But in Athens, while Paul was waiting for them, his spirit was painfully excited in him seeing the city given up to idolatry.
Paul is alone in Athens, waiting for Silas and Timothy to reach him. The great centre of Greek learning meets him crowded with idols, and the sight stirs him before he says a single word.
Paul did not come to Athens with a plan. Others chose his route, and on arrival he did not begin preaching as he had elsewhere.
It is a remarkable thing that the apostle's mind does not appear to have been intent upon service in Athens. Even in his coming to the place, those who travelled with him seem to have decided where he went. Now that he has arrived, he does not start preaching at once, as at Thessalonica and Berea. He waits for Silas and Timothy… However this might have been, the Lord was in control of His devoted servant. He worked on his spirit and prepared him for his new work in His own way.
One writer gathers up what a visitor would have seen there:
No city in the world was so crowded with idols of every kind as Athens. The most famous sculptors and architects had used their skill to give the objects of their worship every form of beauty the mind of man could invent… "Every public place and building was also a sanctuary… And as if Athenian imagination knew no limits here, they made gods out of ideas and honoured them in public. They built altars to Fame, to Modesty, to Energy, to Persuasion, and to Pity."
It struck a man who grew up in a city that allowed no idols at all:
He found no pleasure in the mother of arts, eloquence and philosophy. Idolatry polluted its beautiful sculpture and statues and its splendid architecture. As a satirist said, it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. So his spirit was stirred to its depths within him as he saw the city full of idols. What a sight for a man who in his unconverted days grew up in another city that boasted not one idol defiled it!
Paul walked into the world's showcase of human thought.
Athens was the great centre of Greek learning and philosophy; it was also full of idols. The highest human culture and the grossest idolatry can exist quite happily side by side. Into the middle of this state of things Paul stepped, and the sight of it painfully excited his spirit.
One writer weighs the wording of the verse, and what all that thinking never achieved:
His spirit was stirred, or provoked, within him as he saw that city given up to idolatry, or rather full of idols. Human thinking there had been great in the past. Even so, it had not lifted the people out of the folly — to say no more — of worshipping wood and stone.
Paul had the time and the taste to admire Athens. Something else decided what he felt.
The apostle's character, ability and learning make us sure of one thing. He had an eye for natural beauty and a mind for every piece of history around him… So we see him alone at Athens, with plenty of time to look at ruins that have drawn people ancient and modern more than almost any other place. What was the effect on him? His spirit was provoked within him, as he saw the city full of idols. It was not sculpture that captivated him, not architecture that blinded him. He measured everything around him by the glory of Christ, and yet no one could show more tact in speaking to them.
The preaching came straight out of that pain, and the pain had two roots. One reached toward God, the other toward the people.
No doubt two things worked on him. One was a sense of the dishonour done to God by those who had "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." The other was a yearning pity for the poor slaves of Satan who had been so terribly deceived. So the word of God became like a fire in his bones, and he could no longer hold back his testimony. The Spirit of God draws attention to this effect by the word "therefore."
One writer takes the verse as a description of what suffering with Christ looks like in ordinary life.
Suffering for or with Christ is not a matter of our bodies or our circumstances only, but a matter of our spirits also. When Paul went to Athens it says, "his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols." As we walk through the streets of our towns and notice the complete indifference to the claims of Christ, it ought to affect us in our spirits.
(Correct link: George Davison)
- Waiting. Paul reached Athens with no plan of his own. The Lord used the delay to prepare his spirit.
- Seeing. The city was packed with idols, right down to altars for Fame, Modesty and Pity.
- Measuring. Learning and idols lived side by side. Paul judged the scene by the glory of Christ, not by its sculpture.
- Feeling. Two things moved him: the dishonour done to God, and pity for people Satan had deceived.
- Speaking. The stirred spirit did not stay inside. "Therefore" the fire in his bones became testimony he could not hold back.
He reasoned therefore in the synagogue with the Jews, and those who worshipped, and in the market-place every day with those he met with.
Paul is alone in Athens, and what he sees in the city presses on him until he can no longer stay silent. Verse 17 shows what a stirred spirit does. It goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and it goes into the public square every day.
The verse opens with "So." Older translations read "therefore." Either way, what Paul does here follows straight from what verse 16 describes. One writer traces the pressure that built in Paul until speech was the only outlet.
Paul was worked on in this way. He felt the dishonour done to God by those who had "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals." He also felt a yearning pity for the poor slaves of Satan who had been so badly deceived. So the word of God became like a fire in his bones, and he could no longer hold back his testimony. The Spirit of God draws attention to this effect by the word "therefore." He began with the Jews and their converts, who rejected idol worship just as Paul did. They witnessed to the oneness of God, yet they refused God's testimony to Christ as the Messiah. Working outward from this centre, he "reasoned" with everyone who crossed his path each day in the great place of public gathering.
The verse names a second group beside the Jews: "the devout persons." One writer describes who they were.
There were many such worshippers. Their souls were worn out with the folly and evil of paganism, which could not satisfy the needs of the soul. Through grace they were turned to the only true God, who was known among the Jews, and they joined in the Jewish worship without being circumcised. They were called religious persons, people who served God. They listened to the apostle more than the Jews did, and were often the cause of Jewish jealousy. Lydia was one of this class.
It would be easy to assume Paul went to the synagogue for support and to the market for preaching. One writer sees it differently. Paul brought the same gospel to both, and the cross put both on the same level.
The Lord Jesus is just as much the Saviour of the Gentile, through faith in God's testimony to His Son. Such is the gospel, the glad tidings, of God. The few plain words of the inspired historian show how hard the apostle gave himself to the work of publishing it. It is the most gracious message God ever sent to sinful, guilty man. He was diligent in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he spoke in the agora, or marketplace, every day to those he met. Their need was deep; his zeal was burning. The cross of Christ proved that the Jew was no better in heart than the heathen — indeed that he was worse, because he turned his greater privileges into pride.
The market half of the verse names no fixed audience. Paul took the people the day handed him.
He argued with Jews in the synagogue. But he also argued with others of a devout character in the markets — anyone who was willing to meet with him.
Luke records no converts from either the synagogue or the market here. Yet this daily, unglamorous work is what put Paul in front of the philosophers.
No result is mentioned from the discussion in the synagogue or in the market. But it seems the philosophers ran into Paul in the market.
Athens had a mood that caught visitors — everyone there wanted the latest news. Paul walked into it carrying a different set of concerns.
There was a catching spirit at Athens; but Paul was not caught by it; his outlook was different. This great city — like the great cities around us — was marked by learning, superstition and religion. If our outlook is not right, there is real danger of being caught by the same spirit. If our eyes are not set on Christ, we are in grave danger of being caught by what prevails in men's cities.
- Stirred — What Paul saw in Athens did not leave him curious or downcast. It made the word of God burn in him until he had to speak.
- Therefore — One small connecting word carries the verse. Grief over God's dishonour turned straight into testimony, not private complaint.
- Outward — He started at the centre he knew: the synagogue, with Jews and the worshippers who had left paganism. From there he worked outward to whoever he met.
- Daily — The synagogue on the Sabbath; the marketplace every day. Their need was deep; his zeal was burning.
- Barren — Luke records no converts from this work. Yet the market talks carried Paul to the philosophers. Faithfulness comes first; results are God's business.
But some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers attacked him. And some said, What would this chatterer say? and some, He seems to be an announcer of foreign demons, because he announced the glad tidings of Jesus and the resurrection [to them].
Paul is waiting in Athens. The city is full of idols, and every day he takes the message into the synagogue and the marketplace. The learning capital of the ancient world answers him with two labels: a nickname of contempt, and a charge of bringing in foreign gods.
Two rival schools took him on. Each shut God out in its own way.
The Epicureans and the Stoics soon met him. The first were really atheists under cover of chance, expecting soul and body to dissolve. The second came from a harder school. They made much of necessity or fate. They held an intolerant and unbearable self-importance, and were really pantheists. ... The true God was unknown.
Athens had a reputation, and the two schools that met Paul still have one.
The fame of the Greek schools of philosophy had spread through the whole known world. People looked on Athens as the seat of learning and wisdom. What Cambridge and Oxford are to England today, Athens was then to the whole of Europe... The Epicureans and Stoics were the leading Athenian schools. The ambassador of Christ met and clashed with some of their philosophers. Their very names have found a lasting place in our language. As someone has well said, they represent Pleasure and Pride — the two most powerful forces in human life.
The word behind "babbler" is an insult with a picture in it.
In Acts 17:18 the word is σπερμολόγος (spermologos). It literally means "seed picker." It is a word of contempt. It means someone who picks up idle tales — a gossip, a chatterer. The margin has "base fellow."
One writer suggests each school had its own line of attack — and the plan behind the sneer misfired.
