But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes. Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there. But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
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Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes. Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there. But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
Parallel Translations
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But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.
Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.
But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
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When the Iewes of Thessalonia had knowledge that the worde of God was preached of Paul at Berrea they came there and moved the people.
And then by and by the brethren sent awaye Paul to goo as it were to ye see: but Sylas and Timotheus abode there still.
And they that gyded Paul brought him vnto Attens and receaved a commaundment vnto Sylas and Timotheus for to come to him at once and came their waye.
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But when the Iewes of Thessalonica knewe, that the woord of God was also preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and mooued the people.
But by and by the brethren sent away Paul to goe as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
And they that did conduct Paul, brought him vnto Athens: and when they had receiued a commandement vnto Silas and Timotheus that they shoulde come to him at once, they departed.
Cross-references (30)
- Acts 17:10 (v14) The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
- Acts 18:5 (v15) But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:1 (v15) Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,
- Matthew 10:23 (v14) But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of…
- Acts 18:1 (v15) After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
Show all 30 cross-references
- 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 (v13) For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from…
- 2 Timothy 4:10-11 (v15) for Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia; and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with…
- Proverbs 28:25 (v13) One who is greedy stirs up strife; but one who trusts in Yahweh will prosper.
- Matthew 23:13 (v13) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- Acts 6:12 (v13) They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, then brought him in to the council,
- Acts 9:25 (v14) but his disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.
- Acts 9:30 (v14) When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him off to Tarsus.
- Acts 14:2 (v13) But the disbelieving Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers.
- Acts 16:1 (v14) He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was…
- Acts 17:5 (v13) But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the…
- Acts 21:27 (v13) When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands…
- Titus 3:12 (v15) When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there.
- Joshua 2:16 (v14) She said to them, “Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned.…
- 1 Kings 21:25 (v13) But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
- Proverbs 15:18 (v13) A wrathful man stirs up contention, but one who is slow to anger appeases strife.
- Luke 12:51 (v13) Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.
- Acts 15:3 (v15) They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They…
- Acts 15:22 (v14) Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch…
- Acts 17:16 (v15) Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
- Acts 17:21 (v15) Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
- Acts 19:22 (v14) Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
- Acts 20:3 (v14) When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to…
- 1 Timothy 1:3 (v14) As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine,
- 2 Timothy 4:20-21 (v15) Erastus remained at Corinth, but I left Trophimus at Miletus sick. Be diligent to come before winter. Eubulus salutes you, as do Pudens,…
- Titus 1:5 (v14) I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking and appoint elders in every city, as I…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On v13 13. And when the Jews. We see how the…
13. And when the Jews. We see how the Jews were carried to and fro with such hatred of the gospel as could never be appeased. For they do not only expel Christ furiously when he is offered unto them at home; but when they hear that he is preached elsewhere, they run thither like mad men. But we must not so much in this place consider the fury of the nation as the desperate malice of Satan, who pricketh forward those which be his to trouble the kingdom of Christ, and to destroy man’s salvation; and he useth them as fans to raise sedition. Wherefore, let us know, that when at this day so many furious enemies do set themselves against the faithful ministers of Christ, it is not men which procure the war, but it is Satan, the father of lying, who doth go about all these things that he may overthrow the kingdom of Christ. (John 8:44.) And though there be not always the same form in fighting and encountering, yet will Satan never cease to make weary those whom he knoweth to serve Christ faithfully, either with open war, or secret lying in wait, or domestical combats.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Satan hath his, who are zealous for him, and…
Satan hath his, who are zealous for him, and that even such, as least of all ought.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge…
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.
Ver. 13. They came thither also] Thus they pleased not God and were contrary to all men; wherefore "wrath is come upon them to the utmost," 1Th 2:15-16.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–15 As the waves are stirred with the wind; a…
As the waves are stirred with the wind; a fit metaphor to represent the fickle multitude by, that, as the sea, now rolls one way, then another; or as tottering buildings, that shake with every wind.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v14 The prudential care which the believing brethren took of…
The prudential care which the believing brethren took of the holy apostle, was observed before, ver. 10. His life being in danger at Thessalonica, they sent him to Berea; being pursued to Berea, they sent him to Athens, and detain Silas, and Timotheus; not that St. Paul was more fearful than the other two; but more useful, and consequently more hateful to the unbelieving Jews, and his life more sought after. To preserve which, his friends use an innocent policy: they make as if they sent him away to sea, but really he goes on foot to Athens: Immediately the brethern sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea.
Hence learn, That human policy and prudence may lawfully be made use of, in subserviency to divine providence. It was good policy and great providence in the apostle and his friends to look one way and go another; to look towards the sea, and to go to Athens by land.
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There is a wise and holy subtilty in foreseeing the evil, and hiding ourselves: a serpent’s eye is a singular ornament in a dove’s head.
Piety without policy, is too simple to be safe; and policy without piety, is too subtle to be good. The sagacity of the serpent, and the innocency of the dove, both may and ought to go together.
Observe, 2. The place which the apostle comes to: Athens, a sovereign city, a famous university; the eye of Greece, as Greece was reputed the eye of the world. Yet, notwithstanding all their scholarship, they were ignorant of God in Christ; all their learning could not teach them to attain any saving knowledge, but both city and university are wholly given to idolatry.
Learn hence, That human learning alone can never teach any place or people the divine truths of Christ and his gospel. ’Tis a good handmaid, but a bad mistress; ’tis good in itself, but when corrupted by a busy devil and a base heart, it degenerates into the worst instrument in the world; for Corruptio optimi est pessima; "The sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar."
Observe, 3. The temper of the men of Athens described to us: they were great and greedy newsmongers, they spent their time in telling and hearing news of any sort. All which was the effect of an itching curiosity; a disease which has descended from age to age, from place to place, from person to person, occasioning a sinful expense of time, which can never be recalled; the neglect of our necessary affairs, which can never be redeemed; spreading false stories of others, and provoking displeasure against ourselves.
O how wise and happy were it, if we enquired after news, not as Athenians, but as Christians; that we might know the better how to manage our prayers and praises for the church and nation.
Observe, 4. How the wickedness and idolatry of this place did vehemently affect this great apostle: His spirit was stirred, when he saw the city full of idols, and wholly given to idolatry. Their idolatry put him into a paroxysm, as the word signifies; his mind was in a concussion by contrary passions: he was affected first with sorrow and grief, that a city should be so learned, and yet so blind; next with indignation and anger, at the superabounding idolatry of that knowing people; and lastly, with fervent zeal, and an ardent desire to undeceive them, and better inform them.
In order to which, he takes all opportunities, both in the city, in the synagogue, and in the market-place, to preach to the people, to dispute with the philosophers, particularly the Epicureans, who denied the providence of God, and the immortality of the soul; who placed all their happiness in pleasure, and held nothing to be desirable but what delighted their senses: a doctrine which made them rather swine than men. And also with the Stoics, who placed all happiness in want of passion, denied all freedom of will, and ascribed all events to an absolute and irrevocable fate. And having disputed with them, he preaches Christ crucified, risen, and glorified to them: but he seemeth a babbler to them, and a setter forth of strange gods.
Whence learn, That Christ and his doctrine, the gospel, was the grand stumbling-block both to Jew and Gentile, learned and unlearned. St. Paul took most pains to convert Athens, yet here his success was least; though it was a learned university, where, no doubt, were many men of excellent natural accomplishments.
