{"id":14902,"date":"2016-08-18T01:41:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T06:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pauland-the-athenians\/"},"modified":"2016-08-18T01:41:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T06:41:40","slug":"pauland-the-athenians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pauland-the-athenians\/","title":{"rendered":"PAUL\nAND THE ATHENIANS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>F. F. Bruce<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><i>[F. F. Bruce, D.D., F.B.A., is Rylands professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, England, and is the author of many articles and books on biblical and archaeological subjects.]<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>Paul in Athens<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Luke\u2019s vivid account of Paul\u2019s stay in Athens (Acts 17:16\u201334), for all the accuracy of its local colour, has for a variety of reasons been assessed sceptically by several students of his writings. Happily, we have Paul\u2019s assurance that he did spend some time in Athens, and that for part of that time he was on his own: he tells the Christians of Thessalonica how he sent Timothy back to visit and help them, while he himself was \u2018willing to be left behind at Athens alone\u2019 (1 Th 3:1). From all that we know of Paul, we can be certain that in Athens, as elsewhere, he allowed no opportunity for apostolic witness to pass him by. Luke describes some opportunities which he seized, and goes into considerable detail about one of them.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>He pictures Paul as viewing the temples, altars and images of Athens through the eyes of one brought up in the spirit of Jewish monotheism and the aniconic principles of the second commandment of the decalogue (vs 16). \u2018What pagans sacrifice\u2019, Paul maintained, \u2018they offer to demons and not to God\u2019 (1 Corinthians 10:20), and those who \u2018exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man\u2019 or anything else \u2018exchanged the truth of God for a lie\u2019 because they \u2018worshipped and served the creature rather <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 84<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>than the Creator\u2019 (Romans 1:23, 25). In the <i>agora<\/i> at the foot of the Acropolis, the citizens of Athens met to exchange the latest news, there was no lack of men ready to enter into debate with him about the nature of the divine being (vs. 17). Some of those professed attachment to the Stoic or Epicurean schools of philosophy (vs. 18), but none of them could come to terms with this strange visitor, so passionately in earnest as he talked about Jesus, \u2018designated Son of God in power&#8230;&#8230;by his resurrection from the dead\u2019 (as Paul puts it in Roman 1:4). To some he appeared to be a retailer of scraps of second-hand learning (a <i>spermologos,<\/i> as they said, using an Athenian slang term); to others he appeared to be commending foreign divinities, and so rendered himself amenable to the jurisdiction of the Areopagus (verses 18, 19).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>This body, the most venerable of Athenian institutions, going back into the mists of legendary antiquity, had at one time discharged the functions of a senate. With the growth of democracy in Athens, its earlier powers were greatly reduced, but it retained considerable prestige and continued to exercise responsibility in the realm of religion, morals and homicide. It derived its name from the fact that its original meeting-place was on Areopagus, the hill west of the Acropolis; <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b><i>The agora at Athens where Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18)<\/i><\/b><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 85<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>in Roman times, however, it held most of its meetings in the Royal Portico (the <i>stoa basileios<\/i>) in the <i>agora<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>The Areopagus speech<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Before this court, then, Paul was brought and invited to expound his teaching. It is uncertain whether we are intended to envisage him as addressing it in the Royal Portico or on the Areopagus itself. The latter is the traditional view: the visitor to Athens to-day can see the text of Paul\u2019s address to the court inscribed on bronze at the foot of the ascent to the hill (verses 22\u201331).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b><i>Paul\u2019s message to the Athenians inscribed on a plaque at the foot of Mars Hill<\/i><\/b><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Some of the motifs of this speech have appeared earlier in the short summary of Barnabas\u2019 and Paul\u2019s protest to the people of Lystra who were preparing to pay them divine honours (Acts 17:15\u201317), but the <i>Areopagitica<\/i> is fuller, more detailed and adapted to the intellectual climate of Athens. At Athens, as formerly at Lystra, the Paul of Acts does not expressly quote Old Testament prophecies which would be quite unknown to his audience: such direct quotations as his speech contains are from Greek poets. But he does not argue from \u2018first principles\u2019 of the kind that formed the basis of various systems of Greek philosophy; his exposition and defence of his <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 86<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>message are founded on the biblical revelation and they echo the thought, and at times the very language, of the Old Testament writings. Like the biblical revelation itself, his speech begins with God the creator of all, continues with God the sustainer of all, and concludes with God the judge of all.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>The knowledge of the unknown God (verses 22\u201325)<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>He finds his text, his point of contact, in an altar-dedication which illustrated the intense religiosity of the Athenians \u2014 a quality which impressed many other visitors to their city in antiquity. The dedication read: <i>Agnosto Theo<\/i> (\u2018To an Unknown God\u2019). Other writers tell us that altars to unknown gods were to be seen at Athens: if it is pointed out that no other speaks of an altar \u2018to an unknown god\u2019 (in the singular), it may suffice to say that two or more dedications \u2018to an unknown god\u2019 might be summarily referred to as \u2018altars to unknown gods\u2019 (in the plural).