Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts,

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time for prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon.

And a man lame from birth was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called "the Beautiful Gate" every day so he could beg for money from those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple courts, he asked them for money.

He jumped up, stood and began walking around, and he entered the temple courts with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had happened to him.

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

"Go and stand in the temple courts and proclaim to the people all the words of this life."

When they heard this, they entered the temple courts at daybreak and began teaching. Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin -- that is, the whole high council of the Israelites -- and sent to the jail to have the apostles brought before them.

Now when the commander of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this report, they were greatly puzzled concerning it, wondering what this could be.

But someone came and reported to them, "Look! The men you put in prison are standing in the temple courts and teaching the people!"

Then the commander of the temple guard went with the officers and brought the apostles without the use of force (for they were afraid of being stoned by the people).

And every day both in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus was the Christ.

The priest of the temple of Zeus, located just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,

There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing, and she whom all the province of Asia and the world worship will suffer the loss of her greatness."

After the city secretary quieted the crowd, he said, "Men of Ephesus, what person is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image that fell from heaven?

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

Then Paul took the men the next day, and after he had purified himself along with them, he went to the temple and gave notice of the completion of the days of purification, when the sacrifice would be offered for each of them.

When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from the province of Asia who had seen him in the temple area stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,

shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this sanctuary! Furthermore he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple and made this holy place ritually unclean!"

(For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him previously, and they assumed Paul had brought him into the inner temple courts.)

The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple courts, and immediately the doors were shut.

When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

He even tried to desecrate the temple, so we arrested him.

They did not find me arguing with anyone or stirring up a crowd in the temple courts or in the synagogues or throughout the city,

which I was doing when they found me in the temple, ritually purified, without a crowd or a disturbance.

Paul said in his defense, "I have committed no offense against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar."

For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and were trying to kill me.