Acts 17:23
Read Acts 17:23 Using Other Translations
What does Acts 17:23 mean?
For as I passed by
Or "through"; that is, through the city of Athens:
and beheld your devotions;
not so much their acts of worship and religion, as the gods which
they worshipped; in which sense this word is used in ( 2
Thessalonians 2:4 ) and the altars which were erected to
them, and the temples in which they were worshipped; and so the
Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "the houses", and "places
of your worship"; and the Ethiopic version, "your images", or
"deities",
I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN
GOD.
Pausanias F16 speaks in the plural number of
altars of gods, that were named unknown, at Athens; and so says
Apollonius Tyanaeus to Timasion F17 it is wisest to speak well
of all the gods, especially at Athens, where there are altars to
unknown gods: it may be, there were altars that had the
inscription in the plural number; and there was one which Paul
took particular notice of, in the singular number; or the above
writers may speak of altars to unknown gods, because there might
be many altars with this inscription: the whole of the
inscription, according to Theophylact, was this;
``to the gods of Asia, Europe, and Lybia (or Africa), to the unknown and strange god;''though Jerom F18 makes this to be in the plural number: certain it is, that Lucian F19 swears by the unknown god that was at Athens, and says, we finding the unknown god at Athens, and worshipping with hands stretched out towards heaven, gave thanks unto him: the reason why they erected an altar with such an inscription might be, for fear when they took in the gods of other nations, there might be some one which they knew not; wherefore, to omit none, they erect an altar to him; and which proves what the apostle says, that they were more religious and superstitious than others: or it may be they might have a regard to the God of the Jews, whose name Jehovah with them was not to be pronounced, and who, by the Gentiles, was called "Deus incertus" F20; and here, in the Syriac version, it is rendered, "the hidden God", as the God of Israel is called, ( Isaiah 45:15 ) and that he is here designed seems manifest from what follows,
whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto
you;
which could not be said by him of any other deity. God is an
unknown God to those who have only the light of nature to guide
them; for though it may be known by it that there is a God, and
that there is but one, and somewhat of him may be discerned
thereby; yet the nature of his essence, and the perfections of
his nature, and the unity of his being, are very little, and not
truly and commonly understood, and the persons in the Godhead not
at all, and still less God in Christ, whom to know is life
eternal: hence the Gentiles are described as such who know not
God; wherefore, if he is worshipped by them at all, it must be
ignorantly: and that they are ignorant worshippers of him,
appears by worshipping others more than him, and besides him, or
him in others, and these idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and
stone; and by their indecencies and inhumanity used in the
performance of their worship: wherefore a revelation became
necessary, by which men might be acquainted with the nature of
the divine Being, and the true manner of worshipping him; in
which a declaration is made of the nature and perfections of God,
and of the persons in the Godhead, the object of worship; of the
counsels, purposes, and decrees of God; of his covenant
transactions with his Son respecting the salvation of his chosen
people; of his love, grace, and mercy, displayed in the mission
and gift of Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of them; of the
glory of his attributes in their salvation; and of his whole mind
and will, both with respect to doctrine and practice; and which
every faithful minister of the Gospel, as the Apostle Paul, shuns
not, according to his ability, truly and fully to declare.
F16 Attica, p. 2.
F17 Philostrat. Vita Apollonii, l. 6. c. 2.
F18 In Titum 1. 12.
F19 In Dialog. Philopatris.
F20 Lucan. Pharsalia, l. 2.
