Acts:17:15-34
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But 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 .
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Now while Paul waited for them at Athens ,
his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols .
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So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons ,
and in the marketplace every day with those who met him .
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Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also {
TR omits "
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 resurrection .
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They took hold of him ,
and brought him to the Areopagus ,
saying , "
May we know what this new teaching is ,
which is spoken by you ?
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For you bring certain strange things to our ears .
We want to know therefore what these things mean ."
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Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else ,
but either to tell or to hear some new thing .
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Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus ,
and said , "
You men of Athens ,
I perceive that you are very religious in all things .
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For as I passed along ,
and observed the objects of your worship ,
I found also an altar with this inscription : '
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD .'
What therefore you worship in ignorance ,
this I announce to you .
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The 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 ,
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neither is he served by men '
s hands ,
as though he needed anything ,
seeing he himself gives to all life and breath ,
and all things .
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He 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 ,
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that 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 .
* '
For in him we live ,
and move ,
and have our being .'
As some of your own poets have said , '
For we are also his offspring .'
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Being 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 .
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The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked .
But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent ,
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because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness 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 ."
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Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead ,
some mocked ;
but others said , "
We want to hear you again concerning this ."
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Thus Paul went out from among them .
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But certain men joined with him ,
and believed ,
among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite ,
and a woman named Damaris ,
and others with them .