Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 17:16
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
16 21. Paul, provoked by the prevalence of idolatry at Athens, first addresses the Jews and then the Gentiles. Some of the philosophers question him on his teaching, and bring him to the areopagus that they may hear him more at full
16. his spirit was stirred in him ] But the stirring was of the sharpest. The verb is akin to the noun which in Act 15:39 is used of the paroxysm of contention between Paul and Barnabas. His spirit was provoked within him, till he could not forbear to speak, could not wait till Timothy and Silas arrived.
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry ] Better (with R. V.) “ as he beheld the city full of idols.” This, the marginal rendering of the A. V., appears, from the analogy of similar words, to be the closer meaning, and it agrees somewhat better with the facts. What St Paul beheld was the numerous statues erected some to one god, some to another. That the city was wholly given to idolatry was the inference from this abundance of idols. The mutilation of the busts of Hermes before the Sicilian expedition in the Peloponnesian war shews how numerous were the statues erected to one divinity only. Time had added many to the number before St Paul’s visit.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now while Paul waited – How long he was there is not intimated; but doubtless some time would elapse before they could arrive. In the meantime Paul had ample opportunity to observe the state of the city.
His spirit was stirred in him – His mind was greatly excited. The word used here ( paroxuneto) denotes any excitement, agitation, or paroxysm of mind, 1Co 13:5. It here means that the mind of Paul was greatly concerned, or agitated, doubtless with pity and distress at their folly and danger.
The city wholly given to idolatry – Greek: kateidolon. It is well translated in the margin, or full of idols. The word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. That this was the condition of the city is abundantly testified by profane writers. Thus, Pausanias (in Attic. 1Co 1:24) says, the Athenians greatly surpassed others in their zeal for religion. Lucian (t. i. Prometh. p. 180) says of the city of Athens, On every side there are altars, victims, temples, and festivals. Livy (45, 27) says that Athens was full of the images of gods and men, adorned with every variety of material, and with all the skill of art. And Petronius (Sat. xvii.) says humorously of the city, that it was easier to find a god than a man there. See Kuinoel. In this verse we may see how a splendid idolatrous city will strike a pious mind. Athens then had more that was splendid in architecture, more that was brilliant in science, and more that was beautiful in the arts, than any other city of the world; perhaps more than all the rest of the world united.
Yet there is no account that the mind of Paul was filled with admiration; there is no record that he spent his time in examining the works of art; there is no evidence that he forgot his high purpose in an idle and useless contemplation of temples and statuary. His was a Christian mind; and he contemplated all this with a Christian heart. That heart was deeply affected in view of the amazing guilt of a people who were ignorant of the true God, who had filled their city with idols reared to the honor of imaginary divinities, and who, in the midst of all this splendor and luxury, were going down to destruction. So should every pious man feel who treads the streets of a splendid and guilty city. The Christian will not despise the productions of art, but he will feel, deeply feel, for the unhappy condition of those who, amidst wealth, and splendor, and outward adoring, are withholding their affections from the living God, and who are going unredeemed to eternal woe. Happy would it be if every Christian traveler who visits cities of wealth and splendor would, like Paul, be affected in view of their crimes and dangers; stud happy if, like him, people could cease their unbounded admiration of magnificence and splendor in temples, and palaces, and statuary, to regard the condition of mind, not perishable like marble of the soul, more magnificent even in its ruins than all the works of Phidias or Praxiteles.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. He saw the city wholly given to idolatry.] , Full of idols, as the margin has it, and very properly. Whoever examines the remains of this city, as represented by Mr. Stuart in his Antiquities, already referred to, will be satisfied of the truth of St. Luke’s remark: it was full of idols. Bishop Pearce produces a most apposite quotation from Pausanias, which confirms the observation: . There was no place where so many idols were to be seen. PAUS. in Attic. cap. xvii. 24.
PETRONIUS, who was contemporary with St. Paul, in his Satyr. cap. xvii., makes Quartilla say of Athens: Utique nostra regio tam PRAESENTIBUS PLENA EST NUMINIBUS, ut facilius possis DEUM quam HOMINEM invenire. Our region is so full of deities that you may more frequently meet with a god than a man.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His spirit was stirred in him; moved, and sharpened, being highly affected with divers passions:
1. With grief, for so learned, and yet blind and miserable a place.
2. With zeal, and a holy desire to instruct and inform it.
3. With anger and indignation against the idolatry and sin that abounded in it.
Wholly given to idolatry; or, as the marginal reading hath, full of idols. For we read, that there were more idols in Athens than in all Greece besides; and that it was easier to find a god there (that is, an idol) than a man; their images being as numerous as their inhabitants.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16, 17. wholly given toidolatry“covered with idols”; meaning the city, notthe inhabitants. Petronius, a contemporary writer at Nero’s court,says satirically that it was easier to find a god at Athens than aman. This “stirred the spirit” of the apostle. “Thefirst impression which the masterpieces of man’s taste for art lefton the mind of St. Paul was a revolting one, since all this majestyand beauty had placed itself between man and his Creator, and boundhim the faster to his gods, who were not God. Upon the first contact,therefore, which the Spirit of Christ came into with the sublimestcreations of human art, the judgment of the Holy Ghostthroughwhich they have all to passis set up as “the strait gate,”and this must remain the correct standard for ever”[BAUMGARTEN].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens….. That is, for Silas and Timotheus:
his spirit was stirred in him; not only his soul was troubled and his heart was grieved, but he was exasperated and provoked to the last degree: he was in a paroxysm; his heart was hot within him; he had a burning fire in his bones, and was weary with forbearing, and could not stay; his zeal wanted vent, and he gave it:
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry; or “full of idols”, as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it. So Cicero says x that Athens was full of temples; and Xenophon y observes that they had double the feasts of other people; and Pausanias z affirms, that the Athenians far exceeded others in the worship of the gods, and care about religion; and he relates, that they had an altar for Mercy, another for Shame, another for Fame, and another for Desire, and expressed more religion to the gods than others did: they had an altar dedicated to twelve gods a; and because they would be sure of all, they erected one to an unknown god; in short, they had so many of them, that one b jestingly said to them, our country is so full of deities, that one may more easily find a god than a man: so that with all their learning and wisdom they knew not God, 1Co 1:21.
x De responsis Aruspicum. y De Athen. Polit. z Attica, p. 29, 42. a Thucydides Bell. Peloponness. l. 6. b Petronius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. 21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love, with the learning of the ancients, would think he should be very happy if he were where Paul now was, at Athens, in the midst of the various sects of philosophers, and would have a great many curious questions to ask them, for the explication of the remains we have of the Athenian learning; but Paul, though bred a scholar, and an ingenious active man, does not make this any of his business at Athens. He has other work to mind: it is not the improving of himself in their philosophy that he aims at, he has learned to call it a vain thing, and is above it (Col. ii. 8); his business is, in God’s name, to correct their disorders in religion, and to turn them from the service of idols, and of Satan in them, to the service of the true and living God in Christ.
I. Here is the impression which the abominable ignorance and superstition of the Athenians made upon Paul’s spirit, v. 16. Observe, 1. The account here given of that city: it was wholly given to idolatry. This agrees with the account which the heathen writers give of it, that there were more idols in Athens than there were in all Greece besides put together, and that they had twice as many sacred feasts as others had. Whatever strange gods were recommended to them, they admitted them, and allowed them a temple and an altar, so that they had almost as many gods as men–facilius possis deum quam hominem invenire. And this city, after the empire became Christian, continued incurably addicted to idolatry, and all the pious edicts of the Christian emperors could not root it out, till, by the irruption of the Goths, that city was in so particular a manner laid waste that there are now scarcely any remains of it. It is observable that there, where human learning most flourished, idolatry most abounded, and the most absurd and ridiculous idolatry, which confirms that of the apostle, that when they professed themselves to be wise they became fools (Rom. i. 22), and, in the business of religion, were of all other the most vain in their imaginations. The world by wisdom knew not God, 1 Cor. i. 21. They might have reasoned against polytheism and idolatry; but, it seems, the greatest pretenders to reason were the greatest slaves to idols: so necessary was it to the re-establishing even of natural religion that there should be a divine revelation, and that centering in Christ. 2. The disturbance which the sight of this gave to Paul. Paul was not willing to appear publicly till Silas and Timothy came to him, that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses the word might be established; but in the mean time his spirit was stirred within him. He was filled with concern for the glory of God, which he saw given to idols, and with compassion to the souls of men, which he saw thus enslaved to Satan, and led captive by him at his will. He beheld these transgressors, and was grieved; and horror took hold of him. He had a holy indignation at the heathen priests, that led the people such an endless trace of idolatry, and at their philosophers, that knew better, and yet never said a word against it, but themselves went down the stream.
II. The testimony that he bore against their idolatry, and his endeavours to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. He did not, as Witsius observes, in the heat of his zeal break into the temples, pull down their images, demolish their altars, or fly in the face of their priests; nor did he run about the streets crying, “You are all the bond-slaves of the devil,” though it was too true; but he observed decorum, and kept himself within due bounds, doing that only which became a prudent man. 1. He went to the synagogue of the Jews, who, though enemies to Christianity, were free from idolatry, and joined with them in that among them which was good, and took the opportunity given him there of disputing for Christ, v. 17. He discoursed with the Jews, reasoned fairly with them, and put it to them what reason they could give why, since they expected the Messiah, they would not receive Jesus. There he met with the devout persons that had forsaken the idol temples, but rested in the Jews’ synagogue, and he talked with these to lead them on to the Christian church, to which the Jews’ synagogue was but as a porch. 2. He entered into conversation with all that came in his way about matters of religion: In the market—en te agora, in the exchange, or place of commerce, he disputed daily, as he had occasion, with those that met with him, or that he happened to fall into company with, that were heathen, and never came to the Jews’ synagogue. The zealous advocates for the cause of Christ will be ready to plead it in all companies, as occasion offers. The ministers of Christ must not think it enough to speak a good word for Christ once a week, but should be daily speaking honourably of him to such as meet with them.
III. The enquiries which some of the philosophers made concerning Paul’s doctrine. Observe,
1. Who they were that encountered him, that entered into discourse with him, and opposed him: He disputed with all that met him, in the places of concourse, or rather of discourse. Most took no notice of him, slighted him, and never minded a word he said; but there were some of the philosophers that thought him worth making remarks upon, an they were those whose principles were most directly contrary to Christianity. (1.) The Epicureans, who thought God altogether such a one as themselves, an idle inactive being, that minded nothing, nor put any difference between good and evil. They would not own, either that God made the world or that he governs it; nor that man needs to make any conscience of what he says or does, having no punishment to fear nor rewards to hope for, all which loose atheistical notions Christianity is levelled against. The Epicureans indulged themselves in all the pleasures of sense, and placed their happiness in them, in what Christ has taught us in the first place to deny ourselves. (2.) The Stoics, who thought themselves altogether as good as God, and indulged themselves as much in the pride of life as the Epicureans did in the lusts of the flesh and of the eye; they made their virtuous man to be no way inferior to God himself, nay to be superior. Esse aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum–There is that in which a wise man excels God, so Seneca: to which Christianity is directly opposite, as it teaches us to deny ourselves and abase ourselves, and to come off from all confidence in ourselves, that Christ may be all in all.
2. What their different sentiments were of him; such there were as there were of Christ, v. 18. (1.) Some called him a babbler, and thought he spoke, without any design, whatever came uppermost, as men of crazed imaginations do: What will this babbler say? ho spermologos houtos—this scatterer of words, that goes about, throwing here one idle word or story and there another, without any intendment or signification; or, this picker up of seeds. Some of the critics tell us that the term is used for a little sort of bird, that is worth nothing at all, either for the spit or for the cage, that picks up the seeds that lie uncovered, either in the field or by the way-side, and hops here and there for that purpose–Avicula parva qu semina in triviis dispersa colligere solet; such a pitiful contemptible animal they took Paul to be, or supposed he went from place to place venting his notions to get money, a penny here and another there, as that bird picks up here and there a grain. They looked upon him as an idle fellow, and regarded him, as we say, no more than a ballad-singer. (2.) Others called him a setter forth of strange gods, and thought he spoke with design to make himself considerable by that means. And, if he had strange gods to set forth, he could not bring them to a better market than to Athens. He did not, as many did, directly set forth new gods, nor avowedly; but they thought he seemed to do so, because he preached unto then Jesus, and the resurrection. From his first coming among them he ever and anon harped upon these two strings, which are indeed the principal doctrines of Christianity–Christ and a future state–Christ our way, and heaven our end; and, though he did not call these gods, yet they thought he meant to make them so. Ton Iesoun kai ten anastasin, “Jesus they took for a new god, and anastasis, the resurrection, for a new goddess.” Thus they lost the benefit of the Christian doctrine by dressing it up in a pagan dialect, as if believing in Jesus, and looking for the resurrection, were the worshipping of new demons.
3. The proposal they made to give him a free, full, fair, and public hearing, Act 17:19; Act 17:20. They had heard some broken pieces of his doctrine, and are willing to have a more perfect knowledge of it. (1.) They look upon it as strange and surprising, and very different from the philosophy that had for many ages been taught and professed at Athens. “It is a new doctrine, which we do not understand the drift and design of. Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, which we never heard of before, and know not what to make of now.” By this it should seem that, among all the learned books they had, they either had not, or heeded not, the books of Moses and the prophets, else the doctrine of Christ would not have been so perfectly new and strange to them. There was but one book in the world that was of divine inspiration, and that was the only book they were strangers to, which, if they would have given a due regard to it, would, in its very first page, have determined that great controversy among them about the origin of the universe. (2.) They desired to know more of it, only because it was new and strange: “May we know what this new doctrine is? Or, is it (like the mysteries of the gods) to be kept as a profound secret? If it may be, we would gladly know, and desire thee to tell us, what these things mean, that we may be able to pass a judgment upon them.” This was a fair proposal; it was fit they should know what this doctrine was before they embraced it; and they were so fair as not to condemn it till they had had some account of it. (3.) The place they brought him to, in order to this public declaration of his doctrine; it was to Areopagus, the same word that is translated (v. 22) Mars’ Hill; it was the town-house, or guildhall of their city, where the magistrates met upon public business, and the courts of justice were kept; and it was as the theatre in the university, or the schools, where learned men met to communicate their notions. The court of justice which sat here was famous for its equity, which drew appeals to it from all parts; if any denied a God, he was liable to the censure of this court. Diagoras was by them put to death, as a contemner of the gods; nor might any new God be admitted without their approbation. Hither they brought Paul to be tried, not as a criminal but as a candidate.
4. The general character of the people of that city given upon this occasion (v. 21): All the Athenians, that is natives of the place, and strangers who sojourned there for their improvement, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing, which comes in as the reason why they were inquisitive concerning Paul’s doctrine, not because it was good, but because it was new. It is a very sorry character which is here given of these people, yet many transcribe it. (1.) They were all for conversation. St. Paul exhorts his pupil to give attendance to reading and meditation (1Ti 4:13; 1Ti 4:15), but these people despised those old-fashioned ways of getting knowledge, and preferred that of telling and hearing. It is true that good company is of great use to a man, and will polish one that has laid a good foundation in study; but that knowledge will be very flashy and superficial which is got by conversation only. (2.) They affected novelty; they were for telling and hearing some new thing. They were for new schemes and new notions in philosophy, new forms and plans of government in politics, and, in religion, for new gods that came newly up (Deut. xxxii. 17), new demons, new-fashioned images and altars (2 Kings xvi. 10); they were given to change. Demosthenes, an orator of their own, had charged this upon them long before, in one of his Philippics, that their common question in the markets, or wherever they met, was ei ti le etai neoteron—whether there was any news. (3.) They meddled in other people’s business, and were inquisitive concerning that, and never minded their own. Tattlers are always busy bodies, 1 Tim. v. 13. (4.) They spent their time in nothing else, and a very uncomfortable account those must needs have to make of their time who thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to be good husbands of it, because eternity depends upon it, and it is hastening apace into eternity, but abundance of it is wasted in unprofitable converse. To tell or hear the new occurrences of providence concerning the public in our own or other nations, and concerning our neighbours and friends, is of good use now and then; but to set up for newsmongers, and to spend our time in nothing else, is to lose that which is very precious for the gain of that which is worth little.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Now while Paul waited for them in Athens ( ). Genitive absolute with present middle participle of , old verb to receive, but only with the sense of looking out for, expecting found here and elsewhere in N.T We know that Timothy did come to Paul in Athens (1Thess 3:1; 1Thess 3:6) from Thessalonica and was sent back to them from Athens. If Silas also came to Athens, he was also sent away, possibly to Philippi, for that church was deeply interested in Paul. At any rate both Timothy and Silas came from Macedonia to Corinth with messages and relief for Paul (Acts 18:5; 2Cor 11:8). Before they came and after they left, Paul felt lonely in Athens (1Th 3:1), the first time on this tour or the first that he has been completely without fellow workers. Athens had been captured by Sulla B.C. 86. After various changes Achaia, of which Corinth is the capital, is a separate province from Macedonia and A.D. 44 was restored by Claudius to the Senate with the Proconsul at Corinth. Paul is probably here about A.D. 50. Politically Athens is no longer of importance when Paul comes though it is still the university seat of the world with all its rich environment and traditions. Rackham grows eloquent over Paul the Jew of Tarsus being in the city of Pericles and Demosthenes, Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Euripides. In its Agora Socrates had taught, here was the Academy of Plato, the Lyceum of Aristotle, the Porch of Zeno, the Garden of Epicurus. Here men still talked about philosophy, poetry, politics, religion, anything and everything. It was the art centre of the world. The Parthenon, the most beautiful of temples, crowned the Acropolis. Was Paul insensible to all this cultural environment? It is hard to think so for he was a university man of Tarsus and he makes a number of allusions to Greek writers. Probably it had not been in Paul’s original plan to evangelize Athens, difficult as all university seats are, but he cannot be idle though here apparently by chance because driven out of Macedonia.
Was provoked (). Imperfect passive of , old verb to sharpen, to stimulate, to irritate (from , ), from (Ac 15:39), common in old Greek, but in N.T. only here and 1Co 13:5. It was a continual challenge to Paul’s spirit when he beheld (, genitive of present participle agreeing with (his), though late MSS. have locative agreeing with ).
The city full of idols ( ). Note the participle not preserved in the English (either the city being full of idols or that the city was full of idols, sort of indirect discourse). Paul, like any stranger was looking at the sights as he walked around. This adjective (perfective use of and is found nowhere else, but it is formed after the analogy of , ), full of idols. Xenophon (de Republ. Ath.) calls the city , (all altar, all sacrifice and offering to the gods). These statues were beautiful, but Paul was not deceived by the mere art for art’s sake. The idolatry and sensualism of it all glared at him (Ro 1:18-32). Renan ridicules Paul’s ignorance in taking these statues for idols, but Paul knew paganism better than Renan. The superstition of this centre of Greek culture was depressing to Paul. One has only to recall how superstitious cults today flourish in the atmosphere of Boston and Los Angeles to understand conditions in Athens. Pausanias says that Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece put together. Pliny states that in the time of Nero Athens had over 30,000 public statues besides countless private ones in the homes. Petronius sneers that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. Every gateway or porch had its protecting god. They lined the street from the Piraeus and caught the eye at every place of prominence on wall or in the agora.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Was stirred [] . Better, as Rev., provoked. See on the kindred word contention [] , ch. 14 39.
Saw [] . Better, beheld. See on Luk 10:18.
Wholly given to idolatry [] . Incorrect. The word, which occurs only here in the New Testament, and nowhere in classical Greek, means full of idols. It applies to the city, not to the inhabitants. “We learn from Pliny that at the time of Nero, Athens contained over three thousand public statues, besides a countless number of lesser images within the walls of private houses. Of this number the great majority were statues of gods, demi – gods, or heroes. In one street there stood before every house a square pillar carrying upon it a bust of the God Hermes. Another street, named the Street of the Tripods, was lined with tripods, dedicated by winners in the Greek national games, and carrying each one an inscription to a deity. Every gateway and porch carried its protecting God. Every street, every square, nay, every purlieu, had its sanctuaries, and a Roman poet bitterly remarked that it was easier in Athens to find gods than men” (G. S. Davies, ” St. Paul in Greece “).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens,” (en de tais Athenais ekdechomenou autous tou Paulou) “Then while Paul (was) awaiting them in Athens,” In the city of Athens, waiting for Silas and Timothy to arrive, Act 17:15.
2) “His spirit was stirred in him,” (paroksurieto to pneuma autou en auto) “His spirit was stirred up or provoked in him,” with a burning passion, even anger, aroused with indignation, It was of that kind of anger he later wrote, “be ye angry and sin not,” Eph 4:26. To be angry against sin is an wholesome thing; Jesus was, Joh 2:13-17.
3) “When he saw the city wholly given to idolatry,” (theotountos kateidolon ousan ten polin) “When he observed the city being (which was existing) full of idols or images,” all to statues and images of heathen gods, against the Word of God, Exo 20:2-3; Psa 115:5-9; A reporter in Nero’s court wrote facetiously that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man.” Not only was the Parthenon filled with these idols but they were also then located on the streets, throughout the city. True believers were repeatedly admonished to avoid, flee from, have no identity with, idolatry and its sensuous associations, 1Co 10:14; Gal 5:20; Col 3:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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16. Was sore grieved. Though Paul, whithersoever he came, did stoutly execute that function of teaching which he knew was enjoined with him, yet Luke showeth that he was more incensed and moved at Athens, because he saw idolatry reign more there than in any other place for the most part. The whole world was then full of idols; the pure worship of God could be found nowhere; and there were everywhere innumerable monsters of superstitions, but Satan had made the city of Athens more mad than any other city, so that the people thereof were carried headlong with greater madness unto their wickedness and perverse rites. And this example is worth the noting, that the city, which was the mansion-house of wisdom, the fountain of all arts, the mother of humanity, did exceed all others in blindness and madness. We know with what commandments witty and learned men did set forth the same, and she had conceived so great good liking of herself that she counted those rude − (272) whom she had not polished. But the Holy Ghost condemning the whole world of ignorance and blockishness, saith that those masters of liberal sciences were bewitched with an unwonted madness. Whence we gather what man’s wit can do in matters which concern God. Neither need we doubt of this, but that the Lord suffered the men of Athens to fall into extreme madness, that all the world might learn by them, and that they might teach all ages that the foresight and wit of man’s mind being holpen with learning and instruction, doth altogether dote, and is mere foolishness when it cometh to the kingdom of God. They had undoubtedly their cloaks and colors, wherewith they did excuse their worshippings, how preposterous and corrupt soever they were. And yet, notwithstanding, it is certain that they did not only deceive men with childish and frivolous toys, but that they themselves were deluded shamefully with gross and filthy jugglings, as if they were deprived of common sense, and were altogether blockish and brutish. And as we learn what manner [of] religion proceedeth from man’s understanding, and that man’s wisdom is nothing else but a shop of all errors, so we may know that the men of Athens, being drunk with their own pride, did err more filthily than the rest. The antiquity, the pleasantness, and beauty of the city, did puff them up, so that they did boast that the gods came thence. Therefore, forasmuch as they did pull down God from heaven, that they might make him an inhabitant of their city, it was meet that they should be thrust down into the nethermost hell. Howsoever it be, the vanity of man’s wisdom is here marked with eternal infamy by the Spirit of God; because, where it was principally resident, there was the darkness more thick. Idolatry did reign most of all there; and Satan carried men’s minds to and fro more freely by his mocks and juggling. −
Now, let us come unto Paul. Luke saith, forasmuch as he saw the city so given to idolatry, his spirit waxed hot, or was moved. Where he doth not attribute unto him indignation only, neither doth he only say that he was offended with that spectacle, but he expressed the unwonted heat of holy anger, which sharpened his zeal, so that he did address himself more fervently unto the work. And here we must note two things. For in that Paul was wroth when he saw the name of God wickedly profaned, and his pure worship corrupted, he did thereby declare, that nothing was to him corrupted, he did thereby declare, that nothing was to him more precious than the glory of God. Which zeal ought to be of great force among us, as it is in the Psalm, ( Psa 69:9,) “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” For it is a common rule of all the godly, that so soon as they see their heavenly Father blasphemed, they be sore vexed, as Peter teacheth that the godly man Lot, because he could not cure most filthy facts, did vex his heart, ( 2Pe 2:8.) And teachers must, above all others, be fervent, as Paul saith, that he is jealous that he may retain the Church in true chastity, ( 2Co 11:2.) And those who are not touched when they see and hear God blasphemed, and do not only wink thereat, but also carelessly pass over it, are not worthy to be counted the children of God, who at least do not give him so much honor as they do to an earthly father. Secondly, we must note that he was not so grieved, that being cast down through despair, he was quite discouraged, as we see most men to be far from waxing hot, or being moved, when they see the glory of God wickedly profaned, that in professing and uttering sorrow and sighing, they do, notwithstanding, rather wax profane with others than study to reform them. Nevertheless, they have a fair cloak for their sluggishness, that they will not procure any tumult when they are like to do no good. − (273) For they think that their attempts shall be in vain if they strive against the wicked and violent conspiracy of the people. But Paul is not only not discouraged with wearisomeness, neither doth he so faint by reason of the hardness of the matter, that he doth cast from him his office of teaching; but he is pricked forward with a more sharp prick to maintain godliness. −
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Barbaros,” barbarians.
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Quod nolint sine profectu tumultuare,” that they are unwilling to excite tumult to no good purpose.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act. 17:16. Athens.Described by Milton (Paradise Regained, Act. 4:20) as the eye of Greece, and the mother of arts and eloquence. The capital of Attica was situated about five miles from the harbour of Pirus, partly on a group of rocky hills, and partly upon the low land surrounding these, and separating them one from the other. Of these rocky eminences the loftiest was the Acropolis, which stood almost in the middle of the town, and to which a magnificent marble staircase led up through the Propylum, built by Pericles. Here were, besides other works of art, the colossal statue of Athene Promachus, the glorious Parthenon, or Virgins house, replete with the masterpieces of Phidias, and the colossal statue (of Athens) of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias, unrivalled in the world, save only by the Jupiter Olympius of the same artist (Conybeare and Howson, 1:330).
