Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
Parallel Translations
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Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
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Whyll Paul wayted for them at Attens his sprete was moved in him to se the cite geven to worshippinge of ymages.
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Nowe while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirite was stirred in him, when hee sawe the citie subiect to idolatrie.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Acts 17:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 119:158 I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe your word.
- Exodus 32:19-20 As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain. He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
- Psalms 119:136 Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.
- 2 Peter 2:7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked
- Job 32:18-20 For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst. I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.
- Jeremiah 20:9 If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I can’t.
- Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.
- Mark 3:5 When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.
- 1 Kings 19:10 He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
- 1 Kings 19:14 He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
- Job 32:2-3 Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
- Psalms 69:9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- Numbers 25:6-11 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.
- Acts 17:23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 16. Was sore grieved. Though Paul, whithersoever he came,…
16. Was sore grieved. Though Paul, whithersoever he came, did stoutly execute that function of teaching which he knew was enjoined with him, yet Luke showeth that he was more incensed and moved at Athens, because he saw idolatry reign more there than in any other place for the most part. The whole world was then full of idols; the pure worship of God could be found nowhere; and there were everywhere innumerable monsters of superstitions, but Satan had made the city of Athens more mad than any other city, so that the people thereof were carried headlong with greater madness unto their wickedness and perverse rites. And this example is worth the noting, that the city, which was the mansion-house of wisdom, the fountain of all arts, the mother of humanity, did exceed all others in blindness and madness. We know with what commandments witty and learned men did set forth the same, and she had conceived so great good liking of herself that she counted those rude whom she had not polished. But the Holy Ghost condemning the whole world of ignorance and blockishness, saith that those masters of liberal sciences were bewitched with an unwonted madness. Whence we gather what man’s wit can do in matters which concern God. Neither need we doubt of this, but that the Lord suffered the men of Athens to fall into extreme madness, that all the world might learn by them, and that they might teach all ages that the foresight and wit of man’s mind being holpen with learning and instruction, doth altogether dote, and is mere foolishness when it cometh to the kingdom of God. They had undoubtedly their cloaks and colors, wherewith they did excuse their worshippings, how preposterous and corrupt soever they were. And yet, notwithstanding, it is certain that they did not only deceive men with childish and frivolous toys, but that they themselves were deluded shamefully with gross and filthy jugglings, as if they were deprived of common sense, and were altogether blockish and brutish. And as we learn what manner [of] religion proceedeth from man’s understanding, and that man’s wisdom is nothing else but a shop of all errors, so we may know that the men of Athens, being drunk with their own pride, did err more filthily than the rest. The antiquity, the pleasantness, and beauty of the city, did puff them up, so that they did boast that the gods came thence. Therefore, forasmuch as they did pull down God from heaven, that they might make him an inhabitant of their city, it was meet that they should be thrust down into the nethermost hell. Howsoever it be, the vanity of man’s wisdom is here marked with eternal infamy by the Spirit of God; because, where it was principally resident, there was the darkness more thick. Idolatry did reign most of all there; and Satan carried men’s minds to and fro more freely by his mocks and juggling.
Now, let us come unto Paul. Luke saith, forasmuch as he saw the city so given to idolatry, his spirit waxed hot, or was moved. Where he doth not attribute unto him indignation only, neither doth he only say that he was offended with that spectacle, but he expressed the unwonted heat of holy anger, which sharpened his zeal, so that he did address himself more fervently unto the work. And here we must note two things. For in that Paul was wroth when he saw the name of God wickedly profaned, and his pure worship corrupted, he did thereby declare, that nothing was to him corrupted, he did thereby declare, that nothing was to him more precious than the glory of God. Which zeal ought to be of great force among us, as it is in the Psalm, (Psalm 69:9,) “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” For it is a common rule of all the godly, that so soon as they see their heavenly Father blasphemed, they be sore vexed, as Peter teacheth that the godly man Lot, because he could not cure most filthy facts, did vex his heart, (2 Peter 2:8.) And teachers must, above all others, be fervent, as Paul saith, that he is jealous that he may retain the Church in true chastity, (2 Corinthians 11:2.) And those who are not touched when they see and hear God blasphemed, and do not only wink thereat, but also carelessly pass over it, are not worthy to be counted the children of God, who at least do not give him so much honor as they do to an earthly father. Secondly, we must note that he was not so grieved, that being cast down through despair, he was quite discouraged, as we see most men to be far from waxing hot, or being moved, when they see the glory of God wickedly profaned, that in professing and uttering sorrow and sighing, they do, notwithstanding, rather wax profane with others than study to reform them. Nevertheless, they have a fair cloak for their sluggishness, that they will not procure any tumult when they are like to do no good. For they think that their attempts shall be in vain if they strive against the wicked and violent conspiracy of the people. But Paul is not only not discouraged with wearisomeness, neither doth he so faint by reason of the hardness of the matter, that he doth cast from him his office of teaching; but he is pricked forward with a more sharp prick to maintain godliness.
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 He could not forbear.
He could not forbear.
Slavishly given to Idolatry: Pausanias writeth that there were more Idols in Athens, than in all Greece, yea they had altars dedicated to Shame, and Fame, and Lust, whom they made goddesses.
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In comparing the wisdom of God with man’s wisdom, men scoff and mock at that which they understand not: And God useth the curiosity of fools to gather together his elect.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens,…
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Ver. 16. His spirit was stirred] The word παρωξυνετο signifies, he was almost beside himself (such was his zeal) to see the idolatry of the Athenians. So was William Gardiner, an English merchant and martyr in Portugal, who, when the cardinal, in a mass before the king, began to take the ceremonial host, to toss it to and fro round about the chalice, making certain circles and semicircles, he not being able to suffer any longer, went to the cardinal, and in the presence of the king and all his nobles and citizens, with the one hand he snatched the cake from the priest, and trod it under his feet, and with the other hand overthrew the chalice, &c. See the like history of William Flower, who wounded the mass priest at Westminster, &c. (Acts and Mon. fol. 1430.) There are those who tell us that this book of the Acts is discerned to be written by Luke, by his physician’s language here, παρωξυνετο, he "was in a fever fit," and Act 15:39, εγενετο ουν παροξυσμος, "the contention was so sharp between them." The word signifies such sharpness as is in vinegar; and it is used by physicians to denote the sharpness of the feverish humour when it is acting in a fit. It troubled St Paul, that the fountain was so troubled, the eye of Greece so darkened, {a} the "ornament of the world" so slurred with "abominable idolatries," as St Peter expresseth it, 1Pe 4:3.
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Wholly given to idolatry] Pausanias reckons up more idols almost in Athens than in all Greece besides. And Xenophon saith that the Athenians kept double the holy days and festivals to what others did. "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone," q.d. there is no hope of him, Hos 4:17. They that make them are like unto them, so are all they that worship them, as blockish as those Balaami-blocks they worship. No Church could be founded at Athens; they for their idolatry were given up to strong delusions, vile affections, just damnation. They were too wise to be saved by the foolishness of preaching.
{a} Της ‘Ελλαδος σφθαλμος. Diod.
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Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain His spirit was stirred in him; moved, and sharpened,…
His spirit was stirred in him; moved, and sharpened, being highly affected with divers passions:
1. With grief, for so learned, and yet blind and miserable a place.
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2. With zeal, and a holy desire to instruct and inform it.
3. With anger and indignation against the idolatry and sin that abounded in it.
Wholly given to idolatry; or, as the marginal reading hath, full of idols. For we read, that there were more idols in Athens than in all Greece besides; and that it was easier to find a god there (that is, an idol) than a man; their images being as numerous as their inhabitants.
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Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love,…
A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love, with the learning of the ancients, would think he should be very happy if he were where Paul now was, at Athens, in the midst of the various sects of philosophers, and would have a great many curious questions to ask them, for the explication of the remains we have of the Athenian learning; but Paul, though bred a scholar, and an ingenious active man, does not make this any of his business at Athens. He has other work to mind: it is not the improving of himself in their philosophy that he aims at, he has learned to call it a vain thing, and is above it (Col 2:8); his business is, in God's name, to correct their disorders in religion, and to turn them from the service of idols, and of Satan in them, to the service of the true and living God in Christ.
I. Here is the impression which the abominable ignorance and superstition of the Athenians made upon Paul's spirit, Act 17:16. Observe, 1. The account here given of that city: it was wholly given to idolatry. This agrees with the account which the heathen writers give of it, that there were more idols in Athens than there were in all Greece besides put together, and that they had twice as many sacred feasts as others had. Whatever strange gods were recommended to them, they admitted them, and allowed them a temple and an altar, so that they had almost as many gods as men - facilius possis deum quam hominem invenire. And this city, after the empire became Christian, continued incurably addicted to idolatry, and all the pious edicts of the Christian emperors could not root it out, till, by the irruption of the Goths, that city was in so particular a manner laid waste that there are now scarcely any remains of it. It is observable that there, where human learning most flourished, idolatry most abounded, and the most absurd and ridiculous idolatry, which confirms that of the apostle, that when they professed themselves to be wise they became fools (Rom 1:22), and, in the business of religion, were of all other the most vain in their imaginations. The world by wisdom knew not God, Co1 1:21. They might have reasoned against polytheism and idolatry; but, it seems, the greatest pretenders to reason were the greatest slaves to idols: so necessary was it to the re-establishing even of natural religion that there should be a divine revelation, and that centering in Christ. 2. The disturbance which the sight of this gave to Paul. Paul was not willing to appear publicly till Silas and Timothy came to him, that out of the mouth of two or three witnesses the word might be established; but in the mean time his spirit was stirred within him. He was filled with concern for the glory of God, which he saw given to idols, and with compassion to the souls of men, which he saw thus enslaved to Satan, and led captive by him at his will. He beheld these transgressors, and was grieved; and horror took hold of him. He had a holy indignation at the heathen priests, that led the people such an endless trace of idolatry, and at their philosophers, that knew better, and yet never said a word against it, but themselves went down the stream.
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II. The testimony that he bore against their idolatry, and his endeavours to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. He did not, as Witsius observes, in the heat of his zeal break into the temples, pull down their images, demolish their altars, or fly in the face of their priests; nor did he run about the streets crying, "You are all the bond-slaves of the devil," though it was too true; but he observed decorum, and kept himself within due bounds, doing that only which became a prudent man. 1. He went to the synagogue of the Jews, who, though enemies to Christianity, were free from idolatry, and joined with them in that among them which was good, and took the opportunity given him there of disputing for Christ, Act 17:17. He discoursed with the Jews, reasoned fairly with them, and put it to them what reason they could give why, since they expected the Messiah, they would not receive Jesus. There he met with the devout persons that had forsaken the idol temples, but rested in the Jews' synagogue, and he talked with these to lead them on to the Christian church, to which the Jews' synagogue was but as a porch. 2. He entered into conversation with all that came in his way about matters of religion: In the market - en tē agora, in the exchange, or place of commerce, he disputed daily, as he had occasion, with those that met with him, or that he happened to fall into company with, that were heathen, and never came to the Jews' synagogue. The zealous advocates for the cause of Christ will be ready to plead it in all companies, as occasion offers. The ministers of Christ must not think it enough to speak a good word for Christ once a week, but should be daily speaking honourably of him to such as meet with them.
III. The enquiries which some of the philosophers made concerning Paul's doctrine. Observe,
1. Who they were that encountered him, that entered into discourse with him, and opposed him: He disputed with all that met him, in the places of concourse, or rather of discourse. Most took no notice of him, slighted him, and never minded a word he said; but there were some of the philosophers that thought him worth making remarks upon, an they were those whose principles were most directly contrary to Christianity. (1.) The Epicureans, who thought God altogether such a one as themselves, an idle inactive being, that minded nothing, nor put any difference between good and evil. They would not own, either that God made the world or that he governs it; nor that man needs to make any conscience of what he says or does, having no punishment to fear nor rewards to hope for, all which loose atheistical notions Christianity is levelled against. The Epicureans indulged themselves in all the pleasures of sense, and placed their happiness in them, in what Christ has taught us in the first place to deny ourselves. (2.) The Stoics, who thought themselves altogether as good as God, and indulged themselves as much in the pride of life as the Epicureans did in the lusts of the flesh and of the eye; they made their virtuous man to be no way inferior to God himself, nay to be superior. Esse aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum - There is that in which a wise man excels God, so Seneca: to which Christianity is directly opposite, as it teaches us to deny ourselves and abase ourselves, and to come off from all confidence in ourselves, that Christ may be all in all.
2. What their different sentiments were of him; such there were as there were of Christ, Act 17:18. (1.) Some called him a babbler, and thought he spoke, without any design, whatever came uppermost, as men of crazed imaginations do: What will this babbler say? ho spermologos houtos - this scatterer of words, that goes about, throwing here one idle word or story and there another, without any intendment or signification; or, this picker up of seeds. Some of the critics tell us that the term is used for a little sort of bird, that is worth nothing at all, either for the spit or for the cage, that picks up the seeds that lie uncovered, either in the field or by the way-side, and hops here and there for that purpose - Avicula parva quae semina in triviis dispersa colligere solet; such a pitiful contemptible animal they took Paul to be, or supposed he went from place to place venting his notions to get money, a penny here and another there, as that bird picks up here and there a grain. They looked upon him as an idle fellow, and regarded him, as we say, no more than a ballad-singer. (2.) Others called him a setter forth of strange gods, and thought he spoke with design to make himself considerable by that means. And, if he had strange gods to set forth, he could not bring them to a better market than to Athens. He did not, as many did, directly set forth new gods, nor avowedly; but they thought he seemed to do so, because he preached unto then Jesus, and the resurrection. From his first coming among them he ever and anon harped upon these two strings, which are indeed the principal doctrines of Christianity - Christ and a future state - Christ our way, and heaven our end; and, though he did not call these gods, yet they thought he meant to make them so. Ton Iēsoun kai tēn anastasin̂ "Jesus they took for a new god, and anastasis, the resurrection, for a new goddess." Thus they lost the benefit of the Christian doctrine by dressing it up in a pagan dialect, as if believing in Jesus, and looking for the resurrection, were the worshipping of new demons.
3. The proposal they made to give him a free, full, fair, and public hearing, Act 17:19, Act 17:20. They had heard some broken pieces of his doctrine, and are willing to have a more perfect knowledge of it. (1.) They look upon it as strange and surprising, and very different from the philosophy that had for many ages been taught and professed at Athens. "It is a new doctrine, which we do not understand the drift and design of. Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, which we never heard of before, and know not what to make of now." By this it should seem that, among all the learned books they had, they either had not, or heeded not, the books of Moses and the prophets, else the doctrine of Christ would not have been so perfectly new and strange to them. There was but one book in the world that was of divine inspiration, and that was the only book they were strangers to, which, if they would have given a due regard to it, would, in its very first page, have determined that great controversy among them about the origin of the universe. (2.) They desired to know more of it, only because it was new and strange: "May we know what this new doctrine is? Or, is it (like the mysteries of the gods) to be kept as a profound secret? If it may be, we would gladly know, and desire thee to tell us, what these things mean, that we may be able to pass a judgment upon them." This was a fair proposal; it was fit they should know what this doctrine was before they embraced it; and they were so fair as not to condemn it till they had had some account of it. (3.) The place they brought him to, in order to this public declaration of his doctrine; it was to Areopagus, the same word that is translated (Act 17:22) Mars' Hill; it was the town-house, or guildhall of their city, where the magistrates met upon public business, and the courts of justice were kept; and it was as the theatre in the university, or the schools, where learned men met to communicate their notions. The court of justice which sat here was famous for its equity, which drew appeals to it from all parts; if any denied a God, he was liable to the censure of this court. Diagoras was by them put to death, as a contemner of the gods; nor might any new God be admitted without their approbation. Hither they brought Paul to be tried, not as a criminal but as a candidate.
4. The general character of the people of that city given upon this occasion (Act 17:21): All the Athenians, that is natives of the place, and strangers who sojourned there for their improvement, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing, which comes in as the reason why they were inquisitive concerning Paul's doctrine, not because it was good, but because it was new. It is a very sorry character which is here given of these people, yet many transcribe it. (1.) They were all for conversation. St. Paul exhorts his pupil to give attendance to reading and meditation (Ti1 4:13, Ti1 4:15), but these people despised those old-fashioned ways of getting knowledge, and preferred that of telling and hearing. It is true that good company is of great use to a man, and will polish one that has laid a good foundation in study; but that knowledge will be very flashy and superficial which is got by conversation only. (2.) They affected novelty; they were for telling and hearing some new thing. They were for new schemes and new notions in philosophy, new forms and plans of government in politics, and, in religion, for new gods that came newly up (Deu 32:17), new demons, new-fashioned images and altars (Kg2 16:10); they were given to change. Demosthenes, an orator of their own, had charged this upon them long before, in one of his Philippics, that their common question in the markets, or wherever they met, was ei ti le etai neōteron - whether there was any news. (3.) They meddled in other people's business, and were inquisitive concerning that, and never minded their own. Tattlers are always busy bodies, Ti1 5:13. (4.) They spent their time in nothing else, and a very uncomfortable account those must needs have to make of their time who thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to be good husbands of it, because eternity depends upon it, and it is hastening apace into eternity, but abundance of it is wasted in unprofitable converse. To tell or hear the new occurrences of providence concerning the public in our own or other nations, and concerning our neighbours and friends, is of good use now and then; but to set up for newsmongers, and to spend our time in nothing else, is to lose that which is very precious for the gain of that which is worth little.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now while Paul waited for them at Athens..... That…
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens..... That is, for Silas and Timotheus:
his spirit was stirred in him; not only his soul was troubled and his heart was grieved, but he was exasperated and provoked to the last degree: he was in a paroxysm; his heart was hot within him; he had a burning fire in his bones, and was weary with forbearing, and could not stay; his zeal wanted vent, and he gave it:
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when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry; or "full of idols", as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it. So Cicero says (x) that Athens was full of temples; and Xenophon (y) observes that they had double the feasts of other people; and Pausanias (z) affirms, that the Athenians far exceeded others in the worship of the gods, and care about religion; and he relates, that they had an altar for Mercy, another for Shame, another for Fame, and another for Desire, and expressed more religion to the gods than others did: they had an altar dedicated to twelve gods (a); and because they would be sure of all, they erected one to an unknown god; in short, they had so many of them, that one (b) jestingly said to them, our country is so full of deities, that one may more easily find a god than a man: so that with all their learning and wisdom they knew not God, Co1 1:21.
(x) De responsis Aruspicum. (y) De Athen. Polit. (z) Attica, p. 29, 42. (a) Thucydides Bell. Peloponness. l. 6. (b) Petronius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain While Paul was waiting for the - Having no…
While Paul was waiting for the - Having no design, as it seems, to preach at Athens, but his zeal for God drew him into it unawares, without staying till his companions came.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. He saw the city wholly given to…
Verse 16. He saw the city wholly given to idolatry.] κατειδωλον, Full of idols, as the margin has it, and very properly. Whoever examines the remains of this city, as represented by Mr. Stuart in his Antiquities, already referred to, will be satisfied of the truth of St. Luke's remark: it was full of idols. Bishop Pearce produces a most apposite quotation from Pausanias, which confirms the observation: Ουκ ην αλλαχου τοσαυτα ιδειν ειδωλα. There was no place where so many idols were to be seen. PAUS. in Attic. cap. xvii. 24.
PETRONIUS, who was contemporary with St. Paul, in his Satyr. cap. xvii., makes Quartilla say of Athens: Utique nostra regio tam PRAESENTIBUS PLENA EST NUMINIBUS, ut facilius possis DEUM quam HOMINEM invenire. Our region is so full of deities that you may more frequently meet with a god than a man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Act 17:16-17. While he waited for them at Athens…
Act 17:16-17. While he waited for them at Athens — Namely, for Silas and Timothy; his spirit was stirred in him — Greek, παρωξυνετο, was disquieted, vexed, filled with grief and indignation; when he saw the city (a city which was thought to be more enlightened than any other, and in which learning and arts were carried to greater perfection than anywhere else in the world) wholly given to idolatry — Greek, κατειδωλον, full of idols, enslaved to idolatry in the most gross and shameful manner. That this was the case, all ancient writers attest. Pausanias says that “there were more images in Athens than in all Greece besides;” and that “they worshipped the gods,” or expressed more piety to them “than all Greece:” and presently adds, as an evidence of their piety, that “they had altars (αιδους, φημης, και ορμης) erected to shame, fame, and desire;” and again, that “they exceeded all in their zeal for the gods.” Sophocles bears the same testimony, observing, “This city exceeds all others in worshipping and honouring the gods.” Hence Ælian called Athens the altar of Greece; and Xenophon said, that “it had twice as many sacred festivals as any other city.” And no wonder, for the Athenians always imported the deities and superstitions of every nation along with their arts and learning; and, as Strabo says, “their hospitality to strangers extended to the gods too, being very ready to receive any strange objects or forms of worship.” So that, as Petronius humorously says, “It was easier to find a god than a man there.” Here then we have a full proof of the insufficiency of science and philosophy to guide men in matters of religion. “The barbarous Scythians, the wild Indians, nay, the stupid Hottentots,” as Mr. Scott observes, “have never deviated further from truth, or sunk into grosser darkness, in respect to God and religion, than the ingenious and philosophical Athenians did!” The apostle, therefore, though, it seems, he had resolved not to begin preaching till Timothy and Silas arrived, yet, seeing the city sunk so low in these various, complicated, and abominable idolatries, could forbear no longer; and therefore, as there was a synagogue of the Jews in Athens, he went to it without delay, and disputed with the Jews and the devout persons — Whom he found assembled there: thus offering the gospel to them, as his manner was, before he preached it to the Gentiles. But not content with this, he afterward discoursed in the market-place daily with those that met with him — Who were chiefly, doubtless, Athenian idolaters. See Dr. Hammond.
