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.