Acts 17:16-21 meaning

Paul and his missionary partners (Timothy and Silas) had been in Macedonia/Greece, spreading the gospel. In the town of Thessalonica, many believed in Jesus. Those who were hostile to the gospel stirred up a mob against Paul, so Paul and his companions left secretly by night for the town of Berea. There, again, many believed the gospel, but the enemies from Thessalonica soon came to town to drive Paul out of Berea. This time, Timothy and Silas did not go with Paul but stayed behind, while Paul sailed down to the southernmost shore of Achaia/Greece, stopping in the city of Athens. He awaits Timothy and Silas to come join him when they are able.

Despite being alone in a city he does not know, Paul is still on mission. He is always seeking opportunities to preach the gospel. His usual mission strategy is to go to the local synagogue and teach about Jesus to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, which is what he does in Athens.

Luke, the author of Acts, tells us Paul’s initial impression of Athens:

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols (v. 16).

The city of Athens was full of idols. There were statues, monuments, temples, altars to many different idols. The Greeks and Romans worshipped a large pantheon of gods. There was essentially a god for every aspect of life: weather, the sea, farming, love, wisdom, hunting, traveling, war, music, fire, and so on. And while Paul is waiting for Timothy and Silas to make the long journey down from Berea to Athens to join him, he strolls throughout the city, observing its endless shrines to made-up gods and goddesses. Idol after idol causes Paul’s spirit to be provoked.

The word translated provoked is the Greek word “paroxynō,” which can also mean “stirred.” Paul felt within himself a stirring, a conviction, in response to seeing wave after wave of false gods. “Paroxynō” most often is meant to convey a stirring of anger, and perhaps Paul did feel angry. More than likely he was angry at the deception which filled Athens, not angry at the people themselves who were deceived. They did not know any better. That was why Jesus had commanded His apostles to preach the gospel to the whole world. That was why Paul was there in Athens, to lead the Athenians away from their ignorance and believe in the true God (Acts 17:30).

Paul was provoked by the false gods which surrounded him. To combat the lie that there are many gods, Paul begins speaking the truth of the gospel:

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present (v. 17).

Paul, per his custom, goes to the synagogue where the local Jews and God-fearing Gentiles gathered. His message to them would be somewhat different than his message to the Athenians who were not God-fearing. The core of the gospel is always the same, but to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, Paul would be able to use the Old Testament prophecies to make his case.

With people who already believed in God and knew the Hebrew bible, Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence” (Acts 17:2). And the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, like the noble-minded Bereans, were better positioned to receive “the word with great eagerness” and double-check with “the Scriptures daily to see whether these things [Paul preached] were so” (Acts 17:11).

But to Greek Athenians who knew nothing of the God of Israel or the promises of a Messiah, Paul’s approach would be somewhat different. The ultimate message remains the same, but the Athenians lacked context, and Paul will have to start with elementary ideas to lead them to the revelation that the true God had come to earth, died, and resurrected to heal humankind of its corrupt nature.

So while Paul was reasoning in the synagogue with people who were familiar with what he spoke of, he also went to Athens’ Main Street to do some street preaching: and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present (v. 17).

The market place was an ideal location to preach because of the constant traffic of people there. Paul had a captive audience among the merchants and tradespeople who were at work, and the customers coming through to buy products. The whole time he was in Athens, every day, Paul preached to anyone who would listen, anyone who was there, with those who happened to be present to hear his message in the market place. Paul was familiar with and comfortable in such a market place give that his custom was to finance much of his own cost through making tents (Acts 18:3). It is possible he even joined in and picked up some work while entering in to discussions with the locals.

The word for market place in the original Greek is “agora,” meaning “the place of assembly.” The Agora of Athens was not only a large venue for trade, but for social discussion, political events, sporting events, and more. The Agora of Athens was 30 acres large, and contained more than just merchant stalls. Multiple theaters, a courthouse, colonnades, as well as temples and statues of Greeks gods (some examples of the idolatry which was provoking Paul).

Athens is considered by many to be where democracy first originated. It is also where most Greek philosophy and thought was developed. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and more had lived in Athens in centuries past, debating and teaching in the Agora. The Agora of Athens could be viewed as the home of western philosophical thought.

Luke points out this culture of philosophical curiosity in verse 21:

(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.) (v. 21).

The Athenians and the strangers visiting Athens loved to sit around and talk philosophy. It was what Athens was famous for. Many who gathered in the market place were not exchanging goods but ideas. They had no immediate concerns for trade or commerce, rather, they wished to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.

Paul attracts the attention of many Athenians because of this. No one there had ever heard of the strange stories Paul would tell them. A Jewish teacher from Israel claiming that there was actually only one God, and that this God had sent His Son to save the world from sin and judgment. This was certainly something new that the Athenians and the strangers visiting there had not heard before.

Luke makes note of two philosophical camps who took special interest in Paul:

And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him (v. 18).

The Epicurean philosophers followed the teachings of Epicurus, who lived and taught in Athens for much of his life (341-270 BC). Paul is believed to be visiting Athens around 50 AD, several centuries later. Epicurus taught a worldview that said, simply put, that “good” was achieved through pursuing enjoyment and avoiding pain.

