Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ATHENS

Capital of modern Greece and for centuries chief city of the province of Attica. Athens’ famous landmark is the Acropolis, a steep flat rock that rises about 200 feet (61 meters) above the plain around it and which still holds several masterpieces of architecture. Walls dating from 1100 BC indicate an advanced community by that time.

Athens began its rise to glory in the sixth century BC, first under the leadership of Solon (d. 559 BC), who established democratic forms of government, and later under Pericles (d. 429 BC), when the magnificent buildings of the Acropolis took form. In this golden age, Athens became the center of philosophy, art, architecture, and drama.

By the time Paul brought the Christian message to Athens (Acts 17:15-34), the city had only a portion of its former glory and prestige. Roman emperors continued to extend patronage by providing for new buildings and the restoration of the Agora (marketplace). Athens continued to be the home of the most prominent university in the Greek world. Both Epicurean and Stoic philosophy had worthy representatives in the city.

The Christian message was first brought to Athens by the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey about AD 50. His only reference to Athens is in 1 Thessalonians 3:1, where he indicated that he and Timothy arrived in the city together but that shortly thereafter he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica while he remained alone in Athens.

Luke has provided a more complete account of Paul’s ministry there (Acts 17:16-34). His arrival in a city marked by many statues to the gods, which surpassed anything he had seen in other cities, provoked in him strong feelings against such rampant idolatry. Reared in the strict monotheism of Judaism, Paul apparently viewed Athens as the epitome of sin, and the cultural majesty of the city could not undo this impression.

As did almost all cities of that day, Athens had its community of Jews, and Paul began to speak, according to his custom, with his own kinsmen. Before long he was also in the marketplace, speaking about Jesus to anyone who would listen, including some of the philosophers, who spoke condescendingly of him as peddling “scrap ideas.” Paul’s preaching of Jesus and the resurrection sounded as though he was proclaiming a new deity, which earned him a summons before the Areopagus, a civic body responsible for the religious and moral life of Athens. As such it had to approve any new deity. The name Areopagus came from a small hill just off the Acropolis where the body formerly sat for deliberations. By Paul’s time its meetings were commonly held in a portico at one end of the marketplace.

Most of Luke’s account consists of Paul’s message to the Areopagus, in which he referred to the many gods, even to an “unknown god.” Paul declared that he was making known to them the God who was not known. He closed his address with a call to repentance and judgment. His reference to the resurrection brought division, but some individuals wanted to hear more.

Luke says only that a few followed Paul, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagite council, and a woman named Damaris. Athens seems to be one of the few places where Paul did not succeed in establishing a church, and thus it did not figure prominently in early Christian history.