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 Now while Paul waited - How long he was…
Now while Paul waited - How long he was there is not intimated; but doubtless some time would elapse before they could arrive. In the meantime Paul had ample opportunity to observe the state of the city.
His spirit was stirred in him - His mind was greatly excited. The word used here (παρωξύνετο parōxuneto) denotes “any excitement, agitation, or paroxysm of mind,” 1Co 13:5. It here means that the mind of Paul was greatly concerned, or agitated, doubtless with pity and distress at their folly and danger.
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The city wholly given to idolatry - Greek: κατέιδωλον kateidōlon. It is well translated in the margin, “or full of idols.” The word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. That this was the condition of the city is abundantly testified by profane writers. Thus, Pausanias (in Attic. 1Co 1:24) says, “the Athenians greatly surpassed others in their zeal for religion.” Lucian (t. i. Prometh. p. 180) says of the city of Athens, “On every side there are altars, victims, temples, and festivals.” Livy (45, 27) says that Athens “was full of the images of gods and men, adorned with every variety of material, and with all the skill of art.” And Petronius (Sat. xvii.) says humorously of the city, that “it was easier to find a god than a man there.” See Kuinoel. In this verse we may see how a splendid idolatrous city will strike a pious mind. Athens then had more that was splendid in architecture, more that was brilliant in science, and more that was beautiful in the arts, than any other city of the world; perhaps more than all the rest of the world united.
Yet there is no account that the mind of Paul was filled with admiration; there is no record that he spent his time in examining the works of art; there is no evidence that he forgot his high purpose in an idle and useless contemplation of temples and statuary. His was a Christian mind; and he contemplated all this with a Christian heart. That heart was deeply affected in view of the amazing guilt of a people who were ignorant of the true God, who had filled their city with idols reared to the honor of imaginary divinities, and who, in the midst of all this splendor and luxury, were going down to destruction. So should every pious man feel who treads the streets of a splendid and guilty city. The Christian will not despise the productions of art, but he will feel, deeply feel, for the unhappy condition of those who, amidst wealth, and splendor, and outward adoring, are withholding their affections from the living God, and who are going unredeemed to eternal woe. Happy would it be if every Christian traveler who visits cities of wealth and splendor would, like Paul, be affected in view of their crimes and dangers; stud happy if, like him, people could cease their unbounded admiration of magnificence and splendor in temples, and palaces, and statuary, to regard the condition of mind, not perishable like marble of the soul, more magnificent even in its ruins than all the works of Phidias or Praxiteles.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Lactanius ridicules the folly of idolatry in a neat…
Lactanius ridicules the folly of idolatry in a neat strain of irony, which he introduces by the following verses from Lucilius: Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena
Vivere et esse homines; sic isti omnia ficta
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Vera putant, &c.
--- The poet compares these fools to children. I think them worse; for the latter only take the statues for men, they for gods. Age causes the error of the one, folly of the other. These soon cease to be deceived, but the folly of those lasts and increases always. (Lactanius, de fals. Relig. lib. i.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 16Now [But] while Paul waited for them at Athens,…
E.—PAUL AT ATHENS; HIS OBSERVATIONS AND OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES; HIS MISSIONARY DISCOURSE ON THE AREOPAGUS, AND ITS EFFECT
Act_17:16-34
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16Now [But] while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred [moved with indignation] in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry [city full of idols]9. 17Therefore disputed he [He now discoursed, διελ. μὲν οῦ̓ν] in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons [Jews and proselytes], and in the market [market-place] daily with them that met [fell in] with him. 18Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered [But some of the Epicurean and of the Stoic philosophers entered into discourse with] him. And some said, What will this babbler10 say [What may this babbler intend to say]? other some [but others], He seemeth to be a setter forth [proclaimer] of strange [foreign] gods: because he preached unto them [the gospel of, εὐηγγελίζετο] Jesus, and the resurrection. 19And they took him, and brought him unto [the] Areopagus11, saying. May we know [Can we learn] what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest [which thoudeclarest], ?Isaiah 20 For thou bringest certain strange things [something strange] to our ears: we would know therefore [we wish, therefore, to know] what these things mean [what this may be]. 21([Om. parenth. marks]. For [But] all the Athenians, and [the] strangers which were there [strangers in the city], spent their time in [were disposed to do] nothing else but [than] either to tell or to hear some new thing [something new]).
22Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill12 [the Areopagus], and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things [points] ye are too superstitious [very devout]. 23For as I passed by [through the city], and beheld your evotions13 [sacred objects], I found [also, χαὶ] an altar with this [the] inscription, to the [an] unknown god. Whom [What]14 therefore ye ignorantly worship [ye worship without knowing it], him [that] declare [proclaim] I unto you. 24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth [therein, He (οῦ̓τος) dwelleth, as he is the Lord of heaven and earth,] not in temples made with hands; 25Neither is worshipped with men’s [Nor is he ministered unto by human15] hands, as though [if] he needed any thing, seeing he [whilst he himself, αὐτὸς] giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the [And hath caused that every nation of men, sprung from one blood, should dwell over the whole] face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed [earth, in that he hath fixed the appointed16 times], and the bounds of their habitation [habitations]; 27That they should [To] seek the Lord [God]17, if haply [perhaps] they might feel after [om. after] him, and find him, though he be [is] not far from every one of us: 28For in him we live, and move, and have our being [move, and are, ἐσμέν]; as certain also [also some] of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring [race]. 29 Forasmuch then as [As, therefore,] we are the offspring [race] of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device [stone, unto a graven work of the art and reflection of a man]. 30And the times [The times, indeed, μὲν οῦ̓ν] of this [om. this] ignorance God winked at [has overlooked]; but now [and now] commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because [Inasmuch as]18 he hath appointed [fixed] a day, in the which [in which] he will judge the world in righteousness by that [a] man whom he hath ordained [appointed]; whereof [in that] he hath given assurance [offered faith]19 unto all men, in that he hath raised [offered faith unto all, by raising] him from the dead.
32And [But] when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and [but the] others said, We will hear thee again of [concerning] this matter. 33So [And thus, χαὶ οὕτως] Paul departed from among them [went out of the midst of them]. 34Howbeit [But, δὲ] certain men clave [attached themselves] unto him, and believed: among the which [whom] was [also, χαὶ] Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_17:16-17. a. Now while Paul waited.—During the first part of this second missionary Journey of the apostle, we find him in Asia, or, specially, in Asia Minor; the second and third parts already exhibit him on European soil. The second part embraced Macedonia—Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea; the third, which now commences, refers exclusively to Greece (which, at that period, was called Achaia), and embraces, indeed, simply the two principal cities of Athens and Corinth. Paul waited in the former until Silas and Timotheus, for whom he had sent, ver.15, should join him. Although Luke does not again mention them until they meet with Paul in Corinth, Act_18:5, we are authorized by the statement in 1Th_2:17 to 1Th_3:2, to assume, that Timotheus soon afterwards joined the apostle in Athens, and then received certain commissions which required him to return to Thessalonica. Luke had, in the mean time, remained in Philippi, and this circumstance explains his silence respecting the arrival of Timotheus at Athens, etc.
b. His spirit was stirred in him [his spirit was moved with indignation], παρωξύνετο τ. πν., his spirit was filled with indignation, suffered a moral shock [comp. 1Co_13:5, and ὁ δῆμος—ὠργίσθη καὶ παρωξύνθη, Dem. κατὰ Μειδιόυ. p. 514. (Mey.).—Tr.]; the imperfect indicates an abiding state of mind, and not merely a sudden and transient emotion [see Exeg. note, Act_8:15-17 ult.—Tr.]. He had, namely, observed, after spending some time in the city, and carefully surveying it (θεωρεῖν, not simply ιʼδεῖν), that it was full of images of the gods. (Κατείδωλος, a word not found elsewhere, but accurately formed, according to the analogy of other compounds, is not used in a subjective sense, as if it were equivalent to idolis dedita, but in an objective sense, viz., idolis abundans; compare κατάδενδρος, arboribus plenus; κατάμπελος, vitibus abundans). Numerous Greek and Roman writers add their testimony that this characteristic feature distinguished Athens among all the Hellenic cities; thus, Xenophon describes that city as ὅλη βωμός, ὅλη θῦμα θεοῖ και Ì ἀνάθημα, de Rep. Ath., and Livy remarks: Athenas—multa visenda habentes—simulacra Deorum hominumque omni genere et materiae et atrium insignia. XLV. 27.—The indignation of the apostle, and his desire to expose such heathenish errors (οῦ̓ν), induced him to enter into conversation both with Jews and proselytes in the synagogue, and with persons of every other class whom he encountered in the market-place; the truths of religion were the subjects of his δια̣λέγεσθαι. Such opportunities the market place daily (κατὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν) furnished; as the same remark is not made with regard to the synagogue, it follows that the latter afforded such opportunities only on the sabbath-day.—The expression ἡ ἀγορά, seems to imply that the city possessed only one market-place; this fact was long doubted, and the conjecture was generally adopted that Paul’s conversations were held in a place called Eretria [Potter’s Antiq. of Greece I. 43. Edinb. 1832.—Tr.]. The usual explanation of this name, however, is erroneous, and, in general, those who have more recently furnished us with topographical accounts of Athens, are convinced that this city never contained more than one market-place [forum, agora], and thus the accuracy and fidelity of the narrative before us are established even with regard to a point of apparently little importance (ἠ ἀγορά). [For a very full description of this Agora, see Conyb. and H. I. 379. ff.—Tr.]
Act_17:18. Then certain philosophers.—It was doubtless on the occasions when such conversations were held in public place, that some philosophers, who belonged partly to the Epicurean, and partly to the Stoic school, came in contact with Paul. (Συμβάλλω signifies in Act_4:15 simply to confer together in a friendly manner; the word does not necessarily indicate a debate or a contest). [“The Epicurean philosophy was antagonistic to the Gospel as holding the atomic theory in opposition to the creation of matter,—the disconnection of the divinity from the world and its affairs, in opposition to the idea of a ruling providence,—and the indissoluble union and annihilation together, of soul and body, as opposed to the hope of eternal life, and indeed to all spiritual religion whatever. The Epicureans were the materialists of the ancient world, etc.—While the philosophy of the Stoics approached the truth in holding one supreme Governor of all, it contravened the latter, in its pantheistic belief that all souls were emanations of Him. In spirit it was directly opposed to the Gospel,—holding the independence of man on any being but himself, together with the subjection of God and man alike to the stern laws of an inevitable fate, etc.” (Alford).—Tr.]. In consequence of these conversations, the Athenians were divided in their opinions. Some looked with contempt on Paul, as a vain babbler, who could say nothing that merited attention; (σπερμολόγος originally signified a rook or crow [Aristoph. Av. 232, 579], and was applied to any one who prated in an inflated or pompous manner.—The question: τὶ ἂν—θέλοι λέγειν, primarily signifies: ‘We do not clearly understand what he means to say;’ the interrogator, however, virtually expresses a disparaging judgment). Others were, at least, disposed to seek for more information, as Paul appeared to them to proclaim foreign divinities (ξένα δαιμόνια; similar language was employed when Socrates was accused: καινὰ δαιμόνια εἰςάγει). This opinion was suggested, as Luke explains, by the circumstance that Paul preached the Gospel concerning Jesus and the resurrection of the dead.—It is not probable that the Athenians supposed that, ἀνάστασις[“resurrection”] was the name of a goddess or heroine (Chrysostom, Baur, Baumgarten); Luke appears, on the contrary, to have mentioned the resurrection in immediate connection with the Person of Jesus, solely for the reason that this subject most of all surprised the Hellenic philosophers, as a novel or strange (ξένος) conception.
Act_17:19-21. The people whose interest and curiosity had been aroused by the language of the apostle, conducted him (ἐπιλαόμενοι, leniter prehensum, Grotius [comp. Act_9:27]) to the Areopagus, that is, the hill of Ares [Mars—so called from the legendary trial of Mars, Pausan. I. 28. 5—Tr.], north of the western extremity of the Acropolis, on which spot the supreme court of the republic usually held its sittings. But that Paul was not subjected to a formal trial before the court of the Areopagites, and that his discourse was not a judicial defence (as Adami, a divine of the Netherlands, Observ. 1710, conjectured, and as Baur and Zeller have recently asserted), will appear from the following considerations: first, the whole context, which leads to an opposite conclusion, specially, the courteous question in Act_17:19, and the wish expressed in Act_17:20; secondly, the explanatory remark of the narrator in Act_17:21, according to which it was simply curiosity, and neither fanaticism nor intolerance that occasioned the scene which followed; thirdly, the whole tone of the discourse, which nowhere assumes the character of a defence or apology; and, lastly, the scene at the close, when Paul departs without molestation, and not the slightest trace of a judicial process is exhibited.—The request addressed to Paul, viz., that he should explain himself more fully, Act_17:19, is exceedingly polite, and marked by Attic courtesy (δυνάμεθα γνῶναι); still, it is somewhat ironical, as the speakers undoubtedly believe that they already understand the subject, and are convinced that Paul can teach them nothing which they do not already know; and the expression in Act_17:20, ξενίζοντά τινα, certain strange things, i.e., something strange or foreign, is tinged with that Hellenic arrogance with which barbarians [persons not Greeks by language or nation (Rob.)] were surveyed. Luke adds by way of explanation, Act_17:21, that all the Athenians, both foreigners who resided in the city, and natives, found no occupation more pleasant than that of reporting or hearing of some new thing (εὐκαίρουν, vacabant, for which they always had time). Bengel explains the comparative καινότερον with great felicity, in the following terms: ‘nova statim sordebant, noviora quaerebantur.’ The people not only derived pleasure from such reports, but also sought for honor and distinction by communicating their own reports of new things (λέγειν,ἀκούειν). The imperfect εὐκαίρουν describes a characteristic feature of the people at the time when the occurrence took place, without, however, implying that the remark was also applicable to a later period. [“De Atheniensium garrulitate, et curiositatenimia, seu studio novitatis intempestivo … plures scriptorum veterum loci loquuntur... Conf. Wolfiusin Curis, et Wetstenius ad h. l.” (Kuinoel).—Tr.]
Act_17:22. a. As the request is so plainly addressed to the apostle, he does not hesitate to rise before the most intelligent audience which the heathen world could furnish, even if the request did not proceed from a sincere love of the truth,, and was, moreover, pronounced in an ironical tone of voice; he was conscious that he had received a call (Act_9:15) to “bear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles.” With all the confidence of faith he takes a position (σταθείς) in the middle of the plateau on the hill, which was about [fifty or] sixty feet high. [i.e., above the valley separating it from the Acropolis. (Robinson).—Tr.]. He saw before him the Acropolis, which rose above him, and was adorned with numerous works of art; beneath the spot on which he stood, was the magnificent temple of Theseus; around him were numerous temples, altars, and images of the gods. Compare Robinson’s Researches, etc., Vol. I. p. 10, 11. [American edition].
b. He begins by saying in gentle terms, well suited to make a favorable impression, and indicating his wish to recognize with candor every favorable circumstance, that the observations which he had made (θεωρῶ), enabled him to bear witness that the Athenians were indeed, in every respect, a God-fearing people. Ως before δεισιδ., imports: ‘I recognize you as such—such ye appear to me to be.’ The word δεισιδαίμων is undoubtedly sometimes found in the classic writers in an unfavorable sense, viz., superstitious; it is here taken in such a sense by the Vulgate, by Erasmus, Luther, and others. It is, however, a vox media, and not unfrequently conveys the idea of genuine fear of God. [Kuinoel says: ‘Vocabulum δεισιδ.—duplici sensu adhiberi solet—bono sensu—malo sensu;’—he furnishes the most important references in each case.—Tr.]. The word is, without doubt, to be understood here in a good sense, although it appears to have been intentionally chosen, in order to indicate, in a mild manner, the conception of fear [δείδω] which predominated in the religion of the apostle’s hearers, and which ultimately led to superstition. The comparative δεισιδαιμονετέρους does not include the collateral idea of excess; the apostle simply compares the Athenians with other Greeks [i.e., “more devout than others are, soil.ἅλλων.” (Winer: § 35:4)—Tr.]; he does not intend to flatter, but only states a fact which was admitted by the ancients. Isocrates speaks of the Athenians as τοὺς πρὸς τὰ τῶν θεῶν εὐσεβέστατα διακειμέισιδ. Similar testimony is borne by Sophocles, Plato, Xenophon, and, lastly, Josephus; see the passages in Wetstein, II. 562 f. [Alf. translates δεισιδ.: carrying your religious reverence very far; Conyb. and H.: all things—bear witness to your carefulness in religion; Hackett: more religious (scil. than others); Alexander: god-fearing (or more exactly demon-fearing.—Tr.]. Γάρ, in Act_17:23, implies that the opinion expressed by the apostle in Act_17:22 respecting the eminently god-fearing spirit of the Athenians, was founded on his own observations, since, in addition to other sacred objects (dedicated to gods whose names are known), he had noticed an altar dedicated to an unknown God. Σένασμα is equivalent to ressacra, or, quod religionis causa homines venerantur; hence it comprehends sacred places, groves and temples, altars, statues, etc. ʼΑναθεωρῶ means: to survey several objects in succession.
Act_17:23-25. a. An altar with this inscription: “To the [an] unknown God.”—It was supposed at an early period of the Christian Church, (and the remark has since been frequently repeated), that Paul took the liberty of employing the singular number, while the inscription was expressed in the plural. Thus Jerome remarks on Tit_1:12 : ‘Inscriptio autem arae non ita erat, ut Paulus asseruit: “Ignoto Deo,” sed ita: “Diis Asiae et Europae et Africae, Diis ignotis et peregrinis.” Verum quia Paulus non pluribus Diis ignotis indigebat, sed uno tantum ignoto Deo, singulari verbo usus est.’—While this church father assumes that the apostle here exhibits an instance of rhetorical license, the change in the number has, in more recent times, been ascribed to the historian: the singular, it has been said, is unhistorical; the inscription could not possibly have been otherwise expressed than in the plural, viz., ἀγνώστοις θεοῖς (Baur: Paulus, p. 175 ff). But why should the singular be deemed impossible? It is true that if the article had been prefixed to ἀγν. θεῷ, it would not be conceivable that such an inscription should appear on an altar in Athens. But why should it be impossible that an altar should be dedicated ‘to an unknown God’? Pausanias (Attic. I. 1.) says that there were in Athens βωμοὶ θεῶν τῶν ὀνομαζ ομένων ἀγνώστων καὶ ἡρώων and Philostratus (Vita Apollon. VI. 2) remarks that it was prudent to speak well of all the gods, especially in Athens, οῦ̓ καὶ ἀγνώστων θεῶν βωμοὶ ἵδρυνται. These two statements may undoubtedly be so understood, as if each of the altars mentioned, had been dedicated “to unknown gods” (plur.); still, they may also, and, indeed, with greater probability, be understood to mean that each one had been dedicated “to an unknown god”, and bore this inscription. Altars with this inscription seem, indeed, to have been erected in Athens in several different places. Various opinions respecting the origin and purpose of such altars, have been entertained, which as they are all founded on mere conjectures, we forbear to notice. [See de Wette, Meyer, etc., ad. loc.—Tr.]
b. After these remarks, the apostle, in order to convince his hearers that he was not discussing a subject which was absolutely new to them, proceeds to state the theme of his discourse: “What ye accordingly (οῦ̓ν) worship devoutly, without knowing it, I proclaim unto you.” [See note 6 above, appended to the text.—Tr.]. The object of their worship (εὐαεβεῖτε,, religiose colitis) is intentionally designated by the neuter, ὃ—τοῦτο, in an abstract and indefinite manner, corresponding to ἀγνοοῦντες; when the apostle subsequently makes a positive statement, he introduces concrete and personal terms: ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιήσας, etc.—The Athenians expected to hear something that was altogether new and strange (Act_17:18, ξένων δαιμ καταγγελεύς.; Act_17:20, ξενίζοντά τινα εἰςφέρεις); but Paul appeals to their own consciousness, and founds his remarks on the statement involved in the inscription on the altar; his meaning is the following: ignotum, non tamen peregrinum, prædico vobis.
c. He, first of all, proclaims the true God, Act_17:24-25, as the only God (ὁ θεὸς, etc.), and as the independent and absolute Creator and Lord of the world, who is too exalted to need any thing, such as a dwelling in temples, or the service of human hands, specially that of priests. θεραπεύειν is a word frequently used to designate the worship of the gods. The expression προςδεόμενος is also happily chosen, as equivalent to τὸ ἔχειν μὲν μέρος, ἔτι δὲ δεῖσθαι πρὸς τὸ τέλειον, (Ulpian). [The pronoun τινος, after προςδεόμενος “may be either masculine (any one) or neuter (any thing)” (Alex.). “Luther (in his version) takes τινὸς as a masculine pronoun, which admirably suits both the words which precede, and also πᾶσι, which follows.” (Meyer)—Tr.]. The apostle, in full view of those magnificent temples, which were adorned with all the wonders of art, and which constituted the pride of the Athenians, utters these words: ‘God does not dwell in temples made with hands.’ Surrounded, as Paul at the moment is, by numerous altars of sacrifice, he exclaims: ‘God is not ministered unto by human hands.’ The words αὐτὸς διδούς, are intended to confirm the remark which he had just made, or, rather to expose the delusion of the Athenians, and mean: ‘It is He Himself, on the contrary, who gives life and breath to all men;’ πνοή expresses the condition on which the continuance of life depends; all that supplies the natural wants of man is indicated by καὶ τὰ πάντα.
