CHAPTER III.
THESSALONICA, BERŒA, ATHENS.
A.D. 52.
LEAVING, then, their first Macedonian converts, Paul and Silas proceeded along the great Roman road, known as the Via Egnatia, to Amphipolis[984], and thence through Apollonia[985] to Thessalonica[986]. In the latter city was the[987] chief synagogue of the Jews in this part of Macedonia (Acts xvii. 2), and hither Paul repaired, and for three consecutive Sabbaths argued with those of his own nation from their own Scriptures, opening them up to them, and shewing that the Messiah there predicted was no temporal Prince or earthly Conqueror, but One who should suffer and rise from the dead, and that He had appeared in the person of that Jesus, whom he announced to them (Acts xvii. 3; Comp. 1 Thess. i. 10, iv. 14, v. 9, 10).
His words were variously received. Some, including a considerable number of the Greek proselytes and of the influential women, believed. But the Jews, furious at the spread of such obnoxious tenets, gathered together a mob of idlers from the markets and landing-places, threw the town into an uproar, and falling upon the house of Jason[988], where the Apostle was lodging, sought to drag him and his companion before the demus, or assembly of the people[989]. Unsuccessful, however, in finding them, they hurried Jason and certain of the brethren before the magistrates, and charged them with violating the decrees of Cæsar[990] in asserting that there was another King, namely Jesus (Acts xvii. 7). This charge caused the magistrates considerable perplexity. Instead, however, of visiting the Apostle with any punishment, they contented themselves with taking security[991] from Jason and the rest for their future good conduct, and the maintenance of peace, and then set them at liberty.
But though the city was thus quieted, the position of the Apostle was one of great danger. Without delay, therefore, the brethren sent him and Silas under cover of night in a south-westerly direction to Berœa[992]. Here also there was a synagogue, and here Paul found far more candid, generous, and willing hearers than he had met with at Thessalonica. The Berœans not only accepted the message he preached, but searched the Scriptures, and that daily, to see whether his arguments were well founded. The consequences were soon apparent. The promise seek, and ye shall find was fulfilled, and many, both Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and amongst the latter sex some of the highest rank, professed themselves Christians (Acts xvii. 12).
But the work thus auspiciously commenced was not destined to go on unimpeded. After no long interval the Jews of Thessalonica, hearing that Paul was preaching with success at Berœa, followed in his track[993], and threw the town into commotion. The danger was imminent, and perceiving that the ceaseless animosity of the Jews rendered any further labours in Macedonia useless for the present, the brethren conveyed the Apostle to the nearest sea-port[994], probably Dium[995], and thence by ship to Athens. Silas and Timotheus, who probably had rejoined the Apostle at Berœa, had meanwhile been left there, to strengthen the faith of the new converts, but on the return of those who had conducted Paul to Athens, received his injunctions to join him with all speed (Acts xvii. 15).
Thus the disciple of Gamaliel, once a Pharisee, now a Christian and an Apostle, found himself in the far-famed centre of Grecian culture, the pride of the ancient world, the patroness of Art, Science, and Literature. While awaiting, alone and among strangers, the arrival of his companions, his spirit burned within him, as he beheld on every side proofs of the point to which the inhabitants of the glorious city carried their religious instincts, and the idols and idol-temples with which it was crowded[996]. Even here, however, he commenced in his usual manner. On each Sabbath-day he repaired to the synagogue (Acts xvii. 17), and preached to the Jews and proselytes, and during the week he was to be found in the busy Agora at the foot of the Acropolis and the Areopagus, conversing with any who would listen to his words.
In such a place and among such a people he was not likely to lack an audience. All the Athenians and the strangers that were there, writes St Luke, spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing (Acts xvii. 21). To them, therefore, the coming of one like the Apostle, burning with zeal, and setting forth with learning and ability new and unheard-of doctrines respecting Jesus and the Resurrection (Acts xvii. 18), would be certain to awaken no little interest. Amongst others, who heard him and marvelled at his words, were certain of the world-famous Epicurean and Stoic schools of philosophy. On them his preaching produced a varied effect. Some treated it with scorn, saying, What doth this babbler[997] mean? Others remarked that he appeared to be setting forth certain new divinities. At length they determined to ascertain the point more closely, and taking him to the Areopagus[998], requested to know[999] the meaning of what he preached (Acts xvii. 19, 20).
So the Apostle took his stand, alone[1000] and unaided, “his bodily aspect still showing what he had suffered from weakness, toil, and pain,” on the summit of the hill of Areopagus (Acts xvii. 22) in the midst of temples, statues and altars dedicated to the gods many and lords many of the heathen world. Horror-struck as he must have been at the spectacle of idolatry which confronted him on every side, he yet with peculiar prudence did not begin by attacking in intemperate language the national worship of his hearers. During his brief sojourn in the city he had observed an altar with the inscription, To an unknown God[1001] (Acts xvii. 23). “Taking his stone,” therefore, to use the expressive language of Chrysostom, “out of their own brook,” he determined to make this inscription and the mournful testimony it bore to the vanity of heathenism his text, and from it to speak to them words of eternal life.
This altar, he began, like all things else he had seen in their city, proved their carefulness in religion[1002], their earnest desire to worship, and at the same time their ignorance in worshipping. “The unknown God,” whose power, by their own confession, they acknowledged, he would declare unto them. The Lord of heaven and earth, who had made the world and all things therein, dwelt not in temples made with hands[1003]. He was subject to no exigencies, which made him need anything from his worshippers, seeing that He gave to all life, and breath, and all things. For all the nations of mankind, originally made by Him of one blood[1004], He had assigned the seasons of their existence and the bounds of their habitation, to the end that they should feel after Him, if haply they might find Him, though in truth He was not far from any of them, as one of their own poets had said,