Acts 17:16-34: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD- By the Spirit, Paul saw that the city “given to idolatry— κατειδωλον, an expressive term; literally, under-idoled, Acts 17:16.” (Whedon's Bible Commentary) “The greatest men that ever lived, scholars, lawyers, statesmen, and warriors, were Athenians. Its institutions, laws, and literature, were its own unrivalled boast, and the envy of the world.” (Adam Clarke) Yet, they lived in darkness. “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. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler want to say?’ The Epicureans, and the Stoicks— “The former sprung from a certain philosopher of the name of Epicurus, who lived about three hundred and forty years before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. His doctrine was, that there was NO FIRST CAUSE; NO GOD; but that the world came by chance. And that a man's own pleasure was the only object of pursuit. The [latter group called] Stoicks were the followers of a philosopher called Zeno. They took the name of Stoic from the Greek word Stoa, which signifies a Porch. And as it is said that under a Porch Zeno used to walk, and teach his pupils his notion of things, they were called Stoic philosophers on that account. The tenets of this class of people differed from that of the Epicureans, in ACKNOWLEDGING A FIRST CAUSE…. BUT they held that so much natural goodness was in every man, he had a power over his own passions; and he might, if he pleased, undergo the greatest pain with indifference.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
Greek philosophers, except the Epicureans (who denied first cause), affirmed the immortality of the soul. (Craig S. Keener) “…. [The doctrine of the] 'immortality of the soul,' as normally understood, is not a Biblical doctrine." (The International Bible Commentary) "It is a truism that Plato's teaching has profoundly influenced Christian anthropology." (Forward by F.F. Bruce, The Fire that Consumes, Edward Fudge.)— “Others said, ‘He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,’ because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”
Let us consider his address: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 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.” (Acts 17:22-23). Paul reasoned with them in the streets and synagogues. “There was a time when the inhabitants of this country were worshippers of idols, and erected altars to them, and although that time has long gone by, and they now profess to be Christians, yet, strange as it may sound, God is still, to the chief part of the people of England, an Unknown God! Jesus and the Resurrection, which Paul preached, is as little understood by them, as by the ancient Athenians.” (Berean Bible Study)
First, Paul preached Jesus as FIRST CAUSE: “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. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” (Acts 17:24-25) Jesus began: “Let there be light.” Colossians 1:16-17 says: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
And Paul taught of man's origins. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.” (Acts17:26a) "Then the Bible account of the origin of man is true. The Book of Genesis is right. The whole family of mankind, with all its thousand millions, has descended from one pair—from Adam and Eve. This is a humbling fact, no doubt; but it is true. Kings and their subjects, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, prince and pauper, the educated Englishman and the untutored negro, the fashionable lady at the West End of London and the North American squaw,—all, all might trace their pedigree, if they could trace it through sixty centuries, to one man and one woman. No doubt in the vast period of six thousand years immense varieties of races have gradually been developed. Hot climates and cold climates have affected the colour and physical peculiarities of nations. Civilization and culture have produced their effect on the habits, demeanor, and mental attainment of the inhabitants of different parts of the globe. Some of Adam's children in the lapse of time have been greatly degraded, and some have been raised and improved. But the great fact remains the same. The story written by Moses is true. All the dwellers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America originally sprung from Adam and Eve. We were all ‘made of one blood.’ Now why do I dwell on all this? I do it because I wish to impress on the minds of my readers the plenary inspiration and divine authority of the Book of Genesis. I want you to hold fast the old teaching about the origin of man, and to refuse steadily to let it go.” (“One Blood”- by J. C. Ryle)
And according to the Greek philosophers: “The gods are too busy with their own matters to pay lowly humans any mind. Each of these ideologies has proposed a way to live life in the absence of divine guidance. Both ways are radically opposite of each other. But both agree that we have to figure life out without reference to revelation.
Enter Paul— He tells his Areopagus audience that God not only wants us to seek him, he has made himself accessible to us.” (The seed picker speaks by Jefferson Vann)
“For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ (Greek poets) Since we are God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.” (Acts 17:28-29) “The idolaters didn’t believe their fashioned idols were the actual gods. They believed that if they created an idol of especially fine craftsmanship out of the best, most expensive substance, then a god or goddess would come and live in the idol. The image could represent the deity, and offerings to the image would placate the god.
Paul turned that thinking upside down. He pointed to the fact that God created human beings. Living human beings were created to be God’s image bearers. Some inanimate hunk of wood or stone or even precious metal would just not do. If God were to represented, it would take a living being— which leads to Paul’s next big idea.” (The seed picker speaks by Jefferson Vann)
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 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.” (Acts 17:30-31) Some assert that Jesus here affirms the Grecian belief in the immortality of the soul. But Paul preached resurrection. “A closer look at the text shows that Paul was conceding human mortality, not rejecting it. If all humans are already immortal, then how can Jesus’ resurrection prove anything? If we have immortality by nature, why insist that life and breath are gifts from God? No, this passage does not prove we have immortal souls. But it does explain how we can gain immortality. By trusting our destinies to the man who is appointed as our judge, we can see life again, even after we die. Our judge is coming, and he has our reward with him. [Isa 62:11; Rev 22:12] That reward is immortality: the gift of permanent life.” (Jefferson Vann)
Comments