Paul stayed in Athens several days and waited for Silas and Timothy. And while he waited he grew thoroughly exasperated since, at every turn, he was confronted with the city’s idolatry.
As a result, he was compelled to address the situation with the Jews and Gentile proselytes in the local synagogue. And he debated people who frequented the marketplace, as well.
While Paul was preaching and teaching in Athens some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers walked up, and made some cynical remarks, including,
"What kind of doctrines is this misinformed malcontent shoveling on the people?"
And others said,
"He plans to deceive the local populace with a myriad of new and different gods!”
But Paul’s sole focus and priority was Jesus and his resurrection. And as the result of his intensive time and efforts, the apostle was arrested, and brought before their council in the Areopagus. And now, a representative of the council asked him,
"Will you please elaborate on the topic about which you have been teaching? The things you have told us are beyond our comprehension, and we want to know more about them." (The Athenians, and travelers who passed through the city were “taken up” with “strange and wonderful” gods and doctrines and loved to discuss such things).
And since Paul was not only a captive, but had a captive audience, he stood to his feet, and began speaking,
"Gentlemen, no one needs to convince me that you are a profoundly religious group of people. For as I walked through your fair city, and witnessed your shrines, I ran across an altar which bore the inscription, ‘DEDICATED TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.’
“This God to whom you have dedicated an altar, I would like to describe for you today! This God who made the world and stars, and every man and beast, Lord of the heavens and the earth, does not inhabit temples manufactured by frail human beings, nor does he need anything you can possibly give him; since he is, after all, the One who breathed the breath of life into every creature which lives, and breathes and moves on our planet.
“From one man and one woman, God has created every race and clan and people. He has foreordained the times and seasons of their existence, and the limits of their dwelling places, so that they may look for God, with the hope and expectation that they may sense his reality and discover the profound love he has for them; (though he never was all that far from us).
“Indeed, it is in and by this God whom I proclaim to you today that we live, and move, and have our being. Why, some of your poets (whose names you know and respect) have endorsed the things I have shared today with the words, 'For we are indeed his children.’
“If then, we are the living, breathing children of a loving, living God, we should avoid characterizing him as a dead and helpless idol; which is conceived out of imagination and ignorance, and which possesses no wherewithal to come along side us and to intervene in our lives.
"And though God once winked at our ignorance, and futile imaginings, he now expects all men to repent, and to come to the knowledge of the Truth.
"For He has appointed a specific day on which He will render justice to all men in whom he ever breathed life; by this great and glorious man whom he commissioned. And he has guaranteed the authenticity of his lovely Gospel with a single word, by which he called Christ back from the dead.”
When Paul’s audience heard him refer to the resurrection of the dead, some of his listeners mocked him. But others said, "We would like you to speak to us again.”
And having fully expressed himself, Paul was released from the assembly. And some of those who witnessed his defense received the Gospel message with joy, including Dionysius a member of the Areopagus, a woman by the name of Damaris, and others among them.
Excerpt from "The McDonald Paraphrase of the New Testament", Acts Chapter 17. Copyright 2018.
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