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For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: `TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.` What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
Verse Takeaways
1
A Bridge to the Gospel
Commentators emphasize Paul's masterful approach. Instead of starting with condemnation, he found a point of contact within Athenian culture: an altar 'To an Unknown God.' He used their own admission of ignorance as a bridge to introduce the God they didn't know. This serves as a powerful model for sharing faith by finding common ground and respectfully leading from what people already sense to the truth of the gospel.
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7
18th Century
Presbyterian
For as I passed by. Greek, "For I, coming through, and seeing," etc.
And beheld. Diligently contemplated; attentively cons…
For (γαρ). Paul gives an illustration of their religiousness from his own experiences in their city.
The objects of…
19th Century
Anglican
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.—Better, I observe you as being in all things more fearful of the gods than oth…
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Paul does not begin his address by referring to Jewish history or by quoting the Jewish Scriptures, as he did in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch …
16th Century
Protestant
To the unknown God. I can well grant that this altar was dedicated to all foreign gods; yet I cannot agree with what Jerome says, that Pau…
17th Century
Reformed Baptist
For as I passed by Or "through"; that is, through the city of Athens:
and beheld your devotions
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Here we have a sermon addressed to heathens, who worshipped false gods and were without the true God in the world. For them, the scope of the disco…
