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Acts 17
1Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
2Paul, as was his custom, went in to them; and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3explaining and demonstrating that the had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas: of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.
5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
6When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
7whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another , Jesus!”
8The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.
9When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
12Many of them therefore ; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.
13But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.
14Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.
15But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
16Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city 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 met him.
18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the .
19They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?
20For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”
21Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.
24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.
25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
30The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should ,
31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
32Now when they heard of the of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
33Thus Paul went out from among them.
34But certain men joined with him and , including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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Questions this passage answers
Who is God?
God is the one living Creator who made everything and depends on nothing, and Scripture answers this question mainly by telling us his character rather than by defining his substance. When God described himself to Moses he said he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. The New Testament adds that this God is finally known in Jesus Christ, who has made him known.
Can the Bible be trusted?
Scripture claims to be true and invites examination rather than avoiding it. It says God's word is truth and that it stands when everything else fades, and the New Testament writers appeal to eyewitnesses, named places and public events rather than to private experience. Trust in Scripture is finally trust in the God who speaks in it, and the clearest reason a Christian gives for that trust is that Jesus treated these writings as God's own word.
How do I study the Bible correctly?
Scripture must be handled rightly, read for what it actually says in its own context, taught by the whole counsel of God rather than a verse pulled loose, and applied through the Christ it points to from Genesis to Revelation. Paul tells Timothy to be diligent to present himself approved, rightly dividing the word of truth, and to continue in what he has learned because Scripture is able to make him wise to salvation. Studying the Bible correctly is a discipline, not an accident.