Now Paul is in Athens and his presence in the synagogue and marketplace has drawn the attention of a group of philosophers who want to know more about his strange, “new doctrine”. As already discussed, the thing that brought Paul’s message to their attention was his mention of a foreign deity names Jesus and His resurrection. And, the fact that they took Paul to the Areopagus to be examined tells us they thought he was dangerous and needed to be exposed as the fraud they believed he was.
So, in Acts 17:22 we see Paul at Mars Hill where this court or council was held. His first statement to them is, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are most reverent to your deities.” This is where the KJV has “too superstitious”, a translation that could be construed as negative or critical. It is translated from deisidaimonesteros; the comparative of deisidaimon, reverence of deity, the comparative then would be “most reverent” (remember, though daimonion, or rather its diminutive form daimon, is used in the N.T. to describe evil spirits, in Greek culture it described the deity connected to an idol). All this to make it clear that Paul begins his message with a compliment, not a criticism.
Then in the next verse Paul gets their attention with this in verse 23, “And as I walked along observing your objects of worship, I saw an altar with the inscription TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you are worshipping as unknown, I will proclaim to you.” He continues in the next 6 verses to tell them about this God Who is unknown to them: He formed the world and everything in it, so is not confined to shrines built by men (verse 24); He doesn’t need anything men could give Him, since He gives life, breath and all things to all people (verse 25); He made from one source all nations of men and determined when they would exist and where they would live (verse 26); He involved Himself in the affairs of men in the hope they would seek after Him and find Him (verse 27); it’s because of Him we live and move and even exist, as some have said, “we are His offspring” (from genos, family) (verse 28); and since we’re like Him, we should not assume that He is made of gold, silver or stone, or represented by any image made by man.
In those 6 verses Paul contrasts the false concepts of idol worship with the existence of the One true God. And in the next verse (30) we find an important spiritual principle, which is: God holds us responsible for the revelation we have. In other words, regardless of whether it’s on a national level or a personal one, He holds us responsible to be obedient, loyal and faithful to what He has revealed to us. Here’s what Paul says, “In the past God winked at this ignorance, but now commands all people everywhere to repent.”
Let’s stop and look at this verse in some detail and set the context, as some have a tendency to misunderstand it. First of all “winked at” is from hupereido, and means, to overlook, and in some cases, to not punish (probably the best meaning here). Then, “ignorance” is agnoia, the want of knowledge, which leads to wrong conduct. Agnoia does not hold responsible the one who does wrong in ignorance. Peter uses the same word in I Peter 1:14 and its meaning is clear from this expanded translation, “Be obedient children, not following the evil desires you had in your former ignorance (before you understood the requirements of the Gospel).”
Let me explain with this example. God revealed Himself to Israel and prohibited idolatry. They knew it was wrong! So, when they gave in to pagan influence and slipped into idolatry, God punished them, severely. But, did God punish the pagans in the same way? No, because they were ignorant. Godless, idolatrous nations were allowed to flourish at different times, in different places, as God had a purpose for that in His plan for the ages. But those people still died without God and without hope.
Now, back to the last part of verse 30, “but now commands all people everywhere to repent.” Then Paul continues (in verse 31), “Because He has set a day when He will judge the world with perfect justice by the Man He has appointed, and has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” In other words, Paul is explaining that God had tolerated idolatry in the past and had not punished those who practiced it in ignorance. But now He demands that it not continue and men turn from it with a true knowledge of Who God really is.
And at this point I’m pretty sure it was Paul’s plan to begin to explain Who Jesus is, what He did and why He is the Son of God. But, he never got the chance. “And when they heard there had been a resurrection from the dead, some of them jeered, but others said they wanted to hear him again.” (Verse 32) Then the crowd must have started to leave because the next verse tells us Paul went away. Remember, the Areopagus was only a civil court with no real legal authority. Paul was free to go without any restrictions.
However, it’s clear from verse 34 that this was not the end of this issue. “But a few men joined him (Paul) and believed, among them was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris and several others.” Obviously, Dionysius was a member of the council. There are several men of the same name thought to be the first bishop of Athens, and Corinth, though the dates ascribed might be suspect. The Roman church claims Dionysius as one of their saints, portrayed as the patron saint of lawyers.
The next verse (Acts 18:1) says, “After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” Here, again, is one of those undefined time gaps. We don’t know how long Paul stayed in Athens. All we know is that when he left, there were a few believers there. However, there are a couple of things we can conclude. First of all, Paul never mentions a fellowship in Athens, nor do we see any evidence he ever had concerns for the condition or welfare of any group there.
The only other mention of Athens (other than what is found here in Acts) is found in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 where Paul explains that while he was in Athens he could not continue there without knowing how the believers in Thessalonica were doing. So, he sent Timothy back to them to see how they were getting on and encourage them to continue in their newfound faith. He wanted to have assurance that what had been accomplished there had not been destroyed by the pressures brought on by the unbelieving Jews and that they were standing under the strain of that opposition. I mention this just to say Paul may have been in Athens several weeks.
So now Paul is in Corinth (Acts 18:1). This is about 50 miles west of Athens and is the capital city of Greece at this time. The Roman proconsul resided in Corinth and it was the center of Roman authority. A proconsul was the governor of a senatorial province, that is, a territory governed by the Roman senate and deemed peaceful enough that a standing army was not necessary (when a standing army was necessary, the territory was called an imperial province). In the next lesson we’ll meet Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, a province in the southern part of Greece where Corinth was located.