Athens – Acts 17:15-34

The context of I Corinthians 1:26-27 is somewhat ironic.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many WISE men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many NOBLE, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; & God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

That statement was made to the saints in Corinth, the city to which Paul went after visiting Athens.

And there may not be a more accurate illustration of God’s NOT calling the wise and the mighty

than what took place between Athens and Corinth.

Athens was the wise, and in a great many ways Corinth was the foolish.

As far as we know there was never a church in Athens during the lifetime of the Apostle Paul.

But there was a flourishing church established in Corinth

This evening I’d like to give you just a little background on the city of Athens.

Athens was a city of ACHAIA, a city of CULTURE and a city of IDOLATRY.

As to its geography, Athens was a city of ACHAIA, or as it is called elsewhere ATTICA.

Prior to the rise of Rome, Athens was the most celebrated city of the ancient world.

And even in days of the Roman Empire, Athens was the center orfthe world intellectually and culturally.

When Paul’s ministry in Berea reached its conclusion, he was secreted about 25 miles to the Aegean coast.

From there he sailed about 250 miles southeast around several beautiful islands, around a peninsula,

and then back northwest to Peiraeus, the seaport for Athens, about 5 miles away.

ISBE, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia tells me that there were two walls, 250 feet apart, extending between the port and the capital which enclosed a kind of long parkway.

Paul entered the city from the west, and walked up this parkway,

passing an artistic array unmatched anywhere in the ancient world.

And there was an innumerable array of various kinds of alters and idols along the way as well.

ISBE says that the population of Athens at that time was about a quarter of a million people.

They had come from all over the world, including Judea.

There were dozens of languages spoken all over the city but especially in the agora, the market place.

There was just about every kind of religion, idea and philosophy imaginable.

You’d think that under those conditions there would have been ample material for starting a church.

Many people say that Athens is located in one of the most beautiful areas in all the world.

I looked at a few of the pictures that Athens has posted on the internet, and yes, it is beautiful.

And I checked out the weather for this week:

Remember that this is still winter in Greece.

The maximum & minimum temperatures for the next five days range from a low of 46 to a high of 62.

That’s at a latitude of 38 degrees – equivalent to Sacramento, Colorado Springs, and Washington DC.

Between the physical beauty, the weather, and its access to the rest of the Mediterranean, it is not surprising that people flocked to that part of the world.

The first recorded inhabitants to the area arrived about 1600 years before Christ.

And Athens grew and prospered from that day on, despite several military defeats.

In 490 BC the Athenians defeated the Persians at Marathon and then again at Salamis.

But that was probably the highlight of her military history.

60 years later the Spartans beat Athenians in the Peloponnesian War.

And then Athens joined with Thebes in opposing Philip of Macedon, but again she lost.

Despite her losses, the city kept right on growing and prospering.

There are lots of differing traditions about where the name “Athens” comes from, but it is unquestionably connected to the goddess Athena.

And one of the superstitious traditions even ties together Athens lack of military prowess and her name.

It is said that Poseidon and Athena both wanted to be the patron deity of the infant city.

Poseidon was a real man’s god; the god of the sea, the god of earthquakes and horses.

He demonstrated his power to the Athenians by smacking the Acropolis and creating a new spring.

But Athena replied by dropping a seed into the city which instantly grew into a beautiful tree.

The people at the time liked the tree better than the water and accepted Athena’s patronage.

As a result, the legend goes, Athens became famous for intellectual, rather than military, exploits.

If you haven’t done so yet, please get a good map and take a good long look at Greece and Macedonia.

Put the geography in your mind and the relative positions of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth.

These places were very much a part of the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul.

These places are at the very heart of Biblical Christianity.

Athens, in Paul’s day was a city of CULTURE.

Of course, Athens is known for the Acropolis, and the Parthenon and all kinds of architecture.

The Parthenon was the temple of Athena, built about 450 BC.

There are still, literally hundreds of other temples and buildings scattered around the city which are at least as old as the Parthenon.

The first gymnasiums came from Athens and Greece.

And if you aren’t aware, the root word for gymnasium refers to nakedness.

“Gumnos” was the word for naked exercising.

Of course, Athens was at the heart of the original Olympic games.

These were actually held about 200 miles north of the city under the shadow of Mount Olympus,

but they were pan-Hellenic games, with contestants coming from all across Greece,

There were dance, poetry and other literary competitions as well as races and feats of strength.

And by the way, the first Olympic games were held to honour Zeus, who was said to live on Olympus.

I’m not sure that the modern Olympics aren’t still spent in idol worship.

The names have changed but the idolatry is the same.

