Acts 17

Chap. XVII. Ver. 1—15. Paul preaches at Thessalonica In the first instance we find Paul preaching in a synagogue of the Jews at Thessalonica, where he reasoned with them for three successive sabbaths, and probably on some of the intermediate days, in which we remark two important circumstances. 1. He did not confine his reasonings to the subjects of natural religion, nor did he draw his arguments from the Pagan philosophers. These, as we shall see presently, he would sometimes quote; but they never formed his text—he reasoned from the Scriptures. 2. The substance of all his discourses was “‘Jesus Christ, and him crucified.’ He reasoned from the Scriptures, ‘‘ opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered [for our sins,] and have risen again ‘from the dead [for our justification.] And this Jesus [added he] whom I preach unto you is Curist,’’ or the Messiah.

This affords a pointed condemnation of merely moral preaching, which will seldom reform and never convert a sinner. ‘‘One may more justly complain of some sermons in our days (says Dr. John Edwards) than the father of old did of Tully’s works, that there is not a word of Christianity in them. Tully’s Offices and Seneca’s Epistles serves many instead of the Bible.”. “Tt is true (said the late learned Bishop Horsley) that itis the great duty of a preacher of the gospel to press the practice of its precepts upon. the consciences of men; but then it is equally true, that it his duty to enforce this practice in a particular way, namely, by inculcating its doctrines. The motives which the revealed doctrines furnish are the only motives he has to do with, and the only motives by which facade duties.

can be effectually enforced.’;: In answer to the objection, that ‘‘the peculiar doctrines of Revelation,” as the Trinity, the incarnation, and the atonement, and communion with God, are above the capacities of the common people, his lordship replies, ‘If this were really the case, the condition of mankind would indeed be miserable, and the profter of mercy in the Gospel little better than a mockery of their wo; for the consequence would be, that the common people would never be carried beyond the first principles of natural religion. Of the efficacy of natural religion as a rule of action, the world has had the long experience of 1600 years: for so much was the interval between the institution of the Mosaic church and the publication of the Gos.

pel Among the vulgar, natural religion never produced any effect at all;. among the learned, much of it is to be found in their writings, little in their lives.” On the other hand, ‘Upon the first preaching of the Gospel, the eage the scorn of pharisaical pride, who knew not the law, and all events to chance and accident, and the Stoics, who attribute all to fate; he refers all things to the determination of an infinitely wise and good God, who, as he is the only infinite, is also the only perfectly independent Being. Vix. 27. If haply—(Doddridge, “ possibly”)—they might feel after him.— The allusion is to people groping in the dark, and is intended to represent the difficulty of finding out God by the mere light of Nature.

y i Ver. 28. In him we live, and move, and have our being.—Doddridge, be In him we live, and are moved, and do exist.’’——For we are also his offspring. –The passage usually supposed to be here referred to, is thus translated:— * Jove’s presence fills all space, upholds this ball; All need ia aid, his power supports us all; For we his offspring are, and he in love, Points out to man his labour from above.”” Are See the Phenomena of Aratus. ‘The same words, with the variation of a letter only, are to be found in the Hymn of Cleanthes. See ee Ver. 30. God winked at.—Doddridge, Overlooked.” ‘This text does not, cannot mean that God is in any case indifferent to the conduct of his creatures; for it is addad, that he commands al] men, every where to repent, and has appointed a day to judge them, So it was with the nations of Canaan— he winks |.

he appeared to close his eyes against their iniquities, until they

Notes on the verses

Chap. XVII. Ver. 1. Amphipolis—(Was the capital of the first division of Macedonia, situated on the Strymon, which nearly surrounded it, from whence it took its name, about 70 miles east of ‘Thessalonica. It is now a place of little consequence, called Emboli. m—Thessalonica—Now Salonichi, was a celebrated city and capital of the second part of Macedonia, situated at the head of the Thermaic gulf, now the gulf of Salonichi. It was a noble mart, the most pspulous of all Macedonia; and it still retains somewhat of its ancient spiendour, being five miles in circumference, and containing a popu tion of aoa of 60,000 persons. Sce the travels of Dr. Clarke, &c.]—B. Ver. 4. Consorted—i. e. associated.—Devout Greeks—Or Grecians proted to the Jewish religion.

