Acts 17:16-31

English Standard Version

Paul in Athens

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was ^(A)provoked within him as he saw that the city was ^(B)full of idols. ¹⁷So ^(C)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 said, ^(D)“What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because ^(E)he was preaching ^(F)Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹And they took him and brought him to ^(G)the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this ^(H)new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰For you bring some ^(I)strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” ²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Paul Addresses the Areopagus

²²So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ^(J)‘To the unknown god.’ ^(K)What therefore you worship ^(L)as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴^(M)The God who made the world and everything in it, being ^(N)Lord of heaven and earth, ^(O)does not live in temples made by man,^[a] ²⁵nor is he served by human hands, ^(P)as though he needed anything, since he himself ^(Q)gives to all mankind ^(R)life and breath and everything. ²⁶And ^(S)he made from one man every nation of mankind to live ^(T)on all the face of the earth, ^(U)having determined allotted periods and ^(V)the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷^(W)that they should seek God, ^(X)and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. ^(Y)Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸for

^(Z)“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;^[b]

as even some of ^(AA)your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’^[c]

²⁹^(AB)Being then God's offspring, ^(AC)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. ³⁰^(AD)The times of ignorance ^(AE)God overlooked, but ^(AF)now he ^(AG)commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed ^(AH)a day on which ^(AI)he will judge the world ^(AJ)in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and ^(AK)of this he has given assurance to all ^(AL)by raising him from the dead.”