Now while Paul waited for them at Athens,
his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry.
Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews,
and with the devout persons, and in the market
daily with them that met with him.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics,
encountered him.
And some said, What will this babbler say?
other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
May we know what this new doctrine,
whereof thou speakest, is?
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears:
we would know therefore what these things mean.
(For all the Athenians and strangers which were
there spent their time in nothing else,
but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things
ye are too superstitious.
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions,
I found an altar with this inscription,
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship,
him declare I unto you.
God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
neither is worshipped with men's hands,
as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life,
and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
that they should seek the Lord, if haply they
might feel after him and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us:
for in him we live, and move, and have our being;
as certain also of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring.
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device.
And the times of this ignorance God
winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
because he hath appointed a day, in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained;
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead.
We will hear thee again of this matter.
So Paul departed from among them.
Howbeit certain men clave unto him,
and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite,
and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.