Acts 17:8-26
English Standard Version
Chapter 17
8And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
12Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
13But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
14Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
15Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities" — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean."
21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
