As he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to give him a welcome. And on his arrival he proved of great service to those who by God's grace had believed,
But the Jews incited the devout women of high rank and the leading men in the town, who stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their territory.
I know how willing you are, I am proud of it, I have boasted of you to the Macedonians: "Achaia," I tell them, "was all ready last year." And your zeal has been a stimulus to the majority of them.
PAUL an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and brother Timotheus, to the church of God at Corinth as well as to all the saints throughout the whole of Achaia:
I ask this favour of you, my brothers. The household of Stephanas, you know, was the first to be reaped in Achaia, and they have laid themselves out to serve the saints.
Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal; that is where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong whatever to the Jews — you know that perfectly well.
But when the Jews of Thessalonica heard that Paul was proclaiming the word of God at Beroea as well, they came to create a disturbance and a riot among the crowds at Beroea too.
But Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived, who won over the crowds, and after pelting Paul with stones they dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead.
Besides, when he was seated on the tribunal, his wife had sent to tell him, "Do nothing with that innocent man, for I have suffered greatly to-day in a dream about him.")
But the Jews were aroused to jealousy; they got hold of some idle rascals to form a mob and set the town in an uproar; they attacked Jason's house in the endeavour to bring them out before the populace,
After these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to travel through Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. "After I get there," he said, "I must also visit Rome."
I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers —
for you have started, my brothers, to copy the churches of God in Christ Jesus throughout Judaea; you have suffered from your compatriots just as they have suffered from the Jews,
by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!