Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Acts 17:1

• Paul preaches to the Jews

Preaching Christ at Thessalonica

Acts 17:¹ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

• Confirmed by historians and archaeologists (Modern day Greece): The proper location (Amphipolis and Apollonia) of where travelers would spend successive nights on this journey and The presence of a synagogue in Thessalonica. Of Apollonia coins are extant (surviving) which attest its existence in the 4th century B.C. (Head, Historia Numorum, 181)
  From “Is The bible True” Website
  
• Note: For history buffs and those experienced in the study of Daniel chapter 2 concerning Nebuchadnezzar’s statue See Pop Up Topic: Amphipolis and Nebuchadnezzar’s statue.

Acts 17:² Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

• The typical pattern for a completed number 3 is 3-1-3 where Jesus is often shown to be in the middle. For example Abraham traveled 3 days to the place where he was going to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. On the day of the sacrifice God intervened and substituted a Ram (representing Jesus). Then, they traveled three days back to their home.
• Whenever a 3 appears in scripture without the pattern above, it appears that something is left unfinished since the number 7 (3-1-3) is the number for completion.

Acts 17:³ explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”

Acts 17:⁴ And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.

Assault on Jason’s House

Acts 17:⁵ But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

Acts 17:⁶ But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

Acts 17:⁷ Jason has harbored (welcomed) them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”

• The proper title, “politarchs,” used of the magistrates there has been confirmed by historians and archeologists.
  From: “Is The bible True” Website

Acts 17:⁸ And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.

Acts 17:⁹ So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Ministering at Berea

Acts 17:¹⁰ Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Acts 17:¹¹ These were more fair-minded (Literally: noble) than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Acts 17:¹² Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

Acts 17:¹³ But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds.

• Job 41:³¹ He (Satan as the Leviathan Sea Monster) makes the deep boil like a pot;
  He makes the sea (of people) (bubble) like a pot of ointment. – ³⁴ He is king over all the children of pride.”
• Satan resides in the world’s seas of people causing the world to stew, fret, fear, and boil.
• God also stirs up the spirit of people;
  Job 26:¹² He (God) stirs up the sea with His power,
  And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.
  ¹³ By His Spirit He adorned the heavens;
  His hand pierced the fleeing serpent (Leviathan).
• At the end of days Jesus will chase the Leviathan and slay him.
  Isaiah 27:1 Israel Will Be Restored
  In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.

Acts 17:¹⁴ Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.

Acts 17:¹⁵ So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

The Philosophers at Athens

Acts 17:¹⁶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols (full of idols).

Acts 17:¹⁷ Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

Acts 17:¹⁸ (Also) Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler (Literally: seed picker, an idler who makes a living picking up scraps) want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

Acts 17:¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus (Literally: Hill of Ares, or Mars’ Hill), saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?

Acts 17:²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”

Acts 17:²¹ For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

Acts 17:²² Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus (Literally: Hill of Ares, or Mars’ Hill) and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;

Acts 17:²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

Acts 17:²⁴ God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

Acts 17:²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

Acts 17:²⁶ And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

Acts 17:²⁷ so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

Acts 17:²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

Acts 17:²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Acts 17:³⁰ Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

Acts 17:³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Acts 17:³² And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”

Acts 17:³³ So Paul departed from among them.

Acts 17:³⁴ However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite (a member of the council of the Areopagus, ie Mar’s Hill), a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

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