Acts
17: 16-34
In Athens
16While Paul was waiting for them in
Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the
God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be
there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to
dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?"
Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this
because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the
Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you
are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our
ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the
Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking
about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of
the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very
religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at
your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24"The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by
hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should
inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places
where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek
him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of
your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
29"Therefore since we are God's
offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or
stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the
past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice
by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the
dead."
32When they heard about the
resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you
again on this subject." 33At that, Paul left the
Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed.
Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a
number of others.
