Chronological

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.

18 After these things Rav Sha’ul left Athens and went to Corinth.

² And in Corinth Rav Sha’ul found some Messianic Jews, namely Aquila hailing from Pontus, having recently come from Italy, where Claudius ordered a decree of Jewish expulsion from Rome, and Priscilla, his isha. Rav Sha’ul went to see them.

³ And because he had the same parnasah (livelihood), Rav Sha’ul was staying with them, and he was working with them, for they were tentmakers by trade.

⁴ And Rav Sha’ul was debating in the shul every Shabbos, and he was convincing Yehudim and Yevanim.

⁵ Now when both Sila and Timotiyos came down from Macedonia, Rav Sha’ul was farnumen (preoccupied) and totally absorbed with the dvar Hashem, bearing solemn edut to the Yehudim that Yehoshua is the Moshiach.

⁶ But when some began opposing Rav Sha’ul, and when they began committing Chillul Hashem, Rav Sha’ul shook out his kaftan and said to them, "The responsibility of your lot be upon your own head! For I am tahor (clean); from now on, I go to the Nations." [2Sm 1:16; Ezek 33:4; 3:17-19; Neh 5:13]

⁷ And so Rav Sha’ul left them, and entered into the bais of a certain ish by the name Titius Justus, a yire Elohim whose bais was right next door to the shul!!

⁸ And Crispus, the Rosh Beit HaKnesset, came to emunah in Moshiach Adoneinu along with his entire bais; also many of the Corinthians who heard came to emunah, and were being given Moshiach’s tevilah of teshuva.

⁹ Then in the lailah, through a chazon, Adonoi said to Rav Sha’ul, "Do not fear, but speak out, and do not keep silent,

¹⁰ "For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you; I have many people in this city."

¹¹ And Rav Sha’ul sat shanah and shishah chodashim saying shiurim to them on the dvar Hashem.

¹² And when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the [disobedient] Yehudim rose up with one accord keneged (against, in opposition to) Rav Sha’ul, and they took him to court,

¹³ Saying, "This one persuades anashim to worship Hashem in a manner against the Torah."

¹⁴ Rav Sha’ul was about to open his mouth when Gallio spoke to the Yehudim, "If this matter concerned some wrong or heinous crime, O Yehudim, I might reasonably put up with you;

¹⁵ "But if it is kashes (questions) about a dvar and shemot (names) and your Torah, you will see to it for yourselves. I do not intend to be a shofet (judge) of these things."

¹⁶ And he had them ejected from the courtroom.

¹⁷ They seized Sosthenes, the Rosh HaKnesset, and were beating him in full view of the Kes HaMishpat (Judgment Seat), and none of these things created a concern for Gallio.

¹⁸ But Rav Sha’ul still remained a number of yamim and then took leave of the Achim b’Moshiach, and was sailing away to Syria; and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he cut his hair, for he had taken a neder (vow). [BAMIDBAR 6:2,5,18]