Chronological
4 He was accompanied by Sopater (the son of Pyrrhus) from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia. 5 These men went on ahead and were waiting for us in Troas. 6 After the Festival[a] of Unleavened Bread, we sailed from Philippi, and days later we joined them in Troas and stayed there for seven days.
Paul’s Farewell Visit to Troas
7 On the first day of the week, when we had met to break bread, Paul began to address the people.[b] Since he intended to leave the next day, he went on speaking until midnight. 8 Now there were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in a window, began to sink off into a deep sleep as Paul kept speaking longer and longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. 10 But Paul went down, bent over[c] him, took him into his arms, and said, “Stop being alarmed, because he’s still alive.” 11 Then he went back upstairs, broke bread, and ate. He talked with them for a long time, until dawn, and then left. 12 They took the young man away alive and were greatly relieved.
Paul’s Trip to Miletus
13 We proceeded to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we intended to pick up Paul. He had arranged it this way, since he had planned to travel there on foot. 14 When he met us in Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. 15 We sailed from there and on the following day arrived off Chios. The next day, we crossed over to Samos and stayed at Trogyllium.[d] The day after that, we came to Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in Asia, as he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, if that was possible.
Paul Meets with the Ephesian Elders
17 From Miletus he sent messengers[e] to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him. 18 When they came to him, he told them, “You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia. 19 I served the Lord with all humility, with tears, and with trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. 21 I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.[f] 22 And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that in town after town the Holy Spirit assures me that imprisonment and suffering are waiting for me. 24 But I don’t place any value on my life, if only I can finish my race and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I traveled preaching about the kingdom will ever see my face again. 26 I therefore declare to you today that I’m not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27 because I never shrank from telling you the whole plan of God. 28 Pay attention to yourselves and to the entire flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to be shepherds of God’s[g] church, which he acquired with his own blood. 29 I know that when I’m gone, savage wolves will come among you and not spare the flock. 30 Indeed, some of your own men will arise and distort the truth in order to lure the disciples into following them. 31 So be alert! Remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped tearfully warning each of you.
32 “I’m now entrusting you to God and to the message of his grace, which is able to build you up and secure for you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. 33 I never desired anyone’s silver, gold, or clothes. 34 You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who were with me. 35 In every way I showed you that by working hard like this we should help the weak and remember the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”[h]
36 When Paul[i] had said this, he knelt down and prayed with all of them. 37 All of them cried and cried[j] as they put their arms around Paul and kissed[k] him affectionately. 38 They were especially sorrowful because of what he had said—that they would never see his face again. Then they took him to the ship.
Paul in Tyre
21 When we had torn ourselves away from those brothers,[l] we sailed straight to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.[m] 2 There we found a ship going across to Phoenicia, so we went aboard and sailed on. 3 We came in sight of Cyprus, and leaving it on our left, we sailed on to Syria and landed at Tyre because the ship was to unload its cargo there. 4 So we located some disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit, they kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem, 5 but when our time there came to an end, we left and proceeded on our journey. All of them accompanied us with their wives and children out of the city. We knelt on the beach, prayed, 6 and said goodbye to each other. Then we reboarded the ship, and they went back home.
Paul in Caesarea
7 When we completed our voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, greeted the brothers there, and stayed with them for one day. 8 The next day, we left and came to Caesarea. We went to the home of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who could prophesy. 10 After we had been there for a number of days, a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. 11 He came to us, took Paul’s belt, and tied his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jewish leaders[n] in Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt. Then they will hand him over to the gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people who lived there begged Paul[o] not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 At this Paul replied, “What do you mean by crying and breaking my heart? I’m ready not only to be tied up in Jerusalem but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus!”
14 When he could not be persuaded otherwise, we remained silent except to say, “May the Lord’s will be done.”
Paul in Jerusalem
15 When our time there ended,[p] we got ready to go up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us. They took us to the home of Mnason to be his guests. He was from Cyprus and had been[q] an early disciple. 17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers there welcomed us warmly.
18 The next day, Paul went with us to visit James, and all the elders were present. 19 After greeting them, Paul[r] related one by one the things that God had done among the gentiles through his ministry. 20 When they heard about it, they praised God and told him, “You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and all of them are zealous for the Law. 21 But they have been told about you—that you teach all the Jews living among the gentiles to forsake the Law of Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. 22 What is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. 23 So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. 24 Take these men, go through the purification ceremony with them, and pay their expenses to shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you are carefully observing and keeping the Law. 25 As for the gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our decision that they should keep away from food that has been sacrificed to idols, from blood,[s] from anything strangled,[t] and from sexual immorality.”
Paul is Arrested in the Temple
26 Then Paul took those men and the next day purified himself with them. Then he went into the Temple to announce the time when their days of purification would end and when the sacrifice would be offered for each of them. 27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul[u] in the Temple, stirred up a large crowd. They grabbed Paul,[v] 28 yelling, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against our people, the Law, and this place. More than that, he has even brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this Holy Place.” 29 For they had earlier seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple. 30 The whole city was in chaos. The people rushed together, grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the Temple, and at once the doors were sealed shut.
31 The crowd[w] was trying to kill Paul[x] when a report reached the tribune of the cohort[y] that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Immediately the tribune[z] took some soldiers and officers and ran down to the crowd.[aa] When the people[ab] saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up, grabbed Paul,[ac] and ordered him to be tied up with two chains. He then asked who Paul[ad] was and what he had done. 34 Some of the crowd shouted this and some that. Since the tribune[ae] couldn’t learn the facts due to the confusion, he ordered Paul[af] to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul[ag] got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because the mob had become so violent. 36 The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, “Kill him!”
Paul Speaks in His Own Defense
37 Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he asked the tribune, “May I say something to you?”
