< Acts 17 >
1 And having journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews.
2 And according to Paul's custom he went in among them, and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures,
3 opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead, and that this is the Christ, Jesus whom I announce to you.
4 And some of them believed, and joined themselves to Paul and Silas, and of the Greeks who worshipped, a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
5 But the Jews having been stirred up to jealousy, and taken to [themselves] certain wicked men of the lowest rabble, and having got a crowd together, set the city in confusion; and having beset the house of Jason sought to bring them out to the people;
6 and not having found them, dragged Jason and certain brethren before the politarchs, crying out, These [men] that have set the world in tumult, are come here also,
7 whom Jason has received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, that there is another king, Jesus.
8 And they troubled the crowd and the politarchs when they heard these things.
9 And having taken security of Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 But the brethren immediately sent away, in the night, Paul and Silas to Berea; who, being arrived, went away into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 And these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, receiving the word with all readiness of mind, daily searching the scriptures if these things were so.
12 Therefore many from among them believed, and of Grecian women of the upper classes and men not a few.
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God was announced in Berea also by Paul, they came there also, stirring up the crowds.
14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as to the sea; but Silas and Timotheus abode there.
15 But they that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and, having received a commandment to Silas and Timotheus, that they should come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
16 But in Athens, while Paul was waiting for them, his spirit was painfully excited in him seeing the city given up to idolatry.
17 He reasoned therefore in the synagogue with the Jews, and those who worshipped, and in the market-place every day with those he met with.
18 But some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers attacked him. And some said, What would this chatterer say? and some, He seems to be an announcer of foreign demons, because he announced the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection [to them].
19 And having taken hold on him they brought [him] to Areopagus, saying, Might we know what this new doctrine which is spoken by thee [is]?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We wish therefore to know what these things may mean.
21 Now all [the] Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else than to tell and to hear the news.
22 And Paul standing in the midst of Areopagus said, Athenians, in every way I see you given up to demon worship;
23 for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye reverence, not knowing [him], him I announce to you.
24 The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,
25 nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things;
26 and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling,
27 that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us:
28 for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Being therefore [the] offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, [the] graven form of man's art and imagination.
30 God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent,
31 because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead.
32 And when they heard [of the] resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and some said, We will hear thee again also concerning this.
33 Thus Paul went out of their midst.
34 But some men joining themselves to him believed; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman by name Damaris, and others with them.
