Acts:17

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia , they came to Thessalonica , where was a synagogue of the Jews : * And Paul , as his manner was , went in to them , and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures , * Opening and alleging , that Christ must needs have suffered , and risen again from the dead ; and that this Jesus , whom I preach to you , is Christ . * And some of them believed , and consorted with Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude , and of the chief women not a few . * But the Jews which believed not , moved with envy , took to them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort , and gathered a company , and set all the city on an uproar , and assaulted the house of Jason , and sought to bring them out to the people . * And when they found them not , they drew Jason and certain brothers to the rulers of the city , crying , These that have turned the world upside down are come here also ; * Whom Jason has received : and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar , saying that there is another king , one Jesus . * And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city , when they heard these things . * And when they had taken security of Jason , and of the other , they let them go . * And the brothers immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea : who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews . * These were more noble than those in Thessalonica , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind , and searched the scriptures daily , whether those things were so . * Therefore many of them believed ; also of honorable women which were Greeks , and of men , not a few . * But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea , they came thither also , and stirred up the people . * And then immediately the brothers sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea : but Silas and Timotheus stayed there still . * And they that conducted Paul brought him to Athens : and receiving a commandment to Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed , they departed . * Now while Paul waited for them at Athens , his spirit was stirred in him , when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry . * Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews , and with the devout persons , and in the market daily with them that met with him . * Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans , and of the Stoicks , encountered him . And some said , What will this babbler say ? other some , He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached to them Jesus , and the resurrection . * And they took him , and brought him to Areopagus , saying , May we know what this new doctrine , whereof you speak , is ? * For you bring certain strange things to our ears : we would know therefore what these things mean . * (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else , but either to tell , or to hear some new thing .) * Then Paul stood in the middle of Mars 'hill , and said , You men of Athens , I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious . * For as I passed by , and beheld your devotions , I found an altar with this inscription , TO THE UNKNOWN GOD . Whom therefore you ignorantly worship , him declare I to you . * God that made the world and all things therein , seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth , dwells not in temples made with hands ; * Neither is worshipped with men ' hands , as though he needed any thing , seeing he gives to all life , and breath , and all things ; * And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth , and has determined the times before appointed , and the bounds of their habitation ; * That they should seek the Lord , if haply they might feel after him , and find him , though he be not far from every one of us : * For in him we live , and move , and have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said , For we are also his offspring . * For as much then as we are the offspring of God , we ought not to think that the Godhead is like to gold , or silver , or stone , graven by are and man ' device . * And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now commands all men every where to repent : * Because he has appointed a day , in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained ; whereof he has given assurance to all men , in that he has raised him from the dead . * And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead , some mocked : and others said , We will hear you again of this matter . * So Paul departed from among them . * However , certain men joined to him , and believed : among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite , and a woman named Damaris , and others with them .

---