It was probably the Epicureans who called him a "babbler." They judged him to be a worthless fellow. He had picked up a word here and there and put it out as though he himself were somebody great. They were sure that a trial at the Areopagus would expose him as ignorant and unlearned. What a surprise his able defence must have been to them! Perhaps it was the Stoics who accused him of setting forth strange gods, or foreign demons. With all their boasted wisdom, they were shown to be completely ignorant of the one true God.
The second charge came from a plain mistake. Paul's two words sounded to them like two names.
As long as their curiosity was fed, the strange preacher seemed to be simply putting two new divinities before them. In their ignorance they took "Resurrection" for the name of a god, or rather a goddess. So they probably gave him a ready, if somewhat listless, hearing.
This was not a slip by the uneducated.
The most eminent teachers of that day were deep in the dark. They thought the resurrection, which Paul preached along with Jesus of Nazareth, was also a strange god!
Their summary of his message came down to two things.
What stayed in the minds of his first hearers was that he preached Jesus and the resurrection. It even appears that some took the resurrection, as well as Jesus, to be a God. It is indeed the basis of Christianity. Christianity is founded on Jesus Himself and on the fact of His resurrection. But it is only the basis.
Yet a basis is no small thing.
These words had made the deepest impression and stayed most clearly in their minds. What a new thing, and what a blessed reality for souls! The Person of Christ — not a theory; the fact of the resurrection — not a gloomy uncertainty about the future.
The insult at Athens belongs to a pattern that runs through Paul's service.
When he delivered his message in cultured Athens, they mocked him as a "babbler" (Acts 17:18). Before Festus they thought he was out of his mind (Acts 26:24). Here was ridicule. In Thessalonica there was misrepresentation, for people imagined he was turning "the world upside down" (Acts 17:6-7). Then the enemy's violent opposition showed in the sufferings he had to endure. If we in our day were more energetic and more faithful in our service for the Lord Jesus, we would no doubt know more of all three things.
- Pleasure and pride. The Epicureans and the Stoics stood for the two great drives of human life. Neither drive led its followers to the true God.
- Contempt. "Babbler" means seed-picker — a scavenger of scraps of other people's talk. It was a sneer, aimed at exposing Paul as unlearned.
- Ignorance. They heard "Jesus and the resurrection" and counted two new divinities. The world's most cultured city could not recognise the truth when they heard it.
- Substance. What they mistook for novelty was a Person, not a theory, and a fact, not a guess about the future.
- Foundation. Jesus Himself and His resurrection are the basis of Christianity. Paul laid that foundation in a city where the true God was unknown.
And having taken hold on him they brought [him] to Areopagus, saying, Might we know what this new doctrine which is spoken by thee [is]?
The philosophers of Athens had heard Paul arguing in the marketplace. Instead of silencing him, they took him up the hill of the Areopagus and asked him to explain himself. Was this an honest search, a formal trial, or just the appetite of a city hooked on new ideas?
The Areopagus was both a place and a court. That double sense gives the verse two possible translations.
The "Areopagus" was a court set up by Solon, the lawgiver of Athens. It had two duties: to watch over the morals of the Athenians, and to see that they paid due honour to the gods. Rome kept this institution, though it had lost its importance. The court met on the hill of Mars, or Ares, and from that comes the name "Areopagus" — Ares' (or Mars') Hill. So Acts 17:19 may be translated either "They led him to Mars' Hill," or "before the tribunal called Areopagus."
The ESV takes the second option, "the Areopagus." The place itself had a long and grim history.
They took him to the top of the hill of Areopagus. For as long as anyone could remember, the most dreaded court had met there. It passed sentence on the worst criminals and settled the most serious questions about religion... On this spot, surrounded by "temples, statues, and altars," the apostle stood on that memorable day to address the most famous thinkers in the world.
Athens had lost its power but kept its cleverness. Their invitation sounds open-minded, yet one writer sees only curiosity behind it.
They were no longer in a mood to persecute. They had lost their independence and political power, but their light-minded love of ideas survived. Only mockery or curiosity was left. Still, the apostle's preaching struck them enough that they took hold of him and brought him up to the Areopagus. They did not do it to try him for his life, as they once did with Socrates. They did it to learn what this new doctrine was... But truth does not enter through the ear only. It enters the conscience too. And what conscience was at work in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news?
That habit of mind produced a predictable result when the gospel arrived.
They had made a habit of always telling or hearing some new thing. The novelty of the gospel, therefore, awakened a passing superficial interest in the preaching of Paul, but no more. Heathen philosophy, like formal Judaism, was unreceptive of the gospel of Jesus.
The word "new" in their question fit better than they knew. Athens had inherited everything except the knowledge of God.
They had, as they boasted, a rich inheritance: beauty in art, trained and daring thought in philosophy, polished elegance in poetry, speech, and history. Along with it went complete corruption and unnatural depravity in morals. Their gods were the enlarged image of their own degradation. At that time Jesus appeared, the Son of God, the woman's Seed. In Him shone the light of God, and the love of God. To announce Him was indeed new teaching. He, and He only, was the perfect image of the invisible God.
Commentators differ on what the philosophers intended. One reading is that they meant to weigh his message as judges weigh a case.
Some thought him a babbler. Others called him a man who set out strange gods. Now he should speak for himself and explain his teaching. Then philosophers, men of trained minds and sharp intellect, could sit in judgment on it and decide whether it was worth anything. That is surely what the philosophers intended. So they took him to the Areopagus. There they heard something that must have been new, and of vital importance to every one of them.
Others hold that the move was practical, and that the address which follows is Paul's defence rather than a sermon — Darby says plainly, "you must not call this preaching. Paul is here brought to Areopagus to answer for himself." A third view keeps the setting entirely informal: Paul "was conducted by some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers to Mars' Hill, not for any judicial purpose, but doubtless that they might hear him more quietly."
Whatever they meant by it, their question gave Paul his opening.
He was no announcer of strange demons. At their own invitation to the Areopagus, he was the first to state the rights of the one true God — seriously, graciously, and in plain words. They themselves had sought, or at least asked, to know what this new doctrine meant. How little they expected a testimony so simple and noble, one that proved itself to every unbiased conscience!
- Place: The Areopagus was Athens' old court for morals and religion. So the verse can read either "Mars' Hill" or "the tribunal called Areopagus."
- Motive: Curiosity had replaced persecution. They seized Paul to hear the latest thing, not to condemn him as they once condemned Socrates.
- Problem: Truth enters the conscience, not the ear alone. A city living on the latest news had no conscience awake to receive it.
- Message: The word "new" fit. A city rich in art, philosophy and poetry had never heard of the One who is the perfect image of the invisible God.
- Outcome: Their casual invitation gave Paul his platform. He stated the rights of the one true God in plain words, and that testimony proved itself to the conscience.
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We wish therefore to know what these things may mean.
Paul preached in the Athens market place. The philosophers took him to the Areopagus and asked him to explain. Their words sound open and fair. But what lies behind such interest, and what does it take for truth to get past the ear?
Some of these men sneered; others wanted to hear more. One writer traces that mix to a city left with nothing but its cleverness.
The better you know the corrupting nonsense of Greek mythology, the less you wonder at the surprise that met the apostle's words in the Athens market place. Some were contemptuous, others were curious. Mental activity works all the more freely where the conscience is asleep. It runs free where the soul is not purified by obeying the truth to sincere love. Political importance had long since gone from the city. Clever remarks and word games were their way of filling the emptiness.
They heard Paul preach the resurrection and mistook it for another god. The place they chose to hear more was not a lecture room but a court.
The most respected teachers of that day were so much in the dark that they took the resurrection, which Paul preached along with Jesus of Nazareth, to be another strange god! But, like all the Athenians, they were filled with curiosity. They "spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, and asked to hear more of his new teaching. The place they took him to was the summit of the hill of Areopagus. There the most solemn court of law had sat from ancient times. It passed sentence on the greatest criminals and decided the weightiest questions connected with religion… On this spot, surrounded by "temples, statues, and altars," the apostle stood on that memorable day to address the most famous thinkers in the world.
Athens had once tried a philosopher for his life. Paul's case was different.
They were no longer inclined to persecute. Their light-minded interest in ideas survived the loss of their national independence and political power. Only mocking or curiosity was left. Still, the apostle's preaching struck them enough that they laid hold of him and brought him up to the Areopagus. They did not bring him there to try him for his life, as they once did with Socrates. They only wanted to know what this new teaching was.
The appetite Luke describes was not idle gossip. It was a serious, restless hunger for fresh ideas — which is exactly why Paul's message registered as a novelty rather than a claim.
