Acts 17:18–25

18 6Then 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.

19 And they took him and brought him to the 8Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For 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

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the 9Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for 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: 24 qGod, who made the world and everything in it, since He is rLord of heaven and earth, sdoes not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He tgives to all life, breath, and all things.