Acts 17:22

Acts 17:22. In the midst of Mars' Hill, or ‘in the midst of the Areopagus.' Wordsworth thus describes the place: ‘Sixteen stone steps, cut in the rock at its south-east angle, lead up to the hill of the Areopagus from the valley of the Agora (the “market”), where Paul had been disputing (Acts 17:17), which lies between it and the Pnyx. Immediately above these steps, on the level of the hill, is a bench of stone excavated in the limestone rock, forming three sides of a quadrangle. There the Areopagites sat... On this hill are now the ruins of a small church dedicated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and commemorating his conversion by St. Paul. The apostle was brought perhaps by these steps of rock, which are the natural access to the summit, from the Agora below, in which he had been conversing, to give an account of the doctrines which he preached. Here, placed as he was in the centre of this platform in the very heart of Athens, with its statues, and altars, and temples of deities around him, he might well say the city was “ crowded with idols.”

Amidst all the memories which were associated with this dread spot, still looked upon, even in the days of decay and partial ruin which had come upon Athens, by the people with superstitious reverence, Paul spoke his famous words, pressing his crucified Master's strange, sweet doctrines home to the citizens of the great idol city. It was the proclamation of the religion of the future (though they guessed it not then) in the face of the dying religion of the past.

Paraphrase of the Speech.

Ye men of Athens. His first words gracefully expressed the joy he felt at seeing the deeply reverential spirit of the Athenians, for among the almost countless altars of deities he had come upon one with the inscription running round it, ‘To the Unknown God.' This shrine to the ‘Unknown' seemed to speak of their wish to pay a homage to some Divine Being whom they felt was near to them, but whose nature and attributes had not as yet been revealed to them. This ‘revelation' was his high mission, to tell them of that ‘Great Unknown' whose existence and whose majesty this solitary, nameless altar, at least, showed they suspected.

The God who, as Creator of all, is the true God, seeing He is Lord of all, He, the apostle went on to say, glancing round at the splendid temples about him, dwells in no earth-made house, and needs no earthly service, seeing He provides His creatures with everything. Out of ‘one' did this true God create the whole human race destined to spread over all the earth, providing for the regular order of the seasons, and appointing their natural boundaries to each race; and all this He did in order that they might in time seek after the Architect of the glorious order of creation, who never forced them, however, to recognise Him as Lord, but left this seeking for the true God to their own free impulse, and waited for their spiritual longings to seek out and find the unseen Spirit God, who all the while was so near the spirit of each man. Had not one of their own poets come very near the discovery of this great truth the nearness of the true God to each one of us?

Seeing, then, the connection between God and man is really so close, the Spirit God so near to each man's spirit, surely we must never seek for Him in any earthly representation, however beautiful and costly, never in any image hewn by man, be it of marble, of silver, or of gold.

For ages men have missed this lofty truth, the very foundation of all true religion. Is it not surely high time to awake out of this sleep of ages? See how God, for the sake of Jesus Christ (of whom Paul then, or on some previous occasion, had told.them), forgives the past, and, giving a new and clearer revelation, bids men change their lives, and live hereafter as though expecting a resurrection of the body and a day of judgment: strange thoughts to them, but it was no mere ungrounded assertion of his (Paul's). God had indeed given man an earnest of His purpose eventually to raise the bodies of the dead, seeing He had already raised up from the dead their future judge, Jesus Christ.

In all things ye are too superstitious. The words in the English translation, ‘too superstitious,' fail to express the graceful courtesy of Paul. It is observable in all the apostle's letters, whenever he rapidly proceeded to blame, he invariably begins with winning, gentle words (see for a good instance of this practice of St. Paul the Second Epistle to the Corinthian Church). The Greek μονεστέρους English Version, ‘too superstitious' signifies ‘more than ordinarily reverential.' The force of the comparative is thus preserved, and also the touch of surprise which evidently was intended to be conveyed by the apostle a surprise stirred up by the unusual appearance of the streets and open places of Athens, literally crowded with altars, shrines, and statues of deities. The word δεισιδαίμων may be translated either as ‘religious ‘or ‘superstitious,' in a good sense or in a bad sense. The meaning is left to be determined by the context of the passage. Chrysostom employs the word in a good sense, as does Josephus frequently. The usual German translation is Gottesfurchtig.

This characteristic of the Athenian people was often noticed by writers. Thus Sophocles, in the Oed. Col., says they surpassed all the world in the honours they offered to the gods. Xenophon relates how, in comparison with other peoples, they observed twice the number of festivals (De Repub. Athen.). Pausanias tells us they exceeded all others in their piety toward the gods (Attic.). Josephus especially mentions that the Athenians were the most religious of the Greeks (Contra Apion).