From whence we may infer, that if moral dispositions and improvement of natural abilities had fitted men for grace, we might have expected the greatest number of converts at Athens, where many were mocking but very few believing. Surely the apostle’s plantations there were different, not so much from the nature of the soil, as from the different influences of the Spirit.
Observe, 5. How wonderfully the overruling providence of God concerned itself for the apostle’s preservation here at Athens: they hauled him away to their high court of judicature, which sat upon Mars’-hill, (so called because the temple of mars stood upon it,) where the most learned men assembled, and hear and determine what new god was to be worshipped.
Here note, 1. How the providence of God brought St. Paul to a public place to preach in, Mars’-hill, where was a confluence of all the people, and a congregation of the most learned Gentile philosphers. This gave the apostle a mighty opportunity for the service of preaching.
And, 2 note, How tenderly the apostle was treated in this cruel court: although this court had condemned Diagoras, Protagoras, and Socrates himself, for undervaluing their gods, and bringing in new deities; yet the apostle’s life is not only spared by these judges, but they speak candidly and kindly to the apostle, and court him to gratify their curiosity, by informing them of this novelty, which they were so inquisitive after, and desired to hear more of his divine discourse.
Thus the Lord eminently shows, how the hearts of men are in his hand, and that without his permission all the bitter enemies of his church shall not move a tongue, nor lift up a finger, against any of his ministers and members.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–15 But when the Jews of Thessalonica,.... The unbelieving Jews…
But when the Jews of Thessalonica,.... The unbelieving Jews there,
had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea; which they came at, either by persons that came from thence to Thessalonica, or by letters sent them:
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they came thither also; as the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra on a like account, Act 14:19
and stirred up the people; the common people, the natives of the place, against the apostles; suggesting that they were wicked men, and enemies to all laws, human or divine, civil or religious.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Verse 13. The Jews of Thessalonica - stirred up…
Verse 13. The Jews of Thessalonica - stirred up the people.] With what implacable malice did these men persecute the Gospel! And in the same spirit they continue to the present day, though it is evidently the sole cause of their wretchedness.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v15 Act 17:15. They that conducted Paul brought him —…
Act 17:15. They that conducted Paul brought him — By land, εως, as far as Athens — That celebrated, unequalled seat of learning among the Greeks. It is true, Athens had now passed the zenith of its political splendour, and had been declining in power and glory ever since the Romans, after conquering Greece, fixed the seat of their government at Corinth. Nevertheless, its fame for learning was still as great as ever. For, at the time Paul visited that city, it was full of philosophers, rhetoricians, orators, painters, statuaries, and of young persons who came to learn philosophy and the arts. But this sort of people, being generally very idle, were great talkers, and had an insatiable curiosity. So that the character which Luke has given of the Athenians, and strangers there, (Act 17:21,) is perfectly just. And receiving commandment unto Silas, &c., that they should come to him with all speed — Probably that they might bring him information of the state of the new converts he had left behind him at Thessalonica and Berea. Or, perhaps, he wished to be joined by them before he began his ministry at Athens, which yet, observing the wretched state of the city, he was in haste to do. Whether Silas came to him while he was at Athens, is uncertain. Timothy, however, came and informed him, that the idolaters in Thessalonica, displeased to see so many of their countrymen deserting the temples and altars of their gods, had joined the Jews in persecuting the disciples, 1Th 2:14. On hearing this, Paul thought it good to be left at Athens alone, 1Th 3:1; and sent Timothy back to Thessalonica, to establish and comfort the brethren concerning their faith. While Paul “continued in this renowned city, the centre of polite learning, philosophy, and the fine arts, and, as it were, the university of the Roman empire and of the world, he took little notice of the sculpture and edifices, the fragments of which, to this day, are considered as the most perfect models in their kind; or of their paintings and exhibitions, and other curiosities of this sort.” And yet “Paul is generally allowed to have been a man of fine taste and cultivated genius; but his thoughts were too much occupied about more sublime and interesting subjects, to make observations on these elegant or magnificent trifles.” — Scott. For,
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Stirred up the people - The word used here…
Stirred up the people - The word used here σαλεύειν saleuein denotes properly “to agitate” or “excite,” as the waves of the sea are agitated by the wind. It is with great beauty used to denote the “agitation and excitement of a popular tumult,” from its resemblance to the troubled waves of the ocean. The figure is often employed by the Classic writers, and also occurs in the Scriptures. See Psa 65:7; Isa 17:12-13; Jer 46:7-8.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–15 the Jews of Thessalonica . . . came thither…
the Jews of Thessalonica . . . came thither also--"like hunters upon their prey, as they had done before from Iconium to Lystra" [HOWSON].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Stirred up the people—Paul would gladly now have…
13. Stirred up the people—Paul would gladly now have returned to visit his dear Thessalonian Church, but “Satan” instigating his Jewish foes, “hindered” him, and he diverges still farther to the southeast.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. the word of God] The Thessalonian Jews would…
13. the word of God] The Thessalonian Jews would not have termed it so, to such an extent had prejudice and long training in the later Jewish teaching blinded their eyes. When Moses was read there was a vail over their hearts, and they saw not the glory.
and stirred up the people] In the oldest texts there are two verbs here, “stirring up and troubling the multitudes.” The first contains the figure of a storm at sea, where all is disturbed down to the very depths, a figure apt enough for the confusion which these men desired to create; the second verb is the same that occurs in Act_17:8, and it is probable from this that the way in which the trouble was produced here was the same as there, by the statement that the Apostles were traitors to the Roman power. (For the figurative language cp. Isa_57:20.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–14 (13) They came thither also, and stirred up the…
(13) They came thither also, and stirred up the people.—To the unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica the conversions at Berœa were simply a cause of offence. It is apparently with reference to this that St. Paul says of them that “they please not God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles” (1Th_2:15).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–15 Proclaimed for preached, A.V.; Beraea also for Berea, A.V.;…
Proclaimed for preached, A.V.; Beraea also for Berea, A.V.; likewise for also, A.V.; stirring up and troubling the multitudes for and stirred up the people, A.V. and T.R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athena
Act_17:15-34
And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athena
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Paul at Athens
I.
The place which the apostle visited. Athens.
II. The feelings of which he was the subject. Not of admiration at the masterpieces of art by which he was surrounded, but of--
1. Holy indignation. He saw how God was dishonoured; how He was robbed of the homage which was His due.
2. Christian compassion. He felt deeply at the contemplation of such moral debasement--a city wholly given to idolatry.
3. Zeal. It is well to feel; but what need have we to guard against a mere fruitless sentimentality.
III. The characters with whom he came in contact.
1. Jews. With them he disputed daily.
2. Certain philosophers.
IV. The address he delivered. His text was the inscriptions he witnessed on one of the altars: To the Unknown God. He at once proceeded with his subject, saying, Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. He is declared--
1. In reference to His nature. In what he says on this subject, we are reminded--
(1) Of the apostles boldness. It is said that the laws of the city denounced death upon those who should introduce a foreign deity.
(2) His decision. The philosophers in speaking of God had nothing but mere guesses and peradventures; but in no hesitating tone does Paul speak.
(3) His skill. This was unlike his discourses to the Jews, where he mainly appealed to the Old Testament.
2. In reference to the Divine dispensations.
(1) The past dispensation of forbearance.
(2) The present dispensation of grace.
(3) The coming dispensation of judgment.
