In Thessalonica
17
📚Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue 📖. 17:1 Thessalonica was an important town about 150 kilometers west of Philippi.⚜
2 📚And Paul, as his habit was, went in to them and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, 3 📚explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ”. 4 📚And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, and with them a large number of devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
5 📚But the Jews who were not persuaded, moved with envy, took some wicked idlers from the marketplace, collected a crowd, and set all the city in an uproar, and rushed to the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 📚And when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 📚and Jason has shown them hospitality. And all of them are acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus”.
17:6-7 See Acts 16:20-21; John 19:12-16. Those who preach the truth are often regarded as troublemakers. Actually they are peacemakers – preaching peace between God and men (Matt 5:9; 10:34-36; 2 Cor 5:18-20). The world does not want what it needs most and hates those who would give it.⚜
8 📚And they stirred up the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 📚And when they had taken bail from Jason, and from the others, they let them go.
In Berea
10 📚And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away at night to Berea, who, upon their arrival, went into the Jewish synagogue.
17:10 Berea was nearly 100 kilometers west of Thessalonica.⚜
11 📚These Jews were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily to see if those things Paul taught were so. 12 📚Therefore many of them believed, and also some prominent Greek women and not a few of the men.
17:11-12 The Greek word translated “noble” originally meant of exalted birth, birth into an aristocratic family. Later it came to mean those of excellent qualities – generous in outlook toward others, free from base prejudices, open to truth and reason. These people in Berea showed their noble qualities in these ways: by eagerly hearing Christ’s servants, by searching the Bible to see if what they said was true, and by believing the truth when it became clear. Let all of us abandon prejudice, narrowness of mind, fear of others and fear of the truth, and follow the example of these Bereans. It will open up a great future for us.⚜
13 📚But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was being preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the people.
14 📚And so immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go as far as the sea coast, but Silas and Timothy still remained there.
15 📚And those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens, and receiving instructions from Paul for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they left.
17:15 Athens was about 300 kilometers south of Thessalonica. It was one of the most famous cities on earth, the birthplace of democracy, the home of art, language, literature, science and philosophy. It had been the native place of Socrates and Plato and the adopted city of Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno. In Paul’s day it was ruled by Rome and its glories were in the past, but it was still a cultural and intellectual center.⚜
In Athens
16 📚Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit within him was greatly agitated, when he saw that the city was full of idolatry.
17:16 Paul saw among the human glories of Athens a sinful people, abandoned to false religion. It was the sight of idols which so greatly “agitated” him (this Greek word could also be translated “was greatly provoked” or “stirred to anger” or “distressed”. It indicates strong emotion). This was because he knew God’s revelation concerning idolatry and because he loved Christ and the glory of God and the people who were so bound by their idols (Ex 20:1-6; Ps 115:2-8; Isa 40:18-26; 44:6-11; 2 Cor 5:13-14). In Rom 1:18-25 Paul revealed the dark truth which lies behind many shining forms of glory and beauty. In Athens he was greatly agitated at the evidence of the mixture of so much spiritual blindness with so much brains and ability – a thing we see today on every hand.⚜
17 📚Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout Greeks, and also in the marketplace daily with those who came near him.
18 📚Then some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some of them said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be proclaiming foreign gods”. This was because he was preaching to them the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
17:18 The philosophy of Epicurus (who lived 341–270 BC) emphasized pleasure as the chief end of life. In his view the best pleasure was not bodily pleasure, but the pleasure of the mind, a serene life free from pain, disturbing desires, fears, and anxiety about death. He believed there were many gods but that they took no interest in the lives of men. In Paul’s day the Epicureans had to some extent perverted the teachings of Epicurus and pursued bodily pleasure and actually glorified lust.
The Stoic philosophy was founded by Zeno (who lived 340–265 BC). He taught that men should live in harmony with nature, and that reason or design was the highest thing in nature. In theology he was a pantheist (thinking that God and the universe were joined, neither existing without the other). He thought of God as the soul of the world. He emphasized man’s ability to reason and his self-sufficiency.
Some of the followers of these two philosophers looked on Paul with arrogance and cynicism, calling him a “babbler”. Little did they know the difference between philosophy and what Paul preached. Philosophy is the speculation of men about the nature of reality, but Christ’s gospel is God’s revelation of reality and what men should do in the light of it (see notes on 1 Cor 1:17-25; Col 2:8).⚜
19 📚And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is about which you are talking?
