1 And having journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul's custom he went in among them, and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, 3 opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead, and that this is the Christ, Jesus whom I announce to you. 4 And some of them believed, and joined themselves to Paul and Silas, and of the Greeks who worshipped, a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. 5 But the Jews having been stirred up to jealousy, and taken to [themselves] certain wicked men of the lowest rabble, and having got a crowd together, set the city in confusion; and having beset the house of Jason sought to bring them out to the people; 6 and not having found them, dragged Jason and certain brethren before the politarchs, crying out, These [men] that have set the world in tumult, are come here also, 7 whom Jason has received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, that there is another king, Jesus. 8 And they troubled the crowd and the politarchs when they heard these things. 9 And having taken security of Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10 But the brethren immediately sent away, in the night, Paul and Silas to Berea; who, being arrived, went away into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 And these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, receiving the word with all readiness of mind, daily searching the scriptures if these things were so. 12 Therefore many from among them believed, and of Grecian women of the upper classes and men not a few. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God was announced in Berea also by Paul, they came there also, stirring up the crowds. 14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as to the sea; but Silas and Timotheus abode there. 15 But they that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and, having received a commandment to Silas and Timotheus, that they should come to him as quickly as possible, they departed. 16 But in Athens, while Paul was waiting for them, his spirit was painfully excited in him seeing the city given up to idolatry. 17 He reasoned therefore in the synagogue with the Jews, and those who worshipped, and in the market-place every day with those he met with. 18 But some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers attacked him. And some said, What would this chatterer say? and some, He seems to be an announcer of foreign demons, because he announced the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection [to them]. 19 And having taken hold on him they brought [him] to Areopagus, saying, Might we know what this new doctrine which is spoken by thee [is]? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We wish therefore to know what these things may mean. 21 Now all [the] Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else than to tell and to hear the news. 22 And Paul standing in the midst of Areopagus said, Athenians, in every way I see you given up to demon worship; 23 for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye reverence, not knowing [him], him I announce to you. 24 The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, 25 nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things; 26 and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling, 27 that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us: 28 for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Being therefore [the] offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, [the] graven form of man's art and imagination. 30 God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent, 31 because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead. 32 And when they heard [of the] resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and some said, We will hear thee again also concerning this. 33 Thus Paul went out of their midst. 34 But some men joining themselves to him believed; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman by name Damaris, and others with them.
Acts 17 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Damaris
A woman who believed after Paul's speech at Athens.
Cited in the guide: Acts 17:34
Dionysius
A member of the Areopagus council who believed after Paul's speech at Athens.
Cited in the guide: Acts 17:34
Jason
Hosted Paul and Silas at Thessalonica and was dragged before the city authorities by a mob; he is probably the Jason whom Paul calls his kinsman in Romans.
Cited in the guide: Acts 17:5; Acts 17:7; Acts 17:9
Places
Athens
The philosophical center of the Greco-Roman world. Paul engaged Stoic and Epicurean thinkers on Mars Hill (the Areopagus), reasoning toward the resurrection.
Cited in the guide: Acts 17:16; Acts 17:22
Thessalonica
Capital of the Roman province of Macedonia and a key stop on the Via Egnatia. Paul's brief ministry produced a strong church and two of his earliest letters.