V. The effects produced by his labours. They were threefold.
1. Ridicule. Some mocked.
2. Procrastination. We will hear thee again of this matter.
3. Faith. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed. (Expository Outlines.)
Paul at Athens
1. No moment in the annals of the Church has larger significance than that in which the gospel of the living Christ comes to its first contact with the worn faiths of paganism,--its philosophy and its science.
2. The very inequalities in social position of this meeting between the Jewish tent maker--whose bodily presence is weak, and whose speech is of no account--and the classic and proud city of the ancient world, and the contrasted weapons of the debate--in the warm personal faith of the one, and the lifeless but cultivated ignorance of the other--all conspire to make this apostolic visit of historic significance, and this address a model in the missionary records of the Church.
I. The pulpit.
1. The apostle was in that Holy Land of the Ideal, to which the ancient world of art and letters made pilgrimage. Here was the shrine at which the fair humanities of the pagan faith were worshipped--here the gymnasium, in which the human form came to its most perfect development in grace and beauty. Here, also, the human mind, the laws of thought, and that language which became the chosen medium of Gods truth, attained an almost ideal acuteness and expansion, while in the age of Pericles art, poetry, and philosophy reached such consummate excellence as to become classic models of form and style to all the generations. It was in the market place at Athens that Socrates, the wisest of men, asked his immortal questions; and yonder in the olive groves by the brook Plato founded the academy; to the east, under the shadow of the mountain, was the lyceum of Aristotle, while near at hand, in the agora, were the garden of Epicurus and the painted porch of the Stoics. Here was the home of the drama, and the scholar speaks with pride the names of AEschylus and Sophocles. Here spoke the orators of Greece, not only to the civil issues of that time, but also to the listening ears of the future, and here wrote historians like Thucydides and Xenophon; while in her temples was deified the national spirit in the marble images of her heroes and soldiers, in the trophies of her victories, and the memory of her defeats, until we may say with truth that no city of like limits ever gathered to itself so much of history, so many objects of interest, and such prestige as Athens.
2. In the midst of such surroundings Paul was waiting for the coming of Silas and Timothy from Berea. As his eyes rested upon the images of gods and goddesses which filled the temples and lined the avenues of the city--where, the historian says, it was easier to find a god than a man--his spirit was stirred within him as he beheld the city full of idols. The apostle was not destitute of that fine sense of the beautiful which belongs to all great souls, nor did the mind of the Jewish scholar fail in quick response to real culture; but the beautiful in art or letters was subordinate to the truth in Jesus, which filled his soul.
3. He was not of choice nor as a student in this university city, but in the providence of God he was a delayed messenger of the Cross; and, true to the great mission which possessed him, he engages the loiterers of the market place in religious debate. For such street colloquies the Athenians had particular liking. It was through such that their great philosophers had come into prominence; and, having abundant leisure on their hands, the citizens generally found both occupation and excitement in taking part in them.
4. We can easily picture the amused curiosity, and the half-serious, half-sneering questions of the crowd which gathered around him: What would this babbler say? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. As the circle grew larger, and hearing more difficult, curiosity in the new religion became more earnest, until, in the spirit of mischief or half-mirth, they laid hold upon him, and led him up the stone steps to the top of the Areopagus, the ancient judgment seat of Athens, where in the crescent of stone seats had sat the judges, who, three hundred years before, had condemned Socrates to die. Beyond the tribunal, in the cleft of the rock, was the menacing sanctuary of the Furies, while above was the great temple of Mars, the god of blood. Here, then, was the pulpit of the apostle--such a pulpit as no man, unless sent of God, and filled with the courage of the truth, would have dared to occupy!
II. The audience. Their temper and character have exhibition in the half-earnest, half-contemptuous, inquisitive spirit with which they placed the apostle on the stone of impudence--where the accused were wont to plead their cause before the council--and with mocking judicial tones bade him speak.
1. The Athenian was religious: the innumerable temples, statues, and altars prove his carefulness in religion; but it reveals also what his religion was. It was one which made him a splendid animal with a splendid intellect, which had no holding power against profligacy and fatalism, but, like the sun, while it preserves the living, it hastens the decay of the dead. The same temper of mind and life had gone over into philosophy.
(1) Three hundred years before, in his little garden beside the market place, Epicurus had taught his followers that happiness is the great purpose and pursuit of life. In close alliance with this standard of life was a material theory of the universe, which made the world a fortuitous combination of atoms, so that Providence became accident, and chance the disposer of events.
(2) The Stoics taught a system of ethics radically at variance with this; for, while the Epicurean had made the world conform to self, the Stoic had made self conform to nature; thus self-gratification became the maxim of the one, and self-denial of the other. And while the Epicurean avoided pain, the Stoic welcomed it in or let to despise it, and found the secret of life in living in conformity to nature, receiving its bitter as sweet, and its sweet as bitter, with equal composure. But while its austere morality commands our admiration, its theories of the universe are degrading and material. Mind and matter were not distinguishable. God is only the reasoning principle in the universe--one with the material world. The very souls of men, like their bodies, were material.
(3) One other class of hearers were represented; the gossips who spent their time in hearing and telling some new thing. This sect needs no analysis; their creed is simple and their history is familiar. Every community knows them, and every successor of the apostle addresses them.
2. We have outlined the character and creeds of the company that we may note one or two facts.
(1) That, while unbelief is a revolving wheel, it is not a progressive one; for the very phases of unbelief against which the Church is contending today Paul met on Mars Hill. Our materialistic philosophy which rules out God; our advanced thought in natural science; where do they receive better statement or definition than in that old poem of Lucretius On the Nature of Things? Our selfish and infidel systems of ethics--what are they but echoes of voices across that line which has divided the centuries? Unbelief always carries its ball and chain; it has no progress, and it cannot build.
(2) In the focused light of Christianity in which we live today it would seem impossible for the worn pagan faiths of Epicurus and Zeno to exist among us. But such is not the case. For multitudes are living upon the unformulated theories and unspoken creeds of heathendom. Self is the centre of the universe, pleasure the great end of life; and as regards conduct they have no souls; there is no hereafter, and God is a fiction. Or they are austere, stern moralists, complacent in their own rightness, conforming to the events of life with stoical composure; scorning that humility which comes from repentance, and treating with disdain an atonement for its guilt and death.
3. Athens teaches us that culture cannot save a man nor a city from moral decay. Not commerce nor national era, not wealth nor taste, not even the library nor the college, convey the forces of permanent power or real welfare to men; but the gospel is the power of God unto life to the man and the state.
III. The sermon. Note the courteous prudence with which he begins as he raises his hand for silence--Men of Athens, in all things I observe that you are unusually religious--a compliment which carries the truth and the attentive favour of his audience; and yet such conciliation does not compromise the man nor his message. He continues For as I passed through your city, etc. (Act_17:23). Paul might have denounced their idolatry with a sledge hammer blow, for his spirit had boiled within him as he beheld it; but alert to every circumstance which should serve a Christian purpose, he uses the very errors of heathendom to guide their feet and thought to Him who was the way and the truth. And now every sentence is packed with the deep things of God as he proceeds, and every word is a battle blow to the false philosophy of his hearers.
IV. Its reception (Act_17:32). The same old story wherever the truth is taught. Mockers, procrastinators, believers; to which class do we belong? (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
Paul at Athens
It is one test of a real gospel, that it can overleap all barriers placed between man and man, and find its way into that innermost hearts core which makes the whole world kin. Already in this one Book we have seen it dealing with the Jew and with the Gentile: we have seen it in Palestine, in Asia Minor, in Europe. Everywhere it has found some hearts into which it entered as a healing balm, some lives which it penetrated with transforming power. Now we are to see it at Athens.
