A Year and a Half in Corinth

¹After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ²There he found a Jewish man named Aquila, originally from Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to them. ³Because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by occupation. ⁴Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. ⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. ⁶But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." ⁷He left there and went to the house of a man named Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. ⁸Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized. ⁹Then the Lord spoke to Paul in the night through a vision: "Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, ¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city." ¹¹So he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. ¹²While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews united against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, ¹³saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law." ¹⁴Paul was about to open his mouth when Gallio said to the Jews, "If this were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crime, O Jews, I would have reason to hear you out. ¹⁵But since it is a question about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I will not be a judge of such matters." ¹⁶And he drove them away from the judgment seat. ¹⁷Then they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.