Study Desk

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when hee saw the city wholy giuen to idolatrie.

Therefore disputed he in the Synagogue with the Iewes, and with the deuout persons, and in the market dayly with them that met with him.

Then certaine Philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoikes, encountred him: and some said, What will this babbler say? Othersome, He seemeth to be a setter foorth of strange gods: because hee preached vnto them Iesus, and the resurrection.

And they tooke him, and brought him vnto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?

For thou bringest certaine strange things to our eares: we would know therefore what these things meane.

(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to heare some new thing.)

Then Paul stood in the mids of Mars-hill, and said, Yee men of Athens, I perceiue that in all things yee are too superstitious.

For as I passed by, and beheld your deuotions, I found an Altar with this inscription, TO THE VNKNOWEN GOD. Whom therefore yee ignorantly worship, him declare I vnto you.

God that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that hee is Lord of heauen and earth, dwelleth not in Temples made with hands:

Neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing, seeing hee giueth to all, life and breath, and all things,

And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation:

That they should seeke the Lord, if haply they might feele after him and finde him, though he be not farre from euery one of vs.

For in him we liue, and mooue, and haue our being, as certaine also of your owne Poets haue said, For we are also his offspring.

Forasmuch then as wee are the offspring of God, wee ought not to thinke that the Godhead is like vnto golde, or siluer, or stone grauen by arte, and mans deuice.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men euery where to repent:

Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will iudge the world in righteousnesse, by that man whom hee hath ordeined, whereof he hath giuen assurance vnto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, Wee will heare thee againe of this matter.

So Paul departed from among them.

Howbeit, certaine men claue vnto him, and beleeued: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.