Act. 17:17. In the market.The Agora, richly decorated with statues, lying between the two hills, Pnyx on the west and Museum on the south-west of the Acropolis, was the centre of a glorious public life, when the orators and statesmen, the poets and artists, of Greece found there all the incentives of their noblest enthusiasm (Ibid., i. 326).
Act. 17:18. This babbler. . Lit., sted-picker, properly a bird, in which sense it is used by Aristophanes (Birds, 232); hence one who prowls about the market-place picking up and retailing gossip, or one who lives by his wits; hence, again, a contemptible and worthless person. Or the allusion may be to the chattering of such birds, whence the word may denote a babbler. Zeno called by this name one of his disciples, who had more words than wisdom (Diog. Laert., Zeno, c. 19); and Demosthenes used this expression of ready-tongued opponents. Many an Athenian is likely to have babbled all the week through about this babbler at the Areopagus (Stier). Probably the nearest and most instructive parallel in modern English life to Spermologos is Bounder allowing for the difference between England and Athens. In both there lies the idea of one who is out of the swim, out of the inner circle, one who lacks that thorough knowledge and practice in the rules of the game, that mould the whole character and make it ones nature to act in the proper way and play the game fair (Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 243).
Act. 17:19. Areopagus.This ancient college of justice in Athens, whose province it was to pronounce judgment on the worst criminal cases, had its name from the elevation, Mars Hill (Act. 17:22), upon the east end of which it had its sittings. It was approached from the market-place by a flight of steps cut in the rock, and on its summit had, also cut in the rock, a row of seats, in which the judges sat, and room for a considerable number of spectators and listeners. Ramsay (St. Paul, etc., pp. 241 ff.), thinks Paul was brought before the Council of Areopagus, neither to be tried by the city judges, nor to address the Athenian people, nor to discuss with the philosophers, but to explain to the university court the nature of his doctrines. (See Hints on Act. 17:19.)
Act. 17:21. Either to tell or to hear some new thing.Compare Demosthenes: Is it your sole ambition to wander through the public places, each inquiring of the other, what new advices? (Philippic, Act. 1:11); and Thucydides (3:38): And so you are the best men to be imposed upon with novelty of argument, etc. It is just the same to-day with the upper and lower classes in our great cities. It is ever ; or, as they are wont to say, One new thing supplants another (Stier).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.Act. 17:16-21
Paul at Athens; or, Alone in a Heathen City
I. Waiting for Silas and Timothy.
1. Alone. These two friends having been left behind in Macedonia, Silas in Bera, and perhaps Timothy in Thessalonica, to carry forward the spiritual movement which had there been initiated when those who had brought the apostle as far as to Athens had departed, he naturally began to realise the isolation of his position as a stranger in a large heathen city. Nor is it likely that the brilliant scenes on which he gazed in that fair metropolis of the ancient world did much to relieve his depression. Besides, largely on account of bodily weakness, the apostle may have felt himself in need of friendly sympathy and assistance in order to effective working in Athens. Hence, on sending back his conductors to Bara, he deemed it prudent to entrust them with instructions for both Silas and Timothy to rejoin him with all speed. Doubtless he expected to await their arrival at Athens; but as the turn of events once more constrained him to leave the Achaian capital sooner than he had anticipated, it was not till he had reached Corinth that his esteemed colleagues overtook him (Act. 18:5).Silas coming from Bera, and Timothy from Thessalonica, to which city (as above conjectured, though see Critical Remarks, and Hints on Act. 17:14) he had been despatched from Bera, instead of Paul (1Th. 2:18). Meanwhile the apostle found himself in Athens alone (1Th. 3:1). Yet,
2. Not alone. Like his glorified Master, who, in the days of His flesh, when forsaken by His disciples, affirmed that though alone He was yet not alone, because the Father was with Him (Joh. 16:32), the apostle in his solitude enjoyed first the companionship of that gracious Lord on whose business he had come to Athens, who had said, Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Mat. 28:20), and whose comforts, it need not be doubted, in that season of thoughtfulness delighted his soul (Psa. 94:19). Then, like him who said he was never less alone than when alone, the apostle had the fellowship of his own thoughts, which, if they had much to depress, were fitted also in no small measure to cheer. The recollection of the toils and sufferings he had passed through since entering on his lifework of preaching the gospel to the heathen could hardly fail at times to cast the pale hue of sickly thought upon his spirit, though even that could not daunt his heroic soul. But, on the other hand, the remembrance of how he had been sustained throughout his arduous warfare, and of how astonishingly the work of the Lord had prospered in his hand, would more than counterbalance his depressing reminiscences. Lastly, he might have found, though it is doubtful if he did, in the fresh scenes upon which he gazed in that brilliant capital, the means of relieving the tedium of his lonely hours. It was at Athens, writes Farrar, that the human form, sedulously trained, attained its most exquisite and winning beauty; there that human freedom put forth its most splendid power; there that human eloquence displayed its utmost subtlety and grace; there that art reached to its most consummate perfection; there that poetry uttered alike its sweetest and its sublimest strains; there that philosophy attained to the most perfect music of human expression, its loftiest and deepest thoughts; but it may be questioned if these considerations affected Paul with the like enthusiasm they inspire in the breast of modern travellers.
II. Surveying the Athenian city.
1. The spectacle he beheld. That which arrested Pauls attention, presumably from the moment of his landing at the harbour of Pirus, as he walked up slowly between the ruins of the Long Walls towards the shining city, and while he, later on, sauntered through its streets and lingered in its market-place, was not its geographical situation, or its architectural beauty, or its air of culture and refinement, but its religious condition. Like Babylon of old, which was a land of graven images, and whose people were mad upon idols (Jer. 50:38), the Athens of Pauls day was wholly given over to idolatry, literally stuffed full of idols. A person could hardly take his position at any point in ancient Athens where the eye did not range over temples and statues of the gods almost without number (Hackett). Petronius (Satires, 17) was wont to say that it was easier to find a god at Athens than a man; while, according to Pausanias, Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece put together. Some of the streets were so crowded with those who sold idols that it was almost impossible to make ones way through them. Every god in Olympus found a place in the Agora; and as if the imagination of the Attic mind knew no bounds in this direction, abstractions were deified and publicly honoured. Altars were erected to fame, to modesty, to energy, to persuasion, to pity (Conybeare and Howson, i. 328, 329). Finally, lest any divinity should be overlooked, the inhabitants had erected an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. It is of course objected that ancient writers, such as Pausanias and Philostratus, only knew of altars to unknown gods not to an, or the, unknown god; but neither can their ignorance be allowed to invalidate the testimony of Paul, nor can it be incontrovertibly demonstrated that the altars of unknown gods mentioned by the above writers referred to a plurality of deities, and not to a plurality of altars; while, even if the former supposition be accepted as correct, it does not follow that Paul may not have observed one inscribed as Luke reports. There is even a great probability that by the unknown God was actually meant Jehovah (Lewin).
2. The feeling it aroused. His spirit was stirred within him, provoked or filled with indignation;
(1) at the profanation of the holy name of God implied, in the very existence of an idol;
(2) at the prostitution of manhood exhibited in the worship of a graven image;
(3) at the unspeakable source of moral corruption opened in the degrading rites by which such divinities were honoured; and
(4) at the terrible display of Satanic power given in the subjection of a whole city to such a caricature of religion as idolatry really was. Nor would the apostles indignation be lessened, but immensely heightened, by the fact that in Jerusalem he had never witnessed an idol.
III. Disputing with its inhabitants.
1. Where, and when?
(1) In the synagogue on the Sabbath. Although no trace of any building which could have been a synagogue has been found at Athens (Farrar), there is no ground for calling in question the accuracy of Lukes statement that one existed there in Pauls day, and that Paul, according to his wont (Act. 17:2), entered it on the Sabbath.
(2) In the market-place on the other days of the week. Located at the foot of the Acropolis and the Areopagus, the market-place of Athens was a busy scene. Around were porticoes fitted up as bazaars for the sale of a thousand articles of commerce; here and there were circular sheds, one for the sale of slaves, another of provisions. In one place was the flesh market, in another the horse market; here the mart of books, there the stalls of fruit and flowers (Lewin).
2. With whom, and about what?
(1) On the Sabbath day or days in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons or proselytes there assembled; and the fact that there were Jews and proselytes in the Greek capital shows that even in that idolatrous city the name of Jehovah could not have been utterly unknown. On the week days in the market-place with those encountered there, amongst whom mingled representatives of the various schools of philosophy for which Athens was celebrated (see below).
(2) With the former his theme of disputation would be the Messiahship of Jesus, which, as on other occasions, he would endeavour to establish from the Scriptures (Act. 17:2-3); with the latter he would reason not about philosophy or science, politics or trade, but about religion and theology, and, in particular, about the true knowledge of God and about the folly of idol worship, about the true wisdom which descended from heaven, and about the resurrection and eternal life.
IV. Confronting the philosophers.
1. Their designations.
(1) Epicureans. The founder of this sect, Epicurus, born 342 B.C.i.e., six years after the death of Plato, in his thirty-sixth yearopened at Athens a philosophical school, over which he presided till his death in B.C. 270. The principal tenets of his philosophy were, that the summum bonum of human life consisted in happiness or pleasure; that this happiness was to be found in sobriety and temperance, contentment with little and a life generally in accord with nature; that death was not an evil to be feared; that man has no moral destiny; and that the gods which in his system were more phantoms than gods, took no manner of interest in mundane affairs (Schweglers History of Philosophy, pp. 131134). With his followers happiness became convertible with sensual pleasures (1Co. 15:32), belief in inert and shadowy divinities degenerated into practical atheism, and mans soul, if he had one, was nothing but a body composed of finer atoms than the fleshly tabernacle in which it was enshrined. They were thus the Greek Sadducees of their day.
(2) The Stoics. Followers of Zeno, who was born in Citium, a town of Cyprus about 340 B.C., and opened a school in an Athenian arcade (Stoa, whence the name Stoic), these were virtually pantheists, who believed that the world was Gods body, and God the worlds soul, that the highest law of human action was to live in accordance with nature, and that virtue, apart from all personal ends, was mans sole good; but in point of fact they were commonly nothing better than fatalists, who boasted of their indifference to the world, and affected an ideal of morals which in practice became unreal (Schwegler, pp. 123131).
2. Their exclamations.
(1) What will this babbler say? Better, what might this seed picker, this idle prater mean? I.e., if he has any meaning. These depositaries of the worlds wisdom looked upon the apostle as only another specimen of those market-place loungers and gossips who picked up scraps of information and retailed them to others, and whom the quick-witted humorists of the day likened to a sparrow, rook, or other bird which hopped about the streets and squares of the city picking up crumbs (see Critical Remarks on Act. 17:18).
(2) He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods (or daemons)the very charge preferred against Socrates (Xen., Mem., i. 1, 1)because, Luke explains, he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. This, the reason advanced by the philosophers for their exclamation, Luke must have learnt from Paul himself. The philosophers, it has been thought, mistook Anastasis for the name of a second divinity in addition to Jesus (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Spence, Plumptre, Holtzmann); but it is more likely that the gods referred to were the God of the Hebrews, the true God and His Son Jesus Christ (Alford, Hackett, De Wette).
3. Their interrogations.
(1) Where these were put. At the Areopagus or Mars Hill, where the most awful court of judicature had sat from time immemorial, to pass sentence on the greatest criminals, and to decide the most solemn questions connected with religion. The judges sat in the open air upon seats hewn out in the rock, on a platform ascended by a flight of stones immediately from the Agora (Conybeare and Howson, i. 346).
(2) How these were put! May we know what this new doctrine or teaching is that is spoken by thee? We would know what these things mean. The questions do not indicate that Paul was formally arraigned, but merely that he was called upon to furnish an explanation of the theological novelties to which they had listenedwhich, all things considered, was a fair enough demand. The words in which their demand was couched do not resemble those in which a prisoner at the bar is addressed by a judge; nor does the speech, made by Paul in reply, in the least degree resemble a defence.
(3) Why these were put. Partly out of a desire for informationthe teaching sounded strange to their earsbut chiefly out of idle curiosity, which was a notorious characteristic of the Athenians (see, however, Critical Remarks and Hints on Act. 17:19).
Learn.
1. The essential loneliness of Gods people in a sinful world.
2. The earnest activity which Christs servants should everywhere exhibit.
3. The natural incapacity of the human heart to comprehend the gospel.
4. The two principal obstacles to the reception of the truth, pleasure and pride.
5. The comparative frivolity of all earthly engagements in comparison with the business of salvation.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act. 17:16. Athens: A Microcosmus.A city
I. Of degraded idolaters, who worshipped the creature more than the Creator.
II. Of ignorant philosophers, who professed themselves to be wise, but were all the while fools.
III. Of arrant triflers, who had no just conception of the seriousness of life.
Act. 17:18. Strange Gods.
I. Senseless images.Dumb idols such as were and are worshipped by the heathen.
II. Local divinities.Such deities as were supposed to be restricted to particular lands and peoplese.g., the gods of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Phnicians, etc.
III. Impersonal abstractions.Such as are worshipped by philosophers and others, both ancient and modern; as e.g., the All, the Great Unknown, the Power behind the Visible, etc.
IV. Material possessions.Such as are worshipped under the names of Mammon, Wealth, Riches, by all classes of society.
Jesus and the Resurrection. Jesus
I. The efficient cause (Joh. 5:25).
II. The personal principle (Joh. 11:25).
III. The archetypal pattern (Php. 3:21).
IV. The first fruits of the Resurrection (1Co. 15:23).
The Athenian Philosophers and their Relation to Christianity.
I. The Epicureans.The Epicurean system was essentially materialistic. The senses formed the only source of knowledge. The world was traced back to atoms, out of whose accidental concurrence all things were formed. Even the soul was said to be only a body of ethereal and fiery substance fashioned out of fine atoms. Hence the immortality of the soul was a delusion, the freedom of the will a deception, and the gods superfluous; only quite illogically Epicurus allowed them to exist, but denied them all world-government and participation in the fortunes of men. The highest good of man, placed as he is in this senseless and heartless existence, is pleasure; wisdom to attain to the highest measure of this in life; and virtue, the conduct leading to this aim.
II. The Stoics.The Stoical system, on the other hand, was essentially pantheistic. It distinguished in the worldall, matter and force. It named the latter in relation to the whole, it is true, Reason, Providence, Godhead, but thought of it only as not self-existent, in personal, and therefore also not truly spiritual essence, as an all-forming and all-animating fire which brings forth the creatures and the worlds and again destroys them. The human soul, a spark of this impersonal godhead, and consequently without immortality, has, according to the Stoics, its highest good in virtue; but virtue is a life in accordance with nature, the agreement of the human will with the law of the world, consequently above all resignation in presence of world-governing fate.
III. Their relation to Christianity.According to these doctrines of the Epicureans and Stoics, which present numerous resemblances to modern un-Christian modes of thinking, it is conceivable that both, notwithstanding their different views of the world and of morals, should have agreed, with reference to the gospel of the apostle, to see in it a new Oriental enthusiasm desirous of being admitted to Greek philosophical rank and especially in the resurrection message, a fable to be laughed at.Beyschlag.
Act. 17:19. The Teaching of Christianity at Once, Old and New.
I. Old, as the fall of man, being contained in the first promise; New, as the latest need of man, being able to adapt itself to the ever-varying phases of human civilisation.
II. Old, as the outgrowth of the Hebrew dispensation; New, as the substance of a fresh revelation.
III. Old, as being the subject of prophetic anticipation; New, as being the burden of a specially sent teacher, Christ.
IV. Old, as gathering up and crowning all Gods utterances in the past; New, as exhibiting all that is required to meet the exigencies of the future.
The New Doctrines of Christianity.
I. The unity of God.Though not new to the Jews it was new to the Athenians.
II. The brotherhood of man.Even to the Jews as well as Greeks this was an unheard-of idea.
III. The resurrection of Christ.To both Jew and Greek this was a stumbling block and a strange thing.
IV. The reality of a judgment day.The conception of such a general assize had never before entered into the worlds mind.
V. The duty of repentance.Men may previously have admitted the necessity in certain cases of reformation. Repentance in the sense of godly sorrow for sin against God was a novelty.
Unto the Areopagus; or, In the University at Athens.Two questions have to be answered in regard to the scene that follows: Why was Paul taken before the council? and what were the intentions of the philosophers in taking him there?
1. It is clear that Paul appeared to the philosophers as one of the many ambitious teachers who came to Athens hoping to find fame and fortune at the great centre of education. Now, certain powers were vested in the council of Areopagus to appoint or invite lecturers at Athens, and to exercise some control over the lecturers in the interests of public order and morality. There is an almost complete lack of evidence what were the advantages and the legal rights of a lecturer thus appointed, and to what extent or in what way a strange teacher could find freedom to lecture in Athens. There existed something in the way of privileges vested in the recognised lecturers; for the fact that Cicero induced the Areopagus to pass a decree inviting Cratippus, the peripatetic philosopher, to become a lecturer in Athens, implies that some advantage was thereby secured to him. There certainly also existed much freedom for foreigners to become lecturers in Athens, for the great majority of the Athenian professors and lecturers were foreign. The scene described in Act. 17:18-34 seems to prove that the recognised lecturers could take a strange lecturer before the Areopagus, and require him to give an account of his teaching, and pass a test as to its character.
2. When they (the philosophers) took him to the court to satisfy the supreme university tribunal of his qualifications, they probably entertained some hope that he would be overawed before that august body, or that his teaching might not pass muster, as being of an unsettling tendency (for no body is so conservative as a university court).Ramsay, St. Paul, the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, pp. 246, 247.
Act. 17:21, with Rev. 21:5. The Idolatry of Novelty.It cannot be denied that there is in all livesprobably not least in the busiest and the loftiestan element of dulness. This is only to say that there must be routine in every life which is either active or useful. The Athenians of the first text were not mere gossips or newsmongers. The first sound of the words does them some injustice. Their idolatry of novelty by no means exhausted itself in inventing or embellishing or retailing scandalous or mischievous stories against the great men of their city, or against humbler neighbours dwelling securely by them. Their treatment of St. Paul shows this. He was not a man of sufficient notoriety or sufficient importance to attract the attention of the mere tattler or scandalmonger. It was because he raised grave questions, going to the very root of the national and individual lifequestions of Jesus and of resurrectionthat these idolaters of novelty were attracted. The idolatry of novelty has a wide range. There are those amongst us whose idolatry of novelty never rises to the level of the Athenian. In vain for them the preaching in ten thousand churches of Jesus and the resurrection, even could that doctrine be for once new. Enough for them the last new fashion in dress, the last new horror in the police-courts, the last new tragedy or comedy in the newspapers, the last new mystery or the last new misadventure in society. This sort of idolatry of novelty, this base, vulgar, grovelling curiosity, is of no value whatever beyond the evidence which it affords, more than half by negatives, to the instinct which is in all of us that this is not our rest. It may be enough to say of this worship of novelty, that, as often as not, perhaps (if we knew all) in nine cases out of ten, it is but another name for the worship of falsehood. No trouble whatever is taken by the caterers for this table to make sure whether its supply has anything more in it than a germ, if even a germ, of fact however worthless. But in itself, even where news and lies are not synonyms, how paltry, how unworthy of an immortal being is this form of the idolatry of novelty! Let us try it in another and higher regionthe region of art and literature. There the idolatry of novelty becomes the worship of originality. And need I say what the effort to be original becomes in the hands of the commonplace? Need I speak of the exaggerations, the contortions, the burlesques of the would-be originalities of landscape and portrait-painting? Alas! the rage for novelty does not exhaust itself in the province of art. It is the condition of success in the historian, to invert received opinions of character, and to rewrite history itself into contraries. But the mischief stops not even here. The preacher himself is tried by his originality. A cruel trial this for the weak, vain man, who is miserable without an audience, and must purchase it at any cost. Yet how preferable any dulness to this sort of brilliancy! The subject widens before us, and we must lose no more time in bringing it to its practical application in the one higher province still. The Athenian development of the worship of novelty will be our guide here. We can scarcely wonder that the fanciful mythology of the earlier days of that wonderful people should have sunk, before the Christian era, from a beautiful though insubstantial faith into a cold and half-conscious hypocrisya miserable form for the many, a political expedient for the few. Philosophers and statesmen had long ceased to worship. But the former dreamed and the latter acted in agreement thus farthat a thorough iconoclasm would be dangerous, if not to the welfare of the people, at least to the tranquillity of the State. That altar of which St. Paul availed himself with such skill in his address on Mars Hill, To the Unknown God, was probably the only one which had any honest votary in the then population of Athens. Those Athenians might well have an open ear for the preacher of a new divinity. This was but to confess, what was no secret by this time, that their anonymous altar was still standing, and that they waited to worship till it had a name. For them the idolatry of novelty was their hope and their religion. Alas, brethren, that we should have come round again to those days! After all these centuries we too are left with an anonymous altar, and the worship of English hearts is offered once again at the shrine of an unknown, an avowedly unknowable, God. There is not an arrival of a so-called new apostle, there is not an importation of a so-called new divinity, for which this modern Athens has not at least one of its ears open. There is no pretence and no burlesque of a new commerce with the invisible, which cannot hold its sances in darkened chambers with a certainty of a sufficient gathering and a great probability of a crowd of awe-struck questioners outside. We are told that some one has dared to say, within the Christian Church of London, that Buddha himself is second only (if second) to Jesus Christ in morals, and superior to Christ Himself in this, that he never claimed for himself divinity. The idolatry of novelty can no further goat least not while he who now letteth will letbut soon he shall be taken out of the way, and then shall the lawless one be revealedto be unmasked and consumed in his season by the One mightier. We will turn now to the other and better half of the subject, and try to show, in a few concluding sentences, how considerately, how mercifully, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Heavenly Father our Lord God, enters into that natural want of something new, which lies at the root of the worship of the ugly idol which we have sought to characterise in this sermon. Do you suppose that Jesus Christ, God in Christ, is unaware, as of the many woes and crimes of earth, so of this particular feature of it, and specially of this earth of England and Londonits flatness, its staleness, its dulness, its monotony, as it is felt certainly in all but its ten thousand upper livesand what are they among the teeming multitudes which make up the population of either? What is the second text of this morning? He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold, I make all things new. The very feeling, the very sense of monotony which has made impatient man set up this paltry idol of noveltyis here provided for by God Himself saying, Behold I make (not a few things, but) all things new. Yes, you will saysomewhere and some day, in that visionary region, in that far-off unrealisable world, of which St. Johns Apocalypse tells. Welldespise not the world to come. Think not scorn of that pleasant land. But let me tell you of a nearer making all things new. Let me tell you of it first in a word of St. John, and then finally in a word of St. Paul. There are two ways of fulfilling the promise of renovation. One is by the renewal of the thing itselfthe other is by the renewal of the eye that views it. If the one is the promise of the text, the other is the promise elsewhere alike of St. John and St. Paul.Dean Vaughan.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) His spirit was stirred in him.The verb is the root of the noun from which we get our paroxysm, and which is translated by sharp contention in Act. 15:39. Athens, glorying now, as it had done in the days of Sophocles (dip. Col. 1008), in its devotion to the gods, presented to him, even after seeing Tarsus and Antioch, a new aspect. The city was full of idols; Hermes-busts at every corner, statues and altars in the atrium or court-yard of every house, temples and porticos and colonnades, all presenting what was to him the same repulsive spectacle. He looked on the Theseus and the Ilissus, and the friezes of the Centaurs and Lapith on the Parthenon, as we look on them in our museums, but any sense of art-beauty which he may have had (and it was probably, in any case, but weak) was over-powered by his horror that men should bow down and worship what their own hands had made. The beauty of form which we admire in the Apollo or the Aphrodite, the Mercury or the Faun, would be to him, in its unveiled nakedness, a thing to shudder at. He knew too well to what that love of sensuous beauty had led in Greek and Roman life (Rom. 1:24-27), when it had thrown aside what, to a Jew, were not only the natural instincts of purity, but the sanctions of a divine command (Gen. 9:22).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Paul waited at Athens Having left Silas and Timothy, and dismissed his Berean conductors, the apostle treads the streets a pensive solitaire. He who could quote, even here, the appropriate passage from the Greek poets, was doubtless not blind to the perfection with which art had wrought poetry in marble. But he comes with the firmness of a conqueror, not to be subdued by the beauty of his foe. He is the missionary of the Infinite, and he must not be seduced out of his mission by the fascinations of the esthetic. Under all this exterior of gaiety he knows there lurks a sadness, a sensualism, and a despair; for Greece, in forgetting God, has lost her assurance of life and immortality. Groping in vain for truth, she tries in vain to satisfy herself with beauty and voluptuousness.
Stirred in him Literally, was sharpened. He was impatient at the evidences afforded on every side that the true God was utterly excluded from Athens by a pantheon of false gods, and he was stimulated to assail the system of falsehood by the revelation of the truth.
Given to idolatry , an expressive term; literally, under-idoled. The soil of the city underlay the images like a stratum. In Athens, it was said, you could oftener find a god than a man. It was almost as thickly peopled with marble statues as with living inhabitants.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.’
While he was awaiting the first arrival of Silas and Timothy, Paul walked around the city, and as a result of all the evidences of pagan worship and idolatry his spirit was provoked within him. He no longer felt that he could wait until his friends arrived before commencing his ministry. He was on fire within, and stirred up at the sight of all the idols and false gods, he longed that these people might know the living and true God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 17:16 Comments – 1Th 3:1-2 implies that Timothy quickly made his way to Athens, then was sent back to Thessalonica by Paul because of his concern for the well being of this new congregation of believers amidst persecutions. Paul would soon make his way to Corinth and wait for Timothy. It is this report that would occasion Paul to sit down and write the epistle of 1 Thessalonians.
1Th 3:1-2, “Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone; And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:”
Act 17:22 Word Study on “superstitious” Strong says the Greek word ( ) (G1174) comes from two Greek words ( ) (G1169), meaning, “timid, faithless,” and ( ) (G1142), meaning, “a demon, or supernatural spirit.” BDAG says the word means “religious, superstitious.”