Act_17:26-28. a. Paul proceeds, in the second place, (in connection with these fundamental truths concerning God) to give a correct view of man. [“Observe the threefold subject of the discourse: Theology, Act_17:24-25; Anthropology, Act_17:26-29; Christology, Act_17:30-31.” (Mey.).—Tr.]. He says, in general, that mankind is one by virtue of the divinely appointed propagation from one blood. (Αῖ̓μα is here used not merely in the scriptural sense, involving the conception of a connection of life and generation with the blood, comp. Joh_1:3, but also in the strict classical sense; the word occurs, in reference to generation and blood-relationship, already in Homer, Ιι. ζ. 211; Od. π. 300, and afterwards, in Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristotle.). With respect to the construction, πᾶν ἕθνος does not depend on ἔθνος as the object of the latter; the whole clause, on the contrary, (including πᾶν ἔθνος as the accusative before the infinitive κατοικεῖν) is governed by ἐποίησε, in the following sense: instituit, ut ex uno sanguine orta omnis hominum gens—habitaret. [De Wette, who also adopts this view, refers to Mat_5:32; Mar_7:37, as illustrations of an accusative with the infinitive, preceded by ποιεῖν.—Tr.].—Paul here combats, not so much the opinion of the Athenians specially, who deemed themselves to be autochthones, as, rather, the delusion in general, which was fostered by the. religion of nature in all its forms, according to which the respective origins of the different nations of the earth were all essentially distinct from one another.—The apostle also expresses another thought, viz., that the partition of mankind into nations, is to be ascribed to a divine appointment. God caused men—he says—to spread themselves over the surface of the earth—ὁθισας, etc., that is, appointing and determining the times and the boundaries of the nations. The word καιροί refers, (as κατοικεῖν which precedes, and κατοικίας which follows, plainly show,) principally to the abodes of the nations, that is, to the period during which a nation may retain possession of the territory which it has occupied, and to the point of time when it shall be dispossessed. And thus the Statement is also made, that God controls the history of all nations.
b. After having spoken of the life of nations, Paul refers to the life of the individual, and, in the third place, sets forth the loftiest aim of man, viz., to seek God, with whom he is closely and intimately connected, Act_17:27-28. According to the structure of the sentence, ζητεῖνstill refers to πᾶν ἕθνος ἀνθρώρων, i.e., to the nations—it was the design of the divine partition and collocation of the nations that they should seek τὸν κύριον, ‘the Lord of heaven and earth,’ comp. Act_17:24. Ζητεῖν, however, does not indicate a seeking merely after the knowledge of God (Meyer), but also after a living and essential union with Him. Εἰ ἄραγε with the optative indicates that the result is doubtful; the speaker implies in a delicate manner, that mankind, as a whole, had missed the mark at which they aimed. The result of the search, if it should be successful, would be the ψηλαφεῖν and εὑρίσκειν, that is, the object sought would be reached and touched, and, accordingly, be actually found. The apostle adds: ‘Although (καίτοιγε) it is not necessary to seek him long, since he is not far distant from every one’ (hence an unsuccessful search is the less excusable.).Γάρ, in Act_17:28, confirms the proposition which immediately precedes; it explains the meaning of the words: ‘he is not far from every one of us,’ and also assigns the reason: ‘we are, namely, in God, ἐν αὐτῷ̓, even as we are in space which encompasses us, or in the atmosphere which essentially surrounds us, and on which the functions of life depend.’ ʼΕν αὐτῷ does not mean through Him (Grotius; Kuinoel), nor does it mean: on Him, that is, reposing on Him as on a foundation; the most obvious grammatical explanation at the same time best suits the logical connection. The three words ζῶμεν, κινούμεθα, ἐσμὲν, are arranged according to a descending scale, when the objective relation of the conceptions respectively expressed by them is considered; when their subjective logical connection, on the other hand, is examined, they are arranged according to an ascending scale; that is to say, life in itself is more than movement, the latter more than mere existence; but there is a gradual rise in the following thoughts: if we were without God and entirely isolated, we would not live, not even move, indeed, not even exist (ἐσμὲν). As a confirmation of his statement, and as fully harmonizing (ὡς καὶ—εῖ̓ρήκασιν) with the proposition advanced by him (ἐν αὐτῷ—ἐσμέν), Paul quotes an expression used by certain poets who were themselves Greeks like his hearers (οἱ καθʼ ὑμας), the sense of which is: ‘We, too, belong to his race.’ The quotation, which constitutes the beginning of an hexameter, is taken verbatim from the poet Aratus, a native of Soli in Cilicia, who flourished during the third century before the Christian era. The following words occur at the beginning of his astronomical poem, entitled Φαινόμενα, Act_17:4 f.:
——πάντη δὲ Διὸς κεχρήμεθα πάντες
τοῦ γὰρ γένος ἐσμέν.——
Tοῦ (poetical, for τούτου [Winer §17. 1. init.) refers in Aratus to Zeus [Jupiter], but is applied by Paul to the true God. Now when Paul attributes the same thought to several poets (τινες—εἰρήκασι), he has probably also Cleanthes of Lycia in view, who in his Hymn. in. Jov. Act_17:5, introduces the following words:ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ γένος ἐσμέν. The apostle may have become acquainted with such passages, and retained them in his memory, without rendering it necessary to assume that he had received a regular Hellenic education in his earlier years, or had devoted himself to the study of Greek literature; his acquaintance with the passages quoted by him may be the more readily explained, when we remember that he was reared in Tarsus, in which city Greek culture prevailed, and that Aratus was a native of the same province to which he belonged.
Act_17:29. Forasmuch then.—From this poetical saying, involving a principle which his hearers well knew and readily conceded, Paul draws an additional conclusion (οῦ̓ν) against the worship of images, as well as against the pagan habit of thought (νομίζειν), which sustained that worship. However direct and unequivocal this refutation is in principle, the language employed is exceedingly moderate and gentle, especially in the introduction of the first person, οὐκ ὀφείλομεν, whereas he might have said: ‘It is foolish and senseless in you to yield to such a delusion!’ The inference is the following: If we are allied to God, if He and we are homogeneous, it must follow that the Deity (τὸ θεῖον, conforming to the philosophical usus loquendi of the ancients), on the one hand, and a substance, on the other, which is nothing but a metal or a stone, cannot be homogeneous, as such a substance (the form of which is simply a work of human art) and man are heterogeneous.—The apostle makes this statement notwithstanding that, or rather, precisely because, the most costly statues of the gods, made of silver and gold, of marble and ivory, the most renowned masterpieces of ancient art, were standing on the Acropolis and other places, as well as in the temples of Athens. Xάραγμα (from χαράσσω) denotes a carved or sculptured work, a production of the skill and deliberation of a man; ἐνθύμησις does not, according to the usus loquendi, mean the desire or motive proceeding from an artistic inclination (Meyer), but is equivalent to reflection, consideration. When Paul, therefore, designs to prove that the worship of images is irrational, he directs the attention of his hearers both to the materials of which those images are made (χρυσ ἀργ. λιθ.), and also to the way and manner in which they are constructed and completed, that is, partly by means of skilful hands (τέχνης), partly by reflection or deliberation on questions like these: “Which of the gods shall be made? of what material? etc.” Terms, that exhibit the most striking contrast, viz., ἀνθρώπου and τὸ θεῖον, are intentionally placed in juxtaposition. [Meyer].
Act_17:30-31. At this point a new division of the discourse commences, referring to the subject of salvation, to the Saviour himself, to repentance, and to faith. Paul had already intimated that men had hitherto failed to discover the truth—that they had gone astray. After assuming this position (οῦ̓ν), he proceeds to bear witness that God had overlooked the times of ignorance (ὑπεριδών i.e., had allowed them to pass by without any positive manifestation of grace, on the one hand, but also without a stern rebuke, on the other), whereas now, when a crisis had arrived (τανῦν), He demands a change of mind, or repentance on the part of all men (the terms τοῖς ἀνθρώποις πᾶσι πανταχοῦ express the conception of universality in the most explicit manner). [“ὑπερώποις, not to look at, not to notice; LXX. Psa_55:2; Deu_22:1; not to punish, Joseph. Ant. ii. 6. 8 (9),” (de Wette).—“Hath overlooked; it should be observed that no such metaphor as ‘winked at’ is to be found in the original” (Conyb. and H. I. 407. note).—Tr.]. This demand, which concerns all mankind, is now made in view of the fact that (καθότι) God has fixed a day for the righteous judgment of the world, which he will execute through a man [“ἐν ἀνδρί, i.e., in the person of a man, who will be the representative of God.” (Meyer).—Tr.], whom he has appointed for that purpose (ῷ̓ ὥρισε, an attraction frequently occurring [Winer, § Act_24:1]), after having offered faith in him to all men by raising him from the dead; the expression πίστιν παρέχειν means—to make such faith possible, or bring it near, namely, by means of the testimony borne in favor of him and his dignity by the fact of his resurrection.
Act_17:32-34. a. The speaker had proceeded so far, without, however, having concluded, when he was interrupted by loud mockery of the resurrection; the definite article is intentionally omitted before the genitive in the expression ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν; its presence would have denoted the resurrection of all the dead, whereas that of only one who had been dead, namely, Jesus, is here meant. The other hearers, who did not actually mock, and who remarked in courteous terms that they would listen to him on this subject on a future occasion, at least implied that they, too, desired at that time to hear no more. And thus (οὕτως, i.e., when so little could be expected from the manner in which his words had been received), Paul withdrew from the assembly. Still, some men attached themselves to him, and were also converted; among these, Luke mentions only one by name, viz., Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, which was the most ancient tribunal of Athens, and universally regarded with respect. That he was a man of great distinction may be inferred from the circumstance that the court of the Areopagites consisted of the noblest and most independent men, whose integrity of character was unquestioned. Tradition represents him as having been the first bishop of Athens, and as having died as a martyr; at a later period several writings, and a peculiar system, of a mystical character, were falsely ascribed to him. [See the article Dionysius Areopagita, in Herzog: Encyk. III. 412–418.—Tr.]. Damaris is entirely unknown; the manner in which she is mentioned [simply, γυνὴ ὀνόματι], clearly shows that it is an error to represent her as having been the wife of Dionysius. (Chrysostom):
b. The unity of this discourse is readily seen; its theme is the inscription on that altar: ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ. The apostle gladly admits that a religious feeling of a certain character governed the Athenians, but refers to that inscription as an evidence that they were deficient in the true knowledge of God. Hence he proclaims the truth to them, first, with respect to God, Act_17:24-25; secondly, with respect to man, who is appointed to seek and to find God, and who is related to Him, Act_17:26-28. After an intermediate observation, Act_17:29, which rebukes the error of image-worship, Paul proclaims, thirdly, that the times of ignorance had reached their end, and demands a return to God, and faith in the Risen One, who is the Saviour and the Judge of the world. (Comp. Lange: Church History, II. 222 ff.). The whole discourse is admirably suited to the time and the place, is characterized by wisdom and mature reflection, is considerate and yet frank, moderate and yet pointed, lofty in the thoughts which it expresses, and marked by genuine Pauline features in its fundamental views (respecting the unity of the revelation of God in creation, in the conscience, and in the work of redemption), as well as in the distinction-between the ante-Christian and the Christian historical periods; hence we cannot believe that any foundation exists which would sustain the doubt expressed by some writers respecting the credibility of this narrative of the appearance of the apostle in Athens, and of this report of his discourse. [“As this discourse was interrupted (Act_17:32), we have no right to describe it as a mere lesson in natural theology, nor even to assume (with Calvin and some others) that it is less fully reported in the last than in the first part, &c.” (Alex.).—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The number of the masterpieces of ancient art, and the beauty of these productions of architecture and statuary which present themselves to the eye of Paul, afford him no æsthetic enjoyment, neither do they fill him with wonder and enthusiasm, but, on the contrary, arouse a moral indignation in his soul. On the first occasion on which the Spirit of Christ, in one of his disciples and apostles, comes in contact with ancient art in its highest stage of development, a sentence of rejection is pronounced in the case of the latter. Are then Christianity and art, when viewed in themselves, of a nature so opposite, that they repel each other? By no means; that opinion is correct only in so far that the Spirit of Christ neither recognizes nor admits an exclusively æsthetic or purely artistic impression derived from the creations of art, but, on the contrary, contemplates and judges art only in connection with the deep religious and moral thoughts which constitute its true foundation. And, further, the Spirit of Christ accords with classical antiquity, in so far, namely, as both reject that which is partial and incomplete, and, with entire consistency, view man in the totality of his nature. While Paul surveys the works of art in Athens, he cannot dissever the artistic skill with which they are constructed from the thoughts which they are intended to express, or from the purpose for which they are made; those superb temples, those noble statues, etc. are, namely, in their very nature the creations of the spirit of paganism, and are designed to sustain a polytheistical worship; the city that is so richly adorned with works of art, as, in truth, a κατείδωλος πόλις. And hence this world of art, as Paul gazes on it, leads him to think with a moral indignation of the error, the delusion, the sin against the living God, which it continues to cherish. The Spirit of Christ at no time and in no place tolerates a judgment which is divested of every moral and religious element.
2. The present is also the first occasion on which Christianity comes in contact with philosophy, as well as with art. Here, too, the encounter is not of a friendly nature; the only difference is found in the fact that while Paul commenced the contest in the first case, the philosophers are here the assailants. Neither the narrative in Act_17:16-18, nor the discourse delivered on the Hill of Mars, contains a single expression implying that a direct attack on philosophy had been made by Paul. But both before and after his discourse, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers speak of his doctrine partly in a mocking and contemptuous, and partly in a cold or disdainful manner. This circumstance may be readily understood, when we remember that it was precisely with the schools of Epicurus and Zeno that Paul came in contact. The systems of both were, more than others, at variance with the Christian doctrine—that of the Epicureans on account of their doctrine concerning the Deity, and pleasure as the sovereign good—that of the Stoics on account of their moral self-sufficiency. Still, this first encounter by no means justifies the inference that Christianity itself is hostile to philosophy. It may, on the contrary, be already predicted, after noticing the fruitful germs of thought which this Athenian discourse presents, that the truth in Christ Jesus will itself give rise to a Christian philosophy.
3. The very first thought expressed in this missionary discourse, is of such a character:ὁ ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε—καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν Paul begins by referring to that inscription on an altar: “To an unknown God,” and sets forth more fully the deep meaning which it conveys. The worship of an unknown God involves a confession both of a want of knowledge, and of the pressing need of the worship of Him who is unknown. The gods who are known, mentioned by name, and worshipped as such, do not satisfy the religious wants of man, and hence these wants impel him to look beyond the limits and forms of the existing worship for relief. But the object of worship now added, is confessedly unknown and unnamed (ὁ ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε, Act_17:23; ἡ ἄγοια, Act_17:30.); and the worship, moreover, of an unknown Deity, involves a dim conception or presentiment of the unknown God. Religious truth, however indistinctly or dimly apprehended, nevertheless lies hidden even in the mass of pagan legends of gods, forms of worship, and superstitious practices. But that which the religious mind, groping in the dark, attempts to find (comp.ζητεῖν, ψηλαφεῖν, Act_17:27), is a gift of revelation, and is now consciously and distinctly proclaimed (τοῦτο—καταγέλλω ὑμῖν). These are the germs both of a “Philosophy of Mythology”, and of a “Philosophy of Revelation.”
4. Paul proclaims the one personal God as the Creator of the world and the Lord of the world, exalted above every creature; thus he states the truth in direct terms, without attempting to controvert and reject any opposite views. His remarks refute, at the same time, the whole system which confounds God and nature—a system which constitutes the foundation of natural religion, which is expressed in its myths, and which clings to the ancient philosophy. The Hellenic gods had a beginning; there was no theological system without a theogony which adopted this principle; even the philosophy of the classical period cannot yet accurately discriminate between God and the world, neither does it rise to a true conception of the creation. (Comp. Baumgarten, Il. I. 249 ff., and, with regard to Plato, Zeller: The Philosophy of the Greeks, II. 474 ff., 2d. ed. 1859.). At all times, and in every stage of philosophic thought, the fact of the creation of the world, and the conception of the supernaturality of God as the Lord of the world, are fundamental principles of the truth, which cannot, without danger, be misunderstood or undervalued.
5. We are indebted to revelation for the true view of man and human nature. The unity of the human race (Act_17:26), was unknown to all polytheistic religions. All these, conforming to the theory that there are many gods, proceeded on the principle that the primordials of the various nations were also many in number, and that these nations and their respective founders were originally of different degrees of rank. This essential difference as to origin, was assumed as perpetuated in the subsequent history of the nations. The conception of unity in the history of mankind, was also entirely foreign to heathenism. Even those nations which had risen to the highest degree of culture and intelligence, the Greeks and the Romans, regarded themselves, respectively, as constituting the central point of the history of the world; they could form no conception of a Universal History of mankind, viewed as one race. (See Baumgarten, II. 1. 269 ff.). That unity is exhibited solely by revelation, both in the Old and in the New Testament, in which the human race is traced back to the one and the true God. According to the truth of the Bible, the history of the world begins with Him, and continually points to Him; this great principle was revealed under the old covenant in facts of history which were full of promise; it was exhibited in its reality in the Person of the Redeemer, who is, at the same time, the second Adam and the Son of God.
6. The indwelling of man in God is asserted by the apostle in Act_17:28 : ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶμεν—ἐσμέν. This proposition has often been misunderstood and subjected to abuse; some have, very erroneously, even found Pantheism in it. For, in the first place, the apostle does not here speak of the world, of the creature, in general, but solely of man, and that, too, in connection with the proposition that man can find God and is near to Him. In the second place, it is simply asserted that we are in God and live in Him, but not even remotely that God, as it were, is lost in the world, that is, combined or identified with it, or that the world is substantially one and the same with God. In the third place, the supermundane nature of God, Act_17:24, is attested with sufficient distinctness by the very conception of the creation and by the words: κύριο οὐραοῦ καὶ γῆς, so that no arbitrary attempt to confound and identify God with the world, or the world with God, can be successfully made.—Nor does Paul, as it has sometimes been said, assert the indwelling of God in the world; but, on the contrary, he speaks of the indwelling of man in God, that is to say, not merely of a conditional dependence on God and His life, His power, and His existence, but of a most intimate nearness to Him who is omnipresent, and who, like space or the atmosphere, completely surrounds and sustains us.
7. Christ, as the turning-point in the history of the world, is placed before us in a brilliant light at the close of the discourse. The period of ἄγνοια, preceded his appearance; with him came the light, and it abides. Before he came, God “overlooked,” and exercised forbearance; henceforth, we look forward to the righteous judgment of the world, on the appointed great day. Repentance is every where preached to all men, so that they may not be subject to a sentence of condemnation. Only two features of the Person of Jesus Christ are depicted—he is described as a man, a member of the human race, partaking of human nature, and subject to death (ἐκ νεκρῶν), and as the Judge of the world; to this office he was appointed (ὥρισε) by God, who has also, by raising him from the dead, presented him to men as the object of their implicit faith. But if God will hereafter judge the world in the Person of Jesus Christ, it follows that Christ is not merely man, but also the corresponding and perfect organ of the holy and just, the omniscient and omnipotent God, and that, therefore, he himself partakes of the divine nature and dignity.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_17:16. His spirit was stirred in him [moved with indignation]. Thus when the Spirit of Christ first came in contact with the noblest works of human art, the judgment of the Holy Ghost was set forth as the strait gate through which they all must pass. Nevertheless, Paul did not on this account seize the axe and destroy the images of the gods, and the altars (Gossner), like the iconoclastic Puritans, who condemned art as unchristian and ungodly in its very nature.—It was his primary object, not so much to cast down the idols from the altars, as, rather, to cast them out of the hearts of men. (Leonh. and Sp.).—-“When I first came to Athens,” Lucian, the pagan, says, “I gazed with wonder and rapture on all the glory of the city.” But Paul looked with other eyes on the city which was called “the altar and court of justice of Greece, the inventress of all the sciences.” (Besser).
Act_17:17. And in the market daily with them that met with him.—For many persons were at all times standing idle there, Mat_20:3. (Starke).—As the Gospel is founded on the truth, it does not hide itself, Luk_12:3. (id.)