There was immense mental activity, and an endless search for new ideas. They spent their time either telling or hearing "some new thing" — not gossip or tittle-tattle, of course, but the newest philosophical notions. So Paul's preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" struck them as a great novelty connected with some gods they had not met before.
The Athenians were right about one thing: the sound was unfamiliar. Their city had the finest of human culture, and still did not know its Maker.
They had, as they boasted, a rich inheritance: beauty in art, bold and disciplined thought in philosophy, polished elegance in poetry, speech and history. With it went complete corruption and unnatural depravity in morals, and gods who were the enlarged image of their own degradation. At that time Jesus the Son of God appeared, the woman's Seed. In Him shone the light of God and the love of God. To announce Him was indeed new teaching… The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger. But the world at its highest point of civilisation did not know its own Creator.
Their question was polite and even eager. But interest that stops at the mind leaves the message harmless.
Even they could not help admitting how strange the sound was to their ears: "We wish to know therefore what these things mean." But truth does not enter through the ear alone. It enters the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time doing nothing except telling or hearing the latest news? We shall see that the apostle brought God before them as a personal, living reality. They themselves were morally related to Him. Until the conscience is awakened, what foundation is there? Otherwise the gospel sinks to the level of just another new thing. Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to the collection of pagan idols.
Paul took their invitation seriously. He gave them something far weightier than a new opinion.
Instead of being an announcer of strange gods, he was the first to assert the rights of the one true God. He did it at their own invitation to the Areopagus, seriously, graciously, and with complete plainness of speech. They themselves asked to know what this new teaching meant. How little they expected such a simple and noble testimony! It carried its own power to convince every unbiased conscience.
- Strange sound. Athens heard the resurrection as something brand new, and even mistook it for another god.
- Busy minds. They lived on the latest news and clever talk. Mental activity runs free where the conscience sleeps.
- Solemn hill. They brought him to the ancient court for religious questions. It was not a trial this time, only curiosity.
- Truly new. The city with the finest art, thought and poetry did not know its own Creator. Announcing Christ was new teaching indeed.
- Ear or conscience. Truth that stops at the ear turns the gospel into one more new thing. So Paul set the living God before their consciences.
Now all [the] Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else than to tell and to hear the news.
The account of Paul in Athens pauses here to describe the city itself. Telling and hearing new ideas had become the whole business of life there. The verse raises the question every listener faces: is the gospel truth, or just the latest interesting thing?
The Greek behind "something new" carries a restlessness that English hardly shows.
Their chief occupation was "telling or hearing something new" — something newer than the last. That is the full force of the very expressive Greek phrase, ti kainoteron. But now they heard something that was new indeed, and yet was God's sober and solemn truth, which would judge them on that appointed day.
That appetite also shaped how they heard Paul.
There was huge mental activity and a hunger for new ideas that could never be satisfied. They spent their time either telling or hearing "something new" — not just gossip or idle chatter, of course, but the newest ideas of the philosophers. So Paul's preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" struck them as a great novelty, tied to gods they had not met before.
One writer traces this appetite to a moral cause, not a mental one.
If some were contemptuous, others were curious. The mind works all the more freely where the conscience sleeps, and where the soul is not purified by obeying the truth so that love becomes sincere. Political importance had long since gone from Athens as well, so clever remarks and hair-splitting were what they used to fill the empty space.
This matters for how people hear the gospel. If it enters only as information, it takes its place beside every other idea on offer.
But the truth does not enter through the ear only. It must reach the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news? … Until the conscience wakes up, what groundwork can there be? Otherwise the gospel sinks into just another new thing, and Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to a collection of pagan gods.
One writer connects the city's reputation with Paul's later verdict on human wisdom.
The fame of the Greek schools of philosophy had spread through the whole known world, so people saw Athens as the home of learning and wisdom. What Cambridge and Oxford are to England today, Athens was then to the whole of Europe. So this record plainly shows what Paul later proclaimed: that the world by wisdom did not know God.
Another writer finds their condition described in a line from 2 Timothy.
Athens prided itself on its philosophy, with people spending all their time in telling or hearing something new. Their condition fits the words of 2 Timothy 3:7: "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."
The description is not only about the past. Novelty-hunting only changes its subject from one generation to the next.
The Athenians were wasting their precious time on novelties, the unsatisfying fancies of the human mind. How many today are like them! … They have nothing substantial. They gather husks instead of grain, and novelties in place of truth. They chase shadows, wind, and smoke, when the strain of living and dying calls for something real. We need something solid for a deathbed, and for high and holy living.
The same appetite shows up in the way people listen to preaching.
Many go to the word to feast their ears only; they like the melody of the voice, and the novelty of the opinions (Acts 17:21). This is to love the garnishing of the dish more than the food; it is to want pleasure instead of being built up.
One writer holds up a very different set of hearers as the model.
The Bereans are held up to us as worthy of imitation. … The truth came to them recommended by its freshness and power, and "they received the word with all eagerness." … Their minds were open. They listened to Paul without prejudice, yet they would test what they heard by the Scriptures, so that their faith rested on revelation.
- Newer. The phrase means something fresher than the last thing heard. That appetite never fills up, because today's news is stale tomorrow.
- Emptier. Busy minds can hide a sleeping conscience. Athens had lost its political power, so clever talk filled the gap.
- Astray. The world's most famous centre of learning did not know God. That was Paul's verdict: the world by wisdom did not know Him.
- Degraded. Truth must reach the conscience, not just the ear. Heard as mere news, Jesus and the resurrection become two more names in a crowded list of gods.
- Solid. The remedy is the Berean habit. Receive the word eagerly, then test it by Scripture, so faith rests on revelation and not on the latest idea.
And Paul standing in the midst of Areopagus said, Athenians, in every way I see you given up to demon worship;
Paul stands in Athens' most respected court, surrounded by temples and statues. His first sentence is about the religion of the men in front of him. Everything turns on what that opening remark says — praise, accusation, or something sharper.
Those who brought Paul there were not putting him on trial.
The hill of Ares, or Mars. Athens' highest, oldest and most respected court of justice met here to judge moral and political matters... Paul had been arguing daily in the market place. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers brought him to Mars' Hill. They did not do it to put him on trial, but no doubt so that they could hear him in quiet. Here he gave his address about God. It suited the pagan philosophers who heard him, and it bore fruit.
The wording of this line varies between versions. Some make it sound mild. Several writers read it as a statement about what the Athenians worshipped, not about how much.
Paul's opening words are not, however, as weak as the King James version translates them. Rather, he says, "I perceive that in all things you are given up to demon worship." This is the very essence of idolatry. They knew they had many gods, and Paul knew that behind all of these so-called "divinities" was demon influence.
Kelly's rendering brings out a comparison. Athens outdid everyone else at this:
Men of Athens, in all things I see you are more than others in awe of divinities (demons). For as I passed through and looked at your objects of worship, I also found an altar with this written on it: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Paul's opening is polite. It is not a compliment.
The address opens with his usual courtesy, while there was not a particle of flattery for their pride. The Athenians paid honours to a crowd of truly strange demons. Out of all that, the apostle took hold of the one object that admitted the humbling truth about them and about God. "An unknown God" told the true story. Everything else around them was only deception and the triumph of the enemy.
One writer holds up that restraint as a pattern worth copying.
For wisdom, good sense, sound reasoning and complete skill, Paul's address stands alone in human history. He did not begin by attacking their false gods. He did not condemn their religion as a satanic lie that he utterly hated. Zeal without knowledge would have done that, and been pleased with its own faithfulness. But this address shows us the best way to reach the minds and hearts of ignorant and prejudiced people, in every age.
In the market Paul had been preaching Jesus and the resurrection. On Mars' Hill he starts much further back.
As we read it, we must remember that this record is not, as another has said, Paul's preaching, but his defence. He had preached "Jesus and the resurrection" to the Athenians. Now he comes down to their own level, becoming all things to all men. His aim is to lead them up to the truth that God created the world, and that they are therefore responsible to Him. God would deal with that responsibility at last, in a future day of judgment.
Athens loved the latest news. Paul aimed past that appetite.
But truth does not enter through the ear only. It must reach the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news? We shall see that the apostle brought God before them as a personal, living reality, to whom they stood morally related. Until conscience wakes up, what groundwork can there be? Otherwise the gospel sinks into just another new thing, and Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to a crowd of empty pagan gods.
Deep religion is not the same as knowing God. And the question does not stay in ancient Greece.
"The world did not know God through wisdom." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its followers? It made them the ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The very inscription on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the universe. And may we fairly ask whether philosophy has done better for Christendom than it did for Greece?
- Place — The Areopagus was Athens' oldest and most respected court. Paul went there to be heard, not to be tried.
- Word — His opening line describes what they worshipped, not just how much. Above all others, they were in awe of divinities.
