Category:Paul in Athens (event)

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Paul in Athens refers to an episode in the life of Paul of Tarsus and the early Church during Paul's Second Missionary Journey, as narrated in the Acts of Apostles (17:15-34).

Overview

According to Acts of Apostles, Paul visited Athens during his Second Missionary Journey. It was not a successful visit; the city was "full of idols." Paul preached at the local synagogue to Jews and God-fearers. The lack of a large Jewish presence in Athens and of a crowd of God-fearers deprived Paul of his favorite audience and his most enthusiastic supporters. He was forced to preach directly to Gentiles pagans in the marketplace and at the Aeropagus. Paul's speech shows how the first Christians still lacked the skill and the arguments to reach out to a pagan audience. The reference to the Jewish God as the "unknown God" was vague yet consistent with the Hellenistic-Jewish monotheistic propaganda. But when Paul mentioned Jesus as "a man appointed by God to judge the world and risen from the dead," this was too crude for a sophisticated Greek audience with no acquaintance of Judaism. Paul left Athens without establishing any community, with the exception of a few individuals.

Paul in Athens in ancient sources

Acts of Apostles

Acts 17:15-34 (NRSV); see Paul's Second Missionary Journey -- 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him. 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities." (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) 19 So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means." 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. 22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him--though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' 29 Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." 32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, "We will hear you again about this." 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

External links

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