Luke xvi.:9. John v. 39. into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the i Isa. xxxiv. 16. word with all readiness of mind, 8 and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men not a few. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul i at Berea, they came thither also, k Matt. x. 23. and stirred up the people. 14k And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 1 ch, xviii. 5. m 2 Pet. ii. 8, k 15 And they that conducted Paul brought him 1wato Athens and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they de parted. 16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, m his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, ʼn render, these. render, searching. i render, at Beroa also. render, they came stirring up and troubling the multitude there also. 1 render, as far as. pean Turkey, containing from 15,000 to 14. to go as it were to the sea] This appears to have been, as far as we can to idolatry] The multitude of statues and "the and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18 m Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, " What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new 0 m render, And certain also of the Epicurean and Stoick philosophers. render, What meaneth this babbler to say? • render, as in ver. 22, the hill of Mars. But the famous Stoa or porch, where the Stoics held their disputations. 18. Epicurean] The Epicurean philosophy was antagonistic to the gospel, as holding the atomic theory in opposition to the creation of matter,-the disconnexion of the Divinity from the world and its affairs, in opposition to the idea of a ruling Providence, and the indissoluble union, and annihilation together, of soul and body, as opposed to the hope of eternal life, and indeed to all spiritual religion whatever. The Epicureans were the materialists of the ancient world. The common idea attached to Epicureanism must be discarded in our estimate of the persons mentioned in our text. The "chief good" of the real Epicureans, far from being a degraded and sensual pleasure, was imperturbability of mind, based upon wisdomperhaps the best estimate of the highest good formed in the heathen world;-and their ethics were exceedingly strict. the abuse to which such a doctrine was evidently liable, gave rise to a pseudo-Epicureanism, which has generally passed current for the real, and which amply illustrated the truth, that corruption of that which is best, is itself worst. For their chimerical imperturbability, Paul offered them the peace which passeth all understanding, Phil. iv. 7. Stoick] So named from the Stoa, or porch (see above),-founded by Zeno of Cittium in the fourth century B.C., but perhaps more. properly by Cleanthes and Chrysippus in the third century B.C. Their philosophy, while it approached the truth in holding one supreme Governor of all, compromised it, in allowing of any and all ways of conceiving and worshipping Him (see below, vv. 24, 25),-and contravened it, in its pantheistic belief that all souls were emanations of Him. In spirit it was directly opposed to the gospel,-holding the independence of man on any being but him self, together with the subjection of God and man alike to the stern laws of an inevitable fate. On the existence of the soul after death their ideas were various: some holding that all souls endure to the conflagration of all things,-others confining this to the souls of good men, and others believing all souls to be reabsorbed into the Divinity. By these tenets they would obviously be placed in antagonism to the doctrines of a Saviour of the world and the resurrection,—and to placing the summum bonum of man in abundance of that grace which is made perfect in weakness, 2 Cor. xii. 9. some said. . . other some] These are not to be taken as belonging the one to the Epicureans, the other to the Stoics, but rather as describing two classes, common perhaps to both schools, -the one of which despised him and his sayings, and the other were disposed to take a more serious view of the matter, and charge him with bringing in new deities. this babbler] The word in the original signifies a kind of bird which picks up and devours seeds: whence the Athenians called by this name those who went about picking up trifles in converse and making it their business to retail them in fact, the name imports one who talks fluently to no purpose, and hints also that his talk is not his own. a setter forth of strange gods] "Socrates is guilty of bringing in new gods," was one of the charges on which Athens put to death her wisest son. The strange gods which they charged Paul with setting forth were, the true God, the God of the Jews, and Jesus Christ His Son: the Creator of the world (ver. 24), and the Man whom He hath appointed to judge it, ver. 31. Compare ver. 23, end: which is an express answer to this charge. 19. they took him] No violence is implied. to the hill of Mars] There is no allusion here to the court of Areopagus, nor should doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. 