- Manner — He opened with courtesy and no flattery. He would not start by attacking their gods — the model for reaching prejudiced hearers in any age.
- Aim — He came down to their level to lead them up: God as Creator, human responsibility, a coming judgment. Truth must reach the conscience, or the gospel becomes just the next new thing.
- Mirror — An altar to an unknown God published their ignorance. The same question faces every religious culture since.
for, passing through and beholding your shrines, I found also an altar on which was inscribed, To the unknown God. Whom therefore ye reverence, not knowing [him], him I announce to you.
Paul walks through a city full of shrines and finds one altar that quietly admits defeat: its god has no name. That inscription becomes his text. On the Areopagus — the hill in Athens where the city council met — he announces the God they worship without knowing Him.
The inscription was not meant as a confession. It came from a fear of leaving some god out.
In the huge crowd of strange gods at Athens the apostle's sharp eye noticed an altar with an inscription on it. Without knowing it, that inscription admitted the ruined condition of the people of that city — and of the whole pagan world. They did not mean it as a humbling admission; yet the words told the fact to the one who knew the truth. Reliable witnesses show there were several altars inscribed this way. Paul certainly saw one, and spoke accordingly. In their zeal for many gods they dedicated shrines to every local and foreign god. They dedicated shrines to unknown gods too, so that not one would miss its due honour.
The altar showed what Greek philosophy had failed to produce. We can ask the same question of later ages.
"The world did not know God through wisdom." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its students? It made them ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The inscription on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the whole universe. And may we not ask whether philosophy has done better for the Christian world than it did for Greece? Has it given the knowledge of the true God? Who would dare to say Yes?
Out of everything in the city, he took his text from the one object that was honest.
He comes down to the lowest point and form of truth in order to reach the Athenian conscience. He had done the same before with the people of Lycaonia. The Jews, through the law, had far worthier thoughts of God and of their own relationship to Him. Still, the address opens with his usual courtesy, while there is not a particle in it to flatter their pride. In that crowd of honours paid to demons that really were strange, the apostle laid hold of the one object which confessed the humbling fact about themselves and God. "An unknown God" told the true story. Everything else around was deception and the enemy's triumph.
This speech is not the same as the gospel Paul had already been preaching. He starts from ground his hearers had themselves admitted.
God, the unknown God, now reveals Himself. The apostle aptly lays hold of the inscription on the altar and announces the true God whom they did not know. This is not the gospel. He had already preached this God in the gospel of Jesus and of the resurrection, and he now identifies Him with the truth they themselves admitted. Defending that truth, he speaks to the conscience... By the power of the Spirit in Paul they stood accused and convicted. They had falsified the idea of God and denied His glory, the glory of the only Creator. They had recognised Him only by confessing that He was unknown.
So how does anyone move from an unknown God to a known one?
Christianity reveals God; it makes Him known to faith. Creation cannot, circumstances cannot, law cannot. But the Son of God became man, died under the judgment of sin, and is now alive in glory. He has made all the truth of God fully known. Thank God for Christianity! ... Paul declared to them the God who was unknown to them. Some mocked and some believed. The effects differed, but Paul declared God and made Him known.
Once Paul announces God, ignorance stops being an excuse.
Paul reaches the conscience of the Athenians through one point: their own confessed ignorance of God (verse 23)... But now Paul was declaring to them the God whom they did not know. The true God shines out in the death and resurrection of Christ... The full light of God now shines over the whole world like the sun. The sound of the gospel goes out to all the earth. So man is without excuse.
- Ignorance admitted. Athens raised the altar so no god would be missed. It stated a fact its builders never intended: the true God was unknown to them.
- Ignorance uncured. Greek philosophy reasoned its way to a nameless altar. That is the measure of what human wisdom reaches on its own.
- Ignorance addressed. Paul dropped to the lowest step of truth and took his text from their own altar. He was courteous, but he flattered no one.
- Ignorance answered. He announced the God they had only confessed as unknown. Creation, circumstances and law cannot make Him known. The Son of God, who died and now lives, does.
- Ignorance ended. This address is his defence, not his gospel preaching. Yet once Paul declares God, the hearer is no longer ignorant — and no longer excused.
The God who has made the world and all things which are in it, *he*, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,
Paul stands in Athens, a city packed with shrines and even an altar to a god nobody could name. He starts not with Jesus but with the making of the world, and every word of his opening pulls the city's religion apart.
Paul's first claim is the one thing no teacher in Athens taught.
Every clause, you might say every word, undermined paganism. Yet not one word could rightly offend. This grand but simple truth left no room for the myths of priests and poets. It left no room either for the reasoning of thinkers in pitch darkness. Here is the remarkable fact: not one of the rival leaders of religion or philosophy claimed that their gods — home, foreign, or unknown — had made the world and everything in it.
The two schools listening to him each had their own account of the universe, and neither had room for a Creator.
Neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics owned creation. The one held the absurd idea that atoms came together by chance. The other imagined a fixed cycle of forming and breaking up, repeating for ever in the universe. That cycle was their god, if they can be said to have had one.
Paul does not stop at "Maker." The second title presses on the conscience.
The God who made all things is not only a Creator. He is Lord of heaven and earth. His authority is constant everywhere. Fallen man writhes under this truth, because it appeals at once to the conscience. As a man, I am His creature, and that tie makes me His servant. Am I doing His will? Am I pleasing Him as the motive of my life? But now I am a fallen man, departed from Him, and I like to do my own will, though I know it is opposed to His. But if He is Lord of heaven and earth, He must call me to account for my wrongdoing.
Scripture gives God this same title elsewhere, and those words shaped Paul's own thinking.
In Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus, speaking to His Father, addressed Him as "Lord of heaven and earth." In Acts 7:49 we have the words "Heaven is my throne." The light and power of this had entered Paul's mind, and it found a place in his testimony to the men of Athens.
One line from Paul sets every temple aside. He is not the first to say it.
God "does not live in temples made by man." Isaiah implied as much to those who rested on that gift standing among them — a temple soon to fall. Stephen said it in those very words. Paul heard him then with unbelieving ears. Now Paul proclaimed it in faith and love to the Athenians.
The mistake runs deeper than architecture. It starts when people turn from the Creator to things they can make.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the worship of nature, and then for the worship of humans made into gods. The sheer number of religions proved that men had lost the one true God. No splendid statue or temple could hide the fraud. Each one only advertised it. How can you fence in the everywhere-present Lord of heaven and earth inside man's work?
If not in buildings, then where? Some writers apply Paul's words to a habit many Christians keep — calling a building "God's house."
True believers make up the house of God. They are "living stones" — people who have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have come to Him. The Spirit of God lives in them. Don't tell me that cold, dead stones make up the house of God! "God does not live in temples made by man." True believers are the house of God.
So great a God might seem out of reach. He is not.
God made the universe. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and He does not live in temples made by man. Yet He stoops to look on a person who is poor, contrite in spirit, and trembling at His word. His goodness leads the sinner to repentance; and where did His goodness shine as it did in Jesus?
- Maker — Paul opens with creation. No Athenian god or philosophy ever claimed it. His words pull idolatry apart without insulting anyone.
- Lord — Maker means Ruler. If He rules heaven and earth, then my will is not my own and He must call me to account.
- Unhoused — No building of ours can hold the God who is everywhere. Isaiah and Stephen said this before Paul. Athens' crowd of shrines only proved that men had lost the true God.
- Indwelling — He refuses stone buildings and lives in believers instead. They are the house of God, not any structure.
- Stooping — The God too great for temples bends down to the person who trembles at His word. His goodness, seen in Jesus, leads that person to repentance.
nor is served by men's hands as needing something, himself giving to all life and breath and all things;
Paul stands before the philosophers of Athens and makes known the God they admitted they did not know. His first move is to strip away the idea that God gains anything from human religion. The verse reverses the direction of worship: God is not the receiver but the giver.
The verb here is not the usual word for worship. One writer traces where else it appears:
The Greek word therapeuo (from therapon, "an attendant") in Acts 17:25 means "to serve," "render service to" — older translations read "worship" here. In the Gospels it is used again and again for curing and healing. It is nowhere else translated "worship."
The picture is of attendants waiting on someone in need. Paul denies that God is served that way.
God lacks nothing, so no place can hold Him. That is what makes Him near to everyone:
Supreme above all, it is only in this way that He can be near to all; not dwelling in temples made with hands, which isolate and shut Him up; nor served by human hands, as if He were in need. Enough in Himself, He is the Source and Centre of all; life and breath and all things are nothing but His gift. No one, then, can make Him his debtor, or give Him anything except what is already His own.
