Acts 17:16–34 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
After leaving Philippi, Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica. In the synagogue Paul “for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). Some who were not persuaded gathered a crowd and “set the city in an uproar” (Acts 17:5), and “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea” (Acts 17:10). When the Jews of Thessalonica followed him to Beroea, “Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea” (Acts 17:14).
Those who escorted him brought him to Athens and went back, carrying word for Silas and Timothy “that they should come to him very quickly” (Acts 17:15). In this lesson, Paul is in Athens, waiting.
16Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.
18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
19They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?
20For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”
21Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.
24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands.
25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.
26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
30The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
33Thus Paul went out from among them.
34But certain men joined with him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Provoked. Paul was only waiting in Athens. “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols” (v. 16). He did not just wait: “So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him” (v. 17).
This babbler. Some philosophers argued with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” (v. 18), and others, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities” (v. 18). The passage gives the reason: “because he preached Jesus and the resurrection” (v. 18). They brought him to the Areopagus and said, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about?” (v. 19). The passage adds a note of its own: “all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing” (v. 21).
An unknown God. Standing in the middle of the Areopagus, Paul began with what he had seen in the city: “I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’” (v. 23). He went on: “What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you” (v. 23). The words are ‘in ignorance’: they had set up an altar to this God, but they did not know him. What Paul said next was who this God is.
Not in temples made with hands. “The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands” (v. 24); “He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things” (v. 25). The idols filling the city were made by human hands; the God Paul spoke of is the one who gives people life and breath. So he said, “we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man” (v. 29).
Not far from each one of us. God made every nation of men “that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (v. 27). Paul also quoted a line from their own poets: “For we are also his offspring” (v. 28).
Raised from the dead. At the end, Paul said, “But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent” (v. 30), “because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead” (v. 31). The philosophers first called him a ‘babbler’ because he preached the resurrection (v. 18); at the Areopagus, the last thing he spoke of was still the resurrection.
Three responses. “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked” (v. 32); others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this” (v. 32). “Thus Paul went out from among them” (v. 33). “But certain men joined with him and believed” (v. 34), and the passage records two names: Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris (v. 34). The passage does not say whether this was a success or a failure. It simply records three kinds of people.
The passage itself adds a note about Athens in those days: “all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing” (v. 21). The city had a synagogue, a marketplace, two schools of philosophers, idols everywhere, and an altar inscribed “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” (v. 23).
To listeners like these, a ‘new teaching’ was worth hearing out (vv. 19–20); but “when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked” (v. 32). Readers can see that what Paul spoke at the Areopagus was not a novelty to please his audience, but what he had been preaching in the city all along: “Jesus and the resurrection” (v. 18).
Perhaps you too live in a place where everyone worships something, yet does not know God.
This lesson does not teach you a method for sharing the gospel. What it shows you is this: when Paul saw the city full of idols, first his spirit “was provoked within him” (v. 16); he spoke of who God is, of repentance, and of the resurrection; and among those who heard, some mocked, some said they would hear more, and some believed. The passage records all three responses as they were. Paul later wrote: “I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase” (1 Cor 3:6).
This week: Think of someone near you who does not yet know God. This week, pray for them once; and if they ask about your faith, tell them plainly whom you believe in.
Scripture: World English Bible.