Knowing the Unknown God

Saturday, May 13, 2023

During one of St. Paul’s travels through Greece, he had come to the city of Athens where we read that “he was provoked within him” that the city was full of idols. (Acts 17:16-31) As was Paul’s custom, he would come to the Jewish synagogues to “reason with them”. In the nearby marketplace, crowds would form as some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers would converse with Paul. The Epicureans—like most people of that day in the Mediterranean region—believed in God but, more like today, they spoke and thought as if they intimately knew what the Greek gods were thinking, able to predict the gods’ motives and next moves. The Epicureans of the first century AD did not believe in an afterlife and therefore concluded humans would not be held accountable for the lives they lived. They were quite hedonistic: eat, drink, and be merry. The Stoics believed it was their highest duty, purpose to practice reason. (The Rev. Dr. Richard Balge, Concordia People’s Commentary, CPH)

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