Paul's words cut against an instinct that runs far wider than Athens. Man's default picture of God is of someone who wants something from him:
Man's general estimate of God is that He is a hard master, demanding and expecting great things from him. So when he thinks of God at all, it is usually tied to the idea of bringing something to God, instead of receiving from Him. Paul met this thought in the idolatrous Athenians. This proud thought of man's ability is such a solid barrier that it shuts the gospel out of the heart. And it is this that the Spirit of God breaks down, by convincing men of their sinfulness and their need of a Saviour.
The second half of the verse shows God's kindness, not just His power. It also exposes the gods the Athenians had built:
The apostle set before the Athenians One who is good in Himself and actively does good. He does so even in a world gone off course, since man's fall brought in sin and death everywhere. Yet He who needs nothing for Himself makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust... He gives to all life and breath and all things. How simple and self-evident this plain fact is, and how well it makes known the God they themselves admitted they did not know! What a contrast with all the false gods of the world! They dragged their worshippers down to their own rebellious evil and mischievous selfishness. They also let their priests prey on the guilty fears of mankind.
Kelly also notes what the Athenians had assumed instead. They believed "the gods had no pleasure in man's happiness, but rather in casting down the exalted and reversing the prosperous."
The word all in this verse answers a real question: is God the Creator of every person, or only of the saved? One writer met the claim that God did not create the unconverted by pointing straight here:
I have been asked for a text. I quote Acts 17:25, 28: "He gives to all life, and breath, and all things..." He is addressing the heathen and says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being."
If God gives everything, no one can pay Him back. That leaves one honest response:
Man would like to make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be... The great Giver of "all things" cannot possibly "need anything." Praise is all that we can offer to God. But we can only offer it with the full and clear understanding that our sins are all put away. And we can only know this by faith in the power of a completed atonement.
So worship starts on the receiving side. Man brings God nothing He needs; he brings praise for all he has received.
- Served — the verb pictures attendants waiting on someone in need. God needs no such waiting on.
- Needs — He is enough in Himself. No temple holds Him, and whatever you bring Him was already His.
- Gives — He is good as well as powerful. He sends sun and rain on evil and good alike, unlike the gods men invent.
- All — life and breath reach every nation and every person, believer or not; no one is outside His giving.
- Receives — no one can make God a debtor. Man's place is to receive, and to praise once sin is put away.
and has made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined ordained times and the boundaries of their dwelling,
Paul stands before the philosophers of Athens and cuts against everything they assumed about themselves. Every nation came from one source, and the God they did not know set the seasons and borders of each. Older translations read "of one blood," and the writers quoted below use that wording.
The unity of the human family and the unity of God stand or fall together. Commentators point out that the Greeks held the opposite on both counts, and that the two errors fed each other.
"And has made of one blood": here again Paul is at odds with man's ideas, above all with the Greek belief in many gods. The unity of the human race is a truth that goes with the truth of one true God. Men saw that each race had its own national god. So the lie of many gods was tied to the matching claim of many independent races of men, and encouraged it. This was a favourite idea of the pagan world. They held that they had sprung from the earth in some remarkably foolish way, while at the same time maintaining that each was independent of the other.
The same writer adds that the Jews fell into the same vanity, though they alone held the revelation that settles it:
The one origin of man goes with the unity of God, just as the claim of separate races goes with their separate patron gods. As the Jews fell away, their self-exalting vanity helped that falsehood along. Yet God had entrusted the revelation of this twofold truth to them alone, and Christianity alone applied it fully and carried it out according to God.
One writer reads the verse as flattening every claim of rank. Even the limits God set were meant to make people feel their dependence.
He goes on to put man in his place before Him. The one blood that all men share levels every distinction that Jew and Greek alike prided themselves on. What is more, He fixed their times and the very boundaries of their dwellings. He withheld His care from no creature He had made. He appointed all this so that men would feel their limits and dependence, see the divine ordering of things around them, and in their need feel after Him and find Him.
The "allotted periods" cover the whole life of a nation. And God's care went on even toward peoples who had forgotten Him.
It is true that all nations from their beginning forgot God. No one showed that evil more than the people whose conscience Paul was now appealing to. Despite their willing ignorance, God took an interest in their actual circumstances. He fixed the appointed seasons of their national life, its progress and its fall, along with the boundaries of their dwelling.
The scattering of the nations is traced back to the tower at Shinar, where mankind tried to stay together and make a name for itself.
For up to the flood mankind was only one community, and, whatever their growing corruption and violence, no strange gods were set up against God. Nor had God started government as a human institution holding authority from Him. When He did, it was left neither to fate nor to chance, but He determined the seasons, and the limits of their dwelling.
The verse runs on into a purpose. One writer turns from nations to what God wants for each single person.
But God's ordering of the nations was far from being all His care. His heart went out in grace to every soul of man. In losing God, man had lost the one centre his heart must have, and the basis of all true morality... But God remained the God of goodness and mercy, ready to hear and forgive.
Another writer draws the encouragement out of the next clause: the search is not hopeless.
But God has dealt with men as He has so that they might seek the Lord, if it may happen that they will feel after Him and find Him. Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us, showing that if anyone honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.
If God set the borders, then crossing them has a cost. One writer applies the verse directly to why nations go to war.
This verse makes it clear that the earth's surface is enough for men to live on, and that God has set the boundaries of the nations. Suppose men had respected these God-appointed boundaries and had been content with the "place in the sun" He gave them. Then there would have been no wars. But they found no satisfaction in what they had, and they refused to feel after God for it. So they cast greedy eyes on their neighbours' portion and broke the boundaries God appointed. From this comes the bloodshed and the sorrow.
Another writer adds a caution. This shared origin proves less than people assume.
The idea that all men are brothers has some truth in a creatorial sense, since God has "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26). It is not true in any other sense. The Scriptures draw the sharpest line imaginable between the believer and the man of the world.
- One source. Every nation traces back to one origin. That truth stands or falls with the truth of one God. Many gods and many separate races were always the same lie.
- One level. From one source follows one level: the shared blood wipes out the distinctions Jew and Greek both prized.
- One hand. From that level ground God assigns the parts: the seasons of a nation's life, its rise and fall, and its borders.
- One aim. God arranged it all so that people would feel their limits and seek Him. He is near enough for anyone who truly seeks to find Him.
- One warning. Break the boundaries He set, and war follows. Commentators also warn that a shared Creator does not erase the line between the believer and the man of the world.
that they may seek God; if indeed they might feel after him and find him, although he is not far from each one of us
Paul stands before the thinkers of Athens and tells them why God arranged human history as He did. The verse raises two hard questions. If God is so near, why has man not found Him? And what does it mean to grope after someone standing at your elbow?
Paul has just spoken of nations, appointed times and set borders. One writer looks past the nations to God's care for each person.
God's arranging of the nations was far from being all His care. He felt graciously for every soul of man, who in losing Him had lost the only and necessary centre for the heart... For man was fallen from God, and sin reigned in death... But God remained the God of goodness and mercy, ready to hear and forgive. But man must seek Him, conscious of sin, misery, and darkness.
The same writer ties this aim to the ordinary kindnesses of life:
It was not only the passing testimony to His goodness in the gift from heaven of rains and fruitful seasons... but also to appointed seasons, and the boundaries where the various nations live. All of it was under God's hand, with particular favours given to each. And in it all there was at least a whisper to seek after God.
Behind "feel their way" is a word about hands, not thoughts.
The word psēlaphaō is "to feel after with the fingers, handle." It is used of what can be touched. It occurs only in Luke 24:39; Acts 17:27; Hebrews 12:18; 1 John 1:1.
The word tells you who Paul had in mind. One writer used that point with a man who could not "feel" that he was saved:
I pointed out that the word feel is only once found in the New Testament, and that is in Acts 17:27... The word does not belong to the Christian, you see, but to the heathen who have no written revelation. Our word is "faith," or "believe." We do not know because we feel; we believe God's Word, and so we know.
Paul does not say that man is near God. He says God is near man. One writer presses that difference.
Man has gone far from God, and his great desire is always to increase the distance, but God has not gone far from man. The distance lies in alienation of heart and mind... But God pursues him in the grace and love of His heart. He is ready to fall on his neck and cover him with kisses the moment that man, in the sorrow of his soul, turns round and begins to feel after his Creator, whom he has so heartlessly abandoned.
Paul's wording here is cautious. One writer weighs that groping against the gospel that came later.
We may enter into the apostle's cautious language: "if by any means they might feel after and find Him..." Compared with the gospel after Christ's work, it was groping in the dark, except where the True Light was shining.
Another writer answers those who call this groping a misfortune.
People often speak of the heathen as groping after the light and unable to find it. They call it their misfortune, not their sin, because they are held down by circumstances too hard for them. That is not really so. The truth is, "There is none that seeks after God."... It is man not seeking God, but trying to escape from God, and he has escaped, so to speak, into the darkness. The darkness is the darkness of resisted light, not the absence of light.
