He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Gods, " of new Gods," because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

The principles of these two leading sects of philosophy were sufficiently different from each other, as well as from those of the apostle. The Epicureans believed that there were Gods, but maintained that the world was made by chance, and that they did not exercise any providence over it; that man's chief good consisted in the enjoyment of pleasure, and that there was no life after the present.

The Stoics, on the contrary, asserted that pain was no evil; that virtue was its own reward and vice its own punishment; that all things were subject to a blind and irresistible necessity. About a future state the Stoics spoke doubtfully, although they appear to have had some expectation of it.

Because the chief subject of Paul's discourse with them was Jesus and the resurrection, they supposed the resurrection to be some new God, which he wished to introduce to their acquaintance.

19. And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?

20. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know, therefore, what these things

mean.

21. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Areopagus was a building at Athens, in which a court, called the court of Areopagus, was holden; a superior tribunal amongst the Athenians, instituted for the purposes of presiding over the laws and over manners, of taking care, in particular, that no innovations were made in the established religion*. On this account some have supposed that Paul was brought into this court in order to be formally tried on the charge of introducing new Gods; but the historian plainly intimates that their object in bringing him thither was nothing more than curiosity, that they might have a better opportunity than they could enjoy in the market place of hearing the new and strange doctrine which he professed to teach.

The account here given of the manner in which the principal inhabitants of Athens, and the foreigners who came to visit them, spent their time, accords very well with the character of a polished, inquisitive and wealthy people, such as we know the Athenians to have been: it corresponds likewise with what is said of them by some of their own writers t.

22.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill, in the midst of Areopagus," and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive you altogether much given to religious worship.

In this manner, I conceive the passage may be best rendered, which makes the apostle's language far more agreeable to that decorum which, we may suppose, he would be careful to observe in addressing such an audience, than that which he is made to speak in our translation, where he is supposed to say, "Ye are in all things too superstitious," a charge which would disgust his hearers at the outset, and prevent them from paying further attention to his discourse.

Travels of Anacharsis, Article Areopagus. † See Pearce.

I Wakefield and Lardner, Vol. i. p. 191.

23. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, the objects of your worship," I found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, worship without knowing him," him declare I unto you.

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Paul did not imagine, I suppose, that by an unknown God, Jehovah or the true God was intended: but he took advantage of this singular inscription to make them acquainted with the nature and attributes of the Supreme Being; avoiding the offence which professedly preaching to them a new God might produce. He would have an additional motive for this mode of address, if what Josephus asserts be true, viz. that it was death by the Athenian law to propose to the people a new object of worship. That the Athenians worshipped some deity under the character of the unknown God, we know on the authority of heathen writers, whose testimony in this instance, as well as in many others, coincides with and confirms the account given by the sacred historian.

24. 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;

25.

Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things;

26. And hath made of one blood, or, one nature," 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; "hath determined the times and bounds of their habitation;" i. e. where and in what age they should live.

27. That they should seek the Lord, if haply, "if possibly," they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28. 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.

This is a passage from Aratus, a poet of Cilicia, Paul's native country.

29. Forasmuch then 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, as mankind had long thought.

30. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, rather, "overlooked," i.e. made no extraordinary exertions for their instruction, but now commandeth all men every where to repent, i, e. to forsake their idolatry.

31.

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 was a proof of his intentions respecting Jesus, who was to be the judge, and likewise respecting those who were to be judged, inasmuch as his resurrection was a proof of the possibility of theirs. The apostle was proceeding to say more on the subject of Jesus and the Christian religion; but his audience would hear him no longer.

32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, "began to laugh."

This doctrine, in the apprehension of some, had so little foundation, that it was a subject of ridicule rather than of serious refutation by argument.

And others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.

33. So Paul departed from among them.

34. Nevertheless certain men clave unto him and believed, among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Dionysius was called an Areopagite, because he was one of the judges of the court holden in the place where they were now assembled, and must have been, as the judges were in general, of a very respectable character,