Paul In Athens; Acts 17:15 – 34 Part 5

Church History: Date: A.D. 49-52

They proposed to give him a free, full, fair, and public hearing. They had heard some broken pieces of his doctrine, and are now willing to have a better knowledge of it. They perceived it as strange and surprising, and very different from the philosophy that had for many ages been taught and professed at Athens. "It is a new doctrine, which we do not understand the drift and design of. He brought some strange things to their ears, which they had never heard of before, and didn’t know what to make of now." By this it should seem that, among all the learned books they had, they either had not, or heeded not, the books of Moses and the prophets, or else the doctrine of Christ would not have been so perfectly new and strange to them. There was but one book in the world that was of divine inspiration, and that was the only book they were strangers to, which, if they would have given a due regard to it, would, in its very first page, have determined that great controversy among them about the origin of the universe. They desired to know more about it, only because it was new and strange: "May we know what this new doctrine is? Or, is it (like the mysteries of the gods) to be kept as a profound secret? If it may be, we would gladly know, and desire thee to tell us, what these things mean, that we may be able to pass a judgment upon them." This was a fair proposal; it was only fitting they should know what this doctrine was before they embraced it; and they were so fair as not to condemn it until they had had some account of it. The place they brought him to, to give this public declaration of his doctrine; was to Areopagus, the same word that is translated as Mars' Hill; it was the town-house, or guildhall of their city, where the magistrates met for public business, and where the courts of justice were kept. It was like the theatre in the university, or the schools, where learned men met to communicate their ideas. The court of justice which sat here was famous for its equity, which drew appeals to it from all parts; if any denied a God, he was liable to be censured by this court. Diagoras was put to death by them, as showing contempt for the gods; no new Gods could be admitted without their approval. This is why they brought Paul to be tried, not as a criminal but as a candidate.