Acts of the Apostles 16

¹ From there he went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra. Here there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess who had become a believer; but his father was a Greek.

² The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy,

³ and Paul, who wanted to have him as a travelling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality where everyone knew his father was a Greek.

⁴ As they visited one town after another, they passed on the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, with instructions to respect them.

⁵ So the churches grew strong in the faith, as well as growing daily in numbers.

⁶ They travelled through Phrygia and the Galatian country, having been told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in Asia.

⁷ When they reached the frontier of Mysia they thought to cross it into Bithynia, but as the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them,

⁸ they went through Mysia and came down to Troas.

⁹ One night Paul had a vision: a Macedonian appeared and appealed to him in these words, ‘Come across to Macedonia and help us’.

¹⁰ Once he had seen this vision we lost no time in arranging a passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to bring them the Good News.

¹¹ Sailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis,

¹² and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that particular district of Macedonia. After a few days in this city

¹³ we went along the river outside the gates as it was the sabbath and this was a customary place for prayer.[*a] We sat down and preached to the women who had come to the meeting.

¹⁴ One of these women was called Lydia, a devout woman from the town of Thyatira who was in the purple-dye trade. She listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying.

¹⁵ After she and her household had been baptised she sent us an invitation: ‘If you really think me a true believer in the Lord,’ she said ‘come and stay with us’; and she would take no refusal.

¹⁶ One day as we were going to prayer, we met a slave-girl who was a soothsayer and made a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

¹⁷ This girl started following Paul and the rest of us and shouting, ‘Here are the servants of the Most High God; they have come to tell you how to be saved!’

¹⁸ She did this every day afterwards until Paul lost his temper one day and turned round and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave that woman’. The spirit went out of her then and there.

¹⁹ When her masters saw that there was no hope of making any more money out of her, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the law courts in the market place

²⁰ where they charged them before the magistrates and said, ‘These people are causing a disturbance in our city. They are Jews

²¹ and are advocating practices which it is unlawful for us as Romans to accept or follow.'[*b]

²² The crowd joined in and showed their hostility to them, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged.

²³ They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them.

²⁴ So, following his instructions, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ Late that night Paul and Silas were praying and singing God’s praises, while the other prisoners listened.

²⁶ Suddenly there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners.

²⁷ When the gaoler woke and saw the doors wide open he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸ But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Don’t do yourself any harm; we are all here’.

²⁹ The gaoler called for lights, then rushed in, threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas,

³⁰ and escorted them out, saying, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

³¹ They told him, ‘Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too’.

³² Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all his family.

³³ Late as it was, he took them to wash their wounds, and was baptised then and there with all his household.

³⁴ Afterwards he took them home and gave them a meal, and the whole family celebrated their conversion to belief in God.

³⁵ When it was daylight the magistrates sent the officers with the order: ‘Release those men’.

³⁶ The gaoler reported the message to Paul, ‘The magistrates have sent an order for your release; you can go now and be on your way’.

³⁷ ‘What!’ Paul replied ‘They flog Roman citizens in public and without trial and throw us into prison, and then think they can push us out on the quiet! Oh no! They must come and escort us out themselves.’

³⁸ The officers reported this to the magistrates, who were horrified to hear the men were Roman citizens.

³⁹ They came and begged them to leave the town. From the prison they went to Lydia’s house where they saw all the brothers and gave them some encouragement; then they left.