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Chapter 17

Paul in Thessalonica. When they took the road through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.(A) Following his usual custom, Paul joined them, and for three sabbaths he entered into discussions with them from the scriptures, expounding and demonstrating that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that “This is the Messiah, Jesus, whom I proclaim to you.”(B) Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so, too, a great number of Greeks who were worshipers, and not a few of the prominent women. But the Jews became jealous and recruited some worthless men loitering in the public square, formed a mob, and set the city in turmoil. They marched on the house of Jason,(C) intending to bring them before the people’s assembly. [a]When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city magistrates, shouting, “These people who have been creating a disturbance all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them.(D) They all act in opposition to the decrees of Caesar and claim instead that there is another king, Jesus.”[b] They stirred up the crowd and the city magistrates who, upon hearing these charges, took a surety payment from Jason and the others before releasing them.

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Footnotes

  1. 17:6–7 The accusations against Paul and his companions echo the charges brought against Jesus in Lk 23:2.
  2. 17:7 There is another king, Jesus: a distortion into a political sense of the apostolic proclamation of Jesus and the kingdom of God (see Acts 8:12).