Shared Word Translation
Acts 17
Paul at the Areopagus
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said:
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’
What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands,
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
And he made from one every nation of humankind to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted times and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
that they should seek God, and perhaps feel after him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being,
as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”