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Acts 17:16-34

Posted: May 19th, 2021, 9:16 am
by Barry Hofstetter
A few thoughts from my "devotional" GNT reading this morning:

I find Acts 17:16-34 fascinating for a number of reasons, but in reading through it this morning was struck by the vocabulary that the "philosophers" used to describe their initial impression of Paul. Specifically:

σπερμολόγος, originally used to describe birds hunting for seeds, in this context a 'word-picker." It's generally pejorative, and implies a kind of random approach, combining words in a way that doesn't make much sense.

καταγγελεύς, simply a herald who announced the games or one who proclaims anything. I suspect it also might be pejorative, but the word doesn't appear in enough contexts to be sure, and it could also likely be simply a neutral term. Here the genitive object is ξένων δαιμονίων, "strange divinities."

My narrow point here is simply that the NT uses quite different vocabulary to describe the same things, and that what we are seeing is the Stoics and Epicureans beginning to process what Paul is saying through their own grid, their own world view. Paul's response is nothing short of brilliant, as he turns the tables on them and uses their vocabulary and even their literature to structure the gospel in a way that frames it in the philosophers' world view.