Site Search Engine

The book of Acts

Paul in Athens

Chapter 17:16 to 34

It was about the year 50 AD and Athens had lost the political importance of yore, but it was still the cultural centre of the Greek-speaking countries, as it was rich in philosophy, mythology, tradition and arts. Today it is the capital of Greece, and statues and ruins of old temples are still found there are as well as in major museums today.

While Paul waited for his companions in Athens, he walked through the city and was deeply distressed to see the large amount and variety of statues of mythological gods the people worshipped. The historian Pliny said that when Nero was a Roman emperor, there were over thirty thousand public statues in Athens, beyond those that were in private residences.

Evidently the people were far from God and from the standard of conduct defined in the Ten Commandments, beginning with the first two that require the recognition of Him as the only true God and prohibit the making of idols and images of anything in heaven, on earth or in waters under the earth, to worship and pay tribute to them (Exodus 20: 3-6).

People have always learned to assume that physical things, even when built or manufactured by them, have or will acquire supernatural properties. Superstitions of this nature have also invaded apostate Christianity to the present day, when it came, for convenience, to suppress the second commandment of their catechisms.

Paul was not silent: he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Jews, possibly indicating that they were complacent with the situation they were in, not realizing how serious it was before God. He also discussed daily with those that met in the main square of the city, while announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

In the square, it is remarkable that renowned philosophers whose works are still read today were present. Among them were:

• Epicureans, who claimed that pleasure is the main goal of life, because they denied the existence of a future life after death.

• Stoics, who exalted austerity for the control of mind over body, leading them to great selfishness and pride, seeking honour and glory for themselves, and to pantheism.

Both these streams of humanistic philosophy are still very influential in our times, resulting in: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (Isaiah 22:13, 1 Corinthians 15:32).

Philosophers disputed with Paul, whose doctrines were new to them and collided head-on with what they themselves believed. Paul certainly knew these branches of Greek philosophy, they were scattered around the world in which he lived, but he was now facing their teachers in their place of origin. For him the Epicureans would resemble the Sadducees among the Jews, and the Stoics the Pharisees.

Some contemptuous philosophers disdained what Paul said. Others suspected that he was preaching a new religion ("strange gods"), which would be illegal under Roman law. Finally they took him to the Areopagus to explain it before them all, saying they wanted to become better informed of the strange things and the new doctrine he brought.

Luke informs us that all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there did not care about anything other than to talk or hear about the latest news. The Areopagus consisted of a sort of spur jutting out from the western end of the Acropolis and separated from it by a very short saddle, with seats carved in stone. It was used for meetings of the board of members of the Athenian aristocracy, and as an auditorium where philosophers could expose their doctrines to the public eager for new ideas; poets recited their poetry, etc.

Surrounding the Areopagus one could see on one side the Acropolis, a citadel with the Parthenon, temple of the goddess Athena, which is still there, the main square and streets dotted with artistic statues of gods of Greek rich mythology, which made Paul begin his preaching with a reference to the great religiosity of the Athenians.

As his audience was composed of Gentiles, who knew little or nothing about the Holy Scriptures of the Jews, Paul, with some diplomacy, began his speech by referring to a particular altar he had seen, erected "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD."

Paul skilfully used the fact that the Athenians admitted the existence of God and the reality that they did not know Him, to introduce them to the God "who made ??the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth."

As they worshipped this God, though without knowing it, Paul avoided the accusation to be teaching a new religion, which would be illegal. It was also an open door to teaching about the true God, about His Son, Jesus Christ, and the need for repentance because He, whom God raised from the dead, will judge the world. It is a short, compact sermon, and it contains what is essential to know about the teaching of the Gospel. Note:

1. "God made ??the world and everything in it" - Paul later clarified "in Him (Christ) were all things created in heaven and on earth .... all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1: 16) confirming the divinity of the Lord Jesus.

2. "God does not dwell in temples made ??with hands" - Paul also said later: "Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).

3. "From one man (God) made ??every nation of men ... and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." The Athenians thought themselves to be a special creation. Evolutionists imagine that humanity today is the result of an accident.

4. "God is not far from each one of us - because in him we live and move and exist." God is not limited by space, but is everywhere.

5. God is not like material things, such as gold, silver, or sculptures made by the imagination of man (as all the gods honoured and worshiped in the form of images by the Athenians) - it is curious that they did not have an image for the "unknown God". However,

6. God does not take into account the idolatry practiced in ignorance, but now He commands everyone everywhere to repent: implicit is repentance of the evil all have committed, not only idolatry, and also the universality of the Gospel message. This is urgent, because humanity will not stay unpunished:

7. "... God has appointed a day in which He will judge with justice the world by the man (the Lord Jesus)." He will be the judge at the final judgment at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20: 11-15). "Of that (God) has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead" - the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the guarantee of the truth of the Gospel, and consequently of our salvation, if we receive Him as Saviour and Lord.

When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of the dead, some of those philosophers mocked and others dismissed him. They liked to discuss ideas, theories, behaviour, it was an intellectual exercise, but they could not believe in an omnipotent creator God, with sovereign power over the living and the dead.

Paul went away from among them, however there were conversions: "some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris and others with them", enough to start a local church.

While in Athens, Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, where we read that when Timothy came to him in Athens, Paul sent him to Thessalonica to learn about how the church in that city was progressing in the faith, and Timothy brought good news of it (1 Thessalonians 3:4-6).

 

R David Jones

 

 

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

 

18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

 

 

 

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?

20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean."

 

 

21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

 

 

 

 

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
Act 17:23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

 

 

 

 

 

24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter."
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Book of Acts, chapter 17, verses 16 to 34