θεοῦ θέλοντος – theosthelō– that is: IF GOD WILLS. Not only is this Paul’s response to many who urge the Apostle to stay longer on his second missionary journey, but once the Apostle returns home we will see this familiar approach in a third missionary journey.
God wills it.
WHY has the Apostle to the Gentiles remained in Corinth ACAIA for a year and a half?
We might easily ask WHY DID JESUS convict Paul fourteen years ago on a road to Damascus and then five years ago send the Apostle who had persecuted Christ’s followers with Barnabas to Cypress and Galatia back in A.D. 47?
Appearances of the Lord embolden the apostles and followers of Christ.
We haven’t thought of Peter much during Paul’s two missionary journeys, but do you recall how his visions emboldened this Jewish fisherman? He will soon write [in A.D. 64]:
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
Once God said, I am with you, Paul proclaimed Christ to the Corinthians for 18 months.
18:12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal..
17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.
The Lord Jesus had appeared to the Apostle AND spoken to him in a dream.
Paul the Apostle was unafraid because of what God said.
And how comforting to have the Word assure us that NO HARM will come to us due to our witness of the Gospel of Truth.
Before we leave Greece & ACHAIA
What god said differs according to traditions and culture.
(IF your god is NO God at all THEN human flesh will seek its own desires.)
Athens and Corinth
more about the resurrection?
Although I have already emphasized the impact of culture on Paul's troubles with the Gentile cultures, due to the ongoing importance to his 3rd missionary journey as well as 21st century of the Common Era idolatries let's consult additional commentaries as a summary.
In Paul’s day, Corinth was already an ancient city. It was a commercial center with two harbors and had long been a rival to its northern neighbor, Athens.
Corinth was a city with a remarkable reputation for loose living and especially sexual immorality. In classical Greek, to act like a Corinthian meant to practice fornication, and a Corinthian companion meant a prostitute. This sexual immorality was permitted under the widely popular worship of Aphrodite (also known as Venus, the goddess of fertility and sexuality).
(Pick your 21st c. C.E. city parading its sin. Not so different.)
From Athens to Corinth,
from intellectual pride to sensual lust. – Bill Acton
“There had been culture shock in Athens, and now Paul experienced moral shock in Corinth. Its sweat and perfume and grit smothered Paul’s righteous soul, and he became depressed.” (Hughes)
The duration of Paul’s stay in Corinth shows where his heart was in ministry. He was no “in and out” evangelist, but a man committed to making disciples.
Allow me the liberty to move Luke's account of ACTS 18 from good narrative into chronological order of events.
18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers..
At Cenchreae [21st c. Kechries] he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.
and with him Priscilla and Aquila (native of Pontus, Jews from Rome deported to Corinth).
and [they] set sail for Syria (with stops in other port cities).
19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them [Priscilla and Aquilla] there
but he himself [Paul] went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
Once again some Jews are responsive to the Gospel of their obviously Jewish brother. All they had to do was take a look at the Apostle's shaved head symbolizing his Nazarite vow.
20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,”
and he set sail from Ephesus.
by way of Jerusalem
22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
.. but now he commands all people everywhere to repent– Acts 17:30 ESV
Had this been the 20th century you might have expected an altar call at Mars Hill as public witness of the Apostle’s anointed mission. But that’s not what he did.
In fact, Paul left town and headed for a new province of Achia and the larger city of Corinth (for Athens was now but a rebuilt remnant of its former ancient glory).
AND as often happens, once Paul proclaims Christ at the risen Son of the Living God the Apostle’s preaching this Good News to the intelligentsia of Athens yields mixed results. The truth of the Gospel sows more seeds of controversy into the hearts of sinners who must confront our own mortality, death and judgment.
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
The philosophers among the learned men of Athens had already chosen sides in their entrenched idolatries of self. These men suggesting a willingness to hear more from Paul only sought to use this preacher of foreign gods to support their own unending philosophical debates.
The Apostle must have also wondered if the Jews of Athens might soon provoke discord in the crowds as had happened recently as the Paul and Silas had fled Thessalonica then Berea?
(Many of the Jews did not believe in resurrection or apply the prophesies of their own Scriptures to the leaven of culture in their daily 'better-than-thou' lives.)
