Acts 17:21

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19 And they took him and brought him to the¹ Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?

20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”

21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the¹ Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;

23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

24 ^a“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^bLord of heaven and earth, ^cdoes not dwell in temples made with hands.

25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^agives to all life, breath, and all things.

26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^athe boundaries of their dwellings,

27 ^aso that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^bthough He is not far from each one of us;

28 for ^ain Him we live and move and have our being, ^bas also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^awe ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

30 Truly, ^athese times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^bnow commands all men everywhere to repent,

31 because He has appointed a day on which ^aHe will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^braising Him from the dead.”

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”

33 So Paul departed from among them.

34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Acts 17:21

All the Athenians and strangers which were there - As Athens was renowned for its wisdom and learning, it became a place of public resort for philosophers and students from different parts of the then civilized world. The flux of students was in consequence great; and these, having much leisure time, would necessarily be curious to know what was passing in the world, and would frequently assemble together, in places of public resort, to meet with strangers just come to the city; and either, as St. Luke says, to tell or hear some new thing.

"The Athenian writers give the same account of their fellow citizens. Demosthenes, in his reply to Epist. Philippi, represents the Athenians as , ; inquiring, in the place of public resort, if there are any News. We find, likewise, that when Thucydides, iii. 38, had said, Ϛ , Ye are excellent in suffering yourselves to be deceived by Novelty of speech, the old scholiast makes this remark upon it, (almost in the words of St. Luke), . , , ; He here blames the Athenians, who made it their only business to tell and hear something that was New." - Bp. Pearce. This is a striking feature of the city of London in the present day. The itch for news, which generally argues a worldly, shallow, or unsettled mind, is wonderfully prevalent: even ministers of the Gospel, negligent of their sacred function, are become in this sense Athenians; so that the book of God is neither read nor studied with half the avidity and spirit as a newspaper. These persons, forgetful not only of their calling, but of the very spirit of the Gospel, read the account of a battle with the most violent emotions; and, provided the victory falls to their favourite side, they exult and triumph in proportion to the number of thousands that have been slain! It is no wonder if such become political preachers, and their sermons be no better than husks for swine. To such the hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. God pity such miserable Athenians, and direct them to a more suitable employment!

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Addressing the Areopagus

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