Homily XXXVIII.
Acts XVII. 16, 17
“Now while Paul waited for
them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city
wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with
the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with
them that met with him.”
how he meets with greater trials among the Jews than among the
Gentiles. Thus in Athens he undergoes nothing of this kind; the thing
goes as far as ridicule, and there an end: and yet he did make some
converts: whereas among the Jews he underwent many perils; so much
greater was their hostility against him.—“His
spirit,” it says, “was roused within him when he saw the
city all full of idols.” Nowhere else were so many objects of worship to be seen. But again “he disputed with the Jews in the synagogue, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain of the philosophers of the Stoics and Epicureans encountered him.” (v. 18.) It is a wonder the philosophers did not laugh him to scorn, speaking in the way he did. “And some said, What does this babbler mean to say?” insolently, on the instant:—this is far from philosophy. “Other some said, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods,” from the preaching, because he had no arrogance. They did not understand, nor comprehend the subjects he was speaking of—how should they? affirming as they did, some of them, that God is a body; others, that pleasure is the (true) happiness. “Of strange gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection:” for in fact they supposed “Anastasis” (the Resurrection) to be some deity, being accustomed to worship female divinities also. “And having taken him, they brought him to the Areopagus” (v. 19)—not to punish, but in order to learn—“to the Areopagus” where the trials for murder were held. Thus observe, in hope of learning (they ask him), saying, “May we know what is this new doctrine spoken of by thee? For thou bringest certain strange matters to our ears” (v. 20): everywhere novelty is the charge: “we would fain know therefore, what these things may mean.” It was a city of talkers, that city of theirs. “For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I look upon you as being in all things” (v. 21, 22)—he puts it by way of encomium: (the word) does not seem to mean anything offensive—δεισιδαιμονεστέρους, that is, εὐλαβεστέρους, “more religiously disposed. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with his inscription, . What therefore ye ignorantly worship, this declare I unto you.” (v. 23.)—“On which was inscribed, To an Unknown God.” The Athenians, namely, as on many occasions they had received gods from foreign parts also—for instance, the temple of Minerva, Pan, and others from different countries—being afraid that there might be some other god not yet known to them, but worshipped elsewhere, for more assurance, forsooth, erected an altar to that god also: and as the god was not known, it was inscribed, “To an Unknown God.” This God then, he tells them, is Christ; or rather, the God of all. “Him declare I unto you.” Observe how he shows that they had already received Him, and “it is nothing strange,” says he, “nothing new that I introduce to you.” All along, this was what they had been saying: “What is this new doctrine spoken of by thee? For thou bringest certain strange matters to our ears.” Immediately therefore he removes this surmise of theirs: and then says, “God that made the world and all things therein, He being Lord of heaven and earth”—for, that they may not imagine Him to be one of many, he presently sets them right on this point; adding, “dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (v. 24), “neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything”—do you observe how, little by little, he brings in the philosophy? how he ridicules the heathen error? “seeing it is He that giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” This is peculiar to God. Look, then, whether these things may not be predicated of the Son also. “Being Lord,” he saith, “of heaven and earth”—which they accounted to be God’s. Both the creation he declares to be His work, and mankind also. “Having determined,” he says, “the times assigned to them, and the bounds of their habitation,” (v.