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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A C T S.
CHAP. XVII.
We have here a further account of the travels of Paul, and his services
and sufferings for Christ. He was not like a candle upon a table, that
gives light only to one room, but like the sun that goes its circuit to
give light to many. He was called into Macedonia, a large kingdom,
He began with Philippi, because it was the first city he came to; but
he must not confine himself to this. We have him here,
I. Preaching and persecuted at Thessalonica, another city of Macedonia,
II. Preaching at Berea, where he met with an encouraging auditory, but
was driven thence also by persecution,
III. Disputing at Athens, the famous university of Greece
(ver. 16-21),
and the account he gave of natural religion, for the conviction of
those that were addicted to polytheism and idolatry, and to lead them
to the Christian religion
(ver. 22-31),
together with the success of this sermon,
| Paul and Silas at Thessalonica. |
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1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered,
and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you, is Christ.
4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas;
and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
women not a few.
5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a
company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the
house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain
brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have
turned the world upside down are come hither also;
7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the
decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one
Jesus.
8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when
they heard these things.
9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other,
they let them go.
Paul’s two epistles to the Thessalonians, the first two he wrote by
inspiration, give such a shining character of that church, that we
cannot but be glad here in the history to meet with an account of the
first founding of the church there.
I. Here is Paul’s coming to Thessalonica, which was the chief city of
this country, called at this day Salonech, in the Turkish
dominions. Observe,
1. Paul went on with his work, notwithstanding the ill usage he had met
with at Philippi; he did not fail, nor was discouraged. He takes notice
of this in his first epistle to the church here
After we were shamefully treated at Philippi, yet we were bold in
our God to speak unto you the gospel of God. The opposition and
persecution that he met with made him the more resolute. Note of these
things moved him; he could never have held out, and held on, as he did,
if he had not been animated by a spirit of power from on high.
2. He did but pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia, the former
a city near Philippi, the latter near Thessalonica; doubtless he was
under divine direction, and was told by the Spirit (who, as the wind,
bloweth where he listeth) what places he should pass through, and what
he should rest in. Apollonia was a city of Illyricum, which, some
think, illustrates that of Paul, that he had preached the gospel
from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum
(Rom. xv. 19),
that is, to the borders of Illyricum where he now was; and we may
suppose though he is said only to pass through these cities, yet
that he staid so long in them as to publish the gospel there, and to
prepare the way for the entrance of other ministers among them, whom he
would afterwards send.
II. His preaching to the Jews first, in their synagogue at
Thessalonica. He found a synagogue of the Jews there
(v. 1),
which intimates that one reason why he passed through those other
cities mentioned, and did not continue long in them, was because there
were no synagogues in them. But, finding one in Thessalonica, by it he
made his entry.
1. It was always his manner to begin with the Jews, to make them the
first offer of the gospel, and not to turn to the Gentiles till they
had refused it, that their mouths might be stopped from clamouring
against him because he preached to the Gentiles; for if they received
the gospel they would cheerfully embrace the new converts; if they
refused it, they might thank themselves if the apostles carried it to
those that would bid it welcome. That command of beginning at Jerusalem
was justly construed as a direction, wherever they came, to begin with
the Jews.
2. He met them in their synagogue on the sabbath day, in their place
and at their time of meeting, and thus he would pay respect to both.
Sabbaths and solemn assemblies are always very precious to those to
whom Christ is precious,
It is good being in the house of the Lord on his day. This was Christ’s
manner, and Paul’s manner, and has been the manner of all the saints,
the good old way which they have walked in.
3. He reasoned with them out of the scriptures. They agreed with
him to receive the scriptures of the Old Testament: so far they were of
a mind. But they received the scripture, and therefore thought they had
reason to reject Christ; Paul received the scripture, and therefore saw
great reason to embrace Christ. It was therefore requisite, in order to
their conviction, that he should, by reasoning with them, the Spirit
setting with him, convince them that his inferences from the scripture
were right and theirs were wrong. Note, The preaching of the gospel
should be both scriptural preaching and rational; such Paul’s was, for
he reasoned out of the scriptures: we must take the scriptures
for our foundation, our oracle, and touchstone, and then reason out of
them and upon them, and against those who, though they pretend zeal for
the scriptures, as the Jews did, yet wrest them to their own
destruction. Reason must not be set up in competition with the
scripture, but it must be made use of in explaining and applying the
scripture.
4. He continued to do this three sabbath days successively. If
he could not convince them the first sabbath, he would try the second
and the third; for precept must be upon precept, and line upon
line. God waits for sinners’ conversion, and so must his ministers;
all the labourers come not into the vineyard at the first hour, nor at
the first call, nor are wrought upon so suddenly as the jailer.
5. The drift and scope of his preaching and arguing was to prove that
Jesus is the Christ; this was that which he opened and alleged,
v. 3.
He first explained his thesis, and opened the terms, and then alleged
it, and laid it down, as that which he would abide by, and which he
summoned them in God’s name to subscribe to. Paul had an admirable
method of discourse; and showed he was himself both well apprized of
the doctrine he preached and thoroughly understood it, and that he was
fully assured of the truth of it, and therefore he opened it like one
that believed it. He showed them,
(1.) That it was necessary the Messiah should suffer, and die, and
rise again, that the Old-Testament prophecies concerning the
Messiah made it necessary he should. The great objection which the Jews
made against Jesus being the Messiah was his ignominious death and
sufferings. The cross of Christ was to the Jews a
stumbling-block, because it did by no means agree with the idea
they had framed of the Messiah; but Paul here alleges and makes it out
undeniably, not only that it was possible he might be the Messiah,
though he suffered, but that, being the Messiah, it was necessary he
should suffer. He could not be made perfect but by sufferings; for, if
he had not died, he could not have risen again from the dead. This was
what Christ himself insisted upon
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory? And again
(v. 46):
Thus it is written, and therefore thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead. He must needs have suffered for
us, because he could not otherwise purchase redemption for us; and he
must needs have risen again because he could not otherwise apply the
redemption to us.
(2.) That Jesus is the Messiah: “This Jesus whom I preach unto
you, and call upon you to believe in, is Christ, is the
Christ, is the anointed of the Lord, is he that should come, and you
are to look for no other; for God has both by his word and by his works
(the two ways of his speaking to the children of men), by the
scriptures and by miracles, and the gift of the Spirit to make both
effectual, borne witness to him.” Note,
[1.] Gospel ministers should preach Jesus; he must be their principal
subject; their business is to bring people acquainted with him.
[2.] That which we are to preach concerning Jesus is that he is Christ;
and therefore we may hope to be saved by him and are bound to be ruled
by him.
III. The success of his preaching there,
v. 4.
1. Some of the Jews believed, notwithstanding their rooted prejudices
against Christ and his gospel, and they consorted with Paul and
Silas: they not only associated with them as friends and
companions, but they gave up themselves to their direction, as their
spiritual guides; they put themselves into their possession as an
inheritance into the possession of the right owner, so the word
signifies; they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to
them by the will of God,
2 Cor. viii. 5.
They adhered to Paul and Silas, and attended them wherever they went.
Note, Those that believe in Jesus Christ come into communion with his
faithful ministers, and associate with them.
2. Many more of the devout Greeks, and of the chief women, embraced the
gospel. These were proselytes of the gate, the godly among the
Gentiles (so the Jews called them), such as, though they did not
submit to the law of Moses, yet renounced idolatry and immorality,
worshipped the true God only, and did not man any wrong. These were
hoi sebomenoi Hellenes—the worshipping Gentiles;
as in America they call those of the natives that are converted to the
faith of Christ the praying Indians. These were admitted to join
with the Jews in their synagogue-worship. Of these a great
multitude believed, more of them than of the thorough-paced Jews,
who were wedded to the ceremonial law. And not a few of the chief women
of the city, that were devout and had a sense of religion, embraced
Christianity. Particular notice is taken of this, for an example to the
ladies, the chief women, and an encouragement to them to employ
themselves in the exercises of devotion and to submit themselves to the
commanding power of Christ’s holy religion, in all the instances of it;
for this intimates how acceptable it will be to God, what an honour to
Christ, and what great influence it may have upon many, besides the
advantages of it to their own souls. No mention is here made of their
preaching the gospel to the Gentile idolaters at Thessalonica, and yet
it is certain that they did, and that great numbers were converted;
nay, it should seem that of the Gentile converts that church was
chiefly composed, though notice is not taken of them here; for Paul
writes to the Christians there as having turned to God from
idols
and that at the first entering in of the apostles among them.
