¹⁸ You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me, to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles.^(A)

³ Saul,^(A) however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.^(B)

The Letter to the Gentile Believers

²² Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas,^(A) both leading men among the brothers.

⁶ When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, ⁷ and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees,^(A) saying that there is another king—Jesus.”^{(B) 8} The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset.

²⁵ When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business. ²⁶ You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods.^(A)

³⁰ The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.^(A)

⁶ Yet you have dishonored the poor.^(A) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag^(B) you into court?