But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" for about two hours.

They took the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.

When they arrived, he said to them, "You yourselves know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia,

They all began to weep loudly, and hugged Paul and kissed him,

especially saddened by what he had said, that they were not going to see him again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.

After we located the disciples, we stayed there seven days. They repeatedly told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.

we said farewell to one another. Then we went aboard the ship, and they returned to their own homes.

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

They have been informed about you -- that you teach all the Jews now living among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.

What then should we do? They will no doubt hear that you have come.

take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law.

But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided that they should avoid meat that has been sacrificed to idols and blood and what has been strangled and sexual immorality."

(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.

While they were trying to kill him, a report was sent up to the commanding officer of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd. When they saw the commanding officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

When the commanding officer had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and gestured to the people with his hand. When they had become silent, he addressed them in Aramaic,

(When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.) Then Paul said,

and saw the Lord saying to me, 'Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

I replied, 'Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you.

The crowd was listening to him until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Away with this man from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live!"

While they were screaming and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust in the air,

When they had stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing nearby, "Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen without a proper trial?"

When the argument became so great the commanding officer feared that they would tear Paul to pieces, he ordered the detachment to go down, take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.

When morning came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.

They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to partake of anything until we have killed Paul.

He replied, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as if they were going to inquire more thoroughly about him.

So do not let them persuade you to do this, because more than forty of them are lying in ambush for him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him, and now they are ready, waiting for you to agree to their request."

This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, when I came up with the detachment and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

Since I wanted to know what charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down to their council.

The next day they let the horsemen go on with him, and they returned to the barracks.

When the horsemen came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

After five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought formal charges against Paul to the governor.

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,

nor can they prove to you the things they are accusing me of doing.

But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets.

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

But there are some Jews from the province of Asia who should be here before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me.

Or these men here should tell what crime they found me guilty of when I stood before the council,

Requesting him to do them a favor against Paul, they urged Festus to summon him to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

"So," he said, "let your leaders go down there with me, and if this man has done anything wrong, they may bring charges against him."

When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

While they were staying there many days, Festus explained Paul's case to the king to get his opinion, saying, "There is a man left here as a prisoner by Felix.

So after they came back here with me, I did not postpone the case, but the next day I sat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought.

When his accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the evil deeds I had suspected.

Rather they had several points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a man named Jesus who was dead, whom Paul claimed to be alive.

They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.

a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve God night and day. Concerning this hope the Jews are accusing me, Your Majesty!

And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death.

to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.

and as they were leaving they said to one another, "This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment."

When it was decided we would sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort named Julius.

The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius, treating Paul kindly, allowed him to go to his friends so they could provide him with what he needed.

Because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there. They hoped that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there.

When a gentle south wind sprang up, they thought they could carry out their purpose, so they weighed anchor and sailed close along the coast of Crete.

After the crew had hoisted it aboard, they used supports to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor, thus letting themselves be driven along.

The next day, because we were violently battered by the storm, they began throwing the cargo overboard,

and on the third day they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands.

When the fourteenth night had come, while we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected they were approaching some land.

They took soundings and found the water was twenty fathoms deep; when they had sailed a little farther they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms deep.

Because they were afraid that we would run aground on the rocky coast, they threw out four anchors from the stern and wished for day to appear.

Then when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship's boat into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow,

When they had eaten enough to be satisfied, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.

When day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.

So they slipped the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the linkage that bound the steering oars together. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and steered toward the beach.

But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force of the waves.

The local inhabitants showed us extraordinary kindness, for they built a fire and welcomed us all because it had started to rain and was cold.

When the local people saw the creature hanging from Paul's hand, they said to one another, "No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself has not allowed him to live!"

But they were expecting that he was going to swell up or suddenly drop dead. So after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

They also bestowed many honors, and when we were preparing to sail, they gave us all the supplies we needed.

The brothers from there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. When he saw them, Paul thanked God and took courage.

After three days Paul called the local Jewish leaders together. When they had assembled, he said to them, "Brothers, although I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, from Jerusalem I was handed over as a prisoner to the Romans.

When they had heard my case, they wanted to release me, because there was no basis for a death sentence against me.

They replied, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor have any of the brothers come from there and reported or said anything bad about you.

They set a day to meet with him, and they came to him where he was staying in even greater numbers. From morning until evening he explained things to them, testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.

So they began to leave, unable to agree among themselves, after Paul made one last statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah

For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them."'

"Therefore be advised that this salvation from God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen!"

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.

They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,

Although they fully know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them,

All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one."

"Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips."

and the way of peace they have not known."

But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.

(as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed -- the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) --

"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth.

For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?