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Various tales were told to account for such anonymous dedications: according to one tale, they were set up by the direction of Epimenides, a wise man of Crete, one of the poets quoted in the course of the speech. Whatever may have been the original circumstances or intention of the inscription which Paul took as his text, he interprets it as a confession of ignorance regarding the divine nature, and says that the purpose of his coming is to dispel that ignorance.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>He proceeds, then, to instruct them in the doctrine of God. First, God has created the universe with all that it contains; he is Lord of heaven and earth. This is the very language of biblical revelation: God Most High is \u2018maker of heaven and earth\u2019 (Gn 14:19, 23); \u2018the earth is the Lord\u2019s and the fulness thereof (Ps 24:1). No concessions are allowed to Hellenistic paganism; no distinction is made between the Supreme Being and a \u2018demiurge\u2019 or master-workman who fashioned the world because the Supreme Being was too pure to come into polluting contact with the material order.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Second, God does not inhabit shrines which human hands have built. Stephen\u2019s defence makes this point to the Sanhedrin with reference to the Jerusalem temple, built for the worship of the living God; much more could Paul see fit to impress it on the Areopagus in full view of the magnificent temples which crowned the Acropolis, dedicated to gods that were no gods. The higher paganism, indeed, acknowledged that no material structure could accommodate the <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 87<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b><i>The Acropolis at Athens<\/i><\/b><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>divine nature: \u2018What house fashioned by builders\u2019, asked Euripides, \u2018could contain the form divine within enclosing walls?\u2019 But the affinities of Paul\u2019s language are biblical and not classical.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Third, God requires nothing from those whom he has created. Here, too, parallels to Paul\u2019s argument can be adduced from classical Greek literature: Plato\u2019s <i>Euthyphro<\/i> comes to mind. But Paul stands right within the prophetic tradition. The prophets and psalmists in their day had to refute the idea that the God of Israel was in some degree dependent on his people and their gifts: his people were completely dependent on him. Thus in Ps 50:9\u201312 he declines their sacrifices in these terms:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>I will accept no bull from your house,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>nor he-goat from your folds.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>For every beast of the forest is mine,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>the cattle on a thousand hills.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>I know all the birds of the air,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>and all that moves in the field is mine.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>If I were hungry, I would not tell you,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>for the world and all that is in it is mine.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>This is precisely Paul\u2019s emphasis when he declares that, if God <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 88<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>accepts service from men, it is not because he cannot do without it. Far from their supplying any need of his, it is he who supplies every need of theirs.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>The doctrine of man (verses 26\u201331)<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Since the creator of all things in general is the creator of the human race in particular, Paul moves on from the doctrine of God to the doctrine of man.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>First, man is one. The Greeks might take pride in their natural superiority to barbarians; the Athenians might boast that, unlike their fellow-Greeks, they were autochthonous, sprung from the soil of their Attic homeland. But Paul affirms that mankind is one in origin, all created by God and all descended from a common ancestor. Before God, all human beings meet on one level.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Second, man\u2019s earthly abode and the course of the seasons have been designed for his well-being. This too is a biblical insight. The earth, according to Genesis 1, was formed and furnished to be man\u2019s home before man was introduced as its occupant. Moreover, part of the forming and furnishing of man\u2019s home on earth consisted in the provision of habitable zones to serve as living space for mankind and in the regulation of \u2018allotted periods\u2019. The former provision is implied in Dt 32:8:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>when he separated the sons of men,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>He fixed the bounds of the peoples<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>The \u2018allotted periods\u2019 (vs. 26) are to be identified either with the sequence of seed-time and harvest (as in the speech at Lystra) or with the epochs of human history (as in the visions of Daniel).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Third, God\u2019s purpose in making these arrangements was that men might seek and find him \u2014 a desire all the more natural because they are his offspring and he aids them in the attainment of his desire by his nearness to them. It is here that the terminology of the speech shows closest Hellenistic affinities, but to a different audience Paul could have expressed the same thought by saying that man is God\u2019s creature, made in his image. To his Athenian audience he establishes his point by two quotations from Greek poets which set forth men\u2019s relation to the Supreme Being.