Acts 19:1-20

Williams(i) 1 It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, by passing through the inland districts, came to Ephesus. He found a few disciples there 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered him, "So far from that, we never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 He then asked, "With what sort of baptism then were you baptized?" They answered, "With John's baptism." 4 Then Paul said, "John baptized with a baptism that was an expression of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was to come after him; that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, 6 and when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak in foreign tongues and to prophesy. 7 In all there were about twelve men. 8 He went to the synagogue there and for three months courageously spoke, keeping up his discussions and continuing to persuade them about the kingdom of God. 9 But as some of them grew harder and harder and refused to believe, actually criticizing The Way before the people, he left them, withdrew his disciples, and continued his discussions in the lecture-hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that everybody living in the province of Asia, Greeks as well as Jews, heard the Lord's message. 11 God also continued to do such wonder-works through Paul 12 as an instrument that the people carried off to the sick, towels or aprons used by him, and at their touch they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 But some wandering Jews who claimed to be driving out the evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus on those who had evil spirits in them, saying, "I command you by that Jesus whom Paul preaches!" 14 Sceva, a Jewish high priest, had seven sons who were doing this. 15 But on one occasion the evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know and Paul I know about, but who are you?" 16 So the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped upon them and so violently overpowered two of them that they ran out of the house stripped of their clothes and wounded. 17 This at once became known to everybody living in Ephesus, Greeks as well as Jews, and awe fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus began to be held in high honor. 18 And many who became believers kept coming and confessing and uncovering their former practices. 19 Many people who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them up before the public gaze. They estimated the price of them and found it to be ten thousand dollars. 20 In a way of just such power as this the Lord's message kept on spreading and prevailing.