Acts 17:21

ἢ for καὶ before ἀκούειν with אABD. Vulg. ‘aut.’

21. This verse is a parenthesis explanatory of what has gone before. The audience had been struck with the strange teaching, and that it was strange was enough. Novelty was their life’s pursuit. So without having any regard for the importance of the teaching, they were ready to listen because it was new.

οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι, the strangers sojourning there. The place was famous and hunters after novelty came thither from every quarter.

ηὐκαίρουν. The verb signifies (1) to have a convenient time, and then uniquely here (2) to make leisure for, to give up time to any pursuit. The imperfect tense implies that this was their constant state of mind.

καινότερον. The comparative is noteworthy. The Athenians are by it represented as thirsting ever for something ‘newer still.’ What had been heard at once became stale. This character of the Athenian populace is confirmed by many statements of classical authors. In Thuc. III. 38 Cleon is represented as complaining of his countrymen that they were in the habit of playing the part of ‘spectators in displays of oratory, and listeners to the stories of what others had done’; and a like charge is made more than once by Demosthenes in his speeches on the vigorous policy of Philip of Macedon, which he contrasts with the Athenian love of talk and news.