul and Silas go. ³⁶The jailer told Paul, "The officials have ordered me to set you free. Now you can leave in peace."

    ³⁷But Paul told the police, "We are Roman citizens, ^[d] and the Roman officials had us beaten in public without giving us a trial. They threw us into jail. Now do they think they can secretly send us away? No, they cannot! They will have to come here themselves and let us out." ³⁸When the police told the officials that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, the officials were afraid. ³⁹So they came and apologized. They led them out of the jail and asked them to please leave town. ⁴⁰But Paul and Silas went straight to the home of Lydia, where they saw the Lord's followers and encouraged them. Then they left.

   

Acts 17

Trouble in Thessalonica

 ¹After Paul and his friends had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went on to Thessalonica. A Jewish meeting place was in that city. ²So as usual, Paul went there to worship, and on three Sabbaths he spoke to the people. He used the Scriptures ³to show them that the Messiah had to suffer, but that he would rise from death. Paul also told them that Jesus is the Messiah he was preaching about. ⁴Some of them believed what Paul had said, and they became followers with Paul and Silas. Some Gentiles ^[e] and many important women also believed the message. ⁵The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some worthless bums who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason's home. ⁶But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord's followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, "Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, ⁷and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king."

    ⁸The officials and the people were upset when they heard this. ⁹So they made Jason and the other followers pay bail before letting them go.

   

People in Berea Welcome the Message

 ¹⁰That same night the Lord's followers sent Paul and Silas on to Berea, and after they arrived, they went to the Jewish meeting place. ¹¹The people in Berea were much nicer than those in Thessalonica, and they gladly accepted the message. Day after day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true. ¹²Many of them put their faith in the Lord, including some important Greek women and several men.

    ¹³When the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica heard that Paul had been preaching God's message in Berea, they went there and caused trouble by turning the crowds against Paul.

    ¹⁴Right away the followers sent Paul down to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. ¹⁵Some men went with Paul as far as Athens, and then returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

   

Paul in Athens

 ¹⁶While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. ¹⁷He went to the Jewish meeting place to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. ¹⁸Some of them were Epicureans ^[f] and some were Stoics, ^[g] and they started arguing with him. People were asking, "What is this know-it-all trying to say?"

   Some even said, "Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That's what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death." ^{[h] 19}They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, "Tell us what your new teaching is all about. ²⁰We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean."

    ²¹More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new. ²²So Paul stood up in front of the council and said:

   People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. ²³As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, "To an Unknown God." You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. ²⁴This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. ²⁶From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.

    ²⁷God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, ²⁸and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. "We are his children," just as some of your poets have said.

    ²⁹Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. ³⁰In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. ³¹He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.

    ³²As soon as the people heard Paul say that a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, "We will hear you talk about this some other time." ³³When Paul left the council meeting, ³⁴some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord.