17 therefore, indeed, he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the worshipping persons, and in the market-place every day with those who met with him.
Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice, At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith: `Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge?
Doth not wisdom call? And understanding give forth her voice? At the head of high places by the way, Between the paths she hath stood, At the side of the gates, at the mouth of the city, The entrance of the openings, she crieth aloud, `Unto you, O men, I call, And my voice `is' unto the sons of men.
And with the fury of Jehovah I have been filled, (I have been weary of containing,) To pour `it' on the suckling in the street, And on the assembly of youths together, For even husband with wife are captured, An elder with one full of days,
And having seen the multitudes, he went up to the mount, and he having sat down, his disciples came to him, and having opened his mouth, he was teaching them, saying:
because whatever in the darkness ye said, in the light shall be heard: and what to the ear ye spake in the inner-chambers, shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops.
and devout men carried away Stephen, and made great lamentation over him;
pious, and fearing God with all his house, doing also many kind acts to the people, and beseeching God always,
And Paul having risen, and having beckoned with the hand, said, `Men, Israelites, and those fearing God, hearken:
And it came to pass in Iconium, that they did enter together into the synagogue of the Jews, and spake, so that there believed both of Jews and Greeks a great multitude; and the unbelieving Jews did stir up and made evil the souls of the nations against the brethren; long time, indeed, therefore, did they abide speaking boldly in the Lord, who is testifying to the word of His grace, and granting signs and wonders to come to pass through their hands. And the multitude of the city was divided, and some were with the Jews, and some with the apostles,
and according to the custom of Paul, he went in unto them, and for three sabbaths he was reasoning with them from the Writings, opening and alleging, `That the Christ it behoved to suffer, and to rise again out of the dead, and that this is the Christ -- Jesus whom I proclaim to you.' And certain of them did believe, and attached themselves to Paul and to Silas, also of the worshipping Greeks a great multitude, of the principal women also not a few.
for men shall be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, evil-speakers, to parents disobedient, unthankful, unkind,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 17
Commentary on Acts 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
We have here a further account of the travels of Paul, and his services and sufferings for Christ. He was not like a candle upon a table, that gives light only to one room, but like the sun that goes its circuit to give light to many. He was called into Macedonia, a large kingdom, ch. 16:9. He began with Philippi, because it was the first city he came to; but he must not confine himself to this. We have him here,
Act 17:1-9
Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians, the first two he wrote by inspiration, give such a shining character of that church, that we cannot but be glad here in the history to meet with an account of the first founding of the church there.
Act 17:10-15
In these verses we have,
Act 17:16-21
A scholar that has acquaintance, and is in love, with the learning of the ancients, would think he should be very happy if he were where Paul now was, at Athens, in the midst of the various sects of philosophers, and would have a great many curious questions to ask them, for the explication of the remains we have of the Athenian learning; but Paul, though bred a scholar, and an ingenious active man, does not make this any of his business at Athens. He has other work to mind: it is not the improving of himself in their philosophy that he aims at, he has learned to call it a vain thing, and is above it (Col. 2:8); his business is, in God's name, to correct their disorders in religion, and to turn them from the service of idols, and of Satan in them, to the service of the true and living God in Christ.
Act 17:22-31
We have here St. Paul's sermon at Athens. Divers sermons we have had, which the apostles preached to the Jews, or such Gentiles as had an acquaintance with and veneration for the Old Testament, and were worshippers of the true and living God; and all they had to do with them was to open and allege that Jesus is the Christ; but here we have a sermon to heathens, that worshipped false gods, and were without the true God in the world, and to them the scope of their discourse was quite different from what it was to the other. In the former case their business was to lead their hearers by prophecies and miracles to the knowledge of the Redeemer, and faith in him; in the latter it was to lead them by the common works of providence to the knowledge of the Creator, and the worship of him. One discourse of this kind we had before to the rude idolaters of Lystra that deified the apostles (ch. 14:15); this recorded here is to the more polite and refined idolaters at Athens, and an admirable discourse it is, and every way suited to his auditory and the design he had upon them.
Act 17:32-34
We have here a short account of the issue of Paul's preaching at Athens.