Acts 17:23, commentary and pictures

On Mars Hill at Athens Paul met the philosophers on their own ground and took their altar to an unknown god as his opening to declare the true God without a direct attack. The God so declared is Jehovah, the Maker of the world and all things in it, who needs nothing from human hands, is not confined to temples made with hands, and cannot be likened to gold or silver or stone graven by art. The Athenians worshiped ignorantly despite intelligence, wealth, and skill in art and science, for sin has obscured vision so that reason and study of nature alone leave men confused and tending to idolatry, and knowledge of God is found alone where He is declared in the Bible and in Christ. Those who worship without fully knowing God are not judged guilty for lacking light but may thirst for truth and respond to it, and God's people are charged to make Him known to such seekers as Paul did. That true God is distinguished from false gods by creatorship, a distinction kept in the fourth commandment in the Sabbath as the sign of His authority as Creator, yet Paul's philosophical argument at Athens won few, teaching that the highest education and logic bear little fruit without Christ crucified preached in the Spirit's power.

Paul's Setting and Approach

Paul stood on Mars Hill, the highest place at Athens, regarded with awe and reverence, where courts decided criminal cases and difficult religious questions, with open-air seats for judges hewn from solid rock and reached by stone steps, and with temples, sanctuaries, massive architecture, sculpture and statuary a little distance below. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, thinking he set forth strange gods because he preached Jesus and the resurrection, brought him there away from public thoroughfares and tumult where frivolous and thoughtless hearers would not follow, so he could be heard without interruption and explain his new doctrine and the strange things he brought to their ears. There he perceived their devotions and found the altar inscribed to the unknown god, and took that superstition and public admission as his opening to declare to them the true God whom they ignorantly worshiped.

He was no novice but an effectual missionary who met his adversaries and every class from men of renown to heathen idolaters on their own ground, meeting science with science, logic with logic, philosophy with philosophy, eloquence with eloquence, and oratory with oratory. With tact born of divine love he pointed to Jehovah as that unknown God, and with knowledge and eloquence silenced the arguments of proud philosophy before the council of the Areopagus and the sages of Greece. His preaching was accompanied by signs and miracles and bore evidences not of human invention but of heavenly origin and divinity's stamp, proving his religion came from God and could not be quenched by any earthly power.

He carefully drew their minds away from heathen deities and idols to the true God whom they acknowledged but did not know, rebuking idolatry and the sins of a proud self-sufficient people who with all knowledge, refinement and art were yet sunken in vice, without a direct attack on their gods and great men. Such direct attack would have irritated his proud listeners and put him in danger as with Socrates, so his tactful course displayed unshaken confidence and courage in loneliness and adversity and gained a victory for Christianity in the very heart of paganism, preserved as a treasure of knowledge for the church in all coming generations. His labor in declaring the unknown God was not wholly in vain, for Dionysius, one of the most prominent citizens, and some others accepted the gospel message and united themselves fully with the believers.

Yet his logical, scientific and philosophical argument, though it astonished and silenced even his wisest hearers, led few to accept the gospel and bore little fruit. He had preached in an oratorical style suited to kings and the great and learned men of Athens, bringing his learning, intellectual acquirements, ability and smartness to bear and spending much time discussing natural religion, but was disappointed in the success he hoped for. The experience taught that something above human wisdom is needed, that the highest literary and intellectual education still leaves men in complete darkness without Christ revealed, and that intellectual development must be sanctified by the Spirit of God to convict and convert sinners, with power received from a higher source by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is eternal life to the receiver. On reviewing the time and labor spent there he therefore set aside elaborate arguments, theories and discussions of natural religion as much as possible, and determined at Corinth to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, presenting simply Christ as Saviour of sinners in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, because in a short human lifetime there is no time for anything else.

The Unknown God Made Known

The Athenians with all their intelligence and general knowledge were ignorant of the God who created the universe, the true God and great Ruler of the universe. Despite their boasting of wisdom, wealth, and skill in art and science, their religion was destitute of the knowledge of God and of no value. It consisted largely of art-worship with a round of dissipating amusement and festivity, a religion of dry intellect and taste that lacked true goodness. It had no power to connect men with God, to give victory over self, or to raise them above the evils of their nature. The altar to the unknown god was the public expression and admission of this great want, a reaching out toward the Infinite by those longing for greater light.

