Actschapter 17
34 verses · BSBActs book hub →
Speaks with:Acts 17×11Acts 14×6Acts 18×4Acts 9×3Luke 24×2Acts 13×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Thessalonica and Berea: 'more noble than those in Thessalonica … they searched the scriptures daily.' Athens. Mars Hill; the unknown-god altar. 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' Some mocked, some believed, some said 'we will hear thee again of this matter.'
Context
History · Luke — Acts overview
- A. 1–9 Thessalonica: These That Turned the World Upside Down
- B. 10–15 The Bereans Search the Scriptures Daily
- C. 16–21 Athens: A City Wholly Given to Idols
- D. 22–34 On Mars' Hill: The Unknown God Declared
The outline
A.Thessalonica: These That Turned the World Upside Downvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.The Bereans Search the Scriptures Dailyvv. 10 to 15
Read vv. 10 to 15 →C.Athens: A City Wholly Given to Idolsvv. 16 to 21
Read vv. 16 to 21 →D.On Mars' Hill: The Unknown God Declaredvv. 22 to 34
Read vv. 22 to 34 →
The world behind this chapter
Acts 17The history
Thessalonica was a free city with its own assembly, and Luke calls its officials "politarchs" — an unusual title once thought to be a mistake until inscriptions from the city turned up using exactly that word. The charge against the missionaries there is political: they say there is another king, Jesus. Under Roman rule that was a dangerous sentence.
The bond taken from Jason was a security deposit, forfeited if there was further trouble. That is probably why Paul could not return to the city.
Athens by this time was a university town living off its past, no longer a power but still the place people went to argue. Its marketplace was crowded with statues, and ancient writers describe altars there dedicated to unnamed gods — set up to cover any deity a city might have offended by accident.
The Areopagus was both a rocky hill and the venerable council named after it, which had oversight of religion and public teaching in the city. Paul is not on trial so much as examined: a man proposing new gods was expected to explain himself. He quotes Greek poets rather than Scripture, because his hearers had none.
What it meant to them
The Bereans gave the first readers a standard: they welcomed the message eagerly and checked it against the Scriptures daily. Enthusiasm and examination were not treated as opposites.
Athens showed the gospel meeting philosophy on its own ground. Paul grants what the Stoics and Epicureans got right, then breaks with both at the point they could not accept: a fixed day of judgment, and a man raised from the dead. Some sneered, some delayed, and a few believed — an honest ratio Luke saw no need to hide.
Sources cited
- Colin J. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History
- F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Acts 17. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.