16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching ^yJesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this ^znew teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the ^aunknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in ^btemples made by man,¹ 25 nor is he served by human hands, ^cas though he needed anything, since he himself ^dgives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made ^efrom one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having ^fdetermined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 ^gthat they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually ^hnot far from each one of us, 28 for

as even some of ⁱyour own poets have said,

29 Being then ^jGod’s offspring, we ought ^knot to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an ^limage formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The ^mtimes of ignorance God ⁿoverlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to ^orepent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness ^pby a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the ^qresurrection of the dead, some ^rmocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst.