_Paul at Thessalonica and Berea,_ 1-14. Acts 17:1. THROUGH AMPHIPOLIS AND APOLLONIA. From Philippi to Amphipolis, some thirty-three miles along the great Egnatian Way, which was a continuation of the Appian Way. Amphipolis was an important military station in the days of Paul; its former name was ‘... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:2. AND PAUL, AS HIS MANNER WAS. Cf. Luke 4:16. Paul imitates his loved Master, who, we read, ‘as His custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.' Then as now, the great trading centre of Thessalonica attracted vast numbers of Jews. The synagogue here seems to have been the headq... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:3. OPENING AND ALLEGING. Better, ‘opening and setting forth.' Opening that is, expounding, unfolding their sense. Bengel well expands these words: ‘Ut si quis nucleum, fracto cortice, et recludat et exemptum ponat in medio.' Paul _opened_ their Scriptures, and then showed them how they cont... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:4. AND SOME OF THEM BELIEVED. The work of Paul in the synagogue was not unsuccessful. The account of the ‘converted' in this verse probably relates to the Jews and proselytes and devout Gentiles who worshipped with the Jews. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul alludes to many members of the church... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:5. BUT THE JEWS WHICH BELIEVED NOT, MOVED WITH ENVY, TOOK UNTO THEM CERTAIN LEWD FELLOWS OF THE BASER SORT. The words ‘which believed not' do not occur in the older Greek MSS. They were no doubt inserted as an explanation after the statement of Acts 17:4. It was only the unbelieving Jews who... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:6. UNTO THE RULERS OF THE CITY. Literally, ‘unto the politarchs.' Thessalonica was a ‘free city' _(urbs libera)._ This privilege of ‘freedom' was only bestowed by Rome upon certain favoured cities. In this case it was a reward for the side the city had taken when Augustus and Antony had warr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:7. THESE ALL DO CONTRARY TO THE DECREES OF CAESAR. It is observable that the complaint did not touch the real ground of discontent, viz. the supposed injury which the teaching of Paul would do to their religion. Such a charge would never have been listened to; it would have been treated by t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:8. AND THEY TROUBLED THE PEOPLE AND THE RULERS OF THE CITY, WHEN THEY HEARD THESE THINGS. It must be remembered that just at this time the Jews, and more particularly the Jewish Christians, were looked upon with extreme dislike and suspicion by the officials of the Empire. From Rome they had... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:9. AND WHEN THEY HAD TAKEN SECURITY OF JASON, AND OF THE OTHER. Better, ‘of Jason and of the rest,' ‘the rest' including those other believers who had been arrested at the time of the tumult. The ‘security' was most probably a sum of money deposited by Jason, who appears to have been a perso... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:10. AND THE BRETHREN IMMEDIATELY SENT AWAY PAUL AND SILAS BY NIGHT. All parties in the city were evidently uneasy, although quiet had been restored. The magistrates, dreading a fresh outbreak on the part of these suspected Orientals, and the Christian community knowing the bitter and sleeple... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:11. THESE WERE MORE NOBLE THAN THOSE IN THESSALONICA. Certain expositors of great name, as, for instance, Calvin and Luther, apply these words to the Jews of Thessalonica, translating thus: ‘These were the more noble of the Thessalonians who received the word,' intimating that the chief men... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:12. ALSO OF HONOURABLE WOMEN WHICH WERE GREEKS, AND OF MEN NOT A FEW. To these Jews who accepted the doctrines preached by Paul were added a number of Gentiles, some, of course, proselytes, but most probably idolaters for the most part; and these, the writer of the ‘Acts' tells us, were men... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:13. THEY CAME THITHER ALSO, AND STIRRED UP THE PEOPLE. These short notices in the ‘Acts' of the steady, unwearied pursuit of Paul from city to city give us a hint at least of that restless bitter hatred with which this great Gentile apostle was regarded by the majority of his countrymen a ha... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:14. TO GO AS IT WERE TO THE SEA. The accurate translation of the Greek ω ̔ ς ε ̓ πι ̀ κ. τ. λ is simply ‘as far as to the sea;' the English Version would seem to suggest a feint on the part of Paul and his friends; the Greek _its_ used before a preposition simply denotes the definite intenti... [ Continue Reading ]
