Acts 17:21

All the Athenians. No article. Lit., "Athenians, all of them." The Athenian people collectively.

Strangers which were there [ο ι ε π ι δ η μ ο υ ν τ ε ς ξ ε ν ο ι]. Rev., more correctly, the strangers sojourning there. See on 1 Peter 1:1.

Spent their time [ε υ κ α ι ρ ο υ ν]. The word means to have good opportunity; to have leisure : also, to devote one's leisure to something; to spend the time. Compare Mark 6:31; 1 Corinthians 16:12.

Something new [τ ι κ α ι ν ο τ ε ρ ο ν]. Lit., newer : newer than that which was then passing current as new. The comparative was regularly used by the Greeks in the question what news? They contrasted what was new with what had been new up to the time of asking. The idiom vividly characterizes the state of the Athenian mind. Bengel aptly says, "New things at once became of no account; newer things were being sought for." Their own orators and poets lashed them for this peculiarity.

Aristophanes styles Athens the city of the gapers (" Knights, " 1262). Demades said that the crest of Athens ought to be a great tongue.

Demosthenes asks them, "Is it all your care to go about up and down the market, asking each other, 'Is there any news?'" In the speech of Cleon to the Athenians, given by Thucydides (iii., 38), he says : "No men are better dupes, sooner deceived by novel notions, or slower to follow approved advice. You despise what is familiar, while you are worshippers of every new extravagance. You are always hankering after an ideal state, but you do not give your minds even to what is straight before you. In a word, you are at the mercy of your own ears."