Acts 17:16-24

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and others who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸But also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be one who calls people to follow strange gods,” because he was proclaiming Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹They took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know this new teaching which you were speaking?

²⁰For you bring some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing but either telling or listening about something new.)

²²So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way.

²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription, “To an Unknown God.” What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built with hands.