Wandering in Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus

Today we’re in Ephesus Turkey, a place where Paul made his home for three years in the midst of his third missionary journey. It is estimated that Paul lived there during the years 53-56 AD. This past Wednesday we were in Corinth where Paul lived and worked as a tent maker, for about a year a nd a half (approximately 51 AD), alongside his friends Priscilla and Aquila (who later also went to Ephesus). We  used Athens as our home base and one lovely, toasty, evening (it’s always hot here) we hiked up to the Areopagus (also known as Mars Hill) where Paul preached his sermon about an Unknown God:

Acts 17:16-34

Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you concerning this.” So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

I sat on Mars Hill and read this passage as the sun went down on Thursday evening. What a treat it is to be at the very site of these events. It’s humbling knowing how bold Paul was, risking his life to share good news with people desperate to worship something, even an Unknown God.

Most of the world has now heard of the God of Creation (through whom we live, and move, and exist), but do they know YHWH? Do you?

Next week: Paul in the shadow of Vesuvius