Acts 17:22-34 meaning

Paul is in Athens (See Map) waiting for Timothy and Silas to come down from Macedonia to join him. We can speculate that Timothy and Silas were hoping Paul would lay low in Athens, given the fact that they kept having to sneak him out of town to keep him alive. However, that will not be Paul’s approach. He will do the opposite and speak out boldly.

While in Athens, Paul sees the many idols of the city, and is prompted to preach the gospel. He preaches in the synagogue as well as the open market places of the city. Athens is full of philosophers and men who like to hear new philosophies and ideas, so the Athenians invite Paul to teach on the stony hill known as the Areopagus, so that they can hear his full message:

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus (v. 22).

Paul’s sermon on the Areopagus (or Mars’ Hill ) is unique compared to many of his other teachings. It most closely resembles the defense Paul made of himself in Lystra, when he had to persuade the pagan Lystrian-Greeks that he was not a god, but that there was only one God (Acts 14:15-17).

Here at the Areopagus (See Photo), Paul does not use the Old Testament as proofs that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He also does not begin by speaking about the Jewish Messiah, because the Athenians would have no idea what he was talking about. They have no prior knowledge or context for the Hebrew scriptures and the prophecies about a coming Christ or Messiah. Paul wisely preaches the gospel to the Athenians by first meeting them where they are.

He begins by complimenting the Athenians, to establish a commonality between himself and them, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects” (v. 22).

The Men of Athens are observably very religious in all respects, says Paul, and he bases this on the fact that this city is full of idols (v. 16). Paul’s message is religious by nature, so that is where he begins.

He describes his experience in Athens so far, as a foreigner, and what he has been able to observe during his stay there:

For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’

The Athenians are very religious in all respects because there are idols and temples spread throughout the city. But Paul draws special attention to a particular altar. During his tour of Athens, while he was passing through and examining the objects of the Athenians’ worship, he discovered an altar which he can use to make a connection between his God and their religious culture.

There is an altar with an inscription which is not dedicated to Zeus, Hermes, Ares, or any named Greco-Roman god. The Athenians had set up an altar to a god they worshipped, but did not know, thus the inscription reads: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’

Paul uses this UNKNOWN GOD as a proxy for the true God, the only God, Yahweh, “I Am.” That this God is UNKNOWN presents the perfect opportunity to draw the polytheistic Greeks’ attention from their gods to Paul’s God. In this way, Paul does not have to preach from the position of being a foreigner asserting a foreign god, rather, he can say, “You already worship this God. His altar is here in your city. Let me tell you about Him.”

He makes the connection:

Therefore what you worship in ignorance (the UNKNOWN GOD), this I proclaim to you (v. 23). It was in ignorance that the Athenians worship Paul’s God. Their ignorance was that they did not know who this God was, yet they worshipped Him all the same.

This is broadly true of all humankind. We are descended from people who once walked with God in person, and spoke with Him directly (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:8). In every human heart there is a shadow of Eden, there is the knowledge that we have a Creator, and there is a numinous desire to worship someone perfect and powerful (Ecclesiastes 3:11, Psalms 19:1, Job 12:7-10, Romans 1:20).

Unfortunately, since we are separated from God due to the Fall of Man and our fallen instinct is to follow our own ways, we end up taking our reverence of God and applying it to things we think we can control. We invent gods to worship, we fashion idols, we cast spells and make wishes. We do these things in ignorance of the true God who created us. We do not know the true God or how to properly live in this world He created, so we create our own gods and values (Romans 3:10-18, 8:7-8, Genesis 3:4-6, Proverbs 16:25, Ezekiel 20:16, Judges 21:25).

But Paul is going to remove the Athenians’ former ignorance with what he will proclaim to them about this UNKNOWN GOD.

In this prelude to his message, Paul has given the Athenians credit for being very religious and for building an altar to a god they did not fully know or understand, but still worshipped. Paul has created a friendly tone which communicates that he, a Jew and a foreigner speaking strange things, is actually talking about something universal. He is going to proclaim to them a truth they have already stumbled toward on their own.

