ACTS 17 15-34

         WeekLy BooK oF Acts

15 -  Those who accompanied Paul on his way brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they went back. 16 And while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jewish and devoted persons, and in the marketplace, every day, with whoever happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. And some said, “What is this babbler saying?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. And wish to know what these things mean.” 21 Now many Athenians and foreigners who lived there would spend their days in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this is what I am proclaiming to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind that lives on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ as some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold, silver, or stone, an image formed by the creative art and imagination of man. 30 Those times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he instructs all people everywhere to turn, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising that man from the dead.”

     32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 At that, Paul went on from the Areopagus. 34 But some joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and some others.

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