Acts 17:8-28

⁸The people and the leaders of the town were very disturbed when they heard this.

⁹So they made Jason and the others post bail before they let them go.

¹⁰The believers had Paul and Silas leave for Berea that very night. When they arrived in Berea they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹The people there had a better attitude than those in Thessalonica in that they were very quick to accept the word, and every day they examined the Scriptures to make sure what they were told was right.

¹²As a result many of them became believers, along with some highly-placed Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul was also spreading the word of God in Berea, they went there and caused the same kind of trouble, stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Immediately the believers sent Paul to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵Those escorting Paul took him as far as Athens, and then returned with instructions from Paul to Silas and Timothy that they should join him there as soon as possible.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was very troubled to see all the idolatry in the city.

¹⁷He debated in the synagogue with the Jews and those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace with those he happened to meet from day to day.

¹⁸Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also argued with him. “What is he going on about?” they wondered. Others concluded, “He seems to be teaching about some foreign gods,” because he was speaking about Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹So they took him to the Areopagus, and asked him, “Please tell us about this new teaching that you're promoting.

²⁰We're hearing from you things that sound odd to us, so we'd like to know what they mean.”

²¹(All the Athenians, including foreigners who lived there, spent their whole time doing nothing except explaining or listening to something new.)

²²Paul stood up right in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens, I notice you are very religious about everything.

²³As I was walking along, looking at your shrines, I found an altar that had the inscription, ‘To an Unknown God.’ This unknown God whom you worship is the one I'm describing to you.

²⁴The God who created the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't live in temples we make.

²⁵He doesn't need to be served by us as if he needed anything, since he is the source of all life for every living being.

²⁶From one man he made all the peoples who live on the earth, and decided beforehand when and where they should live.

²⁷God's purpose was that they should seek him, hoping they would reach out for him and find him—though he isn't far from any one of us.

²⁸In him we live, move, and exist. Just as one of your own poets wrote, ‘We are his family.’