“822. ATHENS—ACTS 17:15-21; 1 THESSALONIANS 2:17-20; 3:1-5”

Athens—Act_17:15-21; 1Th_2:17-20; 1Th_3:1-5

Behold Paul, then, at Athens!

Before we consider his proceedings there, it may be desirable to consider the then subsisting condition of the renowned city to which be came. The ancient military and political splendor had departed, and the seat of government had, since the conquest of Greece by the Romans, been transferred to Corinth. Yet the sun of her glory had not yet set. She was still the center of Grecian, and indirectly of Roman, refinement. Philosophy and the liberal arts were still carefully cultivated; students, in every department, and from every quarter, still resorted thither for improvement; and her streets were still crowded by senators and rhetoricians, philosophers and statesmen. The eye of the stranger still rested with wonder upon the temples, and porticos, and statues—the masterpieces of art. It may be concluded that the apostle landed at Phalerus, since this is the nearest Athenian port to one coming from Macedonia, and since the altars of the unknown gods, which he declares that he had noticed, were on the way from it to the city. As he stepped on shore at the port, he beheld before him the splendid temple of Ceres, another to Minerva, and another to Jupiter. A little further on are some altars—and pausing to read the inscriptions, he finds on one of them the dedication, “To the Unknown God.” Beyond, he could not fail to notice a temple without doors or roof. It is that of Juno, burnt by Mardonius at the time of the Persian invasion, and standing in this state as a monument of the event. He enters the city gates; on either hand are painted porticos, with bronze statues of the most illustrious characters the city had produced. On the left is the Pnyx, a small but celebrated hill, where, standing on a block of bare stone, Demosthenes had in times of old sent forth the thunders of his eloquence to the Athenians assembled in front. Advancing onward, the traveller beheld the statues of Conon, and of his scarcely less celebrated son Timotheus; and then he reaches another painted portico on whose walls is portrayed the battle of Mantinaea, and in the foreground of it was seen the commanding figure of Epaminondas. His eye then rests on a statue whose kindling features and vehement action bespeak the whirlwind of thought within—this is Demosthenes. Here also are the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, of Miltiades and Themistocles. There is Philip of Macedon, and near him his mightier son—Alexander the Great. Beyond is the majestic figure of Solon, the Athenian legislator, erected in front of a portico, where in glowing colors is depicted on one side the capture of Troy, and on the other the glorious struggle of the band of patriots against the countless hosts of Persia, on the field of Marathon.

Athens

Paul would not enter the idol temples by which he was surrounded; but if he could have gone into that of Demus and the Graces hard by, he might have seen a statue in bronze, on which even an Israelite might have looked with interest—being that of Hyrcanus, the Jewish pontiff-prince, voted by the Athenian people in acknowledgment of the courteous kindness he had often shown to their citizens. Note: See a copy of the entire decree in Josephus’ Antiquities, xiv. 8, 5. On the right the stranger passes the Areopagus or Mars’ Hill, ascended by sixteen steps from the forum or market place on the south-east, and on the platform at the top is the Court of Areopagus, the Senate of Athens—that august assembly which determined the weightiest matters of policy, and settled the religion of the State. It was at this bar that Socrates was arraigned, and it was here that Paul himself was soon to plead. In front of him rises the Acropolis, crowned with the marvel of every age, from Pericles to the present—the Parthenon, formed of white Pentelican marble, and adorned with the finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias. By the side of it, upon the height, stands the champion of the city, Pallas Promachos, wrought in bronze, and towering so high above the other buildings that the plume of her helmet and the point of her spear were visible on the sea between Sunimn and Athens.

The Acropolis at Athens

But to describe, or even to indicate, all the temples and statues of Athens, were an endless task. There was every conceivable variety of structure and sculpture. There were statues colossal, full-sized and diminutive; some in bronze, some in marble, others in stone, others in wood, others in pottery; some plain, some painted, others overlaid with ivory, or silver, or gold; some isolated, others projecting in relief from the wall. Well, therefore, might the sacred historian say that Paul’s spirit was stirred within him when he scanned a city so “crowded with idols.” Note: This is his expression; or, as in the margin of the Authorized Version, “full of idols”—better than “wholly given to idolatry.” So signally was this the fact, that it struck the attention of even heathen observers. One Note: Cicero. describes it as full of temples; another Note: Pausanias. tells us that there were more statues in this city than in all the rest of Greece; while the satirist Note: Petronius. declares that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens.

It may be doubtful whether Paul had any intention of preaching the Gospel in Athens when he arrived at that city. It is possible that he merely sought temporary shelter there, beyond the bounds of the Macedonian jurisdiction, until he should be joined by Silas and Timothy, and be able to concert with them the course of operations for the prosecution of the evangelization of Macedonia, which had been interrupted at Thessalonica and Berea. We gather this from the first of the epistles he wrote not long after to the Thessalonians (1Th_2:17), in which he states that, when he left their city, in such haste, he had anticipated but a very brief absence—“for an hour’s time.” He had expected that the storm would soon blow over, and that, after preaching the Gospel for a time at Berea, he might return to Thessalonica. But new troubles had overtaken him at Berea, and he had fled for his life to a distant city. Yet at Athens he still cherished the hope that, by the time Silas and Timothy joined him, matters would have changed sufficiently for the better to permit them to revisit Thessalonica together.

But while thus awaiting their arrival, one of Paul’s earnest and ardent temperament could ill brook to remain an idle spectator, while the grossest superstitions were reigning around: “His heart was hot within him, and while he was musing the fire kindled, and at the last he spake with his tongue.” He therefore entered with zeal upon his usual course of labor, varied in form by the peculiar conditions of the place. On the Sabbath days he declared the Gospel in the synagogues to the Jews and proselytes; and during the week he daily frequented the market-place at the foot of the Acropolis and the Areopagus, opening the truths of religion to the groups of loungers and the casual passers by. What a busy scene was here! Around were porticos 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 for books, there the stalls of fruits and flowers. Here the mind’s eye beholds the apostle, in humble garb, encircled by dealers and chapmen, busy bodies and idlers, listening with curiosity to the strange doctrine flowing from a tongue eloquent indeed, but which to the quick Athenian ear, perhaps betrayed a provincial accent. The stranger was clearly no common man. He appeared to possess high gifts of nature and attainments of human learning; for he could return a quick and ready answer to the most astute cavilers; and those who listened caught felicitous allusions to and quotations from their own poets. He was sure to lack no audience there; for “all the Athenians and the strangers that were there,” says Luke, “spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” This character of them is abundantly sustained by ancient writers. Demosthenes observes, in almost the same words, “We Athenians stay at home doing nothing, always delaying, and making decrees, and asking in the market if there be anything new.” The love of gossiping and news among this mercurial people is shown by the fact, that there were at Athens regular gossiping houses, devoted to the accommodation of persons who met together to hear and tell news. These may have answered in some measure to our coffee shops, and it is stated that there were three hundred and sixty of them in Athens. Others resorted for exchange of news to the shops of the surgeons and the barbers.

In such a place, and among such a people, the zeal of the apostle could not fail, sooner or later, to bring him into collision with the prevailing system of idolatry. His strange doctrine, set forth with so much ability, learning, and eloquence, attracted public observation, and even the Epicureans and Stoics, loitering about in learned leisure, did not deem it beneath their dignity to contend with so able a disputant.

Autor: JOHN KITTO