Daily Bread

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus^(A) and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.^{(B) 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^(C)—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it^(D) is the Lord of heaven and earth^(E) and does not live in temples built by human hands.^{(F) 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.^{(G) 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.^{(H) 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.^{(I) 28} ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’^[a](J) As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’^[b]

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.^{(K) 30} In the past God overlooked^(L) such ignorance,^(M) but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.^{(N) 31} For he has set a day when he will judge^(O) the world with justice^(P) by the man he has appointed.^(Q) He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”^(R)

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead,^(S) some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 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,^(T) also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.