What Happened on Mars Hill in the Bible?
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Places have meaning and identity. In the ancient world, people understood the connection between a land, a people, and their god or gods. Like a people set boundaries for their land, their religion would also rule that area.
While we may separate these ideas today, Roman culture adapted and expanded Greek connections between philosophy, academics, religion, and government. The city of Athens was the ultimate symbol of Greco-Roman culture, well known for its history in politics and philosophy.
Acts 17 records how Paul entered Mars Hill, central to the secular culture. Stepping into Mars Hill, Paul addresses a whole society and history with the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
Where Is the Account of Mars Hill in the Bible?
Acts 17:16-34 gives the account of Paul at Mars Hill.
During Paul’s second missionary journey, he had been expelled from Thessalonica and Berea by the Jewish leaders. From there, he traveled to Athens. While not Rome, due to Greek influence and history, Athens stood as a major cultural center. Paul waited there for his traveling companions, Silas and Timothy. The apostle explored the city and became extremely concerned about all the idols and pagan temples. As a Jew and a Christian, he knew that worshipping these false idols carried serious consequences from the true God.
He decided to begin speaking with both Jews and Gentiles about Jesus. He argued every day with people in the local synagogue and the marketplace. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers heard him talking and brought him to the main religious and philosophical center, called the Areopagus or Mars Hill. They found his teaching new and fascinating and wanted to hear more, and Mars Hill existed as a place for such exploration and debate. As many of the philosophies were ancient, the Athenian philosophers loved to hear new ideas. Jesus being crucified and resurrected was definitely a new idea.
Paul spoke to them with confidence. First, he addressed them with respect for their religious devotion. Then he pointed to an altar for “the unknown god.” Athens had altars and idols to all the gods they knew. However, it was possible they left one out, a god they didn’t know. And the Athenians wouldn’t want to make such a deity angry. Paul used this altar to an “unknown god” to explain Yahweh and Jesus, whom God raised from the dead.
At the mention of the resurrection, some mocked and others wanted to hear more. A few believed, and Acts mentions Dionysius the Areopagite (of the Areopagus) and a woman named Damaras as specific converts.
After these interactions, Paul left Athens and traveled to Corinth, where he planted another church and stayed for a year and a half.
What Is the History of Mars Hill?
Mars Hill, or the Areopagus, had major importance to Athens and Greco-Roman (Hellenistic) culture.
The name “Areopagus” comes from the Greek god of war, Ares, and “pagos,” which means a hill or rock. In Greek mythology, the gods accused Ares of murdering Poseidon’s son upon this same rock and then brought him to trial. This mythic connection gave the building a legendary, epic reputation, a place where people would argue like a trial. In the Roman religion, Mars was the god of war, so they also called it Mars Hill.
By Paul’s time in the first century AD, Mars Hill had developed to become a central place for philosophic debate and government administration. The Areopagus also housed a council or court of elders who met to discuss general ethics, religion, and government affairs. Such a sight in Athens had elite thinkers, judges, and civil officials, giving Mars Hill great influence in academics, religion, and civil policy.
Over time, from the height of Greek power to the days of Jesus and even today, Athens was synonymous with Greek philosophy, religion, and education. Popular thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had lived there, and their legacy continued in Paul’s day. In the first century, as the Bible mentions, the Epicureans and Stoics had the most influence.
Therefore, Paul addressed the greatest academics and thinkers, the foundation of the Roman world. He lovingly and firmly challenged them with the Gospel—the true God, and his Son, Christ crucified and resurrected.
Some Background on Greek Philosophy
Hellenistic philosophy began with the Greeks. Socrates questioned traditional religious thought and taught through dialogue. He focused on ethics, examining life and truth through logic and reason. His student, Plato, continued to expand upon these ideas and founded the Academy in Athens. Plato added ideas about a reality beyond the physical world, and he approached the spiritual through reason. Aristotle was Plato’s student, and he moved his attention back to the natural world. He founded the Lyceum and taught how knowledge comes by both experience and study.
Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great. So while the Greek rise to power was short-lived, the Romans admired Greek philosophy and academia as part of Greek cultural success. They adapted Greek philosophy, embracing Stoicism and Platonism, mixing them with Roman values of duty and order. The Roman Senate came from Plato’s Republic and Greek philosophy. Educated Romans studied Greek texts, and newer philosophers like Cicero applied Greek philosophy to Roman imperial society. Therefore, Greek thinking influenced Roman law, education, and morality. This led to the mix of cultures we call Hellenistic, the dominant social structure in the days of Jesus and Paul.
