1 AND travelling through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 And according to his custom Paul went in to them, and reasoned with them three sabbaths from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and asserting that the Christ ought to suffer and to rise from the dead; and that this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.
4 And some of them believed and adhered to Paul and Silas; of the pious Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
5 But the unbelieving Jews taking certain base men of those about the markets, and exciting a mob, disturbed the city; and coming to the house of Jason sought to bring them out to the people;
6 but not finding them, they dragged Jason and some brothers to the rulers of the city, crying, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
7 and Jason has received them; and they all do things contrary to the ordinances of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.
8 And they excited the multitude and the rulers of the city hearing these things,
9 and taking security of Jason and the rest they let them go.
10 And the brothers immediately, by night, sent away Paul and Silas to Berea; and when they came they went into the synagogue of the Jews;
11 but these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all readiness, examining the Scriptures daily [to see] if these things were so.
12 Many of them therefore believed, both of honorable Grecian women, and of men not a few.
13 And when the Jews in Thessalonica knew that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there exciting the multitudes.
14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away, as if to go by sea; but Silas and Timothy remained there.
15 And those conducting Paul brought him to Athens, and receiving a charge to Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
16 And while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was moved within him as he saw the city wholly devoted to idolatry.
17 Then he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and those that were pious, and in the market every day with those he met.
18 And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers disputed with him, and some said, What does this trifler mean to say? And others, He seems to be a preacher of strange demons; because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And laying hold of him they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which is taught by you?
20 for you bring certain strange things to our ears; we wish therefore to know what these things mean.
21 And all the Athenians and the strangers living there spend their leisure in nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
22 And Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are extremely devoted to the worship of demons.
23 For as I passed through, and observed your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I declare to you.
24 The God who made the world and all things in it, this [God] being Lord of heaven and earth dwells not in temples made with hands,
25 neither is he served by the hands of men as needing any thing, since he gives to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 and he made of one blood every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, determining their appointed times and the bounds of their habitation,
27 that they should seek God, if perhaps they might feel after and find him, and indeed he is not far from every one of us.
28 For in him we live, and move, and are; as some also of your own poets have said, For we are his offspring.
29 Being therefore an offspring of God, we ought not to think the Deity to be like gold or silver or stone, a work of art and human device.
30 Overlooking therefore the times of ignorance, God now commands all men everywhere to change their minds,
31 because he has appointed a day in which he is about to judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he has appointed, giving assurance to all by raising him from the dead.