Acts 19:1–41

¹ While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the interior and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples ² and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “No,” they answered, “we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ “Into what, then, were you baptized?” Paul asked. “The baptism of John,” they replied. ⁴ Paul explained: “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all. ⁸ Then Paul went into the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some of them stubbornly refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way, Paul took his disciples and left the synagogue to conduct daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that everyone who lived in the province of Asia, Jews and Greeks alike, heard the word of the Lord. ¹¹ God did extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them. ¹³ Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I bind you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ Eventually, one of the evil spirits answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. The attack was so violent that they ran out of the house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known to all the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, and fear came over all of them. So the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸ Many who had believed now came forward, confessing and disclosing their deeds. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of the books was calculated, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord powerfully continued to spread and prevail. ²¹ After these things had happened, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must see Rome as well.” ²² He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed for a tim…