¹After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²There he met a Jew named Aquila, who was originally from Pontus. Aquila had recently moved from Italy with his wife Priscilla after the emperor Claudius ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

³and because they were tentmakers like him, he stayed and worked with them.

⁴Every Sabbath day he went to the synagogue and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks to believe.

⁵After Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul spent all his time preaching, showing the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.

⁶But when they opposed Paul and treated him badly, he shook out his clothes in protest. He told them, “God’s judgment against you will be your own fault! Don’t blame me for it! From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God.

⁸The synagogue leader Crispus and everyone living in his house came to believe in the Lord. Many others who lived in Corinth heard Paul, and they too believed and were baptized.

⁹One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Keep on speaking and don’t be silent,

¹⁰because I am with you. No one will attack you and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

¹¹So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half and taught them God’s word.

¹²But when Gallio became the governor of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth got together to oppose Paul. They brought him into court

¹³and made this charge against him: “This man is trying to get people to worship God in ways that the law of Moses doesn’t allow.”

¹⁴Paul was about to defend himself, but just then Gallio responded, “You Jews aren’t claiming that Paul is doing anything immoral or illegal. If you were, it would make sense for me to listen to you.

¹⁵But since this is all about words and names and your own law, settle the matter yourselves. I won’t be a judge of such things.”

¹⁶So he threw out the charges against Paul.

¹⁷Then the crowd turned against Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and they beat him up right in front of the governor. But Gallio didn’t care.

¹⁸Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that. When he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, Priscilla and Aquila went with him. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae, the harbor that served Corinth. He did this because he’d made a vow to God.

¹⁹When they arrived at Ephesus, Paul asked Priscilla and Aquila to stay there. He himself went into the synagogue and talked with the Jews.

²⁰They asked him to spend more time with them, but he said he couldn’t.

²¹As he left, he made them a promise. “If God wants me to,” he said, “I will come back.” Then he sailed from Ephesus.

²²When he landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and then he went down to Antioch.

²³After Paul had spent some time there, he set out once again and traveled throughout Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples in those regions.

²⁴Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was an educated man from Alexandria who knew the Scriptures very well.

²⁵Apollos had been taught the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great passion. He taught the truth about Jesus, even though he knew only about John’s baptism.

²⁶When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speaking boldly in the synagogue, they invited him to their home. There they gave him a fuller understanding of the way of God.

²⁷Apollos then wanted to go to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters encouraged him to do that. They wrote to the disciples there and asked them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by God’s grace had become believers.

²⁸In public meetings, he argued sharply against Jews who disagreed with him, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.