Areopagus

The Areopagus (“Hill of Ares,” or Mars Hill) is a rocky knoll northwest of the Acropolis in Athens and the seat of the city’s most venerable council and court. While waiting for his companions in Athens on his second journey, Paul was distressed at the city full of idols and was brought by Epicurean and Stoic philosophers to the Areopagus. There he gave his famous sermon on “the Unknown God,” proclaiming the Creator, his universal purpose, and the resurrection; Dionysius the Areopagite and others believed.

The name Areopagus literally means “Hill of Ares,” the Greek war god—called Mars by the Romans, hence “Mars Hill.” It is a bare limestone knoll northwest of the Acropolis where, from classical times, Athens’ oldest and most venerable council (the Areopagites) sat to hear cases, especially those concerning religion, morality, and homicide. The hill and its council retained great authority even in Roman times.On his second missionary journey Paul arrived alone in Athens to wait for Silas and Timothy. Walking through the city and seeing it full of idols, he was “sharply provoked” and began reasoning in the synagogue and in the marketplace. (Acts 17:16,17) Certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him; some sneered that he seemed to be “a publisher of foreign deities,” and they led him to the Areopagus to hear this “new teaching.” (17:18-20)Standing in the midst of the Areopagus, Paul delivered one of the most notable sermons to Gentiles in the New Testament. Instead of attacking the Greek gods head-on, he began with an altar inscribed “To an Unknown God” and proclaimed that the One they worshiped without knowing was Jehovah God, Creator of heaven and earth and Giver of life and breath. He stressed that Jehovah God “made out of one man every nation” and set the appointed times and boundaries of men so that they would seek him; “in him we live and move and exist,” and even quoted their own poets that “we are also his children.” Since humans are God’s offspring, the divine nature cannot resemble gold, silver, or stone. Jehovah God, he said, had overlooked past ignorance but now commanded all to repent, having set a day to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness through a man he had appointed—Jesus Christ, raised from the dead. (17:22-31)The mention of the resurrection made some scoff, but others responded: “Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them,” believed. (17:32-34) Thus, in this pagan intellectual capital that prided itself on wisdom, the good news was first systematically presented to Greek thinkers. Today visitors still climb the brown stone slope at the foot of the Acropolis and, beside a bronze plaque of the text, recall Paul’s witness to the Creator and the resurrection before Athens’ highest court.