To the Jew who does NOT believe in resurrection death is the end of life — the end of a brief mortal time God gives to Jews and Gentiles alike. DEATH may come as a penalty of righteous men to put an END to the unrighteous. But even the righteous will expire once the LORD has blessed their mortal days.
The pagan Greeks and pagan Romans, however, worshipped idols of their own making and mythology, molded by the manifold desires of their creatively sinful flesh and guiltless justification of their wicked minds.
The GREEK and ROMAN gods were DEAD monuments of STONE with no authority over the living worshipers of the temples who willfully indulgenced in wickedness.
So Paul went out from their midst.
But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
At Tarsus, Paul certainly had opportunities for hearing Stoic lectures on philosophy. .. Although not a Stoic technical term, syneidēsis, which Paul used as “conscience,” was generally employed by Stoic philosophers. In 1 Corinthians 13 and in the report of Paul’s speech at Athens (Acts 17), there is much that is Hellenistic, more than a little tinged by Stoic elements—e.g., the arguments concerning the natural belief in God and the belief that human existence is in God.
And as we know well from his persecution by the Jews, Paul’s Gospel was not seen as good news to many Jews to whom the Apostle to the gentiles generally sought to convince first in a new town that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ predicted by Scripture.
The JEWS know God’s LAW and read the Prophets who warned them in the past to REPENT.
NOW, the Apostle provides the same proof of the LORD’s COMMAND to Jew and Gentile alike.
Proof of Judgment (and the One to Judge)
The Apostle Paul has no reason to return to the centuries-extended debates of Greek philosophers or Jewish parties to traditions formed when God kept silent after speaking through His Prophets.
πίστις
Pistis – a word Paul uses here translated in the English Standard Version of the Bible as PROOF – provides an insight into his closing of a logical argument stated before his listeners in the areopagus.
The same Greek word is translated in the New Testament (King James Version) can also be translated as assurance or belief, even as fidelity; but beyond our limited English understanding most times [239x in KJV] pistis is translated as faith.
Our 21st century faith seems to lack assurance and proof, let along fidelity to the One God our Lord. Never-the-less, study from Strong's definition Lexicon :: Strong's G4102 - pistis
the better understanding of Paul's audience of first century philosophers.
conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it
fidelity, faithfulness – A. the character of one who can be relied on
And Paul, looking intently at him [a man lame from birth] and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
This incident of PROOF had occurred on the Apostles' first missionary journey and Paul had returned to them on this current mission.
Same word -- and just after this listen to how Paul uses it in witnessing the PROOF of the Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit to the church.
27 And when they arrived [returned to the church in Antioch Syria] and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things
relating to God
the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ
relating to Christ
a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God
NOW, Paul uses this same word [pistis] referring to Jesus Christ as PROOF even to the Greeks. And how is CHRIST PROOF?
In act and deed GOD has provided the PROOF by the resurrection of Jesus — an act of FAITH proven which NO MAN could do (who is not God). AND by this PROOF men must believe the command of GOD TO REPENT.
because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead..
God IS.
God excused your ignorance (as your philosophers sought to argue for or against the Him who created the heavens and the earth and all mankind.
God now commands all men to repent, for He as set a day to judge the world in righteousness. (Of course NO man is righteous, no not one.)
God appointed a righteous JUDGE to judge YOU and the world.
(NOT by condemning you to death which is inevitable for moral beings, but after YOU die! (No human EVER escapes DEATH! — that is, except the One Man anointed by God to JUDGE our faith in Him.)
Paul could have returned to Mars Hill to debate with philosophers who continuously look for a new argument about life, death, resurrection, God or gods and how we should live in some semblance of righteousness. Even twenty-one centuries later the debates of the philosophers still seek their own new truths.
Some will respond to the GOOD NEWS of God. MANY will continue the debate in unbelief.
The Apostle, therefore, journeys on to ACHAIA and Corinth where they will nurture and build yet another church for more than a year before Paul’s return to SYRIA.
ACTS of the Apostles [18] – To Be Continued… in Corinth
The Hill of Ares or Mars’ Hill, depending on language reference of Greek or Roman for the god of war.
