Acts 19:1-20

Modern English Version

Ephesians Receive the Holy Spirit

19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples ² and said to them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”

They said to him, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³ He said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

They said, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴ Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.” ⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

⁸ He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, lecturing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the crowd, he withdrew from them and took the disciples, lecturing daily in the school of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ God worked powerful miracles by the hands of Paul. ¹² So handkerchiefs or aprons he had touched were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We command you to come out in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.” ¹⁴ There were seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva doing this. ¹⁵ The evil spirit answered, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man in whom the evil spirit was jumped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷ This became known to all Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. ¹⁸ Many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. ¹⁹ Many who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them before everyone. They calculated their value, which equaled fifty thousand drachmas.^{[a] 20} So the word of the Lord powerfully grew and spread.