AREOPAGUS EGGHEADS VS. A SEED PICKER
ACTS 17:16-34
NASB
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. 18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were [a]conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this [b]idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” —because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him [a]to the [b]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is [c]which you are proclaiming? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
22 So Paul stood in the midst of the [a]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and [a]exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29 Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge [a]the world in righteousness [b]through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men [c]by raising Him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you [a]again concerning this.” 33 So Paul went out of their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
17:18 [a]Or disputing [b]I.e. one who makes his living by picking up scraps 17:19 [a]Or before [b]Or Hill of Ares, god of war [c]Lit which is being spoken by you 17:22 [a]Or the Council of the Areopagus 17:28 [a]Lit are 17:31 [a]Lit the inhabited earth [b]Lit by or in [c]Or when He raised 17:32 [a]Lit also again
NLT
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. 17 He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.
18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods.”
19 Then they took him to the high council of the city.[*] “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said. 20 “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” 21 (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
22 So Paul, standing before the council,[*] addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs —for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man[*] he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him —though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your[*] own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” 33 That ended Paul’s discussion with them, 34 but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council,[*] a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
[17:19] Or the most learned society of philosophers in the city. Greek reads the Areopagus. [17:22] Traditionally rendered standing in the middle of Mars Hill; Greek reads standing in the middle of the Areopagus. [17:26] Greek From one; other manuscripts read From one blood. [17:28] Some manuscripts read our. [17:34] Greek an Areopagite.
I’ve never had an easier time saying no than when I first received a call in 1995 from Jack Turpin, then chairman of the Dallas Seminary Board, and Dr. Don Campbell, the president. They were asking me to consider becoming the next president of the school, and never had I felt so unqualified for a position. Ministry I knew. Shepherding a church, I had done. Leading a collection of world-class theological academics, on the other hand, was not something I saw in my future. After a series of encouraging events and a lot of affirmation from family and trusted advisors, however, I began to accept the possibility that maybe I had something to offer these brilliant theologians, most of whom had an alphabet trailing after their names. I moved to Dallas with a simple objective: remain who I was, give them the best I had, and let God make it good enough. During those first few days, I had never felt so displaced from familiar territory!
So, I can easily imagine what Paul must have felt when he first saw Athens sprawled across the Attica Basin. For as long as anyone could remember, this city had been the epicenter of a culture that covered much of the known world and shaped its thinking. Most people in the Roman Empire spoke at least two languages: their own native tongue and Koine Greek. They worshiped Greek gods, appreciated Greek art, read Greek literature, and witnessed Greek drama. They even changed the way they looked at the universe because of this extraordinary city. Even as Paul looked across the basin to the Acropolis presiding over the capital of Western thought, he saw buildings already five hundred years old, testifying to the genius of a people who had taught the world to think. Paul would tailor his message to this new crowd without compromising the gospel in any way, and as a result he would meet with three common responses: rejection, acceptance, and tentative contemplation.
Barry Beitzel
The Acropolis of Athens is the peak of this ancient city. The most famous building still standing is the Parthenon, seen in the center of this photo.
On a smaller outcropping of a massive rock just 100 yards northwest of the Acropolis, philosophers met to debate, discuss, and discover truth. The Areopagus had a long history of oratory and debate. Since 500 BC —and perhaps even before —the Areopagus had been the site for political administration and judicial proceedings. Athenian democracy was born and nurtured there. In the centuries prior to Paul, some of the most venerated names in Greek history may have stood in that same place to speak. Themistocles, Aristides, Pericles, Socrates, perhaps even Aristotle and Plato could have addressed the political powers of their day on the rock. How many speeches were given? How much history was shaped? How many luminaries were privileged enough to address the historic council of the Areopagus? Thousands. Some of them we know as the greatest figures of western history. Yet today, when we hear the name “Mars Hill” (another name for the Areopagus), we immediately think of the words of a rabbi from Tarsus, a Jew of Jerusalem bearing good news from the east.
— 17:16-17 —
Luke doesn’t state whether Paul arrived by land or by sea. If by sea, he would have landed at the nearby port of Piraeus, about 5 miles away. In more ancient times, the Athenians fortified Piraeus and then enclosed the road to their own city with two massive walls 50 feet high. He would have walked a well-traveled road that led through the western Dipylon Gate and continued straight to the marketplace (agora [58]).[166] He certainly found lodging first, either with the help of his escorts or on his own. Naturally, Paul explored the ancient city, but not with the eye of an admiring tourist; what he saw sickened him. What we now regard as relics were, in Paul’s day, actively used for pagan worship. Tourists today visit Athens to appreciate the artwork, but those buildings were the implements of idolatry in the first century. Therefore, Athens represented a culture pulled in opposite directions.
