Atos 17
Oecumenius
Atos 17:2-3
Since these men opposed the miracles, alleging that Paul and Silas were like deceivers and tricksters, he here appeals to the Scriptures to persuade them that no such suspicion could be held. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:4
He calls them devout [Σεβομένους] Greeks, who, although they were from the Jews, nevertheless spoke Greek: devout because they observed the law; or proselytes of the Jews who were from the Greeks. — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:11
"These, however, were more noble." He says "more noble" instead of "more fair-minded." Not that they examined them as unbelievers, or were testing the Scriptures (for they were already believers), but as if unaware with the tradition of the ancient prophets, and therefore made stronger in faith, when they examined the Scriptures and found the works of the Lord in the flesh to be in agreement with the words of the ancients. [AMMONIUS] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:14
By a certain arrangement the Apostle fled here, not seized by fear, but both wishing to increase his preaching and to extinguish the madness by which they were afflicted. — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:16
"was stirred within him." Here he does not say anger, nor indignation; for anger and indignation are far from grace. What then is this, "was stirred within him"? Instead of "he was aroused," he does not bear it, but is softened, as elsewhere he says, "There was a frustration among them," and what follows. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:18
The Epicureans held that the universe is spontaneous and composed of atoms; the Stoics, that it is a body undergoing fire. Some of these, extremely conceited about their knowledge, senselessly mocking the divine Paul with the taunt, "What does this seed-picker want to say?" (for they called the seed-picker a little and lowly bird, fit neither for food nor for pleasure, accustomed to pick up seeds cast down in the crossroads, and therefore named the lowly and unworthy); and they said he was a proclaimer of foreign divinities, since he preached Jesus and the resurrection. For they even supposed the resurrection to be some kind of god, as they were accustomed to worship female deities; for they called their gods demons. — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:19
They brought him, he says, to the Areopagus, not so much to learn, but so that he might be punished, where the courts deal with homicide. The place was called the Areopagus because Ares, as they say, there administered justice concerning adultery. Pagos means a high place; for that tribunal was on some hill. Therefore the local or village rulers are by some called Pagarchs. [LETTER OF ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM, CHAPTER 45] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:23
Two reasons are given for the inscription on the altar in Athens, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." For some say that when the Athenians sent Philippides to the Lacedaemonians about an alliance, at the time the Persians marched on Greece, a phantom of Pan appeared to him on Mount Parthenion and blamed the Athenians for neglecting him and worshiping other gods, and promised to help. Having therefore prevailed, they erected a temple to him and built that altar. And, so that they might be on guard for fear that the same thing happen again at another time, having presented some god unknown to them, they set up that altar inscribed "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD," saying that if perhaps some other were unknown to them, let this one be raised among them in his honor, so that he might be favorable to them, in case he would not be worshiped when unknown. Others say that a plague once fell upon the Athenians and consumed them to such an extent that they could not even bear their finest garments. Therefore those who were believed to be their gods were of no help. Realizing then that perhaps there was a god whom they themselves had left unhonored, the sender of the plague, they, fearing a new altar, and inscribing it, "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD," and having sacrificed, were immediately healed. Paul therefore says that this Christ Jesus is the God of all, although he also declared it to them. And the entire inscription of the altar is this: To the gods of Asia and Europe and Libya, to a god unknown and foreign. [LETTER OF ISIDORUS OF PELUSIUM, CHAPTER 45] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:24-25
For fear that they should think that God proclaimed by him was one of the common gods, he adds in correction: "He does not dwell in hand-made temples." For indeed he dwells in temples, but not in these, rather in the human soul. For he is not said to dwell in the temple of Jerusalem, but to operate there. Nor was he worshiped among the Jews by the hands of men, but with the mind: for he did not so desire those things as if he were in need. For he says, "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls? Or shall I drink the blood of goats?" (Ps. 50:13) and the following. — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:26-27
"Having appointed the times." He says, "Having appointed to seek God"; but he did not appoint this for all time, rather for appointed times, showing that they did not find him when they did not seek him now. For since when they sought, they did not find, he shows that he was revealed in such a way, as if toward something to be grasped in the middle; for the heaven was not here, but elsewhere. Nor was he in this time, but in another; so that it is possible to find him at every season and at every fixed point; for therefore he arranged it, so that he might be hindered neither by place nor by time. For this indeed contributed most of all to their belief, that the heaven is everywhere, that it stands in every time. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:27
And this is what he says, "though he is not far from each one of us." For he is near to all as being everywhere in the inhabited world; and he is so near that without him one cannot live. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:28
"For in him we live and move and have our being." Just as, in a bodily example, it is impossible to be unaware of the air poured everywhere, and of its not being far from any one of us, indeed even being within us, so likewise is the creator God of all. For from him is our being, our activity, our not perishing. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:28
Then he even brings in a use for them from Aratus, one of their poets, in the construction of his own discourse. "For we too are his offspring," he says. And this passage he takes about the Creator himself, although some say that this was said about Zeus, not meaning the same as that Zeus, but saying that this expression most properly fits him. For something has been said and is directed to him, but the Greeks do not know this, for they have conceived these things of another, just as also the phrase "To the Unknown God," and something different. But Paul says that we are of the race of God, not as those say, but in another sense of mind, that is, relatives, nearest, as one might say, dwellers nearby or neighbors. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts
Atos 17:30
"Having observed the times of ignorance," and the following. He does not mean that none are punished for these things, but that none of those who wish to repent do so. For he is not speaking of those who have died, but of those to whom he is giving commands. "He does not demand an account from you," he says, concerning your former years of ignorance. He did not say, moreover, he overlooked, or he permitted, but, "He has overlooked," that is, he did not seek punishment, although they are worthy of punishment. [CHRYSOSTOM] — Commentary on Acts