Acts 17:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“On which was written: To the unknown God.” What does this mean? The Athenians at various times received various gods, even foreign ones, such as the goddess Minerva and Pan from other lands.

Fearing that there might yet be some other god unknown to them, but honored in some other place, they set up an altar to him also, for greater security.

Since this god was unknown, they wrote: “To the unknown God.” This God, Paul says, is Jesus Christ, or rather, the God of all.

“Whom therefore you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.” See how he proves that they had received Him even before. “I propose nothing strange,” he says, “nothing new.”

They had kept saying to him, “What is this new teaching which you speak? For you bring certain strange things to our ears.” Therefore he immediately removes their prejudice.

He found in the city not a sacred book, but an altar standing there, the altar of an idol. He found the inscription “to the unknown God” and did not pass it by.

By means of the inscription on the altar, holy Paul, having the grace of the Spirit, destroyed that altar. He did not overlook what the idolatrous Athenians had written.

Let us see what benefit came from the inscription. He entered the city and found an altar on which was written “to the unknown God.” What ought he to have done?

Should he have spoken from the Gospels? Then there would have been mockery. Or from the Prophets? They would not have believed. What, then, did he do?

He ran to the altar and conquered them with the weapons of their enemies. This is what he says: “I have become all things to all.” “To the Jews I became as a Jew.” “To those under the law, as under the law” (1 Cor 9:22, 20).

Thus Paul found in Athens an altar on which was written: “To the unknown God.” Who was this unknown one, if not Christ?

Do you see how he “took captive” this inscription, not to the harm of those who had written it, but for their salvation and benefit?

What then, they will say? Did the Athenians write it for Christ? If the Athenians had written it for Christ, that would not be so wondrous. The wonder is that they wrote it in one sense, while he could give the same thing another meaning.

First of all, it is necessary to say why the Athenians wrote: “To the unknown God.” Why did they write it? They had many gods, or rather, many demons, because “all the gods of the nations are idols” (Ps 95:5).

They had both ancestral and foreign gods. See how laughable this is. If He is God, He cannot be foreign, because He is the Master of the whole universe.

Thus they received some gods from their fathers and others from neighboring nations, such as from the Scythians, Thracians, and Egyptians. If you were versed in outside learning, I would tell you all these stories.

Since they had not received all the gods from the beginning, but the gods had been introduced among them little by little, some from the ancestors and others in their own generation, they gathered and spoke to one another.

“As we did not know these at first, and then afterward received and acknowledged them, so it may happen that there is another unknown one, the true God, unknown to us. Because of our ignorance, He is being neglected by us and not honored.”

What came of this? They set up an altar and wrote: “To the unknown God.” By the inscription they expressed this: “If there is some other God still unknown to us, we will honor Him also.”

Look at their extreme superstition. Therefore Paul also said at the beginning of his speech: “I perceive that in all things you are, as it were, especially religious” (Acts 17:22).

For you honor not only the gods known to you, but also those still unknown to you. They wrote “to the unknown God” for the reason stated, but Paul explained it in this way.

They said this about other gods, but he turned the same thing toward Christ. He took captive the meaning of the inscription and placed it with himself in his own ranks.

“This One,” he says, “Whom you worship without knowing, I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23), because the unknown God is none other than Christ.

Look at his spiritual prudence. They could accuse him in this way: “You propose a strange teaching to our hearing. You introduce novelties. You introduce a God whom we do not know.”

Therefore, wishing to remove suspicion of innovation and show that he was not preaching a new God, but the One whom they had already honored in worship before, he added: “This One, Whom you worship without knowing, I proclaim to you.”

“You anticipated me,” he says. “Your worship of God anticipated my preaching. Do not accuse me of introducing a new God. I proclaim Him Whom you worship without knowing.”

“You worship Him in a manner unworthy of Him, yet you do worship Him. For such an altar is not set up for Christ, but a living and spiritual one. Yet I can raise you from this to that.”

So the Jews also once worshiped God, but later departed from sensible worship and passed over to spiritual worship, when all believed.

Do you see Paul’s wisdom? Do you see his prudence? Do you see how he gained victory over them not by evangelical or apostolic sayings, but by means of an inscription?

Therefore, beloved, do not leave the inscriptions of the divine sayings without attention. If you are attentive and watchful, you will find something useful even in what is foreign.

But if you are negligent and careless, even the divine Scriptures will bring you no benefit. Just as one who knows how to gain profit gains it from everywhere, so one who does not know how remains empty-handed even if he finds a treasure.

Do you wish me to present another similar example, in which someone spoke with one meaning, while the Evangelist turned the power of what was said to his own advantage?

Listen attentively, so that you may understand how he too took the meaning captive to the obedience of Christ. Then you may know that if we can take what is foreign captive to ourselves, we will gain still greater benefit by laboring over what is our own.

Caiaphas was high priest that year. This resulted from the impiety of the Jews, because they degraded the dignity of the priesthood by making high priests purchasable.