On the one hand, “it was said that there were more statues of the gods in Athens than in all the rest of Greece put together, and that in Athens it was easier to meet a god than another person.”[167] The Greek gods became the principal deities of a thousand cultures, including that of Rome. Superstition kept the common man and woman in the dark and ruled their lives with fear; meanwhile, the extended tribe of Rome considered their worship synonymous with civil virtue and loyalty to the state.
On the other hand, the great philosophers of Greece had been arguing against the existence of gods for centuries. They favored a cosmology ruled by some other guiding force. They couldn’t agree on the exact nature of that spiritual entity —personal or nonpersonal, singular or plural, material or spiritual, good or ambiguous —but they did agree that it imposed on the world a set of laws and principles that could be studied, understood, predicted, and exploited. They rejected superstition, mythology, and sympathetic magic in favor of a rational scientific model. To avoid persecution, however, they gave a certain lip service to the gods, saying they existed and should be venerated but that they didn’t participate in human affairs.
The tension between the traditional pagans and the freethinking academics continued into Paul’s day. At the grassroots level, they met in the agora, where common people traded merchandise and exchanged ideas. That’s where Paul spent many of his days while waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him. At other times, he could be found in the synagogue reasoning with the Jews and Gentile proselytes.
— 17:18 —
Two major schools of Greek philosophy, the Epicureans and the Stoics, used similar vocabulary, but saw the universe very differently. Each derived its teachings from the two major divisions of Greek thought first conceived by Plato and Aristotle. The Epicureans, who tended to follow Aristotle’s ideas, believed that the universe consisted of atoms and that all of reality is essentially material, including the so-called spirit realm. Life begins when atoms come together and ends when they break apart; therefore, no afterlife exists. Because life is a random, orderless, chaotic collision of atoms, humans must use their free will to shape the world to suit themselves. While Epicureans didn’t advocate licentious living, they did believe pleasure should replace suffering because human existence ends with the grave.
The Stoics, who tended to follow Plato’s ideas, also believed the universe consisted of atoms, but they didn’t think this constituted all of reality. Like Plato, they pointed to the reality of love, logic, truth, and beauty to show that some things could exist apart from atoms and, in fact, transcend the material realm. For the Stoics, the mere fact that logic exists proved the existence of an overarching logic giving order to the universe. This logos was a cosmic, supernatural, nonpersonal mind that caused the universe to operate according to predictable laws. Human spirits were pieces of this divine mind trapped, as it were, in material bodies. Death reunited an individual’s mind with the cosmic logos. In the meantime, humans could commune with this divine mind through logic, meditation, and by ridding themselves of disruptive passions and distracting emotions.
These two factions debated endlessly, locked in a philosophical stalemate; both kept attracting new followers, but neither gained any ground against the other. They heard Paul preaching in the agora [58] and engaged him in debate; this is how they began conversing with him. The Greek word translated “conversing” (symballō [4820]) carries a back-and-forth idea —not exactly contentious, but not seeing eye to eye, either. In their style of Socratic question-and-answer dialogue, they showed a certain curiosity for his theology. Some called him an “idle babbler” (spermologos [4691]), a compound of two Greek terms, sperma (“seed” [4690]) and logos (“word,” “matter,” “idea” [3056]). It pictured a seed picker walking from place to place picking up seeds in order to plant them somewhere else. This person gathered ideas from various sources during his travels and then cobbled them together to form a new school of thought.
Others saw Paul’s teaching as dangerous to social order because he taught “strange deities.” Most philosophers dismissed the deities as too holy to be sullied by human interaction, effectively marginalizing the gods without actually denying their existence. Paul, on the other hand, taught a “strange” (xenos [3581]) new dogma, a foreign one about “Jesus and the resurrection,” which denied the Greek and Roman gods while advocating God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as the only real God.
— 17:19-21 —
So they took him to the Areopagus, the “Hill (pagos [697]) of Ares,” the Greek god of war. The equivalent Roman god is Mars, so we also call it Mars Hill.
Barry Beitzel
The Areopagus in Athens was where a council of Athenian poets and philosophers would meet with one another to discuss important issues.
The invitation to address the council of the Areopagus did not come merely out of benign curiosity. Luke comments that the people of Athens spent much of their time seeking something new to occupy their conversations (17:21). Still, at least one function of this council in ancient times was to pass judgment on a teaching to be certain it did not undermine the virtue and security of the state. Under Roman control, however, it’s unlikely that this council served this function in an official capacity; rather, it wielded popular influence as the voice of the official experts in all things religious and philosophical.
