1Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2Paul, as was his custom, went in to them; and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
4Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas: of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women. 5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people. 6When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!” 8The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things. 9When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. 12Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men. 13But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes. 14Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there. 15But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
16Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him. 18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
19They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about? 20For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you. 24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. 25He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. 26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. 30The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, 31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
33Thus Paul went out from among them. 34But certain men joined with him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
At the time Paul visited Athens, the city had recently emerged from an extended period of turbulent times, as it seems they had a penchant for choosing failed rebels against Rome. Athens had joined king Mithridates IV of Pontus in his rebellion against Rome in 88 B.C. Two years later the city was besieged by Sulla, and many of its monumental buildings were sacked and destroyed. The failed rebellion and consequent punishment from Rome threw the city into dire straights. The city was forced to sell off assets to buy food, and was forced to rely on the beneficence of Roman benefactors at other times.[1]
Athens once again threw itself in with a loosing rebel in 49 B.C., siding with Pompey against Julius Caesar; but this time Julius forgave them and spared the city further reprisal. Later, Brutus and Cassius, after they murdered Caesar, fled to the city after their defeat.
Just eighteen years later Marc Anthony, who had moved to Athens in 39, was tacitly supported by Athens. When Octavian defeated Marc Anthony, he refused to let Anthony exile in the city. Octavian also punished the city by appropriating a few sacred objects. However, he took pity on the city and gave them grain and control over some islands. He also finished the Agora (market) in 10 B.C., which was still being used, along with the Roman weights for weighing wheat, as late as the 1600’s. The famous Tower of the Winds was completed, and Agrippa built a one thousand seat Odeon at this time.[1]
This last rebellion seems to have ended Athens’ habit, and the city enjoyed a prolonged period of peace and prosperity, finally ending with the sack of the city by the Germanic Heruli tribe in A.D. 267.
When Paul visited the city, Acts says he “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” The Agora of Rome is probably the marketplace mentioned. It was a natural gathering place for the citizens of Athens, who were famous for being intensely interesting in the newest gossip or distraction. The appearance of a foreigner preaching a new religion would have probably gathered a large crowd. This agora has been excavated since 1931 by the American Schools of Classical Studies. They discovered the Odeon of Agrippa in the agora compound, city council chambers, magistrates’ offices, lawcourts (the Athenians were a notoriously litigious society) and the city mint. They also discovered evidence of all kinds of merchant activity there including the shops of potters, cobblers, bronzeworkers and sculptors.[1] Long stoas sheltered shoppers and other people gathered at the agora. One of these, the Stoa of Attalos has been rebuilt and serves as a museum and the headquarters of the excavation team of the Agora. The excavators also found a library and numerous temples (including one dedicated to Hephaistos – the god of fire and metalwork[2]) and smaller shrines.[3]
[1] The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, “The Athenian Agora.” Online: http://www.agathe.gr/overview/ (accessed April 19, 2010).
[2] Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962) 232-242.
[3] The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, “The Athenian Agora.” Online: http://www.agathe.gr/overview/ (accessed April 19, 2010).
[1] Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1962) 232-242.
[1] John Day, An Economic History of Athens Under Roman Domination, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942) 125-128.