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Bishop Wordsworth has given a good summary of the apostle's address as follows:
`This speech contains a statement of the Unity of the Godhead (v. 23), against Polytheism; of the Creation of all
things by Him, against the Epicurean theory of a fortuitous concourse of atoms; of its Government by Him,
against the Stoic doctrine of Fate, and the Epicurean notion of indifference (vv. 23,24); of the Divine
Omnipresence, and of the autarkeia (self-sufficiency) of the One Great First Cause (v. 25) in opposition to the
popular theology; of the origin of all nations from one blood, against the Athenian conceit of their own dignity
as autochthones (indigenous to the soil, as distinct from a settler); of the spirituality of the Godhead in opposition
to idolatry (v. 29); of the witness to God's existence, and other attributes, in man's conscience and in human
nature, and in the visible world (v. 29). It concludes with a reply to the objection that these are new doctrines (v.
30), and with a statement of the doctrine of human accountability and universal judgment to come by One Whom
God has appointed; of which He has given a pledge by His resurrection from the dead'.
It is to be regretted that the A.V. makes the apostle open his address with a reference to Athenian `superstition',
for this at once alters the whole tone of his speech. A better rendering would be: `I observe that in every respect ye
are very religious'. As Farrar remarks, `It is possible to be "uncompromising" in opinions, without being violent in
language or uncharitable in temper'.
The apostle then proceeds :
`For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD"`
(Acts 17:23).
Diogenes Laertius tells us that the Athenians, suffering from an epidemic, were commanded by Epimenides to
allow sheep to wander at will, and wherever one lay down, to sacrifice it to THE PROPER GOD. We also have the
words of Philostratus: `It is wise to speak well of all the gods, and that at Athens, where altars even of unknown
gods are erected'.
It is absolutely necessary in speaking, that one's hearers, whether Jews or Gentiles, believers or unbelievers,
should have some common ground with the Speaker, which he can use as a starting-point. The `common ground'
between Paul and the Jew was provided by the Old Testament Scriptures and their Messianic testimony, and he
accordingly proceeded to prove from the Scriptures `that Jesus was the Christ'. No such common ground, however,
was possible with the apostle's audience on Mars' Hill. He therefore seizes upon the confession of ignorance and
need that stood out so pathetically on that altar, and with that as a basis, he proceeds to lead his hearers on, until at
last, by a series of steps, he reaches his subject of `Jesus and the resurrection'.
`Whom therefore ye ignorantly (or perhaps, "unconsciously") worship, Him declare I unto you' (Acts 17:23).
The apostle then proceeds to demonstrate the folly both of idolatry and of both schools of philosophy, by
proclaiming the true nature of God, the Creator.
The fact that the Greeks of Athens had gone so far as to erect a statue in honour of Hyrcanus, the High Priest,
makes it quite within the realm of possibility that, having adopted practically all the gods of Asia, Europe and Africa
(see Jerome on Titus), they might have included also the God of the Jews. They could not, however, have erected a
statue for the Jews abominated graven images. Also they could give their altar no name, for the Jews avoided the
utterance of the name `Jehovah'. Dion Cassius speaks of the God of the Jews as arrheton, `not to be expressed'
(37:17), and Caligula, speaking to the Jews, refers to their God as `Him that may not be named by you' (Philo).
Standing upon Mars' Hill, the apostle had before him perhaps the most wonderful assemblage of `temples made
with hands' and objects of devotion `engraved by art and man's device' that the world could provide, but he sweeps
them all aside, to point his hearers to the true God. Appealing to their own poets and philosophers - Aratus of
Cilicia and Cleanthes had said, `We are his offspring' - the apostle, without endorsing the mythology of these
writers, shows how unreasonable it is for the `offspring' of God to think that the Godhead is `like unto gold, or
silver, or stone'.