So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
the unknown god - "He [Paul] unfolds the truth of God as a Person. He is a personal God and as such He made the world and all things therein. This truth was not owned by the Epicureans or the Stoics. The Epicureans with their atomic theory, that the universe came together by itself, and the Stoics with their cold Pantheism denied this fundamental truth. This bold announcement effectually set aside the philosophical babblings of these wise men, and these few words completely answer the modern Materialists and Pantheists. With the next sentence Paul lays bare the follies of paganism. As Lord of heaven and earth, because He is the Creator, He does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor can He be worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything. In this statement he leaned towards the expressions used by the epicureans, who declared that the divine nature is self sufficiency and needs nothing from us. But at the same time he rebukes the Stoics by showing that God giveth to all life, and breath and all things. He is the Preserver a well as the Creator. Next Paul shows that God created man and that all nations of men are made by Him of one blood. This was not believed in paganism. Polytheism was closely connected with the conception that the different races came into existence in different ways. The various races therefore had different racial gods. The Greeks had divided the world into two classes, Greeks and Barbarians. That they, the proud Greeks, had sprung from the same stock a the Barbarians must have humbled them greatly. It rebuked their national pride. All the Apostle said to the cultured Greeks, the great philosophers was elementary. The most simple truth about God and the origin of man could be not be discovered by the keenest intellect. How all this bears out the divine statement in Romans. 'Because having known God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves wise (philosophers) they became fools' (Rom 1:21-22)." (Gaebelein)
"We have evidence from Pausanias and Philostratus, who both knew Athens at a period a little later than St. Paul's visit, that there were altars there erected 'for unknown gods', so that we may well believe that the one which the apostle saw was not the only one of the kind. They were probably erected in consequence of some visitation or trouble by worshippers who did not know to what deity they should address their invocations. St. Paul made this inscription the text, so to speak, of his sermon. He used the Athenian worshipper's confessed ignorance of the name and character of the deity whom he addressed as the point of approach to the souls of his hearers." (Walker)
"Actually, the original does not say that Paul had beheld, or observed, their devotions, but that he had observed the objects of their devotion and that among these he had found 'an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD' (Ver. 23). 'this One, whom you worship as unknown,' said the apostle, 'I declare to you.' There is an evident allusion here to their charge in Verse 18, for the word 'declare' in Verse 23 is the same as 'set forth' in Verse 18. They said: 'He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods [Lit, demons or divinities].' He now replies: 'I set forth the true God [Gr. Theos, God] whom you worship as unknown.' Thus he pleads 'not guilty' to their charge of introducing 'strange divinities.' ... Thus in one short sentence the apostle dealt with the Stoics, who claimed that the universe was God, and with the Epicureans, who supposed that any gods who might exist were too far off to concern themselves with this planet. And tactfully rebuking the idolatry which both inconsistently engaged in, he went on to point out that, seeing God had made the universe and was Lord of it, He 'dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped [served] with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things' (Vers 24,25; cf. Psa 50:7-15)." (Stam)
v 24 - "Notice this echo of Stephen's words, which Paul had heard years before (Acts 7:48-50)." (Ryrie)
"Paul here employs some arguments and some of the exact words which Stephen had used before the Sanhedrin in a defense which Paul himself, then Saul, had doubtless heard (Acts 7:48-50). It is remarkable that it had been necessary to tell the leaders of Israel the same things as these pagan philosophers. They had missed the lesson which David had learned (Psa 51:16-17) looking upon the temple and altars and sacrifices themselves as sacred. Yet the very purpose of the Mosaic dispensation had been to show them that not only the moral law, but the ceremonial law was impotent to save the sinner (Heb 10:4)." (Stam)
Being then God's offspring - "Not in the sense that all have something of the divine in them, nor that all are His redeemed children, but that all people were created and given life by God." (Ryrie)
