“The Areopagus was a place in Athens, where the senate usually assembled and took its name (as some think) from Ἄρης which is the same as Mars, the god of war, who was the first person tried here, for having killed Apollo’s son. Others think that, because ἄρης sometimes signifies fighting, murder, or violence of any kind, and that παγὸς is properly a rock, or rising hill, it therefore seems to denote a court situated upon an eminence, (as the Areopagus was,) where causes of murder, &c. were tried. This court at present is out of the city, but in former times it stood almost in the middle of it. Its foundations, which are still standing, are built with square stones of prodigious size, in the form of a semi-circle, and support a terrace or platform, of about a hundred and forty paces, which was the court where this senate was held. In the midst of it, there was a tribunal cut in a rock, and all about were seats also of stone, where the senate heard causes in the open air, without any covering, and (as some say) in the night time, that they might not be moved to compassion at the sight of any criminal that was brought before them. This judicature was held in such high esteem for its uprightness, that when the Roman proconsuls ruled there, it was a very common thing for them to refer difficult causes to the judgment of the Areopagites. After the loss of their liberty, however, the authority of the senate declined, so that in the apostles’ times, the Areopagus was not so much a court of judicature as a common rendezvous, where all curious and inquisitive persons, who spent their time in nothing else, but either in hearing or telling some new thing, were accustomed to meet, Acts xvii. 21. Notwithstanding, they appeared still to have retained the privilege of canonizing all gods that were allowed public worship; and therefore St. Paul was brought before them as an assertor and preacher of a Deity, whom they had not yet admitted among them. It does not appear that he was brought before them as a criminal, but merely as a man who had a new worship to propose to a people religious above all others, but who took care that no strange worship should be received on a footing of a tolerated religion, till it had the approbation of a court appointed to judge such matters. The address of the court to St. Paul, ‘May we know what this doctrine is whereof thou speakest?’ implies rather a request to a teacher, than an interrogatory to a criminal; and accordingly his reply has not the least air of an apology, suiting a person accused, but is one continued information of important truths, such as it became a teacher or benefactor, rather than a person arraigned for crime, to give. He was therefore neither acquitted nor condemned, and dismissed as a man coram non judice. We are indeed told, that when they heard of ‘the resurrection of the dead,’ some mocked, and others said, ‘We will hear thee again of this matter,’ putting off the audience to an indefinite time; so that nothing was left him but to depart.” (Calmet’s Commentary. Beausobre’s and Hammond’s Annotations, and Warburton’s Divine Legation.)
The Areopagus, or Mars Hill; with the Temple of Theseus, Athens.
Acts xvii. 22.
“That Athens was wholly enslaved to idolatry, has been abundantly proved by our philological illustrators, especially the indefatigable Wetstein, from Pausanias Attic. 1, 24: Strabo 10. p. 472, c: Lucian, t. 1. Prometheus p. 180: Livy 45, 27. So also Pausanias in Attic. c. 18, 24. (cited by Pearce and Doddridge,) who tells us, that Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece; and Petronius Satyricon c. 17, who humorously says, ‘It was easier to find a god than a man there.’” (Bloomfield Annotations.)
“καὶ ἐν τῆ ἀγορᾶ. Of the market-places at Athens, of which there were many, the most celebrated were the Old and the New Forum. The former was in the Ceramicus, a very ample space, part within, and part without the city. See Meursius, [a]dissertatione de Ceramico Gemino], § 46. and Potter’s Archaeology 1, 8. p. 30. The latter was outside of the Ceramicus, in a place called Eretria. See Meursius, Ath. Attic. l. 1. c. 6. And this seems to be the one here meant. For no forum, except the Ceramicus and the Eretriacum, was called, absolutely, ἄγορα, but had a name to denote which was meant, as Areopagiticum, Hippodamium, Piraeum, &c. In process of time, and at the period when Paul was at Athens, the forum was transferred from the Ceramicus into the Eretria; a change which, indeed, had been introduced in the time of Augustus; and that this was the most frequented part of the city, we learn from Strabo 10. p. 447. Besides, the Eretriac forum was situated before the στοὰ, or portico, in which the Stoics, of whom mention is just after made, used to hold their public discourses. It was moreover called κύκλος, from its round form.”
