Athens
May 15, 2009 (Friday)
We are studying the life of the Apostle Paul on Wednesday nights at our church, and I have been passing along some thoughts related to that study in the Friday blog. This past Wednesday we watched the dedicated apostle arrive in the great city of Athens.
The first thing Paul noticed there were the many idols and altars to gods. There was one there for every god, and, just in case there were others they had not yet heard about, there were altars to an unknown god. Paul was waiting for his companions in ministry to join him before traveling on, and, being alone, spent a lot of time in the marketplace, talking with people.
Many locals in Athens loved to spend time the marketplace, discussing philosophy. If anyone came up with a new idea, it made them glad to have something else to talk about. When Paul began telling them about Jesus and His resurrection, their ears perked up. “He’s talking about foreign gods,” they said, and they felt he must be “checked out” by a council at the Areopagus.
At the Areopagus, Paul was given an opportunity to explain his beliefs, and he attempted to explain to them the “unknown god” of their altars, adopting a sophisticated and scholarly approach. He didn’t get past his introduction, however, before being interrupted with insults and ridicule. Opposition was nothing new for him, because he had been opposed in every place where he had preached, and sometimes there was violence against him. This opposition was merely with words, and the Athenians refused to take him seriously, except for a few people who believed in Jesus and were saved, under less than ideal conditions.
After about a month in Athens, Paul journeyed on to Corinth, where he was determined to avoid the intellectual and philosophical method of presenting the gospel, and to stick with the forthright message of “Christ and Him crucified.”