Commentators differ in emphasis here. One reads the closing words as an open door:
Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us. If a person honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.
Another answers a question about a man with right beliefs and a decent life:
"Right convictions and good practice" is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word about the Spirit's acting... People confuse the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving.
Man's duty to return to God stands. But the door does not stay open:
Man is a lost sinner. By his love of sin he has strayed from his Maker into hopeless darkness. He is always under responsibility to return to God, who has a righteous claim on the love and obedience of all His creatures... His patience with sinners will not last for ever. Some day men may wish to "find" Him, and will discover that He is no longer "near."
- Purpose. God set the times and borders of every nation with one personal aim: that people would seek Him.
- Groping. "Feel after" is a word for hands in the dark. It is real seeking, but blind — nothing next to the light now given.
- Nearness. God never moved away; the distance is man's alienation of heart, and God pursues him across it.
- Excuse. The darkness is resisted light, not missing light. So man's failure is guilt, not misfortune.
- Urgency. Commentators differ on how far seeking gets. They agree the verse sets out man's responsibility, not the gospel. And God's patience has an end.
for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.
Paul spoke in a city full of altars and philosophers. He told them God is not far off, and used their own poets to argue against the idols all around him.
Each phrase of the verse marks a different layer of our reliance on God:
In fact, man's very existence is bound up with God, however little he realizes it. "In Him we live:" He is the source of our life; "and move:" He sustains all of our activities; "and have our being:" our existence is totally dependent upon Him.
One writer draws out how complete that hold on us is, and notes what Paul is not discussing here:
He surrounds us — in Him we live and move and are! The last of these says it most fully. He sustains us. He carries us, more completely than an infant in its mother's arms, for His arms never open to let go... He is not here considering the effect of the fall, nor yet man's responsibility, but the place given him in God's design. From there he will be better able to judge how far he has departed.
Yet closeness is not the whole truth about Him:
The words "in Him we live and move and have our being" show how near God is. Yet Paul preached Him as the One above all, the Lord of heaven and earth.
The quoted line was not invented for the sermon. It came from writings the audience could check for themselves:
The apostle rises far above natural philosophy. He views man in his relation to God, with an awareness of it that no other living being on earth has... Revealed truth states that relation in the clearest terms, and its echo sounded even where the true God was not known. So the apostle could quote the Greeks themselves, centuries before he spoke: "For we are indeed his offspring." These exact words appear in the astronomical poem of Aratus, a Cilician like himself, the Phaenomena, which still exists today. They appear again, with only one letter different, in the Stoic Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus, which also still exists.
There is an irony in the choice of witness:
So the apostle turns the admission of their own poets against themselves, or more exactly against their idolatry. Strange to say, the poets, however fanciful, are wiser than the philosophers. How often they stumble in their dreams on truths they would never have imagined!
"Offspring" means we come from God as creatures. It is not the same as being His children:
Only by faith in Christ Jesus do we become children of God, but all men are His offspring as His creatures. This being so, we ought not to think of God as something less than ourselves, or as the work of our own hands; and we should be those who seek after Him.
One writer traces this back to how man was made:
Scripture derives the soul of man, as man, from the inbreathing of God, apart from His dealings of saving mercy in Christ. In this sense, as the apostle applied it (Acts 17:28), all men, even the heathen, are His offspring. In Him all live.
Paul builds on a point his hearers already accepted:
If we are the offspring of God, as the Athenians boasted, idol-worship must be wrong. The Deity could not be like an image of stone, wood, or metal. If men are the offspring of God, God cannot be like a lifeless idol. The deduction was plain indeed. No one could refute it. It dealt a death-blow to idolatry.
Paul presses the point gently rather than with scorn:
If man alone of the creatures on earth is God's offspring, how can anyone maintain that the divinity is like a work of man's craft and imagination in gold, silver, or stone? "We ought not" to think so, he says graciously... A lifeless block that man shapes cannot be, or properly represent, the God who made him and all things.
- Source. "In Him we live" — God is the origin of life. "Move" — He sustains all our activity. "Have our being" — our existence depends wholly on Him.
- Sustainer. He surrounds and carries us more closely than a mother holds her child, because His arms never open.
- Near. God is close to every person. Yet Paul preached Him as Lord of heaven and earth, not a God the world contains.
- Kin by creation. All men are His offspring as creatures, since God breathed the soul of man into him. Only faith in Christ Jesus makes anyone His child.
- Therefore no idols. Since we come from God, God cannot be something we manufacture. Paul drew that conclusion from Athens' own poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, who proved wiser than its philosophers.
Being therefore [the] offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, [the] graven form of man's art and imagination.
Paul stands in Athens, a city crowded with statues. He has just quoted the city's own poets back to his hearers. From that borrowed line he draws one conclusion: if we came from God, God cannot be something we make.
Paul takes words his hearers already accepted and turns them against their idols.
So he turns the acknowledgment of their own poets against themselves, or rather against their idolatry. Strange to say, the poets, however fanciful, are wiser than the philosophers... How clearly this showed the folly of their boasted reason! What could be simpler or more conclusive? Since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that our hands can make God. This is in effect what their practice amounted to. Gods of silver and gold were the offspring of men's art and imagination.
Whatever man is, his Maker cannot be less.
From the viewpoint of creation, this is true. So it was foolish to think of God as comparable to gold, silver or stone images, the work of human artistry. If men — living, moving, intelligent beings — are God's offspring, then certainly God is at least as living and intelligent as they are!
The word points back to something in man's making. It is not his body, which he shares with animals. It is what God breathed into him.
Men are God's offspring, but not because they have a body, as all animals have. It is not even because they have a soul and spirit, as animals also have, suited to their place and function in creation. They are God's offspring because they have an inner man that came straight from God by His inbreathing... This is why man alone of all creatures on earth has an immortal soul, for good or for harm beyond calculation. It is also why he must give account to God. But here the apostle used this relationship to show how foolish it is to represent God with an idol. The relationship comes from the special nature of the immaterial part of man.
Paul says this to a crowd of idol-worshippers, so the word must cover more than believers.
Only by faith in Christ Jesus do we become children of God, but all men are His offspring as His creatures. This being so, we ought not to think of God as something less than ourselves, or as the work of our own hands. And we should be those who seek after Him.
The word can sound like family language. One writer tests it against the line just before it:
The word "offspring" seems to denote relationship, but does it?... In quoting their poets, the apostle uses "offspring" to mean that they received their being: "In Him we live and move and have our being." The thought behind "offspring" is creaturehood, not relationship.
The word in the verse does not name God. It points to what is divine.
theios, that which is "divine": it is not like gold, silver, or stone, and so on, Acts 17:29. The word is translated "divine" in 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Gold, silver and stone fail twice over. The material is God's creature, and the shape is man's invention.
When man carves these materials with his skill and imagination, he only adds absurdity to absurdity. For the material was itself a creature of God, and the shape given to each was man's fancy and manufacture. "God is spirit," and so can be everywhere at once.
Paul says "we ought not," not "you ought not." His words here are gentler than Isaiah's on the same subject.
"We ought not" so to think, he says graciously, not forgetting that Israel too had to bear the sterner irony of Isaiah. A lifeless block that man shapes cannot be the God who made him and all things. It cannot properly represent Him either.
Paul removes every false likeness of God — and there is one likeness he does not remove.
But there is a true and perfect image of the invisible God, Jesus the Lord... He revealed God in His being and His character, and in the relationship of Father, as He the eternal Word and Son knew Him... And He is the only safeguard from false gods and from idols — from idols of the mind no less than material images.
- Origin. God breathed into man an inner life no animal received. That is why man is God's offspring.
- Argument. Since we came from God, God cannot come from us; the idols were the offspring of human art and imagination.
- Limit. All people are His offspring as creatures; only faith in Christ Jesus makes anyone a child of God.
- Reason. What links man to God is spirit, and no carving of gold, silver, or stone can picture that.
- Answer. Every false image falls, and one remains. Christ is the true image of the invisible God, and the safeguard from idols of the mind as well as of stone.
God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent,
Paul speaks on Mars Hill in Athens, a city proud of its learning. His words turn on a change in history: what God once passed over, He now confronts. Two questions follow. What did God overlook? And why does "now" put every person, everywhere, under a command?
Older translations read "winked at" and "all men" where the ESV has "overlooked" and "all people." One writer explains the phrase. He also notes how little it flattered Athens:
"And the times of this ignorance" — that was no great compliment to their polish, learning, philosophy, wisdom, or education. Whether sage or savage, they are all put in one lump there. "The times of this ignorance God winked at" — that is, He did not take account of it. "But now commands all men everywhere" — mark those words — "to repent."
