Pt1-11-"THIS BABBLER"
"THIS BABBLER"
"What will this babbler say?"--Acts 17:18 IN the very heart of Athens, "the Classic University of the ancient world", was the sunlit Agora. Surrounded by temples and colonnades, with their exquisite sculptures and statuary, it was rather a "quadrangle" than a market-place. Within a quarter of a mile towered the Acropolis, "clear-cut against the bright background of an Attic sky", while nearer still was the glorious Theseion and the rugged Areopagus. No wonder modern writers speak of the Agora as "tradition-haunted", for here from time immemorial philosophers of all schools had met and debated, orators had swayed the people from its bema or rostrum, merchants had bartered their wares. Because of his teaching here and elsewhere, Socrates had been charged with bringing in strange divinities. Self-restrained Stoics and easy-going Epicureans had taught their doctrines to numerous disciples, and many, in doubt between rival theories, looked for "some new thing". It was a meeting-place for men of all grades of culture, and on its pavements stood visitors from all parts of the world.
Into the Agora came Paul the dauntless. Stirred to the depths of his soul by the innumerable evidences of idolatry all about him, he entered into discussion with those whom he met. He had commenced his teaching in the synagogue, but soon found that he could not remain silent among the citizens in the Agora. At length the philosophers entered into discussion with him, and a difference of opinion arose concerning him. Some challenged his credentials; others his message. "What will this babbler say?" cried some, as they sought to dismiss him with contempt.
What is the meaning of the word rendered "babbler"? That the term, which occurs in this passage alone in the New Testament, is difficult to translate becomes apparent when the various versions are consulted. In the margin of the Authorised Version, "base fellow" is given; Weymouth gives "beggarly babbler"; Rotherham has "picker-up-of-scraps"; Goodspeed gives "rag-picker"; and Moffatt renders, "Whatever does this fellow mean with his scraps of learning?" Etymologically, the word spermologos suggests the picking up of seeds, and Aristophanes, the comic poet, used the term of birds pecking up seeds from the ground. In his play, The Birds, Aristophanes represents Peisthetairos, an Athenian citizen tired of law-courts, seeking his fortune in the kingdom of the birds. He is confident that the birds can occupy their Cloudtown in safety, and claims that if men on earth interfere
"Why then, like a cloud, shall a swarm
Of sparrows and rooks settle down on their stooks,
And devour all the seed in the farm."
Plutarch, too, in his biography of Demetrius, says of certain people that their "partnership he said he would scatter asunder with a single stone and a single shout, as if they were a flock of granivorous (grain-devouring) birds". In a newly recovered papyrus the term is applied to the crumbs and scraps thrown out in the streets to dogs. Eustathius, a commentator on Homer, says that the Athenians applied the term to those who spend their time about the markets picking up scraps of food, and also in a metaphorical sense to "hangers on", "good-for-nothing fellows".
Demosthenes called Æschines, a rival orator, spermologos, evidently meaning "parasite", or "hanger on". Other references in Greek literature give evidence of a usage of the word to describe those who make much sound but little sense, or "ignorant plagiarists" who retailed other men’s thoughts. Shakespeare has a parallel in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Biron says of another lord:
"This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease,
And utters it again when God doth please;
He is wit’s pedler, and retails his wares
At wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs."
It seems, then, that some Athenians regarded Paul as a mere pretender to learning, or as a shallow plagiarist echoing some words he had picked up in his travels. Sir William. Ramsay thinks that "probably the nearest and most instructive parallel in modern English life to spermologos is ’Bounder’, allowing for the difference between England and Athens".
It is well that not all who heard Paul treated him so contemptuously. Our immediate purpose, however, is to show how far astray the wisdom of this world may be. It is not enough to say that the Athenians at this time were degenerate. In the great age which produced Plato, Aristophanes, Thucydides and many other men of world renown, Socrates fared no better than Paul. If the cross of Christ was to the Greeks "foolishness", we need not be surprised that Paul was regarded as a retailer of folly. But what a tragedy it is! The pearl of great price is trampled upon by those who consider themselves anything but swine. When offered the bread of life, these self-satisfied worldlings regard it as a stone! And so Paul, champion of a philosophy which can change the world, ambassador of the King of kings, skilled dialectician who can grapple with giants in intellect, is dismissed by some as a charlatan dabbling in things he does not understand!
"Truth for ever on the scaffold,
Wrong for ever on the throne!" But stay, worthy Poet; no, not "for ever", for "hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world "? and shall not we see the day dawn when the message which Paul preached shall be regarded as the power of God, the solution of all the problems that vex this sin-weary world?