But now Paul will begin to “tear down their idols,” so to speak, yet he will do so with logic, which would be appreciated by some of the philosophically-minded listeners. Those committed to Greek philosophical thought were trained to use reason in order to pursue the discovery of what was good, beautiful, and true.

Paul is not coming after their culture with condemnation or direct, dismissive attacks. He is walking his audience through a series of truth-claims and their implications. Paul is acknowledging that the Athenians come close to the truth, but he has better information, and now he will explain to them where they have been ill-informed.

Again, Paul does not make his argument based off of the Jewish scripture, as he would to an audience of Jews. To these Greeks, the Hebrew scriptures have no authority. He begins with the beliefs of the Greeks and uses their chosen approach to find what is true: reason. His sermon at the Areopagus is universal, it speaks to all humanity about the truth of God.

Most ancient cultures more or less believed that every people group or nation’s gods were real. The Greek gods belonged to the Greeks, the Babylonian gods belonged to the Babylonians. There was less of a question of whose gods are real, but of whose gods are most powerful, and the answer to that question was usually based upon military or financial success (Isaiah 36:18-20).

It is why God (Yahweh, the only God) is often described as “the God of Israel.” Indeed, He is the God of Israel. But from most Gentiles’ perspective, they would understand the God of Israel to only live in Israel and be in business with the Israelites. And that will be the crux of Paul’s sermon, that his God is not only his god. Yahweh is not the Jewish God, rather, He is God Almighty, the One True God. And He cares about all men and women, not just the Jews. The Jews are His special, chosen people, but He is inviting the Gentiles (non-Jews) into His plan of salvation (Romans 11, Matthew 22:1-14).

Here, Paul tells the Athenians that they are near to a truth (worshipping an UNKNOWN GOD) and that he is going to take away their ignorance. By asserting ignorance he is not insulting them. Ignorance is merely an absence of information. Rather, Paul is going to tell them how the real God is not consigned to one or two areas of life (such as Ares, who is god of war, and nothing else). The UNKNOWN GOD is the God of everything. He is the ultimate creative power who made everything and rules over everything:

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands (v. 24).

Here Paul lays out several truth-claims that would contradict the polytheistic beliefs of the Greeks. There is one God, The God, not a god, who made the world and all things in it. Everything in the world was made by this God, as well as the world itself.

The Greek creation myth is long and complex, with gods and goddesses acting as personifications of nature and emotions. There are several generations of gods born, incestual relationships, fathers eating their children, children killing their fathers. The story is a mess, and it is likely that many of the Greeks did not wholly believe it to be the true origin of creation. Even the most-powerful Greek god, Zeus, did not create the things in the world, but sent others to create humans and animals. Furthermore, Zeus is not eternal; he has a mother and father.

The real God is eternal and created all reality. Nothing made Him, nothing preceded Him, and nothing that exists was made by anyone but Him. This is a much more logical claim, so it might have appealed to the philosophically-oriented Greeks.

This description of God would have particularly appealed to many of the Stoics listening to Paul, since they believed in the “logos” or the “word” which created the material universe. It seems reasonable to assume that the Apostle John was tapping into this Greek belief when he penned John 1:1, describing Jesus as the “logos”—the Word who created all things in the beginning.

The Stoic idea of “logos” was that Reason or Providence has ordered all created things, events, and outcomes. The Stoic philosophy in some ways flirts with pantheism, but again, it depends upon the individual Stoic. The Stoic idea of God/Logos/Divine Fire is broadly and loosely defined. Paul’s claim of a personal God would have been a step beyond their understanding of the Divine. But it might not be a leap.

