Acts19

¹And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth , Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus . There he found some disciples .

²And he said to them , Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed ? And they said , No , we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit .

³And he said , Into what then were you baptized ? They said , Into John’s baptism .

⁴And Paul said , John baptized with the baptism of repentance , telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him , that is , Jesus .

⁵On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus .

⁶And when Paul had laid his hands on them , the Holy Spirit came on them , and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying .

⁷There were about twelve men in all .

⁸And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly , reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God .

⁹But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief , speaking evil of the Way before the congregation , he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus .

¹⁰This continued for two years , so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord , both Jews and Greeks .

¹¹And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul ,

¹²so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick , and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them .

¹³Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits , saying , I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims .

¹⁴Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this .

¹⁵But the evil spirit answered them , Jesus I know , and Paul I recognize , but who are you ?

¹⁶And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them , mastered all of them and overpowered them , so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded .

¹⁷And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus , both Jews and Greeks . And fear fell upon them all , and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled .

¹⁸Also many of those who were now believers came , confessing and divulging their practices .

¹⁹And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all . And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver .

²⁰So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily .

²¹Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem , saying , After I have been there , I must also see Rome .

²²And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers , Timothy and Erastus , he himself stayed in Asia for a while .

²³About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way .

²⁴For a man named Demetrius , a silversmith , who made silver shrines of Artemis , brought no little business to the craftsmen .

²⁵These he gathered together , with the workmen in similar trades , and said , Men , you know that from this business we have our wealth .

²⁶And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people , saying that gods made with hands are not gods .

²⁷And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing , and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence , she whom all Asia and the world worship .

²⁸When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out , Great is Artemis of the Ephesians !

²⁹So the city was filled with the confusion , and they rushed together into the theater , dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus , Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel .

³⁰But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd , the disciples would not let him .

³¹And even some of the Asiarchs , who were friends of his , sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater .

³²Now some cried out one thing , some another , for the assembly was in confusion , and most of them did not know why they had come together .

³³Some of the crowd prompted Alexander , whom the Jews had put forward . And Alexander , motioning with his hand , wanted to make a defense to the crowd .

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew , for about two hours they all cried out with one voice , Great is Artemis of the Ephesians !

³⁵And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd , he said , Men of Ephesus , who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis , and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky ?

³⁶Seeing then that these things cannot be denied , you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash .

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess .

³⁸If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone , the courts are open , and there are proconsuls . Let them bring charges against one another .

³⁹But if you seek anything further , it shall be settled in the regular assembly .

⁴⁰For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today , since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion .

⁴¹And when he had said these things , he dismissed the assembly .