Book of Common Prayer
24 Now there arrived in Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, who came from Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, and powerful when it came to expounding scripture. 25 He had received instruction in the Way of the Lord. He was an enthusiastic speaker, and taught the things about Jesus accurately, even though he only knew the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him to one side and expounded the Way of God to him more accurately.
27 He wanted to go across to Achaea. The Christians in Ephesus, by way of encouragement, wrote letters to the church there to welcome him. On his arrival, his work made a considerable impact, through God’s grace, on the believers, 28 since he openly and powerfully refuted the Jews by demonstrating from the scriptures that the Messiah really was Jesus.
Paul in Ephesus
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples, 2 and said to them, “Did you receive the holy spirit when you believed?”
“We had not heard,” they replied, “that there was a ‘holy spirit.’ ”
3 “Well then,” said Paul, “into what were you baptized?”
“Into John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 “John baptized with a baptism of repentance for the people,” said Paul, “speaking about the one who was to come after him, and saying that that person would be the one that people should believe in—and that means Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. 6 Paul then laid his hands on them, and the holy spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
The parable of the good Samaritan
25 A lawyer got up and put Jesus on the spot.
“Teacher,” he said, “what should I do to inherit the life of the coming age?”
26 “Well,” replied Jesus, “what is written in the law? What’s your interpretation of it?”
27 “You shall love the Lord your God,” he replied, “with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your understanding; and your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “Well said!” replied Jesus. “Do that and you will live.”
29 “Ah,” said the lawyer, wanting to win the point, “but who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus rose to the challenge. “Once upon a time,” he said, “a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was set upon by brigands. They stripped him and beat him and ran off leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him he went past on the opposite side. 32 So too a Levite came by the place; he saw him too, and went past on the opposite side.
33 “But a traveling Samaritan came to where he was. When he saw him he was filled with pity. 34 He came over to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he put him on his own beast, took him to an inn, and looked after him. 35 The next morning, as he was going on his way, he gave the innkeeper two dinars. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my way back I’ll pay you whatever else you need to spend on him.’
36 “Which of these three do you think turned out to be the neighbor of the man who was set upon by the brigands?”
37 “The one who showed mercy on him,” came the reply.
“Well,” Jesus said to him, “you go and do the same.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.