Acts 17

¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia , they came to Thessalonica , where there was a synagogue of the Jews .

²And Paul went in , as was his custom , and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures ,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead , and saying , This Jesus , whom I proclaim to you , is the Christ .

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas , as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women .

⁵But the Jews were jealous , and taking some wicked men of the rabble , they formed a mob , set the city in an uproar , and attacked the house of Jason , seeking to bring them out to the crowd .

⁶And when they could not find them , they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities , shouting , These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also ,

⁷and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar , saying that there is another king , Jesus .

⁸And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things .

⁹And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest , they let them go .

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea , and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue .

¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica ; they received the word with all eagerness , examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so .

¹²Many of them therefore believed , with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men .

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also , they came there too , agitating and stirring up the crowds .

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea , but Silas and Timothy remained there .

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens , and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible , they departed .

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens , his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols .

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons , and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there .

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him . And some said , What does this babbler wish to say ? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection .

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus , saying , May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting ?

²⁰For you bring some strange things to our ears . We wish to know therefore what these things mean .

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new .

²²So Paul , standing in the midst of the Areopagus , said : Men of Athens , I perceive that in every way you are very religious .

²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship , I found also an altar with this inscription , To the unknown god . What therefore you worship as unknown , this I proclaim to you .

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it , being Lord of heaven and earth , does not live in temples made by man ,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands , as though he needed anything , since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything .

²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth , having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place ,

²⁷that they should seek God , and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him . Yet he is actually not far from each one of us ,

²⁸for In him we live and move and have our being ; as even some of your own poets have said , For we are indeed his offspring .

²⁹Being then God’s offspring , we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone , an image formed by the art and imagination of man .

³⁰The times of ignorance God overlooked , but now he commands all people everywhere to repent ,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed ; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead .

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead , some mocked . But others said , We will hear you again about this .

³³So Paul went out from their midst .

³⁴But some men joined him and believed , among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them .