Paul in Athens
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was
1provoked within him as he saw that the city was
2full of idols.
17
So
3he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said,
4"What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"--because
5he was preaching
6Jesus and the resurrection.
19
And they took him and brought him to
7the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this
8new teaching is that you are presenting?
20
For you bring some
9strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean."
21
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
Paul Addresses the Areopagus
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription,
10'To the unknown god.'
11What therefore you worship
12as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24
13The God who made the world and everything in it, being
14Lord of heaven and earth,
15does not live in temples made by man,
25
nor is he served by human hands,
16as though he needed anything, since he himself
17gives to all mankind
18life and breath and everything.
26
And
19he made from one man every nation of mankind to live
20on all the face of the earth,
21having determined allotted periods and
22the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27
23that they should seek God, in the hope that
24they might feel their way toward him and find him.
25Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
28
for
26"'In him we live and move and have our being';as even some of
27your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'
29
28Being then God's offspring,
29we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30
30The times of ignorance
31God overlooked, but
32now he
33commands all people everywhere to repent,
31
because he has fixed
34a day on which
35he will judge the world
36in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and
37of this he has given assurance to all
38by raising him from the dead."
32
Now when they heard of
39the resurrection of the dead,
40some mocked. But others said,
41"We will hear you again about this."
33
So Paul went out from their midst.
34
But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius
42the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.