Paul at Athens

“Behold, the Apostle of the Cross sublime — The warn’d of Heaven, the eloquent, the bold! Who spake to Athens in her hour of prime, Braving the thunders of Olympus old, And spreading forth the Gospel’s snowy fold Where heathen altars pour’d a crimson tide, And stern tribunals their decrees unrollVl, — How does his zeal our ingrate coldness chide!”

“Who can calculate the mighty influence of his life upon maxims, upon manners, upon literature, upon history, — in short, upon the whole development of humanity!”

,“■.’”■;::’.;»:iii’;:F’ e have, in former chapters, followed the “footsteps” of St Paul into regions where both nature and man were seen in their savage state. You remember the rugged mountain -passes of Pisidia, and the still more rugged hearts of the Pagan Lystrians 1 We lately accompanied him, in the quiet of a Sabbath morning, to a river-side, where his listeners were a handful of devout females. We found him, immediately afterwards, in a place more unpromising still, when an inner dungeon and a jailer’s iron soul were made as “the house of God and the gate of heaven.” We are to follow him now to a grander arena, — amid the philosophers and wise men of the city which then ruled the world of mind and thought, as Rome ruled the outer world by force of arms.

We can easily imagine what his journey thither would be. How many spots of classic interest would open before his eyes! After passing the long island of Euboea, on the eastern coast of Attica, we may think of him standing on the prow of his vessel and gazing on the splendid temple of Minerva, on the height of the promontory of Sunium. The vessel has now entered the magnificent bay whose waters wash the southern shores of Attica. Soon a glittering object catches his eye on a distant rock: it is the colossal statue of Minerva, on the Acropolis, with a helmet on her head and a spear in her hand, made out of the brazen shields and spears taken at the battle of Marathon.“‘Temples and columns gradually unfold themselves. The Great Apostle has got his first glimpse of the civilised capital of the ancient world — the seat and centre of art, eloquence, philosophy, and science — Athens, “the eye of Greece!” And now they are nearing the shore: — to the left, he sees the well-known island of iEgina; to the right, that which has given its own name to one of the greatest naval battles ever fought — the island of Salamis. Behind it rises the hill of Hymettus, famed for its honey; and right in front, as you see in the foreground of our large picture, is the Pirceus, the port of Athens, with its two high moles on either side. “The Piraeus,” it is said, in a graphic description of it as it appeared to Paul on his landing,” doubtless retained many of the outward features of its earlier appearance, — the landing-places and covered porticos; the warehouses where the corn from the Black Sea used to be laid up; the stores of fish brought in daily

* Conybeare and Howson, vol. i. p. 371. The picture we give is the “Athena,” from the Hope collection.

from the Saronic Gulf and the ^Egean; the gardens in the watery ground at the edge of the plain; the theatres into which the sailors used to flock to hear the comedies of Menander.” * The city and port are distant from one another about five miles. Houses had at one time been built the whole way between, consisting of one narrow street, guarded by walls of sixty feet in height, and with towers in various parts of them. These, however, had at this time greatly fallen into decay,t for we must remember, that by this time the political greatness of Athens had ceased. The Roman eagles had hither, as elsewhere, winged their flight, and the seat of government had been changed to Corinth.J And now we may imagine the Great Apostle entering by the gate of the Piraeus. He finds himself in a city of temples — a city literally “wholly given to idolatry.” Statues of Neptune, Jupiter, Ceres, Minerva, Apollo, Mercury, and the Muses, meet his eye one after the other; porticos, too, with battle-pieces painted on their walls, and bronze figures of illustrious Athenians. On the left is the Pynx, with its tribunal cut from the solid rock, guarded by a statue of Jupiter and the nymphs of the Demus, and which remains to this day uninjured by the ravages of time. Passing further onwards, the statues of Conon, Epaminondas, and, most illustrious of all, Demosthenes, meet the eye of the Christian pilgrim. The soul of the young Tarsian, in bygone days when seated at Gamaliel’s feet, had doubtless often kindled under the burning words of the Grecian orator, — now he was gazing on the statue reared

* Howson and Conybeare, vol. i. p. 375.

t Ibid. See the entire account given by them of ancient Athens.

t Dr Kitto.

on the very spot which had listened to his living tones.

