For in Him we live and move and have our being.

As certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Scripture Central, and today's podcast addresses the question,

how did Paul interact with Greek philosophies in Athens?

After being driven out of Thessalonica and Berea by an angry mob, Paul was conducted down the

coast to Athens by the faithful saints for his own safety. While Paul waited for his companions Silas and

Timothy to join him, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Therefore disputed he in the synagogues with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the

market daily with them that met with him.

As Paul was preaching in the Agora, he gained the attention of certain philosophers of the

Epicureans, and of the Stoics, who had varying attitudes towards what they heard, and some said,

What will this babbler say? Others, some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto them

Jesus and the resurrection. So they took Paul to meet with the Erapagus on Mars Hill right next to

the Acropolis. There, the city rulers invited him to explain in greater detail the new doctrine

he was preaching. Paul commenced his well-known speech by discussing

the Athenian worship of an unknown God. Here Paul shows a deep understanding of the language

and culture of his audience. As biblical scholars have studied Paul's explanation address,

it has become clear that Paul was familiar with ideas common in Greek

philosophical circles. Since he had grown up in Tarsus, the capital city of the Roman

province of Silesia, Paul was probably educated there and would have been taught Greek language,

literature, history, and public governance.

Now in Athens, Paul could deliver an effective prophetic critique of many of the ideas prevalent

...