¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with them that met him. ¹⁸And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, What would this babbler say? others, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹And they took hold of him, and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by thee? ²⁰For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. ²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.) ²²And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said, Ye men of Athens, in all things, I perceive that ye are very religious. ²³For 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 ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you. ²⁴The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ²⁵neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ²⁶and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; ²⁷that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us: ²⁸for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

²⁹Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man. ³⁰The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: ³¹inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, We will hear thee concerning this yet again. ³³Thus Paul went out from among them. ³⁴But certain men clave unto him, and believed: among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.