IV. The trouble that was given to Paul and Silas at Thessalonica.
Wherever they preached, they were sure to be persecuted; bonds and
afflictions awaited them in every city. Observe,
1. Who were the authors of their trouble: the Jews who believed not,
who were moved with envy,
v. 5.
The Jews were in all places the most inveterate enemies to the
Christians, especially to those Jews that turned Christians, against
whom they had a particular spleen, as deserters. Now see what that
division was which Christ came to send upon earth; some of the Jews
believed the gospel and pitied and prayed for those that did not; while
those that did not envied and hated those that did. St. Paul in his
epistle to this church takes notice of the rage and enmity of the Jews
against the preachers of the gospel, as their measure-filling sin.
2. Who were the instruments of the trouble: the Jews made use of
certain lewd persons of the baser sort, whom they picked up and
got together, and who must undertake to give the sense of the city
against the apostles. All wise and sober people looked upon them with
respect, and valued them, and none would appear against them but such
as were the scum of the city, a company of vile men, that were given to
all manner of wickedness. Tertullian pleads this with those that
opposed Christianity, that the enemies of it were generally the worst
of men: Tales semper nobis insecutores, injusti, impii, turpes,
quos, et ipsi damnare consuestis–Our persecutors are invariably unjust,
impious, infamous, whom you yourselves have been accustomed to
condemn.–Apologia, cap. 5. It is the honour of religion that those
who hate it are generally the lewd fellows of the baser sort,
that are lost to all sense of justice and virtue.
3. In what method they proceeded against them.
(1.) They set the city in an uproar, made a noise to put people
in a fright, and then every body ran to see what the matter was; they
began a riot, and then the mob was up presently. See who are the
troublers of Israel–not the faithful preachers of the gospel, but the
enemies of it. See how the devil carries on his designs; he sets cities
in an uproar, sets souls in an uproar, and then fishes in troubled
waters.
(2.) They assaulted the house of Jason, where the apostles
lodged, with a design to bring them out to the people, whom they
had incensed and enraged against them, and by whom they hoped to see
them pulled to pieces. The proceedings here were altogether illegal; of
Jason’s house must be searched, it ought to be done by the proper
officers, and not without a warrant: “A man’s house,” the law says, “is
his castle,” and for them in a tumultuous manner to assault a man’s
house, to put him and his family in fear, was but to show to what
outrages men are carried by a spirit of persecution. If men have
offended, magistrates are appointed to enquire into the offence, and to
judge of it; but to make the rabble judges and executioners too (as
these Jews designed to do) was to make truth fall in the street, to set
servants on horseback, and leave princes to walk as servants on the
earth–to depose equity, and enthrone fury.
(3.) When they could not get the apostles into their hands (whom they
would have punished as vagabonds, and incensed the people against as
strangers that came to spy out the land, and devour its strength, and
eat the bread out of their mouths), then they fall upon an honest
citizen of their own, who entertained the apostles in his house, his
name Jason, a converted Jew, and drew him out with some others
of the brethren to the rulers of the city. The apostles were advised to
withdraw, for they were more obnoxious, Currenti cede furori–Retire
before the torrent. But their friends were willing to expose
themselves, being better able to weather this storm. For a good
man, for such good men as the apostles were, some would even
dare to die.
(4.) They accused them to the rulers, and represented them a dangerous
persons, not fit to be tolerated; the crime charged upon Jason is
receiving and harbouring the apostles
(v. 7),
countenancing them and promoting their interest. And what was the
apostles’ crime, that it should be no less than misprision of treason
to give them lodging? Two very black characters are here given them,
enough to make them odious to the people and obnoxious to the
magistrates, if they had been just:–
[1.] That they were enemies to the public peace, and threw every thing
into disorder wherever they came: Those that have turned the world
upside down are come hither also. In one sense it is true that
wherever the gospel comes in its power to any place, to any soul, it
works such a change there, gives such a wide change to the stream, so
directly contrary to what it was, that it may be said to turn the world
upside down in that place, in that soul. The love of the world is
rooted out of the heart, and the way of the world contradicted in the
life; so that the world turned upside down there. But in the sense in
which they meant it, it is utterly false; they would have it thought
that the preachers of the gospel were incendiaries and mischief makers
wherever they came, that they sowed discord among relations, set
neighbours together by the ears, obstructed commerce, and inverted all
order and regularity. Because they persuaded people to turn from vice
to virtue, from idols to the living and true God, from malice and envy
to love and peace, they are charged with turning the world upside down,
when it was only the kingdom of the devil in the world that they thus
overturned. Their enemies set the city in an uproar, and then
laid the blame upon them; as Nero set Rome on fire, and then charged it
upon the Christians. If Christ’s faithful ministers, even those that
are most quiet in the land, be thus invidiously misrepresented and
miscalled, let them not think it strange nor be exasperated by it; we
are not better than Paul and Silas, who were thus abused. The accusers
cry out, “They are come hither also; they have been doing all
the mischief they could in other places, and now they have brought the
infection hither; it is therefore time for us to bestir ourselves and
make head against them.”
[2.] That they were enemies to the established government, and
disaffected to that, and their principles and practices were
destructive to monarchy and inconsistent with the constitution of the
state
(v. 7):
They all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar; not to any
particular decree, for there was as yet no law of the empire against
Christianity, but contrary to Cæsar’s power in general to make
decrees; for they say, There is another king, one Jesus, not
only a king of the Jews, as our Saviour was himself charged before
Pilate, but Lord of all; so Peter called him in the first sermon
he preached to the Gentiles,
It is true the Roman government, both while it was a commonwealth and
after it came into the Cæsar’s hands, was very jealous of any
governor under their dominion taking upon him the title of king, and
there was an express law against it. But Christ’s kingdom was not of
this world. His followers said indeed, Jesus is a king, but not an
earthly king, not a rival with Cæsar, nor his ordinances
interfering with the decrees of Cæsar, but who had made it a law
of his kingdom to render unto Cæsar the things that are
Cæsar’s. There was nothing in the doctrine of Christ that
tended to the dethroning of princes, nor the depriving them of any of
their prerogatives. The Jews knew this very well, and it was against
their consciences that they brought such a charge against the apostles;
and of all people it ill became the Jews to do it, who hated
Cæsar and his government, and sought the ruin of him and it, and
who expected a Messiah that should be a temporal prince, and overturn
the thrones of kingdoms, and were therefore opposing our Lord Jesus
because he did not appear under that character. Thus those have been
most spiteful in representing God’s faithful people as enemies to
Cæsar, and hurtful to kings and provinces, who have been
themselves setting up imperium in imperio–a kingdom within a
kingdom, a power not only in competition with Cæsar’s but
superior to it, that of the papal supremacy.
4. The great uneasiness which this gave to this city
(v. 8):
They troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard
these things. They had no ill opinion of the apostles or their
doctrine, could not apprehend any danger to the state from them, and
therefore were willing to connive at them; but, if they be represented
to them by the prosecutors as enemies to Cæsar, they will be
obliged to take cognizance of them, and to suppress them, for fear of
the government, and this troubled them. Claudius, who then held the
reins of government, is represented by Suetonius as a man very jealous
of the least commotion and timorous to the last degree, which obliged
the rulers under him to be watchful against every thing that looked
dangerous, or gave the least cause of suspicion; and therefore it
troubled them to be brought under a necessity of disturbing good
men.
5. The issue of this troublesome affair. The magistrates had no mind to
prosecute the Christians. Care was taken to secure the apostles; they
absconded, and fled, and kept out of their hands; so that nothing was
to be done but to discharge Jason and his friends upon bail,
v. 9.
