Acts 17:16-18:11

Christian Standard Bible

Paul in Athens

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.^{(A) 18} Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off^[a] trying to say?”

Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.^(B)

¹⁹ They took him and brought him to the Areopagus,^[b] and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting?^{(C) 20} Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

The Areopagus Address

²² Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. ²³ For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘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^(D)—he is Lord of heaven and earth^(E)—does not live in shrines made by hands.^{(F) 25} Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything,^(G) since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.^{(H) 26} From one man^[c] he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.^{(I) 27} He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.^{(J) 28} For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’^{(K) 29} Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.^(L)

³⁰ “Therefore, having overlooked^(M) the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”^(N)

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” ³³ So Paul left their presence. ³⁴ However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Founding the Corinthian Church

18 After this, he^[d] left Athens and went to Corinth,^{(O) 2} where he found a Jew named Aquila,^(P) a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them, ³ and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade,^(Q) he stayed with them and worked. ⁴ He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.^(R)

⁵ When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself to preaching the word^[e] and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.^{(S) 6} When they resisted and blasphemed,^(T) he shook out his clothes^(U) and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads!^(V) I am innocent.^[f] From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”^{(W) 7} So he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. ⁸ Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, along with his whole household.^(X) Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

⁹ The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent. ¹⁰ For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”^{(Y) 11} He stayed there a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them.