"This is a quotation from the Greek poet Aratus (270 B.C.), a Stoic from St. Paul's own Cilicia. Almost identical words occur in the hymn to Zeus of Cleanthes (300 B.C.) which was a sort of Stoic creed. While the apostle takes stanzas thus from Greek writers, he is not to be considered as in any way endorsing all the views they held. He merely uses their own confessions of a truth which they only dimly realized in order to lead on his hearers into clearer light. Similar quotations from the Greek classics occur in 1 Cor 15:33; Titus 1:12, shewing the apostle's acquaintance with them." (Walker)
now he commands all people everywhere to repent - "We repeat, however, that it is a matter of emphasis, for any sinner, believing, repents, in the nature of the case and here, where Paul was encountered by the champions of idolatry and had proclaimed to them the one true god, it is surely not strange that he should call for a change of heart and mind. Nor does this at all indicate that he proclaimed the same message as had Peter and the twelve. Indeed, several distinctions should here be noted: 1) They had specifically been instructed to preach repentance to the Jew first (Lk 24:47) while Paul here shows its relation to 'all men everywhere'; 2) They had been sent to preach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins (Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38) while Paul does not mention water baptism here and, indeed, state in 1 Cor 1:17 that he was not sent to baptize; 3) Paul clearly brought in repentance and judgment here as a background to the grace he would have proclaimed had he been allowed to proceed. This was another one of the interrupted discourses of the Book of Acts. To hold, then, that repentance has no place in the Pauline message is to misunderstand the nature of repentance, but on the other hand, to preach repentance, rather than grace, is to display ignorance of the message which the risen, ascended Lord committed to Paul and to us. As we have said, Paul was answering the champions of idolatry. Quite naturally he would, in such a case, cal upon them to repent and turn to the true God (Cf. 1 Thes 1:9). And quite naturally he would confirm what Peter had said with respect to our Lord's resurrection to 'judge the world in righteousness.'" (Stam)
he has given assurance - "Or, 'He hath furnished a guarantee'. The resurrection of our Lord is the guarantee alike that the risen One possesses the authority and power for His office a Judge (Rom 1:4; John v. 26-27), and that there will be a general resurrection of the dead followed by a righteous judgment (Rev 20:11-13)." (Walker)
some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” - "At Paul's mention of the resurrection his address was interrupted." (Stam)
Dionysius the Areopagite - "Membership in the Areopagus was a high distinction. There is no record of a church in Athens. Paul calls certain Corinthians the first converts on mainland Greece (1 Cor 16:15)." (Ryrie)
"A member, that is, of the august court of the Areopagus. As such, he was a man of weight and seniority, and had probably filled the office of 'archon' or chief magistrate. We know nothing further of him for certain." (Walker)
"'So Paul departed from among them.' His efforts had not been wholly in vain, for there were 'certain' who did believe; among them a woman (probably of some prominence) named Damaris, and one of the Areopagites themselves, named Dionysius. as a whole, however, the Athenians had proved that they were not the truly great of their day. They gloried, but in their shame." (Stam)
Damaris - "Supposed by some to be a variant of 'Damalis' (heifer), a name common among the Greeks. As it stands, however, it has a foreign sound, and it has been suggested that she was a foreigner of not very reputable character since it was not the custom of Greek women of respectability to appear in the public meeting of this kind." (Walker)
"Certain theologians have criticized Paul for failing to present the way of salvation in his speech at the Areopagus. It must be remembered, however, that he was brought to the Areopagus because he had been preaching 'Jesus, and the resurrection' (Ver 18) and it is unthinkable that he would not have proclaimed salvation through Christ had he been permitted to finish his address. His discourage before the philosophers at Athens was in fact a masterpiece of God-given wisdom and spiritual power. The dignity and sincerity of his manner, his skillful use of local circumstances, his rare combination of prudence and boldness, the powerful way in which he met human philosophy with divine revelation, the tactful, yet telling manner in which he exposed his hearers as ignorant idolaters, searching their consciences, warning them of judgment and calling upon them to repent and turn to God; the superb manner in which he appealed to the testimony of creation (father than to that of the Old Testament, as he would among the Jews) citing such of their poets as recognized any of the truths he proclaimed, and even using the inscription on their altar as his text, answering atheism, polytheism, pantheism, agnosticism, materialism and fatalism, all in the course of a few moments' time—all this marks his interrupted discourse on Mars Hill 'a speech such as became such a place, such a speaker and such an audience.'" (Stam)
