Kretzmann's Popular Commentary
Acts 17:20
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things mean.
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know, therefore, what these things mean.
Verse Acts 17:20. _THOU BRINGEST - STRANGE THINGS TO OUR EARS_] The doctrine of the apostles was different from any they had ever heard: it was wholly spiritual and divine; thus it was _strange_: it...
CERTAIN STRANGE THINGS - Literally, something pertaining to a foreign country or people. Here it means something unusual or remarkable - something different from what they had been accustomed to hear...
CHAPTER 17 _ 1. The Gospel in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1)._ 2. The Gospel in Beroea (Acts 17:10). 3. Paul in Athens (Acts 17:15). Three cities in which the Gospel is next preached are before us in thi...
PAUL AT ATHENS. Athens was at this time no longer the intellectual centre of the world, nor the best of the leading schools of philosophy; but the fame of the city drew many to it, and a visit to Athe...
IN THESSALONICA (Acts 17:1-9)...
When Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was deeply vexed as he saw the whole city full of idols. He debated with the Jews and the worshippers in the synagogue and every day he talked in t...
STRANGE. Greek. _xenizo,_ to treat as _xenos_ (Acts 17:18), hence to lodge. See Acts 10:6; Acts 10:18; Acts 10:23;...
_strange things_ The original is not an adjective, but a participle, and signifies "something which strikes a person as strange." So that the effect is indicated which had been produced on the minds o...
PAUL, PROVOKED BY THE PREVALENCE OF IDOLATRY AT ATHENS, FIRST ADDRESSES THE JEWS AND THEN THE GENTILES. SOME OF THE PHILOSOPHERS QUESTION HIM ON HIS TEACHING, AND BRING HIM TO THE AREOPAGUS THAT THEY...
ΤΊΝΑ ΘΈΛΕΙ with אAB. _Vulg_. ‘quidnam velint.’ 20. ΞΕΝΊΖΟΝΤΑ ΓΆΡ ΤΙΝΑ, _certain strange things_. Literally ‘things striking us as strange.’ The word implies the effect produced on the minds of the hea...
_AN ALTAR TO AN UNKNOWN GOD ACTS 17:16-23:_ While Paul waited for his co-workers his spirit was stirred by all the idolatry in Athens. He saw a city "full of idols." Paul had discussions, (1) in the S...
ΞΕΝΊΖΟΝΤΑ _praes. act. part. от_ ΞΕΝΊΖΩ (G3579) принимать как гостя, развлекать, поражаться или удивляться чему-л. новому или странному. Part, в роли _subst._, "удивительные вещи" (BAGD). ΕΙΣΦΈΡΕΙΣ _...
IN ATHENS. Acts 17:14 b - Acts 17:34. a. The brethren from Berea go with Paul as far as Athens and take back a command for the coming of Silas and Timothy. Acts 17:14 b -...
See notes on verse 19...
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. FOR THOU BRINGEST CERTAIN STRANGE THINGS, [ xenizonta (G3579) tina (G5100)] - 'certain foreign-...
19 The hill called the Areopagus (Latin, Mars' Hill), just a few steps above the Market Place, was a most fitting forum for the folly of God to defeat the wisdom of the world. At Rome Paul's weakness...
SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY (CONTINUED) 1-15. Thessalonica and Berœa. 1. Amphipolis] 32 m. W. of Philippi. APOLLONIA] 30 m. W. of Amphipolis. THESSALONICA] now Salonika, was the capital of the provin...
ATHENS. After leaving Berœa, St. Paul entered the Roman province of Achaia, which was at this time a senatorian province, governed by a proconsul, and of which the capital was Corinth. He first visite...
GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE ACTS _MARION ADAMS_ CHAPTER 17 PAUL AND SILAS GO TO THESSALONICA, 17:1-4 V1 Paul and Silas travelled through Amphipolis and Apollonia. They came to Thessalonica. There was...
THOU BRINGEST CERTAIN STRANGE THINGS. — The adjective stands for a Greek participle, _things that startle,_ or _leave an impression of strangeness. _...
CHAPTER 12 ST. PAUL IN MACEDONIA. Acts 16:29; Acts 17:1; Acts 17:10 TROAS was at this time the termination of St. Paul's Asiatic travels. He had passed diagonally right through Asia Minor, followin...
CHAPTER 12 ST. PAUL IN MACEDONIA. Acts 16:29; Acts 17:1; Acts 17:10 TROAS was at this time the termination of St. Paul's Asiatic travels. He had passed diagonally right through Asia Minor, followin...
ξενίζοντα : rather perhaps startling or bewildering than strange so too in Polyb., _cf._ 1 Peter 4:12, but see Grimm-Thayer, _sub v._ Ramsay renders “some things of foreign fashion” as if the words we...