The magistrates here were not so easily incensed against the apostles
as the magistrates at Philippi were, but were more considerate and of
better temper; so they took security of Jason and the other,
bound them to their good behavior; and perhaps they gave bond for Paul
and Silas, that they should be forthcoming when they were called for,
if any thing should afterwards appear against them. Among the
persecutors of Christianity, as there have been instances of the
madness and rage of brutes, so there have been likewise of the prudence
and temper of men; moderation has been a virtue.
| The Noble Bereans; Paul and Silas at Berea. |
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10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by
night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of
the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women
which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the
word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither
also, and stirred up the people.
14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it
were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and
receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to
him with all speed, they departed.
In these verses we have,
I. Paul and Silas removing to Berea, and employed in preaching the
gospel there,
They had proceeded so far at Thessalonica that the foundations of a
church were laid, and others were raised up to carry on the work that
was begun, against whom the rulers and people were not so much
prejudiced as they were against Paul and Silas; and therefore when the
storm rose they withdrew, taking this as an indication to them that
they must quit that place for the present. That command of Christ to
his disciples, When they persecute you in one city flee to
another, intends their flight to be not so much for their own
safety (“flee to another, to hide there”) as for the carrying on of
their work (“flee to another, to preach there”), as appears by the
reason given–You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till
the Son of man come,
Matt. x. 23.
Thus out of the eater came forth meat, and the devil was outshot in his
own bow; he thought by persecuting the apostles to stop the progress of
the gospel, but it was so overruled as to be made to further it. See
here,
1. The care that the brethren took of Paul and Silas, when they
perceived how the plot was laid against them: They immediately sent
them away by night, incognito, to Berea. This could be no
surprise to the young converts; For when we were with you (saith
Paul to them,
when we came first among you, we told you that we should suffer
tribulation, even as it came to pass, and you know. It should seem
that Paul and Silas would willingly have staid, and faced the storm, if
the brethren would have let them; but they would rather be deprived of
the apostles’ help than expose their lives, which, it should seem, were
dearer to their friends than to themselves. They sent them away by
night, under the covert of that, as if they had been evil doers.
2. The constancy of Paul and Silas in their work. Though they fled
from Thessalonica, they did not flee from the service of Christ. When
they came to Berea, they went into the synagogue of the Jews,
and made their public appearance there. Though the Jews at Thessalonica
had been their spiteful enemies, and, for aught they knew, the Jews at
Berea would be so too, yet they did not therefore decline paying their
respect to the Jews, either in revenge for the injuries they had
received or for fear of what they might receive. If others will not do
their duty to us, yet we ought to do ours to them.
II. The good character of the Jews in Berea
(v. 11):
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica. The Jews in
the synagogue at Berea were better disposed to receive the gospel than
the Jews in the synagogue at Thessalonica; they were not so bigoted and
prejudiced against it, not so peevish and ill-natured; they were
more noble, eugenesteroi—better bred.
1. They had a freer thought, and lay more open to conviction, were
willing to hear reason, and admit the force of it, and to subscribe to
that which appeared to them to be truth, though it was contrary to
their former sentiments. This was more noble.
2. They had a better temper, were not so sour, and morose, and
ill-conditioned towards all that were not of their mind, As they were
ready to come into a unity with those that by the power of truth they
were brought to concur with, so they continued in charity with those
that they saw cause to differ from. This was more noble. They neither
prejudged the cause, nor were moved with envy at the managers of it, as
the Jews at Thessalonica were, but very generously gave both it and
them a fair hearing, without passion or partiality; for,
(1.) They received the word with all readiness of mind; they
were very willing to hear it, presently apprehended the meaning of it,
and did not shut their eyes against the light. They attended to the
things that were spoken by Paul, as Lydia did, and were very well
pleased to hear them. They did not pick quarrels with the word, nor
find fault, nor seek occasion against the preachers of it; but bade it
welcome, and put a candid construction upon every thing that was said.
Herein they were more noble than the Jews in Thessalonica, but
walked in the same spirit, and in the same steps, with the Gentiles
there, of whom it is said that they received the word with joy of
the Holy Ghost, and turned to God from idols,
1 Thess. i. 6-9.
This was true nobility. The Jews gloried much in their being Abraham’s
seed, thought themselves well-born and that they could not be better
born. But they are here told who among them were the most noble and
the best-bred men–those that were most disposed to receive the gospel,
and had the high and conceited thoughts in them subdued, and brought
into obedience to Christ. They were the most noble, and, if I may
so say, the most gentleman-like men. Nobilitas sola est atque unica
virtus–Virtue and piety are true nobility, true honour; and,
without these, Stemmata quid prosunt?–What are pedigrees and
pompous titles worth?
(2.) They searched the scriptures daily whether those things were
so. Their readiness of mind to receive the word was not such as
that they took things upon trust, swallowed them upon an implicit
faith: no; but since Paul reasoned out of the scriptures, and referred
them to the Old Testament for the proof of what he said, they had
recourse to their Bibles, turned to the places to which he referred
them, read the context, considered the scope and drift of them,
compared them with other places of scripture, examined whether Paul’s
inferences from them were natural and genuine and his arguments upon
them cogent, and determined accordingly. Observe,
[1.] The doctrine of Christ does not fear a scrutiny. We that are
advocates for his cause desire no more than that people will not say,
These things are not so, till they have first, without prejudice
and partiality, examined whether they be so or no.
[2.] The New Testament is to be examined by the Old. The Jews received
the Old Testament, and those that did so, if they considered things
aright, could not but see cause sufficient to receive the New, because
in it they see all the prophecies and promises of the Old fully and
exactly accomplished.
[3.] Those that read and receive the scriptures must search them
(John v. 39),
must study them, and take pains in considering them, both that they may
find out the truth contained in them, and may not mistake the sense of
them and so run into error, or remain in it; and that they may find out
the whole truth contained in them, and may not rest in a superficial
knowledge, in the outward court of the scriptures, but may have an
intimate acquaintance with the mind of God revealed in them.
[4.] Searching the scriptures must be our daily work. Those that heard
the word in the synagogue on the sabbath day did not think this
enough, but were searching it every day in the week, that they might
improve what they ha heard the sabbath before, and prepare for what
they were to hear the sabbath after.
[5.] Those are truly noble, and are in a fair way to be more and more
so, that make the scriptures their oracle and touchstone, and consult
them accordingly. Those that rightly study the scriptures, and
meditate therein day and night, have their minds filled with
noble thoughts, fixed to noble principles, and formed for noble aims
and designs. These are more noble.
III. The good effect of the preaching of the gospel at Berea: it had
the desired success; the people’s hearts being prepared, a great deal
of work was done suddenly,
1. Of the Jews there were many that believed. At Thessalonica there
were only some of them that believed
(v. 4),
but at Berea, where they heard with unprejudiced minds, many believed,
many more Jews than at Thessalonica. Note, God gives grace to those
whom he first inclines to make a diligent use of the means of grace,
and particularly to search the scriptures.
2. Of the Greeks likewise, the Gentiles, many believed, both of the
honourable women, the ladies of quality, and of men not a
few, men of the first rank, as should seem by their being mentioned
with the honourable women. The wives first embraced the gospel, and
then they persuaded their husbands to embrace it. For what knowest
thou, O wife, but thou shalt save thy husband?
1 Cor. vii. 16.
IV. The persecution that was raised against Paul and Silas at Berea,
which forced Paul thence.
1. The Jews at Thessalonica were the mischief-makers at
Berea. They had notice that the word of God was preached at
Berea (for envy and jealousy bring quick intelligence), and
likewise that the Jews there were not so inveterately set against it as
they were. They came thither also, to turn the world upside down there,
and they stirred up the people, and incensed them against the
preachers of the gospel; as if they had such a commission from the
prince of darkness to go from place to place to oppose the gospel as
the apostles had to go from place to place to preach it. Thus we read
before that the Jews of Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra on purpose
to incense the people against the apostles,
See how restless Satan’s agents are in their opposition to the gospel
of Christ and the salvation of the souls of men. This is an instance of
the enmity that is in the serpent’s seed against the seed of the woman;
and we must not think it strange if persecutors at home extend their
rage to stir up persecution abroad.
