Bible Commentaries
Acts 17

Verse 3

Opening and alleging. The latter word is rather propounding, or setting forth [παρατιθεμενος] . See on set before, Luke 9:16; and commit, 1 Peter 4:19. Bengel remarks, "Two steps, as if one, having broken the rind, were to disclose and exhibit the kernel."

Verse 4

Consorted with [προσεκληρωθησαν] . Only here in New Testament.

More strictly, "were added or allotted to."

Chief women. The position of women in Macedonia seems to have been exceptional. Popular prejudice, and the verdict of Grecian wisdom in its best age, asserted her natural inferiority. The Athenian law provided that everything which a man might do by the counsel or request of a woman should be null in law. She was little better than a slave. To educate her was to advertise her as a harlot. Her companions were principally children and slaves. In Macedonia, however, monuments were erected to women by public bodies; and records of male proper names are found, in Macedonian inscriptions, formed on the mother's name instead of on the father 's. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property, and were treated as mistresses of the house. These facts are born out by the account of Paul 's labors in Macedonia. In Thessalonica, Beroea, and Philippi we note additions of women of rank to the church; and their prominence in church affairs is indicated by Paul 's special appeal to two ladies in the church at Philippi to reconcile their differences, which had caused disturbance in the church, and by his commending them to his colleagues as women who had labored with him in the Lord (Philippians 4:2, Philippians 4:3).

Verse 5

Of the baser sort [αγοραιων] . From ajgora, the market - place; hence loungers in the market - place; the rabble. Cicero calls them subrastrani, those who hung round the rostra, or platform for speakers in the forum; and Plautus, subbasilicani, the loungers round the court - house or exchange. The word occurs only here and ch. 19 38, on which see note. Gathered a company [οχλοποιησαντες] . Rev., better, a crowd.. Only here in New Testament.

Verse 6

Rulers of the city [πολιταρχας] . Another illustration of Luke's accuracy. Note that the magistrates are called by a different name from those at Philippi. Thessalonica was not a colony, but a free city (see on colony, ch. 16 12), and was governed by its own rulers, whose titles accordingly did not follow those of Roman magistrates. The word occurs only here and verse 8, and has been found in an inscription on an arch at Thessalonica, where the names of the seven politarchs are mentioned. The arch is thought by antiquarians to have been standing in Paul 's time.

Verse 7

Contrary to the decrees of Caesar. The charge at Philippi was that of introducing new customs; but as Thessalonica was not a colony, that charge could have no force there. The accusation substituted is that of treason against the emperor; that of which Jesus was accused before Pilate. "The law of treason, by which the ancient legislators of the republic had sought to protect popular liberty from the encroachments of tyranny,... was gradually concentrated upon the emperor alone, the sole impersonation of the sovereign people. The definition of the crime itself was loose and elastic, such as equally became the jealousy of a licentious republic or of a despotic usurper" (Merivale, " History of the Romans under the Empire ").

Verse 9

Security [το ικανον] . See on Luke 7:6. Bail, either personal or by a deposit of money. A law term. They engaged that the public peace should not be violated, and that the authors of the disturbance should leave the city.

Verse 11

Searched. Or examined. See on Luke 23:14.

Verse 12

Honorable women. See on verse 4, and Mark 14:43.

Verse 13

They that conducted [καθιστωντες] . Lit., brought to the spot. Note the different word employed, ch. 14 3 (see note there).

Verse 16

Was stirred [παρωξυνετο] . Better, as Rev., provoked. See on the kindred word contention [παροξυσμος] , ch. 14 39.

Saw [θεωρουντι] . Better, beheld. See on Luke 10:18.

Wholly given to idolatry [κατειδωλον] . Incorrect. The word, which occurs only here in the New Testament, and nowhere in classical Greek, means full of idols. It applies to the city, not to the inhabitants. "We learn from Pliny that at the time of Nero, Athens contained over three thousand public statues, besides a countless number of lesser images within the walls of private houses. Of this number the great majority were statues of gods, demi - gods, or heroes. In one street there stood before every house a square pillar carrying upon it a bust of the God Hermes. Another street, named the Street of the Tripods, was lined with tripods, dedicated by winners in the Greek national games, and carrying each one an inscription to a deity. Every gateway and porch carried its protecting God. Every street, every square, nay, every purlieu, had its sanctuaries, and a Roman poet bitterly remarked that it was easier in Athens to find gods than men" (G. S. Davies, " St. Paul in Greece ").