Formerly it was not so. The priesthood of the high priest ended only with death. But then even the living were deprived of this honor.

Thus Caiaphas was high priest that year. He armed the Jews against Christ and said that He had to die, although he could accuse Him of nothing, but was consumed by envy.

Such is envy. Such is the way it repays benefactions. Therefore, presenting the reason for the plot, he said: “It is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish” (Jn 11:50).

See how the power of this saying was on our side, so that you may understand that, although these were the words of a priest, their meaning could become spiritual.

“It is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish.” “This,” the Evangelist says, “he did not say of himself,” but because he was high priest.

“Being high priest that year, he prophesied” that Christ was to die not only for the Jews, but also for all the nations (Jn 11:51).

Therefore he said that “it is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish.”

Do you see the power of God, how it compels the tongue of enemies to speak on behalf of the truth?

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.” He points, as it were, to a material example of this kind. It is impossible not to know the air, which is poured out everywhere and is not far from each of us.

Or rather, it is even in us. So it is also with the Creator of all. See how Paul ascribes everything to Him: providence, preservation, being, action, and the continuance of all things.

He did not say, “through Him,” but what indicates greater nearness: “in Him.” The poet who said, “For we are also His offspring,” said nothing like this.

The poet said it of Jupiter, but Paul refers it to the Creator. He does not understand the same being as the poet did. Far from it.

Rather, he applies to Him what was properly said of another. In the same way, he attributed the altar to Him and not to the one whom they honored.

Something was said and done that referred to Him, but the Greeks did not know that it referred to Him and referred it to another.

Tell me, of whom could “to the unknown God” properly be said, of the Creator or of a demon? Clearly of the Creator, although they did not know Him, while they did know the other.

When Paul came to Athens, he spoke to the Athenians not from the Prophets and not from the Gospels, but began his exhortation from the altar.

He did this not because he considered the altar more worthy of credibility than the Gospel, nor because the inscription made on that altar was more important than the prophetic writings.

He did it because he was speaking with pagans, who believed nothing of ours. Thus he caught them by means of their own teaching (Acts 17:23).

For this reason he says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew. To those outside the law, as outside the law, not being outside the law toward God, but under the law of Christ” (1 Cor 9:20-21).

The Old Testament acts in the same way when, speaking about God to the Jews, it says: “Who is like Thee, O Lord, among the gods?” (Ex 15:11).

Thus, when he arrived among the Athenians and found them all given over to idolatry, he did not begin to rebuke them or say, “You are atheists and complete impious men.”

He did not say, “You regard everything as God, and reject the only God, the Master and Creator of all.” What, then, did he say?

“Passing by,” he says, “and observing your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which was written, ‘To the unknown God.’ This One, Whom you worship without knowing, I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).

O wondrous thing! O fatherly heart! He called the Greeks reverent toward God, though they were idolaters and impious. Why?

Because, like the pious, they were performing their worship, thinking that they were honoring God and being themselves convinced of this.

I exhort all of you, and myself together with you, to imitate this. The Lord foresees the disposition of each person and knows what each of us will be.

He created this world in order to show fully His gifts and generosity. Although He did not create it for the evil, He counted even them worthy of common benefits, wishing all to imitate Him.

How, then, do you do the opposite, you who come to church and offer the sacrifice of the Son of God?

Do you not know that “a bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Isa 42:3)? What does this mean? Listen.

He did not reject Judas and those like him who had fallen, until each drew himself away by surrendering to delusion.

Do we not offer prayers for the ignorance of the people? Are we not commanded to pray for enemies who hate and persecute us?

Behold, we perform this ministry, and we exhort you. Ordination does not lead to lust for power. It does not dispose one to arrogance. It does not grant domination.

We have all received one and the same Spirit. We have all been called to adoption. Those whom the Father chose, He counted worthy to serve their brothers with authority.

Therefore, fulfilling this ministry, we exhort and adjure you to depart from such evil. The one whom you have decided to anathematize is either still alive in this mortal life, or he has already died.

If he is alive, you act impiously by cutting off one who is still in an uncertain condition and can turn from evil to good. If he has died, then this is still more so.

Why? Because “before his own Lord he stands or falls” (Rom 14:4), no longer being under human authority.

Besides, it is dangerous to pronounce one’s judgment about what is hidden with the Judge of the ages, Who alone knows the measure of knowledge and the degree of faith.

Tell me, I beg you, how do we know for what words he will fall under accusation, or how he will defend himself on that day when God judges the secret deeds of men?

The shrine had been set up by them for the following reason. Once a war broke out between the Athenians and their enemies. Having suffered defeat, they withdrew.

Since it was their custom to celebrate games in honor of demons, one of the demons appeared to them and said that he had not yet received any honor from them. Therefore he had become angry with them and had caused their defeat.

They built a temple to this demon. Then, as though fearing that the same thing might happen to them again if they passed over some God unknown to them, they set up a shrine with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God.’

