Acts 17:1-27 ▼

1 And having passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

2 And according to the custom of Paul, he went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

3 opening and setting forth that it was necessary for the Christ to have suffered and to have risen out from the dead, and that “this Jesus whom I proclaim to you? is the Christ.”

4 And some of them were obedient and joined themselves to Paul and to Silas, along with a great multitude of the worshiping Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

5 But the Jews, having become jealous and having taken along certain wicked men of the market-loungers, and having collected a crowd, set the city in uproar. And having assailed the house of Jason, they were seeking them to bring out to the people.

6 But not having found them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the city authorities, crying out, “These ones, having upset the world, have come here also,

7 whom Jason has received. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, proclaiming another to be king—Jesus!”

8 And they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities hearing these things.

9 And having taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

10 And the brothers sent away both Paul and Silas immediately by night to Berea, who, having arrived, went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11 Now these, who were more noble than those in Thessalonica, received the word with all readiness, every day examining the Scriptures, if these things were so.

12 Therefore many of them indeed believed, and not a few of the prominent Grecian women and men.

13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God also was proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they came there also, stirring up and agitating the crowds.

14 And then immediately the brothers sent away Paul to go as to the sea. And both Silas and Timothy remained there.

15 And those escorting Paul brought him unto Athens, and having received a command to Silas and Timothy that as quickly as possible they should come to him, they departed.

16 Now Paul in Athens waiting for them, his spirit was provoked in him, seeing the city to be utterly idolatrous.

17 So indeed he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and those worshiping, and in the marketplace on every day with those meeting.

18 And also some of the Epicureans and Stoics, philosophers, encountered him, and some were saying, “What may this babbler desire to say?” but others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange gods,” because he was proclaiming the gospel—Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And having taken hold of him, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “Are we able to know what this new teaching is that is spoken by you?

20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. We resolve, therefore, to know what these things wish to be.”

21 Now all the Athenians and the visiting foreigners spent their time on nothing other than to say something and to hear something new.

22 And Paul, having stood in the midst of the Areopagus, was saying, “Men, Athenians, in all things I perceive you? as very religious.

23 For passing through and examining your? objects of worship, I even found an altar on which had been inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore whom you? worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you?.

24 The God having made the world and all things that are in it, He, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in hand-made temples,

25 nor is He served by hands of men as needing anything—He who gives to all life and breath and all things.

26 And He made out of one man every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined the appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

27 to seek God, if perhaps indeed they might feel after Him and might find Him. And indeed, He is not far from each one of us.