This did not mean that humans should try to amplify pleasure, which is essentially what hedonism is, as that might set us up for failure. Rather than try and fail (and thus experience the pain of failure), the Epicurean is to focus on the good things that are easy to attain. We should meet our basic needs and be content with a modest, simple life. It is a philosophy of low expectations, of restraint, of finding mental happiness, and is strongly against worry of any kind.

Epicurus did not believe that the gods acted upon the earth or upon people. He taught that the gods were perfect entities that lived outside of the world, and did not have any effect on the happenings in the world. Thus, no human should worry about any sort of judgment from the gods. There is no reward or punishment from the gods regarding our deeds. One of the goals of the Epicurean is to eliminate concerns about what the gods might do to us, so that we can then live peacefully and happily.

The Stoic philosophers followed the teachings of Zeno of Citium (334 - 262 BC), who taught his philosophy of stoicism in Athens at the same time Epicurus lived and taught there. The Stoic person attempts to accept life as it comes, good and bad. Even in the worst of circumstances, the Stoic believes that one can maintain a peaceful attitude. For the many things outside of our control, the Stoic does not work himself up trying to change what cannot be changed. Virtue is highly valued among Stoics, to live honorably and for the general good of others.

To maintain self-control and not be ruled by feelings is perhaps the highest aim for the Stoic, and consequently is the most beneficial for society at large and for inner happiness. Stoicism asserts that there is a force of Reason in the universe, but not a personal god. Some Stoic thinkers, like Epictetus, seem to have believed in Zeus, but more as a creative force of providence in the universe, rather than the god of lightning bolts in Greek mythology.

It is impossible to say what the philosophers in Acts 17 personally believed about the gods. Because of the open-ended definition of theology in their worldviews, there is a lot of wiggle room to allow for superstition and personal preference. It is more than possible that even these Stoic and Epicurean philosophers still had particular gods they sacrificed to, to hedge their bets.

Athens, despite being a place where democracy and intellectualism thrived, was a city full of idolatry. The Athenians still treasured their false gods, whether they believed in them full-time or not. We know the heft of Paul’s sermon to the Athenians will address the polytheism of Athens. It also seems to be the case that there were more people in the crowd listening to Paul than just the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.

Both groups of Philosophers were conversing, speaking, with Paul as he preached about Jesus in the Agora.

Some of the Epicureans and Stoics were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection (v. 18).

Based on one phrase from these two groups, some found Paul’s teaching so unfamiliar and foreign that they describe it with condescension. They do not understand what this idle babbler is saying. That they call Paul an idle babbler is somewhat ironic, since the Agora was full of idle babblers—philosophers—who liked to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new (v. 21).

The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers could be considered idle as well, since they spent their day trading ideas, rather than doing anything of material gain. That they called Paul a babbler displays that they did not understand him; from their point of view he was speaking nonsense—empty ideas disconnected from one another. There is also an insult in asking what Paul would wish to say, as though he were only making an attempt to communicate, and failing to do so.

But others among the philosophers observed that Paul seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities. This was because Paul was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. The philosophers had certainly never heard of Jesus. Israel was essentially at the outer limit of the Roman Empire, and while there were many Jews dispersed throughout the Empire, including in Athens, the gospel of Jesus was still slowly spreading westward, largely through Paul’s ministry.

Jesus’s name had not been uttered in Athens until this very moment, when the babbler Paul spent his days conversing about Him in the Agora. The resurrection was an even more preposterous idea in the minds of the philosophers. The idea of the dead raising back to life would be a stumbling block to many at the end of Paul’s sermon in this chapter. Such a thought goes against their commitment to reason since it stands apart from their own human experience.

But the philosophers found Paul so intriguing, such an intellectual oddball, that they invited him to explain himself away from the roar of the Agora market place in the clear, quiet air of the Areopagus:

And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean” (vs. 19-20).

The Areopagus is the Hill of Ares  (“Areios” = Ares’, “Pagos” = rocky hill). It is also known as “Mars’ Hill,” Mars being the Roman name for Ares, the Greek god of war. The Areopagus was a place where criminal trials would be heard by a court of judges, as well as religious and philosophical debates. The hill itself is of solid rock, and still stands in Athens to this day (See Photo).

Paul was invited to speak at the Areopagus because what he was teaching was so novel to the men of Athens, that they wanted to give him a fair hearing before they decided what to make of this Jewish teacher. Paul’s teaching was a new teaching which they wanted to know. They admitted that he was bringing some strange things to their ears, things they had not heard before and did not understand.

They had not adequately heard Paul’s message either, possibly due to the noise of the Agora, or their late arrival to his street sermon. They had heard snippets of the strange things, things in reference to a lone God, perhaps, and that God also had a Son, and the Son had died but was also not dead, and what relevance did that have to human beings?

Thus, the philosophers of Athens gave Paul a platform at the court of the Areopagus to more fully explain himself, because they wanted to know what these things mean. They loved nothing more than spending their time by telling or hearing something new. Paul certainly had something new to tell them.