UNKNOWN GOD . St. Paul, wandering along the streets of Athens, saw an altar bearing the dedication, ‘To an Unknown God’ ( Acts 17:23 ). He used this as the text of his sermon before the Areopagus. There is evidence in other ancient writers in favour of the existence of such a dedication, and the conjecture may be permitted that the altar was erected as a thank-offering for life preserved in some foreign country, the name of the proper divinity of which a very important thing in Greek ritual was unknown to the person preserved.
A. Souter.