Acts 16:1-15
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 16
1 He then moved on to Derbe and Lystra where there was a disciple named Timothy,[a] the son of a Jewish woman who had become a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 The brethren of Lystra and Iconium regarded him highly, 3 and Paul decided to take him along. Therefore, he had him circumcised, because of the Jews in that region who all knew that his father was a Greek.
4 As they traveled from town to town, they made known to the brethren there the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and the elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 Day by day, the churches grew strong in the faith and increased in numbers.
6 They traveled through the region of Phrygia[b] and Galatia because they had been told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they approached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but since the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do so, 8 they passed through Mysia and came down to Troas.[c]
Paul at Philippi.[d] 9 During the night, Paul had a vision in which a man of Macedonia appeared to him and pleaded with him, saying, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Once he had seen this vision, we immediately arranged for passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had summoned us to proclaim the good news to them.
11 We set sail from Troas and made a straight run to Samothrace.[e] On the following day, we reached Neapolis, 12 and from there we sailed to Philippi,[f] a leading city in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We spent some time in that city.
13 On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate alongside the river where we assumed there would be a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of the women, whose name was Lydia, was a worshiper of God. She was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying. 15 When she and her household had been baptized, she urged us insistently, “If you regard me as a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she won us over.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Acts 16:1 Timothy: a fellow worker of Paul, to whom the latter will address two Letters.
- Acts 16:6 Phrygia: originally, this was the Hellenistic country of Phrygia, but it had now become part of the Roman provinces of Asia (which was only one-third of Asia Minor) and Galatia. Galatian Phrygia contained both Iconium and Antioch. Asia included Mysia, Lydia, and Caria in addition to parts of Phrygia.
- Acts 16:8 Troas: a Roman colony and an important seaport 10 miles from the ancient city of Troy. Paul returned to it after his third missionary journey (Acts 20:5-12).
- Acts 16:9 The account shifts to the first person, “we” (v. 10), as Luke will do three more times (Acts 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1—28:16); these passages probably represent personal notes of Luke about events that he himself witnessed (see Lk 1:1). The listeners and different social groups are always addressed according to the same order. One tries at first to make the Jewish community change its mind and accept the fulfillment of the history of its people; then one turns to the Gentiles. At Philippi, Paul encounters some Jews who are influenced by Hellenism and devoted to commerce. The home of Lydia becomes the center of a community.
- Acts 16:11 Samothrace: an island in the northeastern Aegean Sea. Neapolis: the seaport for Philippi, ten miles away.
- Acts 16:12 Philippi: a city in eastern Macedonia. Some of its members establish a flourishing Christian community to which one of Paul’s Letters will later be addressed.