2. This occasioned Paul’s removal to Athens. By seeking to extinguish
this divine fire which Christ had already kindled, they did but spread
it the further and the faster; so long Paul staid at Berea, and such
success he had there, that there were brethren there, and sensible
active men too, which appeared by the care they took of Paul,
They were aware of the coming of the persecuting Jews from
Thessalonica, and that they were busy in irritating the people against
Paul; and, fearing what it would come to, they lost no time, but
immediately sent Paul away, against whom they were most
prejudiced and enraged, hoping that this would pacify them, while they
retained Silas and Timothy there still, who, now that Paul had broken
the ice, might be sufficient to carry on the work without exposing him.
They sent Paul to go even to the sea, so some; to go as it
were to the sea, so we read it; hos epi ten
thalassan. He went out from Berea, in that road which went to
the sea, that the Jews, if they enquired after him, might think he had
gone to a great distance; but he went by land to Athens, in which there
was no culpable dissimulation at all. Those that conducted Paul
(as his guides and guards, he being both a stranger in the country and
one that had many enemies) brought him to Athens. The Spirit of
God, influencing his spirit, directed him to that famous city,–famous
of old for its power and dominion, when the Athenian commonwealth coped
with the Spartan,–famous afterwards for learning; it was the
rendezvous of scholars. Those who wanted learning went thither to show
it. It was a great university, much resorted to from all parts, and
therefore, for the better diffusing of gospel light, Paul is sent
thither, and is not ashamed nor afraid to show his face among the
philosophers there, and there to preach Christ crucified, though he
knew it would be as much foolishness to the Greeks as it was to the
Jews a stumbling-block.
3. He ordered Silas and Timothy to come to him to Athens, when
he found there was a prospect of doing good there; or because, there
being none there that he knew, he was solitary and melancholy without
them. Yet it should seem that, great as was the haste he was in for
them, he ordered Timothy to go about Thessalonica, to bring him an
account of the affairs of that church; for he says
We thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timotheus to
establish you.
| Paul at Athens. |
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16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was
stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and
with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that
met with him.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the
Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler
say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying,
May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we
would know therefore what these things mean.
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent
their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some
new thing.)
A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love, with the learning of
the ancients, would think he should be very happy if he were where Paul
now was, at Athens, in the midst of the various sects of philosophers,
and would have a great many curious questions to ask them, for the
explication of the remains we have of the Athenian learning; but Paul,
though bred a scholar, and an ingenious active man, does not make this
any of his business at Athens. He has other work to mind: it is not the
improving of himself in their philosophy that he aims at, he has
learned to call it a vain thing, and is above it
(Col. ii. 8);
his business is, in God’s name, to correct their disorders in religion,
and to turn them from the service of idols, and of Satan in
them, to the service of the true and living God in Christ.
I. Here is the impression which the abominable ignorance and
superstition of the Athenians made upon Paul’s spirit,
Observe,
1. The account here given of that city: it was wholly given to
idolatry. This agrees with the account which the heathen writers
give of it, that there were more idols in Athens than there were in all
Greece besides put together, and that they had twice as many sacred
feasts as others had. Whatever strange gods were recommended to them,
they admitted them, and allowed them a temple and an altar, so that
they had almost as many gods as men–facilius possis deum quam hominem
invenire. And this city, after the empire became Christian,
continued incurably addicted to idolatry, and all the pious edicts of
the Christian emperors could not root it out, till, by the irruption of
the Goths, that city was in so particular a manner laid waste that
there are now scarcely any remains of it. It is observable that there,
where human learning most flourished, idolatry most abounded, and the
most absurd and ridiculous idolatry, which confirms that of the
apostle, that when they professed themselves to be wise they became
fools
(Rom. i. 22),
and, in the business of religion, were of all other the most vain in
their imaginations. The world by wisdom knew not God,
1 Cor. i. 21.
They might have reasoned against polytheism and idolatry; but, it
seems, the greatest pretenders to reason were the greatest slaves to
idols: so necessary was it to the re-establishing even of natural
religion that there should be a divine revelation, and that centering
in Christ.
2. The disturbance which the sight of this gave to Paul. Paul was not
willing to appear publicly till Silas and Timothy came to him, that out
of the mouth of two or three witnesses the word might be established;
but in the mean time his spirit was stirred within him. He was
filled with concern for the glory of God, which he saw given to idols,
and with compassion to the souls of men, which he saw thus enslaved to
Satan, and led captive by him at his will. He beheld these
transgressors, and was grieved; and horror took hold of him. He had a
holy indignation at the heathen priests, that led the people such an
endless trace of idolatry, and at their philosophers, that knew better,
and yet never said a word against it, but themselves went down the
stream.
II. The testimony that he bore against their idolatry, and his
endeavours to bring them to the knowledge of the truth. He did not, as
Witsius observes, in the heat of his zeal break into the temples, pull
down their images, demolish their altars, or fly in the face of their
priests; nor did he run about the streets crying, “You are all the
bond-slaves of the devil,” though it was too true; but he observed
decorum, and kept himself within due bounds, doing that only which
became a prudent man.
1. He went to the synagogue of the Jews, who, though enemies to
Christianity, were free from idolatry, and joined with them in that
among them which was good, and took the opportunity given him there of
disputing for Christ,
He discoursed with the Jews, reasoned fairly with them, and put
it to them what reason they could give why, since they expected the
Messiah, they would not receive Jesus. There he met with the devout
persons that had forsaken the idol temples, but rested in the Jews’
synagogue, and he talked with these to lead them on to the Christian
church, to which the Jews’ synagogue was but as a porch.
2. He entered into conversation with all that came in his way about
matters of religion: In the market—en te agora,
in the exchange, or place of commerce, he disputed daily, as he
had occasion, with those that met with him, or that he happened
to fall into company with, that were heathen, and never came to the
Jews’ synagogue. The zealous advocates for the cause of Christ will be
ready to plead it in all companies, as occasion offers. The ministers
of Christ must not think it enough to speak a good word for Christ once
a week, but should be daily speaking honourably of him to such as meet
with them.
III. The enquiries which some of the philosophers made concerning
Paul’s doctrine. Observe,
1. Who they were that encountered him, that entered into discourse with
him, and opposed him: He disputed with all that met him, in the
places of concourse, or rather of discourse. Most took no notice of
him, slighted him, and never minded a word he said; but there were some
of the philosophers that thought him worth making remarks upon, an they
were those whose principles were most directly contrary to
Christianity.
(1.) The Epicureans, who thought God altogether such a one as
themselves, an idle inactive being, that minded nothing, nor put
any difference between good and evil. They would not own, either that
God made the world or that he governs it; nor that man needs to make
any conscience of what he says or does, having no punishment to fear
nor rewards to hope for, all which loose atheistical notions
Christianity is levelled against. The Epicureans indulged themselves in
all the pleasures of sense, and placed their happiness in them, in what
Christ has taught us in the first place to deny ourselves.
(2.) The Stoics, who thought themselves altogether as good as
God, and indulged themselves as much in the pride of life as the
Epicureans did in the lusts of the flesh and of the eye; they made
their virtuous man to be no way inferior to God himself, nay to be
superior. Esse aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum–There is that in
which a wise man excels God, so Seneca: to which Christianity is
directly opposite, as it teaches us to deny ourselves and abase
ourselves, and to come off from all confidence in ourselves, that
Christ may be all in all.
2. What their different sentiments were of him; such there were as
there were of Christ,
(1.) Some called him a babbler, and thought he spoke, without
any design, whatever came uppermost, as men of crazed imaginations do:
What will this babbler say? ho spermologos
houtos—this scatterer of words, that goes about,
throwing here one idle word or story and there another, without any
intendment or signification; or, this picker up of seeds. Some
of the critics tell us that the term is used for a little sort of
bird, that is worth nothing at all, either for the spit or for the
cage, that picks up the seeds that lie uncovered, either in the
field or by the way-side, and hops here and there for that
purpose–Avicula parva quæ semina in triviis dispersa colligere
solet; such a pitiful contemptible animal they took Paul to be, or
supposed he went from place to place venting his notions to get money,
a penny here and another there, as that bird picks up here and there a
grain. They looked upon him as an idle fellow, and regarded him, as we
say, no more than a ballad-singer.
