Acts 17 (NMV)
1 After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three consecutive Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and demonstrating that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. He said, "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah."
4 Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But the Jews became jealous, and they recruited some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason's house, they searched for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the public assembly.
6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus."
8 The crowd and the city officials were stirred up when they heard these things.
9 So they took security from Jason and the others and then released them.
10 As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11 Now the people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true.
12 As a result, many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.
14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
15 Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others said, "He seems to be proclaiming foreign deities", because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?
20 Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what it means."
21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or listening to something new.
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, "People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every way.
23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To an unknown god.' Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands.
25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life, breath, and everything else.
26 From one man, He made every nation of humanity to live all over the earth, and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they would live.
27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.
28 For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
29 Since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination.
30 In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to change the way they live,
31 because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given assurance of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead."
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock him, but others said, "We'd like to hear from you again about this."
33 So Paul left their presence.
34 But some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.