Thessalonica: Opposition

Acts 17

After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to y’all is the Christ.”

Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large group of the God-fearing Greeks, and not a small number of the prominent women. But other Jews became jealous, so they took some wicked men from the marketplace and formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. They attacked Jason’s house, trying to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the public assembly. When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and some of the siblings before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have stirred up trouble all around the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them! They are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king named Jesus.” When the crowd and city officials heard these things, they were very disturbed. They took a security bond from Jason and the others and then let them go.

Berea: Noble Students

As soon as it was night, the siblings sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Now the Jews there were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with great eagerness and examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were true. As a result, many of them believed, including a number of prominent Greek women and not small number of men. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had found out that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds. Then the siblings immediately sent Paul out to go the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed there. Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and then they left after receiving instructions for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible.

In Athens: Philosophical Discussion

While Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was churning within him because he saw that the city was full of idols. So in the synagogue he reasoned with the Jews and those who feared God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began debating with him. Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

They took hold of him and led him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are presenting? For you are bringing strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking and listening to something new.)

Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens, I discern that y’all are very religious in every way. For while I walked around and observed y’all’s objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘to an unknown god.’ Therefore, what y’all worship in ignorance, this I am proclaim to y’all. The God who made the world and all things in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples. Nor is ʜᴇ served by human hands, as if ʜᴇ needed anything. Rather, ʜᴇhe is the giver of all life, breath, and everything. From one human he has made every ethnic group of humanity to dwell in every part of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope around and find ʜɪᴍ, though ʜᴇ is not far from each one of us. ‘For in ʜɪᴍ we live, move, and exist.’ As some of y’all’s own poets have said, ‘For we are also ʜɪᴍ offspring.’ Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and imagination. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands that all humanity everywhere should repent, because ʜᴇ has appointed a day when ʜᴇ is going to judge the whole world in righteousness by the man ʜᴇ has designated, having provided assurance to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock him, but others said, “We want to hear you again about this.”

So Paul went out from among them. But some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.