17
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
18
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
20
For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean."
21
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
23
for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
24
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25
Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;