Acts of Apostles - Chapter 17

¹ Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they eventually reached Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

² Paul as usual went in and for three consecutive Sabbaths developed the arguments from scripture for them,

³ explaining and proving how it was ordained that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead. 'And the Christ', he said, 'is this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.'

⁴ Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas, and so did a great many godfearing people and Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.

⁵ The Jews, full of resentment, enlisted the help of a gang from the market place, stirred up a crowd, and soon had the whole city in an uproar. They made for Jason's house, hoping to bring them before the People's Assembly;

⁶ however, they found only Jason and some of the brothers, and these they dragged before the city council, shouting, 'The people who have been turning the whole world upside down have come here now;

⁷ they have been staying at Jason's. They have broken Caesar's edicts by claiming that there is another king, Jesus.'

⁸ Hearing this, the citizens and the city councillors were alarmed,

⁹ and they made Jason and the rest give security before setting them free.

¹⁰ When it was dark the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away to Beroea, where they went to the Jewish synagogue as soon as they arrived.

¹¹ Here the Jews were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they welcomed the word very readily; every day they studied the scriptures to check whether it was true.

¹² Many of them became believers, and so did many Greek women of high standing and a number of the men.

¹³ When the Jews of Thessalonica came to learn that the word of God was being preached by Paul in Beroea as well, they went there to make trouble and stir up the people.

¹⁴ So the brothers arranged for Paul to go immediately as far as the coast, leaving Silas and Timothy behind.

¹⁵ Paul's escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could.

¹⁶ Paul waited for them in Athens and there his whole soul was revolted at the sight of a city given over to idolatry.

¹⁷ In the synagogue he debated with the Jews and the godfearing, and in the market place he debated every day with anyone whom he met.

¹⁸ Even a few Epicurean and Stoic philosophers argued with him. Some said, 'What can this parrot mean?' And, because he was preaching about Jesus and Resurrection, others said, 'He seems to be a propagandist for some outlandish gods.'

¹⁹ They got him to accompany them to the Areopagus, where they said to him, 'Can we know what this new doctrine is that you are teaching?

²⁰ Some of the things you say seemed startling to us and we would like to find out what they mean.'

²¹ The one amusement the Athenians and the foreigners living there seem to have is to discuss and listen to the latest ideas.

²² So Paul stood before the whole council of the Areopagus and made this speech: 'Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters,

²³ because, as I strolled round looking at your sacred monuments, I noticed among other things an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. In fact, the unknown God you revere is the one I proclaim to you.

²⁴ 'Since the God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands.

²⁵ Nor is he in need of anything, that he should be served by human hands; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything -- including life and breath -- to everyone.

²⁶ From one single principle he not only created the whole human race so that they could occupy the entire earth, but he decreed the times and limits of their habitation.

²⁷ And he did this so that they might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him; and indeed he is not far from any of us,

²⁸ since it is in him that we live, and move, and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said: We are all his children.

²⁹ 'Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been carved and designed by a man.

³⁰ 'But now, overlooking the times of ignorance, God is telling everyone everywhere that they must repent,

³¹ because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged in uprightness by a man he has appointed. And God has publicly proved this by raising him from the dead.'

³² At this mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing; others said, 'We would like to hear you talk about this another time.'

³³ After that Paul left them,

³⁴ but there were some who attached themselves to him and became believers, among them Dionysius the Aeropagite and a woman called Damaris, and others besides.

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