One of Yeshua's Ambassadors in the First Century CE gave this as part of the introduction to his announcement in Athens:
Σταθεὶς ⸀δὲ Παῦλος ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ Ἀρείου Πάγου ἔφη· Ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, κατὰ πάντα ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους ὑμᾶς θεωρῶ· διερχόμενος γὰρ καὶ ἀναθεωρῶν τὰ σεβάσματα ὑμῶν εὗρον καὶ βωμὸν ἐν ᾧ ἐπεγέγραπτο· Ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ. ⸀ὃ οὖν ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε, ⸀τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν. ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιήσας τὸν κόσμον καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ, οὗτος οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ⸂ὑπάρχων κύριος⸃ οὐκ ἐν χειροποιήτοις ναοῖς κατοικεῖ οὐδὲ ὑπὸ χειρῶν ⸀ἀνθρωπίνων θεραπεύεται προσδεόμενός τινος, αὐτὸς διδοὺς πᾶσι ζωὴν καὶ πνοὴν ⸂καὶ τὰ⸃ πάντα· ἐποίησέν τε ἐξ ⸀ἑνὸς πᾶν ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων κατοικεῖν ἐπὶ ⸂παντὸς προσώπου⸃ τῆς γῆς, ὁρίσας προστεταγμένους καιροὺς καὶ τὰς ὁροθεσίας τῆς κατοικίας αὐτῶν, ζητεῖν τὸν ⸀θεὸν εἰ ἄρα γε ψηλαφήσειαν αὐτὸν καὶ εὕροιεν, καί γε οὐ μακρὰν ἀπὸ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἡμῶν ὑπάρχοντα. ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμέν, ὡς καί τινες τῶν καθ’ ὑμᾶς ποιητῶν εἰρήκασιν· Τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν. γένος οὖν ὑπάρχοντες τοῦ θεοῦ οὐκ ὀφείλομεν νομίζειν χρυσῷ ἢ ἀργύρῳ ἢ λίθῳ, χαράγματι τέχνης καὶ ἐνθυμήσεως ἀνθρώπου, τὸ θεῖον εἶναι ὅμοιον. τοὺς μὲν οὖν χρόνους τῆς ἀγνοίας ὑπεριδὼν ὁ θεὸς τὰ νῦν ⸀παραγγέλλει τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ⸀πάντας πανταχοῦ μετανοεῖν, ⸀καθότι ἔστησεν ἡμέραν ἐν ᾗ μέλλει κρίνειν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν, πίστιν παρασχὼν πᾶσιν ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν. ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ 17:22-31 SBLG
I've paraphrased it thus:
I've walked around and through, and up and down,
since God set things up so I could see, and
observe and understand the truest ground
and highest hopes that you now understand;
and saw this… , read your writing on the wall… ,
and in your prophet-poets writings too… ,
and bring the next stage on, this herald "small",
has been sent to announce this thing to you!
“The God who made the world and everything
with-in it, yes this Master of the sky
(the mythic heavens that recede and sing
of bigger, farther ways of being high),
this Master of the land (which is our home)
is not contained in special man-made shrines,
nor needs the human race to run or moan
for him, as if he couldn’t "toe a line".
God makes the creatures; creatures don’t make him.
And too, from scratch, he made all of our race,
and made the earth hospitable, his whim
for living in, with heaps of time and space,
so we could seek ourselves after our ground
of being, want to know it, and be known,
and not just grope around until we found
a hand-held somthing, that we could be "shown".
This Being planned, like parent with their tod-
dler, to be found by child in "Hide & Seek".
He’s not removed, remote, this might seem odd:
because we can't discern, he isn't weak!
God’s near. We live and move in God, we're hung,
we can’t get out! - beacouse we're in God's womb.
One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re sprung
from God.’ Well, if we are God-sprung, a tomb,
a piece of dead rock won't make much good sense
to think of as an icon for pure life.
We have to have a living one to cleanse
and bring some higher, stronger aid in strife."
He's like a Father of a small child though,
and ignorance is what he just expects,
until the time comes, and he makes things known,
we're more responsible then, with respect
to what we've known and how we hold it too,
and whether we will mock and laugh at change
in thinking and in action we must do
to take into account this new arrange-
ment here now, as we're growing in this wait-
world, where a brother born to bigger life
has been seen for a bit, to demonstrate,
he's God's appointed leader in this strife!
One of Yeshua's Ambassadors in the First Century CE gave his Announcement in Athens:
So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with."
"The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-sprung.’ Well, if we are the God-sprung, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?"
“30God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. 31He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.” …" Acts 17:22-31
At the phrase “raising him from the dead,” the listeners split:
Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes;
others said, “Let’s do this again. We want to hear more.” (But that was it for the day, and Paul left).
There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.
Acts 17:32-34
