Gottes Neue Bibel

The Acts of the Apostles

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Kapitel 19 -

(Acts 10:44–48)
1
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul left Phrygia and Galatia and went through Asia, and he came back to Ephesus. He met some people who said that they were believers.
2
He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed God’s message?” They answered, “No, we did not. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3
So Paul asked, “So when you were baptized, what did you know?” They replied, “We believed what John the Baptizer taught.”
4
Paul said, “John’s baptism was a sign that people were turning to God and away from their evil thoughts and deeds. He also told them to believe in someone else, one who is coming after him, and that person is Jesus.”
5
So when those men heard that, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6
After that, Paul placed his hands on their heads one by one, and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon each of them. The Holy Spirit gave them power to speak in languages that they had not learned, and they also spoke messages that the Holy Spirit told them.
7
There were about twelve men whom Paul baptized and who received the Holy Spirit.

Paul Ministers in Ephesus

(Ephesians 1:1–2; Revelation 2:1–7)
8
For three months after that, Paul entered the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus on each Sabbath and taught and persuaded people about Jesus and how God would show himself as king.
9
But some of the Jews would not believe the message and did not want to hear it any more. They said many bad things about what Paul was teaching. So Paul left them and took the believers with him to meet in the meeting place of Tyrannus.
10
For two years Paul taught people there. In this way, most of the Jews and non-Jews who lived in the region of Asia heard the message about the Lord Jesus.
11
God also gave Paul the power to do miracles.
12
If those who were sick could not come to Paul, pieces of cloth that Paul touched would be taken and placed on the sick people. As a result, the sick people would become well, and the evil spirits would leave them.

Seven Sons of Sceva

13
There were also some Jews who walked from town to town, and they commanded the evil spirits in those places to depart from people. Some of those Jews told the evil spirits to come out of people by saying “I command you to come out by the power of the Lord Jesus, the man whom Paul teaches about!”
14
There were seven men who were doing this. They were sons of a man named Sceva, a Jew, who called himself a chief priest.
15
But one day as they were doing that, the evil spirit did not come out of that person. Instead, the evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but no one has given you power to do anything to me!”
16
After saying that, suddenly the man who had the evil spirit jumped on the sons of Sceva. He knocked all of them down and hurt each of them. He tore off their clothes and wounded them. They became frightened and ran out of the house.
17
All the people who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and non-Jews, heard what had happened. They became afraid because they saw that the man with the evil spirit was very strong. At the same time, they honored the name of the Lord Jesus.
18
At that time, while other believers were listening, many believers told about the evil things that they had been doing.
19
Some of the people who were sorcerers took their scrolls that told how to work magic and burned them in a place where everyone could see them. When people added up how much the scrolls cost, it came to fifty thousand silver coins.
20
In this way, many people heard the message about the Lord Jesus and believed in him.

The Riot in Ephesus

21
After Paul completed his work in Ephesus, the Spirit led him to decide to go to Jerusalem, but first he planned to go see the believers in the regions of Macedonia and Achaia. Paul said, “After I have been to Jerusalem, I will also go to Rome.”
22
He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia. But Paul stayed in the city of Ephesus, in the province of Asia.
23
Soon after that, people in Ephesus began to make a great amount of trouble because of Jesus and the teaching about him.
24
There was a man there whose name was Demetrius. He made statues of the goddess Artemis (who is also known as Diana) out of silver. Demetrius made a lot of money for all the men who made and sold these idols.
25
Demetrius called together the workmen who made the idols. He said to them, “Men, you know that we make a lot of money doing our work.
26
You know that Paul has taught many people who live in Ephesus to no longer buy the statues that we make. Now even the people from many other towns in our province no longer want to buy what we make. Paul tells people that the gods that we worship are not gods and that we should not worship them.
27
If people listen to him, they will stop our business. People will not think that they should come any longer to the temple of Artemis (also known as Diana) to worship her. People will no longer think that Artemis is great. Yet all the province of Asia and even the whole world worship her!”
28
All the men there became angry at Paul when they heard what Demetrius said. They began to shout, “The goddess Artemis of the Ephesians is great!”
29
Many of the people in the city became angry at Paul and began shouting. Some of the people took hold of Gaius and Aristarchus, two men from Macedonia who traveled with Paul. Then the whole crowd of people ran, dragging those men along with them, to the city theater.
30
Paul wanted to go into theater to talk to the people, but the other believers would not let him go there.
31
Some city rulers who were friends of Paul heard what was happening. They sent someone to tell Paul not to go into the theater.
32
The crowd of people in the theater kept shouting. Some shouted one thing, and some shouted something else. But most of them did not even know why they were meeting!
33
One of the Jews there was named Alexander. Some of the Jews pushed him to the front of the crowd so that he could speak to the people. Alexander put his hands up trying to get the crowd to stop shouting. He wanted to tell them that the Jews did not cause the trouble.
34
But many of the non-Jewish people knew that Alexander was a Jew and knew that the Jews did not worship the goddess Artemis. So the non-Jews shouted for two hours, “Great is the goddess Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35
Then one of the city rulers made the crowd stop shouting. He said to them, “My fellow citizens, everyone in the world knows that the sacred image of our goddess Artemis fell down from heaven!
36
Everyone knows that, and no one can say that these things are not true. So you should be quiet now. Do not do anything stupid.
37
You should not have brought these two men here, because they have not done anything evil. They have not gone into our temples and taken things from there, and they have not spoken evil of our goddess.
38
Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow workmen want to accuse anyone of doing anything bad, they should do it in the right way. There are courts that they can go to if they want to, and there are judges who have been chosen by the government. You can accuse anyone there.
39
But if you want to ask about anything else, you should ask for your rulers to take care of it when those rulers come together.
40
This is not a good meeting! Take care of this trouble the right way because we do not want to go against the government. If the rulers asked me what you were all shouting about, I would not be able to give them a good answer.”
41
That is what the city ruler said to the crowd. Then he told them all to go home, and they did go to their homes.
(Acts 10:44–48)
1
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples.
2
He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3
He said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4
Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.”(a)
5
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6
When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke with other languages and prophesied.
7
They were about twelve men in all.

Paul Ministers in Ephesus

(Ephesians 1:1–2; Revelation 2:1–7)
8
He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.
9
But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.
10
This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
11
God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul,
12
so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out.

Seven Sons of Sceva

13
But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14
There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.
15
The evil spirit answered, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”
16
The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17
This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18
Many also of those who had believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.
19
Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted their price, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.(b)
20
So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.

The Riot in Ephesus

21
Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
22
Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
23
About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way.
24
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,
25
whom he gathered together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.
26
You see and hear that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands.
27
Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”
28
When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
29
The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel.
30
When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn’t allow him.
31
Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.
32
Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn’t know why they had come together.
33
They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people.
34
But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35
When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, “You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?
36
Seeing then that these things can’t be denied, you ought to be quiet and to do nothing rash.
37
For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.
38
If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.
39
But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly.
40
For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning today’s riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn’t be able to give an account of this commotion.”
41
When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

Fußnoten

(a)19:4 NU omits Christ.
(b)19:19 The 50,000 pieces of silver here probably referred to 50,000 drachmas. If so, the value of the burned books was equivalent to about 160 man-years of wages for agricultural laborers