Acts 18:13-26

¹³“This man is persuading people to worship God illegally,” they declared.

¹⁴But just as Paul was about to defend himself, Gallio told the Jews, “If you Jews were bringing criminal charges or some serious legal offense, there would be a reason for me to listen to your case.

¹⁵But since you're only arguing over words and names and your own law, then you deal with it yourselves. I won't rule on such matters.”

¹⁶Then Gallio had them ejected from the court.

¹⁷Then the crowd turned on Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him right outside the court, but Gallio wasn't concerned about this at all.

¹⁸Paul stayed on for a while. Then left the believers and sailed for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila along with him. He had his head shaved while in Cenchrae, because he had taken a vow.

¹⁹They arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left the others behind. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews.

²⁰They asked him to stay longer, but he refused.

²¹He said his goodbyes, and set sail from Ephesus, telling them, “I'll come back and see you if it's God's will.”

²²After landing at Caesarea he went to greet the church members, and then carried on to Antioch.

²³He spent some time there and then went from town to town through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, encouraging all the believers.

²⁴In the meantime a Jew named Apollos, originally from Alexandria, arrived in Ephesus. He was a gifted speaker who knew the Scriptures well.

²⁵He had been taught the way of the Lord. He was spiritually passionate, and in his speaking and teaching he presented Jesus accurately, but he only knew about John's baptism.

²⁶He started speaking openly in the synagogue. So when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to join them and explained the way of God to him more fully.