Their altars erected for the worship of nature while God remained unknown are the position of all fallen man, whose vision sin has obscured. Depending on human wisdom alone man is inefficient and surely fails to read nature correctly, and the most difficult and humiliating lesson is the sure failure of his own efforts to read nature alone. Without the guidance of the divine Teacher he cannot interpret nature without placing nature above God, cannot discern in nature God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, and will assuredly come to wrong conclusions tending to make men idolaters who in blindness exalt nature and the laws of nature above nature's God. The imperfect knowledge gathered from created works does not give exalted conceptions of God, elevate mind and soul, or bring the whole being into conformity with His will. Men may be religious in all things and yet worship ignorantly, for a lifetime of laborious searching after God by reason and argument and logic leaves a person ignorant and confused. Knowledge of God is found alone in the Bible, where the God ignorantly worshiped is declared.

The God so declared is the Maker of the world and all things in it, the infinite, glorious, living God who created the universe. He is independent of man and needs nothing from human hands to add to His power and glory. Even the heavens are not large enough to contain Him, much less temples made with hands, and He cannot be likened to gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device, to statuary or idols devised by men. Works of art cannot in the faintest sense represent His glory. Idols have no breath or life but are controlled by human power and move only when the hands of men move them, so that those who worship them are in every way superior to that which they worship. Man himself proves this, for man was created in the image of this infinite God with intellectual power and a perfect and symmetrical body.

This declaration identifies the true God by His creatorship and sets Him apart from false gods. That same distinction is kept in the fourth commandment, which is the only precept of the law that distinguishes the Creator from false gods and therefore gives importance to the Sabbath as the sign and seal and mark of God's authority and power as Creator. God was unknown to those who rejected Christ, and the cross revealed the love of that unknown God. Had they known God they would not have thought they did Him service by persecuting and putting the prophets to death, nor would they have forgotten their Creator and grown bold in supposed superiority to put to death Him who alone was able to give them life.

Worship of an unknown god continues in the world, and God has a controversy with its inhabitants over it. Many churches and learned preachers do not ensure that people know Bible religion, but like the Athenians they worship an unknown God. People can gather in large congregations and in cathedral worship conducted by dignitaries in white robes embroidered around the bottom with a black velvet surplice worn over them and still not know what they worship. The majority bow at idolatrous shrines and worship an unknown god under the direction of Satan disguised as an angel of light. If the fourth commandment had always been obeyed there would be no infidel or atheist, and all would recognize and honor the power of the Creator who by infinite power called the earth into existence, who with a word could depopulate it and return it to its original state and with a word raise up a new race of beings.

Reaching Those Who Worship Ignorantly

Those who worship without fully knowing God are not counted guilty for the light they have never had, and their ignorance does not mean they will perish. They may still respond to the light they have, showing kindness and doing the good within their power. They mourn their human ignorance and find nothing satisfactory, thirsting for knowledge of the only true God and for truth, virtue and holiness. They carry an ideal of God in mind, desire to find Him, and are praying for light.

God has entrusted light and gospel truth to His people to give to such seekers, and has sent forth streams of salvation to refresh all who thirst. His message is meant to reach those who have not yet received it, and to them His people are to make God known as Paul did from the altar to the unknown God.

That work at Athens stands as effectual missionary labor meeting every class from men of renown to heathen idolaters and art-worshipers. Paul combined home and foreign missions by preaching to the Jews in their own place of worship and to the Gentiles before their own temple in the very presence of their gods. His course was not to erect barriers nor constantly to thrust upon the people that they were wrong. By meeting adversaries on their own ground with evidences not of human invention, he proved a religion of heavenly origin bearing divinity's stamp that no earthly power can quench, showing that Christianity and salvation are for all nations, tongues and peoples and obtaining in that wide carrying of the Word a decided victory.