Paul in the town of Thessalonica
1Paul and Silas went through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and then into the town of Thessalonica. There was a synagogue of the Jews in that town. 2Paul went to the synagogue as he always did and on 3 Sabbath days he talked to the Jews in the synagogue about the things that are written in the Old_Testament. 3Paul explained to them that Christ had to suffer and die and that He would live again. He said: ‘I tell you about Jesus. He is the Christ.’
4Some of the people accepted what Paul had said and they started to believe in Christ with Paul and Silas. A lot of the Greeks who worshipped God and many of the important women also started to believe in Jesus. 5But some of the Jews were jealous and they got a lot of bad people together, people who did not work. They made the people of the town angry and then they attacked the people in Jason's house because they wanted to bring Paul and Silas before the crowd of people. 6They did not find Paul and Silas and then they took Jason and some of the other believers. They took them to the leaders of the town and they shouted: ‘Paul and Silas have made problems in all the places where they have been, and now they are making problems here. 7Now Jason has welcomed them into his house. They all break the laws of the Roman king because they say there is another king whose name is Jesus.’
8When the leaders of the town and the other people heard this, they became worried. 9Other believers helped Jason and they paid money to the leaders of the town and then the leaders let them go.
Paul and Silas in the town of Berea
10When it became dark, the believers sent Paul and Silas to the town of Berea. When they came into Berea, they went to the synagogue of the Jews. 11The Jews in Berea were not the same as the Jews in Thessalonica. They wanted to listen to Paul and they learned from Paul and his friends. Every day they read in the Old_Testament to see if the things that Paul and his friends said were true. 12A lot of the Jews and the important Greek women and men started to believe in the Lord Jesus. 13But when they told the Jews from the town of Thessalonica that Paul was in the town of Berea and that he was telling the people about the message of God, they came to Berea and they made problems for Paul there too, and the people became angry with them. 14The believers sent Paul to the sea immediately, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. 15Some people went with Paul to the city of Athens and then they turned_around and went back to Berea. Paul told them to ask Silas and Timothy to come to him immediately.
Paul in the city of Athens
16Paul waited for Silas and Timothy in the city of Athens. In the city he saw all the idols and he was very angry and upset. 17Paul went to the synagogue and he talked to the Jews and also to the Greeks who worshipped God. He also went to the market place every day and talked to the people who came there. 18There were philosophers who started to argue with Paul. Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics. They said: ‘This man talks too much. He thinks he knows everything. What does he want to teach us?’
Other people said: ‘He wants to tell us about other gods that we do not know.’
They said this because Paul told them the Good_News of Jesus and that dead people would be resurrected and live again. 19They said Paul must come to the meeting of the Areopagus and they asked him: ‘We want to know what these new things are that you teach people. 20Some of the things that you say are new to us. We have not heard them before. Tell us what they are and what they mean.’
21They asked Paul to tell them because the people in the city of Athens, and the strangers who lived there, loved to listen to new things and to talk about anything that they had never heard before. 22Paul stood up in front of the meeting of the Areopagus and he said: ‘People of the city of Athens, I see that you are very religious in everything that you do. 23I have walked through your city and I have looked at the places of the gods that you worship. I also saw an altar with these words that you wrote on it: “This altar is for the god that we do not know.”
I want to tell you about this God whom you do not know but whom you worship. 24This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth and He does not live in temples that people have made. 25People do not have to help this God or care for Him. It is not necessary. He is the One who gives life to everyone. He makes them breathe and He gives them everything. 26God made one man, Adam, and everyone comes from him. God has decided that people must live all over the world and He has also decided how long everyone will live and where they will live.
27God did this so that people will try to look for Him and find Him. He is not far from us. 28God gives us the power to live, to move and to do the things that we do. Some of your writers have said: “We are his descendants.”
29Because we are the children of God, we must not think that God looks like an image of gold or silver or stone. God is not like we think He is. 30God did not punish the people in those times when they did not know Him. But now God says to all the people in the world that they must turn their lives to Him and live as He wants. 31He said there will come a day when He will judge all the people of the world. God chose a Man, Jesus, to do this. God has shown everyone that it really will happen: After Jesus had died, God raised Him again and made Him come alive.’
32When the people heard Paul say that a man who had been dead started to live again, some of them laughed at Paul, but some said: ‘We want to listen to more of what you are saying about this.’
33Then Paul went away from the meeting of the Areopagus. 34Some people accepted the words of Paul and they started to believe in Christ. One of them was Dionysius, one of the leaders at the Areopagus. A woman whose name was Damaris and other people also started to believe in Christ.