It would weary the reader to dwell on this colossal statue-gallery through which St Paul now walked. “Warriors were there — the commanding forms of Philip and Alexander of Macedon, Themistocles and Miltiades; lawgivers were there — such as Solon, standing in front of a portico richly adorned with the recollections of Troy and Marathon. Well was it said of Athens by Petromus, that it was then easier to find in it an idol-god than a man. How striking this idol-crowded capital of the world must have been to one who had been so much in Jerusalem as Paul, where not so much as one image was to be found! *

The Apostle is all at once in a little world of busy thought. In passing along the great central street, the citizens are listening, or gathering in groups “to hear or tell something new.” t When he reaches the end of this thoroughfare, with colonnades on either side, we may suppose him turning to his right hand into the Agora or market-place, — a square surrounded with the same temple buildings and shady porticos; bazaars filled with every article of luxury; circular booths, some for the sale of slaves, others for provisions. Flowers and fruits were ranged out on one side to tempt the eye, and books and parchments on another, for those who preferred food for the mind.J Students

* See Mr Lewin, vol. i. p. 272, with authorities referred to.

t “Demosthenes represents the Athenians as inquiring in the place of public resort, ‘If there were any news? ‘Meursius has shown also that there were more than three hundred public places in Athens of public resort, where the principal youth and reputable citizens were accustomed to meet for the purpose of conversation and inquiry.” — Barnes On the Acts, p. 293.

% Lewin.

from all quarters of the world might be found there, taking their hours of recreation, their masters standing close by, discussing weighty points of religion and philosophy. Right in front were the rocky crags of the Acropolis, with the temples and statue of which we have already spoken, and its beautiful Parthenon built of white Pantelican marble, whose remains are to this hour so much admired. We may imagine what it must have been then, when its magnificent friezes were all complete, and the statue of the goddess Minerva, from the hand of the great sculptor Phidias, was inside, glittering with gold and ivory. We shall find Paul immediately saying in his address, “The Lord of heaven dwelleth not in temples made with hands;” * as if he had said, “If any temple on earth were befitting for Him to dwell in, it would surely be such a masterpiece as this.”

We must not forget to note two of the buildings in the Agora. They were the Schools of Epicurus and Zeno, the founders of the two sects the Epicureans and Stoics, to whose followers the Apostle was about to unfold the way of salvation.

I am sure our young readers will be wearying to hear what Paul thought of this great city, with its temples and schools, and sculptures, and other magnificent works of art. He had a mind that was well able to enjoy these treasures of a great people; but the God he served was so despised and neglected in the midst of all this light of nature and philosophy, that we find the only effect produced upon him was, “His spirit was stirred within him, because it was a city wholly given to idolatry!” He himself touchingly says, regarding

* Acts xvii. 24.

this visit, “I was left in Athens alone.” Timothy and Silas were still at Berea. We may well imagine the feelings of a loDe Christian stranger, without one single heart to share his sorrow, pacing the streets of that mighty capital, and feeling, amid all the glory and world-wide fame of its people, that his God was not in fell their thoughts. Somewhat of Jonah’s experience in going through the streets of Nineveh, nine hundred years before, must have been that of Paul of Tarsus now. If anything could have added to his sorrow and grief, it was that so much seemed to be done about religion, while the unholy, profane, and vicious lives of the Athenians showed that true piety had no place in their hearts. Although they knew something about a deity, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Anxious, however, as he was for the return of his two fellow-labourers, Paul could not remain idle and silent in the midst of the stirring scenes and throngs around him. Though alone, he resolves to unfurl the Gospel banner.

The Apostle first of all, as we have invariably found him doing elsewhere, sought out his own “brethren according to the flesh.” He commences in the Jewish synagogue. It was not, however, with them he came hither to fight the battles of his Heavenly Master, but with the teachers of those false systems of philosophy and pagan superstition, which had then in Athens their principal seat, and which formed in many other places the main hindrance to the spread of the Gospel. We may follow him, therefore, once more into the hum of the Agora or market-place, going from one group to another of those who were standing or strolling under the shady plane-trees or porticos, till he joined in the conversation, and introduced the great subject of his thoughts and labours — “Jesus and the Resurrection!” How was his preaching listened to 1 How did these proud wise-men receive the great Christian ambassador 1 They loved oratory. Demosthenes and ethers, by their marvellous eloquence,

“Wielded at will that fierce democracy.”

