🌊WEB · Acts 17:16
What does Acts 17:16 mean?
"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols."
— Acts 17:16 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.
Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.
But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?
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