(2.) Others called him a setter forth of strange gods,
and thought he spoke with design to make himself considerable by that
means. And, if he had strange gods to set forth, he could not bring
them to a better market than to Athens. He did not, as many did,
directly set forth new gods, nor avowedly; but they thought he seemed
to do so, because he preached unto then Jesus, and the
resurrection. From his first coming among them he ever and anon
harped upon these two strings, which are indeed the principal doctrines
of Christianity–Christ and a future state–Christ our way, and heaven
our end; and, though he did not call these gods, yet they thought he
meant to make them so. Ton Iesoun kai ten anastasin,
“Jesus they took for a new god, and anastasis, the resurrection,
for a new goddess.” Thus they lost the benefit of the Christian
doctrine by dressing it up in a pagan dialect, as if believing in
Jesus, and looking for the resurrection, were the worshipping of new
demons.
3. The proposal they made to give him a free, full, fair, and public
hearing,
They had heard some broken pieces of his doctrine, and are willing to
have a more perfect knowledge of it.
(1.) They look upon 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. Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears,
which we never heard of before, and know not 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,
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.
(2.) They desired to know more of 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 fit they should know what this
doctrine was before they embraced it; and they were so fair as not to
condemn it till they had had some account of it.
(3.) The place they brought him to, in order to this public declaration
of his doctrine; it was to Areopagus, the same word that is
translated
(v. 22)
Mars’ Hill; it was the town-house, or guildhall of their city,
where the magistrates met upon public business, and the courts of
justice were kept; and it was as the theatre in the university, or the
schools, where learned men met to communicate their notions. 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 the censure
of this court. Diagoras was by them put to death, as a contemner of the
gods; nor might any new God be admitted without their approbation.
Hither they brought Paul to be tried, not as a criminal but as a
candidate.
4. The general character of the people of that city given upon this
occasion
(v. 21):
All the Athenians, that is natives of the place, and strangers
who sojourned there for their improvement, spent their time in
nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing, which
comes in as the reason why they were inquisitive concerning Paul’s
doctrine, not because it was good, but because it was
new. It is a very sorry character which is here given of these
people, yet many transcribe it.
(1.) They were all for conversation. St. Paul exhorts his pupil to
give attendance to reading and meditation
but these people despised those old-fashioned ways of getting
knowledge, and preferred that of telling and hearing. It is true that
good company is of great use to a man, and will polish one that has
laid a good foundation in study; but that knowledge will be very flashy
and superficial which is got by conversation only.
(2.) They affected novelty; they were for telling and hearing some
new thing. They were for new schemes and new notions in philosophy,
new forms and plans of government in politics, and, in religion, for
new gods that came newly up
new demons, new-fashioned images and altars
they were given to change. Demosthenes, an orator of their own, had
charged this upon them long before, in one of his Philippics, that
their common question in the markets, or wherever they met, was
ei ti le etai neoteron—whether there was any
news.
(3.) They meddled in other people’s business, and were inquisitive
concerning that, and never minded their own. Tattlers are always
busy bodies,
1 Tim. v. 13.
(4.) They spent their time in nothing else, and a very
uncomfortable account those must needs have to make of their time who
thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to be good
husbands of it, because eternity depends upon it, and it is hastening
apace into eternity, but abundance of it is wasted in unprofitable
converse. To tell or hear the new occurrences of providence concerning
the public in our own or other nations, and concerning our neighbours
and friends, is of good use now and then; but to set up for
newsmongers, and to spend our time in nothing else, is to lose that
which is very precious for the gain of that which is worth little.
| Paul at Athens. |
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22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an
altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore
ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with
hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed
any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all
things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell
on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of
us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain
also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not
to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead.
We have here St. Paul’s sermon at Athens. Divers sermons we have had,
which the apostles preached to the Jews, or such Gentiles as had an
acquaintance with and veneration for the Old Testament, and were
worshippers of the true and living God; and all they had to do with
them was to open and allege that Jesus is the Christ; but here
we have a sermon to heathens, that worshipped false gods, and were
without the true God in the world, and to them the scope of their
discourse was quite different from what it was to the other. In the
former case their business was to lead their hearers by prophecies and
miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the
latter it was to lead them by the common works of providence to the
knowledge of the Creator, and the worship of him. One discourse of this
kind we had before to the rude idolaters of Lystra that deified the
apostles
(ch. xiv. 15);
this recorded here is to the more polite and refined idolaters at
Athens, and an admirable discourse it is, and every way suited to his
auditory and the design he had upon them.
I. He lays down this, as the scope of his discourse, that he aimed to
bring them to the knowledge of the only living and true God, as
the sole and proper object of their adoration. He is here obliged to
lay the foundation, and to instruct them in the first principle of all
religion, that there is a God, and that God is but one. When he
preached against the gods they worshipped, he had no design to draw
them to atheism, but to the service of the true Deity. Socrates, who
had exposed the pagan idolatry, was indicted in this very court, and
condemned, not only because he did not esteem those to be gods whom the
city esteemed to be so, but because he introduced new demons; and this
was the charge against Paul. Now he tacitly owns the former part of the
charge, but guards against the latter, by declaring that he does not
introduce any new gods, but reduce them to the knowledge of one God,
the Ancient of days. Now,
1. He shows them that they needed to be instructed herein; for they had
lost the knowledge of the true God that made them, in the worship of
false gods that they had made (Deos qui rogat ille facit–He who
worships the gods makes them): I perceive that in all things you are
too superstitious. The crime he charges upon them is giving that
glory to others which is due to God only, that they feared and
worshipped demons, spirits that they supposed inhabited the images to
which they directed their worship. “It is time for you to be told that
there is but one God who are multiplying deities above any of
your neighbours, and mingle your idolatries with all your affairs.
You are in all things too
superstitious—deisidaimonesteroi, you easily admit
every thing that comes under a show of religion, but it is that which
corrupts it more and more; I bring you that which will reform it.”
Their neighbours praised them for this as a pious people, but Paul
condemns them for it. Yet it is observable how he mollifies the charge,
does not aggravate it, to provoke them. He uses a word which among them
was taken in a good sense: You are every way more than ordinarily
religious, so some read it; you are very devout in your way.
Or, if it be taken in a bad sense, it is mitigated: “You are as it were
(hos) more superstitious than you need be;” and he says
no more than what he himself perceived; theoro—I see
it, I observe it. They charged Paul with setting forth new demons:
“Nay,” says he, “you have demons enough already; I will not add to the
number of them.”
2. He shows them that they themselves had given a fair occasion for the
declaring of this one true God to them, by setting up an altar,
To the unknown God, which intimated an acknowledgment that there
was a God who was yet to them an unknown God; and it is sad to
think that at Athens, a place which was supposed to have the monopoly
of wisdom, the true God was an unknown God, the only God that was
unknown. “Now you ought to bed Paul welcome, for this is the God whom
he comes to make known to you, the God whom you tacitly complain that
you are ignorant of.” There, where we are sensible we are defective and
come short, just there, the gospel takes us up, and carries us on.
(1.) Various conjectures the learned have concerning this altar
dedicated to the unknown God.
[1.] Some think the meaning is, To the God whose honour it is to be
unknown, and that they intended the God of the Jews, whose name is
ineffable, and whose nature is unsearchable. It is probable they had
heard from the Jews, and from the writings of the Old Testament, of the
God of Israel, who had proved himself to be above all gods, but was
a God hiding himself,
Isa. xlv. 15.
The heathen called the Jews’ God, Deus incertus, incertum Mosis
Numen–an uncertain God, the uncertain Deity of Moses, and the God
without name. Now this God, says Paul, this God, who cannot
by searching be found out to perfection, I now declare unto you.
