Acts 17:21

17:16-21 Athens was then famed for polite learning, philosophy, and the fine arts; but none are more childish and superstitious, more impious, or more credulous, than some persons, deemed eminent for learning and ability. It was wholly given to idolatry. The zealous advocate for the cause of Christ will be ready to plead for it in all companies, as occasion offers. Most of these learned men took no notice of Paul; but some, whose principles were the most directly contrary to Christianity, made remarks upon him. The apostle ever dwelt upon two points, which are indeed the principal doctrines of Christianity, Christ and a future state; Christ our way, and heaven our end. They looked on this as very different from the knowledge for many ages taught and professed at Athens; they desire to know more of it, but only because it was new and strange. They led him to the place where judges sat who inquired into such matters. They asked about Paul's doctrine, not because it was good, but because it was new. Great talkers are always busy-bodies. They spend their time in nothing else, and a very uncomfortable account they have to give of their time who thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to employ it well, because eternity depends upon it, but much is wasted in unprofitable conversation.

All the Athenians No article. Lit., "Athenians, all of them." The Athenian people collectively. Strangers which were there (οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι) Rev., more correctly, the strangers sojourning there. See on 1 Peter 1:1. Spent their time (εὐκαίρουν) The word means to have good opportunity; to have leisure: also, to devote one's leisure to something; to spend the time. Compare Mark 6:31; 1 Corinthians 16:12. Something new (τι καινότερον) Lit., newer: newer than that which was then passing current as new. The comparative was regularly used by the Greeks in the question what news? They contrasted what was new with what had been new up to the time of asking. The idiom vividly characterizes the state of the Athenian mind. Bengel aptly says, "New things at once became of no account; newer things were being sought for." Their own orators and poets lashed them for this peculiarity. Aristophanes styles Athens the city of the gapers ("Knights," 1262). Demades said that the crest of Athens ought to be a great tongue. Demosthenes asks them, "Is it all your care to go about up and down the market, asking each other, 'Is there any news?'" In the speech of Cleon to the Athenians, given by Thucydides (iii., 38), he says: "No men are better dupes, sooner deceived by novel notions, or slower to follow approved advice. You despise what is familiar, while you are worshippers of every new extravagance.

Acts 17:21 . Ἀθηναῖοι , the Athenians ) An elegant and characteristic description of them follows.— ἐπιδημοῦντες ) sojourners : who through sojourning among them acquire the same customs.— εὐκαίρουν , used to spend their time ) The Preterite, whereby it is implied, what kind of hearers Paul had at that time. Curiosity yields to faith.— λέγειν , to tell : ἀκούειν , to hear ) Two classes. [Both unattended with fruit: and in such a way as that always whatever is newer is preferred to what has gone before (former news), even though the latter have been good. A common fault, and one very pernicious.—V. g.]— καινότερον , something more new ) New things became immediately depreciated: newer things were sought for. Thence (owing to the prevalence of this feeling) καινότερος is a frequent comparative among the Greeks. Chrysostom do Sacerd. § 418, uses the same concerning Paul, τοὺς καινοτέρους διωγμούς · and Theophr. in the Character of the λογοποιὸς , says, οἷος ἐρωτῆσαι · ἔχεις περὶ τοῦδε εἰπεῖν καινόν ; καὶ ἐπιβαλὼν ἐρωτᾶν , μὴ λέγεταί τι καινότερον ; Moreover they used to seek for newer things, not merely in the case of the occurrences which daily happen; but what seems nobler, in philosophical matters.

21. all the Athenians … spent their time in nothing else but to tell or hear some new thing—literally, "newer thing," as if what was new becoming presently stale, they craved something still more new [Bengel]. This lively description of the Athenian character is abundantly attested by their own writers.

Verse 21. - Now for for , A.V.; the strangers sojourning there for strangers which were there , A.V. Spent their time . This gives the general sense, but the margin of the R.T., had leisure for nothing else , is much more accurate. Αὐκαιρεῖν , which is not considered good Greek, is only used by Polybius, and in the sense either of "being wealthy" or of "having leisure" or "opportunity." In the New Testament it occurs in Mark 6:31 and 1 Corinthians 16:12 . Some new thing . So Cleon (Thucyd., 3:38) rates the Athenians upon their being entirely guided by words, and constantly deceived by any novelty of speech ( καινότητος λόγου ). And Demosthenes in his first 'Philippic' (p. 43, 7), inveighs against them because, when they ought to be up and doing, they went about the Agora, asking one another, "Is there any news? ( Λέγεταί τι καινόν ;)." The comparative καινότερον ix a little stronger than καινόν : "the very last news" (Alford). Acts 17:21