_Paul at Athens,_ 15-34. Acts 17:15. BROUGHT HIM UNTO ATHENS. The once famous centre of Greek thought and culture, long the dominant power among the varied states of which ancient Greece was made up, whose name and influence at one time was all-powerful in so many rich and flourishing cities round t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:16. HIS SPIRIT WAS STIRRED UP IN HIM. The whole aspect of Athens was strangely repugnant to Paul; the great cities he was acquainted with, such as Antioch in the east and Thessalonica in the west, were busy commercial centres, full of life and energy, despising rather, while at the same time... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:17. 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. Here Paul, no doubt, on account of the intense feeling stirred up by the sight of all this idolatry, slightly deviated from his usual practice of first... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:18. THEN CERTAIN PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EPICUREANS, AND OF THE STOICS. This would be more accurately rendered, ‘of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.' Epicurus, founder of the philosophic sect which bears his name, was born in Samos, B.C. 342. _The Epicurean,_ while admitting the existence o... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:19. BROUGHT HIM UNTO AREOPAGUS. On this spot, writes Howson _(St. Paul), ‘_ a long series of awful causes connected with crime and religion had been determined, beginning with the legendary trial of Mars [Ares], which gave to the place the name of “Mars' Hill.” A temple of this god was built... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:21. AND THE STRANGERS WHICH WERE THERE. Although the ancient glory which the schools of Athens enjoyed was a good deal dimmed at this particular time, still the city was the resort of numbers of young Italians and others, for the purposes of education and study. SPENT THEIR TIME IN NOTHING... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:22. IN THE MIDST OF MARS' HILL, or ‘in the midst of the Areopagus.' Wordsworth thus describes the place: ‘Sixteen stone steps, cut in the rock at its south-east angle, lead up to the hill of the Areopagus from the valley of the Agora (the “market”), where Paul had been disputing (Acts 17:17)... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:23. FOR AS I PASSED BY, AND BEHELD YOUR DEVOTIONS. This should be rendered, ‘and beheld the things that you worship.' It does not refer to their devotions, or acts of worship, but to their temples, statues of divinities, shrines, and the like. TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. The more accurate translati... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:24. DWELLETH NOT IN TEMPLES MADE WITH HANDS. Commentators call attention to the remarkable reminiscence of the dying speech of Stephen before the Sanhedrim, which the Pharisee Saul must have listened to, and which so powerfully influenced his future life. ‘Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:25. NEITHER IS HE WORSHIPPED WITH MEN'S HANDS, AS THOUGH HE NEEDED ANYTHING. The men of the heathen world loved to spend their wealth on the adornment of the temples of the gods, to whom also they brought costly offerings of food and drink, as though these imaginary eternal beings needed suc... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:26. AND HATH MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS OF MEN. Here Paul definitely asserts that God created the whole human race from one common stock. His reasons for this deliberate assertion of the common brotherhood of men no doubt are to be found in his desire to do away, once and for all, with th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:27. THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK THE LORD. The older MSS. here read ‘God' instead of ‘the Lord.' The design of God's overruling providence was that men should seek after a knowledge of the Divine Ruler of all things, and also after a living union with this gracious and all-powerful Being. The Greek... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:29. WE OUGHT NOT TO THINK THAT THE GODHEAD IS LIKE UNTO GOLD OR SILVER OR STONE GRAVEN BY ART. The Greek word translated by ‘Godhead' is better rendered ‘Divinity,' or ‘that which is Divine.' The thought here is expanded in Isaiah 44:9-20, where the miserable absurdity of supposing that ‘Div... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:30. AND THE TIMES OF THIS IGNORANCE GOD WINKED AT. The English translation of the Greek word υ ̔ περιδω ̀ ν, _winked at,_ utterly fails to give the sense of the original, which should be rendered ‘having overlooked.' God now commandeth, etc. God had allowed those ages of ignorance to pass by... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:31. BECAUSE HE HATH APPOINTED A DAY IN THE WHICH HE WILL JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. The Greek word translated ‘because' is better rendered ‘inasmuch as.' This statement gives the reason why the Heathen world must repent the day of judgment is fixed, and the Judge appointed. If _now,_... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:32. AND WHEN THEY HEARD OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, SOME MOCKED, AND OTHERS SAID, WE WILL HEAR THEE AGAIN OF THIS MATTER. It has been suggested that those that mocked were followers of Epicurus, and that the men who wished to adjourn the question were of the school of Zeno. The Areo-pag... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:33. SO PAUL DEPARTED FROM AMONG THEM. We never hear of his visiting Athens again, nor does he ever in any of his subsequently written letters make mention of the beautiful idol city. Meyer suggests that the speech of Paul at Athens contains three divisions: _(a)_ Theology, Acts 17:24-25; _(b... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 17:34. HOWBEIT CERTAIN MEN CLAVE UNTO HIM, AND BELIEVED. There is no doubt that Paul failed in his attempt to found a Christian church at Athens. His stay does not appear to have been a prolonged one. While we possess five of Paul's letters addressed to Greek cities, two to Thessalonica, two to... [ Continue Reading ]