How, then, will the Christian orator and philosopher fare when he unfolds things in heaven and earth, that were “never dreamt of in their philosophy?” Socrates and Plato had long laboured in vain to discover, by the light of nature, the great realities of the future. Paul is about to unlock the wondrous secret; to reveal to them One, who is at once the “power of God and the wisdom of God,” the “Abolisher of death,” the “Resurrection and the life!” How will they receive such doctrine and testimony as this 1 How will proud reason be content to seat itself at the foot of the cross of Jesus? Doubtless he would not find it difficult to draw them into converse, as there was nothing these sharp and keen intellects enjoyed more than a discussion upon difficult points, and all the better if these were connected with some new religious system. Moreover, we must remember that Paul was not altogether unprepared to meet them, as Epicureans and Stoics were found in abundance in his own native town of Tarsus, where doubtless he had acquired a familiarity with their doctrines. The leading doctrines of the Epicareans were, that the world was made, not by an Almighty Framer, but by an accidental or “fortuitous” concourse of atoms; that pleasure was the highest human pursuit; also, that the soul was matter, and did not survive the dissolution of the body. This sect were truly “without God and without hope.” The Stoics had a better creed: they believed in a Supreme Being, the creator and sustainer of all things, and in the immortality of the soul; but they had dim and imperfect notions about the character of a future state. They rejected the idea of coming punishment, and opposed those fundamental doctrines of Christianity which demanded true repentance, and set forth the nature and method of forgiveness of sin and justification by faith.*

It is evident that Paul was not long in gathering around him an attentive knot of hearers. They were struck with the acuteness of the Jewish stranger. He was mean in his bodily appearance, his face wan, and his garb ragged; his speech lacked the rich, mellow, musical tone they were wont to hear. But he was no weakling in other things. Jew as he was, he was a scholar. He could speak their pure Attic tongue — he could quote their poets. If his eyesight was at times dim, he had an inner taste for the sublime and beautiful; for he conversed with them, as he did with the Lystrians years before, of “Him who had made the heavens and the earth, and the sea; who had never left Himself without a witness, in that He was continually doing them good, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and with gladness.” Though his doctrines were strange, he defended them well. He was an acute reasoner. Indeed, they had got so interested in his conversation, that they proposed he should go with them, for quiet and retirement, if not for space, to the top of the Areopagus, or Mars’

* See Neander, p. 188.

Hill. This was another famous spot in the Athenian capital. It was the place of sacred judgment; and as it was especially intended as a place of arbitration on religious matters, it was all the more suitable for hearinothe new doctrines of this Christian missionary. We may imagine to ourselves the spot where Paul now stood and preached. It was where Pericles and many other great men had raised their voices before him. The stone seats of the judges hewn out in the rock were in front, probably occupied now with Dionysius and other Areopagites, who were the noblest of Athenian citizens. In the same rock was the reputed sanctuary of the Furies, which gave additional awe and solemnity to the place; while the temple of Mars rose immediately in view, crowning the rock to which it gave its name. It was a most impressive moment in the history of the Christian faith. The religion of the despised Jesus of Nazareth, preached at first by a few humble fishermen of Galilee, now finding its way to the very fountain-head of the world’s boasted wisdom. Paul is placed on the tribunal, and the question is courteously put to him by this courteous people, “May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is 1 — for thou bringest strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean.” Christianity had now a bold and fearless advocate. We may imagine him standing up, his face and countenance worn and sad with the traces of recent suffering and bonds, and sadder still with the spectacle of godless splendour all around. He does not at first openly attack their heathen divinities; had he done so, they would at once have refused to listen. He tells that it is his desire to direct them to the God, whom all their religious edifices showed they were “in ignorance” trying to “worship.” He applauds the strength of the religions feeling among them — that they were “exceedingly devout” (the word which is not so correctly rendered in our translation by “too superstitious “). He makes some of the temples and their inscriptions, which he had seen passing along the street, the text of the following stirring address: —

“Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 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. 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: neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 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; 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: 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.* Forasmuch then

* Paul’s quotation occurs in no less than two Greek poets. They are both, of course, celebrating the praise of Jupiter (or Jove), the king of their gods. I subjoin a translation of both, given by Mr Lewin, vol. i. p. 2S4: — “He animates the mart and crowded way, The restless ocean and the shelter’d bay. Do h care perplex? is lowering danger nigh? We are his offspring, ami to Jove we fly.” — Aratus. “Hail! unto thee may mortals lift their voice, For we thine offspring are. All things that creep Are but the echo of tlic-Voice divine.” — ILnnn aj Ckanthes.