Comments – This word that Paul used clearly reflects the mindset of the Greeks, as they held on to the superstitions of their ancestors about visitations and divine interventions from their many gods. The Greeks believed in their mythologies, as far-fetched at these stories might seem to us today. We see such superstitious beliefs when Paul visited Lystra. After Paul healed a man, the people thought that the gods had come down to visit them.
Act 14:11-12, “And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.”
Act 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Act 17:23
[222] Pausanias writes, “The Athenians have also another harbour, at Munyehia, with a temple of Artemis of Munychia, and yet another at Phalerum, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary of Demeter. Here there is also a temple of Athens Sciras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown, and of heros, and of the children of Theseus and Phalerus.” ( Description of Greece 1.4) See Pausanias Description of Greece, trans. W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1918), 7.
[223] Diogenes Lartius writes, “And when he [Epimenides] was considered by the Greeks as a person especially beloved by the Gods, on which account when the Athenians were afflicted by a plague, and the priestess at Delphi enjoined them to purify their city, they sent a ship and Nicias the son of Niceratus to Crete, to invite Epimenides to Athens; and he, coming there in the forty-sixth Olympaid, purified the city and eradicated the plague for that time; he took some black sheep and some white ones and led them up to the Areopagus, and from thence he let them go wherever they chose, having ordered the attendants to follow them, and wherever any one of them lay down they were to sacrifice him to the God who was the patron of the spot, and so the evil was stayed; and owing to this one may even now find in the different boroughs of the Athenians altars without names, which are a sort of memorial of the propitiation of the Gods that then took place.” ( The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Epimendes 3) See The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Lartius, trans. C. D. Yonge, in Bohn’s Classical Library, ed. Henry Bohn (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853), 51.
[224] “Philopatris,” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, revised, eds. F. L. Cross, and E. A. Livingstone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), 1085.
[225] The author writes, “and we, discovering the unknown [god] in Athens, and worshipping, hands outstretched unto heaven to this one we give thanks, as considering [it] worthy to be obedient to such one of might.” (author’s translation) ( The Dialogue of Philopatris, lines 617-620) See The Dialogue of Philopatris (324-342), in Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Pars XI: Leo Diaconus, ed. B. G. Niebuhrii (Bonnae: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1828), 342.
Act 17:25 Scripture Reference – Note:
Joh 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Act 17:26 “and the bounds of their habitation” Comments – Some scholars find within Act 17:26 a reference to a time when God had men divide the earth by lots among the sons of Noah. We can find a reference to this allotment in the Table of Nations in Gen 10:25, which tells us that the earth was divided during the days of Peleg.
Gen 10:25, “And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided ; and his brother’s name was Joktan.”
We find an additional reference to this event in Deu 32:8.
Deu 32:8, “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”
We can find a lengthy account of this story in extra-biblical Jewish literature. In The Book of Jubilees, it says that in the days of Peleg, the nations were dividing themselves upon the earth. The divided the earth into three lots according to the inheritance of the three sons of Noah. Since this document dates a few centuries before the time of Christ, it shows to us how the Jews may have interpreted this passage in Genesis.
“And in the sixth year [1567 A.M.] thereof, she bare him son, and he called his name Peleg; for in the days when he was born the children of Noah began to divide the earth amongst themselves: for this reason he called his name Peleg. And they divided (it) secretly amongst themselves, and told it to Noah. And it came to pass in the beginning of the thirty-third jubilee [1569 A.M.] that they divided the earth into three parts, for Shem and Ham and Japheth, according to the inheritance of each , in the first year in the first week, when one of us who had been sent, was with them.” ( The Book of Jubilees 8.8-11) [226]
[226] The Book of Jubilees, translated by R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol 2, ed. R. H. Charles, 1-82 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), 25-6.
Act 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” Word Study on “have our being” – The Greek word translated “have our being” ( KJV) is , which literally means, “we are.” This same Greek verb is used in Heb 11:6, “must believe that He is. ”
Heb 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Comments – Paul’s statement “For in him we live, and move, and have our being,” is believed by some to come from the ancient Greek poet Epimenides (6 th C. B.C.) in his poem Cretica. F. F. Bruce provides the following translation from the Syriac of Isho’dad, Bishop of Hadatha:
They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one
The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!
But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,
For in thee we live and move and have our being.” [227]
[227] F. F. Bruce provides this quote, which he says comes from the Syriac version of the ninth century commenties of Isho’dad, Bishop of Hadatha. See F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, in The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1988), 339. This quote can be found in the Syriac in The Commentaries of Isho’dad of Merv Bishop of Hadatha (c. 850 A.D.) in Syriac and English, vol. 5, ed. and trans. Margaret Dunlop Gibson, in Horae Semiticas no XI (Cambridge: The University Press, 1916), 40.
Act 17:28 “as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” Comments – We find the phrase “For we are his offspring” in a poem entitled Diosemeia (the Divine Signs), written by the ancient Greek poet Aratus (c 315-240 B.C.), a native of either Tarsus or Soli, who based his poem on the work of the ancient Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 390-337 B.C.) called Phainomena. E. W. Bullinger says, “Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia (273-239 BC), requested the Poet Aratus to put the work of Eudoxus into the form of a poem, which he did about the year 270 BC.” [228] Paul was obviously familiar with this ancient poem, for he quotes in his address to the Athenians on Mars Hill. The poem reads:
[228] E. W. Bullinger, The Witness of the Stars (London: E. W. Bullinger, c1893), 13-4.
“From Zeus we lead the strain; he whom mankind Ne’er leave unhymned: of Zeus all public ways, All haunts of men, are full; and full the sea, And harbours; and of Zeus all stand in need. We are his offspring : and he, ever good and mild to man, Gives favouring signs, and rouses us to toil. Calling to mind life’s wants: when clods are best For plough and mattock: when the time is ripe For planting vines and sowing seeds, he tells, Since he himself hath fixed in heaven these signs, The stars dividing: and throughout the year Stars he provides to indicate to man The seasons’ course, that all things duly grow” ( Diosemeia, lines 1-13) [229]
[229] Robert Brown, The Phainomena, or ‘Heavenly Displays’ of Aratos (London: Longman and Co., 1885), 13.
G. R. Mair gives us an alternate translation:
“From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed; full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places of men; full is the sea and the havens thereof; always we all have need of Zeus. For we are also his offspring; and he in his kindness unto men giveth favourable signs and wakeneth the people to work, reminding them of livelihood.” [230]
[230] Callimachus and Lycophron, trans. A. W. Mair, Aratus, trans. G. R. Mair, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heineman, 1921), 369, 381.
However, John Chrysostom credits this statement to the ancient Greek poet Epimenides (6 th c. B.C.). [231] It makes better sense that Paul was quoting only one Greek author in Act 17:28, rather than two different authors.
[231] John Chrysostom writes, “For when Paul was discoursing to the Athenians, in the course of his harangue he quoted these words, To the Unknown God; and again, For we also are His offspring, as certain also of your own poets have said. It was Epimenides who said this, himself a Cretan, and whence he was moved to say it is necessary to mention. It is this. The Cretans have a tomb of Jupiter, with this inscription. ‘Here lieth Zan, whom they call Jove.’ On account of this inscription, then, the poet ridiculing the Cretans as liars, as he proceeds, introduces, to increase the ridicule, this passage. ‘For even a tomb, O King, of thee They made, who never diedst but aye shalt be.’” ( Epistle of St. Paul to Titus: Homily III) See John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Translated, with Notes and Indices (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1843), 292.
Act 17:28 Comments – Severus (fl. ca. AD 955 – 987), bishop of Al-Ushmunain, tells us that the teachings of Greek philosophy were wide spread in the Roman Empire during New Testament times. [232] This means that anyone with a good education in the first century was knowledgeable of Greek writers. Thus, Paul is attempting to reason with the Athenians with their own familiar writings.
[232] Severus writes, “Then the cobbler said to him: ‘I have never heard at all of these books which thou speakest of; but the books of the Greek philosophers are what men teach their children here, and so do the Egyptians.’” ( Saint Mar 1:2) See Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa, History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Aleandria, trans. B. Evetts, in Patrologia Orientalis, tumus primus, eds. R. Graffin and F. Nau (Paris: Kubraurue de Paris, 1907), 144.
Act 17:30 Word Study on “winked at” Strong says the Greek word “winked at” ( ) (G5237) means, “to overlook, i.e. not punish.”
Act 17:30 Comments Act 17:30 is emphatic about including every man on earth in God’s plan of salvation.
Act 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Act 17:31
Heb 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do .”
Act 17:31 “in the which he will judge” Comments – In the Greek, this verb is the tendential future, and is translated “He is about to judge.”
Act 17:31 “whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” – Comments – God is offering faith to every man by having raised up Jesus from the dead.
Act 17:34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Act 17:34
[233] Eusebius writes, “Besides these, that Areopagite, named Dionysius, who was the first to believe after Paul’s address to the Athenians in the Areopagus (as recorded by Luke in the Acts) is mentioned by another Dionysius, an ancient writer and pastor of the parish in Corinth, as the first bishop of the church at Athens.” ( Ecclesiastical History 3.4.11)
[234] The Apostolic Constitutions says, “Now concerning those bishops which have been ordained in our lifetime, we let you know that they are theseOf Athens, Dionysius.” ( Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 7.4.46)
Act 17:32-34 Comments Many Called, Few Chosen – Many are called, but few are chosen.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Act 17:16. His Spirit was stirred in him, The word signifies that a sharp edge was as it were set upon his spirit, and that he was wrought up to a great eagerness of zeal. Yet it is observable, that it did not throw him into any sallies of rage, either in words or actions; but only engaged him courageously to attempt stopping the torrent of popular superstition, by the most serious and affectionate, yet at the same time manly and rational remonstrances. The character of being wholly enslaved to idolatry, [, full of idols,] is supported by the whole current of antiquity. Athens was therefore called by AElian “the altar of Greece;” and Xenophon observes that it had twice as many sacred festivals as any other city. Pausanias tells us, it had more images than all the rest of Greece; and Petronius humorously says, “It is easier to find a god than a man there.” The full inscription of the altar, Act 17:23 was, “To the gods of Asia, Europe, and Lybia: to the unknown and stranger God.” Whence Theophylact concludes, that they received all the strange idol gods of the world,of Asia, Europe, and Africa; and moreover one, whom they knew not who or where he was. Mr. Biscoe mentions, that a fool had been capitally condemned at Athens for killing one of Esculapius’s sparrows; and that a little child, accidentallytaking up a piece of gold which fell from Diana’s crown, wasput to death for sacrilege. The prevalence of such a variety of senseless superstitions in this most learned and polite city, which all its neighbours beheld with so much veneration, gives us a most lively and affecting idea of the need we have, in the most improved state of human reason, to be taught by a divine revelation. If the admirers of Grecian wisdom would seriously consider this, they would find almost every one of their classics an advocate for the gospel.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 17:16 . ] was irritated (1Co 13:5 ; Dem. 514. 10 : ) at the high degree of heathen darkness and perversity (Rom 1:21 ff.) which prevailed at Athens.
] comp. Joh 11:33 ; Joh 11:38 .
The genitive , mentally attached to (see the critical remarks): because he saw .
] fall of images, of idols , not preserved elsewhere in Greek, but formed according to usual analogies ( , , , , al. ).
Athens , the centre of Hellenic worship and art, united zeal for both in a pre-eminent degree, and was especially at that period of political decay, when outward ritual and show in the sphere of religion and superstition flourished among the people alongside of the philosophical self-sufficiency of the higher scholastic wisdom among people of culture full of temples and altars, of priests and other persons connected with worship, who had to minister at an innumerable number of pompous festivals. See Paus. i. 24. 3; Strabo, x. p. 472; Liv. xlv. 27; Xen. Rep. Ath . iii. 2; and Wetstein in loc .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
E.PAUL AT ATHENS; HIS OBSERVATIONS AND OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES; HIS MISSIONARY DISCOURSE ON THE AREOPAGUS, AND ITS EFFECT
Act 17:16-34
16Now [But] while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred [moved with indignation] in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry [city full of idols]9. 17Therefore disputed he [He now discoursed, . ] in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons [Jews and proselytes], and in the market [market-place] daily with them that met [fell in] with him. 18Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered [But some of the Epicurean and of the Stoic philosophers entered into discourse with] him. And some said, What will this babbler10 say [What may this babbler intend to say]? other some [but others], He seemeth to be a setter forth [proclaimer] of strange [foreign] gods: because he preached unto them [the gospel of, ] Jesus, and the resurrection. 19And they took him, and brought him unto [the] Areopagus11, saying. May we know [Can we learn] what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest [which thoudeclarest], ?Isaiah 20 For thou bringest certain strange things [something strange] to our ears: we would know therefore [we wish, therefore, to know] what these things mean [what this may be]. 21([Om. parenth. marks]. For [But] all the Athenians, and [the] strangers which were there [strangers in the city], spent their time in [were disposed to do] nothing else but [than] either to tell or to hear some new thing [something new]).
22Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill12 [the Areopagus], and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things [points] ye are too superstitious [very devout]. 23For as I passed by [through the city], and beheld your evotions13 [sacred objects], I found [also, ] an altar with this [the] inscription, to the [an] unknown god. Whom [What]14 therefore ye ignorantly worship [ye worship without knowing it], him [that] declare [proclaim] I unto you. 24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth [therein, He () dwelleth, as he is the Lord of heaven and earth,] not in temples made with hands; 25Neither is worshipped with mens [Nor is he ministered unto by human15] hands, as though [if] he needed any thing, seeing he [whilst he himself, ] giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the [And hath caused that every nation of men, sprung from one blood, should dwell over the whole] face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed [earth, in that he hath fixed the appointed16 times], and the bounds of their habitation [habitations]; 27That they should [To] seek the Lord [God]17, if haply [perhaps] they might feel after [om. after] him, and find him, though he be [is] not far from every one of us: 28For in him we live, and move, and have our being [move, and are, ]; as certain also [also some] of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring [race]. 29 Forasmuch then as [As, therefore,] we are the offspring [race] of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and mans device [stone, unto a graven work of the art and reflection of a man]. 30And the times [The times, indeed, ] of this [om. this] ignorance God winked at [has overlooked]; but now [and now] commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because [Inasmuch as]18 he hath appointed [fixed] a day, in the which [in which] he will judge the world in righteousness by that [a] man whom he hath ordained [appointed]; whereof [in that] he hath given assurance [offered faith]19 unto all men, in that he hath raised [offered faith unto all, by raising] him from the dead.
32And [But] when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and [but the] others said, We will hear thee again of [concerning] this matter. 33So [And thus, ] Paul departed from among them [went out of the midst of them]. 34Howbeit [But, ] certain men clave [attached themselves] unto him, and believed: among the which [whom] was [also, ] Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act 17:16-17. a. Now while Paul waited.During the first part of this second missionary Journey of the apostle, we find him in Asia, or, specially, in Asia Minor; the second and third parts already exhibit him on European soil. The second part embraced MacedoniaPhilippi, Thessalonica and Berea; the third, which now commences, refers exclusively to Greece (which, at that period, was called Achaia), and embraces, indeed, simply the two principal cities of Athens and Corinth. Paul waited in the former until Silas and Timotheus, for whom he had sent, ver.15, should join him. Although Luke does not again mention them until they meet with Paul in Corinth, Act 18:5, we are authorized by the statement in 1Th 2:17 to 1Th 3:2, to assume, that Timotheus soon afterwards joined the apostle in Athens, and then received certain commissions which required him to return to Thessalonica. Luke had, in the mean time, remained in Philippi, and this circumstance explains his silence respecting the arrival of Timotheus at Athens, etc.
b. His spirit was stirred in him [his spirit was moved with indignation], . ., his spirit was filled with indignation, suffered a moral shock [comp. 1Co 13:5, and , Dem. . p. 514. (Mey.).Tr.]; the imperfect indicates an abiding state of mind, and not merely a sudden and transient emotion [see Exeg. note, Act 8:15-17 ult.Tr.]. He had, namely, observed, after spending some time in the city, and carefully surveying it (, not simply ), that it was full of images of the gods. (, a word not found elsewhere, but accurately formed, according to the analogy of other compounds, is not used in a subjective sense, as if it were equivalent to idolis dedita, but in an objective sense, viz., idolis abundans; compare , arboribus plenus; , vitibus abundans). Numerous Greek and Roman writers add their testimony that this characteristic feature distinguished Athens among all the Hellenic cities; thus, Xenophon describes that city as , , de Rep. Ath., and Livy remarks: Athenasmulta visenda habentessimulacra Deorum hominumque omni genere et materiae et atrium insignia. XLV. 27.The indignation of the apostle, and his desire to expose such heathenish errors (), induced him to enter into conversation both with Jews and proselytes in the synagogue, and with persons of every other class whom he encountered in the market-place; the truths of religion were the subjects of his . Such opportunities the market place daily ( ) furnished; as the same remark is not made with regard to the synagogue, it follows that the latter afforded such opportunities only on the sabbath-day.The expression , seems to imply that the city possessed only one market-place; this fact was long doubted, and the conjecture was generally adopted that Pauls conversations were held in a place called Eretria [Potters Antiq. of Greece I. 43. Edinb. 1832.Tr.]. The usual explanation of this name, however, is erroneous, and, in general, those who have more recently furnished us with topographical accounts of Athens, are convinced that this city never contained more than one market-place [forum, agora], and thus the accuracy and fidelity of the narrative before us are established even with regard to a point of apparently little importance (). [For a very full description of this Agora, see Conyb. and H. I. 379. ff.Tr.]
Act 17:18. Then certain philosophers.It was doubtless on the occasions when such conversations were held in public place, that some philosophers, who belonged partly to the Epicurean, and partly to the Stoic school, came in contact with Paul. ( signifies in Act 4:15 simply to confer together in a friendly manner; the word does not necessarily indicate a debate or a contest). [The Epicurean philosophy was antagonistic to the Gospel as holding the atomic theory in opposition to the creation of matter,the disconnection of the divinity from the world and its affairs, in opposition to the idea of a ruling providence,and the indissoluble union and annihilation together, of soul and body, as opposed to the hope of eternal life, and indeed to all spiritual religion whatever. The Epicureans were the materialists of the ancient world, etc.While the philosophy of the Stoics approached the truth in holding one supreme Governor of all, it contravened the latter, in its pantheistic belief that all souls were emanations of Him. In spirit it was directly opposed to the Gospel,holding the independence of man on any being but himself, together with the subjection of God and man alike to the stern laws of an inevitable fate, etc. (Alford).Tr.]. In consequence of these conversations, the Athenians were divided in their opinions. Some looked with contempt on Paul, as a vain babbler, who could say nothing that merited attention; ( originally signified a rook or crow [Aristoph. Av. 232, 579], and was applied to any one who prated in an inflated or pompous manner.The question: , primarily signifies: We do not clearly understand what he means to say; the interrogator, however, virtually expresses a disparaging judgment). Others were, at least, disposed to seek for more information, as Paul appeared to them to proclaim foreign divinities ( ; similar language was employed when Socrates was accused: ). This opinion was suggested, as Luke explains, by the circumstance that Paul preached the Gospel concerning Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.It is not probable that the Athenians supposed that, [resurrection] was the name of a goddess or heroine (Chrysostom, Baur, Baumgarten); Luke appears, on the contrary, to have mentioned the resurrection in immediate connection with the Person of Jesus, solely for the reason that this subject most of all surprised the Hellenic philosophers, as a novel or strange () conception.
Act 17:19-21. The people whose interest and curiosity had been aroused by the language of the apostle, conducted him (, leniter prehensum, Grotius [comp. Act 9:27]) to the Areopagus, that is, the hill of Ares [Marsso called from the legendary trial of Mars, Pausan. I. 28. 5Tr.], north of the western extremity of the Acropolis, on which spot the supreme court of the republic usually held its sittings. But that Paul was not subjected to a formal trial before the court of the Areopagites, and that his discourse was not a judicial defence (as Adami, a divine of the Netherlands, Observ. 1710, conjectured, and as Baur and Zeller have recently asserted), will appear from the following considerations: first, the whole context, which leads to an opposite conclusion, specially, the courteous question in Act 17:19, and the wish expressed in Act 17:20; secondly, the explanatory remark of the narrator in Act 17:21, according to which it was simply curiosity, and neither fanaticism nor intolerance that occasioned the scene which followed; thirdly, the whole tone of the discourse, which nowhere assumes the character of a defence or apology; and, lastly, the scene at the close, when Paul departs without molestation, and not the slightest trace of a judicial process is exhibited.The request addressed to Paul, viz., that he should explain himself more fully, Act 17:19, is exceedingly polite, and marked by Attic courtesy ( ); still, it is somewhat ironical, as the speakers undoubtedly believe that they already understand the subject, and are convinced that Paul can teach them nothing which they do not already know; and the expression in Act 17:20, , certain strange things, i.e., something strange or foreign, is tinged with that Hellenic arrogance with which barbarians [persons not Greeks by language or nation (Rob.)] were surveyed. Luke adds by way of explanation, Act 17:21, that all the Athenians, both foreigners who resided in the city, and natives, found no occupation more pleasant than that of reporting or hearing of some new thing (, vacabant, for which they always had time). Bengel explains the comparative with great felicity, in the following terms: nova statim sordebant, noviora quaerebantur. The people not only derived pleasure from such reports, but also sought for honor and distinction by communicating their own reports of new things (,). The imperfect describes a characteristic feature of the people at the time when the occurrence took place, without, however, implying that the remark was also applicable to a later period. [De Atheniensium garrulitate, et curiositatenimia, seu studio novitatis intempestivo plures scriptorum veterum loci loquuntur… Conf. Wolfiusin Curis, et Wetstenius ad h. l. (Kuinoel).Tr.]
Act 17:22. a. As the request is so plainly addressed to the apostle, he does not hesitate to rise before the most intelligent audience which the heathen world could furnish, even if the request did not proceed from a sincere love of the truth,, and was, moreover, pronounced in an ironical tone of voice; he was conscious that he had received a call (Act 9:15) to bear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles. With all the confidence of faith he takes a position () in the middle of the plateau on the hill, which was about [fifty or] sixty feet high. [i.e., above the valley separating it from the Acropolis. (Robinson).Tr.]. He saw before him the Acropolis, which rose above him, and was adorned with numerous works of art; beneath the spot on which he stood, was the magnificent temple of Theseus; around him were numerous temples, altars, and images of the gods. Compare Robinsons Researches, etc., Vol. I. p. 10, 11. [American edition].
b. He begins by saying in gentle terms, well suited to make a favorable impression, and indicating his wish to recognize with candor every favorable circumstance, that the observations which he had made (), enabled him to bear witness that the Athenians were indeed, in every respect, a God-fearing people. before ., imports: I recognize you as suchsuch ye appear to me to be. The word is undoubtedly sometimes found in the classic writers in an unfavorable sense, viz., superstitious; it is here taken in such a sense by the Vulgate, by Erasmus, Luther, and others. It is, however, a vox media, and not unfrequently conveys the idea of genuine fear of God. [Kuinoel says: Vocabulum .duplici sensu adhiberi soletbono sensumalo sensu;he furnishes the most important references in each case.Tr.]. The word is, without doubt, to be understood here in a good sense, although it appears to have been intentionally chosen, in order to indicate, in a mild manner, the conception of fear [] which predominated in the religion of the apostles hearers, and which ultimately led to superstition. The comparative does not include the collateral idea of excess; the apostle simply compares the Athenians with other Greeks [i.e., more devout than others are, soil.. (Winer: 35:4)Tr.]; he does not intend to flatter, but only states a fact which was admitted by the ancients. Isocrates speaks of the Athenians as . Similar testimony is borne by Sophocles, Plato, Xenophon, and, lastly, Josephus; see the passages in Wetstein, II. 562 f. [Alf. translates .: carrying your religious reverence very far; Conyb. and H.: all thingsbear witness to your carefulness in religion; Hackett: more religious (scil. than others); Alexander: god-fearing (or more exactly demon-fearing.Tr.]. , in Act 17:23, implies that the opinion expressed by the apostle in Act 17:22 respecting the eminently god-fearing spirit of the Athenians, was founded on his own observations, since, in addition to other sacred objects (dedicated to gods whose names are known), he had noticed an altar dedicated to an unknown God. is equivalent to ressacra, or, quod religionis causa homines venerantur; hence it comprehends sacred places, groves and temples, altars, statues, etc. means: to survey several objects in succession.
