Book of Common Prayer
The power of God and the powers at Ephesus
11 God performed unusual works of power through Paul’s hands. 12 People used to take handkerchiefs or towels that had touched his skin and put them on the sick, and then their diseases would leave them and evil spirits would depart.
13 There were some traveling Jewish exorcists who tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus on people with evil spirits.
“I command you,” they used to say, “in the name of Jesus, the one Paul proclaims!”
14 There were seven of them who used to do this. They were the sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest. 15 But on one occasion the evil spirit answered them back.
“I know Jesus,” it shouted, “and I am well acquainted with Paul; but who are you?”
16 The man who had the evil spirit pounced on them and, since he was much too strong for them, overpowered all of them, so that they fled out of the house naked and battered. 17 This became common knowledge among both Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus. Fear came on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus grew greatly in prestige.
18 Many people who became believers came forward to make public confession, revealing what they had been up to. 19 Some who had been practicing magic brought their books and burnt them in front of everyone; someone calculated how much they were all worth, and it came to fifty thousand silver pieces. 20 So the word grew and was strong, in accordance with the Lord’s power.
Opposition to Jesus in Nazareth
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit. His reputation spread throughout the whole district. 15 He taught in their synagogues to universal acclaim.
16 He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. On the sabbath, as was his regular practice, he went into the synagogue and stood up to read. 17 They gave him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 The spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me
to tell the poor the good news.
He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners
and sight to the blind,
to set the wounded victims free,
19 to announce the year of God’s special favor.
20 He rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 “Today,” he began, “this scripture is fulfilled in your own hearing.”
22 Everyone remarked at him; they were astonished at the words coming out of his mouth—words of sheer grace.
“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they said.
23 “I know what you’re going to say,” Jesus said. “You’re going to tell me the old riddle: ‘Heal yourself, doctor!’ ‘We heard of great happenings in Capernaum; do things like that here, in your own country!’
24 “Let me tell you the truth,” he went on. “Prophets never get accepted in their own country. 25 This is the solemn truth: there were plenty of widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a great famine over all the land. 26 Elijah was sent to none of them, only to a widow in the Sidonian town of Zarephath.
27 “And there were plenty of people with virulent skin diseases in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was healed—only Naaman, the Syrian.”
28 When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue flew into a rage. 29 They got up and threw him out of town. They took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built, meaning to fling him off. 30 But he slipped through the middle of them and went away.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.