‘Altar to an Unknown God’

When the Christian apostle Paul declared the “good news” in Athens during the first century C.E., Epicurean and Stoic philosophers spoke with him controversially. To some of them he seemed to be “a publisher of foreign deities.” So they seized Paul and led him to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill. There the apostle opened his wise witness concerning the true God, Jehovah, with these words:

“Men of Athens, I behold that in all things you seem to be more given to the fear of the deities than others are. For instance, while passing along and carefully observing your objects of veneration I also found an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore what you are unknowingly giving godly devotion to, this I am publishing to you.”​—Acts 17:16-23.

At places other than Athens, some inscriptions have been found that are comparable to the one Paul mentioned. For example, the ruined altar below, discovered at Pergamum, bears such an inscription in Greek. Also, the well-preserved altar depicted at the right was discovered on the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy. According to the Latin inscription on this altar dating from about 100 B.C.E., it was held “sacred to a god or goddess.”

Have you drawn close to the God about whom Paul preached? Great present and future blessings are assured for those worshiping Jehovah, the Most High God.​—Ps. 83:18.