Paul Comes To The Areopagus
PAUL COMES TO THE AREOPAGUS
ACTS 17:16-21
Athens had been the intellectual center of the ancient world but was now in a mess spiritually.
The apostle’s first reaction to what he saw at Athens led to a public ministry of disputation, both in the Jewish synagogue and in the market-place. No record is given of his appreciation of the city’s objects of beauty; what fastened itself on his mind was its senseless idolatry (17:16)—a judgment called forth by the excessive religiosity of the Athenians (17:22) and their custom of dedicating shrines to a variety of deities (17:23).
There are two settings of his encounter with the philosophers who met him. In the market-place they overheard his preaching, which they couldn’t understand. To their ears he kept on referring to “Jesus and the resurrection” (17:18), which they probably misconstrued as an allusion to two deities: Jesus and his consort Anastasis (the Greek word for resurrection). Others seemed to have dismissed him with the disdainful term “babbler” (lit. seed-picker, a slang expression for a worthless person who picked up scraps of food in the markets). But some wished to hear more.
The two groups in 17:18 held beliefs which Paul touches upon in his sermon, viz. the Epicurean notion that God is all-sufficient in himself; and the Stoic doctrine that he gives life to all (cf. 17:25). The word “preacher” means “herald” and was a technical expression in the Greek mystery religions. A different term is used at Romans 10:14.
The second scene is the Areopagus (17:19), a venue for the Athenian court and a meeting-point for religious discussion and debate. Luke evidently had a pretty poor opinion of the value of what usually went on there (17:21); and his verdict was not unshared.
Notes 17:16: Athens, the cultural center of the Greco-Roman world, renowned for the sculpture of Pheidias. But Paul’s spirit was provoked by its idols. The verb occurs in the Old Testament for God’s anger at Israel’s apostasy (Deuteronomy 9:18; Psalm 106:29). 17:19-20: “new teaching,” “strange things”; cf. the reaction to our Lord’s ministry (Mark 1:27; Luke 5:26), but for different reasons. Why? 17:21: Demosthenes, the Greek orator, had accused his fellow-Athenians of “going round and asking, Is anything new being said?” This is a human trait in every age, based on the false assumption that the latest vogue is the best. Theologians are not exempt.