I. St. Pauls feeling. He was left there for a time alone. Some of us know that sinking of the spirits which is occasioned by loneliness in a strange city. He was a man of quick feeling, lively emotion, and gentlest affection; but even these were not the causes of his chief distress. His life was given to one work, and his whole heart was in it. Many a so-called Christian has tarried in an idolatrous place, and seen nothing in it but the antiquity of its associations or the curiosity of its monuments. At Athens the traveller feels nothing but a thrill of historic and poetic interest; and it would be judged by many a mere narrow-mindedness to remember the gospel. But St. Paul could not dissever the magnificence of a temple or the perfection of a statue from the remembrance of the idolatry which it served and of the souls which it debased. Yet his irritation was not a merely vexing and annoying thing, torturing to himself and to all about him, on the contrary.
II. It stirred him to acting.
1. At Athens, as elsewhere, there was a Jewish synagogue: there at all events he might find some to sympathise with his horror at idolatry; there, too, he might at least argue from the common ground of Scripture, and assume both the unity of the Godhead and the expectation of a Christ.
2. But the Jews he had with him always, the Athenians he met but for once; this was their day, the season of their visitation. Accordingly we read that in the far-famed Agora he reasoned daily with those who met with him. St. Paul was not too proud, reserved, indolent, or half-hearted, to seize opportunities of conversing with strangers. A man with a soul to be saved or lost must have, for him, a ground of interest and a point of contact. Thus there encountered him some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Strange meeting between a man who lived but for duty, yet found that duty in love Divine and human, and those who either denied the existence of a duty, or else made duty another name for hardness. Very brief, yet very graphic, is the account given of the treatment of the gospel by these philosophers. Nothing could be more contemptuous. They treated him as a mere reporter of idle tales picked up from others, and as a man incapable even of expressing the follies which he has adopted. Others took a more serious view of the case, and thought him a sort of travelling missionary of false gods, desiring to add new names to an already overflowing Pantheon. Because the names of Jesus and the Resurrection occurred so frequently they ran to the conclusion that they were the names of two deities whom he sought to incorporate in the national religion. And if this were so, it was a case requiring the cognisance of the great religious court of Athens (Act_17:19-20). A brief word of comment on the Athenian character is here introduced (Act_17:21). It was the complaint of their own orators. When they ought to have been taking vigorous measures for the welfare or protection of their own state, still the love of news predominated over every other principle, and they who should have been acting were ever talking still! There are some in every congregation to whom this reproof belongs.
3. Then St. Paul stood before that famous court, of which the poets and orators of Greece tell such proud things. It does not appear to have been a formal trial, nor that life or death hung upon the issue. For the present it was a hearing only for information. Observe now the wisdom and the courage with which he spake. Ye men of Athens, I observe that in all things ye are more religious than others. He would carry them with him if he could. And he selects this one characteristic as in itself hopeful. And it is better that a man should feel his dependence, and seek to be in communication with One above him, than that he should do neither. Lest after all their care anyone superior being should at last have been overlooked, they had adopted the singular expedient of an anonymous altar, which might at least deprecate the vengeance of a disregarded and slighted God. This altar St. Paul, with a wisdom and a skill above mans, takes as the text of his sermon. I am come, he says, to give a name to that anonymous altar. I am come to you from an unknown God, to enable you to fill up that blank space in your devotions. And who then is He? The God who made the world. How then can He be limited to one spot in it? He is the Giver and Preserver of human life: how can He require material offerings as though to support His own? He is the one Creator of all races, assigning to each the duration of its being, and the place of its habitation, and with what object? The 27th verse gives the answer. He quotes from a Greek poet of Tarsus in Cilicia, his own native city, as though claiming for himself a new link of connection with his audience. If we are, as your own poets say, Gods offspring, it is derogatory even to mans nature to represent God under material and inanimate forms. Let the very dignity of man cry out against the disparagement of God. There was, he continues, a long and dreary age, during which God seemed as it were to acquiesce in the spiritual ignorance of His creatures. But now He has interposed with a call to repentance. And that call is backed by a threatening as well as a promise. There is a day of judgment. And that judgment will be conducted by a Man, the proof of whose Judgeship is the fact of His own resurrection. Well can we understand that there was that in this address which was at once trifling and shocking in Grecian ears (Act_17:32-34). And for this time he departed from among them. (Dean Vaughan.)
Paul at Athens
1. Paul is now waiting. He needs rest, and so will sit down and be quiet and recover himself. Paul waiting! The two words do not go happily together. He cannot wait. Life is short; the enemy is at hand; the opportunity enlarges; and he who was left in an attitude of waiting begins to burn. A paroxysm (for that is the literal word) seizes his heart as he sees a sight he had never beheld before--a city wholly given to idolatry--one, as an historian tells us, in which it was easier to find a god than a man. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image was ringing in Pauls ears.
2. Athens was wholly given to idolatry. You cannot stop at one idol. One brings another. This law has also its force in higher directions. You cannot stop with one isolated excellence. It is not excellence if you so use it. 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 Athelstan philosophy--it is ours too! Start another mission, and let us play what pranks we like under the darkness. Build five hundred more churches, but let us drink the devils cup right down to its last hot drop. There are more idols in London than ever there were in Athens; not marble idols, but idols we can hide. Were Paul to come here he would see fashion, fortune, ease, ambition, self-seeking. In mighty, measureless London, for every man is his own idol! 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 paganism but crucifixion. The Athenian pagan might be led away argumentatively from stone deities to conceptions of deific being and force; but the pagan heart never listens to intellectual appeals. Only one thing can break the heart idol--the hammer of the Lord, that can grind to powder the stoniest heart that ever shut out the clemency and love of Heaven. Not by might, nor by power, etc.
3. Paul did a little introductory work. He always began just where the opportunity permitted him. He disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, 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 and Paul listened. Having listened, he spoke, as he had a right to do according to Athenian custom, but be spoke so as to bring upon himself a contemptuous name. What will this seed pecker say? He is evidently nibbling at something, poor little, small-minded, weak-eyed Jew. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods. Strange, i.e., startling things (Act_17:20). The gospel startles; it never comes easily into any civilisation. Jesus did not come to send peace, but a sword, not quietness, but fire!
4. The Athenians were interested in the matter from an intellectual point of view (Act_17:18). That is not religious inquiry. If you want to know what that is, recall the instance of the jailer who said, What must I do to be saved? Are we typified by the jailer or by the stoic? Let us be honest with ourselves. If we are in Gods house for the purpose of ascertaining Gods Word, all heaven will be aflame with light, and every guest at Gods table will be satisfied; but if we are here in the Athenian spirit we may be disappointed and mocked.
