Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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In Thessalonica
1 Paul and Silas traveled on
through Amphipolis and Apollonia
and came to Thessalonica,
where there was a synagogue.
2 According
to his usual habit Paul went
to the synagogue. There during three
Sabbaths he held discussions with
the people, quoting
3 and explaining
the Scriptures, and proving from
them that the Messiah had to suffer
and rise from death. “This Jesus
whom I announce to you,” Paul said,
“is the Messiah.”
4 Some of them
were convinced and joined Paul and
Silas; so did many of the leading
women and a large group of Greeks
who worshiped God.
5 But the Jews were jealous and
gathered some of the worthless loafers
from the streets and formed a
mob. They set the whole city in an
uproar and attacked the home of a
man named Jason, in an attempt to
find Paul and Silas and bring them
out to the people.
6 But when they
did not find them, they dragged Jason
and some other believers before
the city authorities and shouted,
“These men have caused trouble
everywhere! Now they have come to
our city,
7 and Jason has kept them
in his house. They are all breaking
the laws of the Emperor, saying that
there is another king, whose name is
Jesus.”
8 With these words they
threw the crowd and the city authorities
in an uproar.
9 The authorities
made Jason and the others pay
the required amount of money to be
released, and then let them go.
In Berea
10 As soon as night came, the believers
sent Paul and Silas to Berea.
When they arrived, they went to the
synagogue.
11 The people there were
more open-minded than the people
in Thessalonica. They listened to the
message with great eagerness, and
every day they studied the Scriptures
to see if what Paul said was
really true.
12 Many of them believed;
and many Greek women of high social
standing and many Greek men
also believed.
13 But when the Jews
in Thessalonica heard that Paul had
preached the word of God in Berea
also, they came there and started exciting
and stirring up the mobs.
14 At
once the believers sent Paul away to
the coast; but both Silas and Timothy
stayed in Berea.
15 The men who
were taking Paul went with him as
far as Athens and then returned to
Berea with instructions from Paul
that Silas and Timothy should join
him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting in Athens
for Silas and Timothy, he was
greatly upset when he noticed how
full of idols the city was.
17 So he
held discussions in the synagogue
with the Jews and with the Gentiles
who worshiped God, and also in the
public square every day with the
people who happened to come by.
18 Certain Epicurean and Stoic teachers
also debated with him. Some of
them asked, “What is this ignorant
show-off trying to say?”
18 Others answered, “He seems to be
talking about foreign gods.” They
said this because Paul was preaching
-- --
about Jesus and the resurrection.
note
19 So they took Paul, brought
him before the city council, the Areopagus,
and said, “We would like to
know what this new teaching is that
you are talking about.
20 Some of the
things we hear you say sound
strange to us, and we would like to
know what they mean.”
21 (For all
the citizens of Athens and the foreigners
who lived there liked to
spend all their time telling and hearing
the latest new thing.)
22 Paul stood up in front of the city
council and said, “I see that in every
way you Athenians are very religious.
23 For as I walked through
your city and looked at the places
where you worship, I found an altar
on which is written, ‘To an Unknown
God.’ That which you worship, then,
even though you do not know it, is
what I now proclaim to you. note
24 God,
who made the world and everything
in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in man-made temples.
25 Nor does he need anything that we
can supply by working for him, since
it is he himself who gives life and
breath and everything else to everyone. note note
26 From one man he created all
races of mankind and made them
live throughout the whole earth. He
himself fixed beforehand the exact
times and the limits of the places
where they would live. note
27 He did this
so that they would look for him, and
perhaps find him as they felt around
for him. Yet God is actually not far
from any one of us; note
28 as someone
has said,
‘In him we live and move and exist.’
It is as some of your poets have said,
‘We too are his children.’
29 Since we are God's children, we
should not suppose that his nature is
anything like an image of gold or silver
or stone, shaped by the art and
skill of man.
30 God has overlooked
the times when people did not know
him, but now he commands all of
them everywhere to turn away from
their evil ways.
31 For he has fixed a
day in which he will judge the whole
world with justice by means of a
man he has chosen. He has given
proof of this to everyone by raising
that man from death!”
32 When they heard Paul speak
about a raising from death, some of
them made fun of him, but others
said, “We want to hear you speak
about this again.”
33 And so Paul left
the meeting.
34 Some men joined him
and believed, among whom was Dionysius,
a member of the council;
there was also a woman named
Damaris, and some other people.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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