1They travelled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2Paul went in to them, as he always did. For three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.
3He explained them and showed that Christ had to suffer, and rise again from the dead. He said, "This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is Christ."
4Some of them believed and joined Paul and Silas. So did a great crowd of the devout Greeks, and quite a few of the leading women.
5But the Jews who did not believe were filled with envy. They took some worthless men from the streets, gathered a crowd, and set the whole city in an uproar. They attacked the house of Jason, and tried to bring Paul and Silas out to the people.
6When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the rulers of the city. They shouted, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,"
7"and Jason has taken them in. They all act against the decrees of Caesar. They say there is another king, one called Jesus."
8When the people and the rulers of the city heard this, they were troubled.
9They made Jason and the others pay money as a promise of good behaviour, and then let them go.
10That same night the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11These people were nobler than those in Thessalonica. They received the word very eagerly, and searched the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.
12So many of them believed, and also quite a few honoured Greek women, and men as well.
13But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they came there too, and stirred up the people.
14At once the brothers sent Paul away, as if he were going to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus stayed there.
15Those who went with Paul brought him to Athens. They received an order for Silas and Timotheus to come to him as quickly as possible, and then they left.
16While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him. He saw that the city was full of idols.
17So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout people, and every day in the market place with those he met there.
18Then some philosophers, Epicureans and Stoics, argued with him. Some said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others said, "He seems to be preaching strange gods." They said this because he preached to them about Jesus and the resurrection.
19They took him and brought him to Areopagus. They said, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are speaking about?"
20"You are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what they mean."
21(All the people of Athens, and the strangers living there, spent their time in nothing else but telling or hearing some new thing.)
22Then Paul stood up in the middle of Mars' hill and said, "You men of Athens, I see that in all things you are too superstitious."
23For as I walked through your city and looked at the things you worship, I found an altar with this writing on it: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. So the one you worship without knowing him, I now declare to you.
24God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in temples built by hands.
25He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, for he gives life and breath and all things to everyone.
26He made all nations of men from one blood, to live on the whole face of the earth. He decided the times set for them, and the boundaries of where they live.
27They were to seek the Lord, and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28For in him we live, and move, and have our being. Some of your own poets have said it too: 'For we are also his offspring.'
29So then, since we are the offspring of God, we should not think that God is like gold, or silver, or stone, shaped by human skill and imagination.
30In the past God overlooked such times of ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31"For he has set a day when he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."
32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some made fun of him. Others said, "We will hear you again about this matter."
33So Paul left them.
34But some men joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council of Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.