In our increasingly secularized and pagan culture, it is important to identify ways to connect with people who don't have a clue about Who God is, what He has done for them, and the life to which He has called them. Paul gives us a great example of how to approach pagan people with the gospel in Acts 17:22-31. As we are told in Romans 1-2, everyone has a sense that there is a God out there and a desire to know a good God. That sense, however, can be covered and suppressed and buried in the baggage of a world that is in rebellion to God. The comments below are from a seminary paper that I wrote on this issue.
Acts 17:22-31, like Acts 14:8-18, describes the way that Paul addresses pagans who are unschooled in Hebrew Scriptures. An understanding of the context amplifies the message of these verses. Paul has been waiting for his companions to join him in Athens. He doesn’t waste his time, but is sensitive to how “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” (ESV, 17:16.) Thus, Paul understands that idols are a big deal in Athens. A massive idol to Athena is in the Parthenon. People are surrounded by idols to every imaginable god. Idols are never-living, man-created objects. They don’t move or speak or reflect any life at all. So, how can Paul use what he observes to communicate the Gospel?
Paul starts where he usually starts, by reasoning with the Jews and devout persons. (17:17.) He also goes into the marketplace – the Greek agora (Roman forum) – and reasons with people there. He is practicing street evangelism. The agora is at the base of Mars Hill (where the Aeropagus met) and the Acropolis. Stoic and Epicurean philosophers were always looking for new ideas (v. 17:21), so they invited Paul to speak his new ideas to the Aeropagus. They were especially fascinated with Paul’s preaching of Jesus and the resurrection. The message of Jesus and the resurrection are all about LIFE. Life of any kind is a sharp contrast to the absence of life in idols.
In standing before the Aeropagus, Paul is before some of the best educated men of the city. They will not listen long to someone who doesn’t hold their interest. Paul seizes on a theme from the idols that he observed in the city. Every one of these men knew the idols, so the idols that provoked Paul’s spirit in v. 16 served as the introductory theme of his message, because one alter was inscribed with a dedication to the “unknown god.” This tells us that we must always be observing culture for avenues for the presentation of the Gospel. Paul found his avenue in the “unknown god.” That was the God that Paul proclaimed.
Paul had a good grasp of Greek and Athenian history, because the “unknown god” was introduced by the Cretan philosopher, Epimenides, more than 600 years earlier.[1] Essentially, Epimenides was believed to have saved Athens from a deadly plague by getting the people to sacrifice sheep on alters to an “unknown god.” The plague suddenly stopped and the “unknown god” was given the credit. Paul quotes Epimenides, from a Hymn to Zeus, in the first part of v. 28.[2] Thus, he demonstrates a grasp of both Athenian history and Greek poetry. The quoted line from Epimenides was a description of how men are the offspring of Zeus, in whom “we live and move and have our being.”[3] Paul applies that statement to the one true God of all creation – the formerly unknown God. He quotes from a second Greek poet in describing mankind as the offspring of God. “Offspring” are living beings.
Thus, Paul has used familiar history, stories and philosophical poetry to catch the attention of and identify with his listeners. He then uses precise, logical “reasoning” to drive home his point: if mankind is the living offspring of God, and mankind lives and moves and is a living being, how can mankind worship inanimate, never-living objects as if they were god? The living God commands people to repent from such ignorant thinking, because there will be a day when He judges the world in righteousness. Paul then links his theme of a living God, who gives life to mankind, by describing how this God raised a man from the dead, and how God will judge the world through that same man.
Apparently, Athens had lost much of its ancient glory and was much smaller and less important than Corinth at this time.[4] Athens probably had around 30,000 residents, although there were many students (a world famous university) and philosophers. Corinth had several hundred thousand people and was a thriving commercial center. Paul was apparently eager to go to nearby Corinth, which had a larger potential audience for the Gospel. We see Paul depart for Corinth in 18:1, with no indication that he returned to Athens. Paul’s convert in Athens, Dionysius (the Greeks say, “Dennis”), became the first Bishop of Athens and is credited with building a strong church in the city.[5] Thus, Paul’s presentation of the Gospel of life and being and the resurrection at Mars Hill bore lasting fruit.
With Paul’s attack on idols as a product of past ignorance about the nature of God, the worship of idols began to fade from the western hemisphere. Neither traditional worship of Greek/Roman “gods” nor emperor worship, nor worship of other pagan deities could stand up to the message of life and truth delivered by Paul. As Athens, Rome and other cities of influence came under the influence of the Gospel, society was transformed, and to this day, blatant idol worship in western culture has been eliminated, apart from what is imported by eastern immigrants. People respond better to and identify more with a “living” God than to dead idols.
[1] This description of the history of Epimenides and the understanding of the quote attributed to him is from the first chapter of Don Richardson’s book, Eternity In Their Hearts, at pp. 14-28. As his sources, Richardson cites the third century Greek author, Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. 1, p. 110, and Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, book 3, 17:10, translated by J.H. Freese for the Loeb Classical Library. Cf. Hughes and Laney, New Bible Companion, at p. 593.
[2] From Epimenides’ Hymn to Zeus; Fn. to ESV Study Bible; Walvoord, Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, at p. 402.
[3] Paul describes Epimenides as a prophet in Titus 1:7, where he quotes him again.
[4] This information is primarily from the Greek tour guide who led my tour of Athens and Corinth in August of 2009; cf. Walvoord, Zuck, supra, at p. 402, commenting on 17:16.
[5] Hughes and Laney, supra, at p. 594.
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