21 p For all the Athenians and strangers which 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 Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Prender, Now. The the words have been so rendered in A. V.,especially as the same expression below (ver. 22) is translated Mars' hill' We have in the narrative no trace of any judicial proceeding, but every thing to contradict such a supposition. Paul merely makes his speech, and, having satisfied the curiosity of the multitude who came together on Mars' Hill, departs unhindered:they brought him up to the hill of Mars. The following note is borrowed from Mr. Humphry's Commentary:-It might be expected that on the hill of Mars the mind of the stranger would be impressed with the magnificence of the religion which he sought to overthrow. temple of the Eumenides was immediately below him: opposite, at the distance of 200 yards, was the Acropolis, which, being entirely occupied with statues and temples, was, to use the phrase of an ancient writer, as one great offering to the gods. The Persians encamped on the Areopagus when they besieged the Acropolis (Herod. viii. 52): from the same place the Apostle makes his first public attack on Paganism, of which the Acropolis was the stronghold. Xerxes in his fanaticism burnt the temples of Greece. Christianity advanced more meekly and surely and though the immediate effect of the Apos tle's sermon was not great, the Parthenon in time became a Christian church. Athens ceased to be a city wholly given to idolatry, -and the repugnance of the Greeks to images became so great, as to be a principal cause of the schism between the churches of the east and west in the eighth century. The bill of Mars was on the west of the Acropolis. The Areopagus, the highest criminal court of Athens, held its sittings there. To give any account of it is beside the purpose, there being no allusion to it in the text. Full particulars may be found under the word Areopagus in Smith's Dictionary of Gr. and Rom. Antiquities. May we know] A courteous method of address (not ironical). 21.] A renark of the narrator (as I believe, Paul himself), as a comment on the words new and strange of the verses before. The : character here given of the Athenians is also that which we find in their own his torians and orators. See proofs in my Greek Test. One remarkable one is found in Demosthenes, where in stirring then up against Philip, he says, "Are ye c tent to be always going about the marketplace asking one another, What new thing is reported? Can any thing be stranger than that a Macedonian man should ác. &c." 22.] The commentators vie with each other in admiration of this truly wonderful speech of the great Apostle. Chrysostom says: "This is what the Apostle elsewhere says, that he became to those not under the law as not under the law, that he might win those not under the law. For when addressing the Athenians, he grounds his argument not on the law or the prophets, but begins his persuasion from one of their altars, conquering them by their own maxims." The oration of Paul before this assembly is a living proof of his apostolic wisdom and eloquence: we see here how he, according to his own words, could become a Gentile to the Gentiles, to win the Gentiles to the Gospel." Neander. And Stier very properly remarks, It was given to the Apostle in this hour, what he should speak; this is plainly to be seen in the following discourse, which we might weary ourselves with praising and admiring in various ways; but far better than all so-called praise from our pour tongues is the humble recognition, that the Holy Ghost, the spirit of Jesus, has here spoken by the Apostle, and therefore it is that we have in his discourse a masterpiece of apostolic wisdom.' The same commentator gives the substance of the speech thus: He who is (by your own involuntary confession) unknown to you Athenians (religious though you are),—and yet (again, by your own confession) able to be known, -the all-sufficing Creator of the world, Preserver of all creatures, and Governor of mankind,—now commandeth all men (by me His minister) to repent, that they may know Him, and to believe in the Maa whom He hath raised from the dead, that they may stand in the judgment, which He r too super Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are ship, THE UN u Whom therefore ye ignorantly worhim declare I unto you. 24 ny God that made the n ch. xiv. 15. world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of o Matt. xi. 25. heaven and earth, P dwelleth not in temples made with p ch. vil. 48. u read, with our oldest MSS., What. hath committed to Him.' Ye men of rrender, objects of worship. trender, AN. y render, The God. cited in my Greek Test., shewing that there really were altars with this inscription at Athens. What ye ignorantly worship, that declare I unto you] The change to "Whom" and "Him has probably been made from reverential motives. The neuters give surely the deeper, and the more appropriate sense. For Paul does not identify the true God with the dedication of, or worship at, the altar mentioned: but speaks of the Divinity of whom they, by this inscription, confessed themselves ignorant. But even a more serious objection lies against the masculines. The sentiment would thus be in direct contradiction to the assertion of Paul himself, 1 Cor. x. 20, "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God." Compare also our Lord's words, John iv. 22, "Ye worship that which ye know not."