Acts 17

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

²And according to his custom, Paul went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

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

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace rabble, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the assembly.

⁶But not finding them, they dragged Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has welcomed them. And these all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

⁸And they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

⁹And when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they released them.

¹⁰And the brothers immediately, during the night, sent away both Paul and Silas to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

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

¹²Many of them therefore believed, and not a few of the prominent Greek women and men.

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

¹⁴Then immediately the brothers sent Paul off to go as far as the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Now those escorting Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy that they should come to him as quickly 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 God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸And some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conversed with him. And some were saying, What would this babbler want to say? But others said, He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities, because he was preaching to them Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is which is being spoken by you?'

²⁰For you are bringing some surprising things to our ears; we wish therefore to know what these things mean.

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or hearing something newer.

²³For as I passed through and observed the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which had been inscribed, To an unknown god. What therefore you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, this One, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands,

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

²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to dwell over all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the fixed limits of their habitation,

²⁷that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸For 'in him we live and move and have our being'; as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'

²⁹Being therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, a graven work of human craft and imagination.

³⁰Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent;

³¹because he has set a day on which he is about to judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he appointed, having provided proof to all by raising him from the dead.

³²Now when they heard of a resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, 'We will hear you again concerning this.'

³³And so Paul went out from their midst.

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