we have unanimously ¹  decided ²  to choose men to send to you along with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul,

A ¹  vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there ²  urging him, ³  “Come over ⁴  to Macedonia ⁵  and help us!”

So Paul stood ¹  before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious ²  in all respects. ³ 

But some people ¹  joined him ²  and believed. Among them ³  were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, ⁴  a woman ⁵  named Damaris, and others with them.

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived in Ephesus. ¹  He was an eloquent speaker, ²  well-versed ³  in the scriptures.

He gathered ¹  these ²  together, along with the workmen in similar trades, ³  and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity ⁴  comes from this business.

Even from among your own group ¹  men ²  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ³  to draw the disciples away after them.

Then you’re not that Egyptian who started a rebellion ¹  and led the four thousand men of the ‘Assassins’ ²  into the wilderness ³  some time ago?” ⁴ 

A man named Ananias, ¹  a devout man according to the law, ²  well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, ³ 

Paul looked directly ¹  at the council ²  and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience ³  before God to this day.”

This man was seized ¹  by the Jews and they were about to kill him, ²  when I came up ³  with the detachment ⁴  and rescued him, because I had learned that he was ⁵  a Roman citizen. ⁶ 

For we have found ¹  this man to be a troublemaker, ²  one who stirs up riots ³  among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader ⁴  of the sect of the Nazarenes. ⁵ 

“So,” he said, “let your leaders ¹  go down there ²  with me, and if this man has done anything wrong, ³  they may bring charges ⁴  against him.”

While ¹  they were staying there many days, Festus ²  explained Paul’s case to the king to get his opinion, ³  saying, “There is a man left here as a prisoner by Felix.

So after they came back here with me, ¹  I did not postpone the case, ²  but the next day I sat ³  on the judgment seat ⁴  and ordered the man to be brought.

“Men, I can see the voyage is going to end ¹  in disaster ²  and great loss not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” ³ 

But what was the divine response ¹  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ²  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ³ 

But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with ¹  his own wife and each woman with ²  her own husband.

And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, ¹  I set aside childish ways.