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The first quotation is based on the fourth line of a quatrian attributed to Epimenides the Cretan, in which his fellow-islanders are denounced for their impiety in claiming that the tomb of Zeus could be <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 89<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>seen in Crete:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one \u2014<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest for ever.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><i>For in thee we live and move and have our being<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>The second comes from the poem on <i>Natural Phenomena<\/i> by Paul\u2019s fellow-Cilician Aratus, a poet deeply influenced by Stoicism. This poem opens with a celebration of Zeus \u2014 Zeus the Supreme Being of Stoic philosophy rather than Zeus the head of the Greek mythological pantheon:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>Let us begin with Zeus: never, O men, let us<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>leave him unmentioned. Full of Zeus are all the ways<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>and all the meeting-places of men; the sea and the<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>harbours are full of him. It is with Zeus that<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>every one of us in every way has to do,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'><i>for we are also his offspring<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>It is not suggested that even the Paul of Acts (let alone the Paul whom we know from his letters) envisaged God in terms of the Zeus of Stoic pantheism, but if men whom his hearers recognized as authorities had used language which could corroborate his argument, he would quote their words, giving them a biblical sense as he did so. Paul\u2019s concern was to impress on his hearers the responsibility of all men, as God\u2019s creatures into whom he has breathed the breath of life, to give him the honour which is his due. And this honour is not given when the divine nature is depicted in material forms. Again we hear the echo of Hebrew prophecy and psalmody when pagan idolatry is under review (Ps 115:4):<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>Their idols are silver and gold,<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>the work of men\u2019s hands. . .<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Finally, a call to repentance is issued. Their ignorance of the divine nature was culpable, but God had mercifully overlooked it. As the people of Lystra were told that God had hitherto \u2018allowed all the nations to follow their own ways\u2019, with the implication that now a fresh beginning had come about, so the members of the Areopagus are told that the recent resurrection of Christ is the pledge that by his agency God is about to \u2018judge the world in righteousness\u2019 \u2014 a further echo of the Hebrew psalmists, who announce that God \u2018will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in equity\u2019 (Ps 98:9). <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 90<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>The \u2018man whom he has appointed\u2019 to execute this judgement is readily identified with the \u2018one like a son of man\u2019 who, in Dn 7:13f, is seen receiving world-wide authority from the Ancient of Days, and therefore with the one to whom, according to Jn 5:27, the Father has given \u2018authority to execute judgment, because he is Son of man\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>The Paulinism of the Areopagus speech<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>There are many features in this speech which have caused it to be marked down quite confidently as non-Pauline. H. J. Cadbury remarked that \u2018the classicists are among the most inclined to plead for the historicity of the scene of Paul at Athens\u2019 \u2014 Areopagus address and all. Outstanding among such classicists was Eduard Meyer, who not only professed his inability to understand \u2018how any one has found it possible to explain this scene as an invention\u2019 but even claimed to have persuaded Eduard Norden to concede at least the possibility that Luke reproduced the genuine content of Paul\u2019s speech. Norden had argued against its authenticity in his <i>Agnostos Theos<\/i> (1913), a work based on an exceptionally penetrating analysis of the speech: the Attic flavour of the passage betokened, to his mind, a literary construction made with the aid of an external model. And a more illustrious classicist than Norden or Meyer, the great Wilamowitz, had concluded that the religious sentiment of the <i>Areopagitica<\/i> was not that of the real Paul, who (unlike the composer of the speech) did not directly take over any of the elements of Greek education.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>But it is theologians rather than classicists who have, one after another, most categorically denied any association of the <i>Areopagitica<\/i> with the Paul of the letters. Here, says one, the Pauline emphasis on being \u2018in Christ\u2019 by grace is replaced by a pagan emphasis on being \u2018in God\u2019 by nature. Instead of setting forth the Pauline gospel, says another, the speech anticipates the rationalism of the second-century apologists, in its attempt to establish the true knowledge of God by an appeal to Greek poets and thinkers. Its message, says a third, is set in a context not merely of salvation-history but of world-history, which is even more un-Pauline. According to a fourth, the \u2018word of the cross\u2019 is tactfully omitted, because it was known to be \u2018folly to Gentiles\u2019 (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Yet it is not too difficult to envisage the author of the first three chapters of Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans making several of the points <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 91<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>which are central to the <i>Areopagltica<\/i>. The differences in emphasis can be appreciated if it is remembered that the letter was written to Christians while the speech was delivered to pagans. In the letter Paul insists that the knowledge of God, his \u2018everlasting power and divinity\u2019, is available from his works in creation, to the point where men are \u2018without excuse, for although they knew God they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened\u2019 (Romans 1: 19\u201321). Nevertheless God in his forbearance had passed over these and other sins previously committed, but now that he had manifested his way of righteousness \u2018through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe\u2019 a new responsibility rested upon those to whom the Gospel came (Romans 3:21\u201326). If in the speech God\u2019s purpose in making himself known to men was that they might \u2018touch him and find him\u2019, in Romans 2:4 his forbearance and kindness are designed to lead them to repentance. Jesus Christ, through faith in whom the divine pardon and gift of righteousness were obtainable by men, was at the same time the one through whom, on a coming day, according to Paul\u2019s gospel, God would judge the secrets of men\u2019 (Romans 2:16).