Acts 17: 1 – 34
Cover All My Bases
17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. 14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. 16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore 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 either to tell or to hear some new thing. 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
I use to work with this Jewish man. He knew I was a Christian and he also confessed to me that he was an atheist. One day around the upcoming Easter and Passover holidays he mentioned to me that he was planning to go to a synagogue for the Passover feast. I asked him why he was going to do that since he told me that he was an atheist. His answer to me was that he was ‘covering all his bases. In case somehow it might be true.’
“Cover all your bases" is an idiom that comes from the sport of Baseball. In baseball, you have three bases and home plate. The team that is in the field has to have a man at each base to catch the ball and make sure players on the opposing team can't get to that base safely and stay there. These players are covering the bases.
It is to know all the options available to you. Consider and deal with all the things that could happen or could be needed when you are arranging something. Someone who oversees our action might say to us, Are you sure we covered all our bases on this?
We are continuing our study of the book of Acts. Today we are going to witness how Paul visited Athens, Greece. On observation Paul noted how these people were overly into worship idols. In sharing the good news he noticed that the Greeks even worshiped an unknown god. In effect they were covering their bases in case they missed a certain god. Paul then used this as a basis to tell them of the Real God Whom they did not know.
Having been requested to leave Philippi, Paul and his party took the Roman Road, the Via Egnatia, out of Philippi, a road which went through Amphipolis, the capital city of the region, and Apollonia, before it came to Thessalonica, a city with a population of roughly 200,000. It would seem that the reason that he stopped at neither of these cities for any length of time was because he discovered that there was no synagogue there, and possibly even no recognized Jewish meeting place. Finally he arrived at Thessalonica, roughly one hundred miles from Philippi, where on discovering that there was a synagogue he remained.
17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures
It would appear that the reason that Thessalonica was their intended destination was because they had learned that there was a synagogue there, and a synagogue meant not only Jews but God-fearers, people wide open to the Good News. Thus on arrival there they waited for the Sabbath day and then went to the synagogue. From what we have already seen it would seem that this was Paul’s usual strategy, and that he rarely employed open-air preaching except when it was forced on him by events. In those days such preaching could only too easily turn into a riot.
3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”
The basis of his reasoning was those portions of Scripture which revealed that the Messiah would suffer, and rise again from the dead. These would include of our Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God and may have included reference to the sacrificial system as pictures of the supreme sacrifice. He then connected with the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus and demonstrated from this that He was indeed the Messiah Who had fulfilled all these things
4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.
As so often the hearers were divided. Some were persuaded by their reasoning and the Scriptures that they cited, taking their stand with Paul and Silas and associating with them. This includes ‘some’ of the Jews, large numbers of proselytes and God-fearers, and a good number of ‘the chief women’. In Macedonia and parts of Asia Minor prominent women had a freedom not known in most places elsewhere. They would be wives of important officials and residents, and wealthy widows of status. Included among the converts were many who were still idol-worshippers for Paul would say of them in a future letter to the Thessalonians, "You turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God".
5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
Thus ‘the Jews’, that is those who were not willing to respond to the new message, set about trying to interfere with the ministry of Paul and Silas. In Pisidian Antioch this had been accomplished by utilizing the influence of the chief women who were synagogue worshippers, but that was not possible here because so many of these chief women were now following Christ. So instead they turned to the mob.
The Jewish traders and merchants, or their employees, would know the right people to contact. They turned to those they knew were good at causing disturbances. These were the trouble makers who bullied their way in the marketplace and the docks, people who could always be bribed and depended on to cause uproar. These then raised a crowd and set the city in an uproar, racing through the streets stirring up trouble and ending up by making a forced entry into the house of Jason, a prominent local Jew who was presumably known to be giving hospitality to Paul and Silas, in order to drag out Paul and Silas and make an example of them.
Thessalonica was in fact infamous for being a city in which uproars or mob riots easily occurred. Cicero tells how when he was sent to see the rulers of Thessalonica on official business the rulers were so unpopular with the masses that he had to sneak into the city at night in order to see them, and then, after some time, he had later to sneak out again and take refuge ‘in the out of the way town of Berea’ until the uproars had died down.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”
Not finding Paul and Silas they turned on Jason and some fellow-believers and hauled them before the city rulers local declaring that Jason had received into his house treacherous people who were known to have caused trouble elsewhere, and who broke Caesar’s decrees, declaring that there was another King, even Jesus.
