Athens

Location

Athens is the ancient Greek city on the plain of Attica, five miles inland from the Aegean coast. In the first century AD it was still the philosophical and cultural capital of the Greek-speaking world, dominated by the Parthenon on the Acropolis and the Areopagus (Mars Hill) below it.

Biblical importance

Athens is named as the city where Paul preached his most famous philosophical sermon: the Areopagus speech (Acts 17:16-34). Waiting for Silas and Timothy, Paul walked the city, saw its many idols, and reasoned in the synagogue and in the marketplace with Jews, Epicureans, and Stoics. Taken to the Areopagus, he preached from an altar 'TO THE UNKNOWN GOD' and quoted a Greek poet ('For in him we live, and move, and have our being').

Important biblical events

• Acts 17:16 (KJV) 'His spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.'
• Acts 17:22-23 (KJV) 'I perceived that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.'
• Acts 17:28 (KJV) 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.'
• Acts 17:31 (KJV) 'He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.'
• Acts 17:34 (KJV) Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris are among the converts.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:1 (KJV) Paul says he stayed at Athens alone.

Related People

• Paul — the preacher of the Areopagus.
• Dionysius the Areopagite — an early convert; later Christian tradition (fifth century) borrowed his name for a mystical corpus.
• Damaris — a woman convert named at Acts 17:34.
• Epicurean and Stoic philosophers — Paul's audience.

Connected Places

• Corinth — where Paul went next.
• Ephesus — the city of Paul's later long ministry.
• Philippi — his earlier Macedonian founding.

Christian tradition

• The Church of St Paul in Athens (modern) marks the traditional site of the sermon.
• The Areopagus speech is a model for Christian engagement with philosophy in every century since.
• The fifth- or sixth-century mystical author known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite wrote under the name of Paul's convert — a testimony to Athens's continued place in Christian tradition.

Household reflection

Athens teaches the household that the Gospel can speak to any philosophy without being reduced by it. Paul quoted a pagan poet without endorsing his religion; he found a point of contact and led to Christ.

In a household that talks with unbelieving friends and neighbours, remember Paul at Athens: begin with what they know, and lead to what they need to know.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read Acts 17:16-34 aloud at the household table.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray for the conversion of philosophers, artists, and thinkers with the Areopagus speech in mind.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — Discuss with older children: what unbelieving assumption in our culture can be met with a Christian answer?
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'The Church's One Foundation' (Samuel John Stone, 1866).
• Learn (Workshop) — Study Paul's Areopagus speech as a paradigm of Christian apologetics.

Further reading

Acts 17:16-34 in the KJV.

Justin Martyr, First Apology (mid-second century) — an early Christian apology to a pagan philosophical audience.

Any good history of Christian engagement with Greek philosophy.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Paul
• Corinth
• Ephesus
• Rome
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.