Beginning

16 And Rav Sha’ul arrived also in Derbe and went on to Lystra. And, hinei, a certain talmid of Moshiach was there by the name Timotiyos, the ben of a faithful Yiddisha isha but whose abba was Yevani.

² Timotiyos was a bochur who was well spoken of by the Achim b’Moshiach in Lystra and Iconium.

³ Rav Sha’ul wanted Timotiyos to come along with his chavurah, so he took him and did a bris milah, because of the Yehudim in those places, for everyone had da’as that his abba was Yevani.

⁴ And as they were traveling through the cities, they were handing on to them to be shomer regarding the mitzvot that had been laid down by the Moshiach’s Shlichim and the Ziknei HaKehillot of Moshiach in Yerushalayim.

⁵ The Moshiach’s Kehillot, therefore, were growing in the emunah (faith), and yom yom were increasing in number.

⁶ And they traveled through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Ruach Hakodesh to speak the dvar Hashem in [the Roman Province of] Asia.

⁷ And having come to the border of Mysia, they were trying to go toward Bithynia, and the Ruach of Moshiach did not permit them.

⁸ So, passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

⁹ And during the lailah a chazon (vision) appeared to Rav Sha’ul. It was of a certain ish from Macedonia who had been standing and was begging him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

¹⁰ And when Rav Sha’ul saw the chazon, immediately he sought to cross over to Macedonia, concluding that Hashem had called us to preach the Besuras HaGeulah to them.

¹¹ And having set sail from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and, on the next day, to Neapolis;

¹² and from there, to Philippi, which is a chashuve city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. And we were in this city, staying some yamim.

¹³ And on Shabbos, we went outside the sha’ar to a river where there was a mikveh mayim, supposing there we would find a minyan davening, and having sat down, we were speaking with the nashim who had assembled.

¹⁴ And a certain isha, by the name Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, of the city of Thyatira, a yirat Elohim, was listening, and Hashem opened her lev (heart) to pay attention to the things being spoken by Rav Sha’ul.

¹⁵ And when she was given the Moshiach’s tevilah of teshuva along with all her household, she said, "If you have judged me ne’emanah to Hashem, enter into my bais and stay there." And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶ And it came about when we were going to where they held the minyan, that a certain shifchah having a ruach of the python (i.e., a shed, demon) came out to meet us. She was bringing much profit to her adonim by divination. [Dt 18:11; 1Sm 28:3,7]

¹⁷ This one was following Rav Sha’ul, crying out, saying, "These anashim are avadim of G-d HaElyon and are proclaiming to you the Derech HaYeshu’at Eloheinu."

¹⁸ And this kviusdik thing she was doing for many yamim; but Rav Sha’ul, whom she wouldn’t stop derkutshen, turned to the ruach, and said, "I command you in haShem of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua to come out from her!” And it came out in the same hour.

¹⁹ And when her adonim saw that the tikvah of their profit also left her, they seized Rav Sha’ul and Sila, and they dragged them into the marketplace before their manhigim;

²⁰ And having brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These anashim, being Jews, are disturbing our city,”

²¹ "And they are proclaiming minhagim which it is not permitted for us, being Romans, to accept or to do." [ESTHER 3:8]

²² And the multitude rose up together keneged Rav Sha’ul and Sila; and the chief magistrates, having torn off the kaftans of Moshiach’s Shlichim, were giving orders to beat them.

²³ And having inflicted klop after klop upon these Jewish men, they threw Rav Sha’ul and Sila into the beis hasohar, giving orders to the soher to guard them securely.

²⁴ And the soher, having received such an order, threw them into the inner beis hasohar, and he fastened their feet in the stock. [IYOV 13:27; 33:11; YIRMEYAH 20:2,3; 29:26]

²⁵ And about chatzot halailah Rav Sha’ul and Sila were davening and were singing niggunim to Hashem, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶ And, suddenly, there came a gevaltike earthquake, so that the beis hasohar was shaken to its foundations, and immediately were opened all delatot (doors) and all sharsherot (chains) were unfastened.