The charge was a serious one. Suggestions that Caesar was in some way being slighted were always a guaranteed way of obtaining legal attention. The charge in this case was of treason, of aiming to set up a rival to Caesar. It was similar to the charge that had actually been brought against The Lord Jesus.
8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Both the crowds (those who had been used as pawns by the rabble-rousers) and the city rulers were troubled at the thought that such people might be in Thessalonica, and we may assume that they questioned Jason and his fellow-believers thoroughly. It is quite possible also that rumor had filtered through from Philippi, possibly coming from before the time when Paul and Silas had been declared innocent there. That being so it is clear that a compromise was reached.
They took large security from Jason and his friends, presumably as a bond against any further trouble, and let them go, possibly suggesting, or even specifically requiring, that it would be a good idea to get Paul and Silas out of town, with the recognition that they must not return. If they failed to do so they would lose their security. It is the best way to assure compliance – hit them in the pocketbook. It was possibly this last that was the means by which ‘Satan stopped’ Paul returning to Thessalonica, although an alternative possibility is that it was an awareness of the volatile nature of the city and the constant danger of further uprising of which Paul was deeply aware
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Recognizing the unpleasant nature of some of the people who were at the root of the trouble, who were no doubt types of gang leaders, the believers understood that it would be best to get Paul and Silas out of town discreetly. They could square the authorities, but dealing with the gangs was something different. So they arranged for them to leave by night and take refuge in Berea, a more out of the way town, sixty miles away and off the main highway, where they would be comparatively safe, and yet could be reached. It may well be that this was at the house of a sympathizer or willing relative.
This was not, however, to be the end of problems for Jason and his fellow-believers, for Paul later refers admiringly to the way that they faced up to and gladly endured persecution (1 Thessalonians 2.14). But he thanked God for the fact that they not only triumphed over it, but also continued to ensure the spread of the word in all the areas roundabout (1 Thessalonians 1.8). They had not left a church to die; they had left one which was full of vibrant life.
Meanwhile the irrepressible Paul and Silas could not be held down. For as soon as possible after their arrival in Berea they were back in the synagogue. They no doubt had in mind the Lord’s words which were a part of the tradition of ‘the Testimony of Jesus’, and which we now have recorded in Matthew 10.23, ‘when they persecute you in this city, flee to the next, for truly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man is come’. Each synagogue represented a ‘city of Israel’, and what a different experience Berea was going to be.
11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
For the Bereans were different than their near neighbors - the Thessalonians. When they heard the word, instead of some of them arguing and growing bitter, they turned to the Scriptures and examined them daily so as to find out for themselves whether the things taught were true. In Luke’s words they were ‘more noble’, more open to seeking truth.
12 Therefore many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
The result again was that ‘many’ believed, including ‘many’ Greek women of honorable estate and (Greek) men ‘not a few’. Comparing this verse with verse 4 we are probably to see the ‘many’ as contrasting with the ‘some’, and the remainder as parallel and more, the idea being that the ministry prospered more among the Jews in Berea as well as prospering equally among the important women and the God-fearers. The ‘of men’ probably additionally signifies ‘Greek men’ and thus indicates that here in Berea even out and out Gentiles responded to the message in good numbers. The new church was being multiplied.
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds.
But news of what was happening gradually filtered through to Thessalonica (not immediately. There was time for a period of settled ministry) and those Jews whose hearts had been hardened arranged for the gangs to go to Berea to cause trouble, again seeking to stir up the crowds. They could not bear to think of ‘the word of God’ being proclaimed.
14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.
The believers, however, were well informed, and recognizing that Paul was the main target, and not wanting their fellow-townsmen to be over-disturbed, they smuggled him away to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. The result of all this was that the believers in Berea were left untroubled, the work went on through Silas and Timothy, the people continued to ‘receive the word’, Paul was safe, and instead of the word of God being silenced, it prospered. And Athens also received the Good News.
