Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Clave unto him and believed (kollhqentev autw episteusan). First aorist passive of this strong word kollaw, to glue to, common in Acts (Acts 5:13; Acts 8:29; Acts 9:26; Acts 10:28) No sermon is a failure which leads a group of men (andrev) to believe (ingressive aorist of pisteuw) in Jesus Christ. Many so-called great or grand sermons reap no such harvest.
Dionysius the Areopagite (Dionusiov o Areopagithv). One of the judges of the Court of the Areopagus. That of itself was no small victory. He was one of this college of twelve judges who had helped to make Athens famous. Eusebius says that he became afterwards bishop of the Church at Athens and died a martyr.
A woman named Damaris (gunh onomati Damariv). A woman by name Damaris. Not the wife of Dionysius as some have thought, but an aristocratic woman, not necessarily an educated courtezan as Furneaux holds. And there were "others" (eteroi) with them, a group strong enough to keep the fire burning in Athens. It is common to say that Paul in I Corinthians 2:1-5 alludes to his failure with philosophy in Athens when he failed to preach Christ crucified and he determined never to make that mistake again. On the other hand Paul determined to stick to the Cross of Christ in spite of the fact that the intellectual pride and superficial culture of Athens had prevented the largest success. As he faced Corinth with its veneer of culture and imitation of philosophy and sudden wealth he would go on with the same gospel of the Cross, the only gospel that Paul knew or preached. And it was a great thing to give the world a sermon like that preached in Athens.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 17:34:
Acts 5:13
2 Corinthians 1:1
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