(མཛད་པ། 17:1-9)

 

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, and its Greek city authorities had been granted autonomy by the Romans.

Paul stayed with Jason, and preached in the synagogue so successfully that many non-Jewish believers in Almighty God were convinced that Jesus was God’s Messiah. But the local Jews became jealous of his success.

The charge brought against him and Silas that they were preaching rebellion against Rome had to be viewed seriously by the city authorities; so they took measures to keep a close watch on their helpers.

Read on to find how these brothers helped Paul and Silas to escape.

(མཛད་པ། 17:10-15)

 

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

(Acts 17:10-15)

 

Again all went well at first as the Beroean Jews took care to check Paul’s teaching in the light of what is written in God’s Holy Book.

But then trouble came, and the believers escorted Paul to safety, taking him by ship all the way to Athens.

Athens was a city where free debate of ideas, including religion, was encouraged and not checked by secret police, and where democracy had been practised for a long time. It is the capital of modern Greece.

(མཛད་པ། 17:16-21)

 

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. (Acts 17:16-21)

 

In Athens then – as in our modern world now – apart from idol-worshippers and the devout there were also cultured people who followed many philosophies, such as the seeking of material good, and obedience to the moral duty of man. When Paul spoke, what struck them was his preaching about a man, of one who rose, he said. That a dead body had risen was something new to them, and so strange that some of them took his words to be mere meaningless rubbish.

So they took him to the Areopagus, an open-air place where a crowd could enjoy hearing him, and after that perhaps the Areopagite Court would pass a verdict on what he had to say.