Acts 17:16-34

16Now while Paul was waiting for them in 1Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. 17So he was reasoning 2in the synagogue with the Jews and 3the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. 18And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were 4conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could 5this 6scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”--because he was preaching 7Jesus and the resurrection. 19And they 8took him and brought him 9to the 1011Areopagus, saying, “May we know what 12this new teaching is 13which you are proclaiming? 20For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” 21(Now all the Athenians and the strangers 14visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

22So Paul stood in the midst of the 15Areopagus and said, “Men of 16Athens, I see that you are very 17religious in all respects. 23For while I was passing through and examining the 18objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what 19you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 2420The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is 21Lord of heaven and earth, does not 22dwell in temples made by hands; 25nor is He served by human hands, 23as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26and 24He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having 25determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, 26though He is not far from each one of us; 28for 27in Him we live and move and 28exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ 29Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we 29ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. 30So having 30overlooked 31the times of ignorance, God is 32now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, 31because He has set 33a day on which 34He will judge 3536the world in righteousness 37through a Man whom He has 38appointed, having furnished proof to all people 39by 40raising Him from the dead.”

32Now when they heard of 41the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you 42again concerning this.” 33So Paul went out from among them. 34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the 43Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.