Verse 18

Epicureans. Disciples of Epicurus, and atheists. They acknowledged God in words, but denied his providence and superintendence over the world. According to them, the soul was material and annihilated at death. Pleasure was their chief good; and whatever higher sense their founder might have attached to this doctrine, his followers, in the apostle 's day, were given to gross sensualism.

Stoics. Pantheists. God was the soul of the world, or the world was God. Everything was governed by fate, to which God himself was subject. They denied the universal and perpetual immortality of the soul; some supposing that it was swallowed up in deity; others, that it survived only till the final conflagration; others, that immortality was restricted to the wise and good. Virtue was its own reward, and vice its own punishment. Pleasure was no good, and pain no evil. The name Stoic was derived from stoa, a porch. Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, held his school in the Stoa Paecile, or painted portico, so called because adorned with pictures by the best masters.

Babbler [σπερμολογος] . Lit., seed - picker : a bird which picks up seeds in the streets and markets; hence one who picks up and retails scraps of news. Trench (" Authorized Version of the New Testament ") cites a parallel from Shakespeare :

" This fellow picks up wit as pigeons peas, And utters it again when Jove doth please.

He is wit's peddler, and retails his wares At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs " Love 's Labor 's Lost, 5, 2 Setter - forth [καταγγελευς] . See on declare, verse 23. Compare 1 Peter 4:4, 1 Peter 4:12.

Strange. Foreign.

Verse 19

Areopagus. The Hill of Mars : the seat of the ancient and venerable Athenian court which decided the most solemn questions connected with religion. Socrates was arraigned and condemned here on the charge of innovating on the state religion. It received its name from the legend of the trial of Mars for the murder of the son of Neptune. The judges sat in the open air upon seats hewn out in the rock, on a platform ascended by a flight of stone steps immediately from the market - place. A temple of Mars was on the brow of the edifice, and the sanctuary of the Furies was in a broken cleft of the rock immediately below the judges' seats. The Acropolis rose above it, with the Parthenon and the colossal statue of Athene. "It was a scene with which the dread recollections of centuries were associated. Those who withdrew to the Areopagus from the Agora, came, as it were, into the presence of a higher power. No place in Athens was so suitable for a discourse upon the mysteries of religion" (Conybeare and Howson). 23

Verse 20

Strange [ξενιζοντα] . A participle : surprising. Compare 1 Peter 4:4, 1 Peter 4:12.

Verse 21

All the Athenians. No article. Lit., "Athenians, all of them." The Athenian people collectively.

Strangers which were there [οι επιδημουντες ξενοι] . Rev., more correctly, the strangers sojourning there. See on 1 Peter 1:1.

Spent their time [ευκαιρουν] . The word means to have good opportunity; to have leisure : also, to devote one's leisure to something; to spend the time. Compare Mark 6:31; 1 Corinthians 16:12.

Something new [τι καινοτερον] . Lit., newer : newer than that which was then passing current as new. The comparative was regularly used by the Greeks in the question what news? They contrasted what was new with what had been new up to the time of asking. The idiom vividly characterizes the state of the Athenian mind. Bengel aptly says, "New things at once became of no account; newer things were being sought for." Their own orators and poets lashed them for this peculiarity.

Aristophanes styles Athens the city of the gapers (" Knights, " 1262). Demades said that the crest of Athens ought to be a great tongue.

Demosthenes asks them, "Is it all your care to go about up and down the market, asking each other, 'Is there any news?'" In the speech of Cleon to the Athenians, given by Thucydides (iii., 38), he says : "No men are better dupes, sooner deceived by novel notions, or slower to follow approved advice. You despise what is familiar, while you are worshippers of every new extravagance. You are always hankering after an ideal state, but you do not give your minds even to what is straight before you. In a word, you are at the mercy of your own ears."

Verse 22

I perceive [θεωρω] . I regard you, in my careful observation of you. See on Luke 10:18.

