Part 22

016:024 He, having received an order like that, lodged them in the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.

016:025 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

016:026 when suddenly there was such a violent shock of earthquake that the prison shook to its foundations. Instantly the doors all flew open, and the chains fell off from every prisoner.

016:027 Starting up from sleep and seeing the doors of the jail wide open, the jailer drew his sword and was on the point of killing himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

016:028 But Paul shouted loudly to him, saying, "Do yourself no injury: we are all here.

016:029 Then, calling for lights, he sprang in and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas;

016:030 and, bringing them out of the prison, he exclaimed, "O sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

016:031 "Believe on the Lord Jesus," they replied, "and both you and your household will be saved."

016:032 And they told the Lord's Message to him as well as to all who were in his house.

016:033 Then he took them, even at that time of night, washed their wounds, and he and all his household were immediately baptized;

016:034 and bringing the Apostles up into his house, he spread a meal for them, and was filled with gladness, with his whole household, his faith resting on God.

016:035 In the morning the praetors sent their lictors with the order, "Release those men."

016:036 So the jailer brought Paul word, saying, "The praetors have sent orders for you to be released. Now therefore you can go, and proceed on your way in peace."

016:037 But Paul said to them, "After cruelly beating us in public, without trial, Roman citizens though we are, they have thrown us into prison, and are they now going to send us away privately? No, indeed! Let them come in person and fetch us out."

016:038 This answer the lictors took back to the praetors, who were alarmed when they were told that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

016:039 Accordingly they came and apologized to them; and, bringing them out, asked them to leave the city.

016:040 Then Paul and Silas, having come out of the prison, went to Lydia's house; and, after seeing the brethren and encouraging them, they left Philippi.

017:001 Then, passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went to Thessalonica. Here there was a synagogue of the Jews.

017:002 Paul--following his usual custom--betook himself to it, and for three successive Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

017:003 which he clearly explained, pointing out that it had been necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise again from the dead, and insisting, "The Jesus whom I am announcing to you is the Christ."

017:004 Some of the people were won over, and attached themselves to Paul and Silas, including many God-fearing Greeks and not a few gentlewomen of high rank.

017:005 But the jealousy of the Jews was aroused, and, calling to their aid some ill-conditioned and idle fellows, they got together a riotous mob and filled the city with uproar. They then attacked the house of Jason and searched for Paul and Silas, to bring them out before the assembly of people.

017:006 But, failing to find them, they dragged Jason and some of the other brethren before the magistrates of the city, loudly accusing them. "These men," they said, "who have raised a tumult throughout the Empire, have come here also.

017:007 Jason has received them into his house; and they all set Caesar's authority at defiance, declaring that there is another Emperor-- one called Jesus."

017:008 Great was the excitement among the crowd, and among the magistrates of the city, when they heard these charges.

017:009 They required Jason and the rest to find substantial bail, and after that they let them go.

017:010 The brethren at once sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea, and they, on their arrival, went to the synagogue of the Jews.

017:011 The Jews at Beroea were of a nobler disposition than those in Thessalonica, for they very readily received the Message, and day after day searched the Scriptures to see whether it was as Paul stated.