Act_17:18. Certain philosophers, etc.—In Jerusalem the Sadducees and Pharisees, in Athens the Epicureans and Stoics, in our day a worldly mind and the love of pleasure, on the one hand, and the pride of reason and self-righteousness, on the other, have always been the two hereditary archenemies, between whom the preacher of the cross must force his way.—The preaching of the cross, unto the Greeks foolishness, now as formerly [1Co_1:23]: I. To Epicurean frivolity; (a) to its unbelief; (i) to its carnal tendencies. II. To Stoical arrogance; (a) to its pride of reason; (b) to its self-righteousness.
Act_17:19. What this new doctrine … is?—While the Gospel seems to the world to present matter that is new, or of which men never had heard, its doctrine is, in reality, older than all the wisdom of men, and it survives all the transient systems devised by that wisdom, since it is a power of God [Rom_1:16] unto all eternity. (Leonh. and Sp.).—Brought him unto Areopagus.—The Lord well knows how to honor his servants. Here he furnishes the poor and despised Paul with an opportunity to appear on the celebrated Hill of Mars before a large assembly, and publicly to bear honorable witness to the truth; thus God chooses that which is mean, in order to expose the folly of the wise. [1Co_1:18 ff.]. (Ap. Past.).
Act_17:21. For all the Athenians … some new thing.—The spirit of curiosity is, in general, a hinderance to the truth; still, God sometimes employs it as the means for conveying truth to the heart, Act_17:34. (Quesnel).—The desire for “some new thing” is praiseworthy, when its objects are a new heart, the new man [Eph_4:24; Col_3:10], and the new Jerusalem. (Starke).—Worldly curiosity, and the Christian thirst for knowledge: I. The former seeks amusement; the latter, instruction. II. The object of the former is novelty; of the latter, truth. III. The former fritters away its strength among many objects; the latter finds peace in the one thing needful [Luk_10:42].
Act_17:22. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill, and said.—The peculiar audience, consisting of philosophers, the associations connected with the place, and the curiosity of the hearers, are alike unable to persuade the holy apostle to depart in the least degree from his Gospel, and to indulge the caprices of the Athenians. But it is also obvious that he adapts his discourse to the peculiar state of their hearts, and with great wisdom and moderation endeavors to make an impression on them. (Ap. Past.).—That in all things ye are too superstitious [ye are very devout].—Why may the people of Athens hereafter rise up in the judgment [Mat_12:42], as accusers of the pagans in Christendom? I, The Athenians were devout; a devout fear of an unknown God was the basis of their superstition. II. The pagans in Christendom are estranged from God, and, in their unbelief, reject a revealed God.—The degree in which even pagans were prepared to receive the Christian faith. (Nitzsch: Wittenb. Sermons).
Act_17:23. To the [an] unknown God.—Alas! How many an altar of the heart bears this inscription! The Divinity is already inscribed by nature on the hearts of all men. Where is the man to be found, who does not suppose that he really offers worship? But this light of knowledge is unhappily so much obscured in most men by carnal desires, prejudices and bad examples, that the true God still remains unknown to them. 1Jn_2:3-4. (Starke).—How necessary it, therefore, is, that a Paul should arise in every church and house, and preach to the Christians of our day, that with all their show of knowledge and adoration, they serve and build altars to an unknown God! (Gossner).—The preachers of the Gospel are men who proclaim the unknown God. (Starke).—There are many here, whose hearts resemble the market-place of Athens or the Pantheon, the temple of all the gods. One idol stands there beside another—anger, pride, lust, covetousness, sloth, the love of honor. Search thine own heart, and learn whether it contains these images! The most of us must answer affirmatively, and confess: ‘The object of my worship is life, science, art, money, pleasure, my betrothed, my spouse or child, or Some other earthly treasure.’ And there, in a secret spot, discovered only by the painful pulsations of the conscience, stands an altar with the inscription: To the unknown God, that is to say: ‘To the God in whose name I was baptized and confirmed, to whom I have consecrated myself, whose mercy preserves and sustains me, but with whom I maintain no living communion, and whose commandments I transgress according to my own will.’ (Ahlfeld).—He is an unknown God also to those who live in the world and its lust, but not in Him. Such persons illustrate the fundamental principles of the Epicureans in their practice (and they are men not rarely found); the sole object of their life is enjoyment; they desire to forget that they possess immortal souls, and they say in secret: ‘Let us eat and drink: for tomorrow we die’ [Isa_22:13; 1Co_15:32]. They are those (also, men not rarely found), who no longer retain an altar in the house, not even in the most obscure corner, but who blaspheme, or at least inwardly despise the altar in the house of God, since they have not God in their hearts. They have forgotten that they are “His offspring;” their life is severed from the maternal soil of the church, and is withering in the foul soil of worldly lust. To them the living God has become a strange and unknown God, whom they do not regard. (Langbein).—To whom is the living God an unknown God? I. To those who believe themselves to be wise; II. To those who offer an external worship, without seeking God himself; III. To those who live, not in Him, but in the world and its lust; IV. To those who do not desire to find Him in Christ, (id.).—The believing heart, an altar of the well-known God: I. In such a heart the presentiment of the divine nature and presence is converted by the word of God into absolute certainty; II. The painful fear inspired by the holiness of God is changed, by the redemption of Christ, into holy peace; III. The inclination to commit sin is overcome, in the service of God, by the Holy Ghost. (Florey).
Act_17:24. God that made the world, etc.—This is the One God—Paul intends to say—who, out of nothing called into existence the world, with the whole array of its elements, bodies and spirits, by the word which conveyed His command, by the wisdom with which he arranged all things, and by the almighty power which enabled him to do all things. (Tertullian).—But Paul at the same time destroys the idols of the Athenians by these words; for while he bears witness to the glory of that God whose throne is in heaven, and whose footstool is the earth, he smites the idols that dwell in temples made with hands. God can dwell only in Himself, where he was before he made the world. He is Himself His temple. Nevertheless, he has built as many temples for Himself, as there are living hearts that love him; in these he desires to dwell, to be known, and to be adored.—Without, we have gone astray; within, in the soul, we are directed to the right way. Do thy work within thyself, and if thou desirest to find any “high and holy place,” give thyself up internally to God as His temple. If thou desirest to pray in a temple, pray in thyself, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (Augustine).—Where is the temple in which I am to seek, to find, and to worship God? I. It is Heaven, in which the spirits made perfect stand before his throne; II. It is the visible creation, in which he has not left Himself without a witness of His power, wisdom, and goodness; III. It is the Church, in which the unknown God is revealed in the Gospel of His Son; IV. It is my heart, in which He desires to dwell by His Holy Spirit.
Act_17:25. Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing.—God does not need us, but we have need of God. (Starke).—It is very true that idols need the services which human hands can render; there are, indeed, workshops to be found in the cities of India and China, the signs of which bear the inscription: ‘Here old gods are repaired, and new ones made.’ (Lean, and Sp.).
Act_17:26. And hath made of one blood, etc.—The unity of the human race, as descended from one progenitor, necessarily follows from the unity of the Creator, and from the creation of man after his image, Act_17:28-29.—The one Adam, on whom all depends (Act_17:31), points back, as the second, to a first Adam. (Stier).—We, human beings, all constitute one people! This is the new and wonderful light in which the Gospel teaches us to view the national and exclusive feeling of the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, (id.).—And hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.—What think ye, ye mighty warriors and invaders? Listen ! God also has a will of his own, when kingdoms are to be divided. Num_34:2; Psa_105:5; Psa_105:44. (Starke).—The holy and almighty hand of God is revealed in the government of the world as it is in the creation—in the life of men as it is in nature.—The, change or the permanence of the boundaries of nations is not determined by soil, climate or nationality, but by the divine plan according to which God governs His Kingdom, and by the internal development of the human race. The people of Israel were dispersed among the nations, when the period in which they hardened themselves, had come. Athens is not an eternal city, and Rome is not an immortal Rome; the glory of both passed away, when their time was fulfilled; for the earth, in its present form, is only a temporary “habitation” of men, the ultimate purpose of which is, (Act_17:27), that they might be brought back to their God. (Stier).—God in history: He reveals in it, I. His creative power—permitting the human mind to unfold itself in the varied forms of national character; II. His patience and goodness—granting to each nation the time and opportunity for developing its peculiar character; III. His righteous judgment—assigning limits to the power and prosperity of every nation, whether it dwell in Greece or Rome, or whether it even be His chosen people of Israel; IV. His holy love—determining the great purpose or end of the history of the world, namely, that the kingdom of God may come, and that men may seek and find Him.
Act_17:27. That they should seek … find him.—paul here proclaims natural truths; he speaks of the perfections of God, and of His providence which rules over the human race. But does he introduce empty definitions and distinctions—tedious propositions and arguments? Not in the least degree; the truth which proceeds from his lips, assumes life, and his heart, which lives in God, earnestly desires the hearers to seek that God who is so near to them. The philosophy that can infuse such a spirit into us, is evangelical and divine. (Ap. Past.).—O that this saying were inscribed on every heart—that tie great purpose for which we are placed on earth is to seek God in his works, both without us, and within us. (Quesnel).—Such seeking after God could not be unsuccessful, for ‘he is not far from every one of us.’ The whole universe proclaims with eloquent silence that the Lord is the exalted source of all things, so that all may feel after him, not indeed with the senses of the body, but with those of the mind. (Calovius).—And, therefore, thou canst not say: ‘Who shall ascend into heaven and bring him down? or, Who shall descend into the deep and bring him up from the dead?’ He is as nigh unto thee as is the law of the Holy One in thy conscience, as the desire of thy soul for salvation, as the involuntary cry for help, or as the continued sighing for peace in thy heart and mouth. (Menken).—But such seeking implies that a great loss has been sustained—that men have gone astray and chosen their own ways; it consists solely in an actual groping and seizing, indicating two distinct truths: first, that darkness had covered the nations; secondly, that He who remained near, and always is near, may be surely and easily found. (Stier).—Paul represents it as the ultimate purpose of all the great arrangements of God in the world, that man should seek Him: he regards man’s noblest aim and perfection as consisting in such seeking after and finding. Let us consider, I. The great object of our search; II. The path which conducts to that object. (Schleiermacher).
Act_17:28. For in him we live, and move, and have our being [and are].—So near is He to all men, if they would but believe it; but the human race would prefer that He should be far distant; it continues to imitate our first parents, who hid themselves from the presence of God in Paradise. (Gossner).—God alone possesses the true life, and is necessarily self-existent; our life and being are derived from Him. Isa_44:6; 1Co_8:6. (Starke).—In the Father (of whom are all things), we are; in the Son (who is the life), we live: in the Spirit (who is the breath of all flesh), we move. (Cyprian).—We are his offspring: I. By our creation after the image of God; II. By our redemption through the incarnate Son of God.—We are the offspring of God: I. The truth of these words; proved from (a) the Scriptures, (b) the human heart, (c) the experience of man. II. The effect which they should produce: (a) holy humility, (b) holy confidence. (Tholuck).
Act_17:29. As we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think, etc.—The pagans had not properly understood their own words. They reasoned thus: ‘If we belong to the divine race, then the gods must belong to the human race, and it consequently is both in our power and becomes a duty, to make human images of them.’ Paul presents to them an inference of a different kind. ‘Those who belong to the divine race’—he says—‘dishonor themselves, if they do not restrict their worship to their Founder and Head, but bow down before any being inferior to Him who is the Lord over all.’ He could now apply the same remark to the children of this world, who, it is true, do not worship images made by themselves, but who render superhuman honors to the inventive spirit of man, usually styled “genius;” for they, too, worship nothing else than their human thoughts. Indeed, these words of the apostle rebuke all spiritually dead Christians, who engage in a mere external worship; for their god is distant or dead, and not the living and omnipresent God, in whom we live, move, and are. (Williger).
Act_17:30. The times of this ignorance God winked at, etc.—It was a singular incident, when Paul accused these educated men of ignorance; nevertheless, the charge was well-founded. The period of polished but ignorant heathenism embraced centuries. (Berleburger Bible).—Among the features of heathenism, Paul specifies, with great forbearance, only its ignorance. But that this ignorance had been voluntarily maintained, and was reprehensible, he immediately indicates by employing the moderate expression: “winked at” [overlooked], by preaching repentance, and by solemnly proclaiming the judgment. (Stier).—But now commandeth … to repent.—However affectionate the terms may be, in which we address our hearers, those terms in which we call them to repentance must be emphatic in a still higher degree. Every word of the apostle here takes hold of us, and shows that, in his view, no degree of ignorance, no philosophy, no official dignity, no condition whatever, can in any degree justify the neglect of the universal duty of repentance, which God himself has enjoined.—The narrow way of repentance, the only way for all men: nothing exempts from the duty of walking in it: I. Neither ignorance, nor knowledge; II. Neither the deepest guilt, nor the loftiest virtue; III. Neither paganism, nor the Christian faith.
Act_17:31. A day in the which he will judge the world. (Popular paraphrase of Act_17:30-31).—God will, in his mercy, refrain from punishing all past sins, but henceforth he demands repentance before all things else, inasmuch as he has caused the coming judgment which Jesus will hold, to be proclaimed as a warning; he will inspire every one who penitently recognizes the appointed Judge, with confidence in the same man, whom he has also appointed to be the Saviour; and, since the resurrection of that Saviour, he offers to all believers the new life which proceeds from him. (Stier).—He who surveys the world with spiritual eyes, can expect nothing else than a future judgment. (Starke).—By that [a] man.—He is the man without form or comeliness [Isa_53:2], the Crucified One, before whom all the gods and demigods of Athens—Theseus and Hercules, Zeus and Apollo—with all their glory, sink into the dust; before whose foolishness of preaching, all the sages of Greece—Thales and Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato—become speechless, and whose invisible and lowly kingdom will survive the laws of Solon and Lycurgus, and the vast empire of Alexander.
Act_17:32. Some mocked; and others said, etc.—The world is almost entirely divided into these two classes of sinners. The one consists of those who mock at saving truth, the other of those who continually postpone the effort to derive advantage from it. (Quesnel).
Act_17:33. So [And thus] Paul departed from among them.—He did not return. The Lord himself forbade us to give that which is holy to the heathen, and to cast our pearls before swine [Mat_7:6]; he made no reply to the unsuitable questions of Herod [Luk_23:9]. When men have advanced to such a point that they do not even take offence at the Gospel, but either ridicule or superficially criticise it, as one of the passing topics of the day, the servants of God can no longer hope, but only remain silent. (Williger).—Thus favorable opportunities pass by, while men are deliberating; they neglect to avail themselves of good counsel, and of the presence of a man of God. He is taken from them, and does not return; they die before they are prepared in their conscience to appear before God, Joh_8:21. (Quesnel).
Act_17:34. Certain men … believed; among the which was Dionysius.—Only one man among so many philosophers? O what vast power it needs to induce the wise men of this world to bow before the cross! (Quesn.).—Large numbers do not constitute one of the essential features of the true church. Common stones are far more numerous than precious stones; but which are the more valuable? (Starke).—It seems then that the truth still gains a victory; and, as ancient writers testify, a Christian congregation was subsequently founded in Athens, which flourished in an eminent degree. Thus the Christian religion, even when it is persecuted, prevails over all academical distinctions. (Bogatzky.)
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act_17:16-34; (comp. the foregoing sketches on each verse).—
The wisdom of the world, and divine wisdom: I. The former investigates, it is true, but merely for the sake of intellectual amusement, Act_17:21; the latter endeavors to understand with accuracy the import, and to fulfil with certainty, the great design of life on earth. II. The former is, indeed, indistinctly conscious of the nature and being of the living God, Act_17:23, but offers its full worship to idols which it has itself devised; the latter, guided by the light of revelation, penetrates into the innermost depths of the Godhead. III. The former is, indeed, indistinctly conscious of the original glory of man, Act_17:28, but is unwilling to acquire any knowledge respecting the redemption of a fallen race; the latter finds its own perfection in the atonement which Christ made for the world. (Leonh. and Sp.).
The apostle’s sermon before pagans, addressed also to the hearts of Christians: I. The power of God—in the creation of the world; II. His love—in the government of the world; III. His holiness—in the judgment of the world. (C. Beck: Hom. Repert.).
The exceeding glory of the divine nature, and the high rank of human nature, (id.).—The messenger of the Gospel, in the heathen world: I. His feelings; (a) he feels himself repelled by the abominations of heathenism; (b) he is filled with holy sorrow, on witnessing the heathen worship of idols. II. His conduct; he avails himself of every opportunity to labor for God and Christ: he is rejoiced whenever he finds (a) hearers—Jews, proselytes, pagans,—or (b) a place where he can bear witness to the truth. III. His hearers are (a) men who regard themselves as philosophers, (b) persons entertaining the most erroneous opinions, (c) inquisitive people. (Lisco).—God, drawing men [Joh_6:44]: (Homily). I. The departure from God, Act_17:16-26. Man ceases to know God, and now seeks in vain for relief in sensual enjoyments, or in human wisdom, Act_17:18, or in external works of piety, Act_17:24-25. II. His communion with his own heart, Act_17:26-29. What profit has sin afforded thee? None. After what does thy heart long? After the Most High. Where is He—thy God? Not far. He who appoints the times of all men, has thought also of thy weal and woe. What is thy soul? His breath. What is thy body? His temple. And thou wouldst serve sin? Thou wouldst seek the Eternal One in transitory objects? No. He dwells not in temples made with human hands. Thou wilt find Him when thou becomest even as He is—and that He has made possible to thee. III. The return to the Father, Act_17:30-31. He who is invisibly nigh unto thee in thy conscience and in thy experience of life, has visibly approached thee in His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ alone canst thou learn that thou art the offspring of God, and canst alone for thy fall from Him. All that is past, God will in mercy overlook, but He now commands that thou shouldst come to Him through repentance and faith. He that believeth in Him, shall not be condemned. (Lisco).
The conduct of Paul’s hearers at Athens, an image of that of modern hearers of the Gospel, Act_17:32-34; I. Some mocked; II. Some said: ‘We will hear thee again of this matter’ III. Some clave unto Paul, and believed. (id.).
“Luther in Rome,” “Calvin in Paris”—are impressive scenes in history, but the present is still more striking: Paul in Athens! Let us then approach somewhat nearer, and contemplate, I. The peculiar sentiments of the apostle, which his abode in the city of the Athenians awakened. Such a spot, this herald of the mystery of the cross had never before beheld. He does not avert his eyes from the monuments of the highest art and skill before him, but even perceives in them certain indications of the nobility of the human mind. But their magic charms neither deceive his senses, nor call him down from that still more elevated position, in which divine grace in Christ had placed him; a deep sorrow, produced by such aberrations of the human mind, fills his whole soul. II. The testimony which he there delivered. He proclaims three great truths in opposition to three great falsehoods which controlled the philosophy of that age, and from which even that of modern times is not yet freed: The creation out of nothing, as opposed to naturalism—the personality of God, as opposed to pantheism—the nature of sin, as opposed to antinomianism and rationalism. III. The result. It is, at first, not satisfactory—the word of the apostle encountered too many deep-rooted prejudices. Still, his secret hope is not disappointed. Even one convert has great weight in the balance of the kingdom of God. No one can remain strictly neutral. (F. W. Krummacher, in Trinity Church, Berlin, 1847).—“It was, in every respect, an extraordinary scene. There was a striking contrast between a discourse marked by such spirit and power, and those sophistical declamations by which precisely the topics of which Paul here treats, were obscured,—declamations, which had already been the subjects of the complaints and ridicule of Socrates. What would Socrates (whose equal Athens no longer possessed) have said, if he had heard such a discourse as Paul delivered on this occasion? He would probably have recognized in it the kingdom of God, from which he was not far, and would have been One of those who desired to hear more concerning the divinely appointed Judge of the human race, and concerning the resurrection. In the Person of the Redeemer of the world, he would have found more than that ideal of the just man described by Plato. He would rather have listened to such a discourse concerning the unknown God, than to the most eloquent orations of the sophists concerning the gods, the mere creatures of the imagination.—He would doubtless have concurred neither with the Epicurean, nor with the Stoic philosophers, when they termed Paul a babbler.” (Hess: History of the Apostles).—(Lavater has furnished a poetical paraphrase of Paul’s discourse at Athens, in his work entitled: Jesus Messiah, or the Gospels and the Acts, in verse. 1786, in the fourth vol.).
Three books of the knowledge of God: I. The book of the world, in two parts: Nature, and History, Act_17:24-26; II. The book of the heart, in two parts: Reason, and Conscience, Act_17:27-28; III. The book of the Scriptures in two parts: the Law, and the Gospel, Act_17:30-31.
Paul at Athens, or, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, etc.” 1Co_1:27; I. The sermon of Paul at Athens was foolishness in the eyes of the world; nevertheless, its contents confounded all the wise men of Greece. II. The result of Paul’s labors in Athens was feeble in the eyes of the world; nevertheless, it was the beginning of the end of heathenism.
