Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

Athens is five miles inland from its port of Piraeus, which is on an arm of the Aegean Sea stretching fifty miles between Attica and the Peloponnesus. It is situated on a narrow plain between Mount Parnes to the north, Mount Pentelicus to the east, and Mount Hymettus to the southeast. When the Persians tried to conquer Greece in the fifth century B. C., Athens played a prominent part in resisting them. It reached its zenith under Pericles (495–429 B. C.); and during the last fifteen years of his life, the Parthenon, numerous temples, and other splendid buildings were built. Literature, philosophy, science, and rhetoric flourished; and Athens attracted intellectuals from all over the world. Politically it became a democracy. Culturally and intellectually, Athens remained supreme for centuries, with such figures as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno living there. In 338 B. C. Philip II of Macedonia conquered Athens, but the conquest only served to spread Athenian culture and learning into Asia and Egypt through his son, Alexander the Great. Even when the Romans conquered Athens in 146 B. C., it continued as the cultural and intellectual center of the world. Rome also left the city free politically. When Paul came to Athens, its population probably numbered no more than ten thousand. Yet it had a glorious past on which it continued to live. Its temples and statuary were related to the worship of the Greek pantheon, and its culture was pagan. Therefore Paul, with his Jewish abhorrence of idolatry, could not but find the culture of Athens spiritually repulsive.