MODERN LITERAL VERSION

17:1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was the synagogue of the Jews.
17:2 And Paul, according to his custom, went in to them and upon three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
17:3 opening and placing before them that it was essential for the Christ to have suffered and to have risen* up from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you*, is the Christ.
17:4 And some of them obeyed and adhered to Paul and Silas and a large crowd of the pious Greeks, and not just a few of the foremost women.
17:5 But the disobedient Jews, took to them some evil men from among the market-loafers and amassing a crowd, the city was in an uproar, and standing against the house of Jason, they sought to bring them to the public.
17:6 And when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren before the city rulers, crying, These men who have unsettled the inhabited-earth are also here;
17:7 whom Jason has accepted and all these practice things which are adverse to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king , one called Jesus.
17:8 And they disturbed the crowd and city rulers, when they heard these things,
17:9 and when they had taken sufficient money from Jason and the rest, they released them.

17:10 And the brethren immediately sent out Paul and Silas through the night to Berea; who, when they had come there, went into the synagogue of the Jews.
17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they accepted the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see if these things were so.
17:12 Therefore indeed, many of them believed; also of the prominent Greek women and of the men, not just a few.
17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was also proclaimed by Paul in Berea, they also came there, stirring up the crowds.
17:14 And then the brethren immediately sent forth Paul to go as far as to the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained back there.
{52-53 AD. Paul at Athens, Greece.}

17:15 But those standing over Paul lead him to Athens and receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that* they might come to him as quickly as possible. They went out there.

17:16 Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was irritated with himself, viewing the idol ridden city.
17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the pious ones and in the marketplace every day with those who chance upon him.
17:18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, Whatever does this babbler wish to say?
Others said, He seems to be a proclaimer of strange {F} gods, because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

17:19 Now they grabbed him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, Are we able to know what this new teaching is which is spoken by you?
17:20 For* you are bringing some surprising things to our ears. Therefore, we intend to know what these things might {F} mean.
17:21 (Now all from Athens and the inhabiting strangers had leisure time *for nothing other than to tell and to hear something new.)

17:22 And Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, in all things, I view that you* are religious.
17:23 For* as I went through the city and reviewing your* objects of worship, I also found an altar in which had been written, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore I am proclaiming to you*, who are ignorant, this one to whom you* are devout.
17:24 The God that made* the world and all things in it, being* Lord of heaven and earth, he is not dwelling in temples made* with hands;
17:25 nor is he assisted by men's hands, as if needy for anything, he himself giving to all, life and breath and in all things.
17:26 And he made* of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons and the borders of their residence;
17:27 that they are to seek the Lord, if, then, they might grope after him and might find him, although, he is* not far from each one of us.
17:28 For* we live and move and have our being in him; as even some have said in your* own poets; for* we are also his offspring.
17:29 Therefore {F} being the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine* is similar to gold or silver or stone, or carvings done by the craft and the contemplation of man.
17:30 Therefore indeed, God overlooked the times of ignorance. Now, he is commanding all men everywhere to repent;
17:31 because he has established a future day in which to judge the inhabited-earth in righteousness by the man whom he has determined beforehand; providing the faith to all, by having raised* him from the dead.

17:32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some sneered, but others said, We will hear you concerning this yet again.
17:33 Thus Paul went out from the midst of them.
17:34 But some men, joining themselves to him, believed; among whom was also Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
{Footnotes: Acts 17:18- Greek: demons. Acts 17:20- Greek: wish to be. Acts 17:29- Possible reference to a Stoic poet, Aratus of Soli in Cilicia.}
{52-53 AD. Paul at Corinth in Greece.}