Paul, in describing the God who made the earth and everything in it shows that, being the infinite creator of reality, God is Lord of heaven and earth. The parameters of heaven and earth cover all reality, all creation, everything seen and unseen, everything on the planet and beyond it. God is Lord over all things. He made everything and He is in charge of everything. Paul continues by making a logical point: since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

This is in contrast to the many temples and altars that decorate Athens. The Greeks, and essentially all pagan religions, create homes for their gods. But, Paul points out, since God is Lord of everything and created everything, it does not follow that He lives in a physical place. By inference, Paul is pointing out that any god that dwells in a “cage” made by humans is not much of a god.

The Creator God certainly does not live in a physical place made by part of His creation. That would be like a dog keeping his master in a kennel. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. He is the Creator. He does not need a dwelling place of any sort, much less one made by someone else’s hands.

The larger point Paul is making here is that God needs nothing from His creation. It is the creation that has needs that only the Creator can meet:

God does not live in temples. He is not bound to a physical space, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things (v. 25).

By human standards, the idea of being served by human hands is a sign of power and status, especially in pre-modern times. The ultimate human power of Paul’s day was Caesar, the emperor, the king over all the other kings. To be the top king means anything and everything is yours. Whatever Caesar wanted, human hands would bring it to him. Whatever task he wanted done, human hands would do it.

Likewise, the idea that gods want temples to live in, to be worshipped in, that they want sacrifices made to them, this is based on human imagination. The temples made to the Greek gods were ways to flatter and please the gods, to manipulate them to bless those who brought sacrifices to them. Temples were a place to make deals with the gods. To buy favor. So the real power was with the humans, who could get the gods to do their bidding.

And while the God of Israel set up a system of sacrifices for the Israelites to perform, this was never because He needed sacrifices (Psalms 51:16-17). It was a way of directing the Israelites to follow His ways. It was to remember Him, to fellowship with Him, and to fellowship with one another. God’s covenant with Israel required them to love rather than exploit others. The Temple in Jerusalem was not made at God’s command, but from David and Solomon’s desire to replace the Tabernacle (2 Samuel 7:1-2, 1 Kings 5:5). The purpose of the Tabernacle was to house God’s presence among the people (Exodus 33:14).

The Tabernacle was built so that God’s presence could be with His people to comfort them and remind them to walk in His ways. God is omnipresent, He is not fixed to one physical point. He was not confined to the Tabernacle. It was merely a reflection of heavenly things, to point the Israelites to Him and His heavenly throne (Hebrews 8:1-7). And now that Jesus had come, the need for sacrifices to gain fellowship with God was gone. Jesus was the once-and-forever sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:10-14).

The Gentiles who have believed in Jesus are saved by grace through faith; God requires no sacrifice from them, no journeys to any temple (Acts 15:7-11). Believers are themselves the Temple of God, where Jesus dwells in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit lives in us to guide and grow us (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, Ephesians 3:17, Romans 8:9-10).

Paul is telling the Athenians that God does not need temples built for Him, nor does He need to be served by human hands, as though He needed anything. He does not need anything from us. We are the ones who need Him, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things (v. 25). God has created all things and He sustains all things. We have life and breath and all things because of Him. He is life itself. He is the source of everything. There is no temple or service that can be dedicated to Him that would benefit Him. He is complete in Himself.

Having described the nature of God, Paul then describes how from God all people were made:

and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation (v. 26).

God created every nation of mankind from one man, Adam (Genesis 1:26-27). Though you are Greeks and I am a Jew, says Paul, we are all the same race. Though you are of one nation and I another, we are of one kind, mankind. We share the same father, one man, the first man created.

God allowed every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. The Greeks live in Greece, the Jews in Israel; God wanted us to spread out, to fill the earth. This was determined by God; He willed it and allowed it. God is sovereign. He has determined the appointed times of every nation.

We see this most clearly and frequently, perhaps, in the Book of Daniel. God sends a prophetic vision to King Nebuchadnezzar which shows all the coming empires which will topple the former ones (Daniel 2). In a dream, He shows Daniel that Persia will conquer Babylon before being conquered by Greece (Daniel 8), as well as directly telling King Belshazzar that his time is up and his kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5).

