Acts 17:7-28

⁷whom Jason hath entertained; and they are all acting in opposition to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

⁸And they alarmed the multitude and the city magistrates when they heard these things.

⁹And having taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go.

¹⁰And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea; who, having come there, went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed; and of the Grecian women of rank and men, not a few.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica knew that at Beroea, too, the word of God was preached by Paul, they came hither also, and stirred up the multitudes.

¹⁴And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go to the sea; but Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵And they who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and having received a commandment to Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city full of idols.

¹⁷Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout Greeks, and in the market daily with those that met him.

¹⁸And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, What doth this babbler mean to say? and others, He seemeth to be a setter forth of foreign gods; because he brought the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to Mars' hill, saying, May we know what this new doctrine is, of which thou speakest?

²⁰For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these things mean.

²¹Now all the Athenians, and the strangers residing among them, spent their leisure for nothing else but to tell or to hear something new.

²²Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very devout.

²³For while passing along and observing your objects of worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, “To an unknown God.” What therefore ye, without knowledge of it, worship, that do I make known to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

²⁵nor doth he receive service at the hands of men, as though he needed anything, since it is he that giveth to all life and breath and all things.

²⁶And he made of one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having fixed appointed times, and the bounds of their habitation;

²⁷that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he is not far from every one of us.

²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as also some of your own poets have said: “For we are also his offspring.”