Acts 17:16–34

^16kNow while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. ¹⁷Therefore ^ldisputed he ^min the synagogue with the Jews, and with the ⁿdevout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. ¹⁸Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because ^ohe preached unto them Jesus, and ^pthe resurrection. ¹⁹And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? ²⁰For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. ²¹(For all the Athenians and ^qstrangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) ²²Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said,

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too ^rsuperstitious. ²³For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this ^sinscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, ^thim declare I unto you. ^24uGod that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is ^xLord of heaven and earth, ^ydwelleth not in temples ^zmade with hands; ²⁵neither is worshipped with men’s hands, ^aas though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all ^blife, and breath, and all things; ²⁶and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath ^cdetermined the times before appointed, and ^dthe bounds of their habitation; ²⁷that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, ^ethough he be not far from every one of us: ²⁸for ^fin him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of ^gyour own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. ²⁹Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, ^hwe ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. ³⁰And the times of this ignorance God ⁱwinked at; but ^know commandeth all men every where to repent: ³¹because he hath appointed a day, in the which ^lhe will judge ^mthe world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ^cordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that ⁿhe hath raised him from the dead.

³²And when they heard of ^othe resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, ^pWe will hear thee again of this matter. ³³So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the ^qAreopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

XVIII.