Act 17:23-25. a. An altar with this inscription: To the [an] unknown God.It was supposed at an early period of the Christian Church, (and the remark has since been frequently repeated), that Paul took the liberty of employing the singular number, while the inscription was expressed in the plural. Thus Jerome remarks on Tit 1:12 : Inscriptio autem arae non ita erat, ut Paulus asseruit: Ignoto Deo, sed ita: Diis Asiae et Europae et Africae, Diis ignotis et peregrinis. Verum quia Paulus non pluribus Diis ignotis indigebat, sed uno tantum ignoto Deo, singulari verbo usus est.While this church father assumes that the apostle here exhibits an instance of rhetorical license, the change in the number has, in more recent times, been ascribed to the historian: the singular, it has been said, is unhistorical; the inscription could not possibly have been otherwise expressed than in the plural, viz., (Baur: Paulus, p. 175 ff). But why should the singular be deemed impossible? It is true that if the article had been prefixed to . , it would not be conceivable that such an inscription should appear on an altar in Athens. But why should it be impossible that an altar should be dedicated to an unknown God? Pausanias (Attic. I. 1.) says that there were in Athens and Philostratus (Vita Apollon. VI. 2) remarks that it was prudent to speak well of all the gods, especially in Athens, . These two statements may undoubtedly be so understood, as if each of the altars mentioned, had been dedicated to unknown gods (plur.); still, they may also, and, indeed, with greater probability, be understood to mean that each one had been dedicated to an unknown god, and bore this inscription. Altars with this inscription seem, indeed, to have been erected in Athens in several different places. Various opinions respecting the origin and purpose of such altars, have been entertained, which as they are all founded on mere conjectures, we forbear to notice. [See de Wette, Meyer, etc., ad. loc.Tr.]
b. After these remarks, the apostle, in order to convince his hearers that he was not discussing a subject which was absolutely new to them, proceeds to state the theme of his discourse: What ye accordingly () worship devoutly, without knowing it, I proclaim unto you. [See note 6 above, appended to the text.Tr.]. The object of their worship (,, religiose colitis) is intentionally designated by the neuter, , in an abstract and indefinite manner, corresponding to ; when the apostle subsequently makes a positive statement, he introduces concrete and personal terms: , etc.The Athenians expected to hear something that was altogether new and strange (Act 17:18, .; Act 17:20, ); but Paul appeals to their own consciousness, and founds his remarks on the statement involved in the inscription on the altar; his meaning is the following: ignotum, non tamen peregrinum, prdico vobis.
c. He, first of all, proclaims the true God, Act 17:24-25, as the only God ( , etc.), and as the independent and absolute Creator and Lord of the world, who is too exalted to need any thing, such as a dwelling in temples, or the service of human hands, specially that of priests. is a word frequently used to designate the worship of the gods. The expression is also happily chosen, as equivalent to , , (Ulpian). [The pronoun , after may be either masculine (any one) or neuter (any thing) (Alex.). Luther (in his version) takes as a masculine pronoun, which admirably suits both the words which precede, and also , which follows. (Meyer)Tr.]. The apostle, in full view of those magnificent temples, which were adorned with all the wonders of art, and which constituted the pride of the Athenians, utters these words: God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Surrounded, as Paul at the moment is, by numerous altars of sacrifice, he exclaims: God is not ministered unto by human hands. The words , are intended to confirm the remark which he had just made, or, rather to expose the delusion of the Athenians, and mean: It is He Himself, on the contrary, who gives life and breath to all men; expresses the condition on which the continuance of life depends; all that supplies the natural wants of man is indicated by .
Act 17:26-28. a. Paul proceeds, in the second place, (in connection with these fundamental truths concerning God) to give a correct view of man. [Observe the threefold subject of the discourse: Theology, Act 17:24-25; Anthropology, Act 17:26-29; Christology, Act 17:30-31. (Mey.).Tr.]. He says, in general, that mankind is one by virtue of the divinely appointed propagation from one blood. ( is here used not merely in the scriptural sense, involving the conception of a connection of life and generation with the blood, comp. Joh 1:3, but also in the strict classical sense; the word occurs, in reference to generation and blood-relationship, already in Homer, . . 211; Od. . 300, and afterwards, in Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristotle.). With respect to the construction, does not depend on as the object of the latter; the whole clause, on the contrary, (including as the accusative before the infinitive ) is governed by , in the following sense: instituit, ut ex uno sanguine orta omnis hominum genshabitaret. [De Wette, who also adopts this view, refers to Mat 5:32; Mar 7:37, as illustrations of an accusative with the infinitive, preceded by .Tr.].Paul here combats, not so much the opinion of the Athenians specially, who deemed themselves to be autochthones, as, rather, the delusion in general, which was fostered by the. religion of nature in all its forms, according to which the respective origins of the different nations of the earth were all essentially distinct from one another.The apostle also expresses another thought, viz., that the partition of mankind into nations, is to be ascribed to a divine appointment. God caused menhe saysto spread themselves over the surface of the earth, etc., that is, appointing and determining the times and the boundaries of the nations. The word refers, (as which precedes, and which follows, plainly show,) principally to the abodes of the nations, that is, to the period during which a nation may retain possession of the territory which it has occupied, and to the point of time when it shall be dispossessed. And thus the Statement is also made, that God controls the history of all nations.
b. After having spoken of the life of nations, Paul refers to the life of the individual, and, in the third place, sets forth the loftiest aim of man, viz., to seek God, with whom he is closely and intimately connected, Act 17:27-28. According to the structure of the sentence, still refers to , i.e., to the nationsit was the design of the divine partition and collocation of the nations that they should seek , the Lord of heaven and earth, comp. Act 17:24. , however, does not indicate a seeking merely after the knowledge of God (Meyer), but also after a living and essential union with Him. with the optative indicates that the result is doubtful; the speaker implies in a delicate manner, that mankind, as a whole, had missed the mark at which they aimed. The result of the search, if it should be successful, would be the and , that is, the object sought would be reached and touched, and, accordingly, be actually found. The apostle adds: Although () it is not necessary to seek him long, since he is not far distant from every one (hence an unsuccessful search is the less excusable.)., in Act 17:28, confirms the proposition which immediately precedes; it explains the meaning of the words: he is not far from every one of us, and also assigns the reason: we are, namely, in God, , even as we are in space which encompasses us, or in the atmosphere which essentially surrounds us, and on which the functions of life depend. does not mean through Him (Grotius; Kuinoel), nor does it mean: on Him, that is, reposing on Him as on a foundation; the most obvious grammatical explanation at the same time best suits the logical connection. The three words , , , are arranged according to a descending scale, when the objective relation of the conceptions respectively expressed by them is considered; when their subjective logical connection, on the other hand, is examined, they are arranged according to an ascending scale; that is to say, life in itself is more than movement, the latter more than mere existence; but there is a gradual rise in the following thoughts: if we were without God and entirely isolated, we would not live, not even move, indeed, not even exist (). As a confirmation of his statement, and as fully harmonizing ( ) with the proposition advanced by him ( ), Paul quotes an expression used by certain poets who were themselves Greeks like his hearers ( ), the sense of which is: We, too, belong to his race. The quotation, which constitutes the beginning of an hexameter, is taken verbatim from the poet Aratus, a native of Soli in Cilicia, who flourished during the third century before the Christian era. The following words occur at the beginning of his astronomical poem, entitled , Act 17:4 f.:
.
T (poetical, for [Winer 17. 1. init.) refers in Aratus to Zeus [Jupiter], but is applied by Paul to the true God. Now when Paul attributes the same thought to several poets (), he has probably also Cleanthes of Lycia in view, who in his Hymn. in. Jov. Act 17:5, introduces the following words: . The apostle may have become acquainted with such passages, and retained them in his memory, without rendering it necessary to assume that he had received a regular Hellenic education in his earlier years, or had devoted himself to the study of Greek literature; his acquaintance with the passages quoted by him may be the more readily explained, when we remember that he was reared in Tarsus, in which city Greek culture prevailed, and that Aratus was a native of the same province to which he belonged.
Act 17:29. Forasmuch then.From this poetical saying, involving a principle which his hearers well knew and readily conceded, Paul draws an additional conclusion () against the worship of images, as well as against the pagan habit of thought (), which sustained that worship. However direct and unequivocal this refutation is in principle, the language employed is exceedingly moderate and gentle, especially in the introduction of the first person, , whereas he might have said: It is foolish and senseless in you to yield to such a delusion! The inference is the following: If we are allied to God, if He and we are homogeneous, it must follow that the Deity ( , conforming to the philosophical usus loquendi of the ancients), on the one hand, and a substance, on the other, which is nothing but a metal or a stone, cannot be homogeneous, as such a substance (the form of which is simply a work of human art) and man are heterogeneous.The apostle makes this statement notwithstanding that, or rather, precisely because, the most costly statues of the gods, made of silver and gold, of marble and ivory, the most renowned masterpieces of ancient art, were standing on the Acropolis and other places, as well as in the temples of Athens. X (from ) denotes a carved or sculptured work, a production of the skill and deliberation of a man; does not, according to the usus loquendi, mean the desire or motive proceeding from an artistic inclination (Meyer), but is equivalent to reflection, consideration. When Paul, therefore, designs to prove that the worship of images is irrational, he directs the attention of his hearers both to the materials of which those images are made (. .), and also to the way and manner in which they are constructed and completed, that is, partly by means of skilful hands (), partly by reflection or deliberation on questions like these: Which of the gods shall be made? of what material? etc. Terms, that exhibit the most striking contrast, viz., and , are intentionally placed in juxtaposition. [Meyer].
Act 17:30-31. At this point a new division of the discourse commences, referring to the subject of salvation, to the Saviour himself, to repentance, and to faith. Paul had already intimated that men had hitherto failed to discover the truththat they had gone astray. After assuming this position (), he proceeds to bear witness that God had overlooked the times of ignorance ( i.e., had allowed them to pass by without any positive manifestation of grace, on the one hand, but also without a stern rebuke, on the other), whereas now, when a crisis had arrived (), He demands a change of mind, or repentance on the part of all men (the terms express the conception of universality in the most explicit manner). [, not to look at, not to notice; LXX. Psa 55:2; Deu 22:1; not to punish, Joseph. Ant. ii. 6. 8 (9), (de Wette).Hath overlooked; it should be observed that no such metaphor as winked at is to be found in the original (Conyb. and H. I. 407. note).Tr.]. This demand, which concerns all mankind, is now made in view of the fact that () God has fixed a day for the righteous judgment of the world, which he will execute through a man [, i.e., in the person of a man, who will be the representative of God. (Meyer).Tr.], whom he has appointed for that purpose ( , an attraction frequently occurring [Winer, Act 24:1]), after having offered faith in him to all men by raising him from the dead; the expression meansto make such faith possible, or bring it near, namely, by means of the testimony borne in favor of him and his dignity by the fact of his resurrection.
Act 17:32-34. a. The speaker had proceeded so far, without, however, having concluded, when he was interrupted by loud mockery of the resurrection; the definite article is intentionally omitted before the genitive in the expression ; its presence would have denoted the resurrection of all the dead, whereas that of only one who had been dead, namely, Jesus, is here meant. The other hearers, who did not actually mock, and who remarked in courteous terms that they would listen to him on this subject on a future occasion, at least implied that they, too, desired at that time to hear no more. And thus (, i.e., when so little could be expected from the manner in which his words had been received), Paul withdrew from the assembly. Still, some men attached themselves to him, and were also converted; among these, Luke mentions only one by name, viz., Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, which was the most ancient tribunal of Athens, and universally regarded with respect. That he was a man of great distinction may be inferred from the circumstance that the court of the Areopagites consisted of the noblest and most independent men, whose integrity of character was unquestioned. Tradition represents him as having been the first bishop of Athens, and as having died as a martyr; at a later period several writings, and a peculiar system, of a mystical character, were falsely ascribed to him. [See the article Dionysius Areopagita, in Herzog: Encyk. III. 412418.Tr.]. Damaris is entirely unknown; the manner in which she is mentioned [simply, ], clearly shows that it is an error to represent her as having been the wife of Dionysius. (Chrysostom):
b. The unity of this discourse is readily seen; its theme is the inscription on that altar: . The apostle gladly admits that a religious feeling of a certain character governed the Athenians, but refers to that inscription as an evidence that they were deficient in the true knowledge of God. Hence he proclaims the truth to them, first, with respect to God, Act 17:24-25; secondly, with respect to man, who is appointed to seek and to find God, and who is related to Him, Act 17:26-28. After an intermediate observation, Act 17:29, which rebukes the error of image-worship, Paul proclaims, thirdly, that the times of ignorance had reached their end, and demands a return to God, and faith in the Risen One, who is the Saviour and the Judge of the world. (Comp. Lange: Church History, II. 222 ff.). The whole discourse is admirably suited to the time and the place, is characterized by wisdom and mature reflection, is considerate and yet frank, moderate and yet pointed, lofty in the thoughts which it expresses, and marked by genuine Pauline features in its fundamental views (respecting the unity of the revelation of God in creation, in the conscience, and in the work of redemption), as well as in the distinction-between the ante-Christian and the Christian historical periods; hence we cannot believe that any foundation exists which would sustain the doubt expressed by some writers respecting the credibility of this narrative of the appearance of the apostle in Athens, and of this report of his discourse. [As this discourse was interrupted (Act 17:32), we have no right to describe it as a mere lesson in natural theology, nor even to assume (with Calvin and some others) that it is less fully reported in the last than in the first part, &c. (Alex.).Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The number of the masterpieces of ancient art, and the beauty of these productions of architecture and statuary which present themselves to the eye of Paul, afford him no sthetic enjoyment, neither do they fill him with wonder and enthusiasm, but, on the contrary, arouse a moral indignation in his soul. On the first occasion on which the Spirit of Christ, in one of his disciples and apostles, comes in contact with ancient art in its highest stage of development, a sentence of rejection is pronounced in the case of the latter. Are then Christianity and art, when viewed in themselves, of a nature so opposite, that they repel each other? By no means; that opinion is correct only in so far that the Spirit of Christ neither recognizes nor admits an exclusively sthetic or purely artistic impression derived from the creations of art, but, on the contrary, contemplates and judges art only in connection with the deep religious and moral thoughts which constitute its true foundation. And, further, the Spirit of Christ accords with classical antiquity, in so far, namely, as both reject that which is partial and incomplete, and, with entire consistency, view man in the totality of his nature. While Paul surveys the works of art in Athens, he cannot dissever the artistic skill with which they are constructed from the thoughts which they are intended to express, or from the purpose for which they are made; those superb temples, those noble statues, etc. are, namely, in their very nature the creations of the spirit of paganism, and are designed to sustain a polytheistical worship; the city that is so richly adorned with works of art, as, in truth, a . And hence this world of art, as Paul gazes on it, leads him to think with a moral indignation of the error, the delusion, the sin against the living God, which it continues to cherish. The Spirit of Christ at no time and in no place tolerates a judgment which is divested of every moral and religious element.
2. The present is also the first occasion on which Christianity comes in contact with philosophy, as well as with art. Here, too, the encounter is not of a friendly nature; the only difference is found in the fact that while Paul commenced the contest in the first case, the philosophers are here the assailants. Neither the narrative in Act 17:16-18, nor the discourse delivered on the Hill of Mars, contains a single expression implying that a direct attack on philosophy had been made by Paul. But both before and after his discourse, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers speak of his doctrine partly in a mocking and contemptuous, and partly in a cold or disdainful manner. This circumstance may be readily understood, when we remember that it was precisely with the schools of Epicurus and Zeno that Paul came in contact. The systems of both were, more than others, at variance with the Christian doctrinethat of the Epicureans on account of their doctrine concerning the Deity, and pleasure as the sovereign goodthat of the Stoics on account of their moral self-sufficiency. Still, this first encounter by no means justifies the inference that Christianity itself is hostile to philosophy. It may, on the contrary, be already predicted, after noticing the fruitful germs of thought which this Athenian discourse presents, that the truth in Christ Jesus will itself give rise to a Christian philosophy.
3. The very first thought expressed in this missionary discourse, is of such a character: Paul begins by referring to that inscription on an altar: To an unknown God, and sets forth more fully the deep meaning which it conveys. The worship of an unknown God involves a confession both of a want of knowledge, and of the pressing need of the worship of Him who is unknown. The gods who are known, mentioned by name, and worshipped as such, do not satisfy the religious wants of man, and hence these wants impel him to look beyond the limits and forms of the existing worship for relief. But the object of worship now added, is confessedly unknown and unnamed (, Act 17:23; , Act 17:30.); and the worship, moreover, of an unknown Deity, involves a dim conception or presentiment of the unknown God. Religious truth, however indistinctly or dimly apprehended, nevertheless lies hidden even in the mass of pagan legends of gods, forms of worship, and superstitious practices. But that which the religious mind, groping in the dark, attempts to find (comp., , Act 17:27), is a gift of revelation, and is now consciously and distinctly proclaimed ( ). These are the germs both of a Philosophy of Mythology, and of a Philosophy of Revelation.
4. Paul proclaims the one personal God as the Creator of the world and the Lord of the world, exalted above every creature; thus he states the truth in direct terms, without attempting to controvert and reject any opposite views. His remarks refute, at the same time, the whole system which confounds God and naturea system which constitutes the foundation of natural religion, which is expressed in its myths, and which clings to the ancient philosophy. The Hellenic gods had a beginning; there was no theological system without a theogony which adopted this principle; even the philosophy of the classical period cannot yet accurately discriminate between God and the world, neither does it rise to a true conception of the creation. (Comp. Baumgarten, Il. I. 249 ff., and, with regard to Plato, Zeller: The Philosophy of the Greeks, II. 474 ff., 2d. ed. 1859.). At all times, and in every stage of philosophic thought, the fact of the creation of the world, and the conception of the supernaturality of God as the Lord of the world, are fundamental principles of the truth, which cannot, without danger, be misunderstood or undervalued.
5. We are indebted to revelation for the true view of man and human nature. The unity of the human race (Act 17:26), was unknown to all polytheistic religions. All these, conforming to the theory that there are many gods, proceeded on the principle that the primordials of the various nations were also many in number, and that these nations and their respective founders were originally of different degrees of rank. This essential difference as to origin, was assumed as perpetuated in the subsequent history of the nations. The conception of unity in the history of mankind, was also entirely foreign to heathenism. Even those nations which had risen to the highest degree of culture and intelligence, the Greeks and the Romans, regarded themselves, respectively, as constituting the central point of the history of the world; they could form no conception of a Universal History of mankind, viewed as one race. (See Baumgarten, II. 1. 269 ff.). That unity is exhibited solely by revelation, both in the Old and in the New Testament, in which the human race is traced back to the one and the true God. According to the truth of the Bible, the history of the world begins with Him, and continually points to Him; this great principle was revealed under the old covenant in facts of history which were full of promise; it was exhibited in its reality in the Person of the Redeemer, who is, at the same time, the second Adam and the Son of God.
6. The indwelling of man in God is asserted by the apostle in Act 17:28 : . This proposition has often been misunderstood and subjected to abuse; some have, very erroneously, even found Pantheism in it. For, in the first place, the apostle does not here speak of the world, of the creature, in general, but solely of man, and that, too, in connection with the proposition that man can find God and is near to Him. In the second place, it is simply asserted that we are in God and live in Him, but not even remotely that God, as it were, is lost in the world, that is, combined or identified with it, or that the world is substantially one and the same with God. In the third place, the supermundane nature of God, Act 17:24, is attested with sufficient distinctness by the very conception of the creation and by the words: , so that no arbitrary attempt to confound and identify God with the world, or the world with God, can be successfully made.Nor does Paul, as it has sometimes been said, assert the indwelling of God in the world; but, on the contrary, he speaks of the indwelling of man in God, that is to say, not merely of a conditional dependence on God and His life, His power, and His existence, but of a most intimate nearness to Him who is omnipresent, and who, like space or the atmosphere, completely surrounds and sustains us.
7. Christ, as the turning-point in the history of the world, is placed before us in a brilliant light at the close of the discourse. The period of , preceded his appearance; with him came the light, and it abides. Before he came, God overlooked, and exercised forbearance; henceforth, we look forward to the righteous judgment of the world, on the appointed great day. Repentance is every where preached to all men, so that they may not be subject to a sentence of condemnation. Only two features of the Person of Jesus Christ are depictedhe is described as a man, a member of the human race, partaking of human nature, and subject to death ( ), and as the Judge of the world; to this office he was appointed () by God, who has also, by raising him from the dead, presented him to men as the object of their implicit faith. But if God will hereafter judge the world in the Person of Jesus Christ, it follows that Christ is not merely man, but also the corresponding and perfect organ of the holy and just, the omniscient and omnipotent God, and that, therefore, he himself partakes of the divine nature and dignity.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act 17:16. His spirit was stirred in him [moved with indignation]. Thus when the Spirit of Christ first came in contact with the noblest works of human art, the judgment of the Holy Ghost was set forth as the strait gate through which they all must pass. Nevertheless, Paul did not on this account seize the axe and destroy the images of the gods, and the altars (Gossner), like the iconoclastic Puritans, who condemned art as unchristian and ungodly in its very nature.It was his primary object, not so much to cast down the idols from the altars, as, rather, to cast them out of the hearts of men. (Leonh. and Sp.).-When I first came to Athens, Lucian, the pagan, says, I gazed with wonder and rapture on all the glory of the city. But Paul looked with other eyes on the city which was called the altar and court of justice of Greece, the inventress of all the sciences. (Besser).
Act 17:17. And in the market daily with them that met with him.For many persons were at all times standing idle there, Mat 20:3. (Starke).As the Gospel is founded on the truth, it does not hide itself, Luk 12:3. (id.)
Act 17:18. Certain philosophers, etc.In Jerusalem the Sadducees and Pharisees, in Athens the Epicureans and Stoics, in our day a worldly mind and the love of pleasure, on the one hand, and the pride of reason and self-righteousness, on the other, have always been the two hereditary archenemies, between whom the preacher of the cross must force his way.The preaching of the cross, unto the Greeks foolishness, now as formerly [1Co 1:23]: I. To Epicurean frivolity; (a) to its unbelief; (i) to its carnal tendencies. II. To Stoical arrogance; (a) to its pride of reason; (b) to its self-righteousness.
Act 17:19. What this new doctrine is?While the Gospel seems to the world to present matter that is new, or of which men never had heard, its doctrine is, in reality, older than all the wisdom of men, and it survives all the transient systems devised by that wisdom, since it is a power of God [Rom 1:16] unto all eternity. (Leonh. and Sp.).Brought him unto Areopagus.The Lord well knows how to honor his servants. Here he furnishes the poor and despised Paul with an opportunity to appear on the celebrated Hill of Mars before a large assembly, and publicly to bear honorable witness to the truth; thus God chooses that which is mean, in order to expose the folly of the wise. [1Co 1:18 ff.]. (Ap. Past.).
Act 17:21. For all the Athenians some new thing.The spirit of curiosity is, in general, a hinderance to the truth; still, God sometimes employs it as the means for conveying truth to the heart, Act 17:34. (Quesnel).The desire for some new thing is praiseworthy, when its objects are a new heart, the new man [Eph 4:24; Col 3:10], and the new Jerusalem. (Starke).Worldly curiosity, and the Christian thirst for knowledge: I. The former seeks amusement; the latter, instruction. II. The object of the former is novelty; of the latter, truth. III. The former fritters away its strength among many objects; the latter finds peace in the one thing needful [Luk 10:42].
Act 17:22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said.The peculiar audience, consisting of philosophers, the associations connected with the place, and the curiosity of the hearers, are alike unable to persuade the holy apostle to depart in the least degree from his Gospel, and to indulge the caprices of the Athenians. But it is also obvious that he adapts his discourse to the peculiar state of their hearts, and with great wisdom and moderation endeavors to make an impression on them. (Ap. Past.).That in all things ye are too superstitious [ye are very devout].Why may the people of Athens hereafter rise up in the judgment [Mat 12:42], as accusers of the pagans in Christendom? I, The Athenians were devout; a devout fear of an unknown God was the basis of their superstition. II. The pagans in Christendom are estranged from God, and, in their unbelief, reject a revealed God.The degree in which even pagans were prepared to receive the Christian faith. (Nitzsch: Wittenb. Sermons).
Act 17:23. To the [an] unknown God.Alas! How many an altar of the heart bears this inscription! The Divinity is already inscribed by nature on the hearts of all men. Where is the man to be found, who does not suppose that he really offers worship? But this light of knowledge is unhappily so much obscured in most men by carnal desires, prejudices and bad examples, that the true God still remains unknown to them. 1Jn 2:3-4. (Starke).How necessary it, therefore, is, that a Paul should arise in every church and house, and preach to the Christians of our day, that with all their show of knowledge and adoration, they serve and build altars to an unknown God! (Gossner).The preachers of the Gospel are men who proclaim the unknown God. (Starke).There are many here, whose hearts resemble the market-place of Athens or the Pantheon, the temple of all the gods. One idol stands there beside anotheranger, pride, lust, covetousness, sloth, the love of honor. Search thine own heart, and learn whether it contains these images! The most of us must answer affirmatively, and confess: The object of my worship is life, science, art, money, pleasure, my betrothed, my spouse or child, or Some other earthly treasure. And there, in a secret spot, discovered only by the painful pulsations of the conscience, stands an altar with the inscription: To the unknown God, that is to say: To the God in whose name I was baptized and confirmed, to whom I have consecrated myself, whose mercy preserves and sustains me, but with whom I maintain no living communion, and whose commandments I transgress according to my own will. (Ahlfeld).He is an unknown God also to those who live in the world and its lust, but not in Him. Such persons illustrate the fundamental principles of the Epicureans in their practice (and they are men not rarely found); the sole object of their life is enjoyment; they desire to forget that they possess immortal souls, and they say in secret: Let us eat and drink: for tomorrow we die [Isa 22:13; 1Co 15:32]. They are those (also, men not rarely found), who no longer retain an altar in the house, not even in the most obscure corner, but who blaspheme, or at least inwardly despise the altar in the house of God, since they have not God in their hearts. They have forgotten that they are His offspring; their life is severed from the maternal soil of the church, and is withering in the foul soil of worldly lust. To them the living God has become a strange and unknown God, whom they do not regard. (Langbein).To whom is the living God an unknown God? I. To those who believe themselves to be wise; II. To those who offer an external worship, without seeking God himself; III. To those who live, not in Him, but in the world and its lust; IV. To those who do not desire to find Him in Christ, (id.).The believing heart, an altar of the well-known God: I. In such a heart the presentiment of the divine nature and presence is converted by the word of God into absolute certainty; II. The painful fear inspired by the holiness of God is changed, by the redemption of Christ, into holy peace; III. The inclination to commit sin is overcome, in the service of God, by the Holy Ghost. (Florey).
Act 17:24. God that made the world, etc.This is the One GodPaul intends to saywho, out of nothing called into existence the world, with the whole array of its elements, bodies and spirits, by the word which conveyed His command, by the wisdom with which he arranged all things, and by the almighty power which enabled him to do all things. (Tertullian).But Paul at the same time destroys the idols of the Athenians by these words; for while he bears witness to the glory of that God whose throne is in heaven, and whose footstool is the earth, he smites the idols that dwell in temples made with hands. God can dwell only in Himself, where he was before he made the world. He is Himself His temple. Nevertheless, he has built as many temples for Himself, as there are living hearts that love him; in these he desires to dwell, to be known, and to be adored.Without, we have gone astray; within, in the soul, we are directed to the right way. Do thy work within thyself, and if thou desirest to find any high and holy place, give thyself up internally to God as His temple. If thou desirest to pray in a temple, pray in thyself, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (Augustine).Where is the temple in which I am to seek, to find, and to worship God? I. It is Heaven, in which the spirits made perfect stand before his throne; II. It is the visible creation, in which he has not left Himself without a witness of His power, wisdom, and goodness; III. It is the Church, in which the unknown God is revealed in the Gospel of His Son; IV. It is my heart, in which He desires to dwell by His Holy Spirit.
