John Gill 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 for them at Athens .
&c.] That is, for Silas and Timotheus:

his spirit was stirred in him ;
not only his soul was troubled and his heart was grieved, but he was exasperated and provoked to the last degree: he was in a paroxysm; his heart was hot within him; he had a burning fire in his bones, and was weary with forbearing, and could not stay; his zeal wanted vent, and he gave it:

when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry ;
or "full of idols", as the Syriac and Arabic versions render it. So Cicero says ^F24 that Athens was full of temples; and Xenophon ^F25 observes that they had double the feasts of other people; and Pausanias ^F26 affirms, that the Athenians far exceeded others in the worship of the gods, and care about religion; and he relates, that they had an altar for Mercy, another for Shame, another for Fame, and another for Desire, and expressed more religion to the gods than others did:

they had an altar dedicated to twelve gods ^F1 ; and because they would be sure of all, they erected one to an unknown god; in short, they had so many of them, that one ^F2 jestingly said to them, our country is so full of deities, that one may more easily find a god than a man: so that with all their learning and wisdom they knew not God, (1 Corinthians 1:21) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F24: De responsis Aruspicum.
• F25: De Athen. Polit.
• F26: Attica, p. 29, 42.
• F1: Thucydides Bell. Peloponness. l. 6.
• F2: Petronius.