Acts 17:20

20 For you are bringing some astonishing things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what {these things mean}."

Acts 17:20 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 17:20

For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears
Strange doctrines and strange deities, such as they had never heard of before:

we would know therefore what these things mean;
they desire he would explain these things to them, and let them know the rise, and ground, and nature, and end, and design of them.

Acts 17:20 In-Context

18 And even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were saying, "What does this babbler want to say?" But [others said], "He appears to be a proclaimer of foreign deities," because he was proclaiming the good news [about] Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they took hold of him [and] brought [him] to the Areopagus, saying, "May we learn what [is] this new teaching being proclaimed by you?

20 For you are bringing some astonishing things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what {these things mean}."

21 (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who stayed there used to spend [their] time in nothing else than telling something or listening to something new.)

22 So Paul stood there in the middle of the Areopagus [and] said, "Men of Athens, I see you [are] very religious {in every respect}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "these [things] want to be"