Before Israel existed as a nation, God tells its forefather Abraham that eventually his descendants will form a great people, and that the land that is prepared for them is not yet available to be inhabited, because God had determined the appointed times of the Amorites,

“Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
(Genesis 15:5-16)

Even so, God was looking ahead for the ending of the Amorites’ appointed times, as well as the new boundaries of the Israelites’ habitation which would be given to them upon their conquest of the land of Canaan (Numbers 33:51-56).

All peoples have been given times and boundaries to live in. These times and boundaries are determined by God. Every nation, every tribe, is allowed to live when and where it lives because of God’s determination.

Even though every nation of mankind spread across the earth away from the original man, God still desired mankind to remember Him, to know Him, to live a life in step with Him.

Paul describes God’s hope for mankind, despite their scattering across the earth:

that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us (v. 27).

Despite the Fall of Man, despite our sinfulness, despite God allowing people to spread across the earth and form their own people groups, God still wants a relationship with His creation. He wants mankind to seek Him. And if by seeking Him, perhaps they might grope for Him, they might reach out with their hands and their minds to seek this God whom they severed themselves from.

It is not in futility that we might seek and grope for God, for Paul says God wants to be found. The hope is that men would find Him. This is not a lengthy, near-impossible undertaking either. Paul says though He is not far from each one of us (v. 27). God is eternal, He is all-powerful, and nothing is hidden from Him.

The inference here is that if we will seek God, He will see that we find Him. God made Himself apparent in all His creation (Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 1:19-20). Paul refers to Psalm 19:4 in Romans 10:18 and makes the point that because of the evidence God placed of Himself in creation, that everyone has heard the gospel.

God is, indeed, not far from each one of us. But we are far from Him because of sin (Romans 3:9-12). But we can seek God. We can grope for Him, like trying to find something in the pitch dark. The inference is that God wants to be found and will reveal Himself to those seeking to know. Paul will introduce the Greeks to an intermediary, God become flesh. Jesus became human that we might come to know Him.

Just as Paul noted earlier, God does not live in a temple somewhere, or on a mountain (like some of the Greeks believed their gods to live on Mt. Olympus), neither does God live a million miles away in space somewhere. He is not far from each one of us. He is still present and active in His creation’s plane of existence. He is omnipresent, He is in all places on earth and heaven. And He wants to be found.

Paul now quotes a couple of Greek philosophers to again make the point that some of the Greeks have tried to seek and to grope for the true God. God is not far from each one of us:

for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children’ (v. 28).

The first line for in Him we live and move and exist is a quotation from Epimenides’ poem “Cretica.” This phrase and sentiment is very close to the Jewish prophet Isaiah’s own writing about Yahweh,

“Thus says God the Lord,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it.”
(Isaiah 42:5)

Paul also quotes the poet Aratus’s work “Phaenomena”: For we also are His children. Aratus was a Stoic poet who was friends with Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. This poem was written in reference to Zeus, but Paul is showing how some of the Athenians’ own poets were stumbling in the right direction.

Yahweh God is not Zeus. Zeus is not real. But the poets were on the right track describing the idea that there is a supreme God in whom we live and move and exist, a maker of reality who sustains life, so that we can thus conclude For we also are His children.

Humans are God’s children. We have a special status in creation, lower than the angels, but higher than the animals (Psalm 8). We were appointed to rulership over the earth (Genesis 1:26), but we lost our position when we fell into sin (Genesis 3:22-24, Romans 8:19-22, Isaiah 43:27). Yet that does not change the fact that we are God’s children, and He is seeking to reconcile us to Him.

(Through His faithfulness, Jesus restored humanity’s right to reign. Jesus now desires to restore “many sons” to serve with Him and be fulfilled in recovering their original purpose—Matthew 28:18, Hebrews 2:9-10, Revelation 3:21).