Too superstitious [δεισιδαιμονεστερους] . This rendering and that of the Rev., somewhat superstitious, are both unfortunate. The word is compounded of deidw, to fear, and daimwn, a deity. It signifies either a religious or a superstitious sentiment, according to the context. Paul would have been unlikely to begin his address with a charge which would have awakened the anger of his audience. What he means to say is, You are more divinity - fearing than the rest of the Greeks. This propensity to reverence the higher powers is a good thing in itself, only, as he shows them, it is misdirected, not rightly conscious of its object and aim. Paul proposes to guide the sentiment rightly by revealing him whom they ignorantly worship. The American revisers insist on very religious. The kindred word deisidaimonia occurs ch. 25 19, and in the sense of religion, though rendered in A. V. superstition. Festus would not call the Jewish religion a superstition before Agrippa, who was himself a Jew. There is the testimony of the Ephesian town - clerk, that Paul, during his three years' residence at Ephesus, did not rudely and coarsely attack the worship of the Ephesian Diana. "Nor yet blasphemers of your goddess" (Acts 19:37).

Verse 23

As I passed by [διερχο. μενος] . More strictly, "passing through [δια] " your city, or your streets.

Beheld [αναθεωρων] . Only here and Hebrews 13:7. Rev :, much better, observed. The compound verb denotes a very attentive consideration (ajna, up and down, throughout).

Devotions [σεβασματα] . Wrong. It means the objects of their worship - temples, altars, statues, etc.

An altar [βωμον] . Only here in New Testament, and the only case in which a heathen altar is alluded to. In all other cases qusiasthrion is used, signifying an altar of the true God. The Septuagint translators commonly observe this distinction, being, in this respect, more particular than the Hebrew scriptures themselves, which sometimes interchange the word for the heathen altar and that for God 's altar. See, especially, Joshua

Acts 17:22where the altar reared by the Transjordanic tribes is called, bwmov, as being no true altar of God (vv. 10, 11, 16, 19, 23, 26, 34); and the legitimate altar, qusiasthrion (vv. 19, 28, 29).

To the unknown God [αγνωστω θεω] . The article is wanting. Render, as Rev., to an unknown God. The origin of these altars, of which there were several in Athens, is a matter of conjecture. Hackett's remarks on this point are sensible, and are born out by the following words : "whom therefore," etc. "The most rational explanation is unquestionably that of those who suppose these altars to have had their origin in the felling of uncertainty, inherent, after all, in the minds of the heathen, whether their acknowledgment of the superior posers was sufficiently full and comprehensive; in their distinct consciousness of the limitation and imperfection of their religious views, and their consequent desire to avoid the anger of any still unacknowledged God who might be unknown to them. That no deity might punish them for neglecting his worship, or remain to all the gods named or known among them, but, distrustful still lest they might not comprehend fully the extent of their subjection and dependence, they erected them also to any other God or power that might exist, although as yet unrevealed to them.... Under these circumstances an allusion to one of these altars by the apostle would be equivalent to his saying to the Athenians thus : 'You are correct in acknowledging a divine existence beyond any which the ordinary rites of your worship recognize; there is such an existence. You are correct in confessing that this Being is unknown to you; you have no just conceptions of his nature and perfections. '" Ignorantly [αγνοουντες] . Rather, unconsciously : not knowing. There is a kind of play on the words unknown, knowing not. Ignorantly conveys more rebuke than Paul intended.

Declare I [καταγγελλω] . Compare kataggeleuv, setter - forth., in verse

Acts 17:18Here, again, there is a play upon the words. Paul takes up their noun, setter - forth, and gives it back to them as a verb. "You say I am a setter - forth of strange gods : I now set forth unto you (Rev.) the true God."

Verse 24

God. With the article : "the God."

