Acts 17:16-34
Kids:
Background:
17:16 Athens. The leading city of Greece, served by the port of Piraeus on the Aegean Sea. Athens reached its zenith in the fifth century B.C. under Pericles (495–429 B.C.), when the Parthenon and other magnificent structures were built. The classical poets Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes flourished at that time. Although conquered by the Romans in 146 B.C., Athens continued to be a great intellectual and cultural center.
Why Paul was in Athens
Athens was not Paul’s primary destination; he reached Athens only after being forced out of Berea by Jews (Acts 17:14–15). Paul then went to Athens while he was waiting for Silas and Timothy. He then was disturbed by Athens, “seeing the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). Paul spent time in the Jewish synagogues and the Agora of Athens (Acts 17:17). The Agora was the Athenian marketplace, an open area surrounded on all sides by buildings, or Stoa, that served as an economic and social center of life (Schnabel, “Contextualising Paul in Athens,” 172–174; Hammond, A History of Greece, 523).
Paul’s ministry in Athens shows how he altered his approach in carrying out his mission to the Gentiles. His earlier speech at Pisidian Antioch depicts his message to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles (13:16–41), but his speech in Athens (vv. 22–34) shows how he approached Gentiles who had no knowledge of or commitment to the God of Israel.
Text:
Text:
Paul in Athens
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
17:17 in the marketplace In addition to preaching in the synagogue, Paul also preached in the economic center of Athens, the agora. There, he could attract the attention of non-Jews.
17:18 Epicurean and Stoic. Epicurus (342–270 B.C.) taught that the purpose of life was pleasure and freedom from pain, passions, and fears. On the other hand, the Cypriot Zeno (340–265 B.C.), founder of Stoicism, stressed living in harmony with nature and depending on reason and other self-sufficient powers. Both schools stressed the quest for peace of mind. Zeno viewed God pantheistically as the “world-soul.”
Epicureanism began with Epicurus (341–270 BC), who argued that the world was made of atoms and that the world was purely material. Epicureans attempted to free people from the idea of the gods, the afterlife, and the fear of death. The only value that remained was the physical reality of the individual, and thus the individual was freed from fear to pursue what truly gave pleasure; Epicurus stressed that contentment and nobility produced the best, most enjoyable life.
Stoicism was founded by Zeno in the third century BC. Contrary to Epicureanism, Stoicism contended that the physical universe is empowered by a reasoning force known as logos, which connects the divine with the material. Ethically, stoics attempted to live in accordance with the natural laws they observed and systematized.
the resurrection Resurrection was contradictory both to the Epicurean idea that death ended all existence and the Stoic idea of uniting with the divine and disengaging from the material.
foreign divinities. The Greek word for “resurrection” (anastasia) is feminine in gender, and Athenian polytheists would be familiar with the personification of abstract qualities as though divine. Perhaps Paul’s hearers confuse his declaration of an event (Jesus’ resurrection from the dead) with a female deity. That these “divinities” originate outside Athens and Achaia would devalue them in the opinion of Athens’s intellectual elite.
17:19 the Areopagus. The name means “Mars Hill.” This is a hill near the Acropolis where in ancient times a council had met. The council became the city council of Athens, and in Roman times it was the court supervising morals, education, and religion. In Paul’s time, the court meets in the Royal Portico, in the marketplace below the Acropolis. Probably the purpose of Paul’s hearing before the council is not only to satisfy its members’ curiosity (v. 21) but also to evaluate the strange ideas that he is propagating.
Paul Addresses the Areopagus
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
17:22 very religious. The term is ambiguous, in some contexts having a negative connotation (“superstitious,” as in KJV) and in others referring more neutrally to pious devotion to deities. Without endorsing the city-wide idolatry that has so distressed him, the apostle opens his discourse by acknowledging the abundant evidence of the Athenians’ deep desire to honor those superhuman powers that, they believe, influence their destinies.
The term is ambiguous, in some contexts having a negative connotation (“superstitious,” as in KJV) and in others referring more neutrally to pious devotion to deities. Without endorsing the city-wide idolatry that has so distressed him, the apostle opens his discourse by acknowledging the abundant evidence of the Athenians’ deep desire to honor those superhuman powers that, they believe, influence their destinies.
17:23 To the unknown god. Possibly a reference to the Altar of the Twelve Gods at Athens, erected to ensure that no god is left out of their worship. Paul uses this point of contact to begin his discourse about the God who made the world, who is not carved out of stone or confined to any temple, and who controls the times and places where people live.
proclaim Paul claims he will clarify the mysteries of the Athenians’ own philosophies.
The God who made the world. Epicureans conceived of the gods as remote, uninvolved in human affairs. Stoics conceived of the divine as a principle of reason that permeates the cosmos. Paul proclaims the God who is distinct from and transcendent over the universe (unlike Stoicism), but also (unlike Epicureanism) deeply engaged with His creatures, giving “to all mankind life and breath and everything” (v. 25) and assigning each nationality’s time and place (v. 26; see Deut. 32:8, 9).
The God who made the world. Epicureans conceived of the gods as remote, uninvolved in human affairs. Stoics conceived of the divine as a principle of reason that permeates the cosmos. Paul proclaims the God who is distinct from and transcendent over the universe (unlike Stoicism), but also (unlike Epicureanism) deeply engaged with His creatures, giving “to all mankind life and breath and everything” (v. 25) and assigning each nationality’s time and place (v. 26; see Deut. 32:8, 9).
17:24–25 Paul began with the basic premise that runs throughout his speech: God is Creator. He referred to God as the maker of the “world” (kosmos), a term that would be familiar to every Greek. The concept of God as absolute Creator, however, would not be so easy for them to grasp. For them divinity was to be found in the heavens, in nature, in humanity. The idea of a single supreme being who stood over the world, who created all that exists, was totally foreign to them. This was indeed an “UNKNOWN GOD.”
To the Athenian philosophers, Paul’s point is that God’s general revelation makes the Gentiles’ worship of false gods inexcusable. God’s gift to all mankind of “life and breath and everything” (v. 25) should lead the whole human race to long to know their Creator. They cannot excuse their idolatries by alleging that His revelation in the created universe is insufficient, since “he is actually not far from each one of us” in that general revelation, as even pagan poets have recognized (v. 28).
In him we live and move and have our being. Citing a seventh-century B.C. poet (see text note), Paul says that God brought all people into being and they only exist by His providence. In the ancient world
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.