— 17:22-23 —
The job of a philosopher is to present a simple concept incomprehensibly and then to convince you it’s your fault for not understanding. Paul didn’t play the philosopher before this august group of philosophers. Paul gave a clear, simple, orderly presentation of the Judeo-Christian worldview, and then he drove them straight toward the final judgment and our need for salvation through the resurrected Christ. Even so, we should not see this as a complete transcription of his actual message. Luke’s rendering here spans only ten verses and takes fewer than three minutes to read —five if you speak slowly and allow for long, dramatic pauses.
Paul’s address, condensed as it is here, employs four significant features we should study, memorize, and duplicate when presenting the gospel to any group.
First, Paul approached his subject from the audience’s perspective. Paul’s opening statement (17:22) isn’t a compliment; it’s a statement of fact. He knew better than to attempt flattery, which would get him nowhere, especially with the intensely logical Stoics. He said, in effect, “You Athenians are very dedicated in your pursuit of spiritual knowledge.” It is ambiguous whether the term deisidaimōnia [1175] is good or bad. Depending upon the context, it could mean either “devout” or “superstitious.”
Second, Paul used the familiar to introduce the unfamiliar. He supported this opening statement with another observation of fact. Among the objects of “your worship” (note the pronoun) he had found an altar inscribed agnōstō theō, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” (17:23). Of course, the phrase is based on the two words agnōstos ([57], “not known”) and theos ([2316], “god”). The Athenians had an all-inclusive culture, accepting any and all gods. For fear of incurring the wrath of any god they overlooked, they erected an all-purpose, catchall shrine. Paul used this to build a bridge. He said, as it were, “Let me tell you about the one God you have overlooked in your quest for spiritual truth.”
— 17:24-29 —
Third, Paul developed his theme tactfully yet boldly and clearly. He unveiled the Creator God of the Bible by establishing four points, each building on the one before it.
1. As the Creator, God cannot be contained (17:24). Many Greeks and Romans struggled with the idea of a god that cannot be seen or at least depicted. The Hebrew God transcends creation, so nothing material can represent Him. Furthermore, He is infinite, whereas all the Greek gods of popular mythology were finite. God is omnipresent; the Greek gods were more like superhumans —immensely powerful, but suffering the same limitations as the creatures of earth. Paul established the vast superiority of God to all the Greek deities combined.
2. As the Originator, God has no needs (17:25). The Greek gods were petty and vain; they could be bribed with enough flattery or sufficient sacrifices. Worship consisted of giving the gods enough of what they wanted in order to release their particular, specialized blessings. This made them merchants or hirelings of humanity. The trick for the worshiper was to discover a god’s material weakness and exploit it to personal advantage. But God has no needs; He cannot be bribed or manipulated; He instead provides for the needs of people by His own choice.
3. As the Sovereign of the universe, He has a purpose and He is accessible (17:26-27). Even though His ultimate power and complete transcendence make God impervious to flattery, bribery, or manipulation, He is neither remote nor aloof. The sophisticated Epicureans and Stoics both regarded their gods as too holy and dignified to dirty their hands with the affairs of humanity. The Hebrew God, however, remains intimately involved with His creation, participating daily in its administration. In a way, this personal deity is like the Stoic concept of the logos, which guides creation with laws of nature according to a set plan toward a specific destiny. But unlike this impersonal force, God longs to be known. The goal to which He drives the universe is Himself. In Christianity, the ultimate destiny of the universe is to acknowledge God as King.
4. As the Source of life, God does not depend upon us; we depend upon Him (17:28-29). The Epicureans believed that humans were not created by a logos or any other overarching creator and that we certainly don’t have a purpose. Each life is the result of atoms coming together, perhaps randomly, and if we have any purpose, it is one we make for ourselves.[168] Against this notion, Paul insisted that our existence comes out of God’s existence. We exist because He said we should; therefore, each life has dignity and purpose and worth. At the end of physical life, we do not cease to exist, because we are more than atoms and the Creator is more powerful than mere material. We will continue to exist after death because the Creator wants us to.
