Acts:17

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* Now when they had gone through Amphipolis and Apollonia , they came to Thessalonica . Here there was a Jewish synagogue , * and Paul , according to his usual custom , went in to them and , for three Sabbath Days , he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures , * explaining and quoting passages to prove that the Messiah had to suffer and to rise again from the dead and that "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming unto you is the Messiah ." * Some were persuaded and attached themselves to Paul and Silas , including a number of devout Greeks , and a large number of the leading women . * But the Jews , moved with jealousy , called to their aid certain ill - favored and idle fellows , formed a mob , and began to set the town in an uproar . Assaulting the house of Jason , they sought to bring them out to the people . * And when they had failed to find Paul and Silas , they began to drag Jason and some of the brethren before the politarchs , shouting . "These fellows who have upset the habitable earth are come hither also . * "Jason has received them , and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar , saying that there is another king , one Jesus ." * Both the crowd and the politarchs were disturbed when they heard this , * but when they had taken security from Jason and the rest , they let them go . * Now the brothers sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea . When they got there they betook themselves to the Jewish synagogue . * The Jews of Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica , in that they very readily received the message with all readiness of mind , and day after day searched the Scriptures to see whether these things were so . * So many of them became believers , and so did not a few Greeks , women of honorable estate , and men . * As soon as the Jews in Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul in Berea also , they came there , and stirred up and troubled the crowds . * Then the brothers at once sent Paul down to the sea , but Silas and Timothy remained behind . * Those who were caring for Paul brought him as far as Athens , and there left him , with instructions to Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed . * While Paul was waiting for them at Athens , his spirit was stirred within him , when he noticed that the city was full of idols . * He argued in the synagogues with the Jews and the devout proselytes , and also daily in the market-place with those that met him there . * A few of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him again and again . Some were saying , "What has this beggarly fellow to say ?" Others said , "He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods ," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection . * Then they laid hold of him and brought him up to Mars Hill , saying . "May we be told what this new teaching of yours is ? * "For you are bringing certain strange things to our ears . We want to know , therefore , what these things mean ." * (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else , but to tell or to hear some new thing .) * So Paul stood up in the center of Mars Hill , and said . "Men of Athens , I perceive that in all respects you are remarkably religious . * "For as I was passing along and observing your objects of worship , I found also an altar with this inscription , TO AN UNKNOWN GOD . What you are worshiping in ignorance , this I am proclaiming to you . * "The God who made the universe and all things in it , he , being Lord of heaven and earth , does not dwell in temples made with hands , * "neither is he served by mens hands , as though he needed anything , since he himself gives to all life and breath and all things . * "He has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth , having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation , * "so that they might seek God , if perhaps they might feel after him and find him , though he is not far from every on of us ; * "for in him we live and move and have our being ; as certain even of your own poets have said , "For we also are his offspring . * "Since then we are Gods offspring , we ought not to imagine that the Godhead is like to gold , or silver , or stone , graven by art and device of man . * "The times of ignorance God overlooked , but he now commands all men that they should all , everywhere , repent ; * inasmuch as he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world justly , by the Man whom he has ordained , and he has given proof of all this by raising him from the dead ." * But on hearing of the resurrection of the dead , some began to mock ; but others said , "We will hear you again on that subject ." * So Paul withdrew from them . * A few , however , attached themselves to him and believed , among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite , and a woman named Damaris , and some others .

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