[2.] Others think the meaning is, To the God whom it is our
unhappiness not to know, which intimates that they would think it
their happiness to know him. Some tell us that upon occasion of a
plague that raged at Athens, when they had sacrificed to all their gods
one after another for the staying of the plague, they were advised to
let some sheep go where they pleased, and, where they lay down, to
build an altar, to prosekonti Theo—to the proper God,
or the God to whom that affair of staying the pestilence did
belong; and, because they knew not how to call him, they inscribed
it, To the unknown God. Others, from some of the best historians
of Athens, tell us they had many altars inscribed, To the gods of
Asia, Europe, and Africa–To the unknown God: and some of the
neighbouring countries used to swear by the God that was unknown at
Athens; so Lucian.
(2.) Observe, how modestly Paul mentions this. That he might not be
thought a spy, nor one that had intruded himself more than became a
stranger into the knowledge of their mysteries, he tells them that he
observed it as he passed by, and saw their devotions, or
their sacred things. It was public, and he could not forbear
seeing it, and it was proper enough to make his remarks upon the
religion of the place; and observe how prudently and ingeniously he
takes occasion from this to bring in his discourse of the true God.
[1.] He tells them that the God he preached to them was one that they
did already worship, and therefore he was not a setter forth of new or
strange gods: “As you have a dependence upon him, so he has had some
kind of homage from you.”
[2.] He was one whom they ignorantly worshipped, which was a reproach
to them, who were famous all the world over for their knowledge. “Now,”
says he, “I come to take away that reproach, that you may
worship him understandingly whom how you worship ignorantly; and it
cannot but be acceptable to have your blind devotion turned into a
reasonable service, that you may not worship you know not
what.“
II. He confirms his doctrine of one living and true God, by his works
of creation and providence: “The God whom I declare unto you to be the
sole object of your devotion, and call you to the worship of, is the
God that made the world and governs it; and, by the visible proofs
of these, you may be led to this invisible Being, and be convinced of
his eternal power and Godhead.” The Gentiles in general, and the
Athenians particularly, in their devotions were governed, not by their
philosophers, many of whom spoke clearly and excellently well of one
supreme Numen, of his infinite perfections and universal agency
and dominion (witness the writings of Plato, and long after of Cicero);
but by their poets, and their idle fictions. Homer’s works were the
Bible of the pagan theology, or demonology rather, not Plato’s; and the
philosophers tamely submitted to this, rested in their speculations,
disputed them among themselves, and taught them to their scholars, but
never made the use they ought to have made of them in opposition to
idolatry; so little certainty were they at concerning them, and so
little impression did these things make upon them! Nay, they ran
themselves into the superstition of their country, and thought they
ought to do so. Eamus ad communem errorem–Let us embrace the common
error. Now Paul here sets himself, in the first place, to reform
the philosophy of the Athenians (he corrects the mistakes of that), and
to give them right notions of the one only living and true God,
and then to carry the matter further than they ever attempted for the
reforming of their worship, and the bringing them off from their
polytheism and idolatry. Observe what glorious things Paul here says of
that God whom he served, and would have them to serve.
1. He is the God that made the world, and all things therein; the
Father almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. This was admitted
by many of the philosophers; but those of Aristotle’s school denied it,
and maintained “that the world was from eternity, and every thing
always was from eternity, and every thing always was what now it is.”
Those of the school of Epicurus fancied “that the world was made by a
fortuitous concourse of atoms, which, having been in perpetual motion,
at length accidently jumped into this frame.” Against both these Paul
here maintains that God by the operations of an infinite power,
according to the contrivance of an infinite wisdom, in the beginning of
time made the world and all things therein, the origin of which was
owing, not as they fancied to an eternal matter, but to an eternal
mind.
2. He is therefore Lord of heaven and earth, that is, he is the
rightful owner, proprietor, and possessor, of all the beings, powers,
and riches of the upper and lower world, material and immaterial,
visible and invisible. This follows from his making heaven and earth.
If he created all, without doubt he has the disposing of all: and,
where he gives being, he has an indisputable right to give law.
3. He is, in a particular manner, the Creator of men, of all men
(v. 26):
He made of one blood all nations of men. He made the first man,
he makes every man, is the former of every man’s body and the Father of
every man’s spirit. He has made the nations of men, not only all men in
the nations, but as nations in their political capacity; he is their
founder, and disposed them into communities for their mutual
preservation and benefit. He made them all of one blood, of one and the
same nature; he fashions their heart alike. Descended from one
and the same common ancestor, in Adam they are all akin, so they are in
Noah, that hereby they might be engaged in mutual affection and
assistance, as fellow-creatures and brethren. Have we not all one
Father? Hath not one God created us?
Mal. ii. 10.
He hath made them to dwell on all the face of the earth, which,
as a bountiful benefactor, he has given, with all its fulness,
to the children of men. He made them not to live in one place,
but to be dispersed over all the earth; one nation therefore ought not
to look with contempt upon another, as the Greeks did upon all other
nations; for those on all the face of the earth are of the same blood.
The Athenians boasted that they sprung out of their own earth, were
aborigines, and nothing akin by blood to any other nation, which
proud conceit of themselves the apostle here takes down.
4. That he is the great benefactor of the whole creation
(v. 25):
He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. He not only
breathed into the first man the breath of life, but still
breathes it into every man. He gave us these souls he formed the spirit
of man within him. He not only gave us our life and breath, when he
brought us into being, but he is continually giving them to us; his
providence is a continued creation; he holds our souls in life;
every moment our breath goes forth, but he graciously gives it us again
the next moment; it is no only his air that we breathe in, but it is
in his hand that our breath is,
Dan. v. 23.
He gives to all the children of men their life and breath; for
as the meanest of the children of men live upon him, and receive from
him, so the greatest, the wisest philosophers and mightiest potentates,
cannot live without him. He gives to all, not only to all the
children of men, but to the inferior creatures, to all animals,
every thing wherein is the breath of life
(Gen. vi. 17);
they have their life and breath from him, and where he gives life and
breath he gives all things, all other things needful for the support of
life. The earth is full of his goodness,
Ps. civ. 24, 27.
5. That he is the sovereign disposer of all the affairs of the children
of men, according to the counsel of his will
(v. 26):
He hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation. See here,
(1.) The sovereignty of God’s disposal concerning us: he hath
determined every event, horisas, the matter is fixed;
the disposals of Providence are incontestable and must not be disputed,
unchangeable and cannot be altered.
(2.) The wisdom of his disposals; he hath determined what was
before appointed. The determinations of the Eternal Mind are not
sudden resolves, but the counterparts of an eternal counsel, the copies
of divine decrees. He performeth the thing that is appointed for
me,
Job xxiii. 14.
Whatever comes forth from God was before all worlds hid in God.
(3.) The things about which his providence is conversant; these are
time and place: the times and places of our living in this world are
determined and appointed by the God that made us.
[1.] He has determined the times that are concerning us. Times
to us seem changeable, but God has fixed them. Our times are in his
hand, to lengthen or shorten, embitter or sweeten, as he pleases.
He has appointed and determined the time of our coming into the world,
and the time of our continuance in the world; our time to be born, and
our time to die
and all that little that lies between them–the time of all our
concernments in this world. Whether they be prosperous times or
calamitous times, it is he that has determined them; and on him we must
depend, with reference to the times that are yet before us.
[2.] He has also determined and appointed the bounds of our
habitation. He that appointed the earth to be a habitation for
the children of men has appointed to the children of men a
distinction of habitations upon the earth, has instituted such a thing
as property, to which he has set bounds to keep us from trespassing one
upon another. The particular habitations in which our lot is cast, the
place of our nativity and of our settlement, are of God’s determining
and appointing, which is a reason why we should accommodate ourselves
to the habitations we are in, and make the best of that which is.
6. That he is not far from every one of us,
v. 27.
He is every where present, not only is at our right hand, but has
possessed our reins
has his eye upon us at all times, and knows us better than we know
ourselves. Idolaters made images of God, that they might have him with
them in those images, the absurdity of which the apostle here shows;
for he in an infinite Spirit, that is not far from any of us,
and never the nearer, but in one sense the further off from us, for our
pretending to realize or presentiate him to ourselves by any image. He
is nigh unto us, both to receive the homage we render him and to give
the mercies we ask of him, wherever we are, though near no altar,
image, or temple. The Lord of all, as he is rich
(Rom. x. 12),
so he is nigh
(Deut. iv. 7),
to all that call upon him. He that wills us to pray every
where, assures us that he is no where far from us; whatever
country, nation, or profession we are of, whatever our rank and
condition in the world are, be we in a palace or in a cottage, in a
crowd or in a corner, in a city or in a desert, in the depths of the
sea or afar off upon the sea, this is certain, God is not far from
every one of us.