5. Paul was always ready to speak. But they were learned men, so was he, but not as many men are with unavailable learning, but in his gospel. He asked for no time to prepare. Instantly he said, Ye men of Athens. That was Demosthenic; the great orator always began his appeal thus. Thus 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. There is genius even here. There is a gift of God in little matters as well as in great. Paul was never wanting in tact. Mark the simple dignity of the salutatory form. They were men; they met upon a common platform. Then the next, I perceive that in all things ye are too religiously minded. Mark the broad and generous recognition. Do not affront the people you intend afterwards to persuade. There are two methods of delivering a country from idolatry. The one is, Jehu like, to destroy Baal out of Israel; the other is to displace the false by the introduction of the true; not to deride an idol, but to preach a Saviour. So Paul recognises what he sees. I found an altar with this inscription: to the unknown God. I will begin where you end. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. What infinite tact! That is the true method of preaching today. You must interpret to men what they do not interpret to themselves. Endeavour to make the most of a man. Every man has upon him this inscription, To the Unknown, and the Christian teacher has to say, Then I will make it known to you. Do you ever yearn and desire? Then such aspiration is the beginning of prayer. Do you suffer for others? You will sit up all night that others may sleep. If so, that is the beginning of sacrifice. Are you dissatisfied with earth and time? Are you filled with discontentment? That is the beginning of immortality. This text of Pauls 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. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Paul at Athens
Greece was the clime and residence of the beautiful. The very air was tempered to delight, and the soul imbibed the same sunny hues as the landscape. The passion for the beautiful, gave to the Greeks a more brilliant mythology than any other nation. Music moulded the flexible language into its own nature, and it became so plastic that its very swell and modulation were but the waves of song. The arts and sciences danced around humanity, and stored mans home with comforts, and charmed his senses with all kinds and forms of elegance. Athens was a marble paradise, filled with temples and with gods, whose forms were the very models of symmetry and perfection. What were the feelings which Athens was likely to produce in a mind so accomplished as Pauls? To the splendour of its name, to the charms of its literature, he was no stranger; and his mind was peculiarly alive to every form of beauty. The streets were but long galleries of godlike forms in marble. Athens was the very focus of idolatry, and the apostle witnessed the living magnificence of their worship, the gorgeous attire of their priests--the solemn pomp of their processions--the clouds of fragrant incense which alone could obscure their transparent atmosphere, and the majesty of their theatres. He heard the surpassing melody of their music, and listened to the discourses of their orators; and his spirit was stirred within him, but only because he beheld the city wholly given to idolatry. Let me direct your attention to--
I. The preacher. He was no ordinary man. His mind, naturally strong, had been strengthened by culture; he had great energy and decision of character. Like the bird of heaven, he was at home in the storm as well as in the sunshine. He was once the greatest enemy of that truth of which he was now the foremost advocate. What a change has taken place in his views and feelings, since when a young man he studied Grecian literature! Just look at him with that volume of Greek poetry in his hand. He is longing for the hour when he shall visit Athens, and converse with the literati, and drink in inspiration from the fountain. He visits Athens; but, strange to tell, he visits that celebrated city as a preacher of the Cross! He is now to contend with the very master spirits of the world, in the very palace of intellect, and in the very sanctuary of idolatry.
II. The place where Paul preached. The spot where he stood was a rock where in earlier days the supreme court of justice had been held. Though the authority of this court had been abridged by the Roman conquest, still it was reserved for the judges to determine what gods were to be admitted into the temples, and to pronounce sentence upon any who should be guilty of blaspheming the divinities of Greece. If ever the sincerity of the preacher was tried, it was upon this occasion; and if ever Paul displayed intrepidity of character, it was upon Mars hill.
III. The congregation. Around him, then, were gathered a multitude, acute, inquisitive, and polished. Never did preacher have such a congregation. There were the philosophers of bower and porch; orators with whom the slightest tinge of a barbarian accent would break the power of the most persuasive discourse; Epicureans who believed the world was created by accident or by chance--men who though they professed to believe in the existence of a God, regarded Him as dwelling in the far-off watchtowers of some distant world, indifferent to His creatures; and Stoics who believe in two principles, God and matter, both eternal, and therefore they virtually denied that there was any creation. There, too, was the priest, astonished at the daring of the preacher; the young Roman who had come to Athens to be educated; the Jew looking on with hatred and fury at the apostate from the ancient faith; and there, too, though afar off and crouching to the ground, was the slave, drinking in the doctrine--strange and new to him, sweet as music to his ears--that God had made all men of one blood. What must Paul have felt when surrounded by such a congregation!
IV. The sermon. Nobly did the champion of truth perform his part. He spoke worthy of himself, of his commission, and his congregation. You cannot fail to be struck by the adaptation of this discourse to the congregation. When Paul went into a synagogue he reasoned with the Jews out of the Scriptures. But here were men who believed that the creation of the world was altogether fortuitous; those who did not believe in any creation at all; those who denied that there was any future state. The apostle then set himself to prove to them that there was a God, that this God was the Creator of all things, that there was an overruling Providence, and consequently that there was a judgment to come. We can only seize on some of the leading features of this sermon. How appropriate and judicious his introduction! Since you are worshippers of an unknown God it must be gratifying to you, who are such religious people, to hear something concerning Him. From his primary positions the apostle proceeds to draw certain inferences, viz., that God is not confined to any particular place, that God is independent; and the spirituality of the Divine Being. With these reasonings the apostle makes an assertion relative to the duty of man, to seek an acquaintance with God through the medium of His works and ways; and then concludes by observing, that though God for ages had left the Gentiles to themselves, now He commanded all men everywhere to repent, etc.
V. The effects (verses 32-34). Conclusion:
1. The great propriety of discourses being adapted to the circumstances of the hearers. It is necessary that the preacher should commend himself to every mans conscience in the sight of God; but where there is a variety of character and circumstances, it is a difficult thing for a minister to adapt himself. But the truth as it is in Jesus is adapted to all mens circumstances.
2. Pauls discourse is an excellent homily for these times. There are not a few who are worshippers of an unknown God; who attach sanctity to certain places; who suppose that God takes delight in certain words, and in certain postures. Let such study Pauls sermon, and they will find that that very sermon preached eighteen hundred years ago is peculiarly adapted to their circumstances. (H. J. Bevis.)
Paul at Athens
The practical lessons are:--
I. That a truly good man will be sensitive to the moral evils prevalent in the community in which he is placed (verse 16). Here idolatry was rampant. What are the prevailing evils in London?
II. A truly good man will bestir himself for the removal of those evils. There are those who feel and say much, but do nothing (verse 17).
III. In dealing with these evils a man who is wise as well as good will strike at their root ignorance of God and His will. There was much vice, but Paul said nothing of that. Political and social reforms are good, but what the world needs is regeneration. Make the tree good and its fruit will be good.
IV. In dealing with these evils tact is needed as well as zeal (verse 22). Paul never committed the gross oratorical blunder of accusing his audience of superstition. What he commended and proved was their religiousness, and having put them in good humour he proceeded to deliver his message. There is a great deal in the way we take hold of people. You must conciliate men before you can convert them.
V. In dealing with these evils you must not expect uniform success (verses 32-34). (R. A. Bertram.)
Paul at Athens
The practical lessons which this scene teaches us are--
I. That the loftiest efforts of unaided men, can produce no higher religion than a refined polytheism. This is confirmed by the records of all heathenism. Had man been left to himself, he never would have known the true God; and hence the privilege of living in a land where the Triune God is known and worshipped.
II. That art and literature have in themselves no conserving moral force. The citizens of Athens had a poetry, which maintains its precedence to this day; a literature, unsurpassed in eloquence and vigour; an art, developing itself in paintings, and statues, and architecture, which are even now the proudest monuments of human skill: yet just as in the age of Louis XIV in France, and in the Augustan age at Rome, art and literature were not only powerless to arrest immorality, they absolutely ministered to it. The mind is rightly cultivated only when educated in the principle of personal accountability to God. Hence the danger of a merely secular education. Hence the need of a Christian leaven in our secular schools.
