1 And it happened that whiletSee ch. 18:24 Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passedu[ch. 18:23] through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them,v[ch. 11:16, 17] “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? ” And they said, “No,w[ch. 8:16; John 7:39] we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. ” 3 And he said,xSee ch. 8:16 “Into what then were you baptized? ” They said, “Intoych. 18:25; [Heb. 6:2]; See ch. 13:24, 25 John's baptism. ” 4 And Paul said,y[See ver. 3 above] “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the peoplezJohn 1:7 to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. ” 5 On hearing this,aSee ch. 8:12, 16 they were baptized in1Or into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 AndbSee ch. 8:17 when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, andcch. 10:46; See Mark 16:17 they began speaking in tongues anddSee ch. 13:1 prophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 AndeSee ch. 13:5 he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading themfch. 1:3; 28:23 about the kingdom of God. 9 g[ch. 13:45, 46; 1 Cor. 16:9] But when some became stubborn andhSee ch. 14:2 continued in unbelief, speaking evil ofiver. 23; See ch. 9:2 the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued forj[ver. 8; ch. 20:31] two years, so thatk[2 Tim. 1:15] all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
11 Andl[ch. 5:15]; See ch. 5:12 God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 l[See ver. 11 above] so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them andmSee Mark 16:17 the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewishn[Matt. 12:27; Luke 11:19] exorcistsoSee Mark 9:38 undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying,pMatt. 26:63; Mark 5:7 “I adjure you by the Jesus, whom Paul proclaims. ” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them,qSee James 2:19 “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you? ” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all1Or both of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, andr[2 Thess. 1:12] the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came,sMatt. 3:6; Mark 1:5; Rom. 14:11; James 5:16 confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And 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. 20 So the word of the Lordtch. 6:7; 12:24 continued to increase and prevail mightily.
21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spiritu1 Cor. 16:5; [ch. 20:1] to pass throughvRom. 15:26; 1 Thess. 1:7, 8 Macedonia and Achaia andwch. 20:16, 22; Rom. 15:25; 2 Cor. 1:16; [1 Cor. 16:3, 4] go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there,xRom. 15:24, 28; [ch. 23:11; Rom. 1:13] I must also see Rome. ” 22 And having sent into Macedonia two ofyCol. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1:18; 4:11; Philem. 13; [ver. 29; ch. 13:5] his helpers,zSee ch. 16:1 Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asiaa[1 Cor. 16:8, 9] for a while.
23 About that timeb[2 Cor. 1:8] there arose no little disturbance concerningcver. 9 the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis,d[ch. 16:16, 19] brought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 d[See ver. 24 above] These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And 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,ech. 14:15; 17:29; 1 Cor. 8:4 saying thatfDeut. 4:28; 2 Kgs. 19:18; Ps. 115:4; Isa. 44:10-20; Jer. 10:3-6; Rev. 9:20 gods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of theg[ch. 8:10] 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. ”
28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out,g[See ver. 27 above] “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! ” 29 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius andhch. 20:4; 27:2; Col. 4:10; Philem. 24 Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul'si2 Cor. 8:19; [ver. 22; ch. 20:34] companions in travel. 30 But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31 And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. 32 jch. 21:34 Now 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. 33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander,kSee ch. 12:17 motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice,lver. 28 “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! ”
35 And 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 fromm[ch. 14:12] the sky? 36 Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. 37 For you have broughtnver. 29 these men here who are neitheroRom. 2:22 sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. 38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there arepSee ch. 13:7 proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. 39 But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. 40 For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion. ” 41 And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.