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Acts 17

17 Travelling on through Amphipolis and Apollonia they reached Thessalonica. Here there was a Jewish synagogue, 2 and Paul as usual went in; for three sabbaths he argued with them on the scriptures, 3 explaining and quoting passages to prove that the messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that 'the Jesus I proclaim to you is the messiah.' 4 Some were persuaded and threw in their lot with Paul and Silas, including a host of devout Greeks and a large number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were aroused to jealousy; they got hold of some idle rascals to form a mob and set the town in an uproar; they attacked Jason's house in the endeavour to bring them out before the populace, 6 but as they failed to find Paul and Silas they haled Jason and some of the brothers before the politarchs, yelling, 'These upsetters of the whole world have come here too! 7 Jason has welcomed them! They all violate the decrees of Caesar by declaring someone else called Jesus is king.' 8 Both the crowd and the politarchs were disturbed when they heard this; 9 however, they let Jason and the others go, after binding them over to keep the peace.

10 Then the brothers at once sent off Paul and Silas by night to Beroea. When they arrived there, they betook themselves to the Jewish synagogue, 11 where the people were more amenable than at Thessalonica; they were perfectly ready to receive the Word and made a daily study of the scriptures to see if it was really as Paul said. 12 Many of them believed, together with a large number of prominent Greeks, both women and men. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica heard that Paul was proclaiming the word of God at Beroea as well, they came to create a disturbance and a riot among the crowds at Beroea too. 14 The brothers then sent off Paul at once on his way to the sea, while Silas and Timotheus remained where they were. 15 Paul's escort brought him as far as Athens and left with instructions that Silas and Timotheus were to join him as soon as possible.

16 While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his soul was irritated at the sight of the idols that filled the city. 17 He argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout proselytes and also in the marketplace daily with those who chanced to be present. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also came across him. Some said, 'Whatever does the fellow mean with his scraps of learning'?" Others said, "He looks like a herald of foreign deities" (this was because he preached 'Jesus' and 'the Resurrection'). 19 Then taking him to the Areopagus they asked, "May we know what is this novel teaching of yours? 20 You talk of some things that sound strange to us; so we want to know what they mean." 21 (For all the Athenians and the foreign visitors to Athens occupied themselves with nothing else than repeating or listening to the latest novelty.) 22 So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said,

"Men of Athens, I observe at every turn that you are a most religious people. 23 Why, as I passed along and scanned your objects of worship, I actually came upon an altar with the inscription TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Well, I proclaim to you what you worship in your ignorance. 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, as Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in shrines that are made by human hands; 25 he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for it is he who gives life and breath and all things to all men. 26 All nations he has created from a common origin, to dwell all over the earth, fixing their allotted periods and the boundaries of their abodes, 27 meaning them to seek for God on the chance of finding him in their groping for him. Though indeed he is close to each one of us, 28 for it is in him that we live and move and exist — as some of your own poets have said,

'We too belong to His race.' 29 Well, as the race of God, we ought not to imagine that the divine nature resembles gold or silver or stone, the product of human art and invention. 30 Such ages of ignorance God overlooked, but he now charges men that they are all everywhere to repent, 31 inasmuch as he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world justly by a man whom he has destined for this. And he has given proof of this to all by raising him from the dead."

32 But on hearing of a 'resurrection of dead men,' some sneered, while others said, "We will hear you again on that subject." 33 So Paul withdrew from them. 34 Some men, however, did join him and believe, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman called Damaris, and some others.

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