Acts 17:15–24
15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athensa and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.b
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagoguec with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good newsd about Jesus and the resurrection.e 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus,f where they said to him, “May we know what this new teachingg is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Atheniansh and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagusi and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.j 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worshipk—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in itl is the Lord of heaven and earthm and does not live in temples built by human hands.n