Act 17:25. Neither is worshipped with mens hands, as though he needed any thing.God does not need us, but we have need of God. (Starke).It is very true that idols need the services which human hands can render; there are, indeed, workshops to be found in the cities of India and China, the signs of which bear the inscription: Here old gods are repaired, and new ones made. (Lean, and Sp.).
Act 17:26. And hath made of one blood, etc.The unity of the human race, as descended from one progenitor, necessarily follows from the unity of the Creator, and from the creation of man after his image, Act 17:28-29.The one Adam, on whom all depends (Act 17:31), points back, as the second, to a first Adam. (Stier).We, human beings, all constitute one people! This is the new and wonderful light in which the Gospel teaches us to view the national and exclusive feeling of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, (id.).And hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.What think ye, ye mighty warriors and invaders? Listen ! God also has a will of his own, when kingdoms are to be divided. Num 34:2; Psa 105:5; Psa 105:44. (Starke).The holy and almighty hand of God is revealed in the government of the world as it is in the creationin the life of men as it is in nature.The, change or the permanence of the boundaries of nations is not determined by soil, climate or nationality, but by the divine plan according to which God governs His Kingdom, and by the internal development of the human race. The people of Israel were dispersed among the nations, when the period in which they hardened themselves, had come. Athens is not an eternal city, and Rome is not an immortal Rome; the glory of both passed away, when their time was fulfilled; for the earth, in its present form, is only a temporary habitation of men, the ultimate purpose of which is, (Act 17:27), that they might be brought back to their God. (Stier).God in history: He reveals in it, I. His creative powerpermitting the human mind to unfold itself in the varied forms of national character; II. His patience and goodnessgranting to each nation the time and opportunity for developing its peculiar character; III. His righteous judgmentassigning limits to the power and prosperity of every nation, whether it dwell in Greece or Rome, or whether it even be His chosen people of Israel; IV. His holy lovedetermining the great purpose or end of the history of the world, namely, that the kingdom of God may come, and that men may seek and find Him.
Act 17:27. That they should seek find him.paul here proclaims natural truths; he speaks of the perfections of God, and of His providence which rules over the human race. But does he introduce empty definitions and distinctionstedious propositions and arguments? Not in the least degree; the truth which proceeds from his lips, assumes life, and his heart, which lives in God, earnestly desires the hearers to seek that God who is so near to them. The philosophy that can infuse such a spirit into us, is evangelical and divine. (Ap. Past.).O that this saying were inscribed on every heartthat tie great purpose for which we are placed on earth is to seek God in his works, both without us, and within us. (Quesnel).Such seeking after God could not be unsuccessful, for he is not far from every one of us. The whole universe proclaims with eloquent silence that the Lord is the exalted source of all things, so that all may feel after him, not indeed with the senses of the body, but with those of the mind. (Calovius).And, therefore, thou canst not say: Who shall ascend into heaven and bring him down? or, Who shall descend into the deep and bring him up from the dead? He is as nigh unto thee as is the law of the Holy One in thy conscience, as the desire of thy soul for salvation, as the involuntary cry for help, or as the continued sighing for peace in thy heart and mouth. (Menken).But such seeking implies that a great loss has been sustainedthat men have gone astray and chosen their own ways; it consists solely in an actual groping and seizing, indicating two distinct truths: first, that darkness had covered the nations; secondly, that He who remained near, and always is near, may be surely and easily found. (Stier).Paul represents it as the ultimate purpose of all the great arrangements of God in the world, that man should seek Him: he regards mans noblest aim and perfection as consisting in such seeking after and finding. Let us consider, I. The great object of our search; II. The path which conducts to that object. (Schleiermacher).
Act 17:28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being [and are].So near is He to all men, if they would but believe it; but the human race would prefer that He should be far distant; it continues to imitate our first parents, who hid themselves from the presence of God in Paradise. (Gossner).God alone possesses the true life, and is necessarily self-existent; our life and being are derived from Him. Isa 44:6; 1Co 8:6. (Starke).In the Father (of whom are all things), we are; in the Son (who is the life), we live: in the Spirit (who is the breath of all flesh), we move. (Cyprian).We are his offspring: I. By our creation after the image of God; II. By our redemption through the incarnate Son of God.We are the offspring of God: I. The truth of these words; proved from (a) the Scriptures, (b) the human heart, (c) the experience of man. II. The effect which they should produce: (a) holy humility, (b) holy confidence. (Tholuck).
Act 17:29. As we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think, etc.The pagans had not properly understood their own words. They reasoned thus: If we belong to the divine race, then the gods must belong to the human race, and it consequently is both in our power and becomes a duty, to make human images of them. Paul presents to them an inference of a different kind. Those who belong to the divine racehe saysdishonor themselves, if they do not restrict their worship to their Founder and Head, but bow down before any being inferior to Him who is the Lord over all. He could now apply the same remark to the children of this world, who, it is true, do not worship images made by themselves, but who render superhuman honors to the inventive spirit of man, usually styled genius; for they, too, worship nothing else than their human thoughts. Indeed, these words of the apostle rebuke all spiritually dead Christians, who engage in a mere external worship; for their god is distant or dead, and not the living and omnipresent God, in whom we live, move, and are. (Williger).
Act 17:30. The times of this ignorance God winked at, etc.It was a singular incident, when Paul accused these educated men of ignorance; nevertheless, the charge was well-founded. The period of polished but ignorant heathenism embraced centuries. (Berleburger Bible).Among the features of heathenism, Paul specifies, with great forbearance, only its ignorance. But that this ignorance had been voluntarily maintained, and was reprehensible, he immediately indicates by employing the moderate expression: winked at [overlooked], by preaching repentance, and by solemnly proclaiming the judgment. (Stier).But now commandeth to repent.However affectionate the terms may be, in which we address our hearers, those terms in which we call them to repentance must be emphatic in a still higher degree. Every word of the apostle here takes hold of us, and shows that, in his view, no degree of ignorance, no philosophy, no official dignity, no condition whatever, can in any degree justify the neglect of the universal duty of repentance, which God himself has enjoined.The narrow way of repentance, the only way for all men: nothing exempts from the duty of walking in it: I. Neither ignorance, nor knowledge; II. Neither the deepest guilt, nor the loftiest virtue; III. Neither paganism, nor the Christian faith.
Act 17:31. A day in the which he will judge the world. (Popular paraphrase of Act 17:30-31).God will, in his mercy, refrain from punishing all past sins, but henceforth he demands repentance before all things else, inasmuch as he has caused the coming judgment which Jesus will hold, to be proclaimed as a warning; he will inspire every one who penitently recognizes the appointed Judge, with confidence in the same man, whom he has also appointed to be the Saviour; and, since the resurrection of that Saviour, he offers to all believers the new life which proceeds from him. (Stier).He who surveys the world with spiritual eyes, can expect nothing else than a future judgment. (Starke).By that [a] man.He is the man without form or comeliness [Isa 53:2], the Crucified One, before whom all the gods and demigods of AthensTheseus and Hercules, Zeus and Apollowith all their glory, sink into the dust; before whose foolishness of preaching, all the sages of GreeceThales and Pythagoras, Socrates and Platobecome speechless, and whose invisible and lowly kingdom will survive the laws of Solon and Lycurgus, and the vast empire of Alexander.
Act 17:32. Some mocked; and others said, etc.The world is almost entirely divided into these two classes of sinners. The one consists of those who mock at saving truth, the other of those who continually postpone the effort to derive advantage from it. (Quesnel).
Act 17:33. So [And thus] Paul departed from among them.He did not return. The Lord himself forbade us to give that which is holy to the heathen, and to cast our pearls before swine [Mat 7:6]; he made no reply to the unsuitable questions of Herod [Luk 23:9]. When men have advanced to such a point that they do not even take offence at the Gospel, but either ridicule or superficially criticise it, as one of the passing topics of the day, the servants of God can no longer hope, but only remain silent. (Williger).Thus favorable opportunities pass by, while men are deliberating; they neglect to avail themselves of good counsel, and of the presence of a man of God. He is taken from them, and does not return; they die before they are prepared in their conscience to appear before God, Joh 8:21. (Quesnel).
Act 17:34. Certain men believed; among the which was Dionysius.Only one man among so many philosophers? O what vast power it needs to induce the wise men of this world to bow before the cross! (Quesn.).Large numbers do not constitute one of the essential features of the true church. Common stones are far more numerous than precious stones; but which are the more valuable? (Starke).It seems then that the truth still gains a victory; and, as ancient writers testify, a Christian congregation was subsequently founded in Athens, which flourished in an eminent degree. Thus the Christian religion, even when it is persecuted, prevails over all academical distinctions. (Bogatzky.)
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act 17:16-34; (comp. the foregoing sketches on each verse).
The wisdom of the world, and divine wisdom: I. The former investigates, it is true, but merely for the sake of intellectual amusement, Act 17:21; the latter endeavors to understand with accuracy the import, and to fulfil with certainty, the great design of life on earth. II. The former is, indeed, indistinctly conscious of the nature and being of the living God, Act 17:23, but offers its full worship to idols which it has itself devised; the latter, guided by the light of revelation, penetrates into the innermost depths of the Godhead. III. The former is, indeed, indistinctly conscious of the original glory of man, Act 17:28, but is unwilling to acquire any knowledge respecting the redemption of a fallen race; the latter finds its own perfection in the atonement which Christ made for the world. (Leonh. and Sp.).
The apostles sermon before pagans, addressed also to the hearts of Christians: I. The power of Godin the creation of the world; II. His lovein the government of the world; III. His holinessin the judgment of the world. (C. Beck: Hom. Repert.).
The exceeding glory of the divine nature, and the high rank of human nature, (id.).The messenger of the Gospel, in the heathen world: I. His feelings; (a) he feels himself repelled by the abominations of heathenism; (b) he is filled with holy sorrow, on witnessing the heathen worship of idols. II. His conduct; he avails himself of every opportunity to labor for God and Christ: he is rejoiced whenever he finds (a) hearersJews, proselytes, pagans,or (b) a place where he can bear witness to the truth. III. His hearers are (a) men who regard themselves as philosophers, (b) persons entertaining the most erroneous opinions, (c) inquisitive people. (Lisco).God, drawing men [Joh 6:44]: (Homily). I. The departure from God, Act 17:16-26. Man ceases to know God, and now seeks in vain for relief in sensual enjoyments, or in human wisdom, Act 17:18, or in external works of piety, Act 17:24-25. II. His communion with his own heart, Act 17:26-29. What profit has sin afforded thee? None. After what does thy heart long? After the Most High. Where is Hethy God? Not far. He who appoints the times of all men, has thought also of thy weal and woe. What is thy soul? His breath. What is thy body? His temple. And thou wouldst serve sin? Thou wouldst seek the Eternal One in transitory objects? No. He dwells not in temples made with human hands. Thou wilt find Him when thou becomest even as He isand that He has made possible to thee. III. The return to the Father, Act 17:30-31. He who is invisibly nigh unto thee in thy conscience and in thy experience of life, has visibly approached thee in His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ alone canst thou learn that thou art the offspring of God, and canst alone for thy fall from Him. All that is past, God will in mercy overlook, but He now commands that thou shouldst come to Him through repentance and faith. He that believeth in Him, shall not be condemned. (Lisco).
The conduct of Pauls hearers at Athens, an image of that of modern hearers of the Gospel, Act 17:32-34; I. Some mocked; II. Some said: We will hear thee again of this matter III. Some clave unto Paul, and believed. (id.).
Luther in Rome, Calvin in Parisare impressive scenes in history, but the present is still more striking: Paul in Athens! Let us then approach somewhat nearer, and contemplate, I. The peculiar sentiments of the apostle, which his abode in the city of the Athenians awakened. Such a spot, this herald of the mystery of the cross had never before beheld. He does not avert his eyes from the monuments of the highest art and skill before him, but even perceives in them certain indications of the nobility of the human mind. But their magic charms neither deceive his senses, nor call him down from that still more elevated position, in which divine grace in Christ had placed him; a deep sorrow, produced by such aberrations of the human mind, fills his whole soul. II. The testimony which he there delivered. He proclaims three great truths in opposition to three great falsehoods which controlled the philosophy of that age, and from which even that of modern times is not yet freed: The creation out of nothing, as opposed to naturalismthe personality of God, as opposed to pantheismthe nature of sin, as opposed to antinomianism and rationalism. III. The result. It is, at first, not satisfactorythe word of the apostle encountered too many deep-rooted prejudices. Still, his secret hope is not disappointed. Even one convert has great weight in the balance of the kingdom of God. No one can remain strictly neutral. (F. W. Krummacher, in Trinity Church, Berlin, 1847).It was, in every respect, an extraordinary scene. There was a striking contrast between a discourse marked by such spirit and power, and those sophistical declamations by which precisely the topics of which Paul here treats, were obscured,declamations, which had already been the subjects of the complaints and ridicule of Socrates. What would Socrates (whose equal Athens no longer possessed) have said, if he had heard such a discourse as Paul delivered on this occasion? He would probably have recognized in it the kingdom of God, from which he was not far, and would have been One of those who desired to hear more concerning the divinely appointed Judge of the human race, and concerning the resurrection. In the Person of the Redeemer of the world, he would have found more than that ideal of the just man described by Plato. He would rather have listened to such a discourse concerning the unknown God, than to the most eloquent orations of the sophists concerning the gods, the mere creatures of the imagination.He would doubtless have concurred neither with the Epicurean, nor with the Stoic philosophers, when they termed Paul a babbler. (Hess: History of the Apostles).(Lavater has furnished a poetical paraphrase of Pauls discourse at Athens, in his work entitled: Jesus Messiah, or the Gospels and the Acts, in verse. 1786, in the fourth vol.).
Three books of the knowledge of God: I. The book of the world, in two parts: Nature, and History, Act 17:24-26; II. The book of the heart, in two parts: Reason, and Conscience, Act 17:27-28; III. The book of the Scriptures in two parts: the Law, and the Gospel, Act 17:30-31.
Paul at Athens, or, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, etc. 1Co 1:27; I. The sermon of Paul at Athens was foolishness in the eyes of the world; nevertheless, its contents confounded all the wise men of Greece. II. The result of Pauls labors in Athens was feeble in the eyes of the world; nevertheless, it was the beginning of the end of heathenism.
The Christians sentiments respecting worldly art and science; I. He does not despise them, for he recognizes (a) in their noble productions a gift and a consciousness of that God who is not far from every one of us, Act 17:26-28; and (1b) even in their aberrations, the effort and struggle of the human mind that is seeking God, Act 17:29-30. But, II. He does not fear them, for (a) he boldly applies the holy standard of the divine word even to their most admired productions, Act 17:24-25; Act 17:29; and (b) he confidently expects, even in the case of their most firmly established errors, the victory of Christian truth, Act 17:30-31.
Paul at Athens, a model as a University preacher: I. He freely admits the human claims of every noble art and science,proved (a) from the contents of his sermon, in which every academical department is noticed: Philosophy, Act 17:24; Act 17:27; Natural Science, Act 17:25-26; History and Law, Act 17:26; Art and Poetry, Act 17:28-29; (b) from the form of his sermon, which, by its highly intellectual character, and its adaptation to the place and the hearers, illustrates his desire to become a Greek unto the Greeks. But, II. He conducts all his hearers before the tribunal of divine truth; (a) by showing that error and sin are the foul stains which mar every merely human effort, Act 17:29-30; (b) by pointing, in the light of revelation, to God as the source and aim of all spiritual life.
Paul at Athens, brought unto Areopagus: I. He is apparently judged and condemned by the superficial wisdom of men; (a) some mock, on hearing his doctrine; (b) others coldly decline to hear him to the end, Act 17:32. But, II. In truth he judges and expels, in the name of the living God, (a) the delusion of heathenism, by proclaiming the Creator of heaven and earth, Act 17:24-29, and (b) the sin of heathenism, by preaching repentance and faith, Act 17:30-31.
[Whom ye ignorantly worship, Act 17:23.Illustrations of the act of worshipping God ignorantly: derived, I. From Paganism; (a) consciousness that worship is due to a higher power; (b) the ignorance manifested, and its causes effects; II. From Judaism (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.); (a) the recognition of the true God: (b) the ignorance manifested, etc.; III. From Popery; (a) the adoption of the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament; (b) the ignorance manifested, etc.; IV. From Protestantism; (a) entire freedom in searching the Scriptures; (b) the ignorance manifested (e.g., as to the insignificance of all worship in which the heart is not interested; the nature, power, etc., of a living faith; the Person of Christ; the duty, manner, etc., of preparing for death, etc.), and its causes and effects.Tr.]
Footnotes:
[9]Act 17:16. [ is rendered in the English text, in accordance with the Vulg. (idololatri deditam), wholly given to idolatry; the margin proposes as a substitute: full of idols, which is regarded as a more accurate version; (Rheims: given to idolatry). Wahl defines the word thus: idolis refertus ( intendendi vim habente).For , of text. rec. from D. G. H., and agreeing with , Lach., Tisch., and Alf. substitute (agreeing with IIA, from A. B. E.; Cod. Sin. also exhibits the genitive.Tr.]
[10]Act 17:18. [; babbler, in the Engl. text (Tynd., Cranmer, Geneva), but base fellow, less accurately, in the margin. Babbler is (here) the very best English word. (Alf.). Wahl: nugator, i. e., a trifler. See Exeg. note, below.Tr.]
[11]Act 17:19. [ A (. adj. from A. Rob. Lex.). Areopagus in the Engl. text (Wiclif, Rheims). The margin offers the following note; Areopagus, or Mars Hill. It was the highest court in Athens. See the next note. Alford remarks: There is no allusion here to the court of Areiopagus, nor should the words have been so rendered in Engl. Vers., especially as the same A below (Act 17:22) is translated Mars Hill.Tr.]
[12]Act 17:22. [Mars Hill, in the Engl. text, is the version of A . The margin furnishes the following note: Mars Hill, or, the court of the Areopagites. See the foregoing note on Act 17:19.Tr.]
[13]Act 17:23. a. [ is rendered devotions in the Engl. text, for which the margin proposes as a substitute: gods that ye worship. The latter is more accurate, but too restricted, as the Greek word denotes every thing connected with their worship, not its objects merely, but its rites and implements, including temples, images, and altars. (Alexander).Tr.]
[14]Act 17:23. b. is the original reading, Cod. A (original hand). B. D. [Vulg. quodhoc], whereas the reading [of text. rec. from E. G. H.] is a correction intended to adapt the words to those which follow. [Lach. Tisch. and Alf. adopt the neuter gender.Cod. Sin. (original) has , which a later hand (C) changed to .Tr.]
[15]Act 17:25. is sustained by weighty authorities [A. B. D. Cod. Sin. Vulg. manibus humanis], as compared with [of text. rec. from E. G. H.The former is adopted by Lach. Tisch. and Alf.B. G. H. read instead of , but recent editors reject this reading as erroneous, and are sustained by A. D. E.Tr.]
[16]Act 17:26. ; is decidedly attested [by A. B. D (corrected). E. G. H. Vulg. statuta], whereas . [of text. rec.] is supported only by one uncial manuscript, viz., D. as originally written. [Hence, the former reading is adopted by recent editors generally, except Born., who prefers that of the text. rec., which also appears in Cod. Sin.In place of of text. rec. from E. G. H., Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf. read , with A. B. D. Cod. Sin. of text. rec. from D. E. G. H. is wanting in A. B. Cod. Sin. Vulg.; it is omitted by Lach. and Tisch., but not by Alf.; Meyer regards the word as original, and believes that it was inadvertently dropped by copyists.Tr.]
[17]Act 17:27. is decidedly better attested [by A. B. G. H. Cod. Sin. Vulg.] than . [of text. rec. from E. Hence, Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf. adopt the former.Tr.]
[18]Act 17:31. a. should be preferred, on account of the external testimony in its favor, to [of text. rec.], which was the more usual word. [, in A. B. D. E. Cod. Sin., and adopted by Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf.; in G. H.Tr.]
[19]Act 17:31. b. [ , translated given assurance in the Engl, text, but offered faith in the margin (Tynd., Cranmer); the latter is the more literal version, and is thus explained by Alexander: having made it (faith) possible by furnishing the necessary evidence.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. (17) Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. (18) Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. (19) And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? (20) For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (21) (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
We shall be better able to form our conclusions of the Apostle’s ministry among the Athenians, if we previously take a short view of this people; and, under divine teaching, from what is here said of them, behold the wretched blindness, in respect to the true knowledge of God, in which this famous city was then covered.
Athens, at the time Paul was there, stood high in repute for learning and philosophy, and all human sciences then in esteem in the schools. It prided itself also upon religion. And from the intercourse with the Jews at Jerusalem in trade, they had acquired some knowledge of the scriptures of God. And as a free toleration was granted to everyone to exercise whatever profession he thought proper of religion, the Jews had a Synagogue for worship in Athens. But the leading part of the people were divided, (as appears from this Chapter,) into those two great sects, the Epicureans, and the Stoicks. The former sprung from a certain philosopher (falsely so called) of the name of Epicurus, who lived about three hundred and forty years before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. His doctrine was, that there was no first cause; no God; but that the world came by chance. And that a man’s own pleasure was the only object of pursuit. The Stoicks were the followers of a philosopher called Zeno. They took the name of Stoic from the Greek word Stoa, which signifies a Porch. And as it is said that under a Porch Zeno used to walk, and teach his pupils his notion of things, they were called Stoic philosophers on that account. The tenets of this class of people differed from that of the Epicureans, in acknowledging a first cause. But they held that so much natural goodness was in every man, he had a power over his own passions; and he might, if he pleased, undergo the greatest pain with indifference. Such were the different characters of the Gentile philosophers with whom Paul had to contend; beside the blindness and prejudice of the ignorant Jews. No wonder so deeply distressed in soul the Apostle must have been, when he beheld the whole city sunk in idolatry, that his spirit could not refrain! Jer 20:9 . Reader! pause, if but for a moment, and contemplate, the awful effects of the fall! Oh! what an universal ruin was induced thereby, to our whole nature! The Church of God, as well as the whole mass of men, all involved in one common calamity: darkness covering the earth, and gross darkness the people, Isa 62:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 61
Prayer
Almighty God, thou hast set us in a dream of mystery, and we have no answer to the mocking voice; nor can we tell how to follow the luring hand. Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves, for surely we would not have made ourselves as we are. Behold! we know nothing as it really is; whilst we are looking the meaning escapes us. Even in the act of saying “We live,” behold we die. Eternity is nearer than time. Thou art nearer to us than we can ever be to ourselves. These are the mysteries which make us glad with morning light, and which sometimes burden us with all the darkness of midnight. We are in joy and yet in sorrow. We live and die in the same moment. We are slaves on the one side, and yet have the liberty of the skies on the other. So hast thou made us, and we are in great trouble. We do not touch things, or see them, or know them in their reality. We are mocked, and laughed at, and put down and scorned yet are we applauded and hailed and crowned. This is the infinite mystery, and in our heart there is no answer. We come to thy Book, and read its large letters, and there the light shines. We see in thy Book that we are made in God’s image and likeness; charged with responsibilities of the sublimest range and quality; called to high action and to heroic sacrifice and to patient suffering; promised that the day will soon dawn, and the shadows flee away, and the great answer of love cover all the mystery of pain. It is a noble voice, it is music from heaven; hearing it, the chains drop from our limbs, and sweet, glad liberty calls us into its noble companionship. We therefore will live in Christ; we will study his heart and will; we will watch his footprints and put our feet into them; we will give ourselves up to his guidance, and go as he may lead. “Jesus, still lead on.” We would escape the dark valley, and the deep river, and the thick wood, where the beast of prey lies in wait. We would like to walk on velvet grass, along summer paths, to watch the cloudless blue and hear the birds which are all song; but be it as thou wilt, not as we will; only be thou thyself there, and the valley shall be as the hill, and the great hill shall be part of heaven. Thy love in time past is our surety for the future. We have been girded by thee, even when we knew it not; invisible hands have held us up; kind ministries, not of earth, have nourished and sustained us. We have had bread in the wilderness, and flowers have been found for us among the rocks. So we will not fear, nor tremble, nor die; but stand surely in the love of the Cross, and find our victory in the Son of God. Come to us as we need thee, thou healing One. Breathe upon us the breath of sweet summer. Come with early flowers, and tell us that they are promises of fuller beauty. Speak to us some word of tender comfort, and our heart shall grow quite young again, and all our strength shall come back in full current, and we shall forget our trouble in our joy. Thou wilt not disappoint us; thou delightest to satisfy the soul, and not to mock it. Feed us with the bread sent down from heaven. Comfort us with the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and fill us with the inspiration of his love and Cross. May we live as he lived, and being crucified with him, may we rise again in his glory.
Bless the strangers within our gates, and give them to feel a sense of home and rest and security. Regard the stranger who is not often in thy house, but who has looked in today to see what is here and what is being done. May he see great sights and hear voices not of earth. Heal those whom we cannot heal, and speak comfortably to such as lie beyond the reach of our poor voice. As for the dying, carry them straight through the deep, black river, and set their weary feet on the other side, and in heaven’s light they will forget the gloom of earth. The Lord’s light be our day; the Lord’s kind smile our heaven; the Lord’s great voice our continual inspiration. Amen.
Act 17:16-23
16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked [1Co 13:5 . This argues not Paul’s lack of charity, but the heinous-ness of idolatry, which can “provoke the Lord to jealousy,” 1Co 10:22 ] within him, as he beheld the city full of idols [ritual show; covering Athens’ moral and political decay ].
17. So he reasoned [see note on Act 17:2 ] in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market-place every day with them that met with him.
18. And certain also of the Epicurean [Materialist] and Stoic [Pantheistic] philosophers encountered him. And some said, What would this babbler [Ar. Av. 232, used of the chattering crows who pick up seeds; then of parasites and of brain pilferers ] say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached Jesus and the resurrection [A.D. 474 Justinian suppressed the chairs of the successors of these philosophers on the ground that Christianity had rendered them obsolete].
