Acts 17:1–16

In Thessalonica

17When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica,^z where there was a Jewish synagogue. ²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue,^a and on three Sabbath^b days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,^{c 3}explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer^d and rise from the dead.^e “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,”^f he said. ⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,^g as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

⁵But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.^h They rushed to Jason’sⁱ house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.^{a 6}But when they did not find them, they dragged^j Jason and some other believers^k before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world^l have now come here,^{m 7}and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”^{n 8}When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. ⁹Then they made Jason^o and the others post bond and let them go.

In Berea

¹⁰As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas^p away to Berea.^q On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.^{r 11}Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica,^s for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures^t every day to see if what Paul said was true.^{u 12}As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.^v

¹³But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea,^w some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. ¹⁴The believers^x immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas^y and Timothy^z stayed at Berea. ¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens^a and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.^b

In Athens

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.