Acts 17

Preaching Christ at Thessalonica

17Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to ^aThessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ²Then Paul, as his custom was, ^bwent in to them, and for three Sabbaths ^creasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³explaining and demonstrating ^dthat the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” ^4eAnd some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and ^fSilas.

Assault on Jason’s House

⁵But the Jews ¹who were not persuaded, ²becoming ^genvious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of ^hJason, and sought to bring them out to the people. ⁶But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ⁱ“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. ⁷Jason has ³harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, ^jsaying there is another king—Jesus.” ⁸And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. ⁹So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Ministering at Berea

¹⁰Then ^kthe brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ¹¹These were more ⁴fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and ^lsearched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. ¹²Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. ¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. ^14mThen immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and ⁿreceiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

The Philosophers at Athens

¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, ^ohis spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was ⁵given over to idols. ¹⁷Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸⁶Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this ⁷babbler want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them ^pJesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the ⁸Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? ²⁰For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

²²Then Paul stood in the midst of the ⁹Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ^24qGod, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^rLord of heaven and earth, ^sdoes not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^tgives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶And He has made from one ¹blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^uthe boundaries of their dwellings, ^27vso that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^wthough He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸for ^xin Him we live and move and have our being, ^yas also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ²⁹Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^zwe ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. ³⁰Truly, ^athese times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^bnow commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹because He has appointed a day on which ^cHe will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^draising Him from the dead.”

³²And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” ³³So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.