the unknown god - "He [Paul] unfolds the truth of God as a Person. He is a personal God and as such He made the world and all things therein. This truth was not owned by the Epicureans or the Stoics. The Epicureans with their atomic theory, that the universe came together by itself, and the Stoics with their cold Pantheism denied this fundamental truth. This bold announcement effectually set aside the philosophical babblings of these wise men, and these few words completely answer the modern Materialists and Pantheists. With the next sentence Paul lays bare the follies of paganism. As Lord of heaven and earth, because He is the Creator, He does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor can He be worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything. In this statement he leaned towards the expressions used by the epicureans, who declared that the divine nature is self sufficiency and needs nothing from us. But at the same time he rebukes the Stoics by showing that God giveth to all life, and breath and all things. He is the Preserver a well as the Creator. Next Paul shows that God created man and that all nations of men are made by Him of one blood. This was not believed in paganism. Polytheism was closely connected with the conception that the different races came into existence in different ways. The various races therefore had different racial gods. The Greeks had divided the world into two classes, Greeks and Barbarians. That they, the proud Greeks, had sprung from the same stock a the Barbarians must have humbled them greatly. It rebuked their national pride. All the Apostle said to the cultured Greeks, the great philosophers was elementary. The most simple truth about God and the origin of man could be not be discovered by the keenest intellect. How all this bears out the divine statement in Romans. 'Because having known God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves wise (philosophers) they became fools' (Rom 1:21-22)." (Gaebelein)
"We have evidence from Pausanias and Philostratus, who both knew Athens at a period a little later than St. Paul's visit, that there were altars there erected 'for unknown gods', so that we may well believe that the one which the apostle saw was not the only one of the kind. They were probably erected in consequence of some visitation or trouble by worshippers who did not know to what deity they should address their invocations. St. Paul made this inscription the text, so to speak, of his sermon. He used the Athenian worshipper's confessed ignorance of the name and character of the deity whom he addressed as the point of approach to the souls of his hearers." (Walker)
"Actually, the original does not say that Paul had beheld, or observed, their devotions, but that he had observed the objects of their devotion and that among these he had found 'an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD' (Ver. 23). 'this One, whom you worship as unknown,' said the apostle, 'I declare to you.' There is an evident allusion here to their charge in Verse 18, for the word 'declare' in Verse 23 is the same as 'set forth' in Verse 18. They said: 'He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods [Lit, demons or divinities].' He now replies: 'I set forth the true God [Gr. Theos, God] whom you worship as unknown.' Thus he pleads 'not guilty' to their charge of introducing 'strange divinities.' ... Thus in one short sentence the apostle dealt with the Stoics, who claimed that the universe was God, and with the Epicureans, who supposed that any gods who might exist were too far off to concern themselves with this planet. And tactfully rebuking the idolatry which both inconsistently engaged in, he went on to point out that, seeing God had made the universe and was Lord of it, He 'dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped [served] with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things' (Vers 24,25; cf. Psa 50:7-15)." (Stam)
v 24 - "Notice this echo of Stephen's words, which Paul had heard years before (Acts 7:48-50)." (Ryrie)
"Paul here employs some arguments and some of the exact words which Stephen had used before the Sanhedrin in a defense which Paul himself, then Saul, had doubtless heard (Acts 7:48-50). It is remarkable that it had been necessary to tell the leaders of Israel the same things as these pagan philosophers. They had missed the lesson which David had learned (Psa 51:16-17) looking upon the temple and altars and sacrifices themselves as sacred. Yet the very purpose of the Mosaic dispensation had been to show them that not only the moral law, but the ceremonial law was impotent to save the sinner (Heb 10:4)." (Stam)
Being then God's offspring - "Not in the sense that all have something of the divine in them, nor that all are His redeemed children, but that all people were created and given life by God." (Ryrie)
