Commentary on Acts 17:22-31

“Probably no ten verses in the Acts of the Apostles have formed the text for such an abundance of commentary.”¹ Thus writes biblical scholar F. F. Bruce about Paul’s speech before the Areopagus. It is certainly true that this passage has generated much discussion, not least in relation to cross-cultural ministry, for which Paul’s approach here has been viewed as something of a model.

Paul’s address begins with a reference to the character of the locals (“extremely religious”) and a description of something he has seen within the city (“the altar to the unknown god”), and his subsequent defense of Christianity utilizes quotations from Greek poetry (“In him we live and move and have our being”; “For we too are his offspring”). It was likely crafted to appeal to the intellectual and philosophical sensibilities of the members of this ruling council of Athens. Members of the two groups that are specifically named earlier in the chapter (the Epicureans and the Stoics, verse 18) were notoriously in disagreement with one another, so Paul faces an uphill battle as he makes his case.

Of course, while Luke’s Paul is speaking to the movers and shakers of Athens, Luke is speaking to the readers and hearers of the Acts of the Apostles, and the speech contains some clever ideas that are able to serve both audiences in different ways. For example, the reference to the Athenians as being “extremely religious” would likely be interpreted as a compliment by the members of the council (especially at this early point in the speech where praise was an expected feature), while simultaneously hinting at something less positive (“extremely superstitious”) to Luke’s own audience.²

The main section of Paul’s speech identifies the “unknown god” of the Athenian shrine with the known creator God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. As per the recommendations of ancient rhetoricians, Luke’s Paul saves his most challenging point until the end, introducing the resurrection only after his attempt to build rapport and shared understanding with his audience. Resurrection, and especially a bodily resurrection, would have been a deeply puzzling idea to many gentiles—we see in the verse that immediately follows the set reading (verse 32) that it is this idea that causes some to “scoff”—and yet it is precisely this claim about Jesus that lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

In spite (or perhaps because) of the Athenians’ reputation for intellectualism, Paul’s words do not allow for a faith that disconnects mind or soul from body. This is a message that many still need to hear today. Theologian Stephanie Paulsell writes as follows:

It is Jesus’s resurrected body that teaches us that bodies matter. In the resurrection narratives of the New Testament, Jesus insists on his body: “Look at my hands and my feet,” he says in Luke’s Gospel. “See that it is I myself. Touch me and see” (Luke 24:39).³

Interestingly, this language of hands and touch can also be found in the earlier parts of Paul’s speech to the Athenian council. He twice refers to “the work of human hands” (verses 24 and 25), and the human search for God is depicted using the touch-related language of “feeling around” or “groping” for him (verse 27). Our desire to know God cannot be separated from our embodied human existence.

God’s work of creation is also located in the material world. Paul explains that this God is the giver of life and breath (verse 25), and that human beings are his offspring (verses 28 and 29). God’s parenthood is traced back to the single ancestor of all the nations (unnamed here but likely imagined as Adam, verse 26), thus challenging any one group’s claim to superiority. This is a theology of relationship and connection, rooted in the created world. Indeed, Paul’s cross-cultural preaching encourages a broadening of perspective that moves beyond the boundaries of the human altogether to incorporate all that God has made.

Interestingly, in Paul and Barnabas’s earlier (much shorter) speech to the gentiles in Lystra, attention is also drawn to the natural world in the reference to “the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them” (14:15). This is the God whom the crowd is told “has not left himself without a witness in doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy” (14:17).

Ecologically conscious commentators and preachers have found within Paul’s speech to the Areopagus a mandate for creation care. For example, Peter Harris, co-founder of Christian conservation charity A Rocha, writes the following about this passage:

Paul’s understanding of God the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth, leads him to see the futility of any religious attempt either to bring something of value to God in sacrifice, or to somehow privatize or capture God by what we do. … Rather, we understand who we are through the lens of our primary relationship to the God who has created and sustains not just us, but everything on earth.⁴

Within Paul’s speech, therefore, we can discover an invitation to reflect on our human identity, our relationships with one another, and our connections with the rest of the created world, which is not simply background or scenery, but a vital part of the wholeness into which we are being called.

Notes

1. F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), 353.
2. Craig Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014), 2627–2628.
3. Stephanie Paulsell, Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019), 180.
4. Peter Harris and Stella Simiyu, Caring for Creation: Part of Our Gospel Calling? (Cambridge, UK: Grove Books, 2008), 21.