Meanwhile, even one of the shepherds of Christ is sufficient to move away from the well even a very heavy stone. This means the veil and obscurity that envelop opinions about God.

After this, they present the truth clearly to the peoples, and do not cease showing them the one God, who is by nature and truly God.

So also blessed Paul, when he came to Athens, offered living water to the wise men there, saying: "Men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you are, as it were, especially religious," he says further.

"For as I passed by and observed your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which was written, 'To an unknown God.' Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you."

Their spiritual eyes were covered, as with a kind of mud, by the delusion of idols. They could not see for themselves the pious truth concerning Him Who Is. Yet, as if groping somewhat with their thoughts, they understood this one thing: that the Godhead is utterly incomprehensible, and that the Being above all is not by nature such as reason supposes Him to be. Therefore, confessing that the true God was unknown, they gave honor to the Unknown One by a shrine and an inscription. That their thought was turned toward the God Who truly is, the apostle himself bears witness. He proclaimed to them that God before whom they thought they were expressing their piety by honor at the shrine.

To Solomon belongs a wise saying about God: "The hardest thing of all is to conceive with the mind the invisible measure."

Indeed, how can one express in words what is neither genus, nor difference, nor species, nor indivisible unit, nor number? It is not any accidental quality, nor the ground of anything accidental.

It is impossible to express correctly and fully what He is. In His greatness He stands in relation to all things, and for all things He is Father.

One cannot speak of any part of Him, because the One is indivisible. Therefore He is also boundless, not understood as endless, but as immeasurable and without limits, and therefore without form and without name.

Concerning the shrine in Athens: every word recognized even by opponents is irrefutable and indisputable. Therefore one must speak with each people from what is customary for them.

So Paul acted, that treasurer of the thoughts of Christ. With the Jews he began his discourse from Scripture, and with the Athenians from the shrine.

Therefore he said, "To those without law I became as one without law" (1 Cor 9:21). As though one who had not heard the law, he offered his exhortation beginning from the shrine.

He did this not because he considered the shrine more worthy of belief than Scripture. Rather, he subjected those who did not believe the Scriptures by their own teachings.

Why was "To an unknown God" written on the shrine?

One cannot but approve their piety, which among the other altars set up one also to an unknown Divinity.

According to the meaning intended by those who made it, this inscription certainly did not mean that they were filled with reverence toward some unknown deity exalted above all other gods.

It meant only that, besides the known gods, they considered one more unknown God to be the cause of pleasant and unpleasant events that befell them.

This unknown element, with regard to the fullness of divine worship, is closely connected with polytheism. By His very nature He must be infinite.

But Paul gave this inscription a deeper meaning. He used it as a foundation for pointing out in it a higher striving, unrecognized by polytheism, yet lying at its basis.

In response to this invitation, the Apostle offers his hearers the evangelical preaching. He begins his speech by praising the piety of the Athenians. He says that he concludes this from the fact that, among other things, they have an altar inscribed: "To an unknown God."

Such a beginning, of course, had to dispose his hearers in his favor. Yet to designate this praiseworthy quality in the Athenians, he chooses a word that properly means superstition, a superstitious fear before the gods they venerate: δεισιδαιμονεστέρους.

By this very word he already makes a subtle indication. Their piety has not been duly illumined by truth, nor has it found due satisfaction.

The Apostle's saddened gaze once more passed over the rows of smoking altars of human unreason. On one of the altars his gaze was arrested by an inscription that read: "To an unknown God."

The Apostle's face brightened. At once he understood that the soul of the pagan Athenians also sought the true God, and unconsciously worshiped Him under the form of this "unknown God."

This encouraged the Apostle. As though feeling a new surge of mighty strength within himself, he quickly went to the city square (Acts 17:17).

The faces of those present lengthened in amazement. The words of the unknown preacher resounded with such confidence and power that the hazy speeches of the philosophers did not even offer their shadow.

Paul inferred the Athenians’ special and comparatively greater devotion especially from this fact. As he passed through and examined their sacred objects, that is, what they venerated, he saw temples, altars, statues of gods, and the like.

Among them he found an altar on which was written, ‘To an unknown God.’ As is clear from the testimony of the Greek secular writers themselves, especially Pausanias and Philostratus, there were several such altars in Athens.

It seems that some bore inscriptions in the plural, ‘to unknown gods,’ while others, or at least one, bore the singular inscription, ‘to an unknown God.’

Polytheism, in whatever form or stage of development, can never assure its followers that they worship all the gods.

The speech of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus is filled with deep content, great power, and perfection in its language. After an adaptive introduction, in which he briefly but substantially described the religious condition of the Athenians of that time (vv. 22-23), he then sets forth the fundamental teaching about God (vv. 24-25).

He speaks of God’s relation to men (vv. 26-27), from which follows the relation that men also must have toward Him (vv. 28-29). He calls them to repentance, threatening judgment by the Man who rose from the dead (vv. 30-31).

This speech will forever remain a model for all Christian preachers of the faith, and an eternal monument of Saint Paul’s God-inspired gift.