While waiting in Athens, Paul is deeply distressed by the city’s many idols.

He reasons in the synagogue with Jews and God-fearing Gentiles and also speaks daily in the marketplace.

Epicurean and Stoic philosophers begin debating with him. His preaching about Jesus and the resurrection sounds strange enough that they bring him to the Areopagus to explain his teaching.

Paul begins by acknowledging the Athenians’ religious devotion. He refers to an altar inscribed “To an unknown god” and uses it as a point of departure.

He proclaims the God who made the world and everything in it, who does not live in temples made by human hands and is not dependent on human service.

God made the nations and determined their times and boundaries so that people might seek him.

Paul even quotes Greek poets to support the point that human beings are God’s offspring and therefore should not imagine the divine nature as an image crafted from metal or stone.

He then calls people to repentance because God has appointed a day of judgment through a man whom he raised from the dead.

The resurrection divides the audience. Some mock, others want to hear more, and some believe. Acts names Dionysius and a woman named Damaris among those who join Paul.