OPEN BOOK – HINTS FROM THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS: PAUL AT ATHENS

BRUCE C WEARNE, in his examination of Acts of the Apostles, looks at Paul’s encounter with the learned philosophers of Athens…

And as Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit became deeply provoked to behold just how full the city was of idols. He argued [about this] in the synagogue with Jews and devout persons, and also in the marketplace each day, taking every opportunity to discuss this with those who happened to be there. That’s how Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him. Some said, “What is this rumour-monger on about?” Others noted, “He seems to be a herald of gods from overseas” – this observation referred to his preaching of “Jesus” and “Anastasia”. So they brought him along with them to the Areop’agus, and asked, “May we know more about this new teaching you are presenting? For you are bringing strange things to our ears and we want to know what they mean.” It should be noted that all the Athenians and residential foreigners spent their time keeping up with the latest thing. So that is how Paul came to be giving his presentation out there in the Areopagus:
     “Men of Athens, I have seen for myself just how thorough your religious observance is. For as I have examined your sacred places, I also saw one altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” So that is where I can say to you that what you reverence in ignorance, I am [indeed] announcing to you – He is [the One] who made the cosmos and everything in it, the heavens and the earth [in their entirety], being the Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in human shrines, nor is He maintained by human hands as if He is in need of anything, [that we could give] since He Himself gives life and breath to all [who live and breathe] and He made from one [kind] every nation of men who dwell across the face of the earth, arranging the seasons [of the years] and the boundaries of the native lands, in order that they might, step-by-step, search for God in the hope of getting in touch with Him and finding Him, even though He is not far from each one of us, for ‘it is in Him that we live and we move and we are’, just as some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’. Being then God’s own children, we ought not to think that God is like gold, or silver, or stone, subject to our representation of Him from the artfulness of our human imagination. Having overlooked the [former] times of ignorance, God now commands all men everywhere to turn around, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in [order to ensure] right-standing by a man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given a guaranteed offer to all men by raising this Person from the grave.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection from the grave, some mocked; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul, [having said what he had to say] went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. – Acts 17:16-34/transliteration by Bruce C Wearne

‘CITY OF IDOLS’: Paul was “deeply provoked” by how many idols he encountered in the city of Athens. Pictured is the fifth century BC Temple of Hephaestos. PICTURE: www.freeimages.com

IN A NUTSHELL
Being in Athens, Paul takes the opportunity to develop his teaching among Gentiles and those of pagan religion.

This is a famous address. Paul took every opportunity to proclaim the message about Jesus to all God brought across his path. In Athens, the work began in the Jewish synagogue. And we hear from Luke that Paul, deeply provoked by Athenian idolatry, maintained his teaching role at the Jewish synagogue. There too, particularly in that city, the True God had to be proclaimed in order that men turn away from idols.

But Paul also spent time in the marketplace getting to know people and presenting the Good News there. We might say he was “full of it”. That’s where some philosophers heard him preaching and realised this was something new. The Areopagus was just the place for trying out new ideas, new theories, or new religious angles. Some of the philosophers thought this was a religion about a couple of divinities named Jesus and Anastasia. Anastasia is the Greek word for Resurrection, as well as being a girl’s name.

Paul, Luke tells us, was pretty up-tight because the entire city was full to overflowing with idols. Idol worship is not just a waste – it is an affront to the Lord God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Paul believed that. We believe it. But how do you then relate to people whose lives, as you can see, are full of idols? Jesus, the Son of the Most High God, had told Ananias that Paul was His chosen instrument for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. And Paul had been sent out with this calling. How then can you take the Gospel to people without telling them about the True God? How can you tell them if you simply wait for them to come to your place? You have to go out and meet them on their turf. It may be dangerous. It may be irksome. A city like Athens, so full of idols, is not necessarily a lovely place but, when the Gospel requires it, you have to go. Paul was realising he had to meet people who did not have a synagogue education. How can you pass on the Gospel to them? Paul’s address at the Areopagus sounds like the explanation he had tried to give to the crowd at Lystra. Remember the Zeus festival when they invited him to be Zeus and Barnabas to be Hermes?

Paul proclaimed the Good News on this auspicious, academic occasion, in terms of God’s creational activity confirmed by His re-creationally raising Jesus from the dead. But then we are prompted to ask about Paul’s rhetorical method. How was this stupendous news to be conveyed? Was it to be by a distinctive teaching which set the Pharisees’ belief in resurrection at odds with those who, like the Sadducees, just wouldn’t commit to such outrageous nonsense?

Luke tells us that the local philosophers were always alert to new teaching. Paul had obviously been much exercised about what he would say. He had also been reading some Greek poetry books. He said something like this: “Thanks for bringing me here. I realise you want me to say something new. So I asked myself: What can I say in this city, religious in every way, that has not been said before? And then I realised I could say something that will interest you, especially if you haven’t heard anything like it before; this is what I have composed after passing that shrine to the “unknown god” – that one, the one over there. My new teaching is about the God who is unknown to you.’

And so he told them about the God who knew them. This God may indeed be been unknown to you in the past, says Paul, but I can tell you that you are not unknown to Him. The message hit home; the seed was sown and in time brought forth its own harvest.

The Gospel is presented in the form of an announcement of a guaranteed amnesty handed down by God Himself when He raised Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah from death. This Divine action brings everything into line, from beginning to end, in order to fulfill His purposes. This amnesty prevails despite the refusal of those who turn away. Through the raising of this New Man all peoples are invited to live and move and have their being within God’s creational purposes. The results of this amnesty are to be lived now, here and henceforth – the alternative is to refuse to be released from a bondage that remains in sin and brings death and judgement. Paul’s appeal is that those hearing him turn from the futility of groping through life with art and imagination as spiritual props that will simply fall away.