Acts 17:21

21 Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas.

Acts 17:21 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 17:21

For all the Athenians
The natives of Athens, who were born and lived there, and were inhabitants of the city, and free of it:

and strangers which were there;
who came there from several parts of the world, to get wisdom and knowledge, to learn the several arts and sciences, and to attend the several sects of philosophers they made choice of:

spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
new thing;
that is, they did so for the most part; and this was the complexion and taste of the generality of them; and with this agrees what Demosthenes himself says of them ^F13,

``we, says he (for the truth shall be said), sit here, (ouden poiountev) , "doing nothing"----inquiring in the court, (ei ti legetai newteron) , "whether any new thing is said."''

The character of such persons is given, and they are described in a very lively manner by Theophrastus ^F14. The Jewish doctors, at this time, were much of the same cast in their divinity schools; the usual question asked, when they met one another, was, (vwdx hm) , "what new thing" have you in the divinity school today ^F15?

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Respons. ad Philippi Epistolam.
F14 Ethic. character. p. 13.
F15 T. Hieros. Taanith, fol. 75. 4. Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 212. 4.

Acts 17:21 In-Context

19 So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

20 For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”

21 Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas.

22 Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.

23 For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.