21 . This verse is a parenthesis explanatory of what has gone before. The audience had been struck with the strange teaching, and that it was strange was enough. Novelty was their life’s pursuit. So without having any regard for the importance of the teaching, they were ready to listen because it was new. strangers which were there ] The words will bear a fuller rendering, “ strangers sojourning there .” (So R. V. ) The place was famous, and all seekers after novelty came there from every quarter. spent their time ] More literally “had leisure for.” But the one sense is the complement of the other. If all the time be spent in one way, there is no leisure left for any thing else. But the word has the further sense of “finding a favourable opportunity.” The Athenians could find time for the pursuit of novelty, but for nothing beside. The imperfect tense of the verb also implies that this was their constant state of mind. either to tell, or to hear some new thing ] This character of the Athenian populace is confirmed by many statements of classical authors. In Thuc. iii. 38 Cleon is represented as complaining of his countrymen that they were in the habit of playing the part of “spectators in displays of oratory, and listeners to the stories of what others had done;” and a like charge is made more than once by Demosthenes in his speeches on the vigorous policy of Philip of Macedon, which he contrasts with the Athenian love of talk and news.

Acts 17:21 . A remark of Luke added for the elucidation of Acts 17:19-20 . But Athenians ( Ἀθηναῖοι , without the article: Athenian people) collectively ( πάντες , see Fritzsche, ad Marc . p. 12; Kühner, § 685, note 2), and the strangers resident there, had leisure for nothing else than , etc. εὐκαιρεῖν , vacare alicui rei , belongs to the later Greek. Sturz, de Dial. Al . p. 169; Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 125. The imperfect does not exclude the continuance of the state of things in the present, but interweaves it with the history, so that it is transferred into the same time with the latter; see on John 11:18 , and Kühner, ad Xen. Anab . i. 4. 9. Comp. also the pluperfect ἐπεγέγραπτο , Acts 17:23 . According to Ewald, Luke actually means an earlier period, when it had still been so in Athens, “before it was plundered by Nero.” But then we should at least have expected an indication of this in the text by τότε or πάλαι , even apart from the fact that such a characteristic of a city is not so quickly lost. καινότερον ] The comparative delineates more strongly and vividly. The novelty-loving (Thuc. iii. 38. 4) and talkative (Wetstein and Valckenaer in loc .) Athenians wished always to be saying or hearing something newer than the previous news. See Winer, p. 228 [E. T. 305]. Comp. Plat. Phaed . p. 115 B; Dem. 43. 7; 160. 2.

(21) For all the Athenians and strangers. —The restless inquisitiveness of the Athenian character had been all along proverbial. In words which St. Luke almost reproduces, Demosthenes ( Philipp. i., p. 43) had reproached them with idling their time away in the agora, asking what news there was of Philip’s movements, or the action of their own envoys, when they ought to have been preparing for strenuous action. The “strangers” who were present were probably a motley group—young Romans sent to finish their education, artists, and sight-seers, and philosophers, from every province in the empire. Some new thing.—Literally, some newer thing; as we should say, the “very latest news.” Theophrastus (c. 8) uses the self-same word in describing the questions of the loquacious prattlers of society, “Is there anything new? . . . Is there anything yet newer?”

For all the Athenians - This was their general character. And strangers which were there - Athens was greatly distinguished for the celebrity of its schools of philosophy. It was at that time at the head of the literary world. Its arts and its learning were celebrated in all lands. It is known, therefore, that it was the favorite resort of people of other nations, who came there to become acquainted with its institutions and to listen to its sages. Spent their time in nothing else - The learned and subtle Athenians gave themselves much to speculation, and employed themselves in examining the various new systems of philosophy that were proposed. Strangers and foreigners who were there, having much leisure, would also give themselves to the same inquiries. But either to tell or to hear some new thing - Greek: "something newer" - καινότερον kainoteron. The latest news; or the latest subject of inquiry proposed. This is well known to have been the character of the people of Athens at all times. "Many of the ancient writers I bear witness to the garrulity, and curiosity, and intemperate desire of novelty among the Athenians, by which they inquired respecting all things, even those in which they had no interest, whether of a public or private nature (Kuinoel).