ACTS 17:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed (pareoxyneto, paroxysmos) to see that the city was full of idols — The verb paroxysmos (to provoke or irritate sharply) echoes Paul's emotional investment: his spirit is provoked or agitated by the pervasive idolatry. This is not detached observation but visceral theological response.
Church Fathers on Acts 17:16
Observe how he meets with greater trials among the Jews than among the Gentiles. Thus in Athens he undergoes nothing of this kind; the thing goes as far as ridicule, and there an end: and yet he did make some converts: whereas among the Jews he underwent many perils; so much greater was their hostility against him.— His spirit, it says, was roused within him when he saw the city all full of idols. Nowhere else were so many objects of worship to be seen. But again
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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