Chapter 19

Paul in Ephesus. ^1 [a]While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came [down] to Ephesus where he found some disciples. ² He said to them, “Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” ³ He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” ⁴ Paul then said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.”^{(A) 5} When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul laid [his] hands on them, the holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.^{(B) 7} Altogether there were about twelve men.

⁸ He entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some in their obstinacy and disbelief disparaged the Way before the assembly, he withdrew and took his disciples with him and began to hold daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years with the result that all the inhabitants of the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord, Jews and Greeks alike. ¹¹ So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul ¹² that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.^(C)

The Jewish Exorcists. ¹³ Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this, ¹⁵ the evil spirit said to them in reply, “Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?” ¹⁶ The person with the evil spirit then sprang at them and subdued them all. He so overpowered them that they fled naked and wounded from that house. ¹⁷ When this became known to all the Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus, fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in great esteem. ¹⁸ Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices. ¹⁹ Moreover, a large number of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in public. They calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand silver pieces. ²⁰ Thus did the word of the Lord continue to spread with influence and power.