Acts 19 in the early church

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the interior and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples

and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” “No,” they answered, “we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

“Into what, then, were you baptized?” Paul asked. “The baptism of John,” they replied.

Paul explained: “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

But when some of them stubbornly refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way, Paul took his disciples and left the synagogue to conduct daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left them.

Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I command you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.”

Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

Many who had believed now came forward, confessing and disclosing their deeds.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of the books was calculated, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.

After these things had happened, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must see Rome as well.”

And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.

There is danger not only that our business will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and her majesty deposed—she who is worshiped by all the province of Asia and the whole world.”

Soon the whole city was in disarray. They rushed together into the theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.

Paul wanted to go before the assembly, but the disciples would not allow him.

Even some of Paul’s friends who were officials of the province of Asia sent word to him, begging him not to venture into the theatre.

After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.