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. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: 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.”*

This is doubtless only an outline of Paul’s oration; but what a scene! what an auditory! His pulpit, the tribunal where Socrates had once spoken, at the age of seventy, on the same charge of introducing strange gods — his canopy, the intense blue of an Attic sky — the craggy mountains all around — the blue waters he had lately crossed — the crowded monuments of art before and on every side! He looks above them all, and proclaims that his “God, who made the world, and all things therein,” owns, as the most hallowed of temples, the hearts of those who devoutly “seek” Him; and that the noblest forms their marble and gold and silver can assume, are poor mockeries of the majesty of His glory.

It has been thought by somet — and the opinion seems not unsupported — that the “unknown God” of which he speaks, may have referred to none other than Jehovah, the living and true God of the Jews. Moreover, that the fact of no statue being erected on that altar, is sufficiently accounted for by the expressions which Greek writers themselves use when speaking of

* Acts xvii. 22-31.

t See Cave, p. 79, with references to Justin Martyr, Plutarch, Tacitus, &c.

the God of Israel (referring to his spirituality of nature), — e. g., “not to be expressed;” “Him that may not be named by you;” the “All-hidden.” If this were the case, what an appropriate and significant text was Paul thus furnished with! He found the empty altar — he places upon it the revelation of a hidden God; and, better still, the all-glorious Sacrifice. Jesus he first sets forth as the Saviour, and then as the Judge! The existence of such an altar, however, may 1)0 traced to an altogether different cause. It may be referred to the custom which, in the Athenian capital, was not unfrequent, of erecting shrines to “unknown deities.” “At Athens,” says Pausanias, “there are altars of gods which are called ’ the unknown ones.’” We have from one of their own writers a singular account of how one of these was reared 600 years B.C. Laertius informs us regarding Epimenides, that, “taking white and black sheep, he led them to the Areopagus, and there allowed them to go where they would, commanding those who followed them to sacrifice to the god to whom these things pertained {without giving the name), and thus to allay the pestilence from which it has arisen.” He adds, that “at this day, through the villages of the Athenians, altars are found without any name.” *

But to return to St Paul. Regarding his whole address, it has been well said by a writer from whom, in this chapter, we have already largely drawn —” Simple throughout as is the language of the preacher, yet, in the compass of these few words, he tells them the noblest truths. That there was one God; that He

* Diog. Laer. b. i. § 1 0, quoted by Barnes On the Acts.

dwelt not in temples; that the world was not only made but sustained by Him; that all mankind were of one blood; that they had fallen away from righteousness; that God had sent His Son Jesus to redeem them; that He had raised Him from the dead as an earnest of future life; that all men must be judged at the last day.”*

Beautiful and comprehensive, however, as the address of the apostle was, one cannot help being struck with its great simplicity. Although in the presence of the world’s sages, he just preaches to them as we heard him preaching to the rude Lystrians or the fierce jailer! There is no display, no eloquence, no deep and profound reasoning. In writing afterwards to his Grecian converts, he explains the reason of this unadorned simplicity. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God: for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.... And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.“t The great Raphael, I doubt not, has both truthfully and strikingly treated this eventful scene, in his famous cartoon of “Paul preaching at Athens:’ When you next see this well-known picture, if you begin with the figures at the extreme left, and go gradually round to those on the extreme right, you will observe he represents, step by step, from hardened unbelief to full and perfect faith. The figures on the left are frowning with indignation

* Lewin, vol. i. p. 285.

t 1 Cor. ii. 1-5. — See Blunt’s Lectures.

224 THE FOOTSTEPS OF ^T PAUL.

on the new preacher; those next in order are beginning to reason with one another j the next are arrested, the next convinced, till it ends with the hands stretched out in “believing joy.”

The Apostle was stopped in the midst of his discourse. Some (evidently the Epicureans) laughed and ridiculed, saying, “What can this babbler mean?” Others (the Stoics) said “they would hear him at some other time.” They affirmed him to be a “setter forth of strange gods.” The Greeks had gods and goddesses personating every passion and affection of the soul, such as Pleasure, Hope, Shame, Fear, Peace, Fame, &c. And when Paul spoke of “Jesus and the Resurrection” (Anastasis), they imagined these two words indicated some novel and strange deities they never heard of before.* Lovers as they were of “mythology,” the punishment of death was decreed in their laws against any person who, without authority of the state, would presume to introduce a new divinity. The court of the Areopagus, before which Paul had just been standing, was that which was empowered to pronounce what were lawful objects of worship, and to punish those who ventured to be “setters forth of strange gods.” By it Socrates had the cup of hemlock put into his hands, which he drank without a murmur.t They seem, in the present instance, not to have exercised any of the severities of the law against the Apostle. The court adjourned, the

* Chrysostom, Pausanias, i. 17.

t If Socrates, “the apostle of natural reason,” had been one of Paul’s present hearers, who knows but his noble soul would have opened, like the sunflower, to the light of life! Had they been spoken of the true God, his own words at his trial were worthy of the Apostle Paul himself, “Ye men of Athens! I am obliged to you and thank you, but I must obey God rather than you.”

crowd dispersed, and, so far as we know, Paul never again preached in this city. We read only of two converts which he made — “Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris.” But who can tell what precious seed may have been sown that day among those who hung on the lips of the apostle of Jesus 1 Who can tell what thoughts they may have carried away with them to their homes, as they remembered the closing sentences of the solemn appeal, that “God had appointed a day in which he would judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he had ordained”? The expression used regarding his few Athenian converts is worthy of note: “Howbeit, certain men clave unto him.” It must have cost them a strong effort to be wrenched away from an idolatry to which they were so attached; but, having made the bold resolution to forsake all and follow Jesus, their faith was strong, and they were enabled “to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart.” It is of the nature of faith to grow out of difficulties. We have reason to conclude that the saints in Nero’s palace, of whom we shall afterwards hear, were the most devoted converts in Rome; they had much, in their exalted station, to endure for the sake of Jesus; and, unless their faith had been strong and vigorous, they would not so readily have suffered the loss of “all” for it. So also with the converts at Athens. We may well believe that an Areopagite, a member of that proud court of philosophers, would not, on slight grounds, have taken the publican’s place at the cross of a crucified Redeemer. Regarding Dionysius, we have no further information. If we can credit the traditions of historians respecting him, he had been a witness, when in Heliopolis in p

Egypt, of the supernatural darkness which attended the Saviour’s crucifixion, and, on beholding it, exclaimed, “Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the world will be dissolved.” If aught of this tradition be true, his mind had received a previous training for the happy result which made an Athenian philosopher become a lowly disciple of Jesus. He was said afterwards to have been appointed over the Church at Athens, and to have crowned his labours with an heroic martyrdom, being burnt alive in the same city, in the year 93.*

When, however, we witness the effect of the Apostle’s labours and eloquence in a city of wise men, we see how true is the Bible saying, that “the world by wisdom knew not God,” and that “not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise after the flesh, are called.” Paul’s abode at Athens was only for a short season. Originally he does not seem to have had any intention to be there at all. He landed at Philippi, with the purpose of carrying the Gospel to the cities and villages of Macedonia; but, having been obliged to flee by night from Berea, he had taken refuge at Athens till he was rejoined there by Silas and Timothy. At last Timothy arrives. It is, however, with no cheering tidings. The rage of the Jews at Thessalonica is still unabated, and Paul’s fervent desire to return could not be attempted without endangering his life. What was to be done 1 The good Apostle could not bear the thought of his dear Thessalonian converts being left “as sheep without a shepherd; “and therefore, young though Timothy was, and ill as he could spare his company, Paul resolved to remain” at Athens

* See Blunt’s Lectures, p. 260, Cave, Calmet.

thus alone,” sending him back to comfort them, and bring him tidings of their welfare. Listen to his own words in the letter he sends to them: — “We would have come unto you (even I Paul) once and again.... Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith.”*

After remaining some time in Achaia, preaching the Gospel, the Apostles passed over to the adjoining city of Corinth,

* 1 These, ii. 18; iii.,3.