ἄ-γνωστος, -ον, [fr. Hom. down], unknown: Acts xvii. 23 [cf. B. D. Am. ed. 8. v. Altar].

ἄγνωστος agnōstos 1x

unknown, Acts 17:23*

** ἄγνωστος, -ον

(< γινώσκω), [in LXX: Wi 11:18 18:3, II Mac 1:19 2:7 (Cremer, 157)*;]

unknown: Ac 17:23 (cf. MM, VGT, s.v.).†

ἄγνωστος. Deissmann (S¢ Paul, p. 261 ff.) supplies an interesting parallel to the Greek inscription which St Paul read on an altar at Athens, Ac 17% ἀγνώστῳ θεῷ, from a votive inscription, probably of ii/A.D., on an altar discovered at Pergamon in 1909. The inscription is mutilated, but may probably be restored as follows— θεοῖς ἀγν[ώστοις] Ἐαπίτω[ν] δαδοῦχοί ς]. “ΤῸ unknown gods Capito torchbearer.” See also P Giss I. 325. (A.D. 117) ἥκω σοι, ὦ δῆμ[ε], οὐκ ἄγνωστος Φοῖβος θεός, where the description of Φοῖβος as οὐκ ἄγνωστος may be due, as the editor suggests, to the fact that he was the god of the special district in question. Cf. also BGU II. 5908 (A.D. 177-8), where γεν]ομένων ἀγνώστων ἡμεῖν refers to two (divine !) Caesars, Commodus and his great father. ‘© Agnostos Theos” is the title of an elaborate monograph by E. Norden (Leipzig, 1913), in which he makes the Areopagus speech in Ac 17 the starting-point for a series of discussions on the history of the forms of religious speech.

ἄγνωστος (agnōstos) — unknown. ἄγνωστος, ον, unknown, τινί[Refs 8th c.BC+]; unheard of, forgotten,[Refs 5th c.BC+]; unfamiliar, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

2. not to be known, ἄγνωστόν τινα τεύχειν[Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἀγνωστστατοι γλῶσσαν most unintelligible in tongue, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. not an object of knowledge, unknowable, ἄλογα καὶ ἄ.[Refs 5th c.BC+]; in comparative, harder to know, [Refs]adverb -τως[Refs 5th c.AD+]

4. as the name of a divinity at Athens, νὴ τὸν Ἄγνωστον Ps.-[NT+2nd c.AD+]

II. active, notknowing, ignorant of, ψευδέων[Refs 5th c.BC+]adverb -τως inconsiderately, [Refs 1st c.BC+]