The Christian’s sentiments respecting worldly art and science; I. He does not despise them, for he recognizes (a) in their noble productions a gift and a consciousness of that God who is not far from every one of us, Act_17:26-28; and (1b) even in their aberrations, the effort and struggle of the human mind that is seeking God, Act_17:29-30. But, II. He does not fear them, for (a) he boldly applies the holy standard of the divine word even to their most admired productions, Act_17:24-25; Act_17:29; and (b) he confidently expects, even in the case of their most firmly established errors, the victory of Christian truth, Act_17:30-31.
Paul at Athens, a model as a University preacher: I. He freely admits the human claims of every noble art and science,—proved (a) from the contents of his sermon, in which every academical department is noticed: Philosophy, Act_17:24; Act_17:27; Natural Science, Act_17:25-26; History and Law, Act_17:26; Art and Poetry, Act_17:28-29; (b) from the form of his sermon, which, by its highly intellectual character, and its adaptation to the place and the hearers, illustrates his desire to become a Greek unto the Greeks. But, II. He conducts all his hearers before the tribunal of divine truth; (a) by showing that error and sin are the foul stains which mar every merely human effort, Act_17:29-30; (b) by pointing, in the light of revelation, to God as the source and aim of all spiritual life.
Paul at Athens, brought unto Areopagus: I. He is apparently judged and condemned by the superficial wisdom of men; (a) some mock, on hearing his doctrine; (b) others coldly decline to hear him to the end, Act_17:32. But, II. In truth he judges and expels, in the name of the living God, (a) the delusion of heathenism, by proclaiming the Creator of heaven and earth, Act_17:24-29, and (b) the sin of heathenism, by preaching repentance and faith, Act_17:30-31.
[Whom ye ignorantly worship, Act_17:23.—Illustrations of the act of worshipping God ignorantly: derived, I. From Paganism; (a) consciousness that worship is due to a higher power; (b) the ignorance manifested, and its causes effects; II. From Judaism (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.); (a) the recognition of the true God: (b) the ignorance manifested, etc.; III. From Popery; (a) the adoption of the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament; (b) the ignorance manifested, etc.; IV. From Protestantism; (a) entire freedom in searching the Scriptures; (b) the ignorance manifested (e.g., as to the insignificance of all worship in which the heart is not interested; the nature, power, etc., of a living faith; the Person of Christ; the duty, manner, etc., of preparing for death, etc.), and its causes and effects.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[9]Act_17:16. [κατείδωλον is rendered in the English text, in accordance with the Vulg. (idololatriæ deditam), wholly given to idolatry; the margin proposes as a substitute: full of idols, which is regarded as a more accurate version; (Rheims: given to idolatry). Wahl defines the word thus: idolis refertus (κατά intendendi vim habente).—For θεροῦντι, of text. rec. from D. G. H., and agreeing with αῦτῷ, Lach., Tisch., and Alf. substitute θεωροῦντος (agreeing with IIAαύλου, from A. B. E.; Cod. Sin. also exhibits the genitive.—Tr.]
[10]Act_17:18. [σπερμολόγος; babbler, in the Engl. text (Tynd., Cranmer, Geneva), but base fellow, less accurately, in the margin. “Babbler is (here) the very best English word.” (Alf.). Wahl: nugator, i. e., a trifler. See Exeg. note, below.—Tr.]
[11]Act_17:19. [ἐπὶ τὸν ̔́ Aρειον πάγον (ἅρειος. adj. from Aρης. Rob. Lex.). Areopagus in the Engl. text (Wiclif, Rheims). The margin offers the following note; “Areopagus, or Mars’ Hill. It was the highest court in Athens.” See the next note. Alford remarks: “There is no allusion here to the court of Areiopagus, nor should the words have been so rendered in Engl. Vers., especially as the same ̓Aρείου πάγου below (Act_17:22) is translated Mars’ Hill.”—Tr.]
[12]Act_17:22. [Mars’ Hill, in the Engl. text, is the version of τοῦ ̓Aρείου πάγου. The margin furnishes the following note: “Mars’ Hill, or, the court of the Areopagites.” See the foregoing note on Act_17:19.—Tr.]
[13]Act_17:23. a. [σεβάσματα is rendered devotions in the Engl. text, for which the margin proposes as a substitute: gods that ye worship. The latter “is more accurate, but too restricted, as the Greek word denotes every thing connected with their worship, not its objects merely, but its rites and implements, including temples, images, and altars.” (Alexander).—Tr.]
[14]Act_17:23. b. ὃ—τοῦτο is the original reading, Cod. A (original hand). B. D. [Vulg. quod—hoc], whereas the reading ὃν—τοῦτον [of text. rec. from E. G. H.] is a correction intended to adapt the words to those which follow. [Lach. Tisch. and Alf. adopt the neuter gender.—Cod. Sin. (original) has ὅ—τοῦτο, which a later hand (C) changed to ὁν—τοῦτον.—Tr.]
[15]Act_17:25. άνθρωπίνων is sustained by weighty authorities [A. B. D. Cod. Sin. Vulg. manibus humanis], as compared with άνθρώπων [of text. rec. from E. G. H.—The former is adopted by Lach. Tisch. and Alf.—B. G. H. read κατὰ πάντα instead of καὶ τὰ πάντα, but recent editors reject this reading as erroneous, and are sustained by A. D. E.—Tr.]
[16]Act_17:26. προςτεταγμένους; is decidedly attested [by A. B. D (corrected). E. G. H. Vulg. statuta], whereas προτετ. [of text. rec.] is supported only by one uncial manuscript, viz., D. as originally written. [Hence, the former reading is adopted by recent editors generally, except Born., who prefers that of the text. rec., which also appears in Cod. Sin.—In place of πᾶν τὸ πρόςωπον of text. rec. from E. G. H., Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf. read παντὸς προςώπου, with A. B. D. Cod. Sin.—αἵματος of text. rec. from D. E. G. H. is wanting in A. B. Cod. Sin. Vulg.; it is omitted by Lach. and Tisch., but not by Alf.; Meyer regards the word as original, and believes that it was inadvertently dropped by copyists.—Tr.]
[17]Act_17:27. τὸν θεόν is decidedly better attested [by A. B. G. H. Cod. Sin. Vulg.] than τ. κύριον [of text. rec. from E. Hence, Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf. adopt the former.—Tr.]
[18]Act_17:31. a. καθότι should be preferred, on account of the external testimony in its favor, to διότι [of text. rec.], which was the more usual word. [καθότι, in A. B. D. E. Cod. Sin., and adopted by Lach. Tisch. Born. and Alf.; διότι in G. H.—Tr.]
[19]Act_17:31. b. [πίστιν παραχ̓ὼν, translated given assurance in the Engl, text, but offered faith in the margin (Tynd., Cranmer); the latter is the more literal version, and is thus explained by Alexander: “having made it (faith) possible by furnishing the necessary evidence.”—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain PAUL AT ATHENS. (Acts 17:16-34)
PAUL AT ATHENS. (Acts 17:16-34)
wholly given to idolatry--"covered with idols"; meaning the city, not the inhabitants. Petronius, a contemporary writer at Nero's court, says satirically that it was easier to find a god at Athens than a man. This "stirred the spirit" of the apostle. "The first impression which the masterpieces of man's taste for art left on the mind of St. Paul was a revolting one, since all this majesty and beauty had placed itself between man and his Creator, and bound him the faster to his gods, who were not God. Upon the first contact, therefore, which the Spirit of Christ came into with the sublimest creations of human art, the judgment of the Holy Ghost--through which they have all to pass--is set up as "the strait gate," and this must remain the correct standard for ever" [BAUMGARTEN].
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 16. Paul waited… at Athens—Having left Silas and Timothy,…
16. Paul waited… at Athens—Having left Silas and Timothy, and dismissed his Berean conductors, the apostle treads the streets a pensive solitaire. He who could quote, even here, the appropriate passage from the Greek poets, was doubtless not blind to the perfection with which art had wrought poetry in marble. But he comes with the firmness of a conqueror, not to be subdued by the beauty of his foe. He is the missionary of the Infinite, and he must not be seduced out of his mission by the fascinations of the esthetic. Under all this exterior of gaiety he knows there lurks a sadness, a sensualism, and a despair; for Greece, in forgetting God, has lost her assurance of life and immortality. Groping in vain for truth, she tries in vain to satisfy herself with beauty and voluptuousness.
Stirred in him— Literally, was sharpened. He was impatient at the evidences afforded on every side that the true God was utterly excluded from Athens by a pantheon of false gods, and he was stimulated to assail the system of falsehood by the revelation of the truth.
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Given to idolatry—Κατειδωλον, an expressive term; literally, under-idoled. The soil of the city underlay the images like a stratum. In Athens, it was said, you could oftener find a god than a man. It was almost as thickly peopled with marble statues as with living inhabitants.
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 16–21. Paul, provoked by the prevalence of idolatry at…
16–21. Paul, provoked by the prevalence of idolatry at Athens, first addresses the Jews and then the Gentiles. Some of the philosophers question him on his teaching, and bring him to the areopagus that they may hear him more at full
16. his spirit was stirred in him] But the stirring was of the sharpest. The verb is akin to the noun which in Act_15:39 is used of the paroxysm of contention between Paul and Barnabas. His spirit was provoked within him, till he could not forbear to speak, could not wait till Timothy and Silas arrived.
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when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry] Better (with R. V.) “as he beheld the city full of idols.” This, the marginal rendering of the A. V., appears, from the analogy of similar words, to be the closer meaning, and it agrees somewhat better with the facts. What St Paul beheld was the numerous statues erected some to one god, some to another. That the city was wholly given to idolatry was the inference from this abundance of idols. The mutilation of the busts of Hermes before the Sicilian expedition in the Peloponnesian war shews how numerous were the statues erected to one divinity only. Time had added many to the number before St Paul’s visit.
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 (16) His spirit was stirred in him.—The verb is…
(16) His spirit was stirred in him.—The verb is the root of the noun from which we get our “paroxysm,” and which is translated by “sharp contention” in Act_15:39. Athens, glorying now, as it had done in the days of Sophocles (Œdip. Col. 1008), in its devotion to the gods, presented to him, even after seeing Tarsus and Antioch, a new aspect. The city was “full of idols;” Hermes-busts at every corner, statues and altars in the atrium or court-yard of every house, temples and porticos and colonnades, all presenting what was to him the same repulsive spectacle. He looked on the Theseus and the Ilissus, and the friezes of the Centaurs and Lapithæ on the Parthenon, as we look on them in our museums, but any sense of art-beauty which he may have had (and it was probably, in any case, but weak) was over-powered by his horror that men should bow down and worship what their own hands had made. The beauty of form which we admire in the Apollo or the Aphrodite, the Mercury or the Faun, would be to him, in its unveiled nakedness, a thing to shudder at. He knew too well to what that love of sensuous beauty had led in Greek and Roman life (Rom_1:24-27), when it had thrown aside what, to a Jew, were not only the natural instincts of purity, but the sanctions of a divine command (Gen_9:22).
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 Provoked within for stirred in, A.V.; (parwxuneto: see Act_15:29,…
Provoked within for stirred in, A.V.; (parwxuneto: see Act_15:29, note) as he beheld for when he saw, A.V.; full of idols for wholly given to idolatry, A.V. The Greek kateidwlov occurs only here, either in the New Testament or elsewhere. But the analogy of ether words similarly compounded fixes the meaning "full of idols a description fully borne out by Pausanias and Xenophon and others (Steph., "Thesaur.;" Meyer, etc.).
Vers. 16-34. The cross of Christ in the metropolis of art and philosophy.
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There is a singular interest in this first encounter of the gospel with the art and philosophy of Athens, and it is instructive to note the attitude taken by the great preacher in the encounter. Whether St. Paul had artistic taste we have no means of knowing. But probably, as a devout Jew, seeing that sculpture was so largely employed in the images of the gods and the deified emperors, his eye would not have been trained to look with pleasure even upon the masterpieces of Grecian art. In like manner Greek architecture was mainly devoted to glorify the temples of the gods. The Parthenon at Athens, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the temples of Apollo and Diana at Antioch, at Baalbec, in the many cities of Asia adorned by the Seleucidae, were indeed materially beautiful, but that material beauty was eclipsed by the moral deformity of their consecration to idolatry, to imposture, and to falsehood. The devout eye of the apostle would therefore be more shocked by the dishonor done to God, and the injury to the moral nature of man, than gratified by mere beauty of form, or architectural grandeur and grace. Hence, as far as we learn from the inspired narrative, the dominant effect upon his mind of the sight of the unrivalled statues and temples of Athens was grief and indignation at their homage to idolatry, rather than admiration of the artistic genius which produced them. In like manner he found himself face to face with philosophy. He was treading the courts of the academy where Plato had taught; he was in the city where Socrates had lived and died; there Aristotle had both learnt and taught; there the successors both of Zeno and Epicurus were still inculcating the tenets of their-respective schools. What was to be the attitude of an evangelist in the presence of these august representatives of human intellect? In what language was the apostle of Jesus Christ to address himself to them? In that of apology? In that of compromise? in that of conscious inferiority? or as if the possessors of so much wisdom had nothing to learn from him? Or, on the other hand, was he to speak the language of scorn and indignation was he to shut his eyes to all that might be true and noble in the sentiments of those men, and to put them on a level with the vilest of mankind, because they were ignorant of the great truths of revelation? The actual conduct of St. Paul was as modest as it was wise, and as dauntless as it was modest. Looking around him at the altars of the gods, he seized upon the one favorable aspect of them their witness to a worshipful spirit in the people towards the Unseen. Gathering from Greek literature a true description of the relation of man to the living God, he proceeded with wonderful simplicity and force to enunciate those truths of natural religion which an untainted reason perceives and approves. And then, rising to those higher truths which are the domain of revelation, he preached, as he had done before in the Agora, Jesus and the resurrection. He bid them repent of their sins done in ignorance; he told them of the coming of the day of judgment; he spoke to them of the awful Judge, and of his unerring righteousness. There was no faltering in his speech, no watering down of the severity of the gospel, no wincing at the subtle wits or the pretentious wisdom of those who heard him. He spoke as a man who knew that he had the truth of God, and that that truth would prevail. And such should ever be the attitude of the Christian teacher before the powers of the world. Humble, charitable, confident, and firm; owning all that is good and beautiful and true in the world around him, but always feeling, and acting as if he felt, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is better and truer and more beautiful than all; valuing true wisdom, and prizing the great gift of reason as the brightest jewel of our human nature; yet always remembering that in our fallen state reason could bring no remedy for sin nor cast a light upon the world to come; but that the only Name whereby we may be saved is the Name of Jesus, and that he alone has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Vers. 16-34. Paul at Athens.
Paul stands in Athens, amidst the master-pieces of Greek art and the memorials of Greek wisdom. It is not admiration or aesthetic delight which is awakened in him, but moral indignation. Christianity is not opposed to art; but Christianity does not approve the worship of sensuous or ideal beauty apart from moral earnestness. In the true relation, religion absorbs art into itself; when art is substituted for religion, there is moral decay. Nor is Christianity hostile to philosophy. On the contrary, there was in Greek philosophy a preparation for Christ. There were germs of truth in the Epicurean and the Stoic schools which Christianity incorporated, while it corrected the one-sidedness of these philosophies. The Epicurean built his practical system on human weakness, the Stoic his on pride. The gospel will not excuse sin on the ground of weakness; nor found a righteousness of man"s own on pride (see the noted discussion of these schools, and the relation of the gospel to them, in Pascal"s "Pensees"). Between these extremes, as between those of Sadducecism and Phariseeism, the gospel ever makes its way. These academicians of Athens might well be anxious to know what the "ugly little Jew" had to say. Long had the mighty logos or dialectic of Plato and Aristotle and their successors and rivals ruled the world. What could the fanatical Jew have to say? An immortal discourse is the reply to these questions of curiosity.
I GOD UNKNOWN, YET KNOWABLE. The speaker recognizes the reverence of the Athenians. The heathen were prepared for the gospel, all the more from the weariness and failure of their age-long "groping after God." In the inscription on the altar was the witness of the desire to worship all forms of divinity, whether to them known or unknown. Both Greeks and Romans recognized, above and beyond the definite gods and goddesses of the Pantheon, the indefinable in Deity, the mystery of that Essence, to us and to all, as to them, incomprehensible. So far we are all on a level with the Athenians. But there are special senses in which God is unknown to the worshipper.
1. To the sensual and sin-loving heart. Many there are whose heart is like the Agora of Athens or a Pantheon; one idol stands beside another. Wrath, pride, lust, avarice, treachery, ambition, these are their gods. And again, science, art, money, the husband, the wife, the goods of this world. And in a neglected corner stands the altar with the inscription, "To the unknown God!
2. To the wise in their own conceit. "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God;" "He resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the lowly.
3. To the formalists and externalists in religion. For the drama of an external ritual is rather a screen between the soul and God, if the soul be not bent on finding him.
4. To all who seek him otherwise than with the pure and lowly heart, coming by the Way, the Truth, and the Life to the Father. Though in one sense" God is great; I know him not," must be the confession of all hearts, from the lowliest to the wisest, in another the good news of the gospel proclaims God may be known, is known; and every name by which he is known resolves itself into love. He is concealed, yet revealed; unknown, yet known; defined, yet indefinable. "Tis a great yet a small part of his ways that we can understand.
II GOD REVEALED IN THE CREATION. He has made the world and all things therein. Animate and inanimate nature, body and spirit, all have the stamp of omnipotence and of omniscience in the unity of a Mind. Every step in science makes more clear this unity; and in the last resort this unity is not conceivable as law" or "force" merely, but only as the living and the loving God. In his infinite majesty, heaven is his throne, earth his footstool. He is in himself both Temple and Inhabitant. The voice of God bursts asunder the system of idolatry and superstition. The latter denies that God can be found only in fixed places, by means of fixed rites and mediations. The true temple is everywhere; "The walls of the world are that." In the Church, where the gospel of his Son is heard, and above all in the heart, where he indwells in the power of his Spirit, is the temple of the living God.
III GOD REVEALED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD, As love. Needing nothing from men"s hands; they incessantly feel the need of him. Life itself is sweet, and in that sweetness we have an instance of his love. There is a joy in breathing, moving about, looking, learning, experiencing manifold experiences in this "fair world of God." And each and every pleasure, lower and higher, leads up to God and his love. The tie that binds us to our kind is an expression of the same love. Sympathy is possible, is actual, between men of every color and clime. The mechanism of thought and feeling is alike in all. All men suffer and rejoice from the same causes. The unity of the human race reflects the unity of God"s mind in wisdom and in love. Men form one people, one race: this is the great thought the gospel throws upon the world, and teaches us to say, in deeper senses than the heathen knew, I am a man; nothing human is foreign to me." He has set bounds to man"s habitations. All the effects of climate, of physical configuration of the earth, distribution of land and water, so interesting to the student of man and his dwelling-place, are conditions fixed by the same wise and loving hand. God is in history. His thoughts alone are living. Athens was not for ever, nor Rome; but the Divine thought, whence proceeded the culture of Greece, the law and order of Rome, lives on, and is revealed in changing forms from age to age. And towards the far-off goal" of an infinite love, we doubt not, the whole of creation and of history moves. The end of all is the union of man with God. Though in one sense he "needeth not anything," in another he needs all the whole love of his whole rational universe. The process of thought in the world is a process of "groping after" and of finding God. God wills that we should find him, but only as the result of our seeking. Therefore he "half reveals" and" half conceals" himself. He is far off, yet near; in each and all the spheres of our knowledge. Our being rests on his; ours are borrowed (Isa_54:6; 1Co_8:6) In the Father," says Cyprian, "we are, from him all life comes; in the Son, who lives, we have life; in the Spirit, who is the Breath of all flesh, we have our being." His offspring we are by creation in his image, by redemption through his Son. This truth we know from Scripture, from the human heart, from life; and the effect of this knowledge may well be to produce holy humility, mixed with confidence and joy.
IV TRUE THEOLOGY AND WORSHIP.
1. The heathen draw a wrong inference freer, the true saying on men being the offspring of God. If we are of Divine origin, they seemed to argue, then the gods are of human kind, and images of them may be made. On the contrary, Paul argues, those who are of Divine origin despise themselves if they render worship to any but the supreme Head and Lord. When we say that God is in affinity with man, we do not affirm that man can represent him in thought, much less in images of plastic art. The philosopher Xenophanes had said that if the animals had gods, they would imagine them in their own likeness the god of the horse would be a horse, etc. The truth is that only our ideal or higher nature is the mirror of God.
2. In conscience we find his clearest reflex. And ignorance of him in this nearest sphere of knowledge is not excusable, as St. Paul teaches in Romans 1. Men did not like to retain God in their knowledge. At the same time, the conscience needs light from without. There are dark ages of the world, when men have comparatively little light, and which may be viewed as ages of God"s forbearance, wherein he "overlooks" much that men do, "not knowing what they do.
3. But Christ is a Turning-point of history. Before him, the period of "ignorance;" with him and after him, the true light. Before him, forbearance; henceforward, the just judgment of the world. The description of the person and functions of Christ. He is Man; a member of humanity, a partaker of human flesh and blood, subject to death. As High Priest, he is one "touched with a feeling of our infirmities." And as Judge, he is qualified on the same grounds. It is a common feeling which requires that a man should be judged by his peers. Knowledge and pity, severity and compassion, are united in Christ.
