NOTES for Act 17:32

Paul's preaching in the Athenian Areopagus is one of those events that, when we read about it, does not feel separated from us by two thousand years. This is not only because many foundations of our civilization lie in Athens, but also because, looking at the Athenians of Paul's time, it is not hard to see many of our own skeptical contemporaries, who love to discuss sensational news.

It is significant that the Athenians, who were capable of listening to any point of view, listened to Paul while he set forth basic ideas about God acceptable to followers of various teachings, but interrupted him as soon as Paul began speaking about the Resurrection. What matters to Paul is not received by his listeners, and not only, it seems, because his words do not fit the ideas of those gathered in the Areopagus. Perhaps they sensed that what they had heard was not a verbal exercise, but a message demanding a change of life...

Can Paul's first attempt at preaching in Athens be called unsuccessful? It seems not, and not only because there were after all some people who became interested in Paul's words, and among them even one member of the Areopagus, Dionysius. That day Paul sowed seeds that were destined to sprout, and we know that they did sprout and brought a rich harvest on Greek soil.

The Apostle Paul, addressing the Gentiles, affirms that although they do not know God, they nevertheless worship Him. It seems obvious that the altar bearing the inscription “To an Unknown God” was not intended for the God of Israel at all. Such altars were erected “just in case,” so as not to offend anyone—what if there were some other deity to whom no sacrifices had been offered, and it decided to punish everyone for such disrespect?... Did Paul understand this? Certainly. Then why does he say that his preaching concerns the One whom they worship? Perhaps because he does not reduce the worship of the true God to sacrifices at all. The Gentiles, of course, did not offer sacrifices to the God of Israel. But in the words of Saint Augustine, the human heart knows no rest until it rests in God. Every person seeks Him, even without knowing what they are seeking. And obeying the commandments not because they are written, but because doing so is right, is already a beginning of worshiping God. Perhaps this is precisely what Paul means: those relationships with God that cannot be seen from outside, but which every person nevertheless has in one way or another.

You probably noticed at once how sharply the Athenians cooled toward Paul when he began to speak about the resurrection. Greek philosophers were indeed prepared to acknowledge the existence of one good God and had a concept of the Logos as a kind of mediator between the One and the human mind. But the ideas that the Logos was a man and that the human body would rise were completely alien to them. Did Paul not know this? He was, after all, a broadly educated man familiar with Hellenistic philosophy. This means that he consciously runs the risk of being neither understood nor accepted—so important to him is the message of the incarnation of the Son of God, the Resurrection from the dead, and the victory over death. Without this there can be no Christianity; without this, preaching is meaningless. No compromise is possible here.