Overlooking was not approval. For those long years He held back judgment:
During the times of ignorance, God had put up with the wanderings of man. He had passed them over without judgment. Now He was calling to all men everywhere to repent, because a day was appointed in which He should judge the world.
The word "now" splits history in two. What ended the darkness was a Person:
The Gentiles, during God's dealings with Israel, were in the dark. Those were the times of ignorance, and God overlooked their ways. But now, says the apostle, He commands all men everywhere to repent. There is no excuse for ignorance any longer. The Light shines, the true Light. Christ was that Light.
The command levels every distinction Athens prized. It bypasses debate and goes straight for the conscience:
Clearly there is a thrust at conscience. This is why he insists here on God's call to repent. It is no use to talk of science, literature, politics, religion. Old or new speculations in philosophy are equally empty. God is now requiring all everywhere to repent. So he puts the sage down with the savage, because God is brought in as the judge of all. Divine truth must be aggressive. It cannot help dealing with every conscience that hears it, anywhere in the world. The law might thunder its claims at one particular people. But the truth deals with everybody as he is before God.
Some narrow the word "all" to a smaller group. One writer will not allow it:
If God commands all men, everywhere to repent, does He mean what He says, or merely all the elect? What right have we to add to, or alter, to pare down, or to accommodate the Word of God? None whatever.
A command can sound harsh. This one carries God's love to people who had dishonoured Him:
The apostle keeps to one fact here: God did not judge those times of terrible and inexcusable ignorance. In His goodness He overlooked the past, and now He calls people to repent. ... How true it is that the message of God's love in salvation to everyone who believes is His own command! ... The Gentiles ignored the true God. They set up idols to His dishonour and their own shame. God no longer ignores them. "The true light already shines." Coming into the world, it gives light to every man. It is true that the world was so blind it did not know Him. But the God of all grace does not leave them to their folly. He sends them this charge: they should "all everywhere repent." What compassion for "all everywhere," and what concern!
Repentance has never been optional. It has marked every turning to God from the earliest days:
No sinner, no child of fallen man, ever turned to God in faith — as all did from Abel onward — without repentance. ... Its character is self-judgment before Him. Not only one's ways, but one's self, is laid bare as seen by His holy eyes, with whom we have to do.
One writer says the common definition stops short:
The definition that it is merely a change of mind is not enough; that would reduce it entirely to faith. It is the soul judging itself before God — the eye turned inward, not outward, by the Spirit of God.
The command drew three answers. The final question turns to the reader:
On Mars Hill the coming judgment was announced. A fixed day was made known, and the Judge was pointed out. How was this divine communication received? Some mocked, some put it off, a few believed. That was the effect on the hearers. What has been the effect in the reader's case?
- Overlooked — God passed over past ignorance. He did not approve it, and He did not judge it then.
- Now — The Light has come. The excuse of ignorance is gone, and a day of judgment is fixed.
- Everywhere — The command flattens every rank. It puts the scholar beside the savage, because God judges all.
- Commanded — The charge is not harshness. It is God's love reaching people who had dishonoured Him.
- Repent — Not a change of opinion, but the soul judging itself before God. Athens gave the three answers still given today: mockery, delay, faith.
because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead.
Paul ends his address at Athens not with philosophy but with a date, a Man, and a proof. Everything hangs on one word — "because." God calls people to repent now because the day is fixed, the Judge is chosen, and the proof is already given.
Paul has just called for repentance. This verse gives the reason, and that reason puts every listener on one level.
"And the times of this ignorance" (what a way to treat the boasting men of Athens!) "God overlooked; but now commands all men everywhere to repent." Clearly there is a thrust at conscience. This is why he insists here on God's call to repent. It is no use to talk of science, literature, politics, religion. Old or new speculations in philosophy are alike empty. God is now commanding all everywhere to repent. So he puts the scholar down with the savage, because he brings God in as the judge of all.
The word behind "world" here means the inhabited earth. Commentators stress that this is the judgment of living people when Christ appears, not the judgment of the dead.
Here the common thought of Christendom is a serious mistake. The Jews used to look for a judgment of living men, and perhaps in some measure they still do. Most Christians, despite the Creeds, look almost only for a judgment of the dead before eternity. Here and elsewhere the apostle pressed the judgment of this inhabited world at our Lord's appearing, when He comes to bring in His kingdom in open power and glory.
Two things are already settled and named in the verse — a day and a Person. The one the world condemned is the one it must face.
From that day to this God has been showing His patient mercy. But the day of that judgment is appointed, and the Man is also appointed who is to carry out the judgment. The world that judged Him is to be judged by Him.
Commentators point to the act that revealed what the world truly is.
But the central sin of the world, the one that stamped its true character, is the rejection and death of Christ. But the One whom the world rejected, God has raised from the dead, and to Him all judgment is committed. Every knee shall bow to Him; and the more boldly they have rejected and opposed Him, the more terrible will be their judgment.
God's standard for that day is not new. Paul is repeating a line from the Psalms:
"He shall judge the world in righteousness" — Acts 17:31 quotes this line; it matches the Greek Old Testament word for word.
This righteousness is more than pardon for individuals. It is God putting right every area that sin has spoiled.
The point here is not the forgiveness of sins and justification for us, as it is in Romans 3. The point is righteousness set up in public in every area that sin has touched and spoiled. Christ's death was the supreme act of the world's unrighteousness. His glorification was the supreme act of God's righteousness, and the guarantee that righteousness will at last prevail everywhere, in keeping with Paul's words in Acts 17:31.
"Assurance" here is evidence — something God has put in front of everyone. Kelly renders the clause this way:
"because He had appointed a day in which He is about to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a Man whom He had marked out, having given assurance [or, ground of belief] to all in that He raised Him out of the dead."
The same event that guarantees judgment for the world settles the opposite for those who believe — which is why the argument runs differently at Athens than in a letter to Christians.
The resurrection of the Lord is the pledge that He will one day be the Judge of those who do not believe. To the believer the resurrection is God's sign and witness that his sins are all blotted out... They were not believers, so he does not speak of anyone being justified. He tells them that the resurrection of the Lord is God's proof and pledge: He is going to judge all the inhabited world by that Man whom He has raised from the dead.
This verse marks a line. God offers grace today. On that day He will not.
There is not a single cloud of judgment in the present grace, and there will not be one single ray of grace in the future judgment. He will judge it by the Man whom the world spat on and trampled under its feet, by that Man whom He has ordained — and He has given the most undeniable proof of it in raising Him from the dead.
- Appointed — the day is set and the Judge is named. Nothing about that day is still open.
- Ordained — the Judge is a Man, the same One the world rejected. The world that judged Him will face Him as Judge.
- In righteousness — the standard is God's own. He showed it in public when He glorified the Christ that men condemned.
- Assurance — the resurrection is God's proof, given to everyone. It means judgment for the world, and for the believer it means sins blotted out.
- Therefore repent — the command reaches every person everywhere. It puts the scholar on the same ground as the savage.
And when they heard [of the] resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and some said, We will hear thee again also concerning this.
Paul was speaking in Athens. His address ended with a coming day of judgment, and with a Man God raised from the dead. That last point is where his hearers stopped him. The crowd split three ways, and those three reactions still meet the message today.
These listeners could sit through long debates about the soul. A body raised out of the grave was another matter.
But man, and not least philosophic man, rebels against resurrection. He might sit through a whole night of debate, in the style of Socrates, about whether the soul lives forever. That pleases the nobler sort, even if it offends the morally degraded. But a dead man raised brings in God. It shows God stepping into the middle of a busy world to mark out the Man Whom they crucified. That Man is going to judge this inhabited world one day.
They were not laughing at some special honour claimed for Jesus. They were laughing at the idea of dead people rising at all.
The apostle speaks of Christ as the proof that God will judge this inhabited earth by that Man. He says God raised Him out of — from among — the dead. But the Athenians, hearing of the resurrection of the dead, mock. The fact of dead people rising, not any particular favour shown to Christ, was what they ridiculed.
The verse sorts the hearers. One writer finds the same sorting wherever the gospel comes.
Their busy minds were turning inside man's world, so resurrection lay right outside their field of view. To many of them it seemed absurd, and they mocked. Others showed some interest yet put off further thought, since they saw no urgency in the matter. Some, however, believed, both men and women, and these threw in their lot with Paul. These three groups usually appear wherever the gospel comes: the mockers, those who put it off, and the believers.
The second group sounds open. Commentators read their politeness in two ways.
Some mocked the truth of resurrection, and their mockery announced their ignorance and the state of their hearts. Others said, "We will hear you again about this." They were putting it off — either as a polite refusal of the truth, or because they were not fully persuaded of it.
But a second hearing was never theirs to promise. The risen Jesus has His own hour, and they will hear His voice then.