19. And they took hold of him and brought him unto the Areopagus [the council of the Areopagus, the 600, and the demos were the three political powers in Athens, still left by Roman courtesy a “free city.” The Areopagus had gained, as the others had lost, by the conquest; it now concerned itself more with education and religion, and many inscriptions attest its jurisdiction in the matter of the erection of altars and statues], saying, May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by thee?
20. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.
21. (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new [G. ” newer ” later than the previous news; Luke’s order of the words hints they sometimes “told” before they had “heard” this “newer”] thing.)
22. And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus [not upon his trial, but invited, as a foreign savant is sometimes invited to address the French Institute], and said, Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are somewhat [are in character] superstitious [G. “God-fearing” or religious. To begin the speech with this gross blunder, “superstitious,” was as impossible for the inspired orator as it has been easy for the Vulgate and its English transcribers].
23. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar, with this inscription, To an unknown God [Pausanias, i. 1, 4, and Philostratus, Fit. Ap. vi. 2, inform us that there were several altars ” of unknown gods”; Diogenes Laertes, Eph 3 , that sheep were sacrificed on the occasion of a plague ” to the God concerned ” and that therefore ” anonymous altars” are found in Athens]. What therefore ye worship in ignorance [” as agonistics” ], this set I forth unto you.
Paul At Athens
THIS was Paul’s method of “waiting”! The “waiting” of some men is infinitely more energetic than the toil of others. Paul might be said not to be doing anything just now. He was in Athens alone, “waiting” for Silas and Timotheus. He needs rest; he will now sit down and be quiet, and recover himself after recent experiences. It is interesting to note that Paul was waiting. But how could Paul wait? The two words do not go happily together. Paul waiting! He cannot wait. Life is short; the enemy is at hand; the opportunity enlarges around him; and he who was left by the brethren in an attitude of waiting begins to burn. A paroxysm (for that is the literal word) seizes his heart. His soul is stirred within him; a paroxysm of agony seizes his whole nature when he sees such a sight as he had never beheld before a city wholly given to idolatry. One historian tells us that in ancient Athens it was easier to find a god than a man that is to say, the idols were so numerous as almost entirely to fill the whole city. Wherever a marble god could be put up, there he was set. Paul was a Jew, and had not been trained in schools of images; he was not an artist any more than he was a classical scholar. To him images were forbidden. “Thou shalt not make to thyself the likeness of anything that is in heaven, or that is on the earth,” was ringing in Paul’s ears; and when he was made to understand that the people actually worshipped, or in some sense religiously reverenced, those idols, his spirit was thrown into a paroxysm. He was not simply moved, superficially agitated; he was not the subject of a new and transient sensation: he was writhing in an unfelt and unknown agony. Religion does not destroy Art, but it destroys its superstitious uses. Christianity says to beauty, “Stand there; I will look at thee, I love thee; come to me with new suggestions of dawning light and broader glory than I have yet realized; but do not expect me to pray to thee. “In Athens the human form was worshipped. To be perfect in form was to be Divine. Paul never cared for form, for its own sake. He saw the religious intent of everything, and if the religious intent was not healthy, holy, and real, he broke the image. He was an ardent Christian. We are Christians, but not ardent Athens was wholly given to idolatry. You cannot stop at one idol. One idol brings another. There is no stopping-place in idolatry until the very last little niche is filled with such god as it will hold. This law has also its force and sweep in higher directions. You cannot stop with one virtue one singular and isolated excellence. It is not excellence if you so use it. If the supposed excellence be figured as an angel, then you are unjust to the heavenly spirit. You deprive the celestial visitant of companionship; your piety is cruel. The law is impartial; vices go in groups; piety is a whole excellence and not a partial virtue. The Athenians covered their irreligious lives by these religious forms. “Fill the city with gods, and let us live as we like,” was the Athenian philosophy it is ours too! Do not stand up in Christian pride, boasting over Athenian paganism. We play the same trick; we are caught in the same intoxication. “Found another society, and let us live at home as we please.” “Start another mission, and let us play what pranks we like under the darkness.” “Build five hundred more churches and set them all in a row, and let the city know that we are not afraid of church-building, but let us drink the devil’s cup right down to its last hot drop.” We vainly suppose we have made advances upon Athenian idolatry, whereas we may but have changed the outward and visible form. There are more idols in London, in Paris, or in New York, than ever there were in Athens; not marble idols, but idols we can hide, expensive idols, ruinous idols, idols that will make us worship them, idols that infuse their poison into the blood, and taint the inner life of the heart. Athens was quite a godly, clean little city compared to either of the cities I have named. Were Paul to come to London, Paris, or New York, he would see fashion, fortune, ease, ambition, self-seeking; yet a census could be taken even of these idols; but we scorn little Athens in mighty, measureless London, for every man is his own idol! When Christianity undertakes a man’s education it never rests until it shows him that every heart is its own idol; and Christianity alone can take away a man’s self out of himself, and associate him with the larger life which is called Divine. Man is not a mere unit, a single and detached individual, but he sustains responsibilities to the sum total of life in all the universe, and must give an account to every creature below him and above him; for he may have stopped Divine currents, or interposed in the on-rush of Divine influence in the universe. That is the worst kind of idolatry. Stone idols may be so many marble steps up to the highest altar; but when the heart is its own idol, and its own idolater, nothing can break up the deadly paganism but God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The break-up does not come through schooling, through book-reading, and through crafty devices in language; the break-up comes through crucifixion, so that idol and idolater are nailed to Christ’s grim Cross, and there they die amid the sevenfold night of Divine wrath, and out of that death there comes the resurrection, which is immortality. The Athenian pagan might be led away argumentatively from stone deities to higher intellectual conceptions of deific being and force; but the pagan heart never listens to logic, and never cares for intellectual appeals. Only one thing can break the heart-idol “the hammer of the Lord,” that could grind to powder the stoniest heart that ever shut out the clemency and love of Heaven. To that “hammer” we must look, in that hammer we must trust. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.”
Paul did a little introductory work. Paul, as we have often seen, always began just where the opportunity permitted him to begin. “He disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons,” and he found a custom in Athens of meeting in the market-place, which was the general school-house of the city; and there learned men were talking upon learned subjects, and Paul listened. Having listened, he spoke, as he had a right to do according to Athenian custom, but he so spoke as to bring upon himself the contemptuous name of “babbler” literally “seed-pecker”; one who took little seeds to pieces; who separated one little seed from another. “What will this seed-pecker say? He is evidently nibbling at something, poor little, small-minded, weak-eyed man with Jewish cast of face what will he say?” “He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.” The word “strange “in this reference to Paul’s doctrine in the twentieth verse “Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears” means startling things. The Gospel startles; it never comes easily and smoothly into any civilization it flames, it throbs like thunder, flashes like lightning, plashes like deluges of water from infinite heights; so that men say, “What is this?” Jesus did not come to send peace on the earth, but a sword, not quietness, but fire! The Gospel is not to be received slumberingly. Tf you can receive it slumberingly, you do not really hear it; if you can preach it slumberingly, you do not really preach it. The Gospel is not a sleep, it is a resurrection; it is the trumpet of immortality!
The Athenians were interested in the matter from an intellectual point of view. Some said, “He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods; let us hear what he has to say about them.” That is not religious inquiry; that is mere speculative excitement. If you want to know what religious inquiry is, recall an instance which has just passed under our review. The jailer at Philippi said: What must I do to be saved?” The Athenians said: “May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?” Mark the difference between the one question and the other. The Philippian jailer was in earnest; the Athenian philosophers were simply speculative, willing to turn the conversation into a new channel, and not unwilling to hear a strange speaker discourse with strange eloquence upon strange subjects. Are we typified by the Philippian jailer or by the Athenian stoic? Why are we in church? How many of us are in fiery earnest to know God’s will and do it? How many of us are inclined to a little philosophical dispute, and to a little intellectual debate? And how many of us are not unwilling to experience a new spiritual sensation? Only let it be as short and trenchant as possible, but we are not unwilling just to hear what some seed-pecker may have to say. Let us be honest with ourselves in this matter. If we are in God’s house for the purpose of really ascertaining and obeying God’s word, all heaven will be aflame with sacred light, and every guest at God’s table will be satisfied and refreshed; but if we are here in the Athenian spirit, we may be disappointed and mocked; great questions will go with little answers, or little questions will be mocked by irrelevant replies.
Paul will speak; he was always ready to speak. But they were learned men he, too, was learned, but not in their sense. He was learned in the one subject that he cared for. So many men are burdened with unavailable learning. Paul was learned in his Gospel. He asked for no time to prepare in; he would not return and dispute with refined disputants when he had had sufficient time to make preparation of an intellectual and rhetorical kind. Instantly he stood up, and to stand up was to establish himself in the confidence of all who heard him, as an extraordinary man at the least. What came afterwards would be seen; no man could despise him who listened to his revelations. To begin his statement he said, “Ye men of Athens.” That was Demosthenic; the great orator always began his appeal in those very words. Paul often began, “Men, brethren, and fathers.” Alas! he was in a city where there were no “brethren.” He must begin upon the broad human relation. There the ‘true preacher can always begin. He cannot always say “Dear friends,” for there may be none; “brethren,” for that may be an unknown term. Had Paul begun by calling the Athenians “brethren,” they would have accosted his salutation with unanimous and contemptuous laughter. There is genius even here. There is a gift of God in these little matters, as well as in matters that are greater. Paul was never wanting in tact; he knew how to open the door and how to enter in. Mark the simple dignity of the salutatory form. They were “men;” they met upon a common platform; there could be no dispute as to the character in which they stood as to one another. “I am a man speaking to men.” In salutation there should be no controversy. Then the next: “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious,” or too “religiously-minded.” Mark the broad and generous recognition. Do not affront the people you intend afterwards to persuade. Do not mock the idols you are about to sweep away. There are two methods of delivering a country from idolatry. The one is to override the country, so to say, by military force, taking away all brazen gods, and marble deities, and figured divinities, and so, Jehu-like, destroying Baal out of Israel. That is not destruction. The other way is to reason, to persuade, to displace, to expel the false by the introduction of the true not to deride an idol, but to preach a Saviour. So Paul recognizes what he sees; he says, “You seem to be excessively religious.” He did not scorn them as idolaters, but credited them with a superabounding religious spirit and activity. “For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. I will begin where you end. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you.” What infinite tact! What sublime adaptation of means to ends! “You yourselves,” said Paul in effect, “will supply me with the text on the marble slab. You declare yourselves to be agnostics, or to have an unknown or unknowable God. So far you have come along the line of religious education; I will take up the matter where you have left it, and now you must listen to my appeal.” That is the true method of preaching today. You must interpret to men what they do not interpret to themselves. It would be possible to go into some assemblies not called Christian and to say to them, “Men, you who think yourselves not religious are actually too religious.” That would be a startling declaration to make to a number of atheists, secularists, or positivists; but it would be true in proportion as they were earnestly pursuing the subjects with which their labours are identified. Endeavour to make the most of a man. Every man has upon him this inscription who is out of Christ: “To the Unknown,” and the Christian teacher has to say, “Then I will make it known to you. Do you ever yearn and long and desire and wish?” The reply would be, “Certainly I do; my whole life is one continual aspiration.” Then as a Christian teacher I tell you that such aspiration is the beginning of prayer. What you ignorantly do, I declare unto you, in its broadest interpretations. You cannot exclude prayer from life. I hear you say, “I wish “; “I would “; “I long for”; “I yearn for “; “I desire .” Why, these are the negative terms which are equivalent, in Christian language, to “I pray.” You are praying in some sort of dumb, uncertain, troubled way. I am not going to mock you as an atheist, or tell you that you are an agnostic, or fasten upon you some stigmatizing term. I heard you just now sighing, desiring, yearning; I saw you lift up your poor head in an attitude of expectation and hope, and I said, “Behold, he prayeth, and did not know it.” I will not have you called “infidel,” and “unbeliever,” “outsider,” and “Philistine.” Have I not seen your fingers laced as if you wanted to say something for which there are no words? That is prayer. Call it negative prayer, call it dumb prayer, call it inarticulate prayer, I hardly care for the epithet by which you qualify it; it is my business to tell you that you are not atheistic, or godless, or prayer-less, or lost; but in you there is the beginning of the kingdom of heaven.
Or take it from another point. Do you suffer for others? Do you say you will endure hunger that others may be satisfied; you will sit up all night that others may sleep; you will take upon you the full burst of the storm that others may be quiet at home? Is it in that noble language you speak? If so, that is the beginning of sacrifice. The Cross is in those sacred words. You are not a worldling; you are not a scoffer; you are not an atheist. You do not know it, but I tell you that by every act of heroic suffering, that others may escape pain, you represent the mystery of the Cross; you show forth in human form the transcendent glory of the work of Christ. Do not let men come and rub out the inscription, “To the Unknown God,” as if you had committed an insult to high Heaven. You have come along the philanthropic line, the educational line, and you have got right up to that point, saying, “I am willing to suffer that some other man may not suffer. I would I could take half the pain which my friend endures and so divide the agony with him, that there might be two of us to carry the burden instead of one.” Thou art not far from the kingdom of God! If some Paul should meet you some great, heroic, inspired Paul he would tell you that such an offer, such a feeling or impulse, on your part, meant, being fully interpreted, the very Cross and agony of Christ. Or, take it from another point. Are you dissatisfied with earth and time? Are you filled with discontentment? Do you say, “I have drunk every goblet, and still my thirst remains; I have tried every medicine, but my disease is untouched; I have hunted over every field for pleasure, and have never found it”? That is the beginning of immortality; it is “the divinity that stirs within you.” See the greatness of man in his very discontentment with earth and time and sense. He takes it up, says he will absorb it, does absorb it, and then says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What is the meaning of that? You are not a secularist; you are not a dust-worshipper; you are not oh, believe me! a base groundling. You have got down to those experiences to learn that it is not in matter, time, space, sense, to satisfy the infinite faculty which makes you akin with God. Why not start from that point? Why not give broad interpretations to human instincts and human experiences?
This text of Paul’s is in every man; every life furnishes a Mars’ Hill from the top of which Christian preachers may preach. The sun does not plant the root, but warms it into fulness of life. The witness of God is in every one of us, and answers to the claim of the written Book. Here is the grand appeal of the Cross. It comes to something that is already in us. It is one revelation speaking to another, and in proportion as the two revelations harmonize, supplement, and complete one another, is the inspiration of the Scripture proved, and the grandeur of human capacity established.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Ver. 16. His spirit was stirred ] The word signifies, he was almost beside himself (such was his zeal) to see the idolatry of the Athenians. So was William Gardiner, an English merchant and martyr in Portugal, who, when the cardinal, in a mass before the king, began to take the ceremonial host, to toss it to and fro round about the chalice, making certain circles and semicircles, he not being able to suffer any longer, went to the cardinal, and in the presence of the king and all his nobles and citizens, with the one hand he snatched the cake from the priest, and trod it under his feet, and with the other hand overthrew the chalice, &c. See the like history of William Flower, who wounded the mass priest at Westminster, &c. (Acts and Mon. fol. 1430.) There are those who tell us that this book of the Acts is discerned to be written by Luke, by his physician’s language here, , he “was in a fever fit,” and Act 15:39 , , “the contention was so sharp between them.” The word signifies such sharpness as is in vinegar; and it is used by physicians to denote the sharpness of the feverish humour when it is acting in a fit. It troubled St Paul, that the fountain was so troubled, the eye of Greece so darkened, a the “ornament of the world” so slurred with “abominable idolatries,” as St Peter expresseth it, 1Pe 4:3 .
Wholly given to idolatry ] Pausanias reckons up more idols almost in Athens than in all Greece besides. And Xenophon saith that the Athenians kept double the holy days and festivals to what others did. “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone,” q.d. there is no hope of him, Hos 4:17 . They that make them are like unto them, so are all they that worship them, as blockish as those Balaami-blocks they worship. No Church could be founded at Athens; they for their idolatry were given up to strong delusions, vile affections, just damnation. They were too wise to be saved by the foolishness of preaching.
a ‘ . Diod.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16. ] This is formed after the analogy of , , &c. See reff.
The multitude of statues and temples to the gods in Athens is celebrated with honour by classic writers of other nations, and with pride by their own. A long list of passages is given in Wetstein. The strongest perhaps is from Xen. de Repub. Ath [83] , who calls Athens , .
[83] Athanasius, Bp. of Alexandria, 326 373
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 17:16 . , cf. 1Co 11:33 ; 1Co 16:11 , rare in classical Greek in this sense. : “was provoked,” R.V., only found elsewhere in N.T. in St. Paul’s own description of , 1Co 13:5 ; cf. 1Co 15:39 (see note) and Heb 10:24 for the cognate noun, see on the latter, Westcott, in loco . In LXX both verb and noun are used for burning with anger, or for violent anger, passion, Hos 8:5 , Zec 10:3 , Deu 29:28 , Jer 39 (32):37; cf. Dem., 514, 10; (Meyer-Wendt). : expression principally used in Paul, cf. 1Co 2:11 , Rom 1:9 ; Rom 8:16 , etc. Blass calls it periphrasis hebraica , and cf. Luk 1:47 . : “beheld,” R.V., as of contemplation in thought, Latin, contemplari . : “full of idols,” R.V. the rendering “wholly given to idolatry” was not true, i.e. , idolatry in the sense of worshipping the innumerable idols. If the city had been sincerely devoted to idol worship St. Paul might have had more to appeal to, “verum monumenta pietatis reperiebat Paulus, non ipsam, qu dudum evanuerat,” Blass. A.V. follows Vulgate, “idololatri deditum”. The adjective is found only here, but it is formed after the analogy of , , so Hermann, ad Vig. , p. 638 (1824), “ non est, uti quidam opinantur, simulacris dedita urbs , sed simulacris referta ”. No word could have been more fitly chosen to describe the aspect of Athens to St. Paul as he wandered through it, a city which had been described as , , see below on Act 17:17 . Before he actually entered the city, as he walked along the Hamaxitos road, St. Paul would have seen altars raised at intervals to the unknown gods, as both Pausanias and Philostratus testify, see “Athens,” F.C. Conybeare, in Hastings’ B.D. “He took these incomparable figures for idols,” writes Renan ( Saint Paul , p. 172) as he describes the beautiful sculptured forms upon which the eyes of the Apostle would be fixed, but the man who could write Rom 1 must have been keenly alive to the dangers which followed upon “the healthy sensualism of the Greeks”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 17:16-21
16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. 18And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? 20″For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” 21(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
Act 17:16 “Athens” This was the greatest city of Greece’s past cultural heritage and still the intellectual center of the Roman world. It was steeped in tradition, superstition and immorality.
“his spirit” The Greek uncial manuscripts of the NT did not have
1. space between the words
2. punctuation marks
3. capitalization (all letters were capitals)
4. verse and chapter divisions
Therefore, only context can determine the need for capitals. Usually capitals are used for
1. names for deity
2. place names
3. personal names
The term “spirit” can refer to
1. the Holy Spirit (cf. Mar 1:5)
2. the conscious personal aspect of humanity (cf. Mar 8:12; Mar 14:38)
3. some being of the spiritual realm (i.e., unclean spirits, cf. Mar 1:23)
In this context it refers to Paul as a person.
There are several places in Paul’s writings where this grammatical construction is used to describe what the Holy Spirit produces in the individual believer
1. “not a spirit of slavery,” “a spirit of adoptions, Rom 8:15
2. “a spirit of gentleness,” 1Co 4:21
3. “a spirit of faith (faithfulness), 2Co 4:13
4. “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation,” Eph 1:17
It is obvious from the context Paul is using “spirit” as a way of referring to himself or other humans (1Co 2:11; 1Co 5:4; 2Co 2:13; 2Co 7:13; Rom 1:9; Rom 8:16; Php 4:23).
NASB”was being provoked within him”
NKJV”was provoked within him”
NRSV”was deeply distressed”
TEV”greatly upset”
NJB”was revolted”
This is an Imperfect passive indicative of paroxun, which basically means “to sharpen,” but here is used figuratively to “stir up.” This is the term (in its noun form) that is used to describe Paul and Barnabas’ fight over John Mark in Act 15:39. It is used positively in Heb 10:24.
Act 17:17 Paul was concerned with both Jews (“reasoning in the synagogue”) and Gentiles, both those attracted to Judaism (god-fearers) and those who were idolatrous pagans (“those who happened to be present in the market place”). Paul addressed these various groups in different ways: to the Jews and God-fearers he used the OT, but to the pagans he tried to find some common ground (cf. Act 17:22-31).
Act 17:18 “Epicurean” This group believed that pleasure or happiness was the highest good and goal of life. They believed in no personal, physical afterlife. “Enjoy life now” was their motto (a form of hedonism). They held that the gods were unconcerned with humans. They got their name from Epicurus, an Athenian philosopher, 341-270 B.C., but they overstated his basic conclusion. Epicurus saw pleasure in a wider sense than personal, physical pleasure (i.e., healthy body and tranquil mind). “Epicurus is reported to have said, ‘If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches, but take away from his desires'” (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. IV, p. 153).
“Stoic” This group believed that god was (1) the world-soul or (2) immanent in all creation (pantheism). They asserted that humans must live in harmony with nature ( i.e., god). Reason was the highest good. Self-control, self-sufficiency, and emotional stability in every situation was their goal. They did not believe in a personal afterlife. Their founder was Zeno, a philosopher from Cyprus, who moved to Athens about 300 B.C. They got their name from the fact that he taught in the painted stoa in Athens.
“idle babbler” This word was used of sparrows eating seeds in a field. It came to be used metaphorically of itinerant teachers who picked up pieces of information here and there and tried to sell them. The R.S.V. Interlinear by Alfred Marshall translates it as “ignorant plagiarist.” The NJB has “parrot.”
“proclaimer of strange deities” This is literally “foreign daimn” used in the sense of spiritual powers or gods (cf. 1Co 10:20-21). These Athenian philosophers were religious polytheists (Olympic pantheon).
1. It is just possible that these Athenian Greek philosophers took Paul’s words as referring to two gods (Jerome Biblical Commentary, vol. 2, p. 199).
a. goddess of health
b. goddess of resurrection (i.e., Anastasis)
2. It is even possible they saw one as
a. male (Jesus)
b. female (resurrection is a feminine noun)
3. Paul’s gospel terminology (cf. NET Bible) itself may be the source of the confusion related to one God in three persons (i.e., the Trinity, see Special Topic at Act 2:32).
a. Father
b. Son
c. Spirit
“because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection” The stumbling block of the gospel for the Jews was “a suffering Messiah” and for the Greeks it was “the resurrection” (cf. 1Co 1:18-25). A personal, bodily afterlife did not fit into the Greek understanding of the gods or mankind. They asserted a divine spark in every person, trapped or imprisoned by a physical body. Salvation was deliverance from the physical and reabsorption into an impersonal or semi-personal deity.
Act 17:19 “took him and brought him to the Areopagus” The term areopages means the hill of Ares (the god of war). In the Roman pantheon, the war god was named Mars. In the golden days of Athens, it was the philosophical forum of this renowned intellectual city. This was no judicial trial, but an open city forum in the presence of a council of city leaders.
This is a sample of Paul’s preaching to pagans, as Act 13:16 ff was to God-fearing Gentiles. Thank God for these synopses of Paul’s messages.
“May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming” Here is the difference between intellectual curiosity (cf. Act 17:20-21) and revelation. God has made us curious (cf. Ecc 1:8-9; Ecc 1:18; Ecc 3:10-11), but human intellect cannot bring peace and joy. Only the gospel can do this! Paul discusses the difference between human wisdom and God’s revelation in 1 Corinthians 1-4.
Act 17:19-20 These words are very socially polite. This was, in a sense, a university setting.
Act 17:21 This verse seems to be an authorial comment. It shows that the politeness of Act 17:19-20 was not true intellectual inquiry, but a current cultural fad. They just enjoyed hearing and debating. They were trying to relive Athens’ past glory. The tragedy is they could not differentiate between human wisdom and divine revelation (and so it is today in our universities)!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
waited. Greek. ekdechomai. Here, Joh 5:3. 1Co 11:33; 1Co 16:11. Heb 10:13; Heb 11:10. Jam 5:7. 1Pe 3:20.
spirit. App-101.
stirred. Greek. paroxunomai. Only here and 1Co 13:5. A medical word. Compare Act 15:39.
when he saw = beholding. Greek. theoreo. App-133.
wholly, &c. = full of idols. Greek. kateidolos. Only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
16. ] This is formed after the analogy of , , &c. See reff.
The multitude of statues and temples to the gods in Athens is celebrated with honour by classic writers of other nations, and with pride by their own. A long list of passages is given in Wetstein. The strongest perhaps is from Xen. de Repub. Ath[83], who calls Athens , .
[83] Athanasius, Bp. of Alexandria, 326-373
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 17:16. , whilst Paul was waiting for them) He had not intended to speak immediately at Athens; but nevertheless presently, without waiting for his companions, stimulated by a remarkable and extraordinary zeal, this soldier of Christ commences the action at once. So he often carried on the Christian warfare alone: Gal 2:13-14; 2Ti 4:16.-[, was stirred up with zeal) He was impatient that idolatrous practices should prevail, and still he had not at the time as yet a handle for attacking them.-V. g.]-) crowded with idols. and are compounds of the same form.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
51. “THE UNKNOWN GOD”
Act 17:16-34
Because of the uproar in Berea and the threat of persecution there, certain of the Berean brethren escorted Paul safely to Athens. Luke was left behind in Philippi, Timothy in Thessalonica to minister to the new converts there, and Silas stayed in Berea where he was later joined by Timothy. They were all to meet in Athens and from there continue their missionary travels. In Act 17:16 we find Paul waiting for his fellow laborers.
