Open English Translation ACTs Chapter 17

17 After travelling through Amphipolis and Apollonia, Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica where there was a Jewish meeting hall. 2 Paul’s custom was to attend at the local meeting hall on the Rest Day, so he did that, and for three weekends in a row he discussed the scriptures with them, 3 showing them how that it had been written that the messiah would suffer and be killed and come back to life, and then explaining, “This Yeshua that I’ve been telling you about is the messiah.” 4 Some of them were persuaded and joined with Paul and Silas, along with a big group of godly Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

5 But some of the other Jews were envious of them, and enlisted some of the troublemakers from the marketplaces to form a mob. They stirred up all the people, and looking for Paul and Silas so they could bring them out, arrived at the house of a man named Jason. 6 But when they realised that Paul and Silas weren’t there, they dragged Jason and some other believers off to the city leaders, shouting, “Those two men who’ve gone around upsetting the whole world have now come here as well 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They rebel against Caesar’s decrees and claim that Yeshua is a rival king. 8 They stirred up the crowd and the city leaders with these accusations, 9 so the leaders collected a heavy fine from Jason and the others, and then released them.

10 So the believers immediately sent Paul and Silas off during the night to go to Berea. In Berea they also attended at the Jewish meeting hall 11 and this group were more upper-class than the congregation in Thessalonica. They eagerly accepted the message and examined the scriptures every day to check if what was being taught matched what was written there. 12 Because it did, many of the people believed including quite a few of the prominent Greeks. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that God’s message was also being proclaimed by Paul there in Berea, they soon turned up to agitate and stir the crowds. 14 So the believers immediately sent Paul off to the coast, but Silas and Timothy both stayed. 15 The ones guiding Paul took him to Athens before they headed back with his instructions for Silas and Timothy to come and join him again as soon as possible.

16 While Paul stayed in Athens waiting for them, he was upset in his spirit as he observed how idolatrous the people were. 17 So while he stayed busy having discussions with the Jews and other worshippers from the meeting hall, he also spent time every day with anyone who just happened to be around in the marketplace. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers enjoyed discussing things with him, but others just mocked him, “What does this babbler want to talk about now?”

But others said, “Seems that he’s talking about strange demons,” because he was preaching the good message about Yeshua and coming back to life. 19 So they grabbed him and brought him to the Aries Hill where the council sat and asked, “Are we allowed to know what this new teaching that you’re bringing is about? 20 It seems that you have some surprising ideas for our ears, so we want to hear what it’s all about.” 21 (Everyone in Athens and even visitors often took the opportunity either to explain or to listen to any new things.)

22 So Paul stood up in the middle of the gathering on the hill and spoke, “Men of Athens, I’ve noticed how you all are very religious, 23 because as I was looking around and observing your objects of worship, I even discovered an altar that was inscribed, ‘To the unknown god.’ So without knowing it, you already worship this God that I’m going to tell you about. 24 This God who created the earth and everything in it is the master of heaven and earth. He doesn’t live in man-made temples 25 nor can he be repaired by any human hands and he doesn’t need to be fed. On the contrary, he’s the one who gives life and breath and who gives us everything that we need. 26 From one man he made every nationality that lives across all the earth and designated their boundaries and their futures. 27 He made them so that they would try to discover God, and if they did search for him they might find him as he’s not far from any one of us 28 because

‘We live in him and are moved by him and exist through him.’

Even some of your own poets wrote,

‘We are all descended from just one.’

29 So since we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t be putting gold or silver or stone craftsmanship in the same class as the divine. 30 In fact God overlooked times of such ignorance in the past, but now he’s informing everyone and requiring them to repent 31 because he’s set a date for when he’s going to be fairly judging the world. He’s already appointed the judge who everyone can have faith in because he brought him back to life from the dead.

32 When they heard about a dead person coming back to life, some started mocking but others said, “We’d like to hear more about this from you another time.” 33 So Paul left at that stage 34 but some people joined with him and believed, including Dionysius who was a council member, a woman named Damaris, and others as well.