7. That in him we live, and move, and have our being,
v. 28.
We have a necessary and constant dependence upon his providence, as the
streams have upon the spring, and the beams upon the sun.
(1.) In him we live; that is, the continuance of our lives is
owing to him and the constant influence of his providence; he is our
life, and the length of our days. It is not only owing to his
patience and pity that our forfeited lives are not cut off, but it is
owing to his power, and goodness, and fatherly care, that our frail
lives are prolonged. There needs not a positive act of his wrath to
destroy us; if he suspend the positive acts of his goodness, we die of
ourselves.
(2.) In him we move; it is by the uninterrupted concourse of his
providence that our souls move in their outgoings and operations, that
our thoughts run to and fro about a thousand subjects, and our
affections run out towards their proper objects. It is likewise by him
that our souls move our bodies; we cannot stir a hand, or foot, or a
tongue, but by him, who, as he is the first cause, so he is the first
mover.
(3.) In him we have our being; not only from him we had it at
first, but in him we have it still; to his continued care and goodness
we owe it, not only that we have a being and are not sunk into
nonentity, but that we have our being, have this being, were and still
are of such a noble rank of beings, capable of knowing and enjoying
God; and are not thrust into the meanness of brutes, nor the misery of
devils.
8. That upon the whole matter we are God’s offspring; he is
our Father that begat us
and he hath nourished and brought us up as children,
Isa. i. 2.
The confession of an adversary in such a case is always looked upon to
be of use as argumentum ad hominem–an argument to the man, and
therefore the apostle here quotes a saying of one of the Greek poets,
Aratus, a native of Cilicia, Paul’s countryman, who, in his
Phenomena, in the beginning of his book, speaking of the heathen
Jupiter, that is, in the poetical dialect, the supreme
God, says this of him, tou gar kai genos
esmen—for we are also his offspring. And he might have
quoted other poets to the purpose of what he was speaking, that in
God we live and move:—
| Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem. This active mind, infus’d through all the space, Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.–Virgil, Æneid vi. Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo. ‘Tis the Divinity that warms our hearts.–Ovid, Fast. vi. Jupiter est quodeunque vides, Quocunque moveris. Where’er you look, where’er you rove ‘The spacious scene is full of Jove.–Lucan, lib. ii. |
But he chooses this of Aratus, as having much in a little. By this it
appears not only that Paul was himself a scholar, but that human
learning is both ornamental and serviceable to a gospel minister,
especially for the convincing of those that are without; for it enables
him to beat them at their own weapons, and to cut off Goliath’s head
with his own sword. How can the adversaries of truth be beaten out of
their strong-holds by those that do not know them? It may likewise
shame God’s professing people, who forget their relation to God, and
walk contrary to it, that a heathen poet could say of God, We are
his offspring, formed by him, formed for him, more the care of his
providence than ever any children were the care of their parents; and
therefore are obliged to obey his commands, and acquiesce in his
disposals, and to be unto him for a name and a praise. Since in
him and upon him we live, we ought to live to him; since in him we
move, we ought to move towards him; and since in him we have our being,
and from him we receive all the supports and comforts of our being, we
ought to consecrate our being to him, and to apply to him for a new
being, a better being, an eternal well-being.
III. From all these great truths concerning God, he infers the
absurdity of their idolatry, as the prophets of old had done. If this
be so,
1. Then God cannot be represented by an image. If we are the
offspring of God, as we are spirits in flesh, then certainly he who
is the Father of our spirits (and they are the principal part of
us, and that part of us by which we are denominated God’s offspring) is
himself a Spirit, and we ought not to think that the Godhead is like
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device,
v. 29.
We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured
man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God
if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is
spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is
a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God, be
the matter ever so rich, fold or silver; be the shape ever so
curious, and be it ever so well graven by art or man’s device,
its countenance, posture, or dress, ever so significant, it is a
teacher of lies.
2. Then he dwells not in temples made with hands,
v. 24.
He is not invited to any temple men can build for him, nor confined to
any. A temple brings him never the nearer to us, nor keeps him ever the
longer among us. A temple is convenient for us to come together in to
worship God; but God needs not any place of rest or residence, nor the
magnificence and splendour of any structure, to add to the glory of his
appearance. A pious, upright heart, a temple not made with
hands, but by the Spirit of God, is that which he dwells
in, and delights to dwell in. See
1 Kings viii. 27; Isa. lxvi. 1, 2.
3. Then he is not worshipped, therapeuetai, he is
not served, or ministered unto, with men’s hands, as though
he needed any thing,
v. 25.
He that made all, and maintains all, cannot be benefited by any of our
services, nor needs them. If we receive and derive all from him, he is
all-sufficient, and therefore cannot but be self-sufficient, and
independent. What need can God have of our services, or what benefit
can he have by them, when he has all perfection in himself, and we have
nothing that is good but what we have from him? The philosophers,
indeed, were sensible of this truth, that God has no need of us or our
services; but the vulgar heathen built temples and offered sacrifices
to their gods, with an opinion that they needed houses and food. See
&c.
4. Then it concerns us all to enquire after God
(v. 27):
That they should seek the Lord, that is, fear and worship him in
a right manner. Therefore God has kept the children of men in a
constant dependence upon him for life and all the comforts of life,
that he might keep them under constant obligations to him. We have
plain indications of God’s presence among us, his presidency over us,
the care of his providence concerning us, and his bounty to us, that we
might be put upon enquiring, Where is God our Maker, who giveth
songs in the night, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
Job xxxv. 10, 11.
Nothing, one would think, should be more powerful with us to convince
us that there is a God, and to engage us to seek his honour and glory
in our services, and to seek our happiness in his favour and love, than
the consideration of our own nature, especially the noble powers and
faculties of our own souls. If we reflect upon these, and contemplate
these, we may perceive both our relation and obligation to a God above
us. Yet so dark is this discovery, in comparison with that by divine
revelation, and so unapt are we to receive it, that those who have no
other could but haply feel after God and find him.
(1.) It was very uncertain whether they could by this searching find
out God; it is but a peradventure: if haply they might.
(2.) If they did find out something of God, yet it was but some
confused notions of him; they did but feel after him, as men in the
dark, or blind men, who lay hold on a thing that comes in their way,
but know not whether it be that which they are in quest of or no. It is
a very confused notion which this poet of theirs has of the relation
between God and man, and very general, that we are his
offspring: as was also that of their philosophers. Pythagoras said,
Theion genos esti brotoios—Men have a sort of a
divine nature. And Heraclitus (apud Lucian) being asked,
What are men? answered, Theoi thnetoi—Mortal
gods; and, What are the gods? answered, athanatoi
anthropoi—Immortal men. And Pindar saith (Nemean,
Ode 6), En andron hen theon genos—God and man
are near a-kin. It is true that by the knowledge of ourselves we
may be led to the knowledge of God, but it is a very confused
knowledge. This is but feeling after him. We have therefore reason to
be thankful that by the gospel of Christ we have notices given us of
God much clearer than we could have by the light of nature; we do not
now feel after him, but with open face behold, as in a glass, the
glory of God.
IV. He proceeds to call them all to repent of their idolatries, and to
turn from them,
This is the practical part of Paul’s sermon before the university;
having declared God to them
(v. 23),
he properly presses upon them repentance towards God, and would
also have taught them faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, if
they had had the patience to hear him. Having shown them the absurdity
of their worshipping other gods, he persuades them to go on no longer
in that foolish way of worship, but to return from it to the living and
true God. Observe,
1. The conduct of God towards the Gentile world before the gospel came
among them: The times of this ignorance God winked at.
