They accused Paul of “persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to our law.”
Parallel translations
- WEB saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”
- KJV Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.
- BSB “This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law,” they said.
- NKJV saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.”
- NASB saying, “This man is inciting the people to worship God contrary to the law.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The accusers charged that Paul was persuading people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.
Overview
The charge was likely that Paul was promoting an unauthorized religion, distinct from legally tolerated Judaism. Whether they meant Jewish law or Roman law is left ambiguous, perhaps deliberately. The accusation aimed to brand Christianity as illegal, but Gallio's response would undercut that claim.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Acts 25:8while he said in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all.”
- Acts 24:5–6For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
- Acts 6:13and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
- Acts 21:28crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place!”
- Acts 18:4He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
- Acts 18:15but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 18:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.