Acts 17
1 Now having gone through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonika, where there was [a] synagogue of the Jews. 2 Now according to [his] custom Paul went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he spoke to them from the scriptures, 3 opening and demonstrating that the Christ must suffer and be raised from [the] dead, and that: This Jesus is the Christ, whom I proclaim to you. 4 And some from [among] them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, and [also a] great multitude of the worshipping Greeks, and of the foremost women not [a] few. 5 Now the Jews having become jealous and having taken along wicked1 men of the rabble and having formed [a] mob, they were setting the city in uproar, and having come upon the house of Jason, they were seeking to lead them to the assembly. 6 But having not found them they were dragging Jason and some brothers to the politarch, crying out that: These having disrupted the inhabited world are also come here, 7 whom Jason welcomed. And these all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying Jesus to be another king. 8 So having stirred up the crowd, and the politarchs having heard these [things], 9 and having received bail for Jason and the rest they released them. 10 Now the brothers straightway in the night sent out Paul and Silas to Beria, who, having arrived, came into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonika, who received the word with much willingness2, each day examining the scriptures whether these [things] might be thus. 12 Indeed therefore many of them believed, and of the prominent Greek women and of [the] men not [a] few. 13 Now as Jews from Thessalonica knew that also in Beria the word of God was proclaimed by Paul, they came there also shaking and stirring up the crowds. 14 So then straightway the brothers sent Paul out to go until the sea, and Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 But those having conducted Paul brought [him] to Athens, and having taken [a] commandment to Silas and Timothy that they come as swiftly [as possible] to him, they went out.16 Now in Athens while Paul was awaiting them, his spirit was being provoked in him beholding idols being in the city. 17 Indeed therefore he was speaking in the synagogue to the Jews and to the worshippers, and in the market place each day to those happening to be there. 18 Now some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were meeting him, and some were saying: What might this chatterer want to be saying? But some: He seems to be [an] herald of strange demons; because he was good-newsing Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Now having caught him upon the hill of Ares they were
bringing [him], saying: Are we able to know what [is] this new teaching spoken by you? 20 For you bring certain strange [things] to our hearing. We wish therefore to know what he wants these [things] to be. 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreign visitors had leisure for nothing else than to be speaking something or to be hearing something quite new. 22 So Paul having stood in the midst of the hill of Ares, he said: Athenian men, I perceive that in everything you [are] religious. 23 For coming through and beholding your objects of worship, I found [an] altar in which is inscribed: To the unknown god. Whom therefore you worship being ignorant, this [one] I proclaim to you. 24 The God having made the world and everything in it, this [one] being Lord of heaven and of the earth does not dwell in temples made with hands, 25 Nor having any further need is he served by the hands of men, himself having given zoe-life3 and breath and everything to all. 26 And he made from one [person] every nation of men to be dwelling upon every face of the earth, having appointed fixed opportune-times4 and boundaries of their habitation, 27 to be seeking God, if perhaps they grope after him and might find [him], and indeed being not far from [the] last of us. 28 For in him we zoe-live3 and move and are, as also some of the poets among you have written:
For we are also [his] offspring.
29 Being therefore offspring of God, we ought not be thinking the divine to be like gold or silver or stone, the image of [the] skill and thoughts of man. 30 Indeed therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now proclaims to all men everywhere to be repenting, 31 because he has established [a] day in which he is [about] to be judging the inhabited world in justice, in [the] man whom he has appointed, showing himself trustworthy to all, [he] having been raised from [the] dead. 32 Now having heard [of the] resurrection of the dead, on the one hand [some] were mocking, but on the other hand [some] said: I will hear from you concerning this again. 33 Thus Paul went out from their midst. 34 Now some men having associated with him believed, among whom [are] also Dionysius the Areopagite, and [a] woman by name Damaris, and others with them.
1PONEROS (πoνηρoς ) here. The Greek word KAKOS (κακoς ) is always translated `evil', PONEROS is usually translated as `wicked' although occasionally as `bad'; it can also mean 'diseased', 'sickly' and is thus translated where appropriate. Like KAKOS, PONEROS also means `evil', but the harm that evil does is more in view, where KAKOS is more `evil as evil'.
2or "readiness"
3from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
4KAIROS (καιρoς ) `opportune time', `proper time', `season'