Acts 17:21

Ἀθην. δὲ πάντες : “now all Athenians,” without any article, a characteristic of the whole people, cf. Acts 27:4, but see Ramsay, Expositor, October, 1895, p. 274, and Blass, Gram., p. 157. ἐπιδημοῦντες : “sojourning there,” R.V., A.V. takes no notice of the word = resident strangers: “ unde iidem mores,” Bengel; on the population of Athens see F. C. Conybeare, “Athens,” Hastings' B.D.; Renan, Saint Paul, pp. 183, 185, 187. εὐκαίρουν : “had leisure for nothing else,” R.V. margin, cf. Mark 6:21 (only elsewhere in N.T. in 1 Corinthians 16:12), used by Polyb., Rutherford, New Phrynichus, p. 205. How fatally the more important interests of life were sacrificed to this characteristic (note imperfect tense), restless inquisitiveness, their great orator, Demosthenes, knew when he contrasted this idle curiosity with the vigour and ability of Philip of Macedon, Philippic I., p. 43. The words go to support the interpretation that there was no formal indictment, but they do not destroy the view that there may have been an examinaton into the Apostle's teaching, Curtius, u. s., p. 529. καινότερον : certainly there is, as Blass says, “mirus consensus” as to this characteristic of the Athenians; see instances in Wetstein: Dem., Philippic I., 43, and Philipp. Epist., 156, 157; Thuc., iii., 38; Theophr., Char., iii., περὶ λογοποΐας μὴ λέγεταί τι καινότερον; cf. Seneca, Epist., 74. Lit [310], “some newer thing,” something newer than that which had just preceded it as new up to the time of asking. The comparative may therefore indicate more vividly the voracious appetite of the Athenians for news, although it may be also said that the comparative was the usual degree used by the Greeks in the question What news? (usually νεώτερον); indeed their fondness for using the comparative of both νέος and καινός is quite singular (Page, see also Winer-Moulton, xxxv., 4; Blass, Gram., p. 138). The words of Bengel are often quoted, “nova statim sordebant, noviora quærebantur,” but it should be noted that he adds “ Noviora autem quærebant, non modo in iis quæ gentilia accidunt; sed, quod nobilius videtur, in philosophicis,” see for a practical and forcible lesson on the words, F. D. Maurice, Friendship of Books, pp. 84, 85.

[310] literal, literally.