Acts 17:16-21

Paul at Athens

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at ¹Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.

17 So he was reasoning ²in the synagogue with the Jews and ³the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.

18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would ⁴this idle babbler wish to say?" Others *, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,"-because he was preaching ⁵Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they ⁶took him and brought him to the ⁷Areopagus, saying, "May we know what ⁸this 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 ⁹visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Cross References

• 1. Acts 17:15, 21; Acts 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:1
• 2. Acts 9:20; Acts 17:2
• 3. Acts 17:4
• 4. 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 4:10
• 5. Acts 4:2; Acts 17:31
• 6. Acts 23:19
• 7. Acts 17:22
• 8. Mark 1:27
• 9. Acts 2:10

Footnotes

• [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"