4. The call to repentance. It is an urgent call. The more indifferent and light-hearted the listeners, the more urgently it must sound. It is an absolute call, admitting of no exceptions. No ignorance and no philosophy, no dignity or rank, can exempt men from the immediate command of God to repent. Amidst the depths of sin and the heights of virtue, in paganism and in Christendom, the new heart and the new life are indispensable.
V THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL AT ATHENS. (Ver. 32.)
1. Some scoffed, some procrastinated. These are ever the two main classes of those who turn a deaf ear to the Divine Word. Some make light of the truth, some put off attention to it until the "more convenient season." "Faith in to-morrow, instead of Christ, is Satan"s nurse for man"s perdition." Paul departed from among them, and came not back; the tender grace" of the day of salvation vanished, not again to be found.
2. But some believed. Of whom Dionysius among men alone is mentioned; and of the women, Damaris, with some others. We need, however, to remind ourselves that great numbers are no sign of the true Church. There are many more of common stones than of jewels in its structure, according to the ordinary valuation; but God"s measures are not ours. According to ancient testimonies, a bright light went forth from the Church at Athens. The splendid intellectual culture of Athens remains the heritage of the few; the gospel pours its common blessing on mankind. The relation of the Christian to the art and science of the world.
(1) He is not to despise them. The master-works of genius are gifts of God; and in their way they bear testimony to the universal striving of the human spirit after the reconciliation of sense and spirit, the human with the Divine. The aberrations of great spirits are more instructive than the meaningless commonplaces of ordinary minds.
(2) At the same time, he is to apply to them the Christian scale of judgment. Christianity cannot countenance immoral art or godless science. If tile heart of the artist and scientific man be sanctified, their works and studies will tend to the glory of God. J.
Vers. 16-34. Paul at Athens.
Consider
I The connection of the whole with THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. The Greek mind evangelized. The function of Greek thought in the development of doctrine. The contrast between the gospel and philosophy. The step towards the conquest of the world.
II The illustration of THE APOSTOLIC METHOD. Adaptation of the truth to every class of mind. Difference of the preaching when the foundation of the Jewish Scriptures was for the time forsaken. Important difference of results, showing that there must be something intervening between idolatry and Christian faith, besides natural religion. The resurrection must stand on its true foundation, or it is mocked at. The spiritual truth is mere "babbling" to those who look upon it from the naturalistic point of view.
III The picture of HUMAN HELPLESSNESS presented. Intellectual restlessness of Athens. The judgment of God overhanging the moral corruption. Times of ignorance. Idolatry, the more hideous in its decorations of artistic beauty. Worship of the human body. Social miseries of the Greek world. The one man among the multitude, type of the spiritual force which, though a grain of mustard seed in apparent magnitude, was a germ of life in the midst of the universal decay and death. So in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. A great lesson on
(1) the sufficiency and power of the gospel;
(2) the responsibility of man. 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 Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 13
Chapter 13
ST. PAUL IN GREECE.
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Act_17:16-18; Act_18:1
THERE are parallelisms in history which are very striking, and yet these parallelisms can be easily explained. The stress and strain of difficulties acting upon large masses of men evolve and call forth similar types of character, and demand the exercise of similar powers. St. Paul and St. Athanasius are illustrations of this statement. They were both little men, both enthusiastic in their views, both pursued all their lives. long with bitter hostility, and both had experience of the most marvellous and hairbreadth escapes. If any reader will take up Dean Stanleys "History of the Eastern Church," and react the account given of St. Athanasius in the seventh chapter of that work, he will he strikingly reminded of St. Paul in these various aspects, but specially in the matter of his wondrous escapes from his deadly enemies, which were so numerous that at last they came to regard Athanasius as a magician who eluded their designs by the help of his familiar spirits. It was much the same with St. Paul. Hairbreadth escapes were his daily experience, as he himself points out in the eleventh chapter of his Second Epistle to Corinth. He there enumerates a few of them, but quite omits his escapes from Jerusalem, from the Pisidian Antioch, from Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica. and last of all from Beroea, whence he was driven by the renewed machinations of the Thessalonian Jews, who found out after a time whither the object of their hatred had fled. Pauls ministry at Beroea was not fruitless, short as it may have been. He established a Church there which took good care of the precious life entrusted to its keeping, and therefore as soon as the deputies of the Thessalonian synagogue came to Beroea and began to work upon the Jews of the local synagogue, as well as upon the pagan mob of the town, the Beroean disciples took Paul, who was the special object of Jewish hatred, and despatched him down to the sea-coast, some twenty miles distant, in charge of certain trusty messengers, while Silas remained behind, in temporary concealment doubtless, in order that he might consolidate the Church. Here we get a hint, a passing glimpse of St. Pauls infirmity. He was despatched in charge of trusty messengers, I have said, who were to show him the way. "They that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens." His ophthalmia, perhaps, had become specially bad owing to the rough usage the had experienced, and so he could not escape all solitary and alone as he did in earlier years from Damascus, and therefore guides were necessary who should conduct him "as far as the sea," and then, when they had got that far, they did not leave him alone. They embarked in the ship with him, and, sailing to Athens, deposited him safely in a lodging. The journey was by sea, not by land, because a sea journey was necessarily much easier for the sickly and weary Apostle than the land route would have been, offering, too, a much surer escape from the dangers of pursuit.
The voyage was an easy one, and not too prolonged. The boat or ship in which the Apostle was embarked passed through splendid scenery. On his right hand, as he steered for the south, was the magnificent mountain of Olympus, the fabled abode of the gods, rising a clear ten thousand feet into the region of perpetual snow, while on his left was Mount Athos, upon Which he had been looking ever since the day that he left Troas. But the Apostle had no eye for the scenery, nor had St. Luke a word to bestow upon its description, though he often passed through it, absorbed as they were in the contemplation of the awful realities of a world un-seen. The sea voyage from the place where St. Paul embarked till he came to Phalerum, the port of Athens, where he landed, lasted perhaps three or four days, and covered about two hundred miles, being somewhat similar in distance, scenery, and surroundings to the voyage from Glasgow to Dublin or Bristol, land in both cases being in sight all the time and splendid mountain ranges bounding the views on either side.
St. Paul landed about November 1, 51, at Phalerum, one of the two ports of ancient Athens, the Piraeus being the other, and thence his uncertain steps were guided to the city itself, where he was left alone in some lodging. The Beroean Christians to whom he was entrusted returned perhaps in the same vessel in which they had previously travelled, as the winter season, when navigation largely ceased, was now fast advancing, bearing with them a message to Timothy and Silas to come as rapidly as possible to his assistance, the Apostle being practically helpless when deprived of his trusted friends. At Athens St. Paul for a time moved about examining the city for himself, a process which soon roused him to action and brought matters to a crisis. St. Paul was well used to pagan towns and the sights with which they were filled. From his earliest youth in Tarsus idolatry and its abominations must have been a pain and grief to him; but Athens he found to exceed them all, so that "his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols." We have in ancient Greek literature the most interesting confirmation of the statement here made by St. Luke. We still possess a descriptive account of Greece written by a chatty Greek traveller named Pausanias, in the days of the Antonines, that is, less than a hundred years after St. Pauls visit, and when Athens was practically the same as in the Apostles day. Pausanias enters into the greatest details about Athens, describing the statues of gods and heroes, the temples, the worship, the customs of the people, bestowing the first thirty chapters of his book upon Athens alone. Pausaniass "Description of Greece" is most interesting to every one because he saw Athens in the height of its literary glory and architectural splendour, and it is specially interesting to the Bible student because it amply confirms and illustrates the details of St. Pauls visit.
Thus we are told in words just quoted that St. Paul found "the city full of idols," and this provoked his spirit over and above the usual provocation he received wherever he found dead idols like these usurping the place rightfully belonging to the lord of the universe. Now let us take up Pausanias, and what does he tell us? In his first chapter he tells how the ports of Athens were crowded on every side with temples, and adorned with statues of gold and silver. Phalerum, the port where Paul landed, had temples of Demeter, of Athene, of Zeus, and "altars of gods unknown," of which we shall presently speak. Then we can peruse chapter after chapter crowded with descriptions of statues and temples, till in the seventeenth chapter we read how in their pantheistic enthusiasm they idolised the most impalpable of things: "The Athenians have in the market-place, among other things not universally notable, an altar to Mercy, to whom, though most useful of all the gods to the life of man and its vicissitudes, the Athenians alone of all the Greeks assign honours. And not only is philanthropy more regarded among them, but they also exhibit more piety to the gods than others; for they have also an altar to Shame and Rumour and Energy. And it is clear that those people who have a larger share of piety than others have also a larger share of good fortune." While again, in chapter 24, dwelling upon the statues of Hercules and Athene, Pausanias remarks, "I have said before that the Athenians, more than any other Greeks, have a zeal for religion." Athens was, at the time of St. Pauls visit, the leading university of the world, and university life then was permeated with the spirit of paganism, the lovers of philosophy and science delighting to adorn Athens with temples and statues and endowments as expressions of the gratitude they felt for the culture which they had there gained. These things had, however, no charm for the apostle Paul. Some moderns, viewing him from an unsympathetic point of view, would describe him in their peculiar language as a mere Philistine in spirit, unable to recognise the material beauty and glory which lay around. And this is true. The beauty which the architect and the sculptor would admire was for the Apostle to a large extent non-existent, owing to his defective eye-sight; but even when recognised it was an object rather of dislike and of abhorrence than of admiration and pleasure, because the Apostle saw deeper than the man of mere superficial culture and aesthetic taste. The Apostle saw these idols and the temples consecrated to their use from the moral and spiritual standpoint, and viewed them therefore as the outward and visible signs of an inward festering corruption and rottenness, the more beautiful perhaps because of the more awful decay which lay beneath. The glimpses which St. Paul got of Athens as he wandered about roused his spirit and quickened him to action. He followed his usual course therefore. He first sought his own countrymen the Jews. There was a colony of Jews at Athens, as we know from independent sources. Philo was a Jew the authenticity of whose writings, at least in great part, has never been questioned. He lived at Alexandria at this very period, and was sent, about twelve years earlier, as an ambassador to Rome to protest against the cruel persecutions to which the Alexandrian Jews had been subjected at the time when Caligula made the attempt to erect his statue at Jerusalem, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter. He wrote an account of his journey to Rome and his treatment by the Emperor, which is called "Legatio ad Caium," and in it he mentions Athens as one of the cities where a considerable Jewish colony existed. We know practically nothing more about this Jewish colony save what we are told here by St. Luke, that it was large enough to have a synagogue, not a mere oratory like the Philippian Jews. It cannot, however, have been a very large one. Athens was not a seat of any considerable trade, and therefore had no such attractions for the Jews as either Thessalonica or Corinth; while its abounding idolatry and its countless images would be repellent to their feelings. Modern investigations have, indeed, brought to light a few ancient inscriptions testifying to the presence of Jews at Athens in these earlier ages; but otherwise we know nothing about them. The synagogue seems to have imbibed a good deal of the same easy-going contemptuously tolerant spirit with which the whole atmosphere of Athens was infected. Jews and pagans alike listened to St. Paul, and then turned away to their own pursuits. In a city where every religion was represented, and every religion discussed and laughed at, how could anyone be very much in earnest? St. Paul then turned from the Jews to the Gentiles. He frequented the marketplace, a well-known spot, near to the favourite meeting-place of the Stoic philosophers. There St. Paul entered into discussion with individuals or with groups as they presented themselves. The philosophers soon took notice of the new-comer. His manner, terribly in earnest, would soon have secured attention in any society, and much more in Athens, where whole-souled and intense enthusiasm was the one intellectual quality which was completely wanting. For who but a man that had heard the voice of God and had seen the vision of the Almighty could be in earnest in a city where residents, and strangers sojourning there, all alike spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing? The philosophers and Stoics and Epicureans alike were attracted by St. Pauls manner. They listened to him as he discoursed of Jesus and the Resurrection, the two topics which absorbed him. They mistook his meaning in a manner very natural to the place, strange as it may seem to us. In Athens the popular worship was thoroughly Pantheistic. Every desire, passion, infirmity even of human nature was deified and adored, and therefore, as we have already pointed out, Pity and Shame and Energy and Rumour, the last indeed the most fitting and significant of them all for a people who simply lived to talk, found spirits willing to prostrate themselves in their service and altars dedicated to their honour. The philosophers heard this new Jewish teacher proclaiming the virtues and blessings of Jesus and the Resurrection, and they concluded Jesus to be one divinity and the Resurrection another divinity, lately imported from the mysterious East. The philosophers were the aristocracy of the Athenian city, reverenced as the University professors in a German or Scotch town, and they at once brought the newcomer before the court of Areopagus, the highest in Athens, charged, as in the time of Socrates, with the duty of supervising the affairs of the national religion, and punishing all attacks and innovations thereon. The Apostle was led up the steps or stairs which still remain, the judges took their places on the rock-hewn benches, St. Paul was placed upon the defendants stone, called, as Pausanias tells us, the Stone of Impudence, and then the trial began.
The Athenian philosophers were cultured, and they were polite. They demand, therefore, in bland tones, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by thee? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things mean." And now St. Paul has got his chance of a listening audience. He has come across a new type of hearers, such as he has not enjoyed since those early days of his first Christian love, when, after his escape from Jerusalem, he resided at the university city of Tarsus for a long time, till sought out by Barnabas to come and minister to the crowds of Gentiles who were flocking into the Church at Antioch. St. Paul knew right well the tenets of the two classes of men, the Stoics and the Epicureans, with whom he had to contend, and he deals with them effectually in the speech which he delivered before the court. Of that address we have only the barest outline. The report given in the Acts contains about two hundred and fifty words, and must have lasted little more than two minutes if that was all St. Paul said. It embodies, however, merely the leading arguments used by the Apostle as Timothy or some other disciple recollected them and told them to St. Luke. Let us see what these arguments were. He begins with a compliment to the Athenians. The Authorised, and even the Revised, Version represent him indeed as beginning like an unskilled and unwise speaker with giving his audience a slap in the face. "Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are somewhat superstitious," would not have been the most conciliatory form of address to a keen-witted assembly like that before which he was now standing. It would have tended to set their backs up at once. If we study St. Pauls Epistles, specially his First Epistle to Corinth, we shall find that even when he had to find the most grievous faults with his disciples, he always began like a prudent man by conciliating their feelings, praising them for whatever he could find good or blessed in them. Surely if St. Paul acted thus with believers living unworthy of their heavenly calling, he would be still more careful not to offend men whom he wished to win over to Christ! St. Pauls exordium was complimentary rather than otherwise, bearing out the description which Pausanias gives of the Athenians of his own day, that "they have more than other Greeks, a zeal for religion." Let us expand his thoughts somewhat that we may grasp their force. "Men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are more religious and more devoted to the worship of the deity than other men. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God." St. Paul here displays his readiness as a practised orator. He shows his power and readiness to become all things to all men. He seizes upon the excessive devotion of the Athenians. He does not abuse them on account of it, he uses it rather as a good and useful foundation on which he may build a worthier structure, as a good and sacred principle, hitherto misapplied, but henceforth to be dedicated to a nobler purpose. The circumstance upon which St. Paul seized, the existence of an altar dedicated to the unknown God, is amply confirmed by historic evidence. St. Paul may have noticed such altars as he passed up the road from Phalerum, where he landed, to the city of Athens, where, as we learn from Pausanias, the next-century traveller, such altars existed in his time; or he may have seen them on the very hill of Areopagus on which he was standing, where, from ancient times, as we learn from another writer, altars existed dedicated to the unknown gods who sent a plague upon Athens. St. Pauls argument then was this. The Athenians were already worshippers of the Unknown God. This was the very deity he came proclaiming, and therefore he could not be a setter forth of strange gods nor liable to punishment in consequence. He then proceeds to declare more fully the nature of the Deity hitherto unknown. He was the God that made the world and all things therein. He was not identical therefore with the visible creation as the Pantheism of the Stoics declared; but gave to all out of His own immense fulness life and wealth, and all things; neither was He like the gods of the Epicureans who sat far aloof from all care and thought about this lower world. St. Paul taught Gods personal existence as against the Stoics, and Gods providence as against the Epicureans. Then he struck straight at the root of that national pride, that supreme contempt for the outside barbaric world, which existed as strongly among these cultured agnostic Greek philosophers as among the most narrow, fanatical, and bigoted Jews: "He made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find. Him." A doctrine which must have sounded exceeding strange to these Greeks accustomed to despise the barbarian world, looking down upon it from the height of their learning and civilisation, and regarding themselves as the only favourites of Heaven. St. Paul proclaims on the Hill of Mars Christian liberalism, the catholic and cosmopolitan character of the true religion in opposition to this Greek contempt grounded on mere human position and privilege, as clearly and as loudly as be proclaimed the same great truth at Jerusalem or in the synagogues of the Dispersion in opposition to Jewish exclusiveness grounded on the Divine covenant. St. Paul had grasped the great lesson taught by the prophets of the Old Testament as they prophesied concerning Babylon, Egypt, and Tyre. They proclaimed the lesson which Jewish ears were slow to learn, they taught the Jews the truth which Paul preached to the philosophers of Athens, they acted upon the principle which it was the great work of Pauls life to exemplify, that Gods care and love and providence are over all His works, that His mercies are not restrained to any one nation, but that, having made of one all nations upon the face of the earth, His blessings are bestowed upon them all alike. This truth here taught by St. Paul has been slow to make its way. Men have been slow to acknowledge the equality of all nations in Gods sight, very slow to give up their own claims to exceptional treatment and blessing on the part of the Almighty. The great principle enunciated by the Apostle struck, for instance, at the evil of slavery, yet how slowly it made its way. Till thirty years ago really good and pious men saw nothing inconsistent with Christianity in negro slavery. Christian communions even were established grounded on this fundamental principle, the righteous character of slavery. John Newton was a slave trader, and seems to have seen nothing wrong in it. George Whitefield owned slaves, and bequeathed them as part of his property to be held for his Orphan House in America. But it is not only slavery that this great principle overthrows. It strikes down every form of injustice and wrong. God has made all men of one; they are all equally His care, and therefore every act of injustice is a violation of the Divine law which is thus expressed. Such ideas must have seemed exceedingly strange, and even unnatural to men accustomed to reverence the teaching and study the writings of guides like Aristotle, whose dogma was that slavery was based on the very constitution of nature itself, which formed some men to rule and others to be slaves.
St. Paul does not finish with this. He has not yet exhausted all his message. He had now dealt with the intellectual errors and mistakes of his hearers. He had around him and above him, if he could but see the magnificent figure of Athene, the pride and glory of the Acropolis, with its surrounding temples, the most striking proofs how their intellectual mistakes had led the wise of this world into fatal and degrading practices. In the course of his argument, having shown the nearness of God to man, "In Him we live and move and have our being," and the Divine desire that man should seek after and know God, he quoted a passage common to several well-known poets, "For we are also His offspring." This was sufficient for St. Paul, who as we see, in all his Epistles, often flies off at a tangent when a word slips as it were by chance from his pen, leading him off to a new train of ideas. We are the offspring of God. How is it then that men can conceive the Godhead, that which is Divine, to be like unto those gold and silver, brass and marble statues, even though wrought with the greatest possible skill. The philosophers indeed pretended to distinguish between the Eternal Godhead and these divinities and images innumerable, which were but representations of his several characteristics and attributes. But even if they distinguished intellectually, they did not distinguish in practice, and the people from the highest to the lowest identified the idol with the deity itself, and rendered thereto the honour due to God.
St. Paul then proceeds to enunciate his own doctrines. He lightly touches upon, as he did previously at Lystra, {Act_14:16} a subject which neither the time at his disposal nor the position of his hearers would permit him to discuss. He glances at, but does not attempt to explain, why God had postponed to that late date this novel teaching: "The times of ignorance God overlooked; but now He commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent." This doctrine of repentance, involving a sense of sin and sorrow for it, must have sounded exceeding strange to those philosophic ears, as did the announcement with which the Apostle follows it up, the proclamation of a future judgment by a Man whom God had ordained for the purpose, and authenticated by raising Him from the dead. Here the crowd interrupted him. The Resurrection, or Anastasis, which Paul preached was not then a new deity, but an impossible process through which no man save in fable had ever passed. When the Apostle got thus far the assembly broke up. The idea of a resurrection of a dead man was too much for them. It was too ludicrous for belief. "Some mocked: but others said, We will hear thee again of this matter," and thus ended St. Pauls address, and thus ended too the Athenian opportunity, for St. Paul soon passed away from such a society of learned triflers and scoffers. They sat in the seat of the scorner, and the seat of the scorner is never a good one for a learner to occupy who wishes to profit. He felt that he had no great work to do in such a place. His opportunity lay where hearts were broken with sin and sorrow, where the burden of life weighed upon the soul, and men heavy laden and sore pressed were longing for a real deliverance and for a higher, nobler life than the world could offer. His work, however, was not all in vain, nor were his personal discussions and his public address devoid of results. The Church of Athens was one of those which could look back to St. Paul as its founder. "Not many wise after the flesh were called" in that city of wisdom and beauty, but some were called, among whom was one of those very judges who sat to investigate the Apostles teaching: "But certain clave unto him, and believed: among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them." And this Church thus founded became famous; Dionysius the Areopagite became afterwards a celebrated man, because his name was attached some five centuries later to a notorious forgery which has played no small part in later Christian history. Dionysius was the first bishop of the Athenian Church according to the testimony of another Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, who lived in the middle of the second century, while persons were yet living who could remember the Areopagite. He was succeeded by Publius, who presided over the Church at an important period of its existence. The Emperor Hadrian came to Athens, and was charmed with it about the year 125 A.D. At that time the Athenian Church must have included among its members several learned men; for the two earliest "Apologies" in defence of Christianity were produced by it. The Athenian Church had just then been purified by the fiery trials of persecution.