Paul notes that, since we also are His children, this should inform us on how to think about God. This should correct some of the faulty actions humans have taken in trying to relate to God:

Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man (v. 29).

This is perhaps Paul’s most piercing statement in his sermon. He has led his audience to it carefully and logically, but it still flies in the face of what so many Athenians were proud of in their city. The idols, the shrines, the altars, the temples—they are not God, they have nothing to do with God. Paul is saying that since we are the children of God, why would we think anything we create is God? Rather, He created us.

It makes no sense to think that the Divine Nature, the One who created everything, is like gold or silver or stone, like the creation itself. Pagan cultures throughout history fashion their own gods out of physical materials. Some were rude and plain, others were beautifully made of gold and silver, but all were simply an image formed by the art and thought of man (v. 29).

It is a great lie that draws people to go to temples and bow down to images of a god, thinking that the god is there in the form of that image. A face carved of stone is not a face, it is still stone. The Creator is not the creation. His children cannot make Him. Rather, He made us.

We cannot seek and grope and find Him by making an arts-and-crafts project. This would be as silly as printing a Missing Person poster and then saying, “We found him! He’s in that picture!”

Even in the Old Testament, when God’s presence would dwell in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem, there was no image cut of stone or precious metals to represent God. It is described that His presence and His glory was at times like a cloud, and at times like fire (Exodus 40:34-38, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3).

It was never communicated that God lived in the Ark of the Covenant like a genie, or that He was somehow the Ark of the Covenant itself. It was where God said He would put His presence, to draw the Israelite’s reverence to Him so that they would live according to His good design.

God used symbols and signs to direct His people, but after His Son died and resurrected, we can be reconciled with God. At Jesus’s death, God tore the veil in the Temple to signify that there was no longer a boundary between Him and humanity (Matthew 27:50-51, Hebrews 9). The Spirit of God lives within those who believe in His Son. Even Jesus is living in the hearts of all who believe (1 Corinthians 3:16, Ephesians 3:17).

Paul is telling the Athenians that they can cast aside all these bright distractions that are nothing more than statues formed by the art and thought of man. We are children of God and our desire to know the Divine Nature can be fulfilled by going directly to God. This is possible because God has come to us. And He is calling us to give up these deceptions and inventions we have contrived. He has made a way back to Him:

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent (v. 30).

Paul makes two amazing statements here. First, God has overlooked the times of ignorance among humans. Paul was not shaming the Athenians for not knowing God, despite God being so near to them, should they wish to seek Him and grope about so that they might find Him. God has overlooked their ignorance, their idols, their trust in images of gold and silver and stone which were formed by the art and thought of man.

Do not fret about your past ignorance, says Paul, but now that you are no longer ignorant, here is what you must do. The second statement is that God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.

To repent is to change one’s mind. Paul is telling the Athenians that God is now declaring to them that they need to repent of worshipping idols, they need to repent of their ignorance. They need to reconcile with Him, with the real God, the real Creator, who is not formed by the art and thought of man. They can do this by believing in Jesus.

Why should all people everywhere change their minds? Why should the Athenians repent?

Paul explains,

because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (v. 31).

This is the reason. The ultimate, compelling explanation for why every man and woman should repent of following false beliefs and believe instead what is true. There is a day coming, and it is fixed by God. It will not move, it will not change.

This is the day when God will judge the world in righteousness. God’s judgment is perfect. He judges in righteousness, meaning it is totally just, correct, unerring. Everything in the world that is corrupt will be judged and dealt with. The question is whether we want to stand with the world on that day or with God.

This judgment will be carried out by someone whom God has appointed, through a Man, whom Paul does not name here, but we know he is referring to Jesus. God furnished proof to all men to know that this Man was appointed by God to be judge on the day. The proof is that though this Man died, God resurrected Him, raising him from the dead.