"This is a quotation from the Greek poet Aratus (270 B.C.), a Stoic from St. Paul's own Cilicia. Almost identical words occur in the hymn to Zeus of Cleanthes (300 B.C.) which was a sort of Stoic creed. While the apostle takes stanzas thus from Greek writers, he is not to be considered as in any way endorsing all the views they held. He merely uses their own confessions of a truth which they only dimly realized in order to lead on his hearers into clearer light. Similar quotations from the Greek classics occur in 1 Cor 15:33; Titus 1:12, shewing the apostle's acquaintance with them." (Walker)
now he commands all people everywhere to repent - "We repeat, however, that it is a matter of emphasis, for any sinner, believing, repents, in the nature of the case and here, where Paul was encountered by the champions of idolatry and had proclaimed to them the one true god, it is surely not strange that he should call for a change of heart and mind. Nor does this at all indicate that he proclaimed the same message as had Peter and the twelve. Indeed, several distinctions should here be noted: 1) They had specifically been instructed to preach repentance to the Jew first (Lk 24:47) while Paul here shows its relation to 'all men everywhere'; 2) They had been sent to preach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins (Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38) while Paul does not mention water baptism here and, indeed, state in 1 Cor 1:17 that he was not sent to baptize; 3) Paul clearly brought in repentance and judgment here as a background to the grace he would have proclaimed had he been allowed to proceed. This was another one of the interrupted discourses of the Book of Acts. To hold, then, that repentance has no place in the Pauline message is to misunderstand the nature of repentance, but on the other hand, to preach repentance, rather than grace, is to display ignorance of the message which the risen, ascended Lord committed to Paul and to us. As we have said, Paul was answering the champions of idolatry. Quite naturally he would, in such a case, cal upon them to repent and turn to the true God (Cf. 1 Thes 1:9). And quite naturally he would confirm what Peter had said with respect to our Lord's resurrection to 'judge the world in righteousness.'" (Stam)
he has given assurance - "Or, 'He hath furnished a guarantee'. The resurrection of our Lord is the guarantee alike that the risen One possesses the authority and power for His office a Judge (Rom 1:4; John v. 26-27), and that there will be a general resurrection of the dead followed by a righteous judgment (Rev 20:11-13)." (Walker)
some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” - "At Paul's mention of the resurrection his address was interrupted." (Stam)
Dionysius the Areopagite - "Membership in the Areopagus was a high distinction. There is no record of a church in Athens. Paul calls certain Corinthians the first converts on mainland Greece (1 Cor 16:15)." (Ryrie)
"A member, that is, of the august court of the Areopagus. As such, he was a man of weight and seniority, and had probably filled the office of 'archon' or chief magistrate. We know nothing further of him for certain." (Walker)
"'So Paul departed from among them.' His efforts had not been wholly in vain, for there were 'certain' who did believe; among them a woman (probably of some prominence) named Damaris, and one of the Areopagites themselves, named Dionysius. as a whole, however, the Athenians had proved that they were not the truly great of their day. They gloried, but in their shame." (Stam)
Damaris - "Supposed by some to be a variant of 'Damalis' (heifer), a name common among the Greeks. As it stands, however, it has a foreign sound, and it has been suggested that she was a foreigner of not very reputable character since it was not the custom of Greek women of respectability to appear in the public meeting of this kind." (Walker)
"Certain theologians have criticized Paul for failing to present the way of salvation in his speech at the Areopagus. It must be remembered, however, that he was brought to the Areopagus because he had been preaching 'Jesus, and the resurrection' (Ver 18) and it is unthinkable that he would not have proclaimed salvation through Christ had he been permitted to finish his address. His discourage before the philosophers at Athens was in fact a masterpiece of God-given wisdom and spiritual power. The dignity and sincerity of his manner, his skillful use of local circumstances, his rare combination of prudence and boldness, the powerful way in which he met human philosophy with divine revelation, the tactful, yet telling manner in which he exposed his hearers as ignorant idolaters, searching their consciences, warning them of judgment and calling upon them to repent and turn to God; the superb manner in which he appealed to the testimony of creation (father than to that of the Old Testament, as he would among the Jews) citing such of their poets as recognized any of the truths he proclaimed, and even using the inscription on their altar as his text, answering atheism, polytheism, pantheism, agnosticism, materialism and fatalism, all in the course of a few moments' time—all this marks his interrupted discourse on Mars Hill 'a speech such as became such a place, such a speaker and such an audience.'" (Stam)
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