III. That philosophy, originating in human minds, can construct no true system of belief or duty. Philosophy requires three constant factors to its full and true development, viz., a first Cause; a full knowledge of this first Cause; and a full knowledge of man himself. But no human mind can grasp these factors. We must look then above man to get this true philosophy; and we find it in the revelation of God. But no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and Hero whom the Son will reveal Him; and Jesus only needeth not that any should testify of man; for He knows what is in man. So then we reach the fact that in Jesus Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. A philosophy which leaves out Christ is like a planetary system without a central sun, a mere series of vortices without a uniting and controlling centre. Philosophy has found out many truths, but not the great foundation truths of Gods existence, and attributes, and grace; and mans fall, and helplessness, and need of a Saviour. How, then, should we thank God, that He has revealed all this to us.
IV. That repentance is a personal duty, eased on personal responsibility to God for personal sins. Heathenism knew nothing of sin, as the alienation of the heart from God. Its very gods were but splendid embodiments of sin; and their influence was only to reproduce in daily life the crimes which filled Olympus. It is the religion of Christ only which measures moral character with the unerring lines and in the unerring balances of the Divine law. It is only as we act upon the truth that man is personally responsible to God, and will be judged, that we shall have true views of God, and understand our need of a Saviour. (Bp. Stevens.)
Paul at Athens; Christianity in contact with cultivated mind
I. The subject on which the minister of the gospel addresses men is worthy of the attention of cultivated minds.
1. There ought to be no occasion for arguing this point. Paul felt no necessity of showing that the subject was worthy of attention. The Athenians had already expressed their sense of the importance of the inquiry by inviting him to come to the place where he could best address the people. We, on the contrary, are obliged to awaken inquiry, and to show why religion is worthy of profound thought.
(1) Among those who, in other respects, would be represented by the Athenian philosophers, religion does not come within the range of their inquiries. They are scientists, jurists, editors, philosophers, etc., not theologians.
(2) The great mass of men stop short when they approach the subject of religion in their investigations, even when it would appear impossible that they should not be led to see and to embrace its truths. In astronomy, e.g., such men seem almost to look upon the throne of God; but they will no, allow their minds to take the next step, and many an astronomer remains ignorant of Him who made the worlds.
(3) When men do come up to the point they find the subject distasteful. They have come into a region where the ideas of duty--retribution, repentance--are likely to be predominant; and they are not attracted by these themes.
2. It is proper, therefore, to show that the subject of religion is worthy the attention of this class of minds. Observe therefore--
(1) That it is an avowed principle with such persons, that all subjects are to be investigated. It is a maxim in philosophy that truth is to be followed wherever it may lead us. Why, then, should the astronomer refuse to follow out the revelation when the throne of God seems to stand before him, and admit that there is a God? Why should he always talk about Nature, and never about God?
(2) As mere abstract matters, the subjects of religion are as worthy of attention as any that can come before the minds of men. The Greeks, as a people, had evinced their own convictions of this, far more than most other nations. When Grecian sages were thus leading a foreign Jew to the Areopagus to ask him what he had to say on this subject, no man in Athens would feel that this was an unworthy act in the city of Socrates and Plato. No class of people, however advanced in civilisation, act contrary to the dictates of the highest wisdom, when they give themselves to earnest thought about the Creator of the world, the methods of the Divine administration, etc. If these great subjects are not important for man, what subjects can be?
(3) The subject of religion pertains, as a personal matter, as really to cultivated men as to the rest of mankind. It does not merely open questions relating to the welfare of society; but it is a subject of personal importance to each individual.
II. Paul was in possession of knowledge on these subjects which was in advance of what these philosophers possessed. In considering this, notice--
1. The manner in which Paul approached the subject of his peculiar doctrines.
(1) He made no direct attack on their religion. He did not awaken their prejudices, as if his mission was to destroy their temples.
(2) He commended their zeal in religion as real zeal in a great cause; and he referred, without any unkind reflections, to the evidence of that zeal exhibited on every hand.
(3) He referred to their acknowledged difficulties--to the avowal of their own ignorance or uncertainty, as recorded on the altar.
(4) He proposed to reveal the God whom they thus unconsciously adored; to lead them up to the real source of every blessing.
(5) He agreed, as far as possible, with the philosophers who heard him, and reasoned from their admitted principles. A truth found in their poetry, though it was heathen poetry, was not the less a truth because it had had such an origin, and because it was not found in the inspired writings of the Jews. So far he was successful. He did not excite their fears. He did not expose himself to contempt. He secured, as he had hoped to do, their profound attention.
2. The doctrines which he made known to them.
(1) Those which were based on principles that they themselves held--though in advance of their views.
(a) The existence of a God--to them the unknown God.
(b) The fact that this unknown God was the Creator of the world.
(c) The immensity of God.
(d) The independence of God.
(e) The unity of the human race.
(f) The grand purpose for which certain arrangements had been made in respect to the human race: that they should seek God, etc.
(g) The spirituality of God and of religion (verse 29).
(2) The doctrines which were peculiar to the Christian system; the strange things in reference to which particularly they had asked an explanation.
(a) God now commands universal repentance.
(b) God will judge the world.
(c) The resurrection of the dead; as derived from the fact that God had raised from the dead Him who was to judge the world,
III. The lessons suggested by the discourse.
1. Christianity does not shrink from investigation. Paul manifested no reluctance, but rejoiced in the opportunity of proclaiming the gospel where it would be most likely to be subjected to a thorough examination.
2. The history of the world, since Paul stood on Mars Hill, has made no difference in the relation of Christianity to the world ill the matter under consideration, lit claims to be now not less in advance of the world than it was then. The world has, indeed, made great progress in arts, science, etc., but it has made no advances in the knowledge of the great truths of religion by the aid of science or philosophy.
3. If Christianity was then, and is now, ahead of the world on these subjects, it may be presumed that it will ever retain this advanced position.
4. This furnishes a strong proof of the Divine origin of Christianity. System after system of philosophy and religion has disappeared. But Christianity has lived through all changes. After all the discoveries and developments of the last eighteen centuries--after all that has been affirmed to be in conflict with the Bible--the hold of Christianity on the world is stronger now, and the belief that the Bible is true is more widespread and deep, than in any past age. (A. Barnes, D. D.)
His spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.--
Moral wretchedness of idolatry
The great argument for missionary exertion, next to its being the plain command of God, is the spiritual helplessness of those who live under the power of idolatry. This paroxysm of grief which the apostle felt would be excited by--
I. The dishonouring views of the Divine character and government necessarily associated with such a system. Those who think lightly of idolatry speak as if it afforded the same outlet for the religious affections as true religion; that the religious element in mans nature is as effectually cultivated, whether men called the being they worshipped Vishnu, or Juggernaut, or God, seeing the same honour in all cases is intended to the Great Author of the universe. But now, even if this monstrous impiety were conceded, it is sufficient to observe that the attributes with which these gods are commonly invested must for ever forbid the acceptableness of the worship. So far otherwise, God must regard it as worship by which His character is debased, and everything which could inspire filial and reverential sentiments is taken away.
II. The sanctioned and permitted disregard of the first principles of morality. The religion of Greece was chiefly a religion of festivals; and some of these extended to seven days. True, some were simply absurd; but at the majority things were performed of which it were a shame even to speak. With similar accounts our own missionaries are obliged to stain their reports unto this day. Now, it is easy to see that morality can have no existence under such a state of things, because all morals must have as their foundation the will of God. Be ye holy, because I am holy, appeals to a universal moral instinct; flee from iniquity, because God hateth iniquity--these are the safeguards of all that is pure in our social system. In the case of idolatry, however, this safeguard is removed. It were in vain that the law should forbid a thing as unholy which religion has declared to be acceptable in the sight of God.
