Acts 17:1-15

New Testament for Everyone

Another king!

17 Paul and Silas traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ² Paul went there, as he usually did, and for three sabbaths he spoke to them, expounding the scriptures, ³ interpreting and explaining that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that “This Jesus, that I am announcing to you, is the Messiah.” ⁴ Some of them were persuaded, and threw in their lot with Paul and Silas, including a large crowd of godfearing Greeks, together with quite a few of the leading women.

⁵ But the Jews were righteously indignant. They took some villainous men from the marketplace, drew a crowd, and threw the city into an uproar. They besieged Jason’s house and searched for Paul and Silas, to bring them out to the mob. ⁶ When they couldn’t find them, they dragged Jason and some of the Christians before the town authorities.

“These are the people who are turning the world upside down!” they yelled. “Now they’ve come here! ⁷ Jason has had them in his house! They are all acting against the decrees of Caesar—and they’re saying that there is another king, Jesus!”

⁸ When they heard these words, the crowd and the authorities were both greatly agitated. ⁹ They bound over Jason and the others, and then dismissed them.

Paul reaches Athens

¹⁰ The Christians in Thessalonica quickly sent Paul and Silas on, by night, to Beroea. When they got there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ The people there were more generous in spirit than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with considerable eagerness, searching the scriptures day by day to see if what they were hearing was indeed the case. ¹² Many of them became believers, including some of the well-born Greek women, and quite a few men.

¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea, too, they came there as well, stirring up trouble and whipping up the crowd. ¹⁴ So the Christians quickly sent Paul away as far as the seacoast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. ¹⁵ Those who were conducting Paul brought him all the way to Athens, where he told them to tell Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. Then they left him there.