Beginning

16 Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there. His mother was a Jew, a believer, and his father was a Greek.

² The Christian brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke very well of Timothy.

³ Paul wanted him to go with him. He circumcised him because all the Jews in those places knew that his father was a Greek.

^4-5 hey went from town to town and talked to the people. They told them what the apostles and church leaders at Jerusalem had said should be done. So the church people became stronger in what they believed. Every day more people joined the church.

⁶ Paul and Silas went through the district of Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit said they should not tell God's word in the country of Asia Minor.

⁷ After they came to the district of Mysia, they wanted to go to the country of Bithynia but the Holy Spirit did not allow them.

⁸ So they went by Mysia and came to the city of Troas.

⁹ In the night Paul had a vision: he saw a picture like a dream. He saw a man of Macedonia standing and calling to him, `Come over into Macedonia and help us.'

¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we tried to leave for Macedonia right away. We believed that the Lord had called us to tell the people there the good news.

¹¹ So we left Troas in a boat and went straight across the water to the town of Samothrace. The next day we went to Neapolis.

¹² From there we went to Philippi. This was the big city of the district of Macedonia. It was a free city. We stayed there for some time.

¹³ On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the river. We thought this was a place where people met to talk with God. So we sat down and talked to the women who had come there.

¹⁴ One woman named Lydia listened to us. She was from the city of Thyatira, and she sold red cloth. She worshipped God. He worked in her heart and she believed what Paul said.

¹⁵ She and all the people in her house were baptised. Then she begged us and said, `If you really feel that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house.' And she would not allow us to say no.

¹⁶ One day we were going to the meeting place where people talked with God. We met a girl who had a bad spirit. She used to tell people what was going to happen. Her masters received much money when she did this.

¹⁷ This girl kept on following Paul and us. She was shouting, `These men are servants of the High God. They are telling us how to be saved.'

¹⁸ She did this for many days. This troubled Paul. He turned and said to the spirit in her, `In the name of Jesus Christ, I say to you, come out of her!' And the spirit came out at once.

¹⁹ Her masters saw that they had lost this way of getting money. They caught Paul and Silas and took them by force to the rulers in the court.

²⁰ When they had brought them before the judges, they said, `These men are Jews. And they are making much trouble in our city.

²¹ They are teaching people laws which we may not obey because we are Roman people.'

²² All the people standing around were against Paul and Silas. The judges tore off the clothes of Paul and Silas. They gave orders that they should be beaten.

²³ They beat them very hard. Then they put them in prison. `Take care,' they said to the prison guard. `Be sure that these prisoners do not run away.'

²⁴ And so the guard put them in the back room in the prison. They locked their feet in holes cut in heavy pieces of wood.

²⁵ At midnight, Paul and Silas were talking with God. They were singing and praising God. The other prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶ Then all of a sudden the earth shook very much. Even the floor of the prison was shaking. All the doors came wide open. The things that held the prisoners all came off.

²⁷ The prison guard woke up. He saw all the prison doors open. So he took a long knife and was going to kill himself. He thought that all the prisoners had run away.

²⁸ Paul shouted, `Stop! Do not hurt yourself. We are all here!'

²⁹ The guard called for a light and went in quickly. He kneeled down before Paul and Silas, trembling with fear.

³⁰ He brought them out of the prison and said, `Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'

³¹ They replied, `Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. All the people in your house must do the same.'

³² They talked to him and all the people in the house. They told them the word of the Lord.

³³ Paul and Silas had sores from the beating in prison. So that same hour of the night the guard washed them. Then he and all the people of his house were baptised.

³⁴ He took Paul and Silas to his home and gave them food to eat. He and all the people in his house were very happy. They now believed in God.

³⁵ In the morning the judges sent soldiers to the guard with a message. `Let those men go free,' they said.

³⁶ The guard told Paul. He said, `The judges have sent a message that you may go free. So now, come out and go on your way. You will have no more trouble.'

³⁷ But Paul said, `We are Romans. And they have beaten us outside where people can see. They have put us in prison without proving we have done wrong. Now, are they going to take us out of prison secretly? No, they themselves must come and take us out.'

³⁸ The soldiers told this to the judges. They were very much afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Romans.

³⁹ So they came to Paul and Silas. They said they were sorry for what they had done. They brought them out of prison and asked them to leave the city.

