Acts 17:18-28

18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would 1this idle babbler wish to say?" Others *, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"-because he was preaching 2Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they 3took him and brought him to the 4Areopagus, saying, "May we know what 5this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
20 "For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean *."
21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers 6visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Sermon on Mars Hill

22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of 7Athens, I observe that you are very 8religious in all respects.
23 "For while I was passing through and examining the 9objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what 10you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
24 "11The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is 12Lord of heaven and earth, does not 13dwell in temples made with hands;
25 nor is He served by human hands, 14as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
26 and 15He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having 16determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, 17though * He is not far from each one of us;
28 for 18in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'

Cross References 18

  • 1. 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 4:10
  • 2. Acts 4:2; Acts 17:31
  • 3. Acts 23:19
  • 4. Acts 17:22
  • 5. Mark 1:27
  • 6. Acts 2:10
  • 7. Acts 17:15
  • 8. Acts 25:19
  • 9. 2 Thessalonians 2:4
  • 10. John 4:22
  • 11. Isaiah 42:5; Acts 14:15
  • 12. Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalms 115:16; Matthew 11:25
  • 13. 1 Kings 8:27; Acts 7:48
  • 14. Job 22:2; Psalms 50:10-12
  • 15. Malachi 2:10
  • 16. Deuteronomy 32:8; Job 12:23
  • 17. Deuteronomy 4:7; Jeremiah 23:23; Acts 14:17
  • 18. Job 12:10; Daniel 5:23

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Or "disputing"
  • [b]. I.e. one who makes his living by picking up scraps
  • [c]. Or "before"
  • [d]. Or "Hill of Ares," god of war
  • [e]. Lit "which is being spoken by you"
  • [f]. Or "the Council of the Areopagus"
  • [g]. Lit "are"
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California.  All rights reserved.