Bible Commentaries
Acts 17

Verses 1-34

XVII 1-9 At Thessalonica —1. The modern Salonica, 100 m. along the Egnatian Way, was a large port with a mixed population, which included a large Jewish colony. 3. See on 3:18, and for the Resurrection, 26:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3. ’And that this Jews whom I preach to you is the Christ4. A few Jews were converted and many proselytes and Gentiles, cf.1 Thess 1-2. 5. See 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. Jason must have been well known since his name is introduced without explanation; cf.Romans 16:21. ’The people’ is probably the Demos or Assembly of the free city.

6. St Luke calls the rulers by their correct but unusual title of ’Politarchs’, which various inscriptions confirm. ’These men, who have turned the world upside down are here also’. The MSS of Vg read ’urbem’ instead of ’orbem’; cf. 26:26.

7. cf. the accusations against our Lord. St Paul had spoken about the spiritual Messianic Kingdom.

8. ’The crowd and the Politarchs were disturbed when they heard this’.

9. The Politarchs realized that the Jewish accusations were unfounded, and were content to take security for the good behaviour of the Christians. St Paul departs, anxious to avoid difficulties for the church and his host Jason. 838a

10-15 At Beroea —10. Then a large town, 50 m. S. of Thessalonica, near Mt Olympus, and with a large Jewish population.

14. Silas and Timothy remained with the newly founded church. St Paul went by sea. The land route took much longer. It seems that he had intended to follow the Egnatian Way to Dyrrachium and Rome, but was deflected by the persecutions, Romans 15:19, Romans 15:22.15. Silas and Timothy rejoined St Paul at Corinth, 18:5, yet Timothy was with St Paul at Athens, 1 Thessalonians 3:1, 1 Thessalonians 3:2. Probably both rejoined St Paul at Athens, only to be sent at once to strengthen the new churches in Macedonia, whence they proceeded later to Corinth.

16-21 St Paul at. Athens —16. Athens which had been pillaged by Sulla in 86 b.c. and was no longer even a provincial capital, preserved most of its statues and temples intact. It was still one of the intellectual and artistic capitals of the world. Its combination of idolatry and intellectual pride was peculiarly repellent to St Paul, who entered the city from Piraeus, along a road on which stood idols and shrines, cf. 1 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Corinthians 10:19, 1 Corinthians 10:20.

17. In the market or Agora the Athenians indulged their passion for argument, 21. In it stood the portico, the Stoa Poikile, which gave the Stoics their name.

18. St Luke mentions the two rival schools, the Stoics, pantheistic materialists with a high idea. of duty, aiming at a life in accord with reason, as a protection against the ills of life, and the Epicureans, also materialists and making the prudent seeking of pleasure the end of life. St Paul was not a stranger to philosophy, for which Tarsus was noted, the Stoic Athenodoras flourishing there early in the 1st cent. ’Wordsower’, lit. a magpie, collector of seeds, hence ’picker up of gossip’, and so contemtemptuously, a babbler. Some commentators think that the Athenians seem to have taken ’the Resurrection ’for a goddess’s name!

19-20. The Areopagus, the highest judicial court, so-called because it met on the Hill of Ares, took cognizance of religious matters, and possessed enormous influence and prestige. Nothing in the context or in St Paul’s attitude suggests that he is on trial. This has led some to see in ’Areopagus’ merely a name for the Hill of Ares, just below the Acropolis. 21. All the details in these verses can be corroborated from pagan sources.

22-31 St Paul’s Discourse to the Athenians —All things to all men, St Paul adapts himself to his frivolous intellectual audience. He quotes the Gk poets, not the OT.

22-25 (1) The true God is the Creator of all things. —22. St Paul addresses the Athenians by the same title as Demosthenes. The word tr. ’superstitious’ means ’fearer of the gods’ and can have a good or bad sense. St Paul wishes to win them and calls them ’extremely religious’.

23. Pausanias and others record that there were several altars to unknown gods in Athens. The altar was erected to whatever god it might be who needed thanking or placating. St Paul takes the title in a mystical sense, and defends himself from the charge of setting forth new gods, 18.

24. Even Plato and Aristotle had not quite arrived at the truth of an absolute Creator. The Epicureans attributed the world to chance, and the Stoics held matter to be eternal; cf.Isaiah 42:5.25. Gifts and food were offered for the use of the gods.

26-29 (2). He made Man to His Own Image and for Himself —26. God ’from one man’ caused every nation to dwell on the earth. The argument is from the unity of the human race. Each nation had its separate god from whom it claimed to originate. Since the human race originates from one man made by God, there is only one God. He has not merely arranged seasons, as in 14:16, and geographical boundaries. His Providence in history fixes the times of prosperity and the territorial limits of the nations; cf.Job 12:23.

27. Man who was made to seek after God, is like one feeling his way in the dark; cf.1 Corinthians 13:12. Because of this and of the nearness of God, the pagan is without excuse: cf.Romans 1:20.28. We depend utterly on God. After what St Paul had said of God the Creator his words could have no pantheistic meaning. The poets are Aratus, Cleanthes and Epimenides, speaking of Zeus.

30-31 (3) They are called to repent because they will be judged by One who rose from the Dead —30. This kind of ignorance does not excuse, but lessens, guilt, cf.Romans 1:20. From 14:16 we see that God has never left himself without witness. Now all men in all places must ’repent’. The Epicureans held that God did not occupy himself with man, and the Stoics that man was sufficient for himself. Neither’ saw the need to turn to God and repent.

31. St Paul omits the Holy Name for which the Athenians were not prepared. God has given faith, or rather a motive for faith, to all by raising Christ from the dead. Or perhaps the Resurrection is given as a proof of the General Resurrection as in 1 Corinthians 15:12 ff. Hebrew thought did not separate body and soul in the way we do. For all to be judged all must be raised from the dead.

32-34 Effect of the Discourse —32. St Paul was listened to only while he spoke of the nature of God and Providence. His teaching about our Lord was cut short. Epicureans and Stoics, unlike Plato, denied the soul’s immortality, but all alike thought the resurrection of the body an absurdity. St Paul was coldly dismissed.

33-34. Here alone in his preaching does St Paul seems to have met with little success. Pride of intellect was more impervious to the Gospel than pagan licentiousness; cf.1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Denis became the first bishop of Athens, Eus., HE III, 4.