Quadratus and Aristides stood forth to plead its cause before the Emperor. Of Quadratus and his work we know but little. Eusebius, the great Church historian, had, however, seen it, and gives us ("H.E.," 4:3) a brief abstract of it, appealing to the miracles of our Saviour, and stating that some of the dead whom Christ had raised had lived to his own time. While as for Aristides, the other apologist, his work, after lying hidden from the sight of Christendom, was printed and published last year, as we have told in the former volume of this commentary. That "Apology" of Aristides has much important teaching for us, as we have there tried to show. There is one point, however, to which we did not allude. The "Apology" of Aristides shows us that the Athenian Church accepted in the fullest degree and preserved the great Pauline doctrine of the freedom and catholic nature of Christianity. In the year 125 Judaism and Christianity were still struggling together within the Church in other places; but at Athens they had clean separated the one from the other. Till that year no one but a circumcised Jewish Christian had ever presided over the Mother Church of Jerusalem, which sixty years after the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul preserved exactly the same attitude as in the days of James the Just. The Church of Athens, on the other hand, as a thoroughly Gentile Church, had from the first enjoyed the ministry of Dionysius the Areopagite, a Gentile of culture and education. He had been attracted by the broad liberal teaching of the Apostle in his address upon Mars Hill, enunciating a religion free from all narrow national limitations. He embraced this catholic teaching with his whole heart, and transmitted it to his successors, so that when some seventy years later a learned Athenian stood forth in the person of Aristides, to explain the doctrines of the Church, contrasting them with the errors and mistakes of all other nations, Aristides does not spare even the Jews. He praises them indeed when compared with the pagans, who had erred on the primary questions of morals; but he blames them because they had not reached the final and absolute position occupied by the Christians. Listen to the words of Aristides which proclaim the true Pauline doctrine taught in St. Pauls sermons, re-echoed by the Epistles, "Nevertheless the Jews too have gone astray from accurate knowledge, and they suppose in their minds that they are serving God, but in the methods of their service, their service is to angels and not to God, in that they observe Sabbaths and new moons, and the passover, and the great fast, and the fast and circumcision, and cleanness of meats," words which sound exactly the same note and embody the same conception as St. Paul in his indignant language to the Galatians: {Gal_4:9-11} "Now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labour upon you in vain."
St. Paul did not stay long at Athens. Five or six weeks perhaps, two months at most, was probably the length of his visit, time enough just for his Beroean guides to go back to their own city two hundred miles away, and forward their message to Thessalonica fifty miles distant, desiring Timothy and Silas to come to him. Timothy, doubtless, soon started upon his way, tarried with the Apostle for a little, and then returned to Thessalonica, as we learn from 1Th_3:1 : "When we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timothy to establish you and comfort you." And now he was again all alone in that scoffing city where neither the religious, moral, nor intellectual atmosphere could have been pleasing to a man like St. Paul. He quitted Athens therefore and came to Corinth. In that city he laboured for a period of a year and a half at least; and yet the record of his brief visit to Athens, unsuccessful as it was so far as immediate results are concerned, is much longer than the record of his prolonged work in Corinth.
Now if we were writing a life of St. Paul instead of a commentary on the history told us in the Acts, we should be able to supplement the brief narrative of the historical book with the ample details contained in the Epistles of St. Paul, especially the two Epistles written to Corinth itself, which illustrate the life of the Apostle, his work at Corinth, and the state of the Corinthians themselves prior and subsequent to their conversion. A consideration of these points would, however, lead me to intrude on the sphere of the commentator on the Corinthian Epistles, and demand an amount of space which we cannot afford. In addition, the three great biographies of St. Paul to which we have so often referred-Lewins, Farrars, and that of Conybeare and Howson-treat this subject at such great length and with such a profusion of archaeological learning as practically leave a fresh writer nothing new to say in this direction. Let us, however, look briefly at the record in the Acts of St. Pauls work in Corinth, viewing it from the expositors point of view. St. Paul went from Athens to Corinth discouraged, it may have been, by the results of his Athenian labours. Opposition never frightened St. Paul; but learned carelessness, haughty contemptuous indifference to his Divine message, the outcome of a spirit devoid of any true spiritual life, quenched his ardour, chilled his enthusiasm. He must indeed have been sorely repelled by Athens when he set out all alone for the great capital of Achaia, the wicked, immoral, debased city of Corinth. When He came thither he united himself with Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, and Priscilla, his wife, because they were members of the same craft. They had been lately expelled from Rome, and, like the Apostle, were tent-makers: for convenience sake therefore, and to save expense, they all lodged together. Here again St. Paul experienced the wisdom of his fathers training and of the Rabbinical law, which thus made him in Corinth, as before in Thessalonica, thoroughly independent of all external circumstances, and able with his own hands to minister to his bodys wants. And it was a fortunate thing too for the gospels sake: that he was able to do so. St. Paul never permits anyone to think for a moment that the claim of Christs ministry for a fitting support is a doubtful one. He expressly teaches again and again, as in 1 Cor. 9., that it is the Scriptural as well as rational duty of the people to contribute according to their means to the maintenance of Christs public ministry. But there were certain circumstances at Thessalonica, and above all at Corinth, which made St. Paul waive his just claim and even cramp, limit, and confine his exertions, by imposing on himself the work of earning his daily food. Thessalonica and Corinth had immense Jewish populations. The Jews were notorious in that age as furnishing the greatest number of impostors, quack magicians, and every other kind of agency which traded upon human credulity for the purpose of gain.
St. Paul was determined that neither Jew nor Gentile in either place should be able to hinder the work of the gospel by accusing him of self-seeking or covetous purposes. For this purpose he united with Aquila and Priscilla in working: at their common trade as tentmakers, employing the Sabbath days in debating after the usual fashion in the Jewish synagogues; and upon ordinary days improving the hours during which his hands laboured upon the coarse hair cloth of which tents were made, either in expounding: to his fellow-workmen the glorious news which he proclaimed or else in meditating upon the trials of his converts in Macedonia, or perhaps, most of all, in that perpetual communion with God, that never-ceasing intercession for which he ever found room and time in the secret chambers of the soul. St. Pauls intercessions, as we read of them in his Epistles, were immense. Intercessory prayers for his individual converts are frequently mentioned by him. It would have been impossible for a man so hard. pressed with labours of every kind, temporal and spiritual, to find place for them all in formal prayers if St. Paul did not cultivate the habit of ceaseless communion with his Father in heaven, perpetually bringing before God those cases and persons which lay dearest to his heart. This habit of secret prayer must be the explanation of St. Pauls widespread intercessions, and for this reason. He commends the same practice again and again to his converts. "Pray without ceasing" is his language to the Thessalonians. {1Th_5:17} Now this could not mean, prolong your private devotions to an inordinate length, because great numbers of his converts were slaves who were not masters of their time. But it does mean cultivate a perpetual sense of Gods presence and of your own communion with Him, which will turn life and its busiest work into a season of refreshing prayer and untiring intercession.
Meanwhile, according to Act_18:5, Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, bringing contributions for the Apostles support, which enabled him to fling himself entirely into ministerial and evangelistic work. This renewed activity soon told. St. Paul had no longer to complain of contemptuous or listless conduct, as at Athens. He experienced at Jewish hands in Corinth exactly the same treatment as at Thessalonica and Beroea. Paul preached that Jesus was the Christ. The Jews blasphemed Him, and called Him accursed. Their attitude became so threatening that Paul was at length compelled to retire from the synagogue, and, separating his disciples, Jews and Gentiles alike, he withdrew to the house of one Justus, a man whose Latin name bespeaks his Western origin, who lived next door to the synagogue. Thenceforth he threw himself with all his energy into his work. God too directly encouraged him. The very proximity of the Christian Church to the Jewish Synagogue constituted a special danger to himself personally when he had to deal with fanatical Jews. A heavenly visitor appeared, therefore, to refresh the wearied saint. In his hour of danger and of weakness Gods strength and grace were perfected, and assurance was granted that the Lord had much people in the city of Corinth, and that no harm should happen to him while striving to seek out. and gather Gods sheep that were scattered abroad in the midst of the naughty world of Corinthian life. And the secret vision did not stand alone. External circumstances lent their assistance and support. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and his family became converts, and were baptised. Gains and Stephanas were important converts gathered from amongst the Gentiles; so important indeed were these three individuals and their families that St. Paul, turned aside from his purely evangelistic and missionary labours and devoted himself to the pastoral work of preparing them for baptism, administering personally that holy sacrament, a duty which he usually left to his assistants, who were not so well qualified for the rough pioneer efforts of controversy, which he had marked out for himself. And so the work went on for a year and a half, till the Jews thought they saw their opportunity for crushing the audacious apostate who was thus making havoc even among the officials of their own organisation, inducing them to join his Nazarene synagogue. Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital, was a Roman province, embracing, broadly speaking, the territory comprised in the modern kingdom of Greece. Like a great many other provinces, and specially like Cyprus, to which we have already called attention, Achaia was at times an imperial, at times a senatorial province. Forty years earlier it was an imperial province. The Acts describes it as just then, that is, about A.D. 53, a senatorial or proconsular province; and Suetonius, an independent Roman historian, confirms this, telling us ("Claud.," 25) that the Emperor Claudius restored it to the senate.
Gallio, a brother of the celebrated philosophic writer Seneca, had been sent to it as proconsul, and the Jews thought they now saw their opportunity. Gallio, whose original and proper name was Annaeus Novatus, was a man distinguished by what in Rome was considered his sweet, gentle, and loving disposition. His reputation may have preceded him, and the Jews of Corinth may have thought that they would play upon his easy-going temper. The Jews, being a very numerous community at Corinth had it of course in their power to prove very unpleasant to any ruler, and specially to one of Gallios reputed temper. The Roman governors were invested with tremendous powers; they were absolute despots, in fact, for the time being, and yet they were often very anxious to gain popularity, especially with any troublesome body of their temporary subjects. The Roman proconsuls, in fact, adopted a principle we sometimes see still acted out in political life, as if it were the highest type of statesmanship. They were anxious to gain popularity by gratifying those who made themselves specially obnoxious and raised the loudest cries. They petted the naughty, and they neglected the good. So it was with Pontius Pilate, who perpetrated a judicial murder because it contented the multitude; so it was with Festus, who left an innocent mart in bonds at Caesarea because he desired to gain favour with the Jews; and so too, thought the Jews of Corinth, it would be with Gallio, They arrested the Apostle, therefore, using the messengers of the synagogue for the purpose, and brought him to the proconsular court, where they set him before the bema, or elevated platform, whence the Roman magistrates dispensed justice. Then they laid their formal accusation against him: "This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law"; expecting perhaps that he would be remitted by the proconsul to the judgment and discipline of their own domestic tribunal, even as Pilate said to the Jews about our Lord and their accusation against Him: "Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law." But the philosophic brother of the Stoic Seneca had a profound contempt for these agitating Jews. His Stoic education too had trained him to allow external things as little influence upon the mind as possible. The philosophic apathy which the Stoics cultivated must have more or less affected his whole nature, as he soon showed the Jews; for before the Apostle had time to reply to the charge Gallio burst in contemptuously. If it were a matter of law and order, he declares, it would be right to attend to it; but if your complaint is touching your own national law and customs I will have nothing to say to it. And then he commanded his lictors to clear the court. Thus ended the attempt on St. Pauls freedom or life, an attempt which was indeed more disastrous to the Jews themselves than to anyone else; for the Gentile mob of Corinth, hating the Jews, and glad to see them balked of their expected prey, seized the chief accuser Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment-seat; while Gallio all the while cared for none of these things, despising the mob, Jew and Gentile alike, and contemptuously pitying them from the height of his philosophic self-contentment. Gallio has been at all times regarded as the type of the mere worldling, who, wrapped in material interests, cares for nothing higher or nobler. But this is scarcely fair to Gallio. The Stoic philosopher was not dead to better things. But he is the type rather of men who, blinded by lower truths and mere intellectual wisdom, are thereby rendered careless of those spiritual matters in which the souls true life alone consists. He had so thoroughly cultivated a philosophic contempt for the outside world and its business, the sayings and doings, the joys and the sorrows of the puny mortals who fume and strut and fret their lives away upon this earthly stage, that he lost the opportunity of hearing from the Apostles tips of a grander philosophy, a deeper contentment, of a truer, more satisfying peace than was ever dreamt of in stoical speculation. And this type of man is not extinct. Philosophy, science, art, literature, politics, they are all great facts, all offer vast fields for human activity, and all may serve for a time so thoroughly to content and satisfy mans inner being as to render him careless of that life in Christ which alone abideth for evermore.
The attempt of the Jews marked the termination of St. Pauls work in Corinth. It was at least the beginning of the end. He had now laboured longer in Corinth than anywhere else since he started out from Antioch. He had organised and consolidated the Church, as we can see from his Corinthian Epistles, and now he longed once more to visit his old friends, and report what God had wrought by his means during his long absence. He tarried, therefore, yet a while, visiting doubtless, the various Churches which he had established throughout all the province of Achaia, and then, accompanied by a few companions, set sail for Syria, to declare the results of his eventful mission, taking Ephesus on his way. This was his first visit to that great city, and he was probably led to pay it owing to the commercial necessities of Aquila. Lifes actions and deeds, even in the case of an apostle, are moulded by very little things. A glance, a chance word, a passing courtesy, forgotten as soon as done, and life is very different from what it otherwise would have been. And so, too, the tent-making and tent-selling of Aquila brought Paul to Ephesus, shaped the remainder of his career, and endowed the Church with the rich spiritual heritage of the teaching imparted to the Ephesian disciples by word and epistle.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 16–18. While Paul waited. At first he seems to…
16–18. While Paul waited. At first he seems to have intended to await the arrival of Timothy and Silas before he opened his work, but his spirit was too much stirred. Wholly given to idolatry. “Full of idols” in the Revision. This is confirmed by the Greek writers. The Greek historian Pausanias says that there were more idols in Athens than in all the rest of Greece combined. Many other writers bear the same testimony. Paul would see them wherever he turned his eyes.
Disputed … in the market. There was in Athens one great “market place,” or public square. The porches around it were favorite places for discussion.
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Epicureans and Stoics. Two of the philosophical schools then prevalent in Athens. The first held that the gods were careless about human affairs, and that a man's best course was to get as much pleasure out of life as possible. With them pleasure was the chief good. The Stoics were fatalists, believers in a sort of pantheism, and insisted on self-righteousness. Epicurus was the founder of the first sect; Zeno, of the second. What will this babbler say? A contemptuous expression. A setter forth of strange gods. He spoke of God and the risen Jesus. Some have thought that they mistook Anastasis, the Greek for resurrection, for the name of a goddess.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Act_17:16. Athens.—Described by Milton (Paradise Regained, Act_4:20) as “the…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_17:16. Athens.—Described by Milton (Paradise Regained, Act_4:20) as “the eye of Greece,” and “the mother of arts and eloquence.” The capital of Attica was situated about five miles from the harbour of Piræus, partly on a group of rocky hills, and partly upon the low land surrounding these, and separating them one from the other. Of these rocky eminences the loftiest was the Acropolis, which stood almost in the middle of the town, and to which a magnificent marble staircase led up through the Propylæum, built by Pericles. Here were, besides other works of art, the colossal statue of Athene Promachus, the glorious Parthenon, or Virgins’ house, replete with the masterpieces of Phidias, and “the colossal statue (of Athens) of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias, unrivalled in the world, save only by the Jupiter Olympius of the same artist” (Conybeare and Howson, 1:330).
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Act_17:17. In the market.—The Agora, richly decorated with statues, lying between the two hills, Pnyx on the west and Museum on the south-west of the Acropolis, was “the centre of a glorious public life, when the orators and statesmen, the poets and artists, of Greece found there all the incentives of their noblest enthusiasm” (Ibid., i. 326).
Act_17:18. This babbler.—ὁ σπερμολδγος. Lit., sted-picker, properly a bird, in which sense it is used by Aristophanes (Birds, 232); hence one who prowls about the market-place picking up and retailing gossip, or one who lives by his wits; hence, again, “a contemptible and worthless person.” Or the allusion may be to the chattering of such birds, whence the word may denote “a babbler.” Zeno called by this name one of his disciples, who had more words than wisdom (Diog. Laert., Zeno, c. 19); and Demosthenes used this expression of ready-tongued opponents. “Many an Athenian is likely to have babbled all the week through about this babbler at the Areopagus” (Stier). “Probably the nearest and most instructive parallel in modern English life to Spermologos is ‘Bounder’ allowing for the difference between England and Athens. In both there lies the idea of one who is ‘out of the swim,’ out of the inner circle, one who lacks that thorough knowledge and practice in the rules of the game, that mould the whole character and make it one’s nature to act in the proper way and play the game fair” (Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 243).
Act_17:19. Areopagus.—This ancient college of justice in Athens, whose province it was to pronounce judgment on the worst criminal cases, had its name from the elevation, Mars’ Hill (Act_17:22), upon the east end of which it had its sittings. It was approached from the market-place by a flight of steps cut in the rock, and on its summit had, also cut in the rock, a row of seats, in which the judges sat, and room for a considerable number of spectators and listeners. Ramsay (St. Paul, etc., pp. 241 ff.), thinks Paul was brought before the Council of Areopagus, neither to be tried by the city judges, nor to address the Athenian people, nor to discuss with the philosophers, but to explain to the university court the nature of his doctrines. (See Hints on Act_17:19.)
Act_17:21. Either to tell or to hear some new thing.—Compare Demosthenes: “Is it your sole ambition to wander through the public places, each inquiring of the other, what new advices?” (Philippic, Act_1:11); and Thucydides (3:38): “And so you are the best men to be imposed upon with novelty of argument,” etc. “It is just the same to-day with the upper and lower classes in our great cities. It is ever καινὁτερόν τι; or, as they are wont to say, One new thing supplants another” (Stier).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_17:16-21
Paul at Athens; or, Alone in a Heathen City
I. Waiting for Silas and Timothy.—
1. Alone. These two friends having been left behind in Macedonia, Silas in Berœa, and perhaps Timothy in Thessalonica, to carry forward the spiritual movement which had there been initiated when those who had brought the apostle as far as to Athens had departed, he naturally began to realise the isolation of his position as a stranger in a large heathen city. Nor is it likely that the brilliant scenes on which he gazed in that fair metropolis of the ancient world did much to relieve his depression. Besides, largely on account of bodily weakness, the apostle may have felt himself in need of friendly sympathy and assistance in order to effective working in Athens. Hence, on sending back his conductors to Barœa, he deemed it prudent to entrust them with instructions for both Silas and Timothy to rejoin him with all speed. Doubtless he expected to await their arrival at Athens; but as the turn of events once more constrained him to leave the Achaian capital sooner than he had anticipated, it was not till he had reached Corinth that his esteemed colleagues overtook him (Act_18:5).—Silas coming from Berœa, and Timothy from Thessalonica, to which city (as above conjectured, though see “Critical Remarks,” and “Hints” on Act_17:14) he had been despatched from Berœa, instead of Paul (1Th_2:18). Meanwhile the apostle found himself in Athens alone (1Th_3:1). Yet,
2. Not alone. Like his glorified Master, who, in the days of His flesh, when forsaken by His disciples, affirmed that though alone He was yet not alone, because the Father was with Him (Joh_16:32), the apostle in his solitude enjoyed first the companionship of that gracious Lord on whose business he had come to Athens, who had said, “Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mat_28:20), and whose “comforts,” it need not be doubted, in that season of “thoughtfulness” delighted his soul (Psa_94:19). Then, like him who said he was “never less alone than when alone,” the apostle had the fellowship of his own thoughts, which, if they had much to depress, were fitted also in no small measure to cheer. The recollection of the toils and sufferings he had passed through since entering on his lifework of preaching the gospel to the heathen could hardly fail at times to cast “the pale hue of sickly thought” upon his spirit, though even that could not daunt his heroic soul. But, on the other hand, the remembrance of how he had been sustained throughout his arduous warfare, and of how astonishingly the work of the Lord had prospered in his hand, would more than counterbalance his depressing reminiscences. Lastly, he might have found, though it is doubtful if he did, in the fresh scenes upon which he gazed in that brilliant capital, the means of relieving the tedium of his lonely hours. “It was at Athens,” writes Farrar, “that the human form, sedulously trained, attained its most exquisite and winning beauty; there that human freedom put forth its most splendid power; there that human eloquence displayed its utmost subtlety and grace; there that art reached to its most consummate perfection; there that poetry uttered alike its sweetest and its sublimest strains; there that philosophy attained to the most perfect music of human expression, its loftiest and deepest thoughts”; but it may be questioned if these considerations affected Paul with the like enthusiasm they inspire in the breast of modern travellers.
