Paul's Address To Athens Analysis

The apostle Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) is incontrovertibly one of Christianity’s most important founding figures (Penner). Once a Pharisee and a persecutor of Christians, Paul experienced a life-changing encounter with God on the road to Damascus, leading to his conversion to the Christian faith. Following his conversion, Paul became one of the New Testaments most prolific and outspoken evangelists, preaching throughout the Mediterranean, authoring a section of the New Testament called the “epistles” and playing a prevalent role in the book of Acts (ESV). Leading up to his address to the Areopagus in Athens, Paul went through numerous adversities including imprisonment, public humiliation, and floggings. Notwithstanding these persecutions, the ESV bible depicts Paul’s attitude in Athens as resolute and indefatigable – “his spirit was provoked within him”.

In present times, large portions of central Athens have been excavated and have corroborated Paul’s assertions about the numerous temples, idols, and alters (ESV). In fact, an ancient historian named Petronius joked that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens (Stedman). The Athenian’s belief in multiple gods is significant due to the fact that a large part of Paul’s missionary journey had been in predominantly Jewish precincts. Rather, being a city of inveterate Polytheists one might suppose that the Athenians would be close-minded towards hearing Paul’s message. However this assumption may be false as, the Bible talks about the Athenians’ open-mindedness toward hearing new philosophies and ways of thinking. “The Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (KJV). While this makes Paul’s job of getting his message in the ears of the people easier it doesn’t preclude