²⁷ And the soher, having awakened and having seen the delatot of the beis hasohar having been opened, drew his cherev (sword) and was about to commit suicide, thinking the prisoners had run away.

²⁸ But Rav Sha’ul shouted with a kol gadol, saying, "Do no harm to yourself, for we are all here."

²⁹ And having asked for lights, he rushed in and, starting to tremble with pachad, he fell down before Rav Sha’ul and Sila.

³⁰ Then, leading them outside, the soher said, "Rabbotai, what is it necessary for me to do that I may come to Yeshu’at Eloheinu?"

³¹ And Moshiach’s Shlichim said, "Have emunah in the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu Yehoshua, and you will come to Yeshu’at Eloheinu, you and your bais."

³² And they spoke to him the dvar Hashem together with all the ones in his bais.

³³ And having taken them in that hour of the lailah, the soher washed their wounds, and at once he did getoivult (was given Moshiach’s tevilah of teshuva), as well as his entire mishpochah.

³⁴ After that he led them to tish in his bais, and he set before them okhel, and he with his whole bais had simcha gedolah that they had come to emunah in Hashem.

³⁵ And in the boker, the magistrates sent the soterim (policemen), saying, "Release those men."

³⁶ And the soher reported these words to Rav Sha’ul, saying, "The magistrates sent word that you may be released; now, therefore, go and depart in shalom." [SHOFETIM 18:6]

³⁷ But Rav Sha’ul said to them, "After giving us a public flogging, though we are uncondemned Roman citizens, they threw us into the beis hasohar; and now are they secretly sending us out? No, indeed! Let them come themselves and lead us out in public."

³⁸ And the soterim reported these words to the magistrates, and the magistrates were afraid, hearing that Rav Sha’ul and Sila were both Roman citizens.

³⁹ So the magistrates came, and entreated Rav Sha’ul and Sila, and brought them out, asking them to depart from the city.

⁴⁰ And having come out from the beis hasohar, they came to Lydia, and having seen and encouraged the Achim b’Moshiach of the Kehillah that met in Lydia’s bais, Rav Sha’ul and Sila departed.

17 Now having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, Rav Sha’ul and Sila came to Thessalonica, where there was a shul.

² And as he did bekvius (regularly), Rav Sha’ul joined their minyan, and on shloshah Shabbatot, he gave them drashot from the Kitvei HaKodesh,

³ Making a Messianic midrash (homiletical interpretation of the Scriptures) and giving the pshat (rationale) for the yissurim of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, that it was necessary for him to suffer and to stand up alive from the Mesim, saying, "This one is the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, this Yehoshua whom I am proclaiming to you."

⁴ And some of them were persuaded and were being mishtatef (join, become involved) in a chavurah with Rav Sha’ul and Sila, as did a large number of yirei Elohim (Yevanim) and not a few of the chashuve nashim.

⁵ And the Yehudim without emunah, being filled with kinah, and having rounded up from the people of the market the gornisht and the nogoodniks, and having formed a mob, were throwing the city into an uproar. And the crowd was seeking to bring out Moshiach’s Shlichim and throw them to the mob, so they attacked the bais of Jason.

⁶ But not having found the Moshiach’s Shlichim, they were dragging Jason and some other Achim b’Moshiach to the city manhigim, shouting, "These, who have been turning the Olam Hazeh upside down, have come here also!

⁷ "And Jason is the one who has received them into his bais! And all these ones are acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is a king other than Caesar, this Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua!"

⁸ And they stirred up the mob and also the city manhigim who heard them saying these things.

⁹ And having taken the bond money from Jason and the rest, they released them.

¹⁰ And, immediately during the lailah, the Achim b’Moshiach sent both Rav Sha’ul and Sila to Berea. When Moshiach’s Shlichim arrived, they joined the minyan in the shul.

¹¹ But these Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians. The Berean Yehudim received the dvar Hashem with all readiness, yom yom (daily) making a chazora (review) and examining and horiva over (analyzing) the Kitvei HaKodesh, to see if these things might be so. [Dt 29:29]

¹² Therefore, many of them became Messianic Jews, and also of the chashuve Yevanim, not a few nashim and anashim came to emunah.

