Acts 17:23 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Acts 17:23

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,

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Acts 17:23

as I passed by and beheld your devotions—rather, "the objects of your devotion," referring, as is plain from the next words, to their works of art consecrated to religion.

I found an altar . . . To the—or, "an"

unknown god—erected, probably, to commemorate some divine interposition, which they were unable to ascribe to any known deity. That there were such altars, Greek writers attest; and on this the apostle skilfully fastens at the outset, as the text of his discourse, taking it as evidence of that dimness of religious conception which, in virtue of his better light, he was prepared to dissipate.

Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship—rather, "Whom, therefore, knowing Him not, ye worship," alluding to "The Unknown God."

him declare—announce.

I unto you—This is like none of his previous discourses, save that to the idolaters of Lycaonia (Acts 14:15-17). His subject is not, as in the synagogues, the Messiahship of Jesus, but THE LIVING GOD, in opposition to the materialistic and pantheistic polytheism of Greece, which subverted all true religion. Nor does he come with speculation on this profound subject—of which they had had enough from others—but an authoritative "announcement" of Him after whom they were groping not giving Him any name, however, nor even naming the Saviour Himself but unfolding the true character of both as they were able to receive it.

Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Acts 17:23:

Isaiah 66:17
Jeremiah 17:1
1 Corinthians 1:21

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Addressing the Areopagus

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning