Acts 17

1After traversing Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

2As was his custom, Paul went in among them and on three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures.

3He opened and proved that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Messiah.

4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

5But the Jews, stirred to jealousy, took certain wicked men of the baser sort from the marketplace, gathered a crowd, and threw the city into turmoil; assaulting Jason's house, they sought to bring them before the people.

6When they failed to find them, they hauled Jason and some brothers before the city officials, shouting, "These who have upset the world are here too."

7whom Jason has welcomed. And these all act contrary to Caesar's decrees, saying there is another king, Jesus.

8They troubled the crowd and the city rulers when they heard these things.

9And having taken sufficient security from Jason and the others, they released them.

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

11Now these were nobler than those in Thessalonica, who welcomed the word with all eagerness, daily scrutinizing the scriptures to see whether these things were so.

12Therefore many of them believed, including prominent Greek women and not a few men.

13But when Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God had also been proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they came there too, shaking and troubling the crowds.

14Then immediately the brothers sent Paul to go as far as the sea, and both Silas and Timothy stayed there.

15But those conducting Paul brought him to Athens, and having received a command for Silas and Timothy that they come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.

16While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he observed the city utterly given to idols.

17So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout, and every day in the marketplace with those he encountered.

18Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also engaged him in discussion, and some said, "What would this babbler wish to say?" while others remarked, "He seems to be a herald of foreign gods," because he was announcing Jesus and the resurrection.

19Seizing him, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "Can we know what this new teaching is that is being spoken by you?"

20For you bring some strange things into our hearing; therefore we want to know what these things mean.

21Now all the Athenians and the resident foreigners spent their time on nothing else but either telling or hearing something newer.

22Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Athenian men, I observe that in every respect you are especially religious."

23For as I passed through and examined your objects of worship, I found an altar bearing this inscription: "To an unknown God." Therefore what you worship without knowing, I proclaim to you.

24God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in hand-made temples.

25Neither is he served by human hands as though needing anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath, and all things.

26And he made from one every nation of humankind to dwell upon all the earth's surface, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their habitation.

27so that they might 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 exist, as some of your own poets have said: "For we too are his offspring."

29Therefore, being God's offspring, we ought not to suppose that the divine is like gold or silver or stone, engraved by art and human thought.

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

31Because he has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has designated, having given everyone assurance by raising him from the dead.

32When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, "We will hear you again about this."

33Thus Paul departed from their midst.

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