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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Acts 17 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/acts/17.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/acts/17-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > Acts 17</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../acts/16.htm" title="Acts 16">◄</a> Acts 17 <a href="../acts/18.htm" title="Acts 18">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Trouble in Thessalonica</h3><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_1"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.1" class="v44_17_1">1</span>After Paul and his friends had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they went on to Thessalonica. A synagogue was in that city. </span><span class="v44_17_2"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.2" class="v44_17_2">2</span>So as usual, Paul went there to worship, and on three Sabbaths he spoke to the people. He used the Scriptures </span><span class="v44_17_3"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.3" class="v44_17_3">3</span>to show them that the Messiah had to suffer, but that he would rise from death. Paul also told them that Jesus is the Messiah he was preaching about. </span><span class="v44_17_4"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.4" class="v44_17_4">4</span>Some of them believed what Paul had said, and they became followers with Paul and Silas. Some Gentiles<a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.4!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and many important women also believed the message.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_5"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.5" class="v44_17_5">5</span>The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some troublemakers who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason's home. </span><span class="v44_17_6"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.6" class="v44_17_6">6</span>But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord's followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, “Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, </span><span class="v44_17_7"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.7" class="v44_17_7">7</span>and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_8"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.8" class="v44_17_8">8</span>The officials and the people were upset when they heard this. </span><span class="v44_17_9"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.9" class="v44_17_9">9</span>So they made Jason and the other followers pay bail before letting them go.</span></p><h3 class="s1">People in Berea Welcome the Message</h3><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_10"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.10" class="v44_17_10">10</span>That same night the Lord's followers sent Paul and Silas on to Berea, and after they arrived, they went to the synagogue. </span><span class="v44_17_11"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.11" class="v44_17_11">11</span>The people in Berea were much nicer than those in Thessalonica, and they gladly accepted the message. Day after day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true. </span><span class="v44_17_12"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.12" class="v44_17_12">12</span>Many of them put their faith in the Lord, including some important Greek women and several men.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_13"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.13" class="v44_17_13">13</span>When the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica heard that Paul had been preaching God's message in Berea, they went there and caused trouble by turning the crowds against Paul.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_14"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.14" class="v44_17_14">14</span>At once the followers sent Paul down to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea. </span><span class="v44_17_15"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.15" class="v44_17_15">15</span>Some men went with Paul as far as Athens, and then returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.</span></p><h3 class="s1">Paul in Athens</h3><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_16"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.16" class="v44_17_16">16</span>While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. </span><span class="v44_17_17"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.17" class="v44_17_17">17</span>He went to the synagogue to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. </span><span class="v44_17_18"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.18" class="v44_17_18">18</span>Some of them were Epicureans<a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.18!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and some were Stoics,<a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.18!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and they started arguing with him.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_18">People were asking, “What is this know-it-all trying to say?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_18">Some even said, “Paul must be preaching about foreign gods! That's what he means when he talks about Jesus and about people rising from death.”<a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.18!f.3" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_19"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.19" class="v44_17_19">19</span>They brought Paul before a council called the Areopagus, and said, “Tell us what your new teaching is all about. </span><span class="v44_17_20"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.20" class="v44_17_20">20</span>We have heard you say some strange things, and we want to know what you mean.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_21"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.21" class="v44_17_21">21</span>More than anything else the people of Athens and the foreigners living there loved to hear and to talk about anything new. </span><span class="v44_17_22"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.22" class="v44_17_22">22</span>So Paul stood up in front of the council and said:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v44_17_22">People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. </span><span class="v44_17_23"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.23" class="v44_17_23">23</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.23!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don't really know him. So I want to tell you about him. </span><span class="v44_17_24"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.24" class="v44_17_24">24</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.24!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. </span><span class="v44_17_25"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.25" class="v44_17_25">25</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.25!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. </span><span class="v44_17_26"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.26" class="v44_17_26">26</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.26!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v44_17_27"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.27" class="v44_17_27">27</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Acts.17.27!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, </span><span class="v44_17_28"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.28" class="v44_17_28">28</span>and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said.</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v44_17_29"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.29" class="v44_17_29">29</span>Since we are God's children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn't like anything that humans have thought up and made. </span><span class="v44_17_30"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.30" class="v44_17_30">30</span>In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. </span><span class="v44_17_31"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.31" class="v44_17_31">31</span>He has set a day when he will judge the world's people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v44_17_32"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.32" class="v44_17_32">32</span>As soon as the people heard Paul say a man had been raised from death, some of them started laughing. Others said, “We will hear you talk about this some other time.” </span><span class="v44_17_33"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.33" class="v44_17_33">33</span>When Paul left the council meeting, </span><span class="v44_17_34"><span class="reftext" id="Acts.17.34" class="v44_17_34">34</span>some of the men put their faith in the Lord and went with Paul. One of them was a council member named Dionysius. A woman named Damaris and several others also put their faith in the Lord.</span></p></div> </div> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">17.4 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Gentiles: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See the note at 14.1.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">17.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Epicureans: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">People who followed the teaching of a man named Epicurus, who taught that happiness should be the main goal in life.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">17.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Stoics: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Followers of a man named Zeno, who taught that people should learn self-control and be guided by their consciences.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">17.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">people rising from death: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Or “a goddess named ‘Rising from Death.’ ”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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