Why the Apostle Paul used poetry on Mars Hill (Acts 17)
I’ve begun
reading an interesting book on Paul’s missionary journey into Athens and his encounter
with the intellectual elites (aka…Athenian Philosophers) on Mars Hill – which is
often referred to as the Areopagus. Do
you remember the story?
Acts
17:16-31
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked
within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and
in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And
some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a
preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the
resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know
what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore
what these things mean.”
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend
their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I
perceive that in every way you are very religious.
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found
also an altar with this inscription, ‘To
the unknown god.’
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and
everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made
by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything since he
himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their
dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way
toward him and find him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and
move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we
are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being
is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of
man.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the
world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Paul arrived
at Athens after God re-directed his journey in Asia (Turkey) to Greece. Landing in Philippi, he worked his way south
preaching the Gospel at every turn, and establishing believers in churches in
Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. The
pattern for each stop was the same. Paul
entered the local Jewish Synagogue and proclaimed the Gospel of Christ. His target audience was the Jews first, and
then the Gentiles. That same pattern took
place when Paul arrived in Athens. Paul’s
companion, Luke records: “He reasoned in the Synagogue with the Jews and
devout persons”.
But Luke
also remarks that Paul entered the city in a disturbed way: “Now while Paul
was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw
that the city was full of idols.”
Luke adds this dimension to Paul’s ministry to the city of Athens. Athens was a cultural center as well as “the”
Philosophical center of Greece.
“So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler wish to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting’?”
Paul is
invited to come into the center of the Greek Philosophical gathering at Mars Hill. His preaching of Jesus and the resurrection
stir up this group of Greeks who believe that there are “many gods”, not one –
and I might add, they probably are asking, “Who is this Jesus?”
I don’t
think I’ve ever thought much about what happened next, except to say Paul
appeals to their Philosophical minds and hearts with his own intellect. In fact, I’ve read authors who thought Paul
failed here because he engaged them on an intellectual level. Yet, Scott Hahn, points out that Paul directed
his attention to two cultural artifacts – an altar and a poem. But these were not just random items;
instead, they were a Particular Altar and a Particular Poem. Once again, notice the text that Luke
records:
Acts
17:22-28
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens,
I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found
also an altar with this inscription, ‘To
the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim
to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and
earth, does not live in temples made by man,
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he
himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their
dwelling place,
that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find
him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your
own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Paul’s
appeal begins by acknowledging their altar to an unknown god, is followed by Paul’s
preaching of God who created everything.
This would not have been the belief of any of them; yet Paul appeals
also to a poem saying: “’In him we live and move and have our being’; as
even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ “
Is Paul merely showing off his own intellectual learning? Why the appeal through poetry? Our understanding has to go back to Greek
history – one that Paul knew very well.
Around 600
to 700 years before this time, there lived a rather mystical Greek philosopher by
the name of Epimenides. He lived on the island of Crete – a distance of about
200 miles south of Athens. Athens at that
time was in great turmoil, because the Athenians believed the gods had turned
against them. The Athenians sent a
delegation to Crete to appeal to Epimenides to come to Athens and help
them. The story is legendary in the Greek
philosophical schools of Socrates and Plato, as well as several others.
Epimenides
entered Athens, he suggested to the Athenian authorities that perhaps there was
“a god yet unknown to them”, that
could help them out of their problem. He
told them to gather sheep and bring them to the hilltop – the Aeropagus, or
Mars Hill (the hill of the god Mars that thought was against them). As the sheep wandered the hill they ate the
grass, but as soon as the sheep laid down, it was sacrificed to “a god”. Even to this day, the altars can be found with
no name of a god for whom they were built.
What Paul
says to them is, “You don’t know the God that I know and he is the God who you
need to know”. That helps us understand
the “Who is the God you don’t know”, but what about the poem. Epimenides was also a poet, and obviously, Paul knew what he had written. Epimenides,
from Crete, had written a poem to Zeus, the Greek’s chief god among the gods. Epimenides wrote:
“They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons.
But you are not dead – you live and abide forever.
For in you we live and move and have our being.”
If you
remember, when the Apostle Paul wrote to his disciple Titus, who had left on
Crete, he warned Titus that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons” (Titus 1:12). Paul’s quote
from Epimenides was not a way of showing he was an intellectual as they were;
instead, he reminded those Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of a man – they knew
– who was a poet, a prophet, a priest, and a law-giver. He reminded them that Epimenides came at a
time that Athens needed help, and made his appeal to them on the basis that the
Unknown god Epimenides prophesied about has made himself known. Jesus, lived, died, and was resurrected from
the dead.
Did they all
repent and believe?
Acts
17:30-34
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent,
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this, he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But
others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
So Paul went out from their midst.
But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the
Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
No, and
yes. Some believed including the
Areopagite Dionysius who was a member of their Athenian council and is purported
to be the first Bishop appointed by the Apostle Paul of the church in Athens.
I think the
main issue is Paul faithfully preached the Gospel when believing or not believing
was unknown. So should we.
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