17 ¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens he was exasperated to see how the city was full of idols. 17 ¹⁷ So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and gentile worshippers, and also in the city square every day with casual passers-by. 17 ¹⁸ And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers joined issue with him. Some said, 'What can this charlatan be trying to say?'; others, 'He would appear to be a propagandist for foreign deities'- this because he was preaching about Jesus and Resurrection. 17 ¹⁹ So they took him and brought him before the Court of Areopagus Or: brought him to Mars' field. and said, 'May we know what this new doctrine is that you propound? 17 ²⁰ You are introducing ideas that sound strange to us, and we should like to know what they mean.' 17 ²¹ (Now the Athenians in general and the foreigners there had no time for anything but talking or hearing about the latest novelty.)

17 ²² Then Paul stood up before the Court of Areopagus Or: in the middle of Mars' hill. and said: 'Men of Athens, I see that in everything that concerns religion you are uncommonly scrupulous. 17 ²³ For as I was going round looking at the objects of your worship, I noticed among other things an altar bearing the inscription "To an Unknown God". What you worship but do not know—this is what I now proclaim. 17 ²⁴ 'The God who created the world and everything in it, and who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by men. 17 ²⁵ It is not because he lacks anything that he accepts service at men's hands, for he is himself the universal giver of life and breath and all else. 17 ²⁶ He created every race of men of one stock, to inhabit the whole earth's surface. He fixed the epochs of their history Or: fixed the ordered seasons ... and the limits of their territory. 17 ²⁷ They were to seek God, and, it might be, touch and find him; though indeed he is not far from each one of us, 17 ²⁸ for in him we live and move, in him we exist; as some of your own poets Some witnesses read: some among you. have said, "We are also his offspring." 17 ²⁹ As God's offspring, then, we ought not to suppose that the deity is like an image in gold or silver or stone, shaped by human craftsmanship and design. 17 ³⁰ As for the times of ignorance, God has overlooked them; but now he commands mankind, all men everywhere, to repent, 17 ³¹ because he has fixed the day on which he will have the world judged, and justly judged, by a man of his choosing; of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.'

17 ³² When they heard about the raising of the dead, some scoffed; and others said, 'We will hear you on this subject some other time.' 17 ³³ And so Paul left the assembly. 17 ³⁴ However, some men joined him and became believers, including Dionysius, a member of the Court of Areopagus; also a woman named Damaris, and others besides.