Section 19:1–20

Paul spent some time in Ephesus preaching the gospel

In this section, Paul went to Ephesus. He met some men who were baptized only following John the Baptist’s teaching and had not received the Holy Spirit. They believed in Jesus and Paul baptized them as Jesus commanded and prayed for them. The Holy Spirit came into them and they prophesied and spoke in tongues.

Then Paul taught people about Jesus and the kingdom of God, first in the synagogue, and after that in a lecture hall. God used Paul to do many miracles of healing and to cast out evil spirits.

Then seven Jewish men tried to cast out evil spirits like Paul did. But they did not believe in Jesus. A man who was possessed by an evil spirit beat them so severely that they had to run away. As a result, many people honored Jesus. Some believers had earlier practiced sorcery. After what happened to the seven Jewish men, the believers burned their scrolls about sorcery to show they now followed only Jesus.

This section ends with a summary statement about believers telling the gospel of Jesus to people in more and more places and the believers becoming more and more effective as God empowered them.

Other examples of headings for this section are:

Paul preached in Ephesus and stayed for more than two years
-or-
People in Ephesus heard the message/gospel
-or-
Paul In Ephesus (New International Version)

Paragraph 19:1–7

19:1a

While Apollos was at Corinth: The Greek words are literally “And it happened (that) while Apollos was at Corinth.” The phrase “And it happened (that)” introduces the events that follow and the next major part of a story. For example:

It happened that while Apollos was in Corinth (New Jerusalem Bible)

Many English versions do not translate the phrase “And it happened (that),” because in English it is more natural to not use it here. Consider how your language introduces the next major part of a story.

Apollos was at Corinth: The city of Corinth was in the province of Achaia (18:27).

19:1b

Paul passed through the interior: The Greek words are literally “Paul, having traveled through the upper regions.” The phrase “upper regions” refers to the hill country in the remote parts of the province of Asia. These regions were also inland from the sea. It indicates that Paul did not travel by the main roads to arrive in Ephesus. Other ways to translate this clause are:

Paul passed through the upper country (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
Paul traveled across the hill country (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Paul traveled through the remote inland regions
-or-
Paul traveled through land that was hilly and had only small roads

19:1c

There he found some disciples: Here the word found refers to becoming acquainted with someone. Paul was not searching for these particular disciples. Other ways to translate this clause are:

He met some disciples (God’s Word)
-or-
There he discovered some disciples (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

disciples: Here this word probably refers to disciples of Jesus. That is the usual meaning of the word in Acts.

If your usual word or phrase for disciples includes referring to Jesus (for example: “followers of Jesus”), you should include it here. For example:

followers ⌊of Jesus⌋

See how you translated this word in 18:27.

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