STIRRED BY IDOLATRY Acts 17:13 From the first, the gospel was baptized in the fire of persecution. How unutterable the loneliness and sorrow of the Apostle as he reached Athens! Did doubt ever enter...
At Thessalonica and Berea the apostle visited the synagogues, and again in each case persecution arose from the Jews. A sentence which fell from the lips of the leader of the mob shows with what rapid...
Paul and the Athenian Philosophers While he waited, Paul apparently toured the city and discovered it was totally given over to idolatry. This provoked, or one might say angered, him. He went to the s...
PAUL AT ATHENS 16-33. While Timothy and Silas prosecute the work in the upper country, Paul and Luke spend the time at Athens, the world's grand emporium of science, literature, philosophy, and idolat...
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. (17) Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout p...
We now enter on the missionary journeys, as they are called, of the apostle Paul. The work, under the Spirit, opens to the glory of the Lord. Not merely are Gentiles met in grace and brought into the...
_‘STRANGE THINGS’_ ‘Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears.’ Acts 17:20 When St. Paul was speaking to the bystanders in the agora, the learned men of the Stoics and Epicureans sects, obse...
In the last case it was the power exercised by the enemy over the passions of the Gentiles that caused the persecution of the apostles: at Thessalonica we again find the old and universal enmity of th...
FOR THOU BRINGEST CERTAIN STRANGE THINGS TO OUR EARS,.... Strange doctrines and strange deities, such as they had never heard of before: WE WOULD KNOW THEREFORE WHAT THESE THINGS MEAN; they desire he...
For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. Ver. 20. _For thou bringest certain strange things_] Or, new, never heard of, ξενιζοντα. Yet now...
_And_ The crowd increasing to a greater number than could conveniently hear him, in the place where they then were; _they took and brought him unto Areopagus_ Or, _the hill of Mars_, dedicated to Mars...
From Philippi Paul and his company travelled westward in Greece to Thessalonica (also in Macedonia). A Jewish synagogue being there, they attended this for three sabbath days, reasoning with the Jews...
FOR YOU ARE BRINGING SOME STRANGE THINGS TO OUR EARS. THEREFORE WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT THESE THINGS MEAN. " 1. Thayer explains the meaning of "strange" things that they were hearing. The word "strange...
"For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but e...
16-21 Athens was then famed for polite learning, philosophy, and the fine arts; but none are more childish and superstitious, more impious, or more credulous, than some persons, deemed eminent for le...
The greatest objection which these men had against the gospel was, that it was strange and new. That it is not new was apparent, it having been in the Old Testament (as the ripe fruit is in the blosso...
Acts 17:20 For G1063 bringing G1533 (G5719) some G5100 things G3579 (G5723) to G1519 our G2257 ears...
‘And they took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you? For you are bringing certain strange things to our ears. We would...
EFFECTIVE MINISTRY IN ATHENS (17:15-34). His Berean guides saw Paul safely to Athens. This had not been where he was originally aiming for. After Thessalonica his intention had probably been to procee...
FOR THOU BRINGEST CERTAIN STRANGE THINGS (ξενιζοντα γαρ τινα εισφερεις). The very verb used by Xenophon (_Mem_. I) about Socrates. Ξενιζοντα is present active neuter plural participle of ξενιζω and...
Acts 17:20 God of the Times of Ignorance. Notice three general principles which we shall do well to have clearly in mind always when we read our Bibles. I. There is a progress in the Divine revelati...
CONTENTS: Founding of church at Thessalonica and the Jewish opposition. Paul and Silas at Berea. Paul at Athens and the sermon from Mars' hill. CHARACTERS: Christ, Paul, Silas, Jason, Caesar, philoso...
Acts 17:1. _When they had passed through Amphipolis._ Boiste adds the Roman name _Emboli._ It was built by Simon, the Athenian commander. It stood on an island formed in the river Strymon, and was cal...
SO THEY TOOK PAUL. _Areopagus_ was the name of both the hill and the group which met there. [Mars-hill is a Latin name applied to it.] This group compared to our Supreme Court, Remember that Athens wa...
_And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athena _ PAUL AT ATHENS I. The place which the apostle visited. Athens. II. The feelings of which he was the subject. Not of admiration at the masterp...
_CRITICAL REMARKS_ Acts 17:16. ATHENS.—Described by Milton (_Paradise Regained_, Acts 4:20) as “the eye of Greece,” and “the mother of arts and eloquence.” The capital of Attica was situated about fiv...
EXPOSITION ACTS 17:1 AMPHIPOLIS. This was the ancient capital of that division of Macedonia (Macedonia Prima); see Acts 16:12, note. It was situated on the Via Egnatia, thirty-four miles southwest f...
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews (Acts 17:1): Now Luke passes that off in one verse. From Philippi to Amph...
1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Peter 4:4;...
Strange [ξ ε ν ι ζ ο ν τ α]. A participle : surprising. Compare 1 Peter 4:4; 1 Peter 4:12....