Miracles at Ephesus

¹¹ God was doing extraordinary and unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or face-towels or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out [of them]. ¹³ Then some of the traveling Jewish exorcists also attempted to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I implore you and solemnly command you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!” ¹⁴ Seven sons of one [named] Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit retorted, “I know and recognize and acknowledge Jesus, and I know about Paul, but as for you, who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued ^[a]all of them and overpowered them, so that they ran out of that house [in terror, stripped] naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified and exalted. ¹⁸ Many of those who had become believers were coming, confessing and disclosing their [former sinful] practices. ¹⁹ And many of those who had practiced magical arts collected their books and [throwing book after book on the pile] began burning them in front of everyone. They calculated their value and found it to be ^[b]50,000 pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord [concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ] was growing greatly and prevailing.

²¹ Now after these events, Paul determined in the Spirit that he would travel through ^[c]Macedonia and Achaia (most of the Greek mainland), and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome [and preach the good news of salvation].” ²² And after sending two of his assistants, Timothy and ^[d]Erastus, to Macedonia [ahead of him], he stayed on in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor] for a while.