1After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2And according to Paul’s custom, he went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
4And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
5But the Jews became jealous, and taking some wicked men from the marketplace and forming a mob, they set the city in an uproar. And attacking Jason’s house, they were seeking to bring them out to the people’s assembly.
6But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
7and Jason has received them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
8And they agitated the crowd and the city authorities as they heard these things.
9And after taking a pledge from Jason and the rest, they released them.
10Then the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11Now these Jews were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
12Therefore many of them believed, along with not a few of the prominent Greek women and men.
13But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul in Berea as well, they came there also, stirring up and agitating the crowds.
14Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to go as far as the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there.
15Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
16Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some were saying, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. We wish, therefore, to know what these things mean.”
21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.
22So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23For as I was passing through and observing your objects of worship, I also found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
24The God who made the world and everything in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands,
25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling,
27so that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.
28For ‘in him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now declares to all people everywhere that they must repent,
31because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has designated, having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead.
32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
33And so Paul went out from their midst.
34But some men joined him and believed, among whom were also Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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