The world [τον κοσμον] . Originally, order, and hence the order of the world; the ordered universe. So in classical Greek. In the Septuagint, never the world, but the ordered total of the heavenly bodies; the host of heaven (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3; Isaiah 24:21; Isaiah 40:26). Compare, also, Proverbs 17:6, and see note on James 3:6. In the apocryphal books, of the universe, and mainly in the relation between God and it arising out of the creation. Thus, the king of the world (2 Macc. 7 9); the creator or founder of the world (2 Maec. 7 23); the great potentate of the world (2 Macc. 12 15). In the New Testament : 1. In the classical and physical sense, the universe (John 17:5; John 21:25; Romans 1:20; Ephesians 1:4, etc.). 2. As the order of things of which man is the center (Matthew 13:38; Mark 16:15; Luke 9:25; John 16:21; Ephesians 2:12; 1 Timothy 6:7). 3. Humanity as it manifests itself in and through this order (Matthew 18:7; 2 Peter 2:5; 2 Peter 3:6; Romans 3:19). Then, as sin has entered and disturbed the order of things, and made a breach between the heavenly and the earthly order, which are one in the divine ideal - 4. The order of things which is alienated from God, as manifested in and by the human race : humanity as alienated from God, and acting in opposition to him (John 1:10; John 12:31; John 14:18, John 14:19; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:15, etc.). The word is used here in the classical sense of the visible creation, which would appeal to the Athenians. Stanley, speaking of the name by which the Deity is known in the patriarchal age, the plural Elohim, notes that Abraham, in perceiving that all the Elohim worshipped by the numerous clans of his race meant one God, anticipated the declaration of Paul in this passage (" Jewish Church, "1, 25). Paul 's statement strikes at the belief of the Epicureans, that the world was made by" a fortuitous concourse of atoms, " and of the Stoics, who denied the creation of the world by God, holding either that God animated the world, or that the world itself was God.

Made with hands [χειροποιητοις] . Probably pointing to the magnificent temples above and around him. Paul 's epistles abound in architectural metaphors. He here employs the very words of Stephen, in his address to the Sanhedrim; which he very probably heard. See ch. Acts 7:48.

Verse 25

Is worshipped [θεραπευεται] . Incorrect. Rendel; as Rev., served. Luke often uses the word in the sense of to heal or cure; but this is its primary sense. See on Luke verse 15. It refers to the clothing of the images of the gods in splendid garments, and bringing them costly gifts and offerings of food and drink.

As though he needed [προσδεομενος] . Properly, "needed anything in addition [προς] to what he already has."

Verse 26

Before appointed [προτεταγμενους] . The Rev., properly, omits before, following the reading of the best texts, prostetagmenouv, assigned.

Bounds [οροθεσιας] . Only here in New Testament. The word, in the singular, means the fixing of boundaries, and so is transferred to the fixed boundaries themselves.

Verse 27

Might feel after. See on handle, Luke 14:39. Compare Tennyson :

"I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all."

In Memoriam, 55

Verse 28

We are also his offspring. A line from Aratus, a poet of Paul 's own province of Cilicia. The same sentiment, in almost the same words, occurs in the fine hymn of Cleanthes to Jove. Hence the words, "Some of your own poets."

Verse 29

The Godhead [το θειον] . Lit., that which is divine.

Like to gold, etc. These words must have impressed his hearers profoundly, as they looked at the multitude of statues of divinities which surrounded them.

Graven [χαραγματι] . Not a participle, as A. V., but a noun, in apposition with gold, silver, and stone : "a graving or carved work of art," etc.

Verse 30

Winked at [υπεριδων] . Only here in New Testament. Originally, to overlook; to suffer to pass unnoticed. So Rev., overtooked.

Verse 32

Resurrection. This word was the signal for a derisive outburst from the crowd.

Mocked [εχλευαζον] . From cleuh, a jest. Only here in New Testament, though a compound, diacleuazw, mock, occurs, according to the best texts, at ch. 2 13. The force of the imperfect, began to mock, should be given here in the translation, as marking the outbreak of derision. In this remarkable speech of Paul are to be noted : his prudence and tact in not needlessly offending his hearers; his courtesy and spirit of conciliation in recognizing their piety toward their gods; his wisdom and readiness in the use of the inscription "to the unknown God," and in citing their own poets; his meeting the radical errors of every class of his hearers, while seeming to dwell only on points of agreement; his lofty views of the nature of God and the great principle of the unity of the human race; his boldness in proclaiming Jesus and the resurrection among those to whom these truths were foolishness; the wonderful terseness and condensation of the whole, and the rapid but powerful and assured movement of the thought.

Verse 34

Clave. See on Luke 10:11; Luke 14:15; Acts 5:13.

The Areopagite. One of the judges of the court of Areopagus. Of this court Curtius remarks : "Here, instead of a single judge, a college of twelve men of proved integrity conducted the trial. If the accused had an equal number of votes for and against him, he was acquitted. The Court on the hill of Ares is one of the most ancient institutions of Athens, and none achieved for the city an earlier or more widely spread recognition. The Areopagitic penal code was adopted as a norm by all subsequent legislators" (" History of Greece, " 1, 307).