15 So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.
His companions from Berea brought Paul to Athens, and on arrival there Paul clearly decided that he would begin a ministry there, for he sent back instructions to Berea that Silas and Timothy were to join him.
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
While he was waiting for Silas and Timothy, Paul walked around the city, and as a result of all the evidences of pagan worship and idolatry his spirit was provoked within him. He no longer felt that he could wait until his friends arrived before commencing his ministry. He was on fire within, and stirred up at the sight of all the idols and false gods, he longed that these people might know the living and true God.
17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
So each Sabbath he went into the Synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, proselytes and God-fearers, and on other days he went into the marketplace and spoke with those who met him there. It is interesting to note that in Athens he met no violent opposition, even from the Jews. Athens was an unusual place in that many were there for the very purpose of entering into discussions on religious and philosophical topics, and all recognized that others might have different views than themselves.
Thus for some good period of time his ministry continued towards Jews and God-fearers on the one hand, and out and out Gentiles on the other, and while they argued with him there was no physical opposition. No crowds would be aroused here against strange teaching. Strange teaching was of great interest in Athens. We are not told at what stage Silas and Timothy arrived.
Luke’s main concern here is to bring out Paul’s contact with the philosophers of Athens, and his message to them, a message which summarized his message to Gentiles.
18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
In the marketplace he met among others certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. The founder of Epicureanism (Epicurus) saw the world as being a result of the totally random movement and combination of ‘atoms’. The Epicureans saw everything generally as totally random and not affected in any way by the gods. The aim of their system was therefore to achieve happiness by serene detachment from the world and its clamor and wants and desires, allowing random activity to determine how their lives went. They were not atheists. They believed that the gods enjoyed this serene detachment by enjoying their own world and having nothing to do with this world. In the same way the Epicurean also, by detachment from the world as a result of limiting desire, and by finding solace in friendship and companionship, could also find contentment. And finally on death our atoms are dispersed. Thus they believed that there was nothing beyond death. This in one way was the reasoning which we get the first version of star wars – May the force be with you.’
While they taught the pursuit of ‘pleasure’, it was not hedonism but a pleasure that was to be found in a life of tranquility, a life free from pain and disturbing passions, and above all from superstitious fears. It was only later that the pursuit of extravagant pleasure through the satisfaction of carnal desires began to characterize Epicurean philosophers, a final natural result of their refusal to believe in an afterlife, and we should not read that into those who listened to Paul. But we can understand from this why on the whole they rejected the teaching of the resurrection, and of a God Who intervened in the affairs of life, and while their teaching certainly did enable people to find a certain level of contentment, it was purely negative and in its own way selfish. In a way it was a denial of the fullness of life and of our responsibility for our fellowman.
The Stoics on the other hand sought deliverance from life by seeking to align themselves with the eternal reason which was inherent in the Universe - the Logos. They believed that the Universe was a kind of fire, and that in each man was a spark of the eternal reason which had to be encouraged. Man, they believed, will be happy when he does not want things to be other than they are, but accepts and responds to the cycle of nature and the cycle of history and cultivates a willing acceptance of them. He must respond to the outworking of the universal Reason by allowing himself to be carried along by it, and by him living ‘reasonably’. He must therefore be satisfied with all that comes his way, accepting it stoically without complaint and without fighting against it. Life and death, pleasure and pain, were equally unimportant.
Their beliefs enabled Stoics to bear the change of circumstances or fortune of life without complaint, and to be dutiful in their lives, and they at least believed in a higher ‘force’ which was active among men. But their way was a way that was empty of joy, and deliberately so. Indeed they saw joy as a denial of what they believed in, which was the life of quiet reason and non-resistance. And it resulted in their seeking nothing beyond the grave. Their reason would simply be absorbed back into the eternal reason. Indeed they believed that periodically the world would be destroyed by a great conflagration, after which a new cycle would begin. Neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics had any hope beyond this life.
We can see then why these philosophers had a skeptical attitude towards what Paul was teaching. The word rendered ‘babbler’ was applied to ‘seed-picking birds’, and then to people who picked up random and second hand ideas without any consistency of thought or real understanding. In their conceit the idea of these philosophers was that others like Paul were like birds that went around picking up a seed here and there at random, without having a consistent system and logic. They were smug in their own understanding.
