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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
philosophers, &c. = of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Only occurance of philosophos. The Epicureans were followers of Epicurus (342-279 B.C.) who held that pleasure was the highest good, while the Stoics were disciples of Zeno (about 270 B.C.) who taught that the supreme good was virtue, and man should be free from passion and moved by neither joy nor grief, pleasure nor pain. They were Fatalists and Pantheists. The name came from the porch (Greek. stoa) where they met.
encountered. Greek. sumballo. See note on Act_4:15.
will, &c. = would this babbler wish (Greek. thelo. App-102.) to say.
babbler. Greek. spermologos = seed-picker. Only here. Used of birds, and so applied to men who gathered scraps of information from others.
other some = and some.
a setter forth = a proclaimer. Greek. katangeleus. Compare App-121. Only here. Compare the verb in verses: Act_17:3, Act_17:13, Act_17:23.
strange = foreign. Greek. xenos. An adjective, but generally translated stranger, ("man" understood), as in Act_17:21.
gods = demons. Greek. daimonion. Occurs sixty times, fifty-two times in the Gospels. Only here in Acts. Translated "devils" in Authorized Version and Revised Version (margin demons) except here.
preached. Greek. euangelizo. App-121.
resurrection. Greek. anastatis. App-178. They were accustomed to personify abstract ideas, as victory, pity, &c, and they may have thought that Jesus and the resurrection were two new divinities. One charge against Socrates was that of introducing new divinities.