Acts 20-21

Acts 20

¹And after the noise had come to an end, Paul, having sent for the disciples and given them comfort, went away from them to Macedonia.

²And when he had gone through those parts and given them much teaching, he came into Greece.

³And when he had been there three months, because the Jews had made a secret design against him when he was about to take ship for Syria, he made a decision to go back through Macedonia.

⁴And Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia, went with him as far as Asia.

⁵But these had gone before, and were waiting for us at Troas.

⁶And we went away from Philippi by ship after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them at Troas in five days; and we were there for seven days.

⁷And on the first day of the week, when we had come together for the holy meal, Paul gave them a talk, for it was his purpose to go away on the day after; and he went on talking till after the middle of the night.

⁸And there were a number of lights in the room where we had come together.

⁹And a certain young man named Eutychus, who was seated in the window, went into a deep sleep; and while Paul went on talking, being overcome by sleep, he had a fall from the third floor, and was taken up dead.

¹⁰And Paul went down and, falling on him, took him in his arms and said, Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.

¹¹And when he had gone up, and had taken the broken bread, he went on talking to them for a long time, even till dawn, and then he went away.

¹²And they took the boy in, living, and were greatly comforted.

¹³But we, going before him by ship, went to Assos with the purpose of taking Paul in there: for so he had given orders, because he himself was coming by land.

¹⁴And when he came up with us at Assos, we took him in the ship and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵And going from there by sea, we came on the day after opposite Chios, and touching at Samos on the day after that, we came on the third day to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul's purpose was to go past Ephesus, so that he might not be kept in Asia; for he was going quickly, in order, if possible, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the rulers of the church.

¹⁸And when they had come, he said to them, You yourselves have seen what my life has been like all the time from the day when I first came into Asia,

¹⁹Doing the Lord's work without pride, through all the sorrow and troubles which came on me because of the evil designs of the Jews:

²⁰And how I kept back nothing which might be of profit to you, teaching you publicly and privately,

²¹Preaching to Jews and to Greeks the need for a turning of the heart to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

²²And now, as you see, I am going to Jerusalem, a prisoner in spirit, having no knowledge of what will come to me there:

²³Only that the Holy Spirit makes clear to me in every town that prison and pains are waiting for me.

²⁴But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God.

²⁵And now I am conscious that you, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom, will not see my face again.

²⁶And so I say to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men.

²⁷For I have not kept back from you anything of the purpose of God.

²⁸Give attention to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has given into your care, to give food to the church of God, for which he gave his blood.

²⁹I am conscious that after I am gone, evil wolves will come in among you, doing damage to the flock;

³⁰And from among yourselves will come men who will give wrong teaching, turning away the disciples after them.

³¹So keep watch, having in mind that for three years without resting I was teaching every one of you, day and night, with weeping.

³²And now, I give you into the care of God and the word of his grace, which is able to make you strong and to give you your heritage among all the saints.

³³I have had no desire for any man's silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves have seen that with these hands I got what was necessary for me and those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I was an example to you of how, in your lives, you are to give help to the feeble, and keep in memory the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, There is a greater blessing in giving than in getting.

³⁶And having said these words, he went down on his knees in prayer with them all.

³⁷And they were all weeping, falling on Paul's neck and kissing him,

³⁸Being sad most of all because he had said that they would not see his face again. And so they went with him to the ship.

Acts 21

¹And after parting from them, we put out to sea and came straight to Cos, and the day after to Rhodes, and from there to Patara:

²And as there was a ship going to Phoenicia, we went in it.

³And when we had come in view of Cyprus, going past it on our left, we went on to Syria, and came to land at Tyre: for there the goods which were in the ship had to be taken out.

⁴And meeting the disciples we were there for seven days: and they gave Paul orders through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.

⁵And when these days came to an end, we went on our journey; and they all, with their wives and children, came with us on our way till we were out of the town: and after going on our knees in prayer by the sea,

⁶We said our last words to one another, and got into the ship, and they went back to their houses.