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Take the author of those words and bring him to Athens: invite him to expound his teaching not to fellow-believers but to cultured pagans. Remember that he has now for several years been a successful evangelist in the pagan world \u2014 a fact which, despite his own modest disclaimer, implies considerable persuasiveness in speech and approach, including the ability to find and exploit an initial area of common ground with his hearers, apart from which any attempt at communication would be fruitless. How will he address himself to such an audience? He will certainly try not to alienate them in his first sentence or two. It is underestimating Paul\u2019s versatility, his capacity for being \u2018all things to all men\u2019, to think that he could not have presented the essence of Romans 1\u20133 to pagans along the lines Acts 17:22\u201331. True, Luke did not hear Paul address the court of the Areopagus, but he knew how Paul was accustomed to present his <i>praeparatio evangelica<\/i> to such an audience, and endeavoured, following the example of Thucydides, \u2018to give the general sense of what was actually said\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>If it be borne in mind that this is Luke\u2019s summary of a speech which may in any case have been more <i>praeparatio than evangelium,<\/i> then some of the objections to its substantial authenticity may not appear to be insuperable. The quotation \u2018In him we live and move <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 92<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>and have our being\u2019 does not imply a \u2018God-mysticism\u2019, as Schweitzer argued; it is adduced simply to confirm that God is the author and sustainer of our life. The thought of being \u2018in Christ\u2019 by grace would have been meaningless to pagans. Epimenides and Aratus are not invoked as authorities in their own right; certain things which they said, however, can be understood as pointing to the knowledge of God. But the knowledge of God presented in the speech is not rationalistically conceived or established; it is the knowledge of God taught by. Hebrew prophets and sages. It is rooted in the fear of God; it belongs to the same order as truth, goodness and covenant-love; for lack of it men and women perish; in the coming day of God it will fill the earth \u2018as the waters cover the sea\u2019 (Is 11:9). The \u2018delicately suited allusions\u2019 to Stoic and Epicurean tenets which have been discerned in the speech, like the quotations from pagan poets, have their place as points of contact with the audience, but they do not commit the speaker to acquiescence in the realm of ideas to which they originally belong. Unlike some later Christian apologists, the Paul of Acts does not cease to be fundamentally biblical in his approach to the Greeks, even when his biblical emphasis might seem to diminish his chances of success.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The salvation-history of the <i>Areopagitica<\/i> finds its climax in Christ, as does the salvation-history of the Pauline letters. The salvation-history of the letters is naturally more detailed and comprehensive: the outline in Romans 1:18ff. of the progressive working of divine retribution against human sin forms the backcloth to the unfolding of divine grace in the Gospel; the Gospel itself was preached in advance to Abraham and foreshadowed by the prophets, and was fulfilled in Christ. To the \u2018<i>now<\/i> God commands\u2019 of the speech corresponds the \u2018<i>now<\/i> is the acceptable time\u2019 of 2 Corinthians 6:2. As for world-history, it plays no greater part here than it plays in Paul\u2019s letters: in both the life of humanity moves forward between the poles of creation and judgment.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>True, \u2018the word of the cross\u2019 is absent from the speech. This could be as much because the speech is more <i>praeparatio<\/i> than <i>evangelium<\/i> as because Luke\u2019s <i>theologia gloriae<\/i> has taken precedence over Paul\u2019s <i>theologia crucis<\/i>. The latter possibility used to be linked with Paul\u2019s confessed decision, when he moved on from Athens to Corinth, to \u2018know nothing\u2019 among the Corinthians \u2018except Jesus Christ and him crucified\u2019 (1 Corinthians 2:2), as though he realized that his tactics in Athens were unwise. But Paul by this time was no novice in Gentile <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 93<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>evangelization, experimenting with this approach and that in order to discover which was most effective. It is probable that Paul\u2019s decision at Corinth was based on his assessment of the situation there.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>The resurrection of the dead<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>There is nothing, however, to commend the suggestion that \u2018the word of the cross\u2019 was tactfully omitted from the <i>Areopagitica<\/i> because it was known to be folly to Gentiles: no mention of the cross could have appeared more foolish to these particular Gentiles than did the note on which the speech concluded \u2014 the resurrection of the dead. God, it is stated, has confirmed the certainty of the coming day of judgment by raising from the dead the man through whom that judgment will be delivered.