To support the reasonableness of this last point, Paul quoted a legendary (literally) poet and philosopher whom the Athenians revered like the Hebrews venerated Moses. Epimenides wrote a poem about Zeus after supposedly receiving the gift of prophecy. In response to critics who claimed Zeus was a mere mortal, the poem declares “In him we live and move and exist.”[169] Paul quoted this line, not to affirm the existence of Zeus or to equate God with Zeus, but to demonstrate the reasonableness of believing in a personal God, contrary to the Stoics and Epicureans, whose logic led them to conclude that the Greek gods remained aloof. He also quoted the words of the third century BC poet Aratus of Soli (in Cilicia, Paul’s home province), who wrote of Zeus, “We are also his offspring.”[170]
— 17:30 —
Fourth, Paul applied his principles to the needs of his audience. Whereas the pagan gods of Athens selfishly wanted to be served and would grant blessing in return for flattery or bribery, the God of the Old Testament wants people to repent so He can grant them unmerited favor. He wants to save all people from the terrible ordeal of the final judgment. This concept, of course, departed from the teachings of both the Epicureans and the Stoics. Epicureans didn’t believe in an afterlife, so the question of judgment was nonsense. Stoics believed that rejoining the logos after death was its own reward; no judgment awaited anyone.
— 17:31 —
Paul’s next point not only departed from the worldview of Greek philosophy, it shattered it. Paul dropped a bombshell into their concept of the universe: resurrection. The Epicureans and Stoics couldn’t agree on many points, but they both declared the idea of resurrection absurd.
For the Epicureans, who believed death was the disassembly and dissemination of one’s atoms —which became parts of a billion other things —resurrection required the destruction of those other things in order to be reassembled. For the Stoics, who embraced death as one’s reunification with the logos, resurrection re-created the problem death had solved. Paul spoke no further.
— 17:32-34 —
The concept of resurrection split the group and brought the meeting to an abrupt, spontaneous close. While Paul’s sermon didn’t convince the majority, Luke nevertheless names two converts among “others” (17:32) who became disciples that day. The man designated as “the Areopagite” (17:34) was a member of the council of Areopagus, the governing body in charge of Mars Hill and responsible for passing judgment on religious ideas. A woman named Damaris who had attended, and perhaps participated actively in the meeting, also became a believer. Luke’s abbreviated closure of the episode suggests Paul remained in Athens long enough to strengthen the new disciples and to establish a community to sustain them long term. That was, after all, Paul’s procedure everywhere he went.
APPLICATION: ACTS 17:16-34
Mixed Audiences
Paul’s message had accomplished its purpose. He didn’t expect to change six hundred years of philosophy in one speech. He never made it his goal to supplant this ancient worldview with the gospel through one sermon. He would instead set inexorable change in motion while gathering a handful of God’s elect in the process. The response to Paul’s sermon is typical, so we should take note. His presentation prompted three common responses (17:18, 32-34).
First, instant rejection (17:18). It did not surprise Paul to see some dismiss him immediately as a kook; their worldview made no room for the truth. He had seen this response many times before, quite often in the synagogues. He would preach the gospel, reasoning with the Jews and Gentile proselytes from the Old Testament Scriptures, only to have his irrefutable logic provoke a violent response from a relatively small yet volatile segment. Not everyone present in religious services and lecture halls has a desire for truth. If it can happen to a Spirit-filled apostle with a brilliant mind and flawless delivery, it will happen to us.
Second, immediate acceptance (17:34). Luke states that some joined him and believed. I take this to mean they asked some follow-up questions, heard the rest of the gospel, and trusted in Christ for their salvation. No resistance. No hesitation. Like dry sponges, they soaked up the truth Paul offered and believed with little or no resistance. This was a response the apostles had encountered many times as well. Early in his ministry among the Gentiles in Antioch, Paul had learned that proclaiming the gospel is a culling process. Therefore, he didn’t preach to convince skeptics as much as to sift the multitudes for God’s elect and establish them in self-sustaining communities.
Third, tentative contemplation (17:32). Still others remained open to the radical new idea Paul called resurrection. They neither accepted immediately nor rejected instantly, and they intended to delve deeper and learn more. This is perhaps the most common response of all. Some people use contemplation as a means of polite rejection, but many earnestly desire to know more while struggling to overcome one or another issue. Like the man whose sight returned slowly (Mark 8:23-25), the truth comes into focus gradually, sometimes after repeated exposure to the gospel.
Dr. Mark Bailey, the president of Dallas Theological Seminary, used to conduct an informal experiment with large classes of students. He asked everyone in the room to raise a hand and hold it there. Then he said, “If you responded to the gospel the first time you heard it, lower your hand.” Typically, very few hands would go down. “If you responded to the gospel the second time, lower your hand.” A few more fell. “The third time.” And so on.
Quite often, he would get to five or more before half the people would lower their hands. That’s because tentative contemplation is quite often the most common response to the gospel.
Jesus commanded us to “be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8). He calls us merely to testify to what we know, not to be successful deal closers. That’s not in our power. We have a duty to offer our best, to know our audiences, to prepare well when possible, to deliver the good news with conviction, and to communicate clearly —but success is God’s responsibility. If we are faithful, the Lord will see to the success.