Paul and Silas, after being freed from prison, leave town as directed. Still on their missionary journey, they make their way to Thessalonica. Unlike Philippi, Thessalonica had a synagogue and established community of Jews, which was about 100 miles from Philippi. It had a population of about 200,000 people, was the capital of Macedonia, and had a commercially active harbor.
In Chapter 17, Luke again mentions Timothy. (We don’t know whether he was away from Paul and Silas for a while or that Luke simply didn’t mention him.)
In Thessalonica
Read Acts 17:1-3
- In verses 2-3, Paul “discussed [reasoned, ESV]. . . opening up [explaining, ESV]. . . and placing before [proving, ESV]” from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. What role did the Scriptures have?
- What’s the difference between “placing before” (paratithami in the Greek) and proving? In other words, was it Paul’s responsibility to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah?
- Why was it important for Paul preach and teach Jesus’ dying and rising?
Read Acts 17:4
- What three groups of people were persuaded through Paul’s preaching and teaching? Discuss.
Read Acts 17:5-9
- Who rose up to oppose Paul and Silas?
- How did they move this “problem” from what society then would have seen as a Jewish religious matter to one that concerned the city leadership of Thessalonica?
Roman citizens often took an oath of loyalty to Caesar. Here is an example:
I swear . . . that I will support Caesar Augustus, his children and descendants, throughout my life, in word, deed, and thought . . . that in whatsoever concerns them I will spare neither body nor soul nor life nor children . . . that whenever I see or hear of anything being said, planned, or done against them I will report it . . . and whomsoever they regard as enemies I will attack and pursue with arms and the sword by land and by sea.
Money as security: The city leadership required Jason to pay money as a guarantee that he would longer cause disruptive events.
In Berea
Read Acts 17:10
- How was Paul and Silas kept safe from the mob at Thessalonica?
Read Acts 17:11-12
- In what two ways were the Bereans more “noble” than the Thessalonians?
- How does their approach show us how we should value the study of Scripture?
Read Acts 17:13-15
Berea was about 50 miles southwest of Thessalonica.
- How does trouble develop for Paul and Silas in Berea?
- This is the second time we see the phrase, “The brothers sent.” What does this say about the relationship between Apostles/pastors and “the brothers,” the laity/congregation?
- Who remained behind in Berea?
- Why do Silas and Timothy shortly rejoin Paul in Athens?
- How does this show the relationship between the Apostle/pastors and laity/congregation?
In Athens
When Paul arrived in Athens, that city was no longer Greece’s leading city (the height of its fame was in the 5th century BC). It was, however, the birthplace of Greek philosophy and was still celebrated as a cultural center of philosophy, art, literature, and religion. Throughout Athens, one would have seen many monuments of its past glory in statues and temples of the gods. The most prominent statue was Athena, patron goddess of the city, whose temple was the Parthenon.
Read Acts 17:16-18
- In what two places did Paul reason with others?
Epicurean Philosophy: Epicurus (341-270 BC) taught that coincidental unions of atomic particles formed the world. They believed that the gods did not intervene in human lives and that no afterlife existed. Since there was no afterlife, the goal of life became one of avoiding pain and discomfort. By New Testament times, Epicurean philosophy had degraded into a pursuit of sensual pleasure. Against this philosophy, Paul insists that God does exist, He is near to everyone, and He will judge the world for its conduct (Acts 17:24, 28, 31).
Stoic philosophers: The Stoic school of philosophy was founded by Zeno (340-265 BC), named after a stoa or colonnade in Athens where Zeno had taught. Stoics sought to live according to nature, which they perceived as divine and whose guiding principle was “reason” (logos, not the Logos, Jesus). They taught that everything is subject to the laws of nature or “fate.” For that reason, stoicism taught people to accept their fate as it came their way. Their view of God was pantheistic, believing the entire world was divine or imbued with divinity. Against this philosophy, Paul makes a clear distinction between the Creator and His creation (Acts 17:24, 26, and 28).
Read Acts 17:19-21
Areopagus: (from Ares, the Greek god of war, and pagos, “rocky hill”), also known as “Mars Hill.” The Areopagus had earlier been the meeting place of Athens’ Council of Twelve, their highest court, but the name came to be applied to the council itself. (It’s similar to how “Scotland Yard” came to be applied to the London Metropolitan Police because its original location was on the street, Great Scotland Yard.) By the first century, the Council of Twelve no longer met on that hill; however, it did become a meeting place where judgment was passed on new philosophies, religions, and foreign gods.
- How does Paul end up at the Areopagus?
Paul’s Sermon on the Areopagus
Read Acts 17:22-29
- How did Paul tap into the culture in Athens to go from the known to the unknown?
- What then did Paul become for the Athenians?
- In these verses, what is Paul establishing concerning God?
Read Acts 17:30-31
- What had God earlier overlooked?
What Paul doesn’t say in his sermon (or it may be that Luke selectively recorded parts of Paul’s sermon) is how God overlooked such times of ignorance. If we don’t understand in what way God overlooked ignorance of Him, we can misunderstand Paul’s theological worldview. To help us fill in the blanks, we turn to Romans, chapter 2.
Read Romans 2:12-16
- Do those who don’t have the revealed Torah (the Law) still perish?
- How does “natural law” accuse the person who is ignorant of the true God?
- Back to Acts 17, what does now God command of all people?
- Why is Jesus worthy of being trusted (of having faith in)?
Read Acts 17:32-33
- How did people respond?
Who are Dionysius and Damaris?
We know little about Dionysius. What has been passed on by others is this: Dionysius the Areopagite lived in Athens. One day, he had noticed a strange darkness in the sky and made a note of it. Years later, when the Apostle Paul preached on the Areopagus, Dionysius asked Paul on which day Jesus had been crucified. It was the same day that Dionysius had noted years earlier. He then converted and Paul baptized him. Later, he became the Bishop of Athens and eventually suffered a martyr’s death.
Four written works of Dionysius the Areopagite survive to this day (although his authorship is contested): On the Celestial Hierarchy, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, On the Names of God, and
On Mystical Theology.
Formulating what the Christian faith both affirmed and rejected, Dionysius used negative and affirmative statements to distinguish Christianity from other religions. This “tradition” even lives on in the Lutheran Church, where the Formula of Concord in our Lutheran Confessions have both affirmative (we believe, teach, and confess) and negative (we reject and condemn) theses.
As for Damaris, we know almost nothing. Christian tradition identifies her as the wife of Dionysius the Areopagite. If so, that could be why Luke mentioned her with Dionysius in Acts 17.
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