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>If the speech be treated realistically, some of the hearers could be pictured as asking to be told more about this man \u2014 to be told, in particular, what there was about him that occasioned his being raised from the dead. If it is viewed stylistically, then it is seen to end with a fitting peroration. But the content of the peroration was totally uncongenial to the majority of the hearers. If Paul had spoken of the immortality of the soul, he would have commanded the assent of most of his hearers except the Epicureans, but the idea of resurrection was absurd. When the Athenian tragedian Aeschylus, half a millennium before, described the institution of that very court of the Areopagus by Athene, the city\u2019s patron deity, he had made the god Apollo say:<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>When the dust has soaked up a man\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal'>Once he is dead, there is no resurrection.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2014 and the word for resurrection there (<i>anastasis<\/i>) is the word which Paul used. To what purpose did this man come to Athens with his talk of resurrection when every Athenian knew, on the highest authority, that there could be no such thing?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>Outright ridicule and polite dismissal were the main responses to Paul\u2019s exposition of the knowledge of God. Of the few whom it persuaded to positive response it might be said, as Paul said of his Thessalonian converts, that they \u2018turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the wrath to come\u2019 (1 Th 1: <\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 94<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>9f.). There is as little explicit mention of the <i>theologia crucis<\/i> in this testimony as there is in the Areopagus speech, but it would be precarious to infer that Paul at Thessalonica said nothing about the cross. We hear, however, of no church in Athens in the apostolic age, and when Paul speaks of the \u2018firstfruits of Achaia\u2019 it is to a family in Corinth that he refers (1 Corinthians 16:15).<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;line-height:normal'>(Reprinted by permission from <i>The Expository Times,<\/i> Vol., LXXVII, No. 1, Oct. 1976.)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal'><b>AUDIO-VISUAL PROGRAMS ON ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-indent:18.0pt;line-height: normal'>The programs listed below are available to interested groups on a loan basis. Each program consists of 35mm slides and a cassette tape and is 25 to 30 minutes in length. The programs are interesting, educational and have a dear Christian message. When ordering, indicate first, second and third choices and the date to be shown. To cover production and handling costs, a minimum contribution of $5 must accompany your order. Order from: Word of Truth, Box 288, Ballston Spa, N.Y. 12020.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><b>OLD   TESTAMENT<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>F<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>WOULD   YOU BELIEVE IT? (Early chapters of Genesis and Daniel)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>A<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>TREASURES   OLD AND NEW (Abraham)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>B<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>FROM   PRISON TO PALACE (Joseph)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>C<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>TREASURES   GREATER THAN EGYPT (Moses)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>D<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>JOSHUA   AND THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>O<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>A   GREATER THAN SOLOMON IS HERE<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>E<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>ASSYRIA   AND THE REIGN OF TERROR<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>G<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>STONES   THAT CRY OUT (Nation of Judah)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>J<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>WHO   TOLD THE PROPHETS (Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>H<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>THE   SCROLLS OF THE DEAD SEA, PART I<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>I<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>THE   SCROLLS OF THE DEAD SEA, PART II<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>U<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>ISRAEL   IN PROPHECY<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>T<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>DIGGING   UP THE PAST (Archaeology at Tell Gezer)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>V<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>SEARCH   FOR NOAH\u2019S ARK (Filmstrip)<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><b>NEW   TESTAMENT<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>K<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>A   KING IS BORN<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>M<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>LISTENING   TO JESUS<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>N<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>STORIES   OF JESUS<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>P<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>JESUS   AND THE OLD TESTAMENT<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>L<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>HE   LOVED THEM TO THE END<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>S<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>THE   PLACE OF A SKULL<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>O<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>LUKE   THE HISTORIAN<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>R<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'>POINTERS   FROM PAUL<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-align:right; line-height:normal'><i>BSP<\/i> 6:3 (Summer 1977) p. 95<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>F. F. Bruce [F. F. Bruce, D.D., F.B.A., is Rylands professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, England, and is the author of many articles and books on biblical and archaeological subjects.] Paul in Athens Luke\u2019s vivid account of Paul\u2019s stay in Athens (Acts 17:16\u201334), for all the accuracy of its &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pauland-the-athenians\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;PAUL<br \/>\nAND THE ATHENIANS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}