Acts 17:22-31

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, ¹‘To the unknown god. ’ ²What therefore you worship ³as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

24 ⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, being ⁵Lord of heaven and earth, ⁶does not live in temples made by man, ^[a]

25 nor is he served by human hands, ⁷as though he needed anything, since he himself ⁸gives to all mankind ⁹life and breath and everything.

26 And ¹⁰he made from one man every nation of mankind to live ¹¹on all the face of the earth, ¹²having determined allotted periods and ¹³the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 ¹⁴that they should seek God, ¹⁵and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. ¹⁶Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for ¹⁷“‘In him we live and move and have our being’; ^[b] as even some of ¹⁸your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring. ’ ^[c]

29 ¹⁹Being then God’s offspring, ²⁰we 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 ²¹The times of ignorance ²²God overlooked, but ²³now he ²⁴commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed ²⁵a day on which ²⁶he will judge the world ²⁷in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and ²⁸of this he has given assurance to all ²⁹by raising him from the dead. ”

Cross References

• 1. 17:23 [John 4:22; 1 Cor. 15:34]
• 2. 17:23 [John 4:22; 1 Cor. 15:34]
• 3. 17:23 [ver. 30]
• 4. 17:24 Isa. 42:5; See ch. 14:15
• 5. 17:24 Matt. 11:25; [Deut. 10:14; Ps. 115:16]
• 6. 17:24 See ch. 7:48
• 7. 17:25 Ps. 50:8-12; [1 Chr. 29:14, 16; Job 22:2]
• 8. 17:25 1 Tim. 6:17; James 1:5, 17
• 9. 17:25 Gen. 2:7; 7:22; Job 33:4; [Job 27:3; Eccles. 12:7; Zech. 12:1]; See ver. 28
• 10. 17:26 [Gen. 3:20; Mal. 2:10]
• 11. 17:26 Gen. 11:8; Luke 21:35
• 12. 17:26 [Job 12:23; 14:5]
• 13. 17:26 Deut. 32:8; [Ps. 74:17]
• 14. 17:27 [ch. 15:17]
• 15. 17:27 [Job 23:3, 8, 9]
• 16. 17:27 [Deut. 4:7; Ps. 145:18; Jer. 23:23, 24]; See ch. 14:17
• 17. 17:28 Job 12:10; Dan. 5:23; [Heb. 2:11]
• 18. 17:28 [Titus 1:12]
• 19. 17:29 [Luke 3:38; Heb. 12:9]
• 20. 17:29 Isa. 40:18, 19, 25; 46:5; [Rom. 1:23]
• 21. 17:30 Eph. 4:18; 1 Pet. 1:14; [ver. 23]
• 22. 17:30 [Rom. 3:25]; See ch. 14:16
• 23. 17:30 [Mark 1:15; Titus 2:11, 12; 1 Pet. 4:3]
• 24. 17:30 Mark 6:12
• 25. 17:31 Matt. 12:36; Rom. 2:16; 1 Cor. 3:13; 2 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 4:17; [Isa. 2:12]
• 26. 17:31 2 Tim. 4:8; See ch. 10:42
• 27. 17:31 Ps. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; 1 Pet. 2:23; [Rom. 3:6]
• 28. 17:31 [John 16:10, 11; Rom. 1:4]
• 29. 17:31 See ch. 2:24

Footnotes

• [a] 17:24 Greek 'made by hands'
• [b] 17:28 Probably from Epimenides of Crete
• [c] 17:28 From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena”