Page 80 - Acts Student Textbook

Stoics Founder, Zeno (335-263 B.C.). Leading representatives: Seneca, slave Epictetus,
emperor Marcus Aurelius. Reason should govern a person’s life. Live in harmony
with nature. Pantheistic: God is the world soul. Self-sufficiency is the ideal. They
did not believe in a personal afterlife. Fate cannot be avoided but must be
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cooperated with. Three categories: good, bad, indifferent things.

What were their perceptions about Paul before he spoke at the Areopagus?

Since they were hearing him from a distance, they called him an "idle babbler". Uttly says, “This word
was used of sparrows eating seeds in a field. It came to be used metaphorically of itinerant teachers
who picked up pieces of information here and there and tried to sell them.” The R.S.V. Interlinear
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by Alfred Marshall translates it as "ignorant plagiarist." The NJB has "parrot."

What were Paul’s specific connecting points to the Athenians?

Firstly, he acknowledged that, "you are very religious"(17:22). This is literally "to fear the gods
(daimōn)." This can mean (1) in a negative sense, "superstitious," as in the King James Version, or (2)
in a positive sense, "very precise in the practice of religious detail" (NKJV, NJB cf. 25:19). These men
had an intellectual curiosity and respect for religious matters, but only within certain parameters
(their traditions).

Secondly, he went into their temples and noted the "inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD'" (17:23). All of
them were very familiar with that inscription. Paul actually built his sermon around that inscription.
The Greeks were afraid they may have forgotten or left out of their worship an important deity who
might cause trouble if neglected, so they regularly had monuments of this type (cf. Pausanias,
Description of Greece 1:1:4 and Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 6:3:5). It shows their fear of the
spiritual realm and their polytheism.

Thirdly, he quoted their philosophers and poets, "even some of your own poets have said"(17:28).
The previous phrase, "in Him we live and move and exist". Uttly says “this is a quote from Cleanthes'
Hymn to Zeus. He was the head of the Stoic school from 263-232 B.C. or Aratus's (from Soli, a city
near Tarsus) Phainomena, line 5. Aratus was from Cilicia and lived from 315-240 B.C. This quote
emphasizes either God's immanence (cf. v. 27) or God’s creation of all humans (cf. v. 26). Paul also
quotes the Epicureans in 1 Cor. 15:32 and Menander, Thais, in 1 Cor. 15:33. Paul was trained in Greek
literature and rhetoric, probably at Tarsus, which was a major university town. "For we also are His
children" (17:28). This is another quote, possibly from Epimenides, quoted by Diogenes Laertius in
Lives of the Philosophers 1:112.”
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What was Paul’s content of the message in summary?

Brief Outline of Paul's Message To Intellectual Greeks in Athens (17:15-34). It is similar to Acts 14:15-
18.

A. There is one God, creator of heaven (spirit) and earth (matter)
1. of whom they are ignorant
2. who does not dwell in human temples or idols
3. who is not in need of anything from mankind

44 Ibid, (p. 63-64).
45 Uttly, (17:21)
46 Ibid, (17:28)
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