Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Acts 17
Thessalonica: The Christ Had to Suffer and Rise
Paul and Silas passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went in. For three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of devout Greeks and quite a few leading women. But some Jewish opponents became jealous. They gathered some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and threw the city into an uproar. They attacked Jason’s house, trying to bring Paul and Silas out to the crowd. When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have unsettled the world have come here too, and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting against Caesar’s decrees, saying there is another king—Jesus.” The crowd and city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. After taking security from Jason and the others, they released them.
Berea: Receptive and Examining
The brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. The people there were more receptive than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them trusted, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men. But when the Jewish opponents from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming God’s word in Berea, they came there too and began stirring up and agitating the crowds. Then the brothers and sisters immediately sent Paul away toward the sea, while Silas and Timothy remained there. Those escorting Paul brought him as far as Athens. After receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible, they left.
Paul in Athens
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was deeply provoked when he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with Jewish people and devout worshipers, and every day in the marketplace with whoever happened to be there. Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be announcing foreign divinities,” because he was announcing the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “Can we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there spent their time doing nothing but telling or hearing something new.
Paul at the Areopagus
Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. As I walked around and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ What you worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life, breath, and everything else. From one he made every nation of humanity to live over the whole face of the earth, determining their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, so that they would seek God and perhaps reach out for him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For ‘in him we live and move and exist,’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the divine being is like gold, silver, or stone—an image shaped by human skill and imagination. God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day on which he will judge the inhabited world with righteousness through a man he has appointed. He has given assurance of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul left them. But some people joined him and trusted, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.