The Apostle Paul is about to make an important speech to the Romans and Hellenists studying in Athens in ~A.D. 50 at the university lecture hall of the day which sits atop a hill facing the crumbling 5th c. B.C. temples of Athena and many idols.
(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. – Acts of the Apostles 17:16
Visiting Professor Paulus teaches on the topic of an unknown God addressing stoics, epicureans and other religious professors of idolatrous worship graciously.
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
Acts 17:22b ESV
Those claiming Christ in this 21st century A.D. would do well to address unbelievers and idolaters with the same grace as Paul employed in the first century A.D. in the beginning of his apostleship into all the world of the gentiles.
What is Paul’s outline of a logical approach to the proclamation of the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST?
The Apostle to the Gentiles points toward the incarnation of Christ as a pivotal recent event in the timeline of human history as part of GOD’S timeless plan for mankind.
God who made the world
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
ACTS 17:23b NKJV – of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus
The religious men and other men of Athens, as well as religious Romans adding their own iconic monuments to the Athens’ landscape of religious festivals, admittedly could not possibly know every god.
Therefore, Paul begins from their own documented conclusion. They need to hear what I have to proclaim about the TRUE GOD Romans and Greeks do not know.
(And God is NOT just the God of the Hebrews worshiped in Jerusalem.)
Who IS the GOD WHO MADE THE WORLD?
(Certainly not Zeus who was not in the beginning, nor the goddess Athena — but Paul does not even need to state this accepted timeline from mythology which does not worship the very God of creation.)
α – θεός (theos) does not live in temples made by man
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation (ethnos) of mankind (anthrōpos) to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him.
Although contemporary twisting of imagery limits such use of an archaic word, I like the more literal translation of this picture of man groping for God, as a blind person reaches near for that which can be touched.
.. in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us
Now our Professor of Theology, Paul of Cilicia, quotes two poets likely studied by the university he addresses -- NOT Hebrew poets such as David or Solomon -- NOT Jesus, whose many teachings have become well-known these past twenty years -- but GREEK or Hellenist poets revered by the university of classical thought in Athens.
One is likely from Crete, where earlier along with Barnabas, Paul professed Christ to the gentiles. Paul also quotes a classical Greek poet from the forth century B.C. - source
Paul's introduction of the One God (of the Hebrews) is non-confrontational, providing an outline of God's plan to have all people of all cultures and all nations seek and find the Living God at a time appointed by Him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Paul could have quoted Jesus here, who quoted David, but instead the Apostle to the Gentiles quotes their own learned teachers.
δ – οὖν – therefore as God’s offspring
The question never-the-less remains the same: WHAT IF GOD created YOU?
(It’s not simply a question of ONLY the FIRST MAN {adam}, therefore the Apostle leaves no room for arguments of philosophers backing him into a creation corner.)
What if we are SONS (& DAUGHTERS) of the Living God?
WHAT IF GOD CONSIDERS ME FAMILY?
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Do you think of your own mother or your own father as one of these idolatrous worshiped things? Of course not!
YET if you belong to GOD's own family with your LIVING human father and mother as progeny of the LIVING GOD and Creator of all life, how can you worship your loving God like a stone, a man-made myth or self-breathed thoughts?
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked,
ε – θεός νῦν παραγγέλλω – theosis now declaring
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,
Acts 17:30 CSB
ζ – ἄνθρωπος πανταχοῦ μετανοέω – ALL men everywhere repent
The apostle to the Hellenists and Romans proclaims a STRONG authoritative choice to listeners in the Areopagus: GOD 'winked' (says the King James Version) but now commandeth all men every where to repent!
REPENT, therefore, sons and daughters of the Living God!
For YOU are no longer ignorant.
And WHY should you REPENT?
WHY turn back to the Living God?
η – ἡμέρα κρίνω οἰκουμένη – a day he will judge righteousness
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed;
Can WE SAVE the earth anymore than WE can save our own FLESH and BLOOD from DEATH and destruction?
But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
SO is this professor of the unknown god proclaiming that his teaching must be given authority over all other schools of thought about our gods?
WHO IS THIS MAN Paulus of Cilicia claims will JUDGE all of mankind?
and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:31b CSB
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