By the first century AD, the two biggest schools of thought were the Stoics and Epicureans. The Stoics taught reason, virtue, and self-control. They believed in a rational, transcendent order they called the Logos which ruled the universe. As a stark contrast, the Epicureans wanted pleasure. Not full hedonism but to avoid pain and fear. Epicureans believed the gods to be distant and uncaring, so people should seek their own peace through modesty and education.
In Hellenistic cities, young men studied philosophy—rhetoric, logic, and ethics under great teachers. Philosophy shaped how people governed, made laws, understood reality, viewed the soul, and the afterlife. Philosophy worked with religion, too. Greek religion didn’t have a canon of beliefs, only myths of the gods, which weren’t ethical by any stretch. Therefore, philosophy provided moral teaching and explained human existence in context of the gods. Philosophers were the main theologians of Hellenistic society.
How Was Paul Uniquely Prepared to Teach at Mars Hill?
First, Paul was a highly educated Jewish scholar. He studied in the Pharisaical school under Gamaliel, one of the most respected rabbis of the day (Acts 22:3). Paul mastered the Hebrew Scriptures, the Mosaic Law, and the traditions, as taught by the Pharisees. As a highly educated Jew, he had a unique perspective on Greek philosophy, as an outsider but also familiar.
Second, Paul grew up in Tarsus, a Hellenistic city known for its education in philosophy, similar to Athens but not as prominent. He would have encountered Greek philosophy, rhetoric, and logic parallel to his Jewish education. Therefore, he would have been well versed in the Stoic and Epicurean thought as he addressed them at Mars Hill. He spoke their language and knew their perspective, however much he may have disagreed. He could even quote their poets (Acts 17:28).
Third, Paul would have been educated in Greek philosophy as a Roman citizen. He had the opportunity and freedom to move about the empire and enter Mars Hill. Paul’s Roman citizenship afforded him the ability to speak with such elites at Mars Hill without fear of punishment.
Finally, Paul was anointed by God to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. All his education and culture didn’t lead him to the one true God, so he knew the emptiness therein. He had a radical transformation himself, humbled, and Paul could share the truth in love. However, Paul didn’t completely reject his background in philosophy or the Jewish Scripture. He allowed the Spirit to use his skills and education to reveal eternal truth.
At Mars Hill, God used every part of Paul to preach Jesus to the Roman world.
How Did Paul’s Message at Mars Hill Address Greco-Roman Philosophy?
With the Holy Spirit and Paul’s extensive education, the apostle’s message at Mars Hill was masterful.
He started with respect, affirming their dedication to their religion and their search for truth. They had asked him there, to some degree curious about new truth.
As discussed above, Paul then pointed to the altar for the “unknown god.” Paul explained the one they didn’t know, the Lord, the one true Creator of all. Paul described Yahweh as the God of all lands and people, creation itself, flying in the face of Greek polytheism and the Stoic idea of a divine but impersonal force. Further, the Lord didn’t live in temples made with human hands, Paul states, a challenging thought while they essentially stood in a temple and a city filled with temples and statues.
Paul goes on to say God doesn’t depend on people, also rejecting the ideas of idolatry. Instead, God gives breath and life to people, whether they know it or not. The apostle even expressed a unity of all humanity, since every nation came from one man. The Lord placed every people and individual in their times and places, calling them to seek him alone. Here, Paul challenged Roman or Greek superiority. The apostle also opens up spirituality to any who would seek, not for special priests or thinkers.
Then Paul quotes from the Greek poets, using their own literature to make his point, redirecting their worldview to the truth. Paul closes by declaring that God showed patience in the past, understanding their ignorance of the “unknown god.” But now, the Lord commands everyone everywhere to repent because of a coming day of judgment through Jesus, who God raised from the dead. These ideas of a universal day of judgment for all people, for every person to worship Jesus regardless of their individual background, would have been completely foreign to the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.
The resurrection particularly provoked a response, showing God’s favor and authority. The philosophers asked to hear more, and Paul spoke further with them about Jesus and the Gospel in ways they could understand.
Peace.
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