11. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, because they received the message with goodwill, searching the Scriptures each day to see whether these things were true.
12. Therefore many of them believed, as well as quite a few prominent Greek women and men.
13. But when the Jewish people of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they came there too, agitating and inciting the people.
14. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.
15. Those escorting Paul brought him as far as Athens. After receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.
16. Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was aroused within him when he saw that the city was full of idols.
17. So he was debating in the synagogue with the Jewish people and the God-fearers, as well as in the marketplace every day with all who happened to be there.
18. Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What’s this babbler trying to say?” while others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities”—because he was proclaiming the Good News of Yeshua and the resurrection.
19. So they took Paul to the Aereopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are talking about?
20. For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean.”
21. Now all the Athenians and foreigners visiting there used to pass their time doing nothing but telling or hearing something new.
22. So Paul stood in the middle of the Aereopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in all ways you are very religious.
23. For while I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you.
24. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by hands.