²² The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.^(A)

² but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.^(A)

⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;^(A)

³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^(A)

²³ Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.^{(A) 24} Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.^{(B) 25} Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea;^(C)

Paul and the Roman Tribune

²² Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” ²³ And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air,^{(A) 24} the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. ²⁵ But when they had tied him up with straps,^[a] Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman person who is uncondemned?”^{(B) 26} When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman.”

²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,^[a] so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds^[b] you have been healed.^(A)

³⁰ Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.^{(A) 31} While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

²⁸ When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”^{(A) 29} The city was filled with the confusion, and people^[a] rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travel companions.^{(B) 30} Paul wished to go into the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; ³¹ even some officials of the province of Asia^[b] who were friendly to him sent him a message urging him not to venture into the theater. ³² Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.^{(C) 33} Some of the crowd gave instructions to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward. And Alexander motioned for silence and tried to make a defense before the people.^{(D) 34} But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours all of them shouted in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ³⁵ But when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?^{(E) 36} Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ You have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our^[c] goddess.^{(F) 38} If therefore Demetrius and the artisans with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges there against one another.^{(G) 39} If there is anything further^[d] you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.