[15] After Paul's escorts had taken him to Athens, they came away with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. [16] While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. [17] So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. [18] Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Some asked, "What is this scavenger trying to say?" Others said, "He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities," because he was preaching about 'Jesus' and 'Resurrection.' [19] They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? [20] For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean." [21] Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
(CCC 74) God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth":(1 Tim 2:4) that is, of Christ Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6). Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth: God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations (DV 7; cf. 2 Cor 1:20; 3:16 - 4:6). (CCC 75) "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline" (DV 7; cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15). (CCC 96) What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in glory.
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