Paul’s Gospel to the Greeks in Athens who knew next to little about Moses, the covenants and the promises is a remarkable sermon. He was speaking to Epicureans and Stoics. Epicureans were derived from a Philosopher named, Epicurus (340-270 BCE). Epicurus wrote, “Accustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply sentience, and death is the privation of all sentience;… Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.” There is no afterlife.
The Stoics, on the other hand, was a rival philosophy. Zeno of Citium (on the Island of Cyprus) taught in the fourth century BCE. He eventually found his way to Athens and his followers gathered on the “painted porch” (Greek, stoa, or ‘porch’, from stoa poikile or ‘painted porch’ located in Athens), from whence the named, Stoicism is derived. Paul’s Aereopagite Sermon (Acts 17.22-ff) is directed to them. By the time of Paul, both Epicureanism and Stoicism were well developed and well known philosophies. Although rival philosophies, which is not the subject of this paper, they did stand in agreement that there was no afterlife in terms of individuals. For the Stoics, “nature” is God itself. Time has neither a beginning nor an end. There is no “history” since it is “infinite” and “cyclical”. There is no beginning, there is no end. Epicureanism and Stoicism were well developed and well known philosophies. Although rival philosophies, which is not the subject of this paper, they did stand in agreement that there was no afterlife in terms of individuals. For the Stoics, “nature” is God itself. Time has neither a beginning nor an end. There is no “history” since it is “infinite” and “cyclical”. There is no beginning, there is no end.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 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, 25 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 of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;1 as even some of your own poets have said, “‘ For we are indeed his offspring.’ 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. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (English Standard Version, Acts 17.22-31).
Paul first confronts them with terms they would know. The idea of the kosmos (world) being made – a cosmogony – was a topic often debated among the Greek elites. Paul proclaims the worldview of the Hebrews: God made the world and all that is in it, and he is the Lord of both heaven and earth since he made them in the beginning. God is in no need of anything in terms of his “being”. God is not locally confined to buildings – and whether these philosophers were familiar with Judaism and their temple cult or not, Paul said, “temples” in the plural, and that would include the one in Jerusalem. God is omnipresent.
Being served “by human hands” is also a nod towards religious offerings. He doesn’t need them, nor are they required. What could one offer to God that is not already his, or not already given life to by him? Every man’s breath is in the operation of God. Again, Paul is preaching – without quoting any verse – from the Hebrew Scriptures. Appealing again to Genesis, God made “one man” and from him every nation of all came into being. He made the world and ‘everything’ in it. Paul then moves to quote two of their poets. The first line is a bit fuzzy, but many associate it with the poet, Epimenides. The latter line, “we are his offspring” speaks of Aratus, who lived in the fourth and third centuries BCE:
Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.
For every
street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
Even the
sea and the harbour are full of this deity.
Everywhere
everyone is indebted to Zeus.
For we
are indeed his offspring …
—
Phaenomena 1–5
What was directed to Zeus, Paul reinterprets to speak of the God of Genesis. Paul incorporated pagan themes which could be restructured with his own Hebrew religion and demonstrates what is today called, “cross cultural communication.” After all, God made Aratus and Epimenides, too.
“God is not far from each one of us” is simply another way of saying, “The Lord is near”. And, it is here that I wish to make the point. Paul’s eschatology is hardly rooted in his knowledge that Jesus spoke of “armies surrounding Jerusalem” at some point. This he knew. Here, to these Greeks, he utterly fails to mention it. Instead, God has fixed “a day” in which he will “judge the world” (the world he made and everything in it) through “a man”. The man, Messiah Yeshua. The world is going to be judged on a day by a human being: the son of man. And God has demonstrated this fact by raising this human being up from the dead. This man, still very much alive, will (in the future) judge the world on a fixed day. Now, remember, this is the same world that God made, and everything in it. The world God made that came “from one man” and the “nations” that came from him. Paul has incorporated the entire history of the world up to this fixed, certain “day” in which a risen human being will judge it. That’s what he is saying. The “world” will end. This was entirely foreign to these Greeks. They had no final “end”. They had an infinite, cyclical recurrence/rebirth of the Cosmic Nature (for the Stoics, that was Reason, which was material, and for the Epicureans, there wasn’t really anything). Paul’s view of History, with a Beginning and an End was entirely foreign to the Greeks. The idea that “history” was “progressing” to a “fixed day” or point in which all things within history would reach their zenith in perfection (for those who believe), and an eternal judgment for those who did not was Jewish, not Greek. It gave “purpose” to history, and, thus, “history” as we know it was born into the modern era.
Now, it is an interesting point in grammar that Paul mentioned only the resurrection (anastasis) of Jesus. In fact, the Greek is emphatic: having raised him out of the dead ones (plural). Only one previously dead man has been “raised out of the dead ones”: Jesus. Yet, “when they heard ‘resurrection of dead ones’, they scoffed”. The phrasing for the singular resurrection of Jesus “out of” the dead ones was combined in the minds of these Greeks with ‘he will judge the world’. How will this man, Jesus, “judge the world” that has been long dead for thousands of years in many cases, “from the beginning” when all things were made until this “fixed day”? If this man is going to judge the world – the inhabitants of the world (Greek) – then it follows by strong logic that he has to raise them: there will be a resurrection of the dead (plural). The resurrection of the dead occurs on the “day” when this man, Christ Jesus, who is now risen from the dead (the dead were not risen when Paul preached this) will judge them. He cannot judge “the nations” that have come “from one man” thousands of years ago (who are well dead) unless he raises them so that they will “stand in judgment”. These Greeks got the message. They scoffed at such an idea. It was entirely foreign to them.
Now, what would such a ‘resurrection of dead ones’ look like? “[A]nd he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” Confirmation of what? Resurrection and judgment. For who? “All.” Now, if Jesus is described here as a human being who died, was buried and is now alive, risen from the dead, who will judge the world (the inhabitants of the world) from Adam onward, then “the dead” who are to be raised must be the same inhabitants of the world from the beginning until then. The “dead” are not “raised” until the “fixed day”. They are not “raised” in any piece meal fashion. They are not “raised” when they happen to expire. They are raised on the day when they are judged; all of them at once. What started with “one man” ends with the Judgment of One Man. This “one man” was created on a day. This other One Man will raise all that came from him on a day. The last day.
Such is Paul’s Eschatology in a nutshell. It does not include 70 AD. It nowhere even hints at the coming catastrophe of wars (66-70 AD; 115 AD; 135 AD) to befall the Jewish people. It does not mention anything at all but the fact that there is coming a day in which a human being who has been raised from the dead and is still very much alive in his risen-from-the-dead-state will judge all mankind at once.
Vigilate et Orate 