This might have been somewhat startling to the Greeks to think that a Man would be the judge of all that is. Their gods were very human-like, but not Men. Now Paul is claiming that an actual human will be the judge of the world. This is, of course, because this Man is the One True God come in human flesh. Paul claims that we know this particular Man has this authority from God because God raised Him from the dead.

This claim that God raised someone from the dead is a stumbling block for many in the crowd listening to Paul’s sermon on Mars’ Hill:

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer (v. 32).

That they began to sneer indicates they were dismissive of the resurrection of the dead being possible, and accordingly perhaps everything else Paul had said up until that point. Perhaps they were intrigued and were finding Paul’s sermon persuasive, but as soon as he introduced something so miraculous and wonderful as the resurrection of the dead, the Athenian philosophers could not believe it.

They began to sneer, to mock Paul. To them, he sounded ridiculous. However, there were some in the crowd who were still interested in Paul’s teaching: but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this” (v. 32). They wanted him to teach again. They wanted to know more.

Interestingly, Paul does not mention the name of Jesus in this sermon, nor does he talk about the Son of God, or of faith, or of the forgiveness of sin. His main point is to remove the ignorance of the Athenians and to show them that none of their idols are really gods. Instead, there is a real God who created everything, and even some of the Greek philosophers from centuries past seemed to understand something of the true Divine Nature.

The true God had allowed their idolatry and ignorance, but now He was calling all people to repent and reconcile with Him. A judgment day is coming, and God has appointed as judge—a Man who was raised from the dead. And there, the sermon is sneered at, and seems to conclude.

So Paul went out of their midst (v. 33).

After Paul went out of the midst of the philosophers gathered on the stony hill of Ares, he was followed. Some who had heard the sermon wanted to learn about the Man who was resurrected from the dead and who would be judge on the coming day of judgment determined by God:

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them (v. 34).

Those who told Paul “We shall hear you again concerning this” (v. 32) were probably the ones who followed him as he departed from the Areopagus.

Since the text says these men who joined Paul afterwards also believed, we can suppose that Paul preached the gospel in greater detail to this smaller group which had joined him. These Athenians were answering God’s call on their lives. They wished to repent of the way they used to worship idols in ignorance. As children of God, they no longer wanted to worship an image of gold or silver or stone, they wanted to know the true Divine Nature of God.

Paul was able to tell them all about Jesus, the Son of Man and of God, who died for the sins of the world, and was the first fruits of the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20), so that all men and women can be resurrected from our current spiritual deadness and our future physical death, and be found faithful on the day in which He will judge the world, and receive the reward of sharing in His forever kingdom (Revelation 3:21, James 1:12, Matthew 25:21, Romans 8:16-17).

These men and women of Athens who joined Paul to learn more, upon hearing about Jesus, believed. We know that all who believe are born again into God’s family (John 3:3, 14-15).

Luke, the author of Acts, names one of the men who joined Paul and believed. It was one of the judges of the Areopagus, a man named Dionysius the Areopagite. To be an Areopagite meant that Dionysius sat on the governing Council, which traditionally convened at the Areopagus and often oversaw trials concerning the most heinous of crimes, such as murder.

The Areopagus Council’s existence can be traced back to 594 BC, at least, if not before that. This means at the time of Paul’s sermon, the Council had existed for over six hundred years. It was a lifelong appointment to serve as an Areopagite, and was obviously a very high honor among Athenians.

Luke names a woman named Damaris who believed. We do not know anything more of Damaris outside of this text. There were also a plurality of others with them who believed.

Though he had been driven out of several towns and away from his mission partners, Paul was faithful during this temporary discouraging period. Alone in a city full of idols, Paul, obedient to God’s will for him in Athens, was given the opportunity to speak on the famous hill of Ares where countless philosophers before him had taught their worldviews and beliefs.

Though many of the Athenians had rejected the gospel, some believed. Jesus taught His disciples that even when only one person is reconciled with God, the angels of heaven rejoice,

“In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
(Luke 15:10)

Paul continues to plant small seeds that will eventually become enormous oaks.