“Ἄρειον πάγον, Mars’ Hill. Πάγος signifies properly a high situation. This was a hill opposite to that of the citadel on the west; as we learn from Herodias 8, 52. [See the passages produced supra, to which I add Livy 26, 44. [a]Tumulum quem Mercurii vocant.] Editor.] It was so called, either because it had been consecrated to Mars (as the Campus Martius at Rome,) or because (as [♦]Pausanias relates, Att. C. 28,) Mars, when he had slain Halyrrothius, son of Neptune, was the first who there pleaded a capital cause, which took place before the twelve gods. The judges used to sit by night, and sub dio; and whatever was done was kept very secret. [whence the proverb Ἀρεοπαγίτου σιωπηλότερος, to which may be compared ours, ‘as grave as a Judge.’ Editor.] They gave their judgment, not viva voce, but in writing. Nor were any admitted into the number of Areopagists but persons of noble birth, of unspotted morality, and eminent for justice and equity. See more in Meursius de Areopago.” (Kuinoel.) (Bloomfield Annotations.)
[♦] “Pausanius” replaced with “Pausanias”
Paul taking his stand there, in that splendid scene, uttered in a bold tone and in his noblest style, the great truths which he was divinely consecrated to reveal. Never yet had Athens, in her most glorious state, heard a discourse which, for solemn beauty and lofty eloquence, could equal this brief declaration of the providence of God in the religion of his creatures. Never did the world see an orator in a sublimer scene, or in one that could awaken higher emotions in those who heard, or him who spoke. He stood on the hill of Mars, with Athens beneath and around him, and the mighty Acropolis rising with its “tiara of proud towers,” walls and temples, on the west,——bounding and crowning the view in that direction;——to the north-east lay the forum, the late scene of his discussions, and beyond lay the philosophic Academia, around and through which rolled the flowery Cephisus. Before him sat the most august and ancient court in the Grecian world, waiting for the revelation of his solemn commission respecting the new deities which he was expected to propose as an addition to their polytheistic list;——around him were the sages of the Athenian schools, listening in grave but curious attention, for the new things which the eastern stranger had brought to their ears. The apostle raised his eyes to all the monuments of Athenian devotion which met the view on every side. Before him on the high Acropolis was the mighty temple of the Athenian Minerva; on the plain beyond was the splendid shrine of the Olympian Jove; on his right was the temple of Theseus, the deified ancient king of Attica, who laid the first foundation of her glories; and near were the new piles which the later Grecian adulation had consecrated to the worship of her foreign conquerors——to the deified Caesars. Beginning in that tone of dignified politeness, which always characterized his address towards the great ones of earth, he won their hearts and their attention by a courteously complimentary allusion to the devout though misguided zeal, whose solid tokens everywhere surrounded him. “Ye men of Athens! I see in all places that you are VERY RELIGIOUS. For passing along and gazing at the shrines of your devotion, I found an altar on which was written,——‘To the unknown God;’——Him therefore, whom, not knowing, you worship, I preach to you.” The rest of this splendid, though brief discourse, need not be repeated, because it is given with tolerable fidelity in the common English translation; but it deserves notice how readily and completely, on all occasions, Paul accommodated himself to the circumstances of his hearers. His style on this occasion is remarkably protracted and rounded in its periods, highly cumulative in structure, and harmonious in its almost rhythmical flow;——the whole bearing the character which was best suited to the fancy and fashion of the Athenians,——though still very decidedly marked by the peculiarities of his eastern origin. Here too, he gave them a favorable impression of his knowledge of the Grecian classics, by his apt and happy quotation from Aratus, the philosophical poet of his native province, Cilicia. “For we also are his offspring.”
Very religious.——This is unquestionably the just meaning of xvii. 22. See Bloomfield and all the standard commentators. “Too superstitions” is insulting.
“‘To the Unknown God.’ (xvii. 23.)——It is very evident from the testimony of Laertius, that the Athenians had altars in their public places, inscribed to unknown gods or demons. He informs us, that when Athens was visited with a great plague, the inhabitants invited Epimenides the philosopher, to lustrate their city. The method adopted by him was to carry several sheep to the Areopagus; whence they were left to wander as they pleased, under the observation of persons sent to attend them. As each sheep lay down, it was sacrificed on the spot to the propitious god; (In vita Epimenides lib. xi.) and as the Athenians were ignorant of what god was propitious, they erected an altar with this inscription, [♦]ΘΕΟΙΣ ΑΣΙΑΣ, ΚΑΙ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ, ΚΑΙ ΛΙΒΗΥΣ, ΘΕΩ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΚΑΙ ΞΕΝΩ:——To the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to the strange and unknown god.