Acts 17

Thomson^{(i) 1} and passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And according to his custom, Paul went in among them; and for three sabbaths discoursed to them from the scriptures, ³ opening and stating that the Christ was to suffer .and rise from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I announce to you is The Christ. ⁴ And some of them were convinced, and associated with Paul and Silas; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks; and of women of distinction not a few. ⁵ But the disbelieving Jews, affecting zeal, and collecting some ill disposed men of the lowest class, raised a mob and set the city in an uproar; and besetting Jason's house sought to bring them out to the people; ⁶ but not finding them, they dragged Jason and some brethren before the magistrates of the city, crying out, Those men who have turned the world upside down, are come here also; ⁷ and Jason hath harboured them, though they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, one Jesus. ⁸ So they alarmed the multitude and the magistrates, who heard these things; ⁹ and these having taken security of Jason and the rest, dismissed them. ¹⁰ Now the brethren had immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea, where being arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ¹¹ Now these were of a more generous disposition than those of Thessalonica. They received the word with all readiness, daily examining the scriptures whether these things were so, ¹² and accordingly many of them believed, and of the Grecian women of rank, and of the men not a few. ¹³ But when the Jews of Thessalonica knew that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came thither also and set the populace in a ferment; ¹⁴ upon which the brethren immediately sent away Paul towards the sea. But Silas and Timothy continued there. ¹⁵ Now they who attended Paul conducted him to Athens, and having received his orders for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. ¹⁶ And while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit within him was greatly troubled, when he saw the city overspread with idols. ¹⁷ Therefore he discoursed in the synagogue to the Jews and proselytes, and in the forum daily to them who met him. ¹⁸ And while some of the epicurean and stoic philosophers were conferring with him, some said, "What would this retailer of scraps say?" And others, "He appeareth to be a proclaimer of strange deities." Because he proclaimed the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection, ¹⁹ therefore they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine is which is spoken by thee. ²⁰ For thou bringest some strange things to our ears. .We wish therefore to know what these things mean. ²¹ Now all the Athenians, and the foreigners who reside among them, spent their leisure time in nothing else but in telling and hearing news. ²² Paul then being placed in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive from every thing I see, that you are exceedingly addicted to the worship of demons. ²³ For as I passed along and beheld the objects and instruments of your devotion, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Him, therefore whom you worship without knowing him, I announce to you. ²⁴ He is the God who made the world and all the things which are therein. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ²⁵ nor is he served by the hands of men, as needing any thing. He is the giver of life and breath, and of all things, to all, ²⁶ and hath made of one blood the whole nation of men to inhabit the whole face of the earth, having marked out times previously arranged in order, and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ for them to seek the Lord if haply they might feel, and find him, though he indeed is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ For in him we live and are moved and exist; as some also of your own poets have said, "For we his offspring are." ²⁹ Being therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to imagine the Deity to be like gold, or silver, or stone, wrought by the art and contrivance of man. ³⁰ God indeed having overlooked the ages of this ignorance; now maketh proclamation to all men every where to reform, ³¹ because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world righteously, by a man whom he hath pointed out: of which he hath given assurance to all men, by raising him. from the dead. ³² When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some made a jest of it; and some said we will hear thee again on this subject. ³³ On which Paul went out from among them. ³⁴ But some men of rank adhered to him and believed, among whom was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus; also a woman of rank, named Damaris, and others with them.