⁴⁰ When Paul and Silas came out of prison, they went back to Lydia's house. They saw their Christian brothers and talked to them. This helped the Christians to believe more strongly. Then Paul and Silas went on their way.

17 Paul and Silas went through the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia. Then they reached the town of Thessalonica. Here the Jews had a meeting place.

² As he had done in other places, Paul went into it. On three Sabbath days he explained what was written in the holy writings.

³ He proved these things from the writings. He said. `It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise again from death. And this Jesus, whom I am talking about, is the Christ.'

⁴ Some of the people believed him and they followed Paul and Silas. Some of them were Greek people who worshipped God. And some were leading women.

⁵ But some Jews did not believe, and they were jealous. So they called some of the bad men together and made a crowd. They started to fight and to make plenty of trouble and noise in the city. At Jason's house they went in by force to find Paul and Silas. They wanted to bring them outside to the people.

⁶ But they did not find them. So they took Jason and some of the Christian brothers to the rulers of the city. They shouted, `These men have turned the world upside down. Now they have come here also.

⁷ Jason has taken them into his house. None of them obeys the laws of Caesar. They say there is another king named Jesus.'

⁸ All the people and the rulers of the city became angry when they heard this.

⁹ They made Jason and the other Christians pay much money. Then they let them go.

¹⁰ That night the Christian brothers sent Paul and Silas to the town of Berea. When they reached there, they went into the Jews' meeting place.

¹¹ The people in Berea were better than the people of Thessalonica. They were glad to listen to Paul's words. Every day they studied the holy writings to see if what Paul said was right.

¹² Through this, many of them believed. Some of the leading women of the Greek people and some of the men also believed.

¹³ The leaders of the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul told the word of God to the people at Berea. They came to Berea and talked to the people. They said things that made the people very angry against Paul.

¹⁴ The Christian brothers sent Paul to the seaside right away. But Silas and Timothy stayed on at Berea.

¹⁵ The men took Paul to the city of Athens. Paul told them to tell Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as they could.

¹⁶ Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens. He saw that the city was full of idols. His spirit was troubled about this.

¹⁷ In the meeting place he talked with the Jews and those who believed in the true God. In the market every day, he talked to people he met there.

¹⁸ There were some wise men who believed the teachings of Epicurius. They believed the teaching of other wise men called Stoics. Some of them began to talk with Paul. And some said, `What does this talker have to say?' Others said, `He seems to be talking about new gods.' This was because he was telling them about Jesus and how he was raised from death.

¹⁹ So they took Paul and brought him to a meeting at the hill called Areopagus. They said, `We want to know what this new teaching is that you are talking about.

²⁰ You are telling us things we never heard before. We want to understand them.'

²¹ All the people of Athens and the strangers who lived there passed their time in one way. They liked to tell and to hear some new thing.

²² Then Paul stood up in the court and said, `You men of Athens, I see that you are very religious and worship many gods.

²³ As I walked about, I looked at the things you worship. I saw one place where you make sacrifices. You have written on it, "To the God we do not know." You are worshipping that God, but you do not know him. I will tell you about him.

²⁴ He made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of the sky and the earth. He does not live in houses that people make with their hands.

²⁵ Men cannot worship him by things they make with their hands because he does not need anything. He is the one who gives life and breath and everything else to all people.

²⁶ God made one man. From that one man he has made all the nations of men to live on the whole earth. He has given to each nation a certain time and a certain place to live.

²⁷ He did this so they would look for him. He wanted them to reach out and find him. But he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸ In him we live, and move, and are alive. Some of your own writers have said, "We have come from him".

²⁹ `Therefore we have all come from God. So we should not think that God is something made of gold, or silver, or stone. He is not made by men's hands.

³⁰ In times past God did not look at what people did. They did not know any better then. But now he is calling all people to stop doing those things.

³¹ God has set a day when he will judge the whole world in the right way. He has chosen a man to do this. He has proved to all people who the man is. He has raised him from death.'

³² When the people of Athens heard that someone had been raised from death, some of them laughed. Others said, `We want to hear you talk about this matter again some time.'

³³ So then Paul left them.

³⁴ But some men followed him and believed. Among those who believed was Dionysius. He was a judge in the Areopagus court. And a woman named Damaris believed. There were others also.