¹³ But when the Yehudim without emunah from Thessalonica realized that also in Berea the dvar Hashem was being proclaimed by Rav Sha’ul, they came also to Berea, agitating and stirring up mobs.

¹⁴ And immediately, then, the Achim b’Moshiach sent away Rav Sha’ul to go as far as to the sea, but both Sila and Timotiyos remained in Berea.

¹⁵ Now the ones escorting Rav Sha’ul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions to have Sila and Timotiyos come to Rav Sha’ul in Athens as quickly as possible, the ones escorting him departed.

¹⁶ And awaiting them in Athens, the ruach of Rav Sha’ul was being distressed within him as he observed the city being full of elilim.

¹⁷ Therefore, Rav Sha’ul was dialoguing and arguing in the shul with the Yehudim and with the yirei Elohim and also in the marketplace yom yom [street preaching] to the ones who happened to be there.

¹⁸ Also some of the Apikoros (Epicurean) and Stoic philosophers started conversing with Rav Sha’ul, and some were saying, "What might this babbler wish to say?" And others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities." They said this because of what Rav Sha’ul was proclaiming: Yehoshua and the Techiyas HaMesim.

¹⁹ And having taken hold of Rav Sha’ul, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "Are we able to have da’as of what this new teaching is, which is being spoken by you?

²⁰ "For some surprising things you bring to our hearing. Therefore, we desire to have da’as of what these things mean."

²¹ Now all the Athenians and the visiting foreigners and tourists in Athens used to spend time doing nothing but shmoozing about the latest novelty in the news.

²² And Rav Sha’ul, taking his stand in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Anashim, Athenians, with respect to everything how very religious indeed I observe you to be.

²³ "For passing through and looking carefully at your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To the unknown g-d.’ Therefore, what you worship without da’as, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴ "Hashem, the One having made HaOlam and all the things in it, this One being Adon HaShomayim vaHaAretz, does not dwell in temples made by human hands. [Isa 42:5 Dt 10:14; Isa 66:1; 1Kgs 8:27]

²⁵ "Nor is Hashem served by human hands, as if Hashem were in need of something, since He gives to all Chayyim and breath and everything. [Ps 50:10-12; Isa 42:5]

²⁶ "And Hashem made from one ancestor every nation of anashim dwelling pnei kol haAretz. And Hashem has set the zmanim and the fixed boundaries of their habitations, [Dt 32:8; Job 12:23]

²⁷ "So that they would seek Hashem, if efsher (perhaps) they might grope for Him and might find Him, though Hashem is not far from each one of us. [Dt 4:7; Isa 55:6; Jer 23:23,24]

²⁸ "For ‘we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ [Dt 30:20; Job 12:10; Dan 5:23; Epimenides; Aratus]

²⁹ "Therefore, being offspring of Hashem, we ought not to think that Hashem’s essence is like gold or silver or stone, a tzelem (image) made by the skill and thought of Bnei Adam. [Isa 40:18-20]

³⁰ "While Hashem has disregarded and let pass the Am HaAretz times of ignorance, now, however, Hashem proclaims to kol bnei Adam everywhere, Make teshuva,

³¹ "Because he set a day in which he is about to bring MISHPAT (TEHILLIM 9:8) on the Olam Hazeh in tzedek [DANIEL 9:24] by an ISH (ZECHARYAH 6:12) whom he appointed, having furnished proof to all by having made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim." [Ps 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Isa 53:11 MEGILLOT YAM HAMELACH (DEAD SEA SCROLLS)]

³² And when they heard of the Techiyas HaMesim, some were mocking Rav Sha’ul. But others said, "We will hear you again about this."

³³ Thus did Rav Sha’ul go out from the midst of them.

³⁴ And some anashim became mishtatef in the chavurah of Rav Sha’ul, in that they had emunah, among whom were both Dionysius, a member of the Athenian Council of the Areopagus, and an isha by name Damaris, and others with them.