-In the word worship (shew piety towards) we have another confirmation of the sense above insisted on in ver. 22. He wishes to commend their reverential spirit, while he shews its misdirection. An important lesson for all who have controversies with Paganism and Romanism. 24.] No wonder, that the devil, in order to diffuse idolatry, has blotted out among all heathen nations the recognition of Creation. The true doctrine of Creation is the proper refutation of all idolatry.' Roos, cited by Stier, who remarks, Only on the firm foundation of the Old Testament doctrine of Creation can we rightly build the New Testament doctrine of Redemption, and only he, who scripturally believes and apprehends by faith the earliest words of Revelation, concerning a Creator of all things, can also apprehend, know, and scripturally worship, THE MAN, in whom God's word, down to its latest canonical Revelation, gathers together all things.' God. dwelleth not in temples made with hands] A remarkable reminiscence of the dying speech of Ste q Ps. 1. 8. r Gen. 7. Job xii. 10: xxvii. 3: hands; 25 neither is worshipped with men's hands, as Gxvi. 22. though he needed any thing, seeing The giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 and a hath made of one Isa. xli. 5: blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the xxxiii. 4. lvii. 16. Zech. xii. 1. 8. earth, and s Deut. xxxii. pointed, and should seek t Rom. i. 20. hath] determined the times [ before] apthe bounds of their habitation; 27 that they the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, u ch. xiv. 17. and find him, " though he be not far from every one of us: 28 for in him we live, and move, and have our being; x Col. i. 17. Heb. i. 3. y Tit. i, 12. y as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are z render, served by. a render, caused every nation of men, sprung of one blood, to dwell. bomit. c read, with all our oldest authorities, God. phen: see ch. vii. 48.- Mr. Humphry notices the similarity, but difference in its conclusion, of the argument attributed to Xerxes in Cicero: "Xerxes is said to have burnt the temples of Greece, because they attempted to shut up within walls the gods, to whom all things ought to be open and free, and of whom all this world is the temple and house."-Where Paul stood, he might see the celebrated colossal statue of Athena Polias, known by the Athenians as "the Goddess," standing and keeping guard with spear and shield in the enclo sure of the Acropolis. 25.] is served: i. e. is really and truly served. So "God is not mocked," Gal. vi. 7. As the assertion of Creation contradicted the Epicurean error, so this laid hold of that portion of truth, which, however disguised, that school had apprehended: viz. that the Deity does not stand in need of us, nor can gain aught from us. There is a verse in 2 Macc. xiv 35, remarkable, as compared with the thoughts and words of Paul here: "Thou, O Lord of all things, who hast need of nothing, wast pleased that the temple of thine habitation should be among us. life, and breath, and all things] He is the Preserver, as well as the Creator, of all; and all things come to us from Him. Compare, on all things, David's words, 1 Chron. xxix. 14, "Thine are all things, and of Thine own have we given Thee." 26.] These words were said, be it remembered, to a people who gave themselves out for aboriginal, sprung from the earth but we must not imagine that to refute this was the object of the words: they aim far higher than this, and controvert the whole genius of polytheism, which attributed to the various nations differing : de mythical origins, and separate guardian gods. It is remarkable, that though of all people the Jews were the most distinguished in their covenant state from other nations of the earth, yet to them only was given the revelation of the true history of mankind, as all created of one blood: a doctrine kept as it were in store for the gospel to proclaim.-Not, hath made of one blood,' &c., as A. V., but as in margin. See Matt. v. 32; Mark vii. 37. termined the times....] He who was before (ver. 24) the Creator, then (ver. 25) the Preserver, is now the Governor of all men prescribing to each nation its space to dwell in, and its time of endurance. 27. if haply] if by any chance, denoting a contingency apparently not very likely to happen. though he be not far...] Not that HE is distant from us, but that we are ignorant of Him.' See Rom. x. 6, 8; Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. 28. There is no justification for the pantheist in this. It is properly said only of the race of men, as being His offspring, bound to Him: proceeding from, and upheld by, and therefore living, moving, and being in Him:-but even in a wider sense His Being, though a separate objective Personality, involves and contains that of His creatures. See Eph. i. 10, where the same is said of Christ. we live, and move, and have our being] A climax rising higher with each term, out of God we should have no Life, nor even movement (which some things without life have, plants, water, &c.), nay, not any existence at all (we should not have been),' the intent being to shew the absolute dependence for every thing of man on God, thence the absurdity of supposing the God and |