The Apostle of Christ was alone in the city of Athens, the cultural, educational, philosophical center of the Gentile world. Walking through the streets of the city, his spirit was stirred with both anger and compassion, as he beheld “the city wholly given to idolatry” (Act 17:16). In the city of Athens it was easier to find a god than a man! Everywhere, down every street, in every corner, wherever a nook was found there was a statue of some pagan god or goddess. Someone estimated that there were more than 30,000 gods in Athens! With his soul on fire and his heart bursting with the message of free salvation by the grace of God in Christ, Paul went into the synagogue, into the streets, and into the market place, preaching “Jesus and the resurrection.” He preached that Jesus Christ is the one true and living God, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and exalted (Col 1:12-20; Col 2:9-10; Heb 1:1-3), the only God and Savior of men. He preached the resurrection of the dead as a matter of certainty (1Th 4:13-18; 1Co 15:50-58), declaring that there is a day appointed when all people must meet the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment (2Co 5:10-11), to be rewarded by him with eternal life or eternal death upon the grounds of strict justice (Rev 20:11-12).
Paul spoke plainly and distinctly. Soon the whole city was talking about this strange preacher, his strange message, and the “strange gods” he preached. The controversy got so hot that Paul was brought to Areopagus, Mars’ Hill, for trial (Act 17:17-23). Mars’ Hill was the highest court of the Athenians. This was the place where Socrates had been condemned for turning the people against their gods. Like a bold gladiator in an arena of lions, Paul stepped forward in the name of God, for the glory of Christ, to do battle with the powers of darkness. His only weapon was the Word of God. But that was enough! The man of God boldly declared the Lord Jesus Christ, “THE UNKNOWN GOD”, to the assembled pagans at Mars’ Hill, without thought of cost or consequence. May God raise up such men to speak for him today!
Note: The Apostle took the Athenians idolatrous inscription “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”, and applied it to the true and living God with good reason. Though the Lord God has plainly revealed himself in his Word and in the Person and work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one true and living God is yet unknown to most people.
A STERN CONDEMNATION (Act 17:22-23) – Most of the commentators in recent times have tried to tone down the language Paul used to make it less condemning, suggesting, “It would not be in order for an invited speaker to insult such an august body.” But there is no way to honestly translate Paul’s language into conciliatory words. It was Paul’s intention to condemn the idolatry of the men. When he stood before this august body, the Apostle sternly condemned the learned, philosophical religious customs of the Athenians as foolish idolatry.
Human religion takes on many forms. It is always very tolerant and compromising, so that almost anything is acceptable as a religious practice or doctrine. The only thing that is always offensive to religious men and women is the plain declaration of the fact that salvation is by the free and sovereign grace of God alone, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only sin-atoning Substitute for sinners. This is the doctrine of the Bible (Psa 37:39; Isa 53:1-12; Jon 2:9; Rom 3:24-28; Eph 2:8-9; 2Ti 1:9). Any doctrine that is contrary to this message is a false gospel, damning to the souls of men and idolatrous (Gal 1:6-9). But this gospel, the message of salvation by grace through the merits of the crucified Substitute, is offensive to men (Gal 5:11).
Paul spoke plainly. He did not come to Mars’ Hill to play patty cake. He came to lay the axe to the root of the tree; and he did. His opening words were an unflinching condemnation of idolatry – “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious,” literally, “too religious!” Though the Athenians had over 30,000 gods to whom they gave homage, only three religious groups are mentioned in this chapter. Those three groups essentially embrace the tenets of all false religion.
THE JEWS worship Jehovah, the one true and living God. They keep the religious practices of the Mosaic law. They live by the rule of the ten commandments. Their religion requires them to be morally upright. They refuse to worship graven images. But their religion is a vain pretense and an idolatrous substitute for Divine worship. They reject the revelation of God concerning his Son, refuse to be saved by the merits of the crucified, risen, exalted Son of God, refuse to bow to Christ the Lord, and refuse to be saved by grace alone. Christ is the Door. He is the Way (Joh 10:9; Joh 14:6). There is no other. To reject him is to choose idolatry!
THE EPICUREANS were a band of philosophical liberals. They did admit God’s Being, or some sort of a god’s being. But they thought God was somewhat like themselves, good but not great, gracious but not glorious. They denied creation and the resurrection. The Epicureans lived for pleasure.
THE STOICS were philosophical conservatives. They believed in creation by God, some god. They believed in the resurrection of the body. They taught moral virtue. They believed in the power of the human will, and of course denied God’s sovereign rule of the world.
The people of Athens, all three groups, were very religious and very lost. Though they called him a “babbler”, a nit-picker, for doing so Paul told them their religion was a dark, damning delusion.
A STUBBORN CONFRONTATION (Act 17:24-29) – The Apostle confronted the men of Athens with the claims of God’s character at the very points where they were most rebellious. He declared four things about the character of God that are essential to true worship.
1. God is the Creator and Original Source of all things (Act 17:24; Rom 11:36).
2. God is absolutely sovereign over all things (Act 17:24; Dan 4:35-37).
3. God is Spirit (Act 17:25). He requires that we worship him in spirit and in truth. He has no regard for imaginary, idolatrous, “holy things” or “holy places” (Joh 4:23-24; Isa 1:10-14).
4. God sovereignly rules and disposes of all men according to his own purpose in predestination (Act 17:26-29).
A STRAIGHTFORWARD COMMAND (Act 17:30-31) – When Paul says, “The times of this ignorance God winked at,” his meaning is, “In ages past God passed over the Gentiles in judgment, but now, in this gospel age, he commands all men everywhere to trust his Son,” before whom all men must soon stand in judgment.
A SOLEMN CONCLUSION(Act 17:32-34) – When the message was finished and the day was over “some mocked”. Some hesitated, wavering in indecision and unbelief, they lost the opportunity they had. They never heard God’s servant again! But there were some who believed the gospel (Act 17:34). When Paul’s work at Athens was done, he left and went to Corinth, confident of God’s blessing upon the message he preached (2Co 2:14-17).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
stirred
provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Cir, am 4058, ad 54
his spirit: Exo 32:19, Exo 32:20, Num 25:6-11, 1Ki 19:10, 1Ki 19:14, Job 32:2, Job 32:3, Job 32:18-20, Psa 69:9, Psa 119:136, Psa 119:158, Jer 20:9, Mic 3:8, Mar 3:5, Joh 2:13, 2Pe 2:7
wholly given to idolatry: or, full of idols, Act 17:23, *marg.
Reciprocal: 2Ch 28:24 – he made Isa 2:8 – is full Jer 6:11 – Therefore Jer 50:38 – mad Luk 4:31 – taught Joh 13:21 – he was Act 4:20 – we cannot Act 14:15 – and preach Act 17:22 – I perceive Act 18:5 – was 2Co 7:11 – zeal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE GREAT UNIVERSITY CITY OF THE WORLD
How while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, as he beheld the city full of idols.
Act 17:16 (R.V.)
St. Paul was too sensitive to history and too loyal to learning to remain indifferent to the proud memories of this city into which his missionary travel has brought him. It was the great university city of the world. His feelings, therefore, must have been akin to those which rise in the soul of an ardent American scholar when he visits England and sees Oxford or Cambridge for the first time.
I. It was not the fame of Athens which affected the Apostle most.It was not its magnificent monuments, nor its picturesque situation, nor even the fact that the streets which he was treading, and the market which he had passed through were places where Socrates had taught, and Plato had written, and Demosthenes had spoken, and Phidias had worked. These things, we may believe, had their interest for St. Paul, but they did not move him profoundly. That which brought heat to his soul, that which made the Apostle burn, was the number and the nature of the citys idols. Look which way he would in that great city there was idolatry. And not an idolatry of a refined and pardonable sort; not an idolatry which is picturesque without being gross, and which is content with personifying the powers of Nature after the best patterns of human things. It was not such an idolatry; but an idolatry which destroyed the very sense of modesty, which appealed to the animal passions of man, which deified evil and said to it: Be thou my good.
II. The idol worship which had got hold of Athens provoked St. Pauls Christian spirit as he looked at it and took in its terrible significance. Had the Apostle been a cynic, he might have been satisfied with a less consuming feeling than hot indignation. As he took in the situation, feature by feature, he might have contented himself with the sarcastic reflection that in this centre of the worlds education, amid the lecture rooms where the philosophers had taught for centuries that it was mere superstition to confuse an idol with the Divine nature which it representedthe idols were probably in greater number than anywhere else in St. Pauls experience (Ramseys St. Paul: the Citizen and the Traveller). But the Apostle was never cool enough in the presence of great sin to play the cynic. He loved humanity too well to sneer with cold blood at the degrading results of its best philosophy. And, besides, was he not the missionary of Jesus Christ?
III. Who was Jesus Christ to St. Paul?More than Socrates had ever been to his almost worshipping pupils in that very city of Athens. More than a great teacher, that is, whose personality is charming and whose principles are wise and good. Jesus Christ to St. Paul was, as he afterwards told these Athenian people, the One Whom God had ordained to judge the world in righteousness. That was what Jesus Christ was to St. Paul. He was one who stood for the weal or woe of the human race. He was one against whom all baseness, all degradation of high things to low uses, all putting forward of darkness for light were abominations. He was one who alone could fill up the large measure of the claim All souls are mine. Jesus Christ was this and more to St. Paul. And therefore it was that his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the truth of God exchanged for a lie in this philosophic city of Athens.
IV. Jealousy for the Lord was working in St. Paul.It was the same emotion which burnt in Elijah when he cried out that he had been very jealous for the Lord of Hosts. The Apostle could not bear to see wickedness on the throne of culture. He could not assent to the animal in man enslaving the intellect and stifling the soul of man. And therefore it was that his spirit chafed and fretted as he looked around in Athens, and saw the shameful things before which the best-educated people of antiquity bowed themselves.
Rev. Canon Lewis.
Illustration
One of our weekly reviews in its notice of a book on the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius says: We do not believe in any special pruriency of imagination having infected the Italian mind in the first century. The material remains of Pompeii, surprised by ashes without a moments notice of preparation, show, as a whole, less of that side of human nature than any equal section of London or Paris, if surprised in the same way (Athenum, June 21, 1902). The Christian Church in its authoritative utterances has not gone so far as that. She has never been so bold as to say that London at the present moment exceeds Pompeii in wickedness. Whether it be so or not, it is not for us on the present occasion to decide. But after such plain speaking from the Athenum on the subject of Londons moral condition, it is surely the duty of the Christian Church in the Metropolis to examine herself, and to see whether she has not been too lenient to Londons sinsand whether she has not often been dumb when she ought to have cried aloud and spared not.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
6
Act 17:16. Paul could not wait until Silas and Timotheus came to him when he saw the conditions. Given to idolatry is rendered “full of idols” in the margin, which is correct as may be seen by other verses it this chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 17:16. His spirit was stirred up in him. The whole aspect of Athens was strangely repugnant to Paul; the great cities he was acquainted with, such as Antioch in the east and Thessalonica in the west, were busy commercial centres, full of life and energy, despising rather, while at the same time practising, idolatry. Indifferentism was what he had been combating, rather than anything like a fervid spirit of idolatry; but here he seemed in a different atmosphere, here idolatry was closely bound up with all the pleasures and the occupations of the citizen, was linked indissolubly with those memories of the past of which the people of Athens were so proud.
The comment of Renan, in the course of a splendid and lifelike picture of the Athens of the first century, on Pauls indignation at the idolatry of Athens, is singular:Ah belles et chastes images, vrais dieux et vraies Desses, tremblez, voici celui qui lvera contre vous le Marteau. Le mot fatal est prononc, vous tes des idoles, lerreur de ce laid petit Juif sera votre arrt de mort. It must be remembered that the brilliant sceptic never takes a fair view even from his own cheerless standpoint of Pauls character, and here, strangely enough, views him rather as an Iconoclast than as a denouncer of an impure and cursed worship.
The city wholly given up to idolatry. The Greek word rendered wholly given up to idolatry () only occurs in this passage, but is formed after the analogy of other similar compounded words, such as , a place full of trees so as to be overgrown by them; , a place full of vines. The word here would be translated more accurately, full of idols. The epithet certainly seems to have been singularly appropriate. Other writers, writing of Athens in a different spirit to Paul, could not help noticing this striking peculiarity in the city. Petronius remarks satirically how at Athens one could find a god easier than a man. Another writes how it was almost impossible for one to make his way through these idols. Pausanias states how Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece put together. Xenophons expression is the strongest when he calls Athens one great altar, one great offering to the gods ( ). Livys remark is also noteworthy: In Athens are to be seen images of gods and of men of all descriptions and made of all materials.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Paul and the Athenian Philosophers
While he waited, Paul apparently toured the city and discovered it was totally given over to idolatry. This provoked, or one might say angered, him. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and devout Greeks of the city. He also discussed the gospel with those he met in the marketplace. This drew the attention of certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, some of whom decided they wanted what the “babbler” had to say, while others thought he was talking about foreign gods.
They did take hold of the apostle in a non-threatening way and brought him to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, to present his new philosophy. Coffman notes that Mars was the mythical god of war. One story had it that he was tried on Mars Hill for the murder of one of Neptune’s sons. Interestingly, a messenger for the true Prince of Peace was placed in that spot so that curious philosophers might hear something new ( Act 17:16-21 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Act 17:16-17. While he waited for them at Athens Namely, for Silas and Timothy; his spirit was stirred in him Greek, , was disquieted, vexed, filled with grief and indignation; when he saw the city (a city which was thought to be more enlightened than any other, and in which learning and arts were carried to greater perfection than anywhere else in the world) wholly given to idolatry Greek, , full of idols, enslaved to idolatry in the most gross and shameful manner. That this was the case, all ancient writers attest. Pausanias says that there were more images in Athens than in all Greece besides; and that they worshipped the gods, or expressed more piety to them than all Greece: and presently adds, as an evidence of their piety, that they had altars (, , ) erected to shame, fame, and desire; and again, that they exceeded all in their zeal for the gods. Sophocles bears the same testimony, observing, This city exceeds all others in worshipping and honouring the gods. Hence lian called Athens the altar of Greece; and Xenophon said, that it had twice as many sacred festivals as any other city. And no wonder, for the Athenians always imported the deities and superstitions of every nation along with their arts and learning; and, as Strabo says, their hospitality to strangers extended to the gods too, being very ready to receive any strange objects or forms of worship. So that, as Petronius humorously says, It was easier to find a god than a man there. Here then we have a full proof of the insufficiency of science and philosophy to guide men in matters of religion. The barbarous Scythians, the wild Indians, nay, the stupid Hottentots, as Mr. Scott observes, have never deviated further from truth, or sunk into grosser darkness, in respect to God and religion, than the ingenious and philosophical Athenians did! The apostle, therefore, though, it seems, he had resolved not to begin preaching till Timothy and Silas arrived, yet, seeing the city sunk so low in these various, complicated, and abominable idolatries, could forbear no longer; and therefore, as there was a synagogue of the Jews in Athens, he went to it without delay, and disputed with the Jews and the devout persons Whom he found assembled there: thus offering the gospel to them, as his manner was, before he preached it to the Gentiles. But not content with this, he afterward discoursed in the market-place daily with those that met with him Who were chiefly, doubtless, Athenian idolaters. See Dr. Hammond.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
See notes on verse 15
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
PAUL AT ATHENS
16-33. While Timothy and Silas prosecute the work in the upper country, Paul and Luke spend the time at Athens, the worlds grand emporium of science, literature, philosophy, and idolatry. While he preaches in the forum all the week and in the synagogue on the Sabbath, his very soul is stirred within him, in contemplation of the city crammed full of idolatry. The scene of those majestic marble temples to Jupiter, Minerva, Theseus, Hercules, Bacchus, Niobe and other divinities thrilled me with curiosity, admiration and edification three years ago, after the roll of eighteen hundred years. so many having perished, been spoliated and transported. What must have been the scene in Pauls day when the city was at the acme of her magnificence and the Grecian gods at the zenith of their glory! Ever and anon he is confronted in the Forum by the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, the latter absolute fatalists, teaching that even the gods as well as all people were subject to inexorable fate, and the former downright materialists, denying all spirituality. Because Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection, to them utter novelties, they pronounced him an expositor of strange demons. This word tells the dark secret that heathen nations always have and this day worship demons, Satan being the god of this world and the air thronged with demons, the idolatrous millions and even the fallen churches drifting away into demoniacal worship.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Act 17:16-21. Paul at Athens.Athens was at this time no longer the intellectual centre of the world, nor the best of the leading schools of philosophy; but the fame of the city drew many to it, and a visit to Athens gave finish to the education of a Roman. With no great seriousness, all matters were discussed there, and it offered no promising soil for the Gospel. See Renans chapter on Athens in his St. Paul.
Act 17:16. The images of Athens were multitudinous; the pillaging of Greek masterpieces by Roman magistrates was not yet far advanced, and what Paul saw might have suggested reflections on the magnificent achievements of Greek art. But to his Jewish eye they were the aberrations of men who did not see God in His works but tried to make representations of Him to worship; he would consider they were all there for that purpose (Rom 1:23, 1Th 1:9).
Act 17:17. reasoned: or preached. The Jews and God-fearers in the synagogue did not need to be convinced of the true nature of idols; he had as usual begun with them, but he also preached in the market-place, in the low ground N. of the Acropolis; to those he met with, where all the life of the city, intellectual and otherwise, had its centre.
Act 17:18. It was a matter of course that he would meet with philosophers there; Epicureans and Stoics (pp. 633ff.) were by no means the only schools in Athens, though they were the oldest, and there is nothing characteristic in their questions and replies (cf. Act 2:12 f.).babbler: lit. seed picker, then of one picking up crumbs of wisdom and applying them without skill. Ramsay renders bounder (St. Paul the Traveller, pp. 243ff.).a setter forth of strange gods: this was the charge brought against Socrates. He does not count those gods whom the city counts such, but introduces new demons. The new gods Paul introduced were Jesus and Anastasis, i.e. Resurrection; how this was picked from his words we cannot tell, but the resurrection is treated throughout Ac. as Pauls principal doctrine (see Act 23:6, p. 777). He is taken to the court, not the hill, Areopagus; the court could meet elsewhere, and it also had charge in Roman times of matters of religion and education (p. 614). What follows is not a criminal proceeding but an inquiry. The speech is not calculated for philosophers; it is a popular discourse against idolatry with a Christian conclusion. It is the apparent newness of his doctrine that arouses interest; it is aptly remarked how eagerly new things were sought after at Athens.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
17:16 {9} Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was {f} stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to {g} idolatry.
(9) In comparing the wisdom of God with man’s wisdom, men scoff and mock at that which they do not understand: and God uses the curiosity of fools to gather together his elect.
(f) He could not forbear.
(g) Slavishly given to idolatry: Pausanias writes that there were more idols in Athens than in all Greece; yea they had altars dedicated to Shame, and Fame, and Lust, whom they made goddesses.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Ministry in Athens 17:16-34
This section of Luke’s narrative contains three parts: the experiences of the missionaries that resulted in Paul preaching to the pagan Greeks there, the sermon itself, and the results of the sermon.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Paul’s preliminary ministry in Athens 17:16-21
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3. The ministry in Achaia 17:16-18:17
Luke recorded this section to document the advance of the gospel and the church into the pagan darkness that enveloped the province of Achaia, southern modern Greece.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Athens stood five miles inland from its port of Piraeus, which was on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea. Athens had reached its prime 500 years before Paul visited it, in the time of Pericles (461-429 B.C.). During this time the events of the Book of Nehemiah transpired (ca. 445-420 B.C.), and the post-exilic prophets (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) ministered. However Athens was still the cultural and intellectual center of the Greek world. Paul observed many of the temples and statues that still stand there today. Now these objects are of interest mainly for their artistic value, but in Paul’s day they were idols and places of worship that the Greeks regarded as holy.
"It was said that there were more statues of the gods in Athens than in all the rest of Greece put together, and that in Athens it was easier to meet a god than a man." [Note: Barclay, p. 141.]
Paul’s Jewish upbringing and Christian convictions made all this idolatry repulsive to him.
"The intellectual capital of the world was producing idolatry." [Note: Toussaint, "Acts," p. 402.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 13
ST. PAUL IN GREECE.
Act 17:16-18; Act 18:1
THERE are parallelisms in history which are very striking, and yet these parallelisms can be easily explained. The stress and strain of difficulties acting upon large masses of men evolve and call forth similar types of character, and demand the exercise of similar powers. St. Paul and St. Athanasius are illustrations of this statement. They were both little men, both enthusiastic in their views, both pursued all their lives. long with bitter hostility, and both had experience of the most marvellous and hairbreadth escapes. If any reader will take up Dean Stanleys “History of the Eastern Church,” and react the account given of St. Athanasius in the seventh chapter of that work, he will he strikingly reminded of St. Paul in these various aspects, but specially in the matter of his wondrous escapes from his deadly enemies, which were so numerous that at last they came to regard Athanasius as a magician who eluded their designs by the help of his familiar spirits. It was much the same with St. Paul. Hairbreadth escapes were his daily experience, as he himself points out in the eleventh chapter of his Second Epistle to Corinth. He there enumerates a few of them, but quite omits his escapes from Jerusalem, from the Pisidian Antioch, from Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica. and last of all from Beroea, whence he was driven by the renewed machinations of the Thessalonian Jews, who found out after a time whither the object of their hatred had fled. Pauls ministry at Beroea was not fruitless, short as it may have been. He established a Church there which took good care of the precious life entrusted to its keeping, and therefore as soon as the deputies of the Thessalonian synagogue came to Beroea and began to work upon the Jews of the local synagogue, as well as upon the pagan mob of the town, the Beroean disciples took Paul, who was the special object of Jewish hatred, and despatched him down to the sea-coast, some twenty miles distant, in charge of certain trusty messengers, while Silas remained behind, in temporary concealment doubtless, in order that he might consolidate the Church. Here we get a hint, a passing glimpse of St. Pauls infirmity. He was despatched in charge of trusty messengers, I have said, who were to show him the way. “They that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens.” His ophthalmia, perhaps, had become specially bad owing to the rough usage the had experienced, and so he could not escape all solitary and alone as he did in earlier years from Damascus, and therefore guides were necessary who should conduct him “as far as the sea,” and then, when they had got that far, they did not leave him alone. They embarked in the ship with him, and, sailing to Athens, deposited him safely in a lodging. The journey was by sea, not by land, because a sea journey was necessarily much easier for the sickly and weary Apostle than the land route would have been, offering, too, a much surer escape from the dangers of pursuit.
The voyage was an easy one, and not too prolonged. The boat or ship in which the Apostle was embarked passed through splendid scenery. On his right hand, as he steered for the south, was the magnificent mountain of Olympus, the fabled abode of the gods, rising a clear ten thousand feet into the region of perpetual snow, while on his left was Mount Athos, upon Which he had been looking ever since the day that he left Troas. But the Apostle had no eye for the scenery, nor had St. Luke a word to bestow upon its description, though he often passed through it, absorbed as they were in the contemplation of the awful realities of a world un-seen. The sea voyage from the place where St. Paul embarked till he came to Phalerum, the port of Athens, where he landed, lasted perhaps three or four days, and covered about two hundred miles, being somewhat similar in distance, scenery, and surroundings to the voyage from Glasgow to Dublin or Bristol, land in both cases being in sight all the time and splendid mountain ranges bounding the views on either side.
St. Paul landed about November 1, 51, at Phalerum, one of the two ports of ancient Athens, the Piraeus being the other, and thence his uncertain steps were guided to the city itself, where he was left alone in some lodging. The Beroean Christians to whom he was entrusted returned perhaps in the same vessel in which they had previously travelled, as the winter season, when navigation largely ceased, was now fast advancing, bearing with them a message to Timothy and Silas to come as rapidly as possible to his assistance, the Apostle being practically helpless when deprived of his trusted friends. At Athens St. Paul for a time moved about examining the city for himself, a process which soon roused him to action and brought matters to a crisis. St. Paul was well used to pagan towns and the sights with which they were filled. From his earliest youth in Tarsus idolatry and its abominations must have been a pain and grief to him; but Athens he found to exceed them all, so that “his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.” We have in ancient Greek literature the most interesting confirmation of the statement here made by St. Luke. We still possess a descriptive account of Greece written by a chatty Greek traveller named Pausanias, in the days of the Antonines, that is, less than a hundred years after St. Pauls visit, and when Athens was practically the same as in the Apostles day. Pausanias enters into the greatest details about Athens, describing the statues of gods and heroes, the temples, the worship, the customs of the people, bestowing the first thirty chapters of his book upon Athens alone. Pausaniass “Description of Greece” is most interesting to every one because he saw Athens in the height of its literary glory and architectural splendour, and it is specially interesting to the Bible student because it amply confirms and illustrates the details of St. Pauls visit.