The tribune[ah] asked, “Oh, do you speak Greek? 38 You’re not the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led 4,000 assassins into the desert, are you?”
39 Paul replied, “I’m a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. Please let me speak to the people.” 40 The tribune[ai] gave him permission, and Paul, standing on the steps, motioned for the people to be silent. When everyone had quieted down, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language:
22 “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I am now making before you.” 2 When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he continued:
3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia but raised in this city and educated at the feet of Gamaliel in the strict ways of our ancestral Law. I am as zealous for God as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way, even executing people,[aj] and kept tying up both men and women and putting them in prison, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. I also received letters from them to the brothers in Damascus, and I was going there to tie up those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “But while I was on my way and approaching Damascus about noon, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’
8 “I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’[ak]
“He told me, ‘I’m Jesus from Nazareth,[al] whom you are persecuting.’ 9 The men who were with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
10 “Then I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’
“The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are destined to do.’ 11 Since I could not see because of the brightness of the light, the men who were with me took me by the hand and led me into Damascus.
12 “A certain Ananias, who was a devout man with respect to the Law and who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there, 13 came to me. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ At that moment I could see him.
14 “Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear his own voice,[am] 15 because you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 So now, what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away as you call on his name.’
17 “Then I returned to Jerusalem. While I was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord[an] saying to me, ‘Hurry up and get out of Jerusalem at once, because the people[ao] won’t accept your testimony about me.’
19 “I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I kept imprisoning and beating those who believe in you. 20 Even when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I was standing there, approving it and guarding the coats of those who were killing him.’
21 “Then he told me, ‘Go, because I’ll send you far away to the gentiles.’”
22 Up to this point they listened to him, but then they began to shout, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! He’s not fit to go on living!” 23 While they were yelling, tossing their coats around, and throwing dirt into the air, 24 the tribune ordered Paul[ap] to be taken into the barracks and told the soldiers[aq] to beat and question him in order to find out why the people[ar] were yelling at him like this.
25 But when they had tied him up with the straps, Paul asked the centurion[as] who was standing there, “Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t been condemned?”
26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and told him, “What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen!”
27 So the tribune went and asked Paul,[at] “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes,” he said.
28 Then the tribune replied, “I paid a lot of money for this citizenship of mine.”
Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.” 29 Immediately those who were about to examine him stepped back, and the tribune was afraid when he found out that Paul[au] was a Roman citizen and that he had tied him up.
Paul is Brought before the Jewish Council
30 The next day, since the tribune[av] wanted to find out exactly what Paul[aw] was being accused of by the Jews, he released him and ordered the high priests and the entire Council[ax] to meet. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.
Paul Defends Himself
23 Paul looked straight at the Council[ay] and said, “Brothers, with a clear conscience I have done my duty before God up to this very day.”
2 Then the high priest Ananias ordered the men standing near him to strike him on the mouth. 3 At this Paul told him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall![az] How can you sit there and judge me according to the Law, and yet in violation of the Law order me to be struck?”
4 The men standing near him asked, “Do you mean to insult God’s high priest?”
5 Paul answered, “I didn’t realize, brothers, that he is the high priest. After all, it is written, ‘You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”[ba]
6 When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the Council,[bb] “Brothers, I’m a Pharisee and a descendant[bc] of Pharisees. I’m on trial concerning the hope that the dead will be resurrected.”
7 After he said that, an angry quarrel broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided, 8 because the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection and that there is no such thing as an angel or spirit, but the Pharisees believe in all those things.
9 There was a great deal of shouting until some of the scribes who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and argued forcefully, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”
10 The quarrel was becoming violent, and the tribune was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. So he ordered the soldiers to go down, take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks. 11 That night the Lord stood near Paul[bd] and said, “Have courage! For just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must testify in Rome, too.”
Some Jews Plot to Kill Paul
12 In the morning, the Jewish leaders[be] formed a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink anything before they had killed Paul. 13 More than 40 men formed this conspiracy. 14 They went to the high priests and elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to taste any food before we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, you and the Council[bf] must notify the tribune to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to look into his case more carefully, but before he arrives we’ll be ready to kill him.”
16 But the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush, so he came and got into the barracks and told Paul. 17 Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, because he has something to tell him.”
18 So the centurion[bg] took him, brought him to the tribune, and said, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.”
19 The tribune took him by the hand, stepped aside to be alone with him, and asked, “What have you got to tell me?”
20 He answered, “The Jewish leaders[bh] have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Council[bi] tomorrow as though they were going to examine his case more carefully. 21 Don’t believe them, because more than 40 of them are planning to ambush him. They’ve taken an oath not to eat or drink before they’ve killed him. They are ready now, just waiting for your consent.”
22 The tribune dismissed the young man and ordered him not to tell anyone that he had notified him. 23 Then he summoned two centurions and ordered, “Get 200 soldiers ready to leave for Caesarea at nine o’clock tonight,[bj] along with 70 mounted soldiers and 200 soldiers with spears. 24 Provide a mount for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Governor Felix.” 25 He wrote a letter with this message:
26 “From:[bk] Claudius Lysias
To: Governor Felix
Greetings, Your Excellency:
27 This man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I went with the guard and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 I wanted to know the exact charge they were making against him, so I had him brought before their Council.[bl] 29 I found that, although he was charged with questions about their Law, there was no charge against him deserving death or imprisonment. 30 Since a plot against the man has been reported to me, I’m sending him to you at once, and I’ve also ordered his accusers to present their charges against him before you.”
31 So the soldiers, in keeping with their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. 32 The next day, they let the horsemen ride with Paul[bm] while they returned to their barracks. 33 When these men[bn] came to Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. 34 After reading the letter, the governor[bo] asked which province Paul[bp] was from. On learning that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered Paul[bq] to be kept in custody in Herod’s palace.[br]
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