Acts 17:13-30

¹³But then the Jews in Thessalonica heard people tell them that Paul was in Berea and that he was preaching the message from God about Jesus. So they went to Berea and told people there that what Paul was teaching was not true. Thus, they caused many of those people to get angry at Paul.

¹⁴So several of the believers in Berea took Paul to the coast to go to another province. But Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.

¹⁵When Paul and the other men from Berea arrived at the coast, they got on a ship and went to Athens city. Then Paul said to the men who had come with him, “Tell Silas and Timothy to come to me here in Athens as soon as they can.” Then those men left Athens and returned to Berea.

¹⁶In Athens, Paul waited for Silas and Timothy to arrive. In the meantime, he walked around in the city. He became very distressed/disturbed because he saw that throughout HYP the city there were many idols.

¹⁷So he went to the Jewish meeting place and talked about Jesus with the Jews, and also with the Greeks who had accepted what the Jews believe. He also went to the public square/center every day and talked to the people whom he met there.

¹⁸Paul met some teachers who liked to talk about what people should believe. People called some of them Epicureans and they called others Stoics. They told Paul what they believed, and they asked him what he believed. Then some of them said to one another, “This ignorant person is just talking nonsense RHQ!” Others said, “ We(exc) think that he is teaching people about ◄foreign gods/ new gods that we (exc) have not heard about►.” They said that because Paul was telling them that Jesus had died and had become alive again afterwards. They had not heard that message before.

¹⁹So they took Paul to the place where the city council met. When they arrived there, they said to Paul, “ Please tell us, what is this new message that you (sg) are teaching people?

²⁰You are teaching some things that startle us (exc), so we want to know what they mean.”

²¹They said that, because the people of Athens and also the people from other regions who lived there continually talked about what was new to them, or they listened to others tell what was new.

²²Then Paul stood up before the men of the city council and said, “Citizens of Athens, I see that you ◄are very religious/think that it is very important to worship many gods►.

²³I say that because, while I was walking along and observing the objects that represent different gods that you worship, I even saw an altar that had these words that someone had carved on it: THIS HONORS THE GOD THAT WE(exc) DO NOT KNOW. So now I will tell you about that God whom you worship but you do not know.

²⁴He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Because he rules over all beings in heaven and on earth, he does not dwell in shrines that people have made.

²⁵He does not need to have anything made for him by people MTY {to have people MTY make MTY anything for him}, because everything that exists belongs to him. He is the one who causes ◄us (inc)/all people► to live and breathe, and he gives us all the things that we(inc) need.

²⁶In the beginning, God created one couple, and from them God produced all ◄the ethnic groups/the nations► that now live everywhere on the earth. He also decided where each ethnic group of people should live and how long they should live there.

²⁷He wanted people to realize that they need him. Then maybe they would seek him and find him. God wants us to seek him, although he is really close LIT to each one of us.

²⁸As someone has said, ‘ It is only because he enables us that we (inc) live and move and do what we do.’ And, as some of your own poets have said, ‘We (inc) are God's children.’

²⁹Therefore, because we are God's children and can communicate like God does, we (inc) should not think that he is anything like an image that people have made of gold or silver or stone which cannot communicate. Those images are designed and skillfully made {People design and make those images}, but they are not alive.

³⁰During the times when people did not know what God wanted them to do, he did not immediately punish them for what they did. But now God commands all people everywhere to turn away from their evil behavior.