III. The utter absence of all religious peace or tranquillity of conscience. The consideration may address itself, first, to our feelings of humanity. In some respects we know that the worship of the idolater must be a miserable worship. His self-inflicted torture must make existence to be a burden to him. But this belongs less to Athenian than to Asiatic idolatry. We may suppose the mind of the apostle to have been exercised by the absence of religious peace. They know not God; they know not the mercifulness of His nature, the wisdom of His ways, the gentleness of His yoke, the goodness of His laws. I am speaking to men who know something of the comforts of religion. What is the source of it? You feel that a propitiation has been found for your offences; that an exhaustless fund of holy influences is opened to meet every remaining infirmity; and that there is the power of a covenant keeping God to keep you faithful unto the end. You have troubles; but are not these among those things which work together for the believers good? But what knows the poor heathen of such consolations?
IV. Painful misgivings as to the final salvation of these people. Our chief guide upon such a subject must he the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. There does not seem to be an important distinction in that chapter; for though the apostle does seem to leave some hope of salvation for the mere heathen who is without the knowledge of God, is it quite so clear that it leaves a hope of salvation to the idolater? The heathen, it seems to be supposed, will be a law unto himself, and has a power to discern from the things which are seen and made the Almightys eternal power and Godhead. But suppose, instead of this, he should change the image of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man, etc., are we then prepared to say that an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God? We limit no mercies; but everywhere, as we look on the vast outspread of idolatry, the stern and withering sentence meets us, Without God, without hope. Oh! must not every heart be stirred up within us at such a spectacle? Conclusion: And now, in applying my remarks to the cause of missions, I must remind you of our three great wants and your three correlative duties. First, we want the means. But not only do we want your money--we want your sons. And then we want your prayers. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Pauls moral survey of Athens
What did he discover that so intensely distressed him?
I. Great genius perverted. He saw--
1. Developments of great genius. What Jerusalem has been in the true religious culture of humanity, Athens has been in the culture of the aesthetical and reasoning powers of mankind.
2. Perversions of great genius. Though possessing a mind qualified to appreciate the splendid works which lay about him, yet he was thrown into an agony of grief at what he beheld. He had a standard of character unknown to any Athenian sage, and he felt that the aesthetic glory of Greece was but a gorgeous covering which genius had spread over a vast cemetery of moral corruption. Genius wasted--nay, worse than that, employed for immoral and impious ends. There is nothing in mere material civilisation, even in its highest forms, to delight a truly enlightened soul.
II. The great God dishonoured. With all this display the Athenians had--
1. No grand moral purpose in life (verse 21). Empty theories and idle gossip occupied their chief attention; since they knew not the only true God, they had no grand purpose in life. The deeper and diviner parts of their souls were undeveloped.
2. No love for the true God. Athens, by wisdom, knew not God. It was easier, says an old writer, to find a god than a man. All history shows that where the gospel has not gone, man has never reached the true religion, nor felt the higher inspirations of his being (Rom_1:1-32). The best of the Athenian gods were but men, whose passions in some cases were of the most revolting kind. Paul knew that the destiny of the soul depended upon its worship; that if it worshipped any object but God, it must inevitably sink lower and lower forever. There is but one being that has a claim to the worship of man--the Creator. He claims the supreme homage and service of all souls. His claim is just: no conscience can dispute it. Because the apostle loved supremely this supreme object of worships he felt intense pain at seeing His righteous claims contemned. I beheld the ways of transgressors, and was grieved. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Pauls estimate of the Athenians
We are taught by this passage--
I. To be deeply affected by the moral condition of the world.
1. Pauls was the excitement of fervent zeal for the honour of Christ.
2. He felt also the outrage done by idolatry to the dignity of human nature.
3. In this excitement the love of souls was not wanting.
II. That such an affection will lead to the use of active means for the worlds salvation.
1. Paul was never ashamed of Christs gospel.
2. He laid aside all fears of failure.
3. He does not remain inactive at Athens because he has no particular mission there. (Evangelical Preacher.)
The moral versus the aesthetic
When Howard went forth, on what a great orator has called his circumnavigation of charity, he visited some of the noblest cities, and passed through some of the most attractive scenery of modern Europe; but neither the splendour and wealth of the one, nor the attractions of the other, could engage his attention; the dungeon and the hospital, where suffering humanity invited his aid, had an interest to his mind which drew him aside from everything else, and made him insensible to the sumptuousness of palaces and the stateliness of temples, to the curiosity of art, and even to the sublimities and beauties of nature. Cicero tells us that for him Athens had a higher charm than was derived from its magnificent buildings and exquisite works of art--the charm that arose from the memory of its illustrious men, and which made him search out the abodes and favourite haunts of each, and look with intent gaze on their sepulchres. In all large and earnest minds the moral will ever overtop and master the aesthetic; and, save as the latter may in some way be made subservient to the former, such minds will be apt to overlook, if not entirely to underestimate it. What wonder, then, that Paul, bent on a mission of moral beneficence to which he had consecrated his life, and penetrated with an all-absorbing desire to accomplish a result which he knew to be the noblest and worthiest and most enduring that could be proposed to human exertion, should have been content to bestow only a passing glance on the marble splendours of Athens, and should have been more deeply moved by the gloom which rested on the moral features of the scene, than by all the glory which lighted up its physical and material aspect? As he moved through the city, he beheld how all this wealth of genius was prostituted to the service of a vain and misleading superstition. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
Christian unconcern explained
I was speaking with a gentleman who had just returned from a visit to Niagara, where he lived in the Clifton Hotel, which is close to the Falls. He asked a waiter, Are you not annoyed by the noise of the waterfall? Positively I dont hear it. When I first came here I hardly heard anything for it; now it is quite quiet to me. Why is this? Because he is accustomed to it. That is the reason Christians are content to sit with folded hands, looking calmly on while so many of their fellows are gliding down the broad road to eternal death. Rouse yourselves; ask God for Christs sake to give you grace and strength to rescue the perishing. (J. McFarlane.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v13 13–15. They came thither. The inveterate hatred of the…
13–15. They came thither. The inveterate hatred of the Jews of Thessalonica pursued him. When they began to stir up a disturbance at Berea, as Paul was the chief object of hatred, it was thought best for him to leave, but Silas and Timothy were left to continue the work.
To go as it were to the sea. He started as though to embark on the sea, Berea not being a seaport. Whether he did, or went to Athens by land, is not stated. The journey by land was about 250 miles. The sea voyage would be much the quicker route.
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They that conducted Paul. Some of the Berean brethren. When they returned they took a message to Silas and Timothy to join him at once. From 1 Thess. 3:1, 2, we learn that Timothy was at once sent to Thessalonica.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv14–15 14. Timothy had remained back at Thessalonica; now arriving…
14. Timothy had remained back at Thessalonica; now arriving at Berea, he joins Silas, left by Paul in the prosecution of the work in Berea.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13, 14. There seemed to be no serious obstacle…
13, 14. There seemed to be no serious obstacle to the gospel in Berea, and the disciples may have begun to flatter themselves with the hope that the whole city would turn to the Lord, when an unexpected enemy sprung upon them from the rear. (13) " But when the Jews of Thessalonica knew that the word of God was preached by Paul in Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. (14) Then the brethren immediately sent Paul away, to go as if to the sea; but Silas and Timothy remained there. " There was always sufficient material for a mob, in a the rude heathen population of a city as large as Berea, and there was always sufficient appearance of antagonism between the gospel as preached by Paul, and the laws and customs of the heathen, to enable designing men to excite the masses against it. Hence, the easy success of these embittered enemies from Thessalonica, who, in addition to other considerations, could ask if Bereans would tolerate men who had been compelled to fly by night from Thessalonica.