Others were amused because he seemed to set forth ‘strange gods’, because he spoke of ‘Jesus’ and of a ‘Resurrection’. There were in Athens many altars, not only dedicated to gods, but to ideas, to philosophy and beneficence, to rumor and shame.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
But they were interested to know what he was teaching, and indeed to check up on it so as to ensure that it could be allowed to be taught among the people in Athens, especially the students who were among them. So they brought him to their historic meeting place in the marketplace, the Areopagus, and their questioned him concerning his teaching. They wanted to know the detail of his system of philosophy, which was totally new to them and which they could see concerned what they looked on as strange ideas.
21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
The enquiry was not antagonistic. Indeed the lives of these people and the strangers who came among them consisted in examining new philosophies. They loved to hear of ‘new things’. It was what their lives were all about. Nevertheless if he wished to go on teaching in Athens he had no choice but to comply.
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
That we have here only the bare bones of Paul’s words is obvious. He would hardly have been foolish enough to seek to dismiss the Areopagites with so few words. But we have no reason at all to deny that the ideas are Paul’s. Rather we must see Luke and his source as summarizing the gist of what he said. Silas may well have been present at this speech and have conveyed its content to Luke when he went back to Macedonia. or Luke may have obtained the details from Dionysius the Areopagite.
Paul’s speech reveals that he had some knowledge of the teachings of these men and of the teachers whose writings they revered. He had been brought up in the University City of Tarsus. And he wanted to make quite clear that the message he brought was not something totally new, it was not ‘a novelty’ to be cursorily listened to and then discarded, but was related to aspects of things that they acknowledged but admitted themselves that they did not fully know and understand. He was speaking of things which they had admitted to being relevant, but which they agreed were not within their range of knowledge, for they had altars to ‘unknown gods’. Paul knew that the people were covering all their bases by dedicating a monument to a god that they might not be aware of. He wanted also to find some common ground, and brought up aspects of the knowledge of God which are known to all men. Thus he begins by referring to what he has seen around them.
When speaking to the Jews he had always begun with their history which was the source of their religion (and no doubt had done with the Jews here). But here he has to begin with the basics of religion, while recognizing that he was facing both idol worshippers and philosophers. He points out that he has noticed how ‘very religious’ they are. Thus while it can mean ‘superstitious’, it would be taken by his hearers rather as complimentary. They saw themselves as ‘religious’ men.
He points out that he has noticed many altars, and many monuments. Athens was full of altars and idols of all kinds and was proud of them. They proliferated. And as he had walked about he had noticed that they had an altar there with the inscription, ‘to an unknown god’. Well, that is why he was there, to bring to their knowledge this God Whom some of them worshipped and whom they admitted was as yet unknown to them. It was after all an open admission by Athens that there was a void in their religion, and it was one that he wanted to fill.
24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Paul does not intend for Jehovah Elohim to remain unknown. His first emphasis is that his God Is The One God Who Is Creator of all things and Is above all things and requires neither man’s buildings nor man’s service. He needs nothing from man. Indeed both man and all creatures owe all that they are and have to Him. Life, breath and everything else come from Him. He Is The Lord Of Creation and The Lord Of All Life.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Paul then points out that God has made all mankind of every nation out of one man, so that they may dwell on the face of the earth. He has also determined their times and seasons and where they will live, and what land they will inhabit.
Yet in spite of that He is not far from every one of us for it is in Him that we live, and move and have our being. And this is even evidenced by their own poets, who have said, “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (found in the works of Epimenides as said by Minos concerning his father Zeus) And also “For we are also His offspring”, (said of Zeus by the Cilician poet Aratus, and also found in Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus)
You have to stop and realize the ability our Lord has given Paul. Here he is in the midst of a bunch of book worms. In his presentation he is making these people aware that he is totally literate in all that they study. It will be noted from this that as against the Epicureans he stresses God’s vigorous activity in the world, and as against the pantheistic Stoics that God Is above, and over against, the world as its Creator. As against those Athenians who claimed to be made from the soil of Athens he states that all men come from the one man. Furthermore he applies ideas which were attributed by Stoic philosophers to Zeus, to the One God of Whom he speaks; the One Who Is Lord over all. Yet both Epicureans and Stoics would agree with the idea of the oneness of the world, and the Stoics with the idea that He could be sought after and found (they would see it as by seeking to appreciate the eternal reason). Both would agree that He did not require the help of men’s hands.
