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The Acts 17:16-34

The Acts 17:16-34 DARBY

But in Athens, while Paul was waiting for them, his spirit was painfully excited in him seeing the city given up to idolatry. He reasoned therefore in the synagogue with the Jews, and those who worshipped, and in the market-place every day with those he met with. But some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers attacked him. And some said, What would this chatterer say? and some, He seems to be an announcer of foreign demons, because he announced the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection to them. And having taken hold on him they brought him to Areopagus, saying, Might we know what this new doctrine which is spoken by thee is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We wish therefore to know what these things may mean. Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else than to tell and to hear the news. And Paul standing in the midst of Areopagus said, Athenians, in every way I see you given up to demon worship; for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye reverence, not knowing him, him I announce to you. The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, he , being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things; and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling, that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us: for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring. Being therefore the offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, the graven form of man's art and imagination. God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent, because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed, giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and some said, We will hear thee again also concerning this. Thus Paul went out of their midst. But some men joining themselves to him believed; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman by name Damaris, and others with them.

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