⁷And journeying by ship from Tyre we came to Ptolemais; and there we had talk with the brothers and were with them for one day.

⁸And on the day after, we went away and came to Caesarea, where we were guests in the house of Philip, the preacher, who was one of the seven.

⁹And he had four daughters, virgins, who were prophets.

¹⁰And while we were waiting there for some days, a certain prophet, named Agabus, came down from Judaea.

¹¹And he came to us, and took the band of Paul's clothing, and putting it round his feet and hands, said, The Holy Spirit says these words, So will the Jews do to the man who is the owner of this band, and they will give him up into the hands of the Gentiles.

¹²And hearing these things, we and those who were living in that place made request to him not to go to Jerusalem.

¹³Then Paul said, What are you doing, weeping and wounding my heart? for I am ready, not only to be a prisoner, but to be put to death at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁴And as he might not be moved we did no more, saying, Let the purpose of God be done.

¹⁵And after these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁶And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, taking a certain Mnason of Cyprus, one of the early disciples, in whose house we were to be living.

¹⁷And when we came to Jerusalem, the brothers were pleased to see us.

¹⁸And on the day after, Paul went with us to James, and all the rulers of the church were present.

¹⁹And when he had said how glad he was to see them, he gave them a detailed account of the things which God had done through his work among the Gentiles.

²⁰And hearing it, they gave praise to God; and they said to him, You see, brother, what thousands there are among the Jews, who have the faith; and they all have a great respect for the law:

²¹And they have had news of you, how you have been teaching all the Jews among the Gentiles to give up the law of Moses, and not to give circumcision to their children, and not to keep the old rules.

²²What then is the position? They will certainly get news that you have come.

²³Do this, then, which we say to you: We have four men who have taken an oath;

²⁴Go with these, and make yourself clean with them, and make the necessary payments for them, so that they may be free from their oath: and everyone will see that the statements made about you are not true, but that you put yourself under rule, and keep the law.

²⁵But as to the Gentiles who have the faith, we sent a letter, giving our decision that they were to keep themselves from offerings made to false gods, and from blood, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from the evil desires of the body.

²⁶Then Paul took the men, and on the day after, making himself clean with them, he went into the Temple, giving out the statement that the days necessary for making them clean were complete, till the offering was made for every one of them.

²⁷And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the Temple, got the people together and put their hands on him,

²⁸Crying out, Men of Israel, come to our help: this is the man who is teaching all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place: and in addition, he has taken Greeks into the Temple, and made this holy place unclean.

²⁹For they had seen him before in the town with Trophimus of Ephesus, and had the idea that Paul had taken him with him into the Temple.

³⁰And all the town was moved, and the people came running together and put their hands on Paul, pulling him out of the Temple: and then the doors were shut.

³¹And while they were attempting to put him to death, news came to the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was out of control.

³²And straight away he took some armed men and went quickly down to them: and the Jews, seeing them, gave no more blows to Paul.

³³Then the chief captain came near and took him, and gave orders for him to be put in chains, questioning them as to who he was and what he had done.

³⁴And some said one thing and some another, among the people: and as he was not able to get a knowledge of the facts because of the noise, he gave orders for Paul to be taken into the army building.

³⁵And when he came on to the steps, he was lifted up by the armed men, because of the force of the people;

³⁶For a great mass of people came after them, crying out, Away with him!

³⁷And when Paul was about to be taken into the building, he said to the chief captain, May I say something to you? And he said, Have you a knowledge of Greek?

³⁸Are you by chance the Egyptian who, before this, got the people worked up against the government and took four thousand men of the Assassins out into the waste land?

³⁹But Paul said, I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, which is not an unimportant town: I make a request to you to let me say a word to the people.

⁴⁰And when he let him do so, Paul, from the steps, made a sign with his hand to the people, and when they were all quiet, he said to them in the Hebrew language,