|
We recommend "Landscape" print layout.
The Apostle Paul Addresses Multi-God Religious Ritual in Athens
Epicureans were hedonists,
materialists and infidels in Rabbinic Judaism.
Feelings were the touchstone of conduct (1 Corinthians 15:32) The gods
were not supernatural beings, controlling nature from without. The soul is a corporal substance. Stoics were pantheist, god, man,
animals, plants, and inanimate objects are “fragments of divine force.” By right reason the wise man can discover his
proper place in the universe and make such adjustments as are necessary in
submitting to this all-determining order.
.
NIV
footnote 17:23: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. The Greeks were so fearful of offending any
god by failing to give him attention; so they felt they could cover any
omissions by the label “unknown god.” Other Greek writers confirm that such
altars could be seen in Athens – a striking point of contact for Paul.
The
Book of Acts records the meeting:
Now while Paul waited for them at
Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to
idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily
with them that met with him. 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. And they took him, and
brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof
thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (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.)
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’
hill, and said, Ye men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him
declare I unto you. God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s
hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things; And hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That
they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and
have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his
offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or
silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because
he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath
ordained; whereof he hath given
assurance unto all men, in that
he hath raised him from the dead.
And when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again
of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and
believed: among the which was
Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them (Acts
17:16-34).
|