To hear the apostle again was more than man could guarantee. Mockers and doubters will certainly hear the voice of the risen Jesus. The hour is coming for a "resurrection of judgment." It will vindicate the truth to His glory. It will prove the unbeliever worthless, and his deeds evil in God's sight. But those who believe receive eternal life now, walk in obedience, bear good fruit, and rise to a "resurrection of life."
Athens produced no riot and no church, just a few names. Even Paul walked away from this audience.
They have had enough, however; and the mention of resurrection ends their patience. Some mock. Others politely put the matter off to another time. It is not serious enough to rouse them to hostility. There was nothing to expect from an audience like this, and even Paul could only turn away and leave them. We hear of no such poverty of result in any other place, but with the wise of this world the wisdom of God is foolishness. Yet here too God could not allow His word to be completely barren.
Two of those who believed have names. After them the record goes quiet.
Some mocked. Others put off thinking about the truth set before them. But certain men believed. One of them is named Dionysius the Areopagite, and there was also a woman named Damaris, besides others. Yet there is no mention of any assembly formed there, and no record of a later visit by the apostle to this city. Human culture and intelligence are not favourable to the doctrines of grace.
- Resurrection divides. It was not a side issue in Paul's preaching. It was where Athens split, because a raised Man brings God in as Judge.
- Mockery. The scorn fell on the idea of dead people rising at all. Resurrection lay outside their field of view, so they laughed instead of weighing the testimony.
- Delay. "We will hear you again" is the middle path that leads nowhere. It may be courtesy, it may be doubt. But no one can promise himself a second hearing.
- Faith. A named few joined Paul. Where the wise scoff, God still does not let His word go without fruit.
- Result. Athens gave Paul his smallest result and no church. Learning and culture give no advantage toward the doctrines of grace.
Thus Paul went out of their midst.
Paul has just spoken to the philosophers on the Areopagus, the council hill in Athens. At the word "resurrection" the crowd splits three ways. Then he walks out. There is no riot, no arrest and no second meeting — only a few converts. So what does a faithful messenger do with a result like that?
The reactions at Athens follow a pattern that shows up elsewhere too.
Some however believed, both men and women, and these threw in their lot with Paul. These three groups usually appear when the Gospel reaches any place: the mockers, those who put it off, and the believers.
The sneering was not aimed at religion in general. It was aimed at one fact that human thinking refuses to accept.
But man, and not least the philosophical man, rebels against resurrection. He could sit through a whole night of philosophical talk about whether the soul lives for ever. That pleases the nobler sort, even if it offends those sunk in immorality. But a dead man raised brings in God. It proves that God has stepped into the middle of a busy world. He has marked out the Man whom they crucified, and that Man will one day judge this inhabited world.
The polite group sounded more promising than the scoffers. But putting it off assumed something they did not control.
To hear the apostle again was more than anyone could guarantee. Mockers and doubters will certainly hear the voice of the risen Jesus. That will be when the hour comes for a "resurrection of judgment." It will prove the truth right, to His glory. It will show the worthlessness of the unbeliever, and his deeds as evil in God's sight. Those who believe receive eternal life now, walk in obedience, bear good fruit, and rise to a "resurrection of life."
The verse records no second hearing.
The mockers and those who hesitated that day were alike left to their own emptiness and unbelief, for "Paul departed from among them."
Paul's exit was not a retreat. He had given his message, and that settled his responsibility.
As for the philosophers, some mocked; others promised to hear him again. He left them in that frame of mind. He had given his message. He was clear of their blood... Some might scoff. But scoffing was not an argument. Others might promise a further hearing. That showed they could not refute, then and there, what Paul had put before them. But all of them, in a coming day, will acknowledge the importance of the Word.
No mob drove Paul out of Athens. But the harvest there was smaller than in other cities.
Paul now departs from among them. He does not appear to have been driven away by any uproar or persecution. The blessed Lord gave him to taste His own joy, and the joy of angels over sinners who repent... Philippi was a military city. Thessalonica and Corinth were trading cities. In each of them the number of conversions seems to have been much greater than in the highly educated and polished city of Athens. This is deeply humbling to the pride of man and to the boasted powers of the human mind. There is one letter to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians and two to the Corinthians. But we have no letter from Paul to the Athenians, and we do not read that he ever visited Athens again.
Athens left Paul disappointed. That disappointment shaped how he came to Corinth.
He was so completely devoted to his work of ministry, and the burden of souls lay so heavily on him. No wonder he was "in weakness and in fear and much trembling." He came fresh from his disappointment at Athens, and now he looked at the scene before him. In a man like this, that could only lead to a fuller sense than ever of the one Power able to take hold of these busy idlers. Only that Power could bring them face to face with themselves and with God. Jesus Christ the Crucified was indeed his only theme. The world had rejected Him, but the Spirit glorified Him, and so Paul preached with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
- Message. Paul said everything he came to say. It ended with resurrection and a coming day of judgment.
- Division. The same words produced three groups: mockers, those who put it off, and believers. That is the usual result wherever the gospel arrives.
- Delay. "We will hear you again" is not a safe answer. No one can guarantee a second hearing. The doubters will hear the risen Jesus at the resurrection of judgment.
- Departure. Paul walks away clear of their blood. He had finished his message, and their unbelief was no longer his responsibility.
- Fruit. Athens gave a few believers and no letter from Paul. He carried the humbling lesson on to Corinth, where Christ crucified was his only theme.
But some men joining themselves to him believed; among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman by name Damaris, and others with them.
Paul has just finished speaking to the council of Athens, which met on the hill called the Areopagus. No riot follows and no revival — only a few people join him, and that raises a question: what does it mean when so few believe?
One writer sees two things in this result: a real work of God, and a verdict on the hearers.
The mighty word of the apostle touches some hearts even among this frivolous people. The harvest is small, but God does not leave Himself without testimony. A few believe the gospel and join themselves to the servants of God. But once he has given his testimony, the apostle stays there no longer. Philosophy and frivolity go together, and, as always, they give people a high opinion of themselves. They are bad soil for grace. They do not deserve that God should wait long for vanity to show good will.
Luke records nothing more about Athens. One writer draws a lesson from that silence.
Nothing is said about any assembly being formed here, and there is no record of a later visit by the apostle to this city. Human culture and intelligence do not favour the doctrines of grace. The gospel is preached to the poor. In every age it has been true that "not many were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth."
Other cities where Paul preached tell a different story.
Philippi was a military city; Thessalonica and Corinth were trading cities. In all three the number of conversions seems to have been much greater than in the highly educated and polished city of Athens. This is deeply humbling to the pride of man, and to the boasted powers of the human mind. Paul wrote one letter to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, and two to the Corinthians. But we have no letter from him to the Athenians.
Dionysius sat on the court that met on the Areopagus. Its usual business was very different from what it heard that day.
The judges there had often pronounced sentences of death, and at times not in righteousness. Here was an announcement of coming judgment. It concerned everyone in the audience. It was judgment in righteousness too, and it must end in final condemnation, unless repentance turns it aside. Then came the earnest pleader, so unlike those who had stood there before him. He was not pleading for his life. He was not asking his judges for a favourable sentence.
Later writings claimed much more about Dionysius than Scripture says.
Tradition has invented for Dionysius the office of bishop at Athens and the martyr's crown. But Dionysius and Damaris are at present no more than names to us. Their full story waits for a future day.
Luke names a woman too, and then a group with no names at all. One writer places Damaris among the women whose service Scripture records.
Of Damaris we know nothing except that she identified herself with Paul at Athens. … Most of these women probably lived in quiet circumstances. They did what they could. With a woman's tact and insight, and with Christian love, they served as chances came. The Holy Spirit has placed on record the distinctive character of their service.
Luke leaves the others unnamed. One writer turns the scene into an appeal to the reader:
There were mockers and triflers then as now. Oh, may you, like the others of old, cleave to the apostle, and find your place with the Dionysius Luke names. … That blessed place must surely be shared with a Damaris and others, whose names are written in heaven even if unknown on earth.
Athens was not the end of the story. One writer sets it beside Corinth.
No one could have expected what God did. He raised a trophy to His Son not in intellectual Athens, but in morally corrupt Corinth. … The grace of God gives no account of what it does, but works to the glory of Christ, and most of all where man is most needy.
- Testimony. Paul gave his message in Athens, then moved on; the mockers and triflers had heard it too.
- Harvest. The harvest at Athens was small, but God did not leave Himself without testimony — a few believed.
- Reach. Grace reached a judge of the Athenian court and a woman we know nothing about; both believed.
- Record. Scripture gives us only their names. Later tradition added the office of bishop and a martyr's crown that the Bible never claims.
- Result. Athens got no assembly, no letter, no return visit. God raised His trophy to Christ in corrupt Corinth instead.