Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁶ And while Paul was waiting-for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked^[a] within him while observing the city being full-of-idols. ¹⁷ So indeed he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the ones worshiping, and in the marketplace every day with the ones happening-to-be-there. ¹⁸ And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. And some were saying, “What would this scavenger^[b] be intending to say?” And others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities^[c]”— because he was announcing-the-good-news as to Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And having taken-hold-of him, they brought him to the Areopagus^[d], saying, “Can we know what this new teaching being spoken by you is? ²⁰ For you are bringing-in some things being strange to our ears. So we want to know what these things mean”. ²¹ Now all Athenians and the strangers residing there were finding-an-opportunity^[e] for nothing other than to say something or to hear something newer.

Paul Proclaims To Them The Creator-God And What He Wants From Mankind

²² And Paul, having been stood in the midst of the Areopagus, said, “Men, Athenians, I see how you are very-religious in all respects. ²³ For while going-about and looking-carefully-at^[f] your objects-of-worship, I also found an altar in which it had been inscribed, ‘To a not-known god’. Therefore what you are worshiping while not-knowing, this I am proclaiming to you: ²⁴ God, the One having made the world and all the things in it— this One, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made-by-human-hands. ²⁵ Nor is He served by human hands, [as if] being-in-need of something^[g]— He Himself giving life and breath and all things to all people. ²⁶ And He made from one man every nation of mankind, that they should dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined the times^[h] having been appointed^[i] for them and the boundaries of their dwelling-places^[j]; ²⁷ that they should seek God— if perhaps indeed they might grope-for^[k] Him and find Him, though indeed He being not far from each one of us. ²⁸ For in Him we live and move and exist, as also some of your poets^[l] have said— ‘For we are indeed the One’s offspring^[m]’. ²⁹ Being then offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone— a work of human craft and thought. ³⁰ So indeed, having overlooked^[n] the times of ignorance, God, as to the present things, is commanding people that everyone everywhere should repent. ³¹ Because He set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man Whom He designated, having granted^[o] a proof ^[p] to everyone— having raised Him up from the dead”.