Acts 17
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 17
Paul in Thessalonica.[a] 1 After they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica[b] where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 Following his usual practice, Paul went in, and for three Sabbaths he argued with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. “And the Christ,” he said, “is this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” 4 Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many God-fearing Greeks as well as not a few prominent women.
5 However, the Jews became jealous, and they recruited some ruffians from the marketplace, formed a mob, and soon had the city in an uproar. They stormed Jason’s house, intending to bring them out before the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them there, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city magistrates, shouting, “These people who have been causing trouble all over the world have come here also, 7 and Jason has given them shelter. They are all acting in opposition to the decrees of Caesar, claiming that there is another king named Jesus.” 8 Upon hearing this, the mob and the magistrates were greatly agitated. 9 They then took a bond from Jason and the others before releasing them.
10 Paul in Beroea. As soon as it got dark, the brethren sent Paul and Silas away to Beroea. Upon their arrival, they immediately went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 The people there were more receptive than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with great eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures every day to check whether these things were so. 12 Many of them became believers, as did a considerable number of influential Greek women and men.
13 However, when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was being proclaimed by Paul in Beroea, they followed him there to cause trouble and stir up the crowds. 14 Therefore, the brethren immediately sent Paul on his way to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15 After Paul’s escorts brought him as far as Athens, they returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
16 Paul in Athens.[c] While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was outraged to note that the city was full of idols. 17 Therefore, he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and also in the city square with whoever chanced to be there. 18 Even a few Epicurean and Stoic philosophers[d] argued with him. Some asked, “What is this man babbling about?” Others said, “Apparently, he is here to promote foreign deities,” because he was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 Therefore, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus[e] and asked him, “Can you explain to us what this new doctrine is that you are teaching? 20 You are presenting strange ideas to us, and we would like to find out what they all mean.” 21 The major pastime of the Athenians and the foreigners living there was to spend their time telling or listening to the latest ideas.
22 Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus.[f]Then Paul stood before them in the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens, I have seen how religious you are. 23 For as I walked around, looking carefully at your shrines, I noticed among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What, therefore, you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in shrines made by human hands. 25 Nor is he served by human hands as though he were in need of anything. Rather, it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and all other things. 26 From one ancestor,[g] he created all peoples to occupy the entire earth, and he decreed their appointed times and the boundaries of where they would live.
27 “He did all this so that people might seek God in the hope that by groping for him they might find him, even though indeed he is not far from any one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’[h] As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’
29 “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like an image of gold or silver or stone, fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, but now he commands people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world with justice by a man whom he has appointed. He has given public confirmation of this to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We should like to hear you speak further on this subject at another time.” 33 After that, Paul left them. 34 However, some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius[i] the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, as well as some others.
Footnotes
- Acts 17:1 Jewish groups resent the rise of Christian communities as a rival enterprise and a risk for their peaceful establishment in the cities of the Empire—something that is always precarious. Unless the Jews accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures, they can do nothing but be opposed to such communities.
The community of the Thessalonians will later receive the first two Letters written by Paul, which enable us to glimpse the fervor and anxieties of a young Church. The substance of Paul’s preaching at Thessalonica is summed up in verse 3: there we find the general structure of the discourses of Acts. A woman once again appears in a new role (Acts 17:12; 18:2) and is even named for her own sake, with no reference to a man (Acts 17:34). Christian lay people suffer in the name of the apostles. The opposition they encounter is on the juridical level. The confrontation with the Roman world will take place on a political level, where Roman culture and civilization are better expressed. - Acts 17:1 Amphipolis . . . Thessalonica: cities on the so-called Egnatian Way, which ran east and west through Greece and also included Philippi. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia with a population of more than 200,000, and it lay about 100 miles from Philippi.
- Acts 17:16 Paul reaches Athens, which some 500 years before had been at the height of its glory in philosophy, literature, and art. In the twilight of its fame, it still housed a highly regarded university and was a force in philosophical thinking, as evidenced by the Epicureans and Stoics who engage Paul in discussion. He is led to the Areopagus—before a body that functioned in matters pertaining to religion, culture, and education. They evaluate him as the promoter of a new religion.
- Acts 17:18 Epicurean and Stoic philosophers: followers of the two prevailing philosophical systems. The Epicureans follow Epicurus (342–271 B.C.) in abandoning the search for pure truth by reason as hopeless and giving themselves over to present pleasures. The Stoics follow Zeno and Chrysippius (3rd century B.C.) and embrace a philosophy of self-repression because of human self-sufficiency. What is this man babbling about?: it seems to be a way of saying that the speaker is an eclectic, gathering ideas from all sources. Jesus and the resurrection: the Athenians misconstrue Paul’s words, thinking that he is speaking about Jesus and the goddess Anastasis, which means resurrection.
- Acts 17:19 Areopagus: this may refer either to a hill of Ares west of the Acropolis or to the Council of Athens that once met on it.
- Acts 17:22 Paul’s speech is a masterpiece of judicious adaptability to the Greek mentality. Yet he and his hearers are on different wave lengths. He preaches a way of life and calls for a faith while the cultured Greeks seek only a truth that satisfies the mind. A crucified and resurrected God can make no impact on them, and they take Paul for a buffoon (v. 14). Others think of him as a fanatic worshiper of new gods: “Jesus” and “Resurrection,” his spouse (v. 18). Paul first sets forth his theodicy: there is one God, who is spiritual, personal, and provident (vv. 22-26). Then he cites their poets, interpreting them in a monotheistic fashion (vv. 27-30). Finally, his Christology is very brief (v. 31), because of the uproar provoked by the subject of the resurrection, which was openly rejected by all the Hellenistic schools of philosophy.
- Acts 17:26 From one ancestor: or “from one blood.” Decreed their appointed times: or “decreed limits to their existence.”
- Acts 17:28 In him we live and move and have our being: a citation from the writings of the Cretan poet Epimenides (6th century B.C.). We are all his offspring: a citation from the Cilician poet Aratus (c. 315–240) as well as from Cleanthes (331–233 B.C.). Paul also quotes Greek poets in 1 Cor 15:33 and Tit 1:12.
- Acts 17:34 Dionysius: the passage suggests that this individual should be known to the readers. A theologian of the 5th or 6th century published mystical writings under this name. Some claim that this Pseudo-Dionysius (Denis) was the first bishop of Paris in the 3rd century.
