Acts 17:22-31 - From the Areopagus Paul can see the end of classical paganism
22 And Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said,
’Men of Athens, I see that in all things you are very
religious.
23 For passing through and observing closely your objects of
worship I also found an altar on which it had been written: To an
unknown god. What therefore you worship without knowing, this I
proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, this one
being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by
hands,
25 nor is he served by people’s hands being in need of
something, he giving to everyone life and breath and all
things.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to dwell
upon all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and
the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 to seek God, if then indeed they might grope towards him
and find, and indeed being not far from each one of you,
28 for in him we live and move and are, as also some of your
own poets have said, “For we are indeed his offspring.”
29 Being then offspring of God, we ought not to think
the divine to be like gold or silver or stone, formed by the craft and
imagination of people.
30 So whereas the times of ignorance God disregarded, now he
commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the oikoumenē
in righteousness, by a man for whom he has determined, having provided
assurance to all having raised him from the dead.’
My translation
Submitted by andrew on Fri, 31/10/2008 - 18:01.
22-25 Paul is respectful, but his
precise critique of Athenian idolatry is backed up with the full weight
of Old Testament polemic. He acknowledges a corrupted pagan instinct to
seek after God but assimilates it into a Jewish interpretive framework.
The argument of Wisdom 13-14 should be noted in some detail.
All people
are ignorant of God, they are unable to ’know the one who is’ from the
’good things that are seen’ (13:1); they ’go astray while seeking God
and wishing to find him’, but they are not to be pardoned (13:6-9);
they have designated as gods ’the work of human hands, gold
and silver
fashioned with skill (technēs)... the work of an
ancient hand’
(13:10); there will be a ’visitation also upon the idols of the
nations’ (14:11); the idols ’did not exist from the
beginning, nor will
they last forever’, ’through human conceit they entered the world, and
because of this a speedy end was planned for them’ (14:13-14). The last
point suggests that Judaism foresaw the end of paganism as it
was known to the ancient world within the course of history.
26 That God has determined
allotted periods (kairous) for the nations
says more than that he has provided a ’coherent pattern or purpose’ for
the world (against R.W. Wall, The Acts of the Apostles,
247). The background to the idea is to be found notably in Daniel: the
general statement, for example, that God ’changes periods and times (kairous
kai chronous), removing kings and putting them in power’
(Dan. 2:21 LXX); or the specific judgment on the first three beasts,
whose authority was taken away, and ’time of life was given to them for
a time and a period’ (chronou kai kairou) (Dan. 7:12
LXX). Again, the implication is that a temporal limit has been set to
the hegemony of classical paganism.
30-31 The prediction of judgment
presupposes a ’Son of man’ christology (cf. C.S.C. Williams, A
Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 206; I.H. Marshall, Acts,
290 n.1). Paul believes that history is approaching the sort of moment
depicted in the judgment scene of Daniel 7. The pagan power is
overthrown and the suffering Son of man figure, having remained
faithful to the covenant despite extreme provocation, is given
authority to rule. Paul plays down the the apocalyptic conflict here
(in contrast to 2 Thess. 1:5-10), but he is quite clear that the pagan
world is approaching a critical juncture: it is now
the time to abandon the ancient gods because God is about to judge
this whole system on the basis of the authority given to Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 forms part of the same expectation. The
believers have ’turned towards God from the idols to serve the living
and true God’; the appearance of the Son from the heavens to deliver
them from the coming wrath is also the day on which God will judge the oikoumenē.
The language is mythical but the frame of reference is quite realistic:
the moment when the persecuted church finally triumphs over an obsolete
pagan system. Paul has the same outcome in view in Romans when he speaks of a day of wrath
against the pagan world, when ’God judges the secrets of men according
to my gospel by Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 2:16).
The same correlation that Paul describes in Romans between
wrath against the Jew and wrath against the Greek appears in Acts.
Paul’s call to the oikoumenē - the
prevailing socio-political system - to repent because the times
of ignorance are over and judgment approaches is foreshadowed
in Peter’s speech at the temple gate in Acts 3. The Jews acted in
ignorance (kata agnoian), but now they are called to
repent so that God may send the Son who, at a time of destruction, will
restore Israel (Acts 3:17-23). Jews and Gentiles are on different time
scales, but the narrative of impending
eschatological judgment is the same in each case.