Thus Paul is seeking to find points of contact with their beliefs while at the same time transforming their ideas so that they would reveal to them the truth about the living God. This would then give the Holy Spirit the opening by which he could seize their hearts through what they did believe, and then lead them into further truth. By the quotations he is declaring that what men have thought about Zeus is really true about the living God Who made the world and all that is in it, the God of Whom he is speaking.
29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
Then in a significant move Paul emphasizes that to speak of men as the ‘offspring of God’, by which these writers indicated a close relationship between men and God as those whom He had in one way or another created, and to whom He has given life and reason, must exclude the idea that He can be made of wood and stone, or be designed by man. Athens may be filled with idols, but he wants it known that any idol worship is to be seen as denying the very thing that their poets taught. Their own poets have condemned them.
So in a masterly way Paul has reached out to all, letting them see that he understands their ideas, and yet having also made clear to all the deficiencies of their own beliefs. At the same time he has declared a positive message concerning the Creator and controller of all things, the Great Provider, Who is even now in contact with them, and is calling them to Himself, while demonstrating that He must be sought, not through idols, but as Lord of Heaven and earth Who is so close that He approaches each man’s heart (through His Spirit).
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now command all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Let them now recognize that God has in the past overlooked the periods of their ignorance. This is firstly evident in that He has not again brought universal destruction on mankind as he did at the Flood. And why has he not done so? It is because He recognized that it was through ignorance that they did it. It is because of that ignorance and darkness that He has spared them the total catastrophe that they had deserved. But that this does not mean that men of the past will not be judged comes out in Romans 2, for there he tells us that all will be judged according to how they responded to their conscience (Romans 2.12-16).
To modern men and women that brings a sense of relief. Their consciences are hardened, and therefore they feel that they are really not so bad. They are sure that their consciences will excuse them. What they do not realize is that in that day when the secrets of their hearts are brought out, and all the truth is known, and the full records are opened, that obliging conscience will suddenly turn on them and become their accuser, and they will be judged according to their works and found wanting (Romans 2.16).
Secondly, Paul indicates that God’s overlooking of the periods of their ignorance is a guarantee that He will not hold the past against those who are now listening to Paul, if only they will hear him. It means that what those of past ages did and believed will not be held against the present generation, who must now make their own decision with regard to such things. They have been spared up to this day, and now they must make up their own minds about the truth. The time has come when the truth has come to all men in a decisive way. God Is commanding a change of heart and mind. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. He is therefore calling on them to turn to Him and seek Him, and that because a day has been appointed when He will judge the world by the Man Whom He has now ordained. And what is more He has confirmed that this is so to all men by raising Him from the dead.
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
Central to Paul’s message had continually been the resurrection, and it was on this point that his hearers were divided. Some mocked at the idea. Others said that they wanted to hear more. So Athens in its wisdom is here seen as paralleling the rest of the world. The resurrection, proclaimed through the power of the Holy Spirit, is what has divided men from the beginning of the apostolic ministry. It continues to do so, for it is central to the Christian message. It lies at the very heart of what the Good News is all about, salvation, and life, and hope. And only through belief in the resurrection (with its accompanying sacrificial death) can eternal life be found. It is that which divides up mankind.
33 So Paul departed from among them.
Having completed his words Paul went out from among them. We are hardly right to suggest that he stopped short in order to do so. And there is no suggestion that they cut him short. It is rather that Luke finishes in this way because he wanted to emphasize that it was the resurrection that was at the root of their problems, and so that he can link a reference to the resurrection with the problems that they had with it.
34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The result of Paul’s activity in Athens was a number of believers, which included prominent people -‘they clave to him’. That is, they firmly took their stand with him. Dionysisus the Areopagite was presumably a member of the council. Damaris may have been the wife of an important official, one of the ‘honorable women’. What an honor that our Precious Holy Spirit took notice of these people and recorded their names for all perpetuity.
It should be noted that this statement is intended to indicate success, not failure of Paul’s ministry in Athens.