(1.) They were times of great ignorance. Human learning flourished more
than ever in the Gentile world just before Christ’s time; but in the
things of God they were grossly ignorant. Those are ignorant indeed who
either know not God or worship him ignorantly; idolatry was owing to
ignorance.
(2.) These times of ignorance God winked at. Understand it,
[1.] As an act of divine justice. God despised or neglected these times
of ignorance, and did not send them his gospel, as now he does. It was
very provoking to him to see his glory thus given to another; and he
detested and hated these times. So some take it. Or rather,
[2.] As an act of divine patience and forbearance. He winked at these
times; he did not restrain them from these idolatries by sending
prophets to them, as he did to Israel; he did not punish them in their
idolatries, as he did Israel; but gave them the gifts of his
providence,
These things thou hast done, and I kept silence,
Ps. l. 21.
He did not give them such calls and motives to repentance as he does
now. He let them alone. Because they did not improve the light
they had, but were willingly ignorant, he did not send them greater
lights. Or, he was not quick and severe with them, but was
long-suffering towards them, because they did it ignorantly,
2. The charge God gave to the Gentile world by the gospel, which he now
sent among them: He now commandeth all men every where to
repent–to change their mind and their way, to be ashamed of their
folly and to act more wisely, to break off the worship of idols and
bind themselves to the worship of the true God. Nay, it is to turn with
sorrow and shame from every sin, and with cheerfulness and resolution
to every duty.
(1.) This is God’s command. It had been a great favour if he had only
told us that there was room left for repentance, and we might be
admitted to it; but he goes further, he interposes his own authority
for our good, and has made that our duty which is our privilege.
(2.) It is his command to all men, every where,–to men, and not
to angels, that need it not,–to men, and not to devils, that are
excluded the benefit of it,–to all men in all places; all men have
made work for repentance, and have cause enough to repent, and all men
are invited to repent, and shall have the benefit of it. The apostles
are commissioned to preach this every where. The prophets were sent to
command the Jews to repent; but the apostles were sent to preach
repentance and remission of sins to all nations.
(3.) Now in gospel times it is more earnestly commanded, because more
encouraged than it had been formerly. Now the way of remission is more
opened than it had been, and the promise more fully confirmed; and
therefore now he expects we should all repent. “Now repent; now at
length, now in time, repent; for you have too long gone on in sin. Now
in time repent, for it will be too late shortly.”
3. The great reason to enforce this command, taken from the judgment to
come. God commands us to repent, because he hath appointed a day in
which he will judge the world in righteousness
(v. 31),
and has now under the gospel made a clearer discovery of a state of
retribution in the other world than ever before. Observe,
(1.) The God that made the world will judge it; he that gave the
children of men their being and faculties will call them to an account
for the use they have made of them, and recompense them accordingly,
whether the body served the soul in serving God or the soul was a
drudge to the body in making provision for the flesh; and every man
shall receive according to the things done in the body,
2 Cor. v. 10.
The God that now governs the world will judge it, will reward the
faithful friends of his government and punish the rebels.
(2.) There is a day appointed for this general review of all that men
have done in time, and a final determination of their state for
eternity. The day is fixed in the counsel of God, and cannot be
altered; but it is his there, and cannot be known. A day of decision, a
day of recompence, a day that will put a final period to all the days
of time.
(3.) The world will be judged in righteousness; for God is not
unrighteous, who taketh vengeance; far be it from him that he should do
iniquity. His knowledge of all men’s characters and actions is
infallibly true, and therefore his sentence upon them incontestably
just. And, as there will be no appeal from it, so there will be no
exception against it.
(4.) God will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained,
who can be no other than the Lord Jesus, to whom all judgment is
committed. By him God made the world, by him he redeemed it, by him he
governs it, and by him he will judge it.
(5.) God’s raising Christ from the dead is the great proof of his being
appointed and ordained the Judge of quick and dead. His doing him that
honour evidenced his designing him this honour. His raising him from
the dead was the beginning of his exaltation, his judging the world
will be the perfection of it; and he that begins will make an end. God
hath given assurance unto all men, sufficient ground for their
faith to build upon, both that there is a judgment to come and that
Christ will be their judge; the matter is not left doubtful, but is of
unquestionable certainty. Let all his enemies be assured of it, and
tremble before him; let all his friends be assured of it, and triumph
in him.
(6.) The consideration of the judgment to come, and of the great hand
Christ will have in that judgment, should engage us all to repent of
our sins and turn from them to God. This is the only way to make the
Judge our friend in that day, which will be a terrible day to all who
live and die impenitent; but true penitents will then lift up their
heads with joy, knowing that their redemption draws nigh.
| Paul at Athens. |
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32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this
matter.
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the
which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris,
and others with them.
We have here a short account of the issue of Paul’s preaching at
Athens.
I. Few were the better: the gospel had as little success at Athens as
any where; for the pride of the philosophers there, as of the Pharisees
at Jerusalem, prejudiced them against the gospel of Christ.
1. Some ridiculed Paul and his preaching. They heard him patiently till
he came to speak of the resurrection of the dead
(v. 32),
and then some of them began to hiss him: they mocked. What he
had said before was somewhat like what they had sometimes heard in
their own schools, and some notion they had of a resurrection, as it
signifies a future state; but, if he speak of a resurrection of the
dead, though it be of the resurrection of Christ himself, it is
altogether incredible to them, and they cannot bear so much as to hear
of it, as being contrary to a principle of their philosophy: A
privatione ad habitum non datur regressus–Life when once lost is
irrecoverable. They had deified their heroes after their death, but
never thought of their being raised from the dead, and therefore they
could by no means reconcile themselves to this doctrine of Christ’s
being raised from the dead; how can this be? This great doctrine, which
is the saints’ joy, is their jest; when it was but mentioned to them
they mocked, and made a laughing matter of it. We are not to think it
strange if sacred truths of the greatest certainty and importance are
made the scorn of profane wits.
2. Others were willing to take time to consider of it; they said, We
will hear thee again of this matter. They would not at present
comply with what Paul said, nor oppose it; but we will hear thee
again of this matter, of the resurrection of the dead. It should
seem, they overlooked what was plain and uncontroverted, and shifted
off the application and the improvement of that, by starting objections
against what was disputable, and would admit a debate. Thus many lose
the benefit of the practical doctrine of Christianity, by wading beyond
their depth into controversy, or, rather, by objecting against that
which has some difficulty in it; whereas, if any man were disposed and
determined to do the will of God, as far as it is discovered to
him, he should know of the doctrine of Christ, that it is of
God, and not of man,
John vii. 17.
Those that would not yield to the present convictions of the word
thought to get clear of them, as Felix did, by putting them off to
another opportunity; they will hear of it again some time or other, but
they know not when; and thus the devil cozens them of all their time,
by cozening them of the present time.
3. Paul thereupon left them for the present to consider of it
(v. 33):
He departed from amongst them, as seeing little likelihood of
doing any good with them at this time; but, it is likely, with a
promise to those that were willing to hear him again that he would meet
them whenever they pleased.
II. Yet there were some that were wrought upon,
If some would not, others would.
1. There were certain men that adhered to him, and believed. When he
departed from amongst them, they would not part with him so; wherever
he went, they would follow him, with a resolution to adhere to the
doctrine he preached, which they believed.
2. Two are particularly named; one was an eminent man, Dionysius the
Areopagite, one of that high court or great council that sat in
Areopagus, or Mars’ Hill–a judge, a senator, one of those before whom
Paul was summoned to appear; his judge becomes his convert. The account
which the ancients give of this Dionysius is that he was bred at
Athens, had studied astrology in Egypt, where he took notice of the
miraculous eclipse at our Saviour’s passion,–that, returning to
Athens, he became a senator, disputed with Paul, and was by him
converted from his error and idolatry; and, being by him thoroughly
instructed, was made the first bishop of Athens. So Eusebius,
lib. 5, cap. 4; lib. 4, cap. 22. The woman
named Damaris was, as some think, the wife of Dionysius; but,
rather, some other person of quality; and, though there was not so
great a harvest gathered in at Athens as there was at other places,
yet, these few being wrought upon there, Paul had no reason to say he
had laboured in vain.
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