Acts 17
To an Unknown God — Him I Proclaim to You
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Thessalonica
17:1After traveling through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
17:2As was his custom, Paul went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
17:3explaining and setting before them that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.”
17:4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
17:5But the Jews became jealous and took some wicked men from the marketplace, gathered a mob, and threw the city into turmoil. They attacked Jason’s house and sought to bring Paul and Silas out to the populace.
17:6When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have upset the inhabited world have come here too,
17:7and Jason has welcomed them. They all act against Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
17:8They disturbed the crowd and the city officials who heard these things.
17:9After taking security from Jason and the others, the officials released them.
Beroea
17:10The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
17:11These people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica: they welcomed the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
17:12Many of them therefore believed, as did not a few Greek women of high standing and men.
17:13But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God had also been proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they came there too, stirring up and disturbing the crowds.
17:14Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to go as far as the sea, while Silas and Timothy remained there.
17:15Those conducting Paul brought him as far as Athens. After receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
Paul in Athens
17:16While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols.
17:17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the worshipers, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
17:18Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also engaged him. Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities,” because he proclaimed the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
17:19They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are speaking?
17:20For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. We therefore wish to know what these things mean.”
17:21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners staying there spent their leisure on nothing else than telling or hearing something newer.
The Address at the Areopagus
17:22Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every respect you are very religious.
17:23For as I passed through and observed your objects of worship, I also found an altar inscribed, ‘To an unknown god.’ What you worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you.
17:24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by hands.
17:25Nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything.
17:26From one He made every nation of humanity to live upon the whole face of the earth, determining their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling,
17:27so that they might seek God, if perhaps they might feel their way toward Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
17:28For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are His offspring.’
17:29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human art and thought.
17:30Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,
17:31because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the inhabited world in righteousness through a Man whom He appointed, giving assurance to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
Some Mock and Some Believe
17:32When they heard of a resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
17:33So Paul went out from their midst.
17:34But some people joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V2 · working draft awaiting specialist review.