Acts 17:22

I perceive [θ ε ω ρ ω]. I regard you, in my careful observation of you. See on Luke 10:18.

Too superstitious [δ ε ι σ ι δ α ι μ ο ν ε σ τ ε ρ ο υ ς]. This rendering and that of the Rev., somewhat superstitious, are both unfortunate. The word is compounded of deidw, to fear, and daimwn, a deity. It signifies either a religious or a superstitious sentiment, according to the context. Paul would have been unlikely to begin his address with a charge which would have awakened the anger of his audience. What he means to say is, You are more divinity - fearing than the rest of the Greeks. This propensity to reverence the higher powers is a good thing in itself, only, as he shows them, it is misdirected, not rightly conscious of its object and aim. Paul proposes to guide the sentiment rightly by revealing him whom they ignorantly worship. The American revisers insist on very religious. The kindred word deisidaimonia occurs ch. 25 19, and in the sense of religion, though rendered in A. V. superstition. Festus would not call the Jewish religion a superstition before Agrippa, who was himself a Jew. There is the testimony of the Ephesian town - clerk, that Paul, during his three years' residence at Ephesus, did not rudely and coarsely attack the worship of the Ephesian Diana. "Nor yet blasphemers of your goddess" (Acts 19:37).