Thus we are told in words just quoted that St. Paul found “the city full of idols,” and this provoked his spirit over and above the usual provocation he received wherever he found dead idols like these usurping the place rightfully belonging to the lord of the universe. Now let us take up Pausanias, and what does he tell us? In his first chapter he tells how the ports of Athens were crowded on every side with temples, and adorned with statues of gold and silver. Phalerum, the port where Paul landed, had temples of Demeter, of Athene, of Zeus, and “altars of gods unknown,” of which we shall presently speak. Then we can peruse chapter after chapter crowded with descriptions of statues and temples, till in the seventeenth chapter we read how in their pantheistic enthusiasm they idolised the most impalpable of things: “The Athenians have in the market-place, among other things not universally notable, an altar to Mercy, to whom, though most useful of all the gods to the life of man and its vicissitudes, the Athenians alone of all the Greeks assign honours. And not only is philanthropy more regarded among them, but they also exhibit more piety to the gods than others; for they have also an altar to Shame and Rumour and Energy. And it is clear that those people who have a larger share of piety than others have also a larger share of good fortune.” While again, in chapter 24, dwelling upon the statues of Hercules and Athene, Pausanias remarks, “I have said before that the Athenians, more than any other Greeks, have a zeal for religion.” Athens was, at the time of St. Pauls visit, the leading university of the world, and university life then was permeated with the spirit of paganism, the lovers of philosophy and science delighting to adorn Athens with temples and statues and endowments as expressions of the gratitude they felt for the culture which they had there gained. These things had, however, no charm for the apostle Paul. Some moderns, viewing him from an unsympathetic point of view, would describe him in their peculiar language as a mere Philistine in spirit, unable to recognise the material beauty and glory which lay around. And this is true. The beauty which the architect and the sculptor would admire was for the Apostle to a large extent non-existent, owing to his defective eye-sight; but even when recognised it was an object rather of dislike and of abhorrence than of admiration and pleasure, because the Apostle saw deeper than the man of mere superficial culture and aesthetic taste. The Apostle saw these idols and the temples consecrated to their use from the moral and spiritual standpoint, and viewed them therefore as the outward and visible signs of an inward festering corruption and rottenness, the more beautiful perhaps because of the more awful decay which lay beneath. The glimpses which St. Paul got of Athens as he wandered about roused his spirit and quickened him to action. He followed his usual course therefore. He first sought his own countrymen the Jews. There was a colony of Jews at Athens, as we know from independent sources. Philo was a Jew the authenticity of whose writings, at least in great part, has never been questioned. He lived at Alexandria at this very period, and was sent, about twelve years earlier, as an ambassador to Rome to protest against the cruel persecutions to which the Alexandrian Jews had been subjected at the time when Caligula made the attempt to erect his statue at Jerusalem, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter. He wrote an account of his journey to Rome and his treatment by the Emperor, which is called “Legatio ad Caium,” and in it he mentions Athens as one of the cities where a considerable Jewish colony existed. We know practically nothing more about this Jewish colony save what we are told here by St. Luke, that it was large enough to have a synagogue, not a mere oratory like the Philippian Jews. It cannot, however, have been a very large one. Athens was not a seat of any considerable trade, and therefore had no such attractions for the Jews as either Thessalonica or Corinth; while its abounding idolatry and its countless images would be repellent to their feelings. Modern investigations have, indeed, brought to light a few ancient inscriptions testifying to the presence of Jews at Athens in these earlier ages; but otherwise we know nothing about them. The synagogue seems to have imbibed a good deal of the same easy-going contemptuously tolerant spirit with which the whole atmosphere of Athens was infected. Jews and pagans alike listened to St. Paul, and then turned away to their own pursuits. In a city where every religion was represented, and every religion discussed and laughed at, how could anyone be very much in earnest? St. Paul then turned from the Jews to the Gentiles. He frequented the marketplace, a well-known spot, near to the favourite meeting-place of the Stoic philosophers. There St. Paul entered into discussion with individuals or with groups as they presented themselves. The philosophers soon took notice of the new-comer. His manner, terribly in earnest, would soon have secured attention in any society, and much more in Athens, where whole-souled and intense enthusiasm was the one intellectual quality which was completely wanting. For who but a man that had heard the voice of God and had seen the vision of the Almighty could be in earnest in a city where residents, and strangers sojourning there, all alike spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing? The philosophers and Stoics and Epicureans alike were attracted by St. Pauls manner. They listened to him as he discoursed of Jesus and the Resurrection, the two topics which absorbed him. They mistook his meaning in a manner very natural to the place, strange as it may seem to us. In Athens the popular worship was thoroughly Pantheistic. Every desire, passion, infirmity even of human nature was deified and adored, and therefore, as we have already pointed out, Pity and Shame and Energy and Rumour, the last indeed the most fitting and significant of them all for a people who simply lived to talk, found spirits willing to prostrate themselves in their service and altars dedicated to their honour. The philosophers heard this new Jewish teacher proclaiming the virtues and blessings of Jesus and the Resurrection, and they concluded Jesus to be one divinity and the Resurrection another divinity, lately imported from the mysterious East. The philosophers were the aristocracy of the Athenian city, reverenced as the University professors in a German or Scotch town, and they at once brought the newcomer before the court of Areopagus, the highest in Athens, charged, as in the time of Socrates, with the duty of supervising the affairs of the national religion, and punishing all attacks and innovations thereon. The Apostle was led up the steps or stairs which still remain, the judges took their places on the rock-hewn benches, St. Paul was placed upon the defendants stone, called, as Pausanias tells us, the Stone of Impudence, and then the trial began.
The Athenian philosophers were cultured, and they were polite. They demand, therefore, in bland tones, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by thee? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things mean.” And now St. Paul has got his chance of a listening audience. He has come across a new type of hearers, such as he has not enjoyed since those early days of his first Christian love, when, after his escape from Jerusalem, he resided at the university city of Tarsus for a long time, till sought out by Barnabas to come and minister to the crowds of Gentiles who were flocking into the Church at Antioch. St. Paul knew right well the tenets of the two classes of men, the Stoics and the Epicureans, with whom he had to contend, and he deals with them effectually in the speech which he delivered before the court. Of that address we have only the barest outline. The report given in the Acts contains about two hundred and fifty words, and must have lasted little more than two minutes if that was all St. Paul said. It embodies, however, merely the leading arguments used by the Apostle as Timothy or some other disciple recollected them and told them to St. Luke. Let us see what these arguments were. He begins with a compliment to the Athenians. The Authorised, and even the Revised, Version represent him indeed as beginning like an unskilled and unwise speaker with giving his audience a slap in the face. “Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are somewhat superstitious,” would not have been the most conciliatory form of address to a keen-witted assembly like that before which he was now standing. It would have tended to set their backs up at once. If we study St. Pauls Epistles, specially his First Epistle to Corinth, we shall find that even when he had to find the most grievous faults with his disciples, he always began like a prudent man by conciliating their feelings, praising them for whatever he could find good or blessed in them. Surely if St. Paul acted thus with believers living unworthy of their heavenly calling, he would be still more careful not to offend men whom he wished to win over to Christ! St. Pauls exordium was complimentary rather than otherwise, bearing out the description which Pausanias gives of the Athenians of his own day, that “they have more than other Greeks, a zeal for religion.” Let us expand his thoughts somewhat that we may grasp their force. “Men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are more religious and more devoted to the worship of the deity than other men. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God.” St. Paul here displays his readiness as a practised orator. He shows his power and readiness to become all things to all men. He seizes upon the excessive devotion of the Athenians. He does not abuse them on account of it, he uses it rather as a good and useful foundation on which he may build a worthier structure, as a good and sacred principle, hitherto misapplied, but henceforth to be dedicated to a nobler purpose. The circumstance upon which St. Paul seized, the existence of an altar dedicated to the unknown God, is amply confirmed by historic evidence. St. Paul may have noticed such altars as he passed up the road from Phalerum, where he landed, to the city of Athens, where, as we learn from Pausanias, the next-century traveller, such altars existed in his time; or he may have seen them on the very hill of Areopagus on which he was standing, where, from ancient times, as we learn from another writer, altars existed dedicated to the unknown gods who sent a plague upon Athens. St. Pauls argument then was this. The Athenians were already worshippers of the Unknown God. This was the very deity he came proclaiming, and therefore he could not be a setter forth of strange gods nor liable to punishment in consequence. He then proceeds to declare more fully the nature of the Deity hitherto unknown. He was the God that made the world and all things therein. He was not identical therefore with the visible creation as the Pantheism of the Stoics declared; but gave to all out of His own immense fulness life and wealth, and all things; neither was He like the gods of the Epicureans who sat far aloof from all care and thought about this lower world. St. Paul taught Gods personal existence as against the Stoics, and Gods providence as against the Epicureans. Then he struck straight at the root of that national pride, that supreme contempt for the outside barbaric world, which existed as strongly among these cultured agnostic Greek philosophers as among the most narrow, fanatical, and bigoted Jews: “He made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find. Him.” A doctrine which must have sounded exceeding strange to these Greeks accustomed to despise the barbarian world, looking down upon it from the height of their learning and civilisation, and regarding themselves as the only favourites of Heaven. St. Paul proclaims on the Hill of Mars Christian liberalism, the catholic and cosmopolitan character of the true religion in opposition to this Greek contempt grounded on mere human position and privilege, as clearly and as loudly as be proclaimed the same great truth at Jerusalem or in the synagogues of the Dispersion in opposition to Jewish exclusiveness grounded on the Divine covenant. St. Paul had grasped the great lesson taught by the prophets of the Old Testament as they prophesied concerning Babylon, Egypt, and Tyre. They proclaimed the lesson which Jewish ears were slow to learn, they taught the Jews the truth which Paul preached to the philosophers of Athens, they acted upon the principle which it was the great work of Pauls life to exemplify, that Gods care and love and providence are over all His works, that His mercies are not restrained to any one nation, but that, having made of one all nations upon the face of the earth, His blessings are bestowed upon them all alike. This truth here taught by St. Paul has been slow to make its way. Men have been slow to acknowledge the equality of all nations in Gods sight, very slow to give up their own claims to exceptional treatment and blessing on the part of the Almighty. The great principle enunciated by the Apostle struck, for instance, at the evil of slavery, yet how slowly it made its way. Till thirty years ago really good and pious men saw nothing inconsistent with Christianity in negro slavery. Christian communions even were established grounded on this fundamental principle, the righteous character of slavery. John Newton was a slave trader, and seems to have seen nothing wrong in it. George Whitefield owned slaves, and bequeathed them as part of his property to be held for his Orphan House in America. But it is not only slavery that this great principle overthrows. It strikes down every form of injustice and wrong. God has made all men of one; they are all equally His care, and therefore every act of injustice is a violation of the Divine law which is thus expressed. Such ideas must have seemed exceedingly strange, and even unnatural to men accustomed to reverence the teaching and study the writings of guides like Aristotle, whose dogma was that slavery was based on the very constitution of nature itself, which formed some men to rule and others to be slaves.
St. Paul does not finish with this. He has not yet exhausted all his message. He had now dealt with the intellectual errors and mistakes of his hearers. He had around him and above him, if he could but see the magnificent figure of Athene, the pride and glory of the Acropolis, with its surrounding temples, the most striking proofs how their intellectual mistakes had led the wise of this world into fatal and degrading practices. In the course of his argument, having shown the nearness of God to man, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” and the Divine desire that man should seek after and know God, he quoted a passage common to several well-known poets, “For we are also His offspring.” This was sufficient for St. Paul, who as we see, in all his Epistles, often flies off at a tangent when a word slips as it were by chance from his pen, leading him off to a new train of ideas. We are the offspring of God. How is it then that men can conceive the Godhead, that which is Divine, to be like unto those gold and silver, brass and marble statues, even though wrought with the greatest possible skill. The philosophers indeed pretended to distinguish between the Eternal Godhead and these divinities and images innumerable, which were but representations of his several characteristics and attributes. But even if they distinguished intellectually, they did not distinguish in practice, and the people from the highest to the lowest identified the idol with the deity itself, and rendered thereto the honour due to God.
St. Paul then proceeds to enunciate his own doctrines. He lightly touches upon, as he did previously at Lystra, {Act 14:16} a subject which neither the time at his disposal nor the position of his hearers would permit him to discuss. He glances at, but does not attempt to explain, why God had postponed to that late date this novel teaching: “The times of ignorance God overlooked; but now He commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent.” This doctrine of repentance, involving a sense of sin and sorrow for it, must have sounded exceeding strange to those philosophic ears, as did the announcement with which the Apostle follows it up, the proclamation of a future judgment by a Man whom God had ordained for the purpose, and authenticated by raising Him from the dead. Here the crowd interrupted him. The Resurrection, or Anastasis, which Paul preached was not then a new deity, but an impossible process through which no man save in fable had ever passed. When the Apostle got thus far the assembly broke up. The idea of a resurrection of a dead man was too much for them. It was too ludicrous for belief. “Some mocked: but others said, We will hear thee again of this matter,” and thus ended St. Pauls address, and thus ended too the Athenian opportunity, for St. Paul soon passed away from such a society of learned triflers and scoffers. They sat in the seat of the scorner, and the seat of the scorner is never a good one for a learner to occupy who wishes to profit. He felt that he had no great work to do in such a place. His opportunity lay where hearts were broken with sin and sorrow, where the burden of life weighed upon the soul, and men heavy laden and sore pressed were longing for a real deliverance and for a higher, nobler life than the world could offer. His work, however, was not all in vain, nor were his personal discussions and his public address devoid of results. The Church of Athens was one of those which could look back to St. Paul as its founder. “Not many wise after the flesh were called” in that city of wisdom and beauty, but some were called, among whom was one of those very judges who sat to investigate the Apostles teaching: “But certain clave unto him, and believed: among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” And this Church thus founded became famous; Dionysius the Areopagite became afterwards a celebrated man, because his name was attached some five centuries later to a notorious forgery which has played no small part in later Christian history. Dionysius was the first bishop of the Athenian Church according to the testimony of another Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, who lived in the middle of the second century, while persons were yet living who could remember the Areopagite. He was succeeded by Publius, who presided over the Church at an important period of its existence. The Emperor Hadrian came to Athens, and was charmed with it about the year 125 A.D. At that time the Athenian Church must have included among its members several learned men; for the two earliest “Apologies” in defence of Christianity were produced by it. The Athenian Church had just then been purified by the fiery trials of persecution.
Quadratus and Aristides stood forth to plead its cause before the Emperor. Of Quadratus and his work we know but little. Eusebius, the great Church historian, had, however, seen it, and gives us (“H.E.,” 4:3) a brief abstract of it, appealing to the miracles of our Saviour, and stating that some of the dead whom Christ had raised had lived to his own time. While as for Aristides, the other apologist, his work, after lying hidden from the sight of Christendom, was printed and published last year, as we have told in the former volume of this commentary. That “Apology” of Aristides has much important teaching for us, as we have there tried to show. There is one point, however, to which we did not allude. The “Apology” of Aristides shows us that the Athenian Church accepted in the fullest degree and preserved the great Pauline doctrine of the freedom and catholic nature of Christianity. In the year 125 Judaism and Christianity were still struggling together within the Church in other places; but at Athens they had clean separated the one from the other. Till that year no one but a circumcised Jewish Christian had ever presided over the Mother Church of Jerusalem, which sixty years after the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul preserved exactly the same attitude as in the days of James the Just. The Church of Athens, on the other hand, as a thoroughly Gentile Church, had from the first enjoyed the ministry of Dionysius the Areopagite, a Gentile of culture and education. He had been attracted by the broad liberal teaching of the Apostle in his address upon Mars Hill, enunciating a religion free from all narrow national limitations. He embraced this catholic teaching with his whole heart, and transmitted it to his successors, so that when some seventy years later a learned Athenian stood forth in the person of Aristides, to explain the doctrines of the Church, contrasting them with the errors and mistakes of all other nations, Aristides does not spare even the Jews. He praises them indeed when compared with the pagans, who had erred on the primary questions of morals; but he blames them because they had not reached the final and absolute position occupied by the Christians. Listen to the words of Aristides which proclaim the true Pauline doctrine taught in St. Pauls sermons, re-echoed by the Epistles, “Nevertheless the Jews too have gone astray from accurate knowledge, and they suppose in their minds that they are serving God, but in the methods of their service, their service is to angels and not to God, in that they observe Sabbaths and new moons, and the passover, and the great fast, and the fast and circumcision, and cleanness of meats,” words which sound exactly the same note and embody the same conception as St. Paul in his indignant language to the Galatians: {Gal 4:9-11} “Now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labour upon you in vain.”
St. Paul did not stay long at Athens. Five or six weeks perhaps, two months at most, was probably the length of his visit, time enough just for his Beroean guides to go back to their own city two hundred miles away, and forward their message to Thessalonica fifty miles distant, desiring Timothy and Silas to come to him. Timothy, doubtless, soon started upon his way, tarried with the Apostle for a little, and then returned to Thessalonica, as we learn from 1Th 3:1 : “When we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timothy to establish you and comfort you.” And now he was again all alone in that scoffing city where neither the religious, moral, nor intellectual atmosphere could have been pleasing to a man like St. Paul. He quitted Athens therefore and came to Corinth. In that city he laboured for a period of a year and a half at least; and yet the record of his brief visit to Athens, unsuccessful as it was so far as immediate results are concerned, is much longer than the record of his prolonged work in Corinth.
Now if we were writing a life of St. Paul instead of a commentary on the history told us in the Acts, we should be able to supplement the brief narrative of the historical book with the ample details contained in the Epistles of St. Paul, especially the two Epistles written to Corinth itself, which illustrate the life of the Apostle, his work at Corinth, and the state of the Corinthians themselves prior and subsequent to their conversion. A consideration of these points would, however, lead me to intrude on the sphere of the commentator on the Corinthian Epistles, and demand an amount of space which we cannot afford. In addition, the three great biographies of St. Paul to which we have so often referred-Lewins, Farrars, and that of Conybeare and Howson-treat this subject at such great length and with such a profusion of archaeological learning as practically leave a fresh writer nothing new to say in this direction. Let us, however, look briefly at the record in the Acts of St. Pauls work in Corinth, viewing it from the expositors point of view. St. Paul went from Athens to Corinth discouraged, it may have been, by the results of his Athenian labours. Opposition never frightened St. Paul; but learned carelessness, haughty contemptuous indifference to his Divine message, the outcome of a spirit devoid of any true spiritual life, quenched his ardour, chilled his enthusiasm. He must indeed have been sorely repelled by Athens when he set out all alone for the great capital of Achaia, the wicked, immoral, debased city of Corinth. When He came thither he united himself with Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, and Priscilla, his wife, because they were members of the same craft. They had been lately expelled from Rome, and, like the Apostle, were tent-makers: for convenience sake therefore, and to save expense, they all lodged together. Here again St. Paul experienced the wisdom of his fathers training and of the Rabbinical law, which thus made him in Corinth, as before in Thessalonica, thoroughly independent of all external circumstances, and able with his own hands to minister to his bodys wants. And it was a fortunate thing too for the gospels sake: that he was able to do so. St. Paul never permits anyone to think for a moment that the claim of Christs ministry for a fitting support is a doubtful one. He expressly teaches again and again, as in 1Co 9:1-27., that it is the Scriptural as well as rational duty of the people to contribute according to their means to the maintenance of Christs public ministry. But there were certain circumstances at Thessalonica, and above all at Corinth, which made St. Paul waive his just claim and even cramp, limit, and confine his exertions, by imposing on himself the work of earning his daily food. Thessalonica and Corinth had immense Jewish populations. The Jews were notorious in that age as furnishing the greatest number of impostors, quack magicians, and every other kind of agency which traded upon human credulity for the purpose of gain.
St. Paul was determined that neither Jew nor Gentile in either place should be able to hinder the work of the gospel by accusing him of self-seeking or covetous purposes. For this purpose he united with Aquila and Priscilla in working: at their common trade as tentmakers, employing the Sabbath days in debating after the usual fashion in the Jewish synagogues; and upon ordinary days improving the hours during which his hands laboured upon the coarse hair cloth of which tents were made, either in expounding: to his fellow-workmen the glorious news which he proclaimed or else in meditating upon the trials of his converts in Macedonia, or perhaps, most of all, in that perpetual communion with God, that never-ceasing intercession for which he ever found room and time in the secret chambers of the soul. St. Pauls intercessions, as we read of them in his Epistles, were immense. Intercessory prayers for his individual converts are frequently mentioned by him. It would have been impossible for a man so hard. pressed with labours of every kind, temporal and spiritual, to find place for them all in formal prayers if St. Paul did not cultivate the habit of ceaseless communion with his Father in heaven, perpetually bringing before God those cases and persons which lay dearest to his heart. This habit of secret prayer must be the explanation of St. Pauls widespread intercessions, and for this reason. He commends the same practice again and again to his converts. “Pray without ceasing” is his language to the Thessalonians. {1Th 5:17} Now this could not mean, prolong your private devotions to an inordinate length, because great numbers of his converts were slaves who were not masters of their time. But it does mean cultivate a perpetual sense of Gods presence and of your own communion with Him, which will turn life and its busiest work into a season of refreshing prayer and untiring intercession.
Meanwhile, according to Act 18:5, Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, bringing contributions for the Apostles support, which enabled him to fling himself entirely into ministerial and evangelistic work. This renewed activity soon told. St. Paul had no longer to complain of contemptuous or listless conduct, as at Athens. He experienced at Jewish hands in Corinth exactly the same treatment as at Thessalonica and Beroea. Paul preached that Jesus was the Christ. The Jews blasphemed Him, and called Him accursed. Their attitude became so threatening that Paul was at length compelled to retire from the synagogue, and, separating his disciples, Jews and Gentiles alike, he withdrew to the house of one Justus, a man whose Latin name bespeaks his Western origin, who lived next door to the synagogue. Thenceforth he threw himself with all his energy into his work. God too directly encouraged him. The very proximity of the Christian Church to the Jewish Synagogue constituted a special danger to himself personally when he had to deal with fanatical Jews. A heavenly visitor appeared, therefore, to refresh the wearied saint. In his hour of danger and of weakness Gods strength and grace were perfected, and assurance was granted that the Lord had much people in the city of Corinth, and that no harm should happen to him while striving to seek out. and gather Gods sheep that were scattered abroad in the midst of the naughty world of Corinthian life. And the secret vision did not stand alone. External circumstances lent their assistance and support. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and his family became converts, and were baptised. Gains and Stephanas were important converts gathered from amongst the Gentiles; so important indeed were these three individuals and their families that St. Paul, turned aside from his purely evangelistic and missionary labours and devoted himself to the pastoral work of preparing them for baptism, administering personally that holy sacrament, a duty which he usually left to his assistants, who were not so well qualified for the rough pioneer efforts of controversy, which he had marked out for himself. And so the work went on for a year and a half, till the Jews thought they saw their opportunity for crushing the audacious apostate who was thus making havoc even among the officials of their own organisation, inducing them to join his Nazarene synagogue. Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital, was a Roman province, embracing, broadly speaking, the territory comprised in the modern kingdom of Greece. Like a great many other provinces, and specially like Cyprus, to which we have already called attention, Achaia was at times an imperial, at times a senatorial province. Forty years earlier it was an imperial province. The Acts describes it as just then, that is, about A.D. 53, a senatorial or proconsular province; and Suetonius, an independent Roman historian, confirms this, telling us (“Claud.,” 25) that the Emperor Claudius restored it to the senate.
Gallio, a brother of the celebrated philosophic writer Seneca, had been sent to it as proconsul, and the Jews thought they now saw their opportunity. Gallio, whose original and proper name was Annaeus Novatus, was a man distinguished by what in Rome was considered his sweet, gentle, and loving disposition. His reputation may have preceded him, and the Jews of Corinth may have thought that they would play upon his easy-going temper. The Jews, being a very numerous community at Corinth had it of course in their power to prove very unpleasant to any ruler, and specially to one of Gallios reputed temper. The Roman governors were invested with tremendous powers; they were absolute despots, in fact, for the time being, and yet they were often very anxious to gain popularity, especially with any troublesome body of their temporary subjects. The Roman proconsuls, in fact, adopted a principle we sometimes see still acted out in political life, as if it were the highest type of statesmanship. They were anxious to gain popularity by gratifying those who made themselves specially obnoxious and raised the loudest cries. They petted the naughty, and they neglected the good. So it was with Pontius Pilate, who perpetrated a judicial murder because it contented the multitude; so it was with Festus, who left an innocent mart in bonds at Caesarea because he desired to gain favour with the Jews; and so too, thought the Jews of Corinth, it would be with Gallio, They arrested the Apostle, therefore, using the messengers of the synagogue for the purpose, and brought him to the proconsular court, where they set him before the bema, or elevated platform, whence the Roman magistrates dispensed justice. Then they laid their formal accusation against him: “This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law”; expecting perhaps that he would be remitted by the proconsul to the judgment and discipline of their own domestic tribunal, even as Pilate said to the Jews about our Lord and their accusation against Him: “Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law.” But the philosophic brother of the Stoic Seneca had a profound contempt for these agitating Jews. His Stoic education too had trained him to allow external things as little influence upon the mind as possible. The philosophic apathy which the Stoics cultivated must have more or less affected his whole nature, as he soon showed the Jews; for before the Apostle had time to reply to the charge Gallio burst in contemptuously. If it were a matter of law and order, he declares, it would be right to attend to it; but if your complaint is touching your own national law and customs I will have nothing to say to it. And then he commanded his lictors to clear the court. Thus ended the attempt on St. Pauls freedom or life, an attempt which was indeed more disastrous to the Jews themselves than to anyone else; for the Gentile mob of Corinth, hating the Jews, and glad to see them balked of their expected prey, seized the chief accuser Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat; while Gallio all the while cared for none of these things, despising the mob, Jew and Gentile alike, and contemptuously pitying them from the height of his philosophic self-contentment. Gallio has been at all times regarded as the type of the mere worldling, who, wrapped in material interests, cares for nothing higher or nobler. But this is scarcely fair to Gallio. The Stoic philosopher was not dead to better things. But he is the type rather of men who, blinded by lower truths and mere intellectual wisdom, are thereby rendered careless of those spiritual matters in which the souls true life alone consists. He had so thoroughly cultivated a philosophic contempt for the outside world and its business, the sayings and doings, the joys and the sorrows of the puny mortals who fume and strut and fret their lives away upon this earthly stage, that he lost the opportunity of hearing from the Apostles tips of a grander philosophy, a deeper contentment, of a truer, more satisfying peace than was ever dreamt of in stoical speculation. And this type of man is not extinct. Philosophy, science, art, literature, politics, they are all great facts, all offer vast fields for human activity, and all may serve for a time so thoroughly to content and satisfy mans inner being as to render him careless of that life in Christ which alone abideth for evermore.
The attempt of the Jews marked the termination of St. Pauls work in Corinth. It was at least the beginning of the end. He had now laboured longer in Corinth than anywhere else since he started out from Antioch. He had organised and consolidated the Church, as we can see from his Corinthian Epistles, and now he longed once more to visit his old friends, and report what God had wrought by his means during his long absence. He tarried, therefore, yet a while, visiting doubtless, the various Churches which he had established throughout all the province of Achaia, and then, accompanied by a few companions, set sail for Syria, to declare the results of his eventful mission, taking Ephesus on his way. This was his first visit to that great city, and he was probably led to pay it owing to the commercial necessities of Aquila. Lifes actions and deeds, even in the case of an apostle, are moulded by very little things. A glance, a chance word, a passing courtesy, forgotten as soon as done, and life is very different from what it otherwise would have been. And so, too, the tent-making and tent-selling of Aquila brought Paul to Ephesus, shaped the remainder of his career, and endowed the Church with the rich spiritual heritage of the teaching imparted to the Ephesian disciples by word and epistle.