Acts 17

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1. 1After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2. 2As was his custom, Paul went to the synagogue and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the scriptures,
3. 3explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.'
4. 4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of devout Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5. 5But the Jews who did not believe became jealous. They recruited some wicked men from the streets, formed a mob, and threw the city into an uproar. They attacked Jason's house, trying to bring Paul and Silas out to the crowd.
6. 6When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, 'These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too!'
7. 7and Jason has taken them in! They all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king — one named Jesus.'
8. 8The crowd and the city officials were troubled when they heard these things.
9. 9After making Jason and the others post bond, they let them go.
10. 10That very night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.
11. 11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things were so.
12. 12As a result, many of them believed, along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.
13. 13But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was being proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they went there too and stirred up the crowds.
14. 14The brothers immediately sent Paul away toward the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
15. 15Those escorting Paul brought him all the way to Athens. After receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
16. 16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was full of idols.
17. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met with him.
18. 18Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began engaging with him. Some said, 'What is this babbler trying to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be a promoter of foreign gods' — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
19. 19They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20. 20You are bringing some strange things to our ears, and we want to know what these things mean.'
21. 21(For all the Athenians and the foreigners living there spent their time in nothing else but telling or hearing something new.)
22. 22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I can see that in every way you are very religious.
23. 23For as I walked around and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. What you worship without knowing — him I proclaim to you.
24. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25. 25Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all people life, breath, and all things.
26. 26From one blood he made every nation of people to dwell on the whole face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they would live,
27. 27so that they would seek the Lord, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him — though he is not far from each one of us.
28. 28For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'
29. 29Since then we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine nature is like gold, silver, or stone — an image crafted by human art and imagination.
30. 30God overlooked the times of such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31. 31because he has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.'
32. 32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, 'We will hear you again about this.'
33. 33So Paul departed from among them.
34. 34However, some men joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.