Acts 17:16-21

A Challenging Audience

8. (a) What beliefs and views marked the Epicureans? (b) What did the Stoics believe?

⁸ Some Jews and Greeks listened with interest, but how would the influential Epicurean and Stoic philosophers react? As you will see, their ideas were similar in many respects to common beliefs today, even ones taught to youths in school. The Epicureans urged living so as to obtain as much pleasure as possible, especially mental pleasure. Their ‘eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ philosophy was characterized by absence of principle and virtue. (1 Corinthians 15:32) They did not believe that gods created the universe; instead, they held that life came about by accident in a mechanical universe. Furthermore, the gods were not interested in men. What of the Stoics? They stressed logic, believing that matter and force were elemental principles in the universe. Stoics imagined an impersonal deity, rather than believing in God as a Person. They also felt that fate governed human affairs.

9. Why was Paul’s situation a challenging one in which to preach?

⁹ How did such philosophers respond to Paul’s public teaching? Curiosity mixed with mental arrogance was an Athenian trait then, and these philosophers began to argue with Paul.

18 But certain ones of both the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers took to conversing with him controversially, and some would say: ‘What is it this chatterer would like to tell?’ Others: ‘He seems to be a publisher of foreign deities.’ This was because he was declaring the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.