Acts 17:19

Acts 17:19. Brought him unto Areopagus. On this spot, writes Howson (St. Paul), ‘ a long series of awful causes connected with crime and religion had been determined, beginning with the legendary trial of Mars [Ares], which gave to the place the name of “Mars' Hill.” A temple of this god was built on the brow of the eminence, and an additional solemnity was given to the place by the sanctuary of the Furies (Eumenides) in a broken cleft of the rock, immediately below the Judges' seats.' It has been much disputed whether or no Paul was arraigned formally as an accused before the Areopagites on the charge of introducing strange gods into the city, a ‘religio,' consequently ‘illicita.' In discussing this question, the powers and functions of the once famous court in the days of Paul must be considered. The position of the Athenian magistrates, in the time of Paul, was one of peculiar difficulty, owing to the hostile attitude of the city in the wars which resulted in the establishment in supreme power of Augustus and his successors. Its privileges as a ‘free city' were only left to is by the clemency of the emperors, who were unwilling to punish a place which possessed the ‘memories of Athens.' These privileges, however, were only held during the Caesars' pleasure. The once famous and powerful Court of the Areopagus at most could only pretend to a jurisdiction over the city and its immediate neighbourhood. It seems, however, to have laid claim to and wielded powers far greater and more comprehensive than a merely local magisterial jurisdiction. Far beyond Athens, the decisions of the Council of the Areopagites in matters connected with law, morals, medicine, religious rites, etc., were received with respectful attention. They seem rather to have exercised the functions of an influential and widely respected academy or university, than the restricted and jealously watched duties of a local criminal court in a suspected privileged city. Before such a body of men Paul was probably courteously invited to set forth at length those ‘strange religious doctrines' he had been preaching with such marked success in the Macedonian cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The question of the judges, the speech of Paul, and the terms in which his subsequent dismissal by the court is related, in no way bear out the supposition that anything like a formal trial took place that day on the hill of Mars.