Acts 18:7-17

⁷So Paul stopped going to the Jewish meeting house. He went next door to a man called Titius Justus, and lived in his house. Titius Justus was not a Jew but he respected God.

⁸A man called Crispus was the boss of the Jewish meeting house. Crispus and everyone in his family believed in Jesus. And a lot of other people in Corinth heard Paul talk about Jesus and they believed in him too. The Christians baptised them all in water.

⁹One night Paul had like a dream, and our leader said to him, “Don’t be afraid but keep on telling people about me, Jesus. Don’t stop talking about me.

¹⁰I am with you, and nobody will attack you and hurt you. I’ve got a lot of people in this town.”

¹¹So Paul stayed in Corinth for one and a half years, teaching God’s word to people.

¹²Later a man called Gallio became the new Roman boss of that country called Achaia. The Jewish leaders agreed together about what they wanted to do, then they grabbed Paul and took him to the courtroom of that new boss. They blamed Paul,

¹³and told the boss, “This man is teaching people wrong. He is telling them to break our Jewish law. He is telling them the wrong way to show respect for God.”

¹⁴Then Paul got up to talk, but Gallio said, “Wait.” And he said to the Jews, “I will not listen to you mob. If this man did something bad, or if he broke our Roman law, then I will listen to you.

¹⁵But you are only arguing about words, and names, and your own Jewish laws, so I will not listen to you. I will not judge these Jewish things. You mob look after that yourselves.”

¹⁶Then Gallio threw those Jewish leaders out of the courtroom.

¹⁷Then the people there grabbed the leader of the Jewish meeting house, called Sosthenes, and they beat him up right there in front of the courthouse. Gallio saw them hitting him, but he didn’t do anything to stop them.