Paul Speaks in Athens

While Paul was waiting in Athens, he saw that the city was full of idols, and it deeply troubled him. He spoke in the synagogue with Jews and devout people, and every day he also talked in the marketplace with the people he met there.

Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers discussed things with Paul. Some brushed him off, and others thought he was announcing foreign deities, because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. They brought him to the Areopagus and asked what this new teaching meant.

Paul stood there and said that the people of Athens were very religious. As he had looked at their objects of worship, he had found an altar addressed to an unknown god. So Paul used that altar to announce the God they did not know: the one who made the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth.

Paul said that God does not live in temples made by human hands, and he does not need people to supply him with anything, because he gives life and breath and everything else. From one, God made every nation and marked out their times and boundaries, so that people might seek him, for he is not far from each one of us.

Because people are God's offspring, Paul said they should not think of the divine as an image made from gold, silver, or stone. God overlooked those times of ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. He has set a day to judge the world rightly by the man he appointed, and he has given assurance of this by raising him from the dead.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some mocked Paul. Others said they wanted to hear him again about this. Paul then left, but some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. How would you respond to Paul's message?