Trouble in Thessalonica
1 After Paul and his friends had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went on to Thessalonica. A synagogue was in that city. 2 So as usual, Paul went there to worship, and on three Sabbaths he spoke to the people. He used the Scriptures 3 to show them that the Messiah had to suffer, but that he would rise from death. Paul also told them that Jesus is the Messiah he was preaching about. 4 Some of them believed what Paul had said, and they became followers with Paul and Silas. Some Gentiles and many important women also believed the message.
5 The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some troublemakers who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason's home. 6 But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord's followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, “Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king.”
8 The officials and the people were upset when they heard this. 9 So they made Jason and the other followers pay bail before letting them go.
People in Berea Welcome the Message
10 That same night the Lord's followers sent Paul and Silas on to Berea, and after they arrived, they went to the synagogue. 11 The people in Berea were much nicer than those in Thessalonica, and they gladly accepted the message. Day after day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true. 12 Many of them put their faith in the Lord, including some important Greek women and several men.
13 When the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica heard that Paul had been preaching God's message in Berea, they went there and caused trouble by turning the crowds against Paul.
14 At once the followers sent Paul down to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. 15 Some men went with Paul as far as Athens, and then returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
Paul in Athens
16 While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. 17 He went to the synagogue to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. 18 Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics, and they started arguing with him.
People were asking, “What is this know-it-all trying to say?”
Some even said, “Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That's what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death.”
19 They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, “Tell us what your new teaching is all about. 20 We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean.”
21 More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new. 22 So Paul stood up in front of the council and said:
People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. 23 As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. 24 This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. 25 He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. 26 From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.
27 God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, 28 and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said.
29 Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. 30 In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. 31 He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.
32 As soon as the people heard Paul say a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, “We will hear you talk about this some other time.” 33 When Paul left the council meeting, 34 some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord.
1 Nowe as they passed through Amphipolis, and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a Synagogue of the Iewes. 2 And Paul, as his maner was, went in vnto them, and three Sabbath daies disputed with them by the Scriptures, 3 Opening, and alleadging that Christ must haue suffered, and risen againe from the dead: and this is Iesus Christ, whom, said he, I preach to you. 4 And some of them beleeued, and ioyned in companie with Paul and Silas: also of the Grecians that feared God a great multitude, and of the chiefe women not a fewe. 5 But the Iewes which beleeued not, mooued with enuie, tooke vnto them certaine vagabonds and wicked fellowes, and whe they had assembled the multitude, they made a tumult in the citie, and made assault against the house of Iason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they found them not, they drew Iason and certaine brethren vnto the heads of the citie, crying, These are they which haue subuerted the state of the world, and here they are, 7 Whom Iason hath receiued, and these all doe against the decrees of Cesar, saying that there is another King, one Iesus. 8 Then they troubled the people, and the heads of the citie, when they heard these things. 9 Notwithstanding when they had receiued sufficient assurance of Iason and of the other, they let them goe. 10 And the brethren immediatly sent away Paul and Silas by night vnto Berea, which when they were come thither, entred into ye Synagogue of the Iewes. 11 These were also more noble men then they which were at Thessalonica, which receiued the woorde with all readinesse, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them beleeued, and of honest women, which were Grecians, and men not a fewe. 13 But when the Iewes of Thessalonica knewe, that the woord of God was also preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and mooued the people. 14 But by and by the brethren sent away Paul to goe as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 15 And they that did conduct Paul, brought him vnto Athens: and when they had receiued a commandement vnto Silas and Timotheus that they shoulde come to him at once, they departed. 16 Nowe while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirite was stirred in him, when hee sawe the citie subiect to idolatrie. 17 Therefore he disputed in the Synagogue with the Iewes, and with them that were religious, and in the market daily with whomesoeuer he met. 18 Then certaine Philosophers of the Epicures, and of the Stoickes, disputed with him, and some sayde, What will this babler say? Others sayde, He seemeth to be a setter forth of straunge gods (because hee preached vnto them Iesus, and the resurrection.) 19 And they tooke him, and brought him into Mars streete, saying, May we not know, what this newe doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certaine strange thinges vnto our eares: we woulde knowe therefore, what these things meane. 21 For all the Athenians, and strangers which dwelt there, gaue them selues to nothing els, but either to tell, or to heare some newes. 22 Then Paul stoode in the mids of Mars streete, and sayde, Yee men of Athens, I perceiue that in all things yee are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and behelde your deuotions, I founde an altar wherein was written, VNTO THE VNKNOWEN GOD. Whom ye then ignorantly worship, him shewe I vnto you. 24 God that made the world, and all things that are therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaue and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, 25 Neither is worshipped with mens handes, as though he needed any thing, seeing hee giueth to all life and breath and all things, 26 And hath made of one blood all mankinde, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath assigned the seasons which were ordeined before, and the boundes of their habitation, 27 That they shoulde seeke the Lord, if so be they might haue groped after him, and founde him though doubtlesse he be not farre from euery one of vs. 28 For in him we liue, and mooue, and haue our being, as also certaine of your owne Poets haue sayd, for we are also his generation. 29 Forasmuch then, as we are the generation of God, we ought not to thinke that ye Godhead is like vnto gold, or siluer, or stone grauen by arte and the inuention of man. 30 And the time of this ignorance God regarded not: but nowe hee admonisheth all men euery where to repent, 31 Because hee hath appoynted a day in the which he wil iudge the world in righteousnes, by that man whome hee hath appoynted, whereof he hath giuen an assurance to all men, in that hee hath raised him from the dead. 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, some mocked, and other sayde, We will heare thee againe of this thing. 33 And so Paul departed from among them. 34 Howbeit certaine men claue vnto Paul, and beleeued: among whome was also Denys Areopagita, and a woman named Damaris, and other with them.