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| Chapter 17 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul, as was his custom, went in unto them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 expounding and alleging that it was necessary for Christ to have suffered and risen again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ." 4 And some of them believed, and joined themselves with Paul and Silas, as did a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and of the chief women, not a few. 5 But the Jews who believed not, moved with envy, engaged certain wicked fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a crowd and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 And when they found them not, they dragged Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, "These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also, 7 and Jason hath received them; and they all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." 8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken security of Jason and the others, they let them go. 10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who arriving there, went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, also honorable women who were Greeks, and of men not a few. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica became aware that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the people. 14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go down to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there still. 15 And those who conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and, having received direction for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed. 16 ¶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, "What will this babbler say?" And some others said, "He seemed to be a proclaimer of strange gods," because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is whereof thou speakest? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things mean." 21 (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else than either telling or hearing some new thing.) 22 ¶ 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. 23 For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the Unknown God.’ Whom therefore ye worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you. 24 God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. 25 Neither is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. 26 And He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, 27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. 28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 "For inasmuch, 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 of man’s devising. 30 The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now He commanded all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He hath appointed a Day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained. Of this He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." 32 ¶ But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, "We will hear thee again on this matter." 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, certain men cleaved unto him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. |
Luke tells us of Paul’s ministry in three separate cities, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens. He shows us how the three towns responded to the message of salvation given by Paul and Silas. In these three towns we can also see how the people today could respond to the message. v1-5 Luke seems to have returned to using "they" so we have to presume that he is not part of the party and Timothy is not mentioned until later so they may have remained in Phillipi. Thessalonica. Leaving Philippi Paul and Silas head South West 100 miles to the capital of Macedonia, Thessalonica (modern Salonika). There is no mention of a stop at Amphipolis and Apollonia. Paul normally took the message to the main cities, he then normally expected the new believers to take the message to the smaller surrounding towns. 1 Thess 1:8 Possibly this was the plan for these two towns. The city of Thessalonica is located on several important trade routes and also had a good harbour. Most of the people were Greek but it was still under the control of Rome, though there were no Roman soldiers based their because it was a "free city." Because of this it had a citizens assembly to create local rules and authority. For three Sabbaths, Paul goes to the synagogue, talking to those present and answered their questions as he spoke to the Jews about Jesus, using the Old Testament scriptures to prove who Jesus was. Resurrection was the main point of the Christian faith, this is the major problem for a Jew. Luke also tells us that there were many Greeks in the synagogue, these were proselytes or "God seeking" Gentiles. Some of the Jews believed the message and joined Paul and Silas, Luke also tells us that many Greeks became believers. v5-8 The result of the message did not bring joy to everybody, the unbelieving Jews were jealous and were hurt to see so many leaving the synagogue. They use "wicked fellows" to stir up the people and planned to drag the apostles before the magistrates but could not find them so instead dragged Jason and other believers before the magistrates. Jason had been the person who had been caring for Paul and Silas while they were in the city. They were charged with disturbing the peace and saying "there is another king," Jesus. The word which we translate "another" means "another of a different kind," different to Caesar. The King and Kingdom of a believer is not of this world John 18:36-37, but we cannot expect unbelievers to understand this. v9 the magistrates demanded that Jason should remove Paul and Silas from the city and that he would make sure that they would not return, as guarantee the magistrates made Jason supply a "money bond" that he would carry out this instruction. It appears that Paul had tried to return but was not able to, he blamed it on Satan’s work. 1 Thess 2:18 However, this restriction on Paul did not stop the message going out, the believers in the church at Thessalonica took the message instead to the area. 1 Thess 1:6-9. Berea. v10-15 Paul and Silas now move onto Berea about 45 miles to the west. When Paul entered the synagogue he finds great interest, they were so interested that the synagogue members were each day searching the scriptures to confirm what Paul was saying. That reminds us that we should always check the scriptures for any teaching received, without it, wrong teaching can be taken on by a church. Luke tells us that many of them believed. Once again opposition arises, this time due to the unbelievers from Thessalonica coming and making the city turn against the message. The Berea believers secretly take Paul by boat to Athens where he is joined by Timothy and Silas. Timothy later, being a Greek and not known by the town, was able to return to Thessalonica 1 Thess 3:1-6. Athens. Athens had been a powerful city once, the home of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, ancient philosophers, (people who study and teach), but it was becoming weaker and less important. It was still thought to be the center of culture and education but its glory had long passed. Paul found it interesting that the people were still hungary for spiritual things but had turned to idol worship instead of seeking the true God, especially as they thought they we very intelligent and knew all the answers. Most Greek religions created gods in the image of men, they were given super powers but with human attributes, envy, hatred, jealousy were all part of their "gods." Paul may have only had Luke with him at this time 1 Thess 3:1. Looking round at all these idols,and knowing that the source was Satanic, Paul tries to talk about the true God to various groups, to those in the market place, to the Jews in the synagogue, to devout people. All this caused some of the philosophers to call Paul "a babbler" (talking in a confused way). There were two types of philosophers in Athens, the Epicurians and the Stoics. The Epicurians tried to find the truth by experience and not by reasoning. They did not believe in a God and their way of living was by seeking pleasure. To some "pleasure" could mean pain and suffering, others a life without any pain or problems. They wanted to just "Enjoy life." The Stoics taught that there was "one World God," rejecting idol and pagan worship. They lived for self control, pleasure was not ‘good’ neither pain ‘evil.’ They were full of pride and their achievements, they did not need the help of a God of any sort. They "Endured life" v19-21 The Council of Aeropagus were responsible for the religion and education in the city so were interested in this "new teaching." Paul was therefore invited to speak to them at a special meeting. v22 Paul is not on trial as he speaks, the council want to know the details of this doctrine. Paul’s message starts by praising them for being so religious, so many god’s, so religious that they had an alter to "the unknown god," just incase they had missed a god. It was this God that Paul wanted to tell them about. v24-27 God is the creator, he is greater than anything, supplying all that the world and the people need, life, food, so there is nothing He needs from Mankind. He does not live in man made buildings, but He does watch over Man and his needs and wants contact with men, any who look for Him will find Him. This one passage shows that all the temples built in Athens by men and being use as places of worship are a waste of time, these do not worship God but give glory to men. v26-29 These man made Greek gods did not care for the problems of man, but the God Paul is talking about created all men and nations from one man, all being equal. v26. This would have cause the Greeks some concern as they thought that they were a special race. This God is near to man, v27. v28 Paul quotes from two of their own poets. God created mankind, so we are His "natural children," we are "created in the image of God" Gen 1:26, we are not the spiritual children of God until we believe in Christ. John 1:11-13. It is therefore foolish to make images of man and say they are gods. v30-31 God loves us and wants to be our saviour. God has been patient with the sin and wrong doing of men, for now He is holding back His anger at our sins, but right now He is commanding all to repent, to turn to Him and away from wrong. He has set a time when He will judge but has now sent a Saviour who died and is now alive and has taken the punishment for all who believe. v32 Resurrection of the dead caused much laughter, to a Greek the body of a man was just a container he will occupy for a while, to be released from the body one day. To raise a dead body and relive in it again must be wrong, they could not see how a God would be interested in personal judgement done while in this body. They believed in eternal life, but as a spirit not with a body. v32-34 Some laughed at Paul’s message, some wanted to hear more, some believed and accepted Christ as their Saviour. Paul was not told to leave so we believe that he continued to preach. The people of Athens thought that they were special, they thought they knew everything, Paul’s remark "The times of this ignorance" sums up why they chose to ignore the message. See 1 Cor 1:25-31. |
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