Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 17:16

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he beheld the city full of idols." — Acts 17:16 (ASV)

Now while Paul waited. How long he was there is not indicated; but undoubtedly some time would pass before they could arrive. Meanwhile, Paul had ample opportunity to observe the state of the city.

His spirit was stirred in him. His mind was greatly excited. The word used here, parōxyneto, denotes any excitement, agitation, or paroxysm of mind (1 Corinthians 13:5). It here means that Paul's mind was greatly concerned or agitated, undoubtedly with pity and distress, at their foolishness and danger.

The city wholly given to idolatry. Greek, kateidōlon. It is well translated in the margin as "full of idols." The word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament.

That this was the condition of the city is abundantly testified by secular writers. For instance, Pausanias (Attica 1.24) says, "The Athenians greatly surpassed others in their zeal for religion." Lucian (Prometheus 1, p. 180) says of the city of Athens, "On every side there are altars, victims, temples, and festivals." Livy (Book 45, Chapter 27) says that Athens "was full of the images of gods and men, adorned with every variety of material, and with all the skill of art." And Petronius (Satyricon 17) says humorously of the city that "it was easier to find a god than a man there." See Kuinoel.

In this verse we may see how a splendid, idolatrous city will strike a pious mind. Athens then had more that was splendid in architecture, more that was brilliant in science, and more that was beautiful in the arts than any other city in the world; perhaps more than all the rest of the world united.

Yet there is no account that Paul's mind was filled with admiration; there is no record that he spent his time examining the works of art; there is no evidence that he forgot his high purpose in an idle and useless contemplation of temples and statuary. His was a Christian mind, and he contemplated all this with a Christian heart.

That heart was deeply affected in view of the amazing guilt of a people who were ignorant of the true God, who had filled their city with idols erected in honor of imaginary divinities, and who, in the midst of all this splendor and luxury, were going down to the gates of death.

So should every pious man feel who walks the streets of a splendid and guilty city. The Christian will not despise the productions of art; but he will feel, deeply feel, for the unhappy condition of those who, amidst wealth, splendor, and adornment, are withholding their affections from the living God, bestowing them on the works of their own hands or on objects degraded and polluting, and who are going unredeemed to eternal woe.

Happy would it be if every Christian traveler who visits cities of wealth and splendor would, like Paul, be affected in view of their crimes and dangers; and happy if, like him, people could cease their unbounded admiration of magnificence and splendor in temples, palaces, and statuary, to regard the condition of the mind, not perishable like marble; and of the soul, more magnificent even in its ruins than all the works of Phidias or Praxiteles.