Acts 17

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¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ✦ ²Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ✦ ³explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” ✦ ⁴And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. ✦ ⁵But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. ✦ ⁶But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. ✦ ⁷Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” ✦ ⁸And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. ✦ ⁹So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. ✦ ¹⁰Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ✦ ¹¹These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. ✦ ¹²Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. ✦ ¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. ✦ ¹⁴Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. ✦ ¹⁵So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. ✦ ¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. ✦ ¹⁷Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. ✦ ¹⁸Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. ✦ ¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? ✦ ²⁰For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” ✦ ²¹For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. ✦ ²²Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ✦ ²³for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ✦ ²⁴“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. ✦ ²⁵Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. ✦ ²⁶And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, ✦ ²⁷so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for 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 also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ✦ ²⁹Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. ✦ ³⁰Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ✦ ³¹because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” ✦ ³²And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” ✦ ³³So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Acts 17 ·34 Acts 14 ·14 Acts 13 ·12 Acts 15 ·9 Acts 2 ·8 Luke 24 ·7 Acts 18 ·7 Rom 1 ·6

Christ at the center

Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.

How Acts 17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryDrive Thru History: Acts to RevelationDave Stotts · Free · evangelical
Follows Paul's missionary journeys and the early church on location across the Mediterranean — free on Tubi, great for families.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Acts videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Acts 17YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Acts 17David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on ActsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Acts 17Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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