Acts 17 - New Testament in Braid Scots 1904 (William Wye Smith)

CHAPTIR SEEVENTEEN. Paul brings the wyss men oʼ Athens a wisdom that was mair nor their ain! But only a wee wheen oʼ them wad hae it!

¹ Sae, gaun on throwe Amphipolis and Apollonia, they cam intil Thessalonica, whaur the Jews had a kirk.

² And Paul, eʼen as he aye did, gaed in to them; and for thrie Sabbaths reasoned wiʼ them frae the word,

³ Openin up and makin plain, that it was necessar for the Anointit Ane to suffer, and to rise frae amang the deid, and that “This vera Ane is the Anointit, eʼen Jesus, wham I am settin forth amang ye!”

⁴ And a wheen frae ʼmang them war perswadit, and cuist in their lot wiʼ Paul and Silas; as weel as the devout Greeks vera mony, and a hantle oʼ weemen, eʼen the chief anes.

⁵ But the Jews, ill pleased, and takin to theirsels the merkit‐men, ill‐deedie loons — and makin a bruilzie, set aʼ the city in an uproar; and, makin an onset on Jasonʼs hoose, they socht to gie them ower to the rabble.

⁶ But no finding them, they harled Jason and a wheen ither brethren to the rulers, cryin oot, “Thae that hae thrawn aʼ the inhabited yirth intil a tulzie — the same hae come here!

⁷ “And Jason has gien them welcome; and thir are aʼ contrar to the laws oʼ Cesar, sayin, ‘Thar is anither King, Jesus!’ ”

⁸ And the rulers, and aʼ the folk, war unco putten‐aboot, whan they heard thae things.

⁹ And, takin caution frae Jason and the lave, they loot them gang.

¹⁰ And the brethren at ance, by nicht, sent aff baith Paul and Silas to Berea; wha, when they gat thar, gaed intil the Jewsʼ kirk.

¹¹ But thir men war nobler than the anes in Thessalonica, in that they welcomed the message wiʼ aefauld minds, day by day looking weel to the word, gin thir things war sae or no.

¹² And sae, a hantle oʼ them believed; and eke oʼ the Greek weemen oʼ gude estate, and oʼ men, a gey wheen.

¹³ But whan the Jews oʼ Thessalonica cam to ken that the word oʼ God was preached by Paul in Berea, they cam thar as weel, steerin up the folk.

¹⁴ And than the brethren sent oot Paul, to gang the lenth oʼ the sea; but baith Silas and Timothy bade thar still.

¹⁵ Noo the men that airtit Paul, set him on the lenth oʼ Athens; and takin back wiʼ them word to Silas and Timothy to come to him as sune as they micht, they returned.

¹⁶ But while Paul, in Athens, was looking for them, his heart lowed within him, perceivin that the citie was aʼ gien ower to eidols.

¹⁷ Sae he was reasonin iʼ the kirk wiʼ the Jews and the devout anes; and iʼ the merkits ilka day wiʼ thae he met wiʼ.

¹⁸ And some, eʼen amang the wyse anes oʼ the Stoics and Epicureans, stude up again him: and a wheen war sayin, “What, aiblins, micht this gaberlunzie‐man be wantin to say?” Ithers spak, “He maun be a setter‐up oʼ foreign eidols;” for that he has giean oot the Blythe‐message oʼ Jesus and the Risin‐Again.

¹⁹ And sae, layin haud oʼ him, they had him up to the Areopagus, sayin, “Can we no get to ken what this new teachin is that ye are speakin?

²⁰ “For ye are feshing in fremd things to our hearing: we wad ken, than, whatna things thir are?”

²¹ Noo, aʼ Athenians, and the fremd folk biding thar, had leisure for nocht els, but to hear or to tell oʼ some new ferlie.

²² And Paul, staunin in the mids oʼ the Areopagus, said, “Men! Athenians! In aʼ things how unco mindfuʼ ye are in worship, I perceive.

²³ For as I gaed by, and took tent oʼ the objects oʼ yere worship, I lichtit on a shrine wiʼ this legend, ‘To a God no kent.’ What, than, ye adore unkennin, I mak plain to ye.

²⁴ “The God that made the warld, and aʼ things inʼt — he wha is Maister oʼ Heeven and yirth — no in haun‐made temples dwalls, as thoʼ he wantit ocht;

²⁵ “Nor wiʼ human hauns needs waitin on, sin he his sel gies aʼ their life and breath, and aʼ things.

²⁶ “He has made aʼ ane — ilka nation oʼ men — to bide on the face oʼ the yirth; spannin oot the seasons, and the limits oʼ their dwallin:

²⁷ “That they micht be seekin God; gin aiblins they micht graip eftir him, and finʼ him; thoʼ he be‐na far‐awa frae ony oʼ us.

²⁸ “For in him we leeve, act and exist; as eʼen thae amang yere ain bards hae said, ‘For his offspring, too, are we!’

²⁹ “Bein than, Godʼs offspring, we soudna think that that whilk is Divine is like to gowd, or siller, or stane — carved wiʼ skill and device oʼ man.

³⁰ “The times oʼ ignorance God heedit‐na; noo, he chairges aʼ men, in aʼ places, to repent:

³¹ “Inasmuckle as he has set a day, in whilk he sal judge the hail yirth in equity, by a Man that he has appointit; oʼ wham he has gien surety to aʼ men, in that he has raised him frae the deid.”

³² But whan they heard oʼ the Risin‐frae‐the‐deid, a wheen geckʼt at him; but ither some, “We will hear ye again anent this.”

³³ Sae Paul gaed forth oot oʼ their mids.

³⁴ But some men wha joined theirsels to him, believed; amang them, eʼen Dionysius the Areopagite Judge, and a wumman by name Damaris, and ithers wiʼ them.