Acts 17:16–34

Paul in Athens

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he^* observed the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he was discussing in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles,^* and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸And even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were saying, “What does this babbler want to say?” But others said,^* “He appears to be a proclaimer of foreign deities,” because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹And they took hold of him and^* brought him^* to the Areopagus, saying, “May we learn what is this new teaching being proclaimed by you? ²⁰For you are bringing some astonishing things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”^{g 21}(Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who stayed there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling something or listening to something new.)

Paul Speaks to the Areopagus

²²So Paul stood there in the middle of the Areopagus and^* said, “Men of Athens, I see you are very religious in every respect.^{h 23}For as I^* was passing through and observing carefully your objects of worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an unknown God.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it,^* this I proclaim to you—²⁴the God who made the world and all the things in it. This one, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, ²⁵nor is he served by human hands as if he^* needed anything, because^* he himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything. ²⁶And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him.^* And indeed he is not far away from each one of us, ²⁸for in him we live and move and exist,ⁱ as even some of your own^j poets have said: ‘For we also are his^k offspring.’^{l 29}Therefore, because we^* are offspring of God, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. ³⁰Therefore although^* God has overlooked the times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man who he has appointed, having provided proof to everyone by^* raising him from the dead.” ³²Now when they^* heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you about this again also.” ³³So Paul went out from the midst of them. ³⁴But some people^* joined him and^* believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named^m Damaris and others with them.