-
AthensInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
-
-
Athens was also a very religious city, provoking the apostle Paul’s comment that Athenians “seem to be more given to the fear of the deities than others are.” (Ac 17:22) According to the historian Josephus, the Athenians were ‘the most pious of the Greeks.’ (Against Apion, II, 130 [12]) The State controlled religion and encouraged it by paying for public sacrifices, rites, and processions in honor of the gods. Idols were to be found in temples, in public squares, and on the streets, and people regularly prayed to the gods before engaging in their intellectual feasts or symposiums, political assemblies, and athletic contests. In order not to offend any of the gods, the Athenians even built altars “To an Unknown God,” to which fact Paul refers in Acts 17:23. Second-century geographer Pausanias confirms this, explaining that while he was traveling along the road from Phaleron Bay harbor to Athens (perhaps traversed by Paul on his arrival) he noticed “altars of the gods named Unknown, and of heroes.”—Description of Greece, Attica, I, 4.
-
-
AthensInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
-
-
At this time many beautiful public buildings and temples were erected, including the Parthenon (the temple of Athena) and the Erechtheum, the ruins of which can still be seen atop the Acropolis in modern Athens. The Parthenon was considered the principal architectural monument of ancient pagan religion and was ornamented by a 12-m (40 ft) gold and ivory statue of Athena.
This material beauty, however, did not produce true spiritual uplift for the Athenians, for the gods and goddesses honored by it were themselves depicted in Greek mythology as practicing every immoral and criminal act known to humans. Thus, in Paul’s day, the Greek philosopher Apollonius criticized the Athenians for their orgiastic dances at the Festival of Dionysus (Bacchus) and for their enthusiasm for the shedding of human blood at the gladiatorial contests.
-
-
AthensInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
-
-
While in the marketplace Paul was accosted by Stoic and Epicurean philosophers and was viewed suspiciously as being “a publisher of foreign deities.” (Ac 17:18) There were many sorts of religion in the Roman Empire, but Greek and Roman law prohibited the introduction of strange gods and new religious customs, especially when these were in opposition to the native religion. Paul evidently encountered difficulty due to religious intolerance in the Romanized city of Philippi. (Ac 16:19-24) The inhabitants of Athens proved to be more skeptical and tolerant than the Philippians, but they were still evidently concerned about how this new teaching might affect the security of the state.
-