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Act 17:23. Διερχόμενος, in passing through) Paul did not wish to stay long at Athens: he ordered Silas and Timothy as soon as possible to come to him; and yet before their arrival he left Athens: Act 17:15-16, ch. Act 18:1; Act 18:5. Therefore he implies, that he has no want of something to do, even though the Athenians should not give heed to Paul. He shows by the fact itself that he is no “seed-picker.”-ἀναθεωρῶν, beholding) All things may serve the purposes of a wise man, whatever he may come across; but out of many he chooses out the best, as Paul refers to the one altar, dismissing other instances which he might have adduced.-σεβάσματα) works, founded for sacred purposes [gods worshipped, 2Th 2:4].-ἐπεγέγραπτο, there had been inscribed) The Pluperfect, used courteously. To the Athenians of the existing age, when Paul spoke there, might be ascribed either a greater or less degree of ignorance, than to the authors of the inscription.-ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ, To an UNKNOWN GOD) Not even was the article added by the Athenians. Diogenes Laertius says, “When the Athenians, at one time, suffered under a pestilence, Epimenides purified the city, and restrained the plague in this way: He took sheep of black and white fleeces, and led them to the Areopagus, and permitted them to go from it in whatever direction they pleased; instructing those who followed them, wherever the sheep lay down there to immolate them severally τῷ προσήκοντι Θεῷ, to the appropriate or peculiarly fitting God: and in this way the plague ceased. Accordingly from that time, and in the present day, it is certain that altars without a name, βωμοὺς ἀνωνύμους, are found throughout the districts (pagos) of the Athenians.” Pausanias says, that there were in Phalerum βωμοὺς θεῶντε δνομαζομένων ἀγνώστων καὶ ἡρώων· which words ought, it seems, to be so stopped as to make some to be θεοὺς ὀνομαζομένους, gods having names, others to be ἀγνώστους, unknown gods. Philostratus, 6. 2, says, σωθρονέστερον περὶ πάντων θεῶν εὖ λέγειν, καὶ ταῦτα Ἀθήνῃσιν, οὗ καὶ ἀγνώστων θεῶν βωμοὶ ἵδρυνται. Tertullian against Marcion, says, “I find that altars have been publicly set up (prostitutes) to gods altogether unknown, but it is an Attic idolatry.” The Greek Scholia bring forward this inscription, θεοῖς Ἀσίας καὶ Εὐρώπης καὶ Λυβίης, θεῷ ἀγνώστῳ καὶ ξένω. But they do not produce any witness of this inscription. Jerome, in his Comment. on the Ep. to Titus: “The inscription of the altar was not in the precise form which Paul asserted, To the Unknown God; but in this form, To the gods of Asia and Europe and Africa (Aphricæ); to the unknown and foreign or strange gods. But because Paul’s purpose did not require a number of unknown gods, but only one unknown God, he has used the singular number to show, that He whom the Athenians had thus designated beforehand in the inscription on the altar is his own God.” Comp. the note of C. Reineccius on this passage. On weighing all the data, and comparing them one with the other, it is evident that there was at first a certain one altar, having this inscription, To the Unknown GOD, namely, to that one Supreme God, the Founder of all things, inscrutable to mortals: and according to the pattern of this altar, which was erected according to the mind of the ancient philosophers, and not at variance with the enigma of Epimenides, the Athenians erected several others, dedicated to the Unknown God; until, as superstition always degenerates into a more corrupt form, some persons inscribed often one altar to the unknown gods conjointly, thinking that among so many gods they would find one God at least who would attend and be propitious. And it is to this that the employment of the Pluperfect, ἐπεγέγραπτο, had been inscribed, refers, viz. that Paul may intimate that the old form, to the Unknown God, is truer than the more recent forms, to the unknown gods. So Lucan, lib. ii., “dedita sacris Incerti Judæa Dei” Judea devoted to the worship of an Uncertain or Unknown God. The Philopatris of Lucian has these words: τὸν ἐν Ἀθήναις ἄγνωστον ἐφευρόντες, Finding the Unknown One, who is at Athens; which is a not obscure allusion to Luke. Gellius, B. ii. c. 28, mentions something not dissimilar concerning the Romans.-εὐσεβεῖτε, ye worship) A mild word, addressed to the Gentiles.-τοῦτον, Him) Paul fixes definitely the vague intention of the blinded Athenians. I preach or announce to you, saith he, One unknown, but nevertheless not strange (referring to their words, Act 17:18).-ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω, I announce) whatever ye may think concerning me.