Fragment 6

1Now when Paul had left Myra and intended to go to Sidon, there was great sadness among the brothers in Pisidia and Pamphylia, because they yearned for his word and for his holy appearance in Christ. Some people from Perga therefore followed Paul: Thrasymachus and Cleon, together with their wives Aline and Chrysa, Cleon’s wife. Along the way they supplied Paul with food, and they were eating their bread under a tree. As he was about to say, “Amen,” there came … the brothers … idol … table of devils … he dies because of it, but everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, who has saved us from all defilement, all uncleanness, and all evil thoughts, will be made manifest. They approached the table … idol … stood … a mighty idol. And an old man … stood up among them and said, “Men, … what happens to the priests who try to approach our gods. For truly, when our fellow citizen Charinus listened and intended to … against the gods, he and his … died there. Then Xanthus also died, Chrysa … and … died, sick with dropsy, and so did his wife Nympha.”

2… after the manner of strange men. Why, then, do you presume to do what is not proper? Or have you not heard what happened—what God brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah—because they robbed … after the manner of strangers and women? God did not … them, but cast them down into hell. Therefore, we are not the kind of men you describe, nor are we what you think. We are preachers of the living God and his Beloved. But so that you may not be astonished, understand … the miracles that bear witness for us.” But they did not listen to him. Instead, they took the men and confined them in the temple of Apollo until the next day, when they assembled the entire city. They gave them a great quantity of costly food.

3But Paul, who was now fasting for the third day, bore witness throughout the night. Being troubled, he struck his face and said, “O God, look down upon their threats. Do not allow us to slip, and do not let our adversaries cast us down. Save us, and quickly bring down your righteousness upon us.” When Paul threw himself down together with the brothers Thrasymachus and Cleon, the temple fell … so that those who belonged to the temple and the magistrates appointed over it … others of them in the … for … fell down … fell down … all around, in the middle of the two parts. They went in and saw what had happened, and they marveled that … in their … and that the … rejoiced over the temple’s fall. They cried out, “Truly, these are the works of men who serve a mighty God!” They left and proclaimed throughout the city, “Apollo, the god of the Sidonians, has fallen, and so has half of his temple.” All the inhabitants of the city ran to the temple and saw Paul and those with him, and how they wept during this trial because they had been made a spectacle to everyone. But the crowd cried out, “Bring them into the theater!” The magistrates came to fetch them, and they groaned bitterly with one soul.

4… through me. Consider … the way of life of Christ … not in the faith … Egyptians … and they … But the crowd … followed Paul, crying, “Praised be the God … who has sent Paul … so that we should not … of death.” But Theudes … pleaded at Paul’s feet and embraced his feet, asking him to give him the seal in the Lord. But he commanded them to go to Tyre … in health, and they put Paul … and went with him.