17:19 The Aeropagus was the highest court of Athens and had jurisdiction over all religious matters. It had power either to forbid Paul to teach in the city or to give him liberty to do so.⚜
20 📚For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, and so 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 telling or hearing some new thing.)
17:21 Most of them were not seeking the truth but only novelties.⚜
22 📚Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious 📖.
17:22 This was quite true, but their religion was not according to reality and truth.⚜
23 📚For as I passed by and looked at the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
17:23 People erected such altars in other places in the Roman world. They did not want to leave out some god or God who might have power either to help or hurt them. The philosophers suggested Paul was advocating “foreign gods” (v 18). “No”, Paul says, “I proclaim the God whose altar is in this city – the God unknown to you but the only true and living God”.⚜
“Therefore, I am going to make known to you the one whom you worship without knowing. 24 📚God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,
17:24 Paul says the true God is the Creator of the universe, and not some sort of pantheistic deity or soul of the world. He bases this assertion on God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible – Gen 1:1; Ex 20:11; Ps 8:3; 19:1; Isa 40:28; 42:5; 45:12, 18. And the true God does not live in temples men have made – 1 Kings 8:27; Isa 66:1-2.⚜
25 📚nor is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives to everyone life, and breath, and everything else.
17:25 Paul emphasized the difference between the true God and idols. Idols must have care-taking by men. God has no needs (Ps 50:9-15) – He supplies to all people what they have (Acts 14:15-17; 1 Tim 6:17).⚜
26 📚And he has made from one blood every nation of man to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times set for them, and the boundaries of the regions where they live,
17:26 The one man was Adam (Gen 1:26-28). God has already determined the rise and fall of nations, the times of their opportunities to find Him, and the boundaries wherein they should live.⚜
27 📚so that they would seek the Lord, and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us;
17:27 God had this good purpose in all His dealings with the nations of earth. “Reach out” could be translated “grope” as in darkness (Isa 60:2; John 12:46). But God gave men enough light that they could seek Him if they wanted (John 1:9; Rom 1:19-20; Ps 19:1-4).⚜
28 📚for in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets also have said, we are also his offspring.
17:28 Paul here quotes from two poets of former times whose writings should have been familiar to his hearers. Paul certainly would not have endorsed all those poets wrote, but he extracted truth from their writings and used it to appeal to his hearers. Truth is truth wherever it may be found. God is not far from any person but surrounds us all. We need go on no pilgrimages to find Him. The Creator of the universe will always be found when men lift up their thoughts to Him and seek Him sincerely with their whole hearts. Compare Jer 29:13.⚜
29 📚“Since then we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that God’s nature is like gold or silver or stone, a thing carved by man’s art and design. 30 📚The times of such ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
17:30 Observe that he calls idolatry “ignorance”. Compare Rom 1:21-23; Isa 44:9, 18, 20. Athens had temples magnificent in architecture, and images highly prized as works of art. To Paul and to Paul’s Lord it was all evidence of the lack of wisdom in the Athenians. And all their philosophy, failing as it did to come to the knowledge of God, was nothing but brilliant ignorance (compare 1 Cor 1:19-25). Such words could not have pleased his hearers, but now Paul has reached the point at which he aimed from the beginning – their repentance. Notes on repentance at Matt 3:2, 8; Luke 13:1-5.
God commands all people to repent – all philosophers, all religionists, all idolaters, all men of learning and science, all in positions of authority, all ordinary people, everyone, everywhere. He does so because all are sinners (Rom 3:23), all need to be saved from sin, and He wants to save all (John 3:16; 1 Tim 2:4-5; 2 Pet 3:9).⚜
31 📚because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom he has ordained. He has given proof to all by raising him from the dead”.
32 📚And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, “We want to hear you again about this matter”.
17:32 Those who sneered only revealed their ignorance and lack of desire for the truth.⚜
33 So Paul went away from them. 34 📚However some men joined him and believed, among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and also a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
17:34 The gospel did not bear as much fruit in Athens as in some other places. There was little mind for serious enquiry there, and too much pride of intellect (vs 18,21,32). But Paul was able to win over a member of the highest court in the city.⚜