To quote from ISBE:

“As the seat of Greek art and science, Athens played an important role even under Roman sway.

She became the university city of the Roman world, and from her radiated spiritual (meaning religious) light and intellectual energy to Tarsus (in Spain), Antioch (in Syria) and Alexandria (in Egypt).

Philo, the Jew, declared that the Athenians were sharpest minded people in the world

and that Athens was to Greece what he pupil is to the eye or reason is to the soul.

Although the city had lost her real independence, the people retained their old characteristics:

They were still interested in art, literature and philosophy.”

Compare that to the barbaric entertainments of Rome and the coliseum.

I had to snicker when I read: “Paul may possibly have attended the theater of Dionysus, under the cliff of the Acropolis and witnessed a play by one of the Greek poets such as Euripides or Menander.”

Did Paul attend a secular play?

ISBE went on to say, “Athens became a favorite residence for foreign writers who cultivated history, geography and literature.

Horace, Brutus and Cassius sojourned in the city for some time.”

So Athens was what Paris was during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

“Josephus declared that the Athenians were the most god-fearing (ie. religious) of the Greeks.”

We don’t know how much time Paul spent in Athens, but if it was even just a few weeks,

Then he walked about in some of the places where Socrates walked and taught his disciples.

In some people’s minds the wisdom of Socrates rivaled that of Solomon.

Athens was the city of Plato, Zeno the Stoic, and Epicurus.

It really was, and in some ways still is, one of the great capitals of the world.

And it was unabashedly tolerant of the opinions of others, to the point of utter foolishness.

And maybe that is why it is considered to be the fountainhead of democracy.

Anyone could believe anything in Athens, and at least for a while be freely heard.

Unfortunately, everyone was equally opinionated, so that it was hard to make any kind of converts to anything

But it was possible to find just about any kind of entertainment, any kind of religion, & any kind of novelty.

You might say that it was very much like the United States of America in the early 21^st century.

Athens was a city of culture.

But there is very rarely decent morality in a place with wide-open culture.

There is not necessarily any morality in a work of art.

In fact by the very nature of art, there more likelihood of bringing down modesty and morality than in building it up.

How many of the statutes of ancient Greece depict some degree of nakedness?

And where there is as much liberty of thought and deed as there was in Athens, there was the opportunity for absolute licentiousness, just as there is today.

And as a result Athens was a city of IDOLATRY.

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”

Are we to assume that Luke exaggerated? A city WHOLLY given to idolatry?

Absolutely not!

There are no exaggerations, prevarications, fabrications or misrepresentations from the lips of God’s inspired writers.

They may quote a lie in order to be truthful, but they never create a lie – even to make a point.

In several books, I read a quote without ever learning who uttered it.

Some Roman satirist is said to have said that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man.

I don’t know if he was referring to the sheer numbers of idols, altars and shrines,

or if he was also talking about the lack of masculinity of the men.

But there were temples and altars in that city as common as there are trees in other cities.

Not only were there altars dedicated to just about every kind of false god in the western world,

but just to make sure that every base was covered there many generic altars available for any god

And even to gods that they Athenians hadn’t met yet.

They hadn’t met a god they didn’t like, or at least tolerated – until they met Christ.

I read that the city had a policy that when they were being hit with any kind of major plague or problem,

they would round up a small herd of sheep or goats and release them.

The animals would wander around for a while and eventually get tired and lay down.

Priests would then come in and sacrifice the animals, dedicating their blood to whichever idol was nearest to where they laid down.

These people really were idolatrous and superstitious.

Paul tried to take advantage of their openness when he said,

“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.”

As much as I admire his attempt, he didn’t win the hearts of many of the Athenians.

He said, “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”

A lot of commentaries try to palliate or minimize the impact of our translation by saying that what Paul meant was that he saw that they were “very religious.”

No, I think that he was saying that in their superstitions was disaster.

They were so spiritually & religiously irrational that they couldn’t see the truth if it stood right before them.

It was another way to describe the effects of their sinful depravity.

The Athenians needed to throw away their superstitions – all of them.

“The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where 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.”

When Paul left Athens and moved down the road to rough and tumble Corinth, he found a city wholly given to commerce.

Those people were merchants and bankers, thieves and entrepreneurs.

That city may have had brothels where Athens had temples.

But the people of Corinth were far quicker to recognize their need of a Saviour, then the Athenians.

All the culture, religion and education of Athens isn’t conducive to repentance or a recognition of need.

It wasn’t in Athens and it isn’t in America

All that culture, religion and education needs to be exposed for the sin that it condones.

Athens was a city of ACHAIA, a city of CULTURE and a city of IDOLATRY.

But it was not a city of Christ.