Cited in the guide: Acts 17:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Acts 17:6
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Philippians 4:16; Acts 20:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Timothy 4:10
- 2 Acts 18:4; Acts 9:20; Isaiah 1:18; Acts 17:10; Luke 4:16
- 3 Acts 18:28; Acts 9:22; Luke 24:32; 1 Thessalonians 1:5–6; Acts 3:18
- 4 Acts 17:12; Acts 13:43; Acts 14:4; Acts 15:22; Acts 13:50
- 5 Galatians 5:26; Acts 17:13; Acts 14:2; Galatians 5:21; 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16
- 6 Acts 24:5; Acts 16:19–21; Acts 28:22; Luke 23:5; Acts 21:28–31
- 7 Luke 23:2; John 19:12; Acts 16:21; Daniel 3:12; 1 Peter 2:15
- 8 John 11:48; Matthew 2:3
- 9 Acts 17:5
- 10 Acts 17:13–14; 1 Thessalonians 2:2; Acts 17:2; Acts 20:4; Acts 9:25
- 11 Isaiah 34:16; Proverbs 2:1–5; John 5:39; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Matthew 13:23
- 12 Ephesians 5:14; Acts 14:1; Acts 13:50; Acts 17:2–4; 1 Corinthians 1:26
- 13 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16; Acts 17:5; Acts 21:27; Acts 14:2; Acts 6:12
- 14 Acts 17:10; Matthew 10:23; Acts 16:1; Acts 9:25; Acts 9:30
- 15 Acts 18:5; 1 Thessalonians 3:1; Acts 18:1; 2 Timothy 4:10–11; Titus 3:12
- 16 Psalm 119:158; Psalm 119:136; Exodus 32:19–20; 2 Peter 2:7; Job 32:18–20
- 17 Acts 13:16; Acts 14:1–4; Acts 17:2–4; Acts 9:20; Matthew 5:1–2
- 18 1 Corinthians 1:20–21; Luke 11:53; 1 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 2:8; Acts 4:2
- 19 Mark 1:27; Acts 17:22; Acts 24:24; Acts 25:22; Acts 26:1
- 20 Hosea 8:12; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Peter 4:4
- 21 2 Timothy 2:16–17; Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 5:16; 2 Thessalonians 3:11–12; 1 Timothy 5:13
- 22 Acts 25:19; Acts 17:16; Acts 19:35; Jeremiah 10:2–3; Jeremiah 50:38
- 23 John 4:22; Galatians 4:8–9; John 17:3; John 17:25; Acts 17:30
- 24 1 Kings 8:27; Deuteronomy 10:14; Acts 7:48; Isaiah 66:1; 2 Chronicles 6:18
- 25 Psalm 50:8–13; Isaiah 42:5; Genesis 2:7; Acts 17:28; Romans 11:35
- 26 Deuteronomy 32:7–8; Genesis 3:20; Malachi 2:10; Romans 5:12–19; 1 Corinthians 15:22
- 27 Jeremiah 23:23–24; Deuteronomy 4:7; Romans 1:20; Acts 14:17; Psalm 19:1–6
- 28 Job 12:10; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 36:9; Luke 20:38
- 29 Isaiah 40:25; Isaiah 46:5–6; Exodus 20:4; Psalm 115:4–8; Habakkuk 2:19–20
- 30 Acts 14:16; Titus 2:11–12; Luke 24:47; Romans 3:25; Ephesians 4:17–32
- 31 Romans 2:16; 2 Peter 3:7; Matthew 25:31–46; Psalm 9:8; Psalm 98:9
- 32 Acts 17:18; Acts 26:8; 2 Corinthians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 4:10; Acts 2:13
- 34 Acts 17:19; Romans 11:5–6; Acts 13:48; Acts 17:4; Philippians 4:22
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Again they haste past the small cities, and press on to the greater ones, since from those the word was to flow as from a fountain into the neighboring cities. "And Paul, as his manner was, went into the synagogue of the Jews." Although he had said, "We turn to the Gentiles" (ch. xiii.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
And to the Athenians Thou saidst by Thy apostle, that in Thee "we live, and move, and have our being;" as one of their own poets has said. And verily these books came from thence.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
For "They," it is said, "that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also;" and again, "They preach things contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that Jesus Christ is king." And everywhere the courts of justice were preoccupied by such suspicions, and much influence from above was needed, for their showing both the truth of the doctrine …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
For in Him we live and move and have our being, according to the double power of that Breathing into us; for we were all inspired by Him with breath, and as many of us as were capable of it, and in so far as we open the mouth of our mind, with God the Holy Ghost.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… of the expected appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some suppose, have no functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in the day of His revelation, in which the blessed and only potentate will judge the world in righteousness, the Holy Spirit will be present with Him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)