II. Surveying the Athenian city.—
1. The spectacle he beheld. That which arrested Paul’s attention, presumably from the moment of his landing at the harbour of Piræus, as he walked up slowly between the ruins of the Long Walls towards the shining city, and while he, later on, sauntered through its streets and lingered in its market-place, was not its geographical situation, or its architectural beauty, or its air of culture and refinement, but its religious condition. Like Babylon of old, which was “a land of graven images,” and whose people were “mad upon idols” (Jer_50:38), the Athens of Paul’s day was “wholly given over to idolatry,” literally stuffed full of idols. “A person could hardly take his position at any point in ancient Athens where the eye did not range over temples and statues of the gods almost without number” (Hackett). Petronius (Satires, 17) was wont to say that it was easier to find a god at Athens than a man; while, according to Pausanias, Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece put together. Some of the streets were so crowded with those who sold idols that it was almost impossible to make one’s way through them. “Every god in Olympus found a place in the Agora; and as if the imagination of the Attic mind knew no bounds in this direction, abstractions were deified and publicly honoured. Altars were erected to fame, to modesty, to energy, to persuasion, to pity” (Conybeare and Howson, i. 328, 329). Finally, lest any divinity should be overlooked, the inhabitants had erected an altar with this inscription, “To the unknown God.” It is of course objected that ancient writers, such as Pausanias and Philostratus, only knew of altars “to unknown gods” not “to an, or the, unknown god”; but neither can their ignorance be allowed to invalidate the testimony of Paul, nor can it be incontrovertibly demonstrated that the “altars of unknown gods mentioned by the above writers referred to a plurality of deities, and not to a plurality of altars; while, even if the former supposition be accepted as correct, it does not follow that Paul may not have observed one inscribed as Luke reports. There is even a “great probability that by ‘the unknown God’ was actually meant Jehovah” (Lewin).
2. The feeling it aroused. “His spirit was stirred within him,” provoked or filled with indignation;
(1) at the profanation of the holy name of God implied, in the very existence of an idol;
(2) at the prostitution of manhood exhibited in the worship of a graven image;
(3) at the unspeakable source of moral corruption opened in the degrading rites by which such divinities were honoured; and
(4) at the terrible display of Satanic power given in the subjection of a whole city to such a caricature of religion as idolatry really was. Nor would the apostle’s indignation be lessened, but immensely heightened, by the fact that in Jerusalem he had never witnessed an idol.
III. Disputing with its inhabitants.—
1. Where, and when?
(1) In the synagogue on the Sabbath. Although “no trace of any building which could have been a synagogue has been found at Athens” (Farrar), there is no ground for calling in question the accuracy of Luke’s statement that one existed there in Paul’s day, and that Paul, according to his wont (Act_17:2), entered it on the Sabbath.
(2) In the market-place on the other days of the week. Located at the foot of the Acropolis and the Areopagus, the market-place of Athens was a busy scene. “Around were porticoes fitted up as bazaars for the sale of a thousand articles of commerce; here and there were circular sheds, one for the sale of slaves, another of provisions. In one place was the flesh market, in another the horse market; here the mart of books, there the stalls of fruit and flowers” (Lewin).
2. With whom, and about what?
(1) On the Sabbath day or days in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons or proselytes there assembled; and the fact that there were Jews and proselytes in the Greek capital shows that even in that idolatrous city the name of Jehovah could not have been utterly unknown. On the week days in the market-place with those encountered there, amongst whom mingled representatives of the various schools of philosophy for which Athens was celebrated (see below).
(2) With the former his theme of disputation would be the Messiahship of Jesus, which, as on other occasions, he would endeavour to establish from the Scriptures (Act_17:2-3); with the latter he would reason not about philosophy or science, politics or trade, but about religion and theology, and, in particular, about the true knowledge of God and about the folly of idol worship, about the true wisdom which descended from heaven, and about the resurrection and eternal life.
IV. Confronting the philosophers.—
1. Their designations.
(1) Epicureans. The founder of this sect, Epicurus, born 342 B.C.—i.e., six years after the death of Plato, in his thirty-sixth year—opened at Athens a philosophical school, over which he presided till his death in B.C. 270. The principal tenets of his philosophy were, that the summum bonum of human life consisted in happiness or pleasure; that this happiness was to be found in sobriety and temperance, contentment with little and a life generally in accord with nature; that death was not an evil to be feared; that man has no moral destiny; and that the gods which in his system were more phantoms than gods, took no manner of interest in mundane affairs (Schwegler’s History of Philosophy, pp. 131–134). With his followers happiness became convertible with sensual pleasures (1Co_15:32), belief in inert and shadowy divinities degenerated into practical atheism, and man’s soul, if he had one, was nothing but a body composed of finer atoms than the fleshly tabernacle in which it was enshrined. They were thus the Greek Sadducees of their day.
(2) The Stoics. Followers of Zeno, who was born in Citium, a town of Cyprus about 340 B.C., and opened a school in an Athenian arcade (Stoa, whence the name Stoic), these were virtually pantheists, who believed that the world was God’s body, and God the world’s soul, that the highest law of human action was to live in accordance with nature, and that virtue, apart from all personal ends, was man’s sole good; but in point of fact they were commonly nothing better than fatalists, who boasted of their indifference to the world, and affected an ideal of morals which in practice became unreal (Schwegler, pp. 123–131).
2. Their exclamations.
(1) What will this babbler say? Better, what might this seed picker, this idle prater mean? I.e., if he has any meaning. These depositaries of the world’s wisdom looked upon the apostle as only another specimen of those market-place loungers and gossips who picked up scraps of information and retailed them to others, and whom the quick-witted humorists of the day likened to a sparrow, rook, or other bird which hopped about the streets and squares of the city picking up crumbs (see “Critical Remarks” on Act_17:18).
(2) He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods (or daemons)—the very charge preferred against Socrates (Xen., Mem., i. 1, § 1)—“because,” Luke explains, “he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.” This, the reason advanced by the philosophers for their exclamation, Luke must have learnt from Paul himself. The philosophers, it has been thought, mistook Anastasis for the name of a second divinity in addition to Jesus (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Spence, Plumptre, Holtzmann); but it is more likely that the gods referred to were the God of the Hebrews, the true God and His Son Jesus Christ (Alford, Hackett, De Wette).
3. Their interrogations.
(1) Where these were put. At the Areopagus or Mars’ Hill, “where the most awful court of judicature had sat from time immemorial, to pass sentence on the greatest criminals, and to decide the most solemn questions connected with religion. The judges sat in the open air upon seats hewn out in the rock, on a platform ascended by a flight of stones immediately from the ‘Agora’ ” (Conybeare and Howson, i. 346).
(2) How these were put! “May we know what this new doctrine or teaching is that is spoken by thee?” “We would know what these things mean.” The questions do not indicate that Paul was formally arraigned, but merely that he was called upon to furnish an explanation of the theological novelties to which they had listened—which, all things considered, was a fair enough demand. The words in which their demand was couched do not resemble those in which a prisoner at the bar is addressed by a judge; nor does the speech, made by Paul in reply, in the least degree resemble a defence.
(3) Why these were put. Partly out of a desire for information—the teaching sounded strange to their ears—but chiefly out of idle curiosity, which was a notorious characteristic of the Athenians (see, however, “Critical Remarks” and “Hints” on Act_17:19).
Learn.—
1. The essential loneliness of God’s people in a sinful world.
2. The earnest activity which Christ’s servants should everywhere exhibit.
3. The natural incapacity of the human heart to comprehend the gospel.
4. The two principal obstacles to the reception of the truth, pleasure and pride.
5. The comparative frivolity of all earthly engagements in comparison with the business of salvation.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_17:16. Athens: A Microcosmus.—A city—
I. Of degraded idolaters, who worshipped the creature more than the Creator.
II. Of ignorant philosophers, who professed themselves to be wise, but were all the while fools.
III. Of arrant triflers, who had no just conception of the seriousness of life.
Act_17:18. Strange Gods.
I. Senseless images.—Dumb idols such as were and are worshipped by the heathen.
II. Local divinities.—Such deities as were supposed to be restricted to particular lands and peoples—e.g., the gods of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Phœnicians, etc.
III. Impersonal abstractions.—Such as are worshipped by philosophers and others, both ancient and modern; as e.g., the All, the Great Unknown, the Power behind the Visible, etc.
IV. Material possessions.—Such as are worshipped under the names of Mammon, Wealth, Riches, by all classes of society.
Jesus and the Resurrection. Jesus—
I. The efficient cause (Joh_5:25).
II. The personal principle (Joh_11:25).
III. The archetypal pattern (Php_3:21).
IV. The first fruits of the Resurrection (1Co_15:23).
The Athenian Philosophers and their Relation to Christianity.
I. The Epicureans.—“The Epicurean system was essentially materialistic. The senses formed the only source of knowledge. The world was traced back to atoms, out of whose accidental concurrence all things were formed. Even the soul was said to be only a body of ethereal and fiery substance fashioned out of fine atoms. Hence the immortality of the soul was a delusion, the freedom of the will a deception, and the gods superfluous; only quite illogically Epicurus allowed them to exist, but denied them all world-government and participation in the fortunes of men. The highest good of man, placed as he is in this senseless and heartless existence, is pleasure; wisdom to attain to the highest measure of this in life; and virtue, the conduct leading to this aim.”
II. The Stoics.—“The Stoical system, on the other hand, was essentially pantheistic. It distinguished in the world—all, matter and force. It named the latter in relation to the whole, it is true, Reason, Providence, Godhead, but thought of it only as not self-existent, in personal, and therefore also not truly spiritual essence, as an all-forming and all-animating fire which brings forth the creatures and the worlds and again destroys them. The human soul, a spark of this impersonal godhead, and consequently without immortality, has, according to the Stoics, its highest good in virtue; but virtue is a life in accordance with nature, the agreement of the human will with the law of the world, consequently above all resignation in presence of world-governing fate.”
III. Their relation to Christianity.—“According to these doctrines of the Epicureans and Stoics, which present numerous resemblances to modern un-Christian modes of thinking, it is conceivable that both, notwithstanding their different views of the world and of morals, should have agreed, with reference to the gospel of the apostle, to see in it a new Oriental enthusiasm desirous of being admitted to Greek philosophical rank and especially in the resurrection message, a fable to be laughed at.”—Beyschlag.
Act_17:19. The Teaching of Christianity at Once, Old and New.
I. Old, as the fall of man, being contained in the first promise; New, as the latest need of man, being able to adapt itself to the ever-varying phases of human civilisation.
II. Old, as the outgrowth of the Hebrew dispensation; New, as the substance of a fresh revelation.
III. Old, as being the subject of prophetic anticipation; New, as being the burden of a specially sent teacher, Christ.
IV. Old, as gathering up and crowning all God’s utterances in the past; New, as exhibiting all that is required to meet the exigencies of the future.
The New Doctrines of Christianity.
I. The unity of God.—Though not new to the Jews it was new to the Athenians.
II. The brotherhood of man.—Even to the Jews as well as Greeks this was an unheard-of idea.
III. The resurrection of Christ.—To both Jew and Greek this was a stumbling block and a strange thing.
IV. The reality of a judgment day.—The conception of such a general assize had never before entered into the world’s mind.
V. The duty of repentance.—Men may previously have admitted the necessity in certain cases of reformation. Repentance in the sense of godly sorrow for sin against God was a novelty.
Unto the Areopagus; or, In the University at Athens.—“Two questions have to be answered in regard to the scene that follows: Why was Paul taken before the council? and what were the intentions of the philosophers in taking him there?
1. It is clear that Paul appeared to the philosophers as one of the many ambitious teachers who came to Athens hoping to find fame and fortune at the great centre of education. Now, certain powers were vested in the council of Areopagus to appoint or invite lecturers at Athens, and to exercise some control over the lecturers in the interests of public order and morality. There is an almost complete lack of evidence what were the advantages and the legal rights of a lecturer thus appointed, and to what extent or in what way a strange teacher could find freedom to lecture in Athens. There existed something in the way of privileges vested in the recognised lecturers; for the fact that Cicero induced the Areopagus to pass a decree inviting Cratippus, the peripatetic philosopher, to become a lecturer in Athens, implies that some advantage was thereby secured to him. There certainly also existed much freedom for foreigners to become lecturers in Athens, for the great majority of the Athenian professors and lecturers were foreign. The scene described in Act_17:18-34 seems to prove that the recognised lecturers could take a strange lecturer before the Areopagus, and require him to give an account of his teaching, and pass a test as to its character.
2. When they (the philosophers) took him to the court to satisfy the supreme university tribunal of his qualifications, they probably entertained some hope that he would be overawed before that august body, or that his teaching might not pass muster, as being of an unsettling tendency (for no body is so conservative as a university court).”—Ramsay, St. Paul, the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, pp. 246, 247.
Act_17:21, with Rev_21:5. The Idolatry of Novelty.—It cannot be denied that there is in all lives—probably not least in the busiest and the loftiest—an element of dulness. This is only to say that there must be routine in every life which is either active or useful. The Athenians of the first text were not mere gossips or newsmongers. The first sound of the words does them some injustice. Their idolatry of novelty by no means exhausted itself in inventing or embellishing or retailing scandalous or mischievous stories against the great men of their city, or against humbler neighbours “dwelling securely by them.” Their treatment of St. Paul shows this. He was not a man of sufficient notoriety or sufficient importance to attract the attention of the mere tattler or scandalmonger. It was because he raised grave questions, going to the very root of the national and individual life—questions of “Jesus” and of “resurrection”—that these idolaters of novelty were attracted. The idolatry of novelty has a wide range. There are those amongst us whose idolatry of novelty never rises to the level of the Athenian. In vain for them the preaching in ten thousand churches of Jesus and the resurrection, even could that doctrine be for once new. Enough for them the last new fashion in dress, the last new horror in the police-courts, the last new tragedy or comedy in the newspapers, the last new mystery or the last new misadventure in society. This sort of idolatry of novelty, this base, vulgar, grovelling curiosity, is of no value whatever beyond the evidence which it affords, more than half by negatives, to the instinct which is in all of us that this is not our rest. It may be enough to say of this worship of novelty, that, as often as not, perhaps (if we knew all) in nine cases out of ten, it is but another name for the worship of falsehood. No trouble whatever is taken by the caterers for this table to make sure whether its supply has anything more in it than a germ, if even a germ, of fact however worthless. But in itself, even where “news” and “lies” are not synonyms, how paltry, how unworthy of an immortal being is this form of the idolatry of novelty! Let us try it in another and higher region—the region of art and literature. There the idolatry of novelty becomes the worship of originality. And need I say what the effort to be original becomes in the hands of the commonplace? Need I speak of the exaggerations, the contortions, the burlesques of the would-be originalities of landscape and portrait-painting? Alas! the rage for novelty does not exhaust itself in the province of art. It is the condition of success in the historian, to invert received opinions of character, and to rewrite history itself into contraries. But the mischief stops not even here. The preacher himself is tried by his originality. A cruel trial this for the weak, vain man, who is miserable without an audience, and must purchase it at any cost. Yet how preferable any dulness to this sort of brilliancy! The subject widens before us, and we must lose no more time in bringing it to its practical application in the one higher province still. The Athenian development of the worship of novelty will be our guide here. We can scarcely wonder that the fanciful mythology of the earlier days of that wonderful people should have sunk, before the Christian era, from a beautiful though insubstantial faith into a cold and half-conscious hypocrisy—a miserable form for the many, a political expedient for the few. Philosophers and statesmen had long ceased to worship. But the former dreamed and the latter acted in agreement thus far—that a thorough iconoclasm would be dangerous, if not to the welfare of the people, at least to the tranquillity of the State. That altar of which St. Paul availed himself with such skill in his address on Mars’ Hill, “To the Unknown God,” was probably the only one which had any honest votary in the then population of Athens. Those Athenians might well have an open ear for the preacher of a new divinity. This was but to confess, what was no secret by this time, that their anonymous altar was still standing, and that they waited to worship till it had a name. For them the idolatry of novelty was their hope and their religion. Alas, brethren, that we should have come round again to those days! After all these centuries we too are left with an anonymous altar, and the worship of English hearts is offered once again at the shrine of an unknown, an avowedly unknowable, God. There is not an arrival of a so-called new apostle, there is not an importation of a so-called new divinity, for which this modern Athens has not at least one of its ears open. There is no pretence and no burlesque of a new commerce with the invisible, which cannot hold its séances in darkened chambers with a certainty of a sufficient gathering and a great probability of a crowd of awe-struck questioners outside. We are told that some one has dared to say, within the Christian Church of London, that Buddha himself is second only (if second) to Jesus Christ in morals, and superior to Christ Himself in this, that he never claimed for himself divinity. The idolatry of novelty can no further go—at least not while “he who now letteth will let”—but soon he shall be taken out of the way, and then shall “the lawless one” be revealed—to be unmasked and consumed in his season by the One mightier. We will turn now to the other and better half of the subject, and try to show, in a few concluding sentences, how considerately, how mercifully, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Heavenly Father our Lord God, enters into that natural want of something new, which lies at the root of the worship of the ugly idol which we have sought to characterise in this sermon. Do you suppose that Jesus Christ, God in Christ, is unaware, as of the many woes and crimes of earth, so of this particular feature of it, and specially of this earth of England and London—its flatness, its staleness, its dulness, its monotony, as it is felt certainly in all but its ten thousand upper lives—and what are they among the teeming multitudes which make up the population of either? What is the second text of this morning? “He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold, I make all things new.” The very feeling, the very sense of monotony which has made impatient man set up this paltry idol of novelty—is here provided for by God Himself saying, “Behold I make (not a few things, but) all things new.” Yes, you will say—somewhere and some day, in that visionary region, in that far-off unrealisable world, of which St. John’s Apocalypse tells. Well—despise not the world to come. Think not scorn of that pleasant land. But let me tell you of a nearer “making all things new.” Let me tell you of it first in a word of St. John, and then finally in a word of St. Paul. There are two ways of fulfilling the promise of renovation. One is by the renewal of the thing itself—the other is by the renewal of the eye that views it. If the one is the promise of the text, the other is the promise elsewhere alike of St. John and St. Paul.—Dean Vaughan.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 16-33. While Timothy and Silas prosecute the work in…
PAUL AT ATHENS
16-33. While Timothy and Silas prosecute the work in the upper country, Paul and Luke spend the time at Athens, the world’s grand emporium of science, literature, philosophy, and idolatry. While he preaches in the forum all the week and in the synagogue on the Sabbath, his very soul is stirred within him, in contemplation of the city crammed full of idolatry. The scene of those majestic marble temples to Jupiter, Minerva, Theseus, Hercules, Bacchus, Niobe and other divinities thrilled me with curiosity, admiration and edification three years ago, after the roll of eighteen hundred years. so many having perished, been spoliated and transported. What must have been the scene in Paul’s day when the city was at the acme of her magnificence and the Grecian gods at the zenith of their glory! Ever and anon he is confronted in the Forum by the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, the latter absolute fatalists, teaching that even the gods as well as all people were subject to inexorable fate, and the former downright materialists, denying all spirituality. Because Paul preached Jesus and the resurrection, to them utter novelties, they pronounced him “an expositor of strange demons.” This word tells the dark secret that heathen nations always have and this day worship demons, Satan being the god of this world and the air thronged with demons, the idolatrous millions and even the fallen churches drifting away into demoniacal worship.
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 See notes on verse 15
See notes on verse 15
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.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain provoked within him as he beheld the city full…
stirred
provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This is another part of the story of Paul and Silas' travels. Paul is now in Athens where he is waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him.
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Now
This word is used here to mark a break in the main story line. Here Luke starts to tell a new part of the story.
his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols
Here "spirit" stands for Paul himself. This can be stated in active form. AT: "he became upset because he saw that there were idols everywhere in the city" or "seeing the idols everywhere in the city upset him" (See: Synecdoche and Active or Passive)
he reasoned
"he debated" or "he discussed." This means that there is interaction from the listeners rather than only his preaching. They are talking with him as well.
others who worshiped God
This refers to Gentiles (non-Jews) who give praise to God and follow him but do not obey all of the Jewish laws.
in the marketplace
"in the public square." This is a public place of business, where buying and selling of goods, cattle, or services take place.
translationWords
Paul
spirit
false god
synagogue
Jew
worship
God
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 17:16-34 In this chapter, we see Paul presented as…
17:16-34 In this chapter, we see Paul presented as a model witness for Christ, engaging the thinkers of his day and challenging them with the Christian message. Paul quoted writers his audience would be familiar with and showed the relevance of the gospel by dialoguing with them, critiquing their assumptions, and offering Jesus as a constructive alternative (see Col 1:28). Paul reminded these proud intellectuals that there is a living God to whom all human beings are answerable; that they will be judged by him through Jesus, whom God raised from the dead; and that they should therefore repent and put their faith in Jesus.
17:16-17 Athens, like Alexandria and Tarsus, prided itself on its intellectual sophistication in examining ideas and considering the different philosophies that were current at the time.
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