The Shepherd, November 2004
SAINT PAUL’S VISIT TO ATHENS, 1
By Miriam Lambouras of Broadstairs
Continuation from last issue
St Paul's Speech to the Areopagus
The great Court of the Areopagus derived its name from the Hill of Ares (Mars Hill), the place of its meeting. The ancient Sacred Way, used in the magnificent religious processions, ran diagonally from the Agora, the civic centre, to the Acropolis, the religious centre. Below the Acropolis and overlooking the Agora stood the barren rock of the Areopagus, with its fifteen or sixteen stone-cut steps leading up to the imposing expanse of artificially levelled rock where the Court sat and trials took place.
As well as having supreme jurisdiction in criminal cases, the members of the Court, the Areopagites, had come to exercise a general censorship over morals, religion and education. Those called to appear before the Court were said to “go up into Areopagus.” As St Paul’s teaching, - believed to concern new gods called Jesus and Resurrection, - was considered of sufficient importance to be submitted to a public enquiry, the Apostle too “went up into Areopagus.” Four centuries earlier, on the same hill, Socrates, the greatest of the Greek thinkers, had been charged by the Court of his day with false teaching and disparaging the gods, and condemned to death by drinking hemlock. St Paul was in no danger of a similar fate. By his time, religion was not taken nearly so seriously. It may well have been an informal hearing rather than a formal Court session. Most of the Areopagites were simply curious or at most politely interested.
The Apostle had been accused, probably by the Epicureans, of being a “babbler,” a term of contempt for those who really had nothing worth saying. More serious, and therefore probably coming from the Stoics, was the opinion of others that he seemed to be teaching about “strange gods,” that is, foreign divinities. As there were already many altars to abstract qualities, they seemed to think that St Paul was proposing an altar to a new goddess, “Anastasis,” Resurrection. The charge against St Paul of “setting forth strange gods” was expressed in exactly the same words as the charge against Socrates.
In the courteous form then normally employed by the Athenians, St Paul was asked if they might be informed more fully of his teaching as it contained things that were new to them. Certainly the resurrection of the dead had not been heard of before. For the Apostle it was the chance of a lifetime for bringing the Gospel message to the cultured scholars and leading men of Greece. We can only imagine how earnestly he must have prayed for guidance.
He began with a compliment to his listeners. “O Athenians, I observe at every turn that you are a deeply religious people, devoted to the worship of your gods.” The more familiar reading from the Authorised Version of the Bible, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that ye are in all things too superstitious,” is an inaccurate and regrettable translation, representing St Paul as insulting his audience from the start. Not only would it have been offensive, but indeed downright stupid, prejudicing the Court against him from the first, and St Paul was certainly not stupid. He always aimed to suit his words to those he was addressing. After all, these men for the most part believed in Higher Powers and acknowledged their dependence on them, and that was an initial point of contact. Pausanias would later write almost the same thing in his traveller’s diary. After remarking on the “humanity” of the Athenians, he recorded that “the Athenians are conspicuous for their devotion to religion.”
 After a tactful and courteous start, St Paul began to build up his argument. Instead of continuing as most visiting speakers would have done by praising the magnificent art, the unparalleled wisdom and glorious history of the city, he introduced a homely, local touch, by referring to his discovery of the altar to the Unknown God. It was a good beginning. Leaving aside the Greeks’ own understanding of this particular deity, he proceeded to use the title to suit his own purpose, declaring that this Unknown God had revealed Himself. Instead of arguing from the Hebrew Scriptures, he used the works of nature. Surrounded by the hills and olive groves, with the sun shining in a clear blue sky, the Apostle cut straight across the various speculations of the philosophers as to the origin of the universe, explaining that this Unknown God is the Creator of all things, the Lord of heaven and earth. In full view of the Acropolis with the perfection of its graceful temples, crowned by the mighty Parthenon, he declared that this God “dwells not in temples made by hands.”
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