22 And Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said, ’Men of Athens, I see that in all things you are very religious.
23 For passing through and observing closely your objects of worship I also found an altar on which it had been written: To an unknown god. What therefore you worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, this one being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands,
25 nor is he served by people’s hands being in need of something, he giving to everyone life and breath and all things.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 to seek God, if then indeed they might grope towards him and find, and indeed being not far from each one of you,
28 for in him we live and move and are, as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are indeed his offspring.”
29 Being then offspring of God, we ought not to think the divine to be like gold or silver or stone, formed by the craft and imagination of people.
30 So whereas the times of ignorance God disregarded, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the oikoumenē in righteousness, by a man for whom he has determined, having provided assurance to all having raised him from the dead.’
22-25 Paul is respectful, but his precise critique of Athenian idolatry is backed up with the full weight of Old Testament polemic. He acknowledges a corrupted pagan instinct to seek after God but assimilates it into a Jewish interpretive framework.
The argument of Wisdom 13-14 should be noted in some detail. All people are ignorant of God, they are unable to ’know the one who is’ from the ’good things that are seen’ (13:1); they ’go astray while seeking God and wishing to find him’, but they are not to be pardoned (13:6-9); they have designated as gods ’the work of human hands, gold and silver fashioned with skill (technēs)... the work of an ancient hand’ (13:10); there will be a ’visitation also upon the idols of the nations’ (14:11); the idols ’did not exist from the beginning, nor will they last forever’, ’through human conceit they entered the world, and because of this a speedy end was planned for them’ (14:13-14). The last point suggests that Judaism foresaw the end of paganism as it was known to the ancient world within the course of history.
26 That God has determined allotted periods (kairous) for the nations says more than that he has provided a ’coherent pattern or purpose’ for the world (against R.W. Wall, The Acts of the Apostles, 247). The background to the idea is to be found notably in Daniel: the general statement, for example, that God ’changes periods and times (kairous kai chronous), removing kings and putting them in power’ (Dan. 2:21 LXX); or the specific judgment on the first three beasts, whose authority was taken away, and ’time of life was given to them for a time and a period’ (chronou kai kairou) (Dan. 7:12 LXX). Again, the implication is that a temporal limit has been set to the hegemony of classical paganism.
30-31 The prediction of judgment presupposes a ’Son of man’ christology (cf. C.S.C. Williams, A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 206; I.H. Marshall, Acts, 290 n.1). Paul believes that history is approaching the sort of moment depicted in the judgment scene of Daniel 7. The pagan power is overthrown and the suffering Son of man figure, having remained faithful to the covenant despite extreme provocation, is given authority to rule. Paul plays down the the apocalyptic conflict here (in contrast to 2 Thess. 1:5-10), but he is quite clear that the pagan world is approaching a critical juncture: it is now the time to abandon the ancient gods because God is about to judge this whole system on the basis of the authority given to Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 forms part of the same expectation. The believers have ’turned towards God from the idols to serve the living and true God’; the appearance of the Son from the heavens to deliver them from the coming wrath is also the day on which God will judge the oikoumenē. The language is mythical but the frame of reference is quite realistic: the moment when the persecuted church finally triumphs over an obsolete pagan system. Paul has the same outcome in view in Romans when he speaks of a day of wrath against the pagan world, when ’God judges the secrets of men according to my gospel by Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 2:16).
The same correlation that Paul describes in Romans between wrath against the Jew and wrath against the Greek appears in Acts. Paul’s call to the oikoumenē - the prevailing socio-political system - to repent because the times of ignorance are over and judgment approaches is foreshadowed in Peter’s speech at the temple gate in Acts 3. The Jews acted in ignorance (kata agnoian), but now they are called to repent so that God may send the Son who, at a time of destruction, will restore Israel (Acts 3:17-23). Jews and Gentiles are on different time scales, but the narrative of impending eschatological judgment is the same in each case.
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