The statement that the brethren sent Paul away to "go as if to the sea," certainly implies some disguise of his real purpose. The only supposition answerable to the phraseology employed is, that he started in the direction of the sea, and then turned, so as to pursue the land route to Athens, which was the next field of labor. Mr. Howson, who insists that he went by sea, does not display his usual ability in arguing the question. Paul once traveled from Corinth to Berea by land, and why not now from Berea through Athens to Corinth? The fact that it was the more tedious and less usual route, being two hundred and fifty miles overland, is a good reason why he should have chosen it the more certainly to elude pursuit.
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Whether by land or by sea, the apostle now leave Macedonia, and starts out for another province of ancient Greece. He has planted Churches in three important cities of Macedonia. Of these, Thessalonica occupied the central position, with Philippi one hundred miles to the north-east, and Berea sixty miles to the south-west. Each of these becomes a radiating center, from which the light of truth might shine into the surrounding darkness. We have the testimony of Paul himself, that from at least one of them the light shone with great intensity. He writes to the Thessalonians: "From you has sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God is spread abroad, so that we have no need to say any thing." There was no need of Paul's voice at any more than central points, when he could leave behind him congregations such as this. No doubt much of their zeal and fidelity were owing to the fostering care of such men as Silas and Timothy, and Luke, whom the apostle occasionally left behind him.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 Paul in Athens.
Paul in Athens.
The arrival and the first discussions:
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v. 15. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens; and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
v. 16. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
v. 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.
v. 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.
v. 19. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
v. 20. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things mean.
v. 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.)
The solicitude of the Berean disciples would not permit them to leave their beloved teacher travel without an escort, and some of them therefore volunteered to accompany him to a place of safety. The original intention seems to have been to conduct Paul down to the coast and have him wait there in some port until Silas and Timothy could join him once more. There he could be ready for flight across the sea at a moment’s notice. But this plan for some reason did not prove feasible, and therefore Paul’s friends conducted him all the way to Athens. This city was one of the most famous cities of the world, situated in Greece, the Roman province of Achaia, on the Attic peninsula, five miles northeast of the Saronic Gulf, and connected with its seaport Piraeus by long walls. On the hill, called the Acropolis, stood the famous temple Parthenon, and other beautiful public buildings crowned other eminences. Athens was no longer the political capital of Greece at that time, but continued to be its literary center, as it was that of the entire civilized world for several centuries after. But in spite of all its learning and philosophy, which was the boast of its proud citizens, the city had fallen a prey to social decay and moral rottenness. "In Athens itself, where flourished the most profound philosophy, the most glowing eloquence, the most exquisite poetry, and the most refined creative art which the world has ever seen, there was the most complete and studied abandonment to every vice which passion could prompt or imagination invent. " Having arrived at Athens, Paul dismissed the brethren that had accompanied him with the charge to Silas and Timothy to join him as quickly as possible. But while Paul was waiting for his assistants in Athens, he was by no means idle. As he wandered up and down the streets of the famous city, he was violently agitated and filled with anger, severely provoked, his spirit was so stirred up in him, because he saw that the entire city was full of idols; it was a feature which distinguished Athens among all the cities of Greece. Thousands of figures of gods and goddesses were erected along the streets, and many altars invited the sacrifices of such as still believed in the ancient form of Greek religion. The apostle’s extreme vexation over these conditions, and his earnest desire to expose such heathenish errors, caused him to reason and argue not only in the synagogue, with the Jews and the proselytes whom he could meet there, but also daily on the forum, in the market-place of the city. This was not a bare or vacant lot in the middle of the town, but was surrounded with beautiful porticoes ornamented with sculpture work by famous artists, where the learned men of the day came together for philosophical discussions, and the philosophic schools had their meeting halls. The Stoa Poikile was on one side, where the philosophic school of the Stoics met, and the gardens of Epicurus were not far away, the one school teaching absolute resignation to fate, the other proclaiming intellectual and sensual enjoyment in every form. But it made no difference to Paul, who reasoned with chance comers on the market-place as well as with the members of these philosophical schools. The disputes sometimes took the form of formal encounters, heated debates, as Paul tried to convince these philosophers. And their comments upon his efforts were not at all flattering. Some jeeringly inquired what this babbler was trying to say. The meaning of this strange epithet which was applied to Paul has been made clear by recent discoveries, for it is applied to one that picks up scraps and crumbs thrown into the streets. "It evidently meant to these learned Athenians that Paul, notwithstanding his claims, was not an original philosopher, but was a picker-up of certain scraps of philosophy which had been thrown away by authorized and properly educated teachers " Others sneeringly remarked that Paul seemed to be a proclaimer of foreign demons, of novel and strange divinities, of gods that had never been heard of before. This last remark was occasioned by the fact that the apostle had preached to them the Gospel-news: Jesus and the resurrection. Note: whether we are dealing with the self-righteousness of Jews or with the wisdom of Greeks, there is always and only one duty before us, to preach the Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Christ. Finally the matter came to a crisis. The men with whom Paul was debating took him and brought him to the Areopagus, with the remark in the form of a question whether it would be possible for them to find out what this novel teaching as proclaimed by him was about. Paul did not speak about a doctrine, but he actually preached the Christian doctrine. Strange, novel matters they were which he was bringing in to their ears, startling and bewildering to people proud of their human philosophy; they were therefore determined to know what meaning they wanted to convey. Luke adds, by way of explanation, that all the Athenians, the natives of the city as well as the foreigners who resided in the city for a time, had leisure for nothing else, found no occupation more pleasant or fascinating, than that of reporting or hearing something new, novel, out of the ordinary, something to tickle their jaded intellects; the very latest news in philosophy and science was their choicest morsel. Note: The world of letters in our days has changed in appearance, but not in kind. The eternal verities of the Bible are despised as stale prattling, but every new theory of true and false science, he its argumentation never so tenuous, is hailed with delight and all too often set up as an irrefutable law.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 General Information:
General Information:
Athens is down the coast from Barea which is in Macedonia. Athens was one of the most important cities in Greece. (See: How to Translate Names)
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went there and stirred up
This speaks about their agitating people as though it were a person stirring a liquid and causing the things at the bottom of the liquid to rise to the surface. AT: "went there and agitated" or "went there and disturbed" (See: Metaphor)
troubled the crowds
"and worried the crowds" or "caused dread and fear among the people"
brothers
The word "brothers" here refers to men and women believers. AT: "believers" (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)
to go to the sea
"to go to the coast." From here Paul would probably sail to another city.
who were leading Paul
"who were accompanying Paul" or "who were going along with Paul"
they received from him instructions for Silas and Timothy
"he told them to instruct Silas and Timothy." This can also be stated as a direct quotation as in the UDB. (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)
translationWords
Jew
Thessalonica
Paul
preach
word of God
Berea
brother
Silas
Timothy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 17:13-15 Paul acknowledged the determination and persistence of this…
17:13-15 Paul acknowledged the determination and persistence of this persecution when he wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thes 2:14-16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.