i: 3 selyted Jason. —A resident at Thossalonica, and a kinsman of St. Paul. See Ren 6. These that have turned the world wpside down. —The no 4 perly implies sedition—an attempt to overturn the government. ape ch. xxi. 4 Ver. 10. Berea—Was a city of Macedonia, not fur from the ’ re west of Thessalonica, and near Pella, the birth place of Alexander the i Ver. 11. More noble.—Not in rank, but in disposition— more ingenuous, liberal minded. 1217 Ver. 13. Stirred up the people.—‘’ Raising [a storm among] the people.” Blackwall in Doddridge. Ver. 14. To go as it were to the sea.—Doddridge, “ As if he were to go by sea.” Newcome, * Towards the sea.” So Schleusner. Bost and Rephelius have fully proved, that “ towards,”

and not “as it were to,” is the true rendering.— Boothroyd. Ver. 15. Athens—{Was the most celebrated city of Greece, not merely for political greatness and military power, but for the learning, eloquence, and politeness of its inhabitants, and for the cultivation of the arts and sciences. It was situated in a delightful plain of Attica, on the Saronic gulf, opposite the eastern coust of Peloponnesus, in a sort of peninsula formed by the two rivers, the flissus and Cephisus. about 35 miles east of Corinth, and four miles from the sea. ‘The ruins of many of the splendid structures for which it was celebrated yet remain. |—Baester, _ Ver. 16. His spirit was stirred.—According to Doddridge, the Greck word signifies sharpened, set on edge.

In (1 Corinthians 13:5), a kindred term is rendered te ” provoked,’ which word some use. here.—Wholly given to idolatry.— Marg. “ full of idols,” which is more literal. as. Ver. 17. Devout persons—i. e. Jewish proselytes.— And in the market.— (Gr. Agora) the market-place, or forum; a large open place, where the people assembled, and on the sides of which there were generally porticoes, or eloisters, where the philosophers used to dispute or lecture; where courts were sometimes held; and where temples and theatres were usually built. Ver. 18. Ep. ureans.—|‘The Epicureans were the followers of E pieurus; who acknowledged no gods except in name, and denied that they exercised any government over the world; and held that the chief good consisted in the ratification of the appetites.

The Stoice were t he followers of Zeno, and eld that all human affairs were governed by fate Both denied the resurrection of the body, and the immortality of the soul.)—Bagster.——Thie babbler. —Gr. “a word-scatterer;’ which Beza explains in allusicn to a little bird opiled ‘the meee remarkable for picking up scattered seeds: so they mean to insinuate that Paul had picked up seraps of philosophy in the marketplace.——A setter forth of strange (i. e. foreign) gods—Or ‘“‘demons.”’ (Gr. daimonia.) ‘The Greeks used this term for all the invisible powers—celestial, terrestrial, or infernal; gods, heroes, or deviis.——Jesus, and the resurrection. —In Gr. Anastasis; which latter, it is generally thought, these Athenians took ion new goddess.

The Athenians worshipped Shame, Fame, Desire, &e. ag Ver. 21. Some new thing.—Literally, ‘‘ newer thing.” The Athenians were as anxious to hear the last_new opinions stated, as some of our ladies to receive the last new fashions from Paris. They are upbraided more than once by Demosthenes for this excessive love of novelty, and it should seem that they oe remarkable for the same weakness to the present day. See Orient. Lit. 0. 1420, Ver. 22. Mars’ hill.—Gr. Areopagus; the same word as in ver. 19, but here literally translated in the text—there only in the margin. ——Too superstitious. —This translation is too harsh. The learned Jos. Mede renders it, “* Too full of demons.” Doddridge, “ Exceedingly addicted to the worship of invisible powers.”

St. Paul employs the most inoffensive terms in reproving the Athenians; but it is remarkable, that their own writers mention the same fact of their attachment to a multitude of idols. It is said there were more gods worshipped at Athens than in any other part of Greece, and that they kept a double number of festivals. Ordent, Lit. No. 1421. Ver. 25. Neither is worshipped—(Doddridge, served)—avith men’s hands —i. e. all our services are of no use to him: he needeth nothing from us. Ver. 26. And hath made of one blood all nations.—By this the apostle assures the Greeks, that, though a Jew, his benevolent affections were by nomeans confined to his own nation: and at the sarne time insinuates, that theirs ought not to be restrained from him on that account.

The whole family of man rae one Father, and men of all nations are therefore brethren.—— And hath determined the times before appuinted.—Here he addresser both the above classes of philosophers, equally opposing the Epicureans, who refer