Acts 17:19

And they took him Better, took hold of him. (As R. V.) But there is no need to suppose that any violence was used or intended. The same verb is used often of taking by the hand to aid or protect (so Mark 8:23; Acts 23:19), and is the word by which the action of Barnabas is described (Acts 9:27) when "he tookPaul and brought him to the apostles." Moreover the whole context shews that the action of the crowd was in no sense that of an arrest, for we read (Acts 17:33) when his speech was done "Paul departed from among them," evidently having been under no kind of restraint.

and brought him unto Areopagus More clearly expressed if we read " the Areopagus." This place, the name of which is translated "Mars" hill" below in the text and here in the margin of the A.V., was an eminence to the west of the Acropolis at Athens. It was famous in classic literature as the meeting-place of the Athenian council of Areopagus which took its name from the place where it met. To this hill of Mars (Ares) the philosophers led St Paul, probably at a time when it was unoccupied (though some suppose that the court was sitting), that they might the better hear him away from the bustle of the market-place, and that he might more conveniently address a larger audience.

May we know The verb here rendered "may" = literally "are we able." But there is no doubt that its force is well given by the A.V. For the literal force "to be able" often merged itself in that of "to wish" or "to be willing." Cp. Luke 11:7, where the verb is translated "I cannot(I am not able to) rise and give thee," but the sense is "I don't wishto rise," for after importunity he does arise and do all that is asked. The Stoics and Epicureans were not likely to doubt their own abilityto understand all that St Paul might say to them.

what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is Better (with R. V.), "what this new doctrine is which is spoken by thee." The sense conveyed by the verb (λαλεῖν) is often in N. T. that of announcingor publishing, and the word is not unfrequently used of messages spoken by God or by his prophets (cp. Luke 1:45; Luke 1:55; Luke 1:70; Luke 24:25; Acts 3:21; Acts 3:24; James 5:10). The Apostle was not speaking to the Athenians aboutthe doctrine, his words were the doctrine.