13. But when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds.
14. Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea.
15. Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.
16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because he saw the city was full of idols.
17. So he was addressing the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there.
18. Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, “What does this foolish babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)
19. So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming?
20. For you are bringing some surprising things to our ears, so we want to know what they mean.”
21. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.)
22. So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.
23. For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you.
24. The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,
25. nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone.
26. From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,