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Acts 17: 16-34\n16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, \u201cWhat is this babbler trying to say?\u201d Others remarked, \u201cHe seems to be advocating foreign gods.\u201d They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, \u201cMay we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.\u201d 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)\n\n22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: \u201cPeople of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship\u2014and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.\n\n24 \u201cThe God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 \u2018For in him we live and move and have our being.\u2019[a] As some of your own poets have said, \u2018We are his offspring.\u2019[b]\n\n29 \u201cTherefore since we are God\u2019s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone\u2014an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.\u201d\n\n32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, \u201cWe want to hear you again on this subject.\u201d 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.