ACTS 17:21 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)”
All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent all their time doing nothing but talking about the latest ideas — Luke's characterization of Athenian intellectual culture as novelty-seeking (to neoteron) and conversational is historically resonant with both Thucydides and contemporary sources. The city's philosophical efflorescence has become detached from urgent truth-seeking.
Church Fathers on Acts 17:21
May we know what is this new doctrine spoken of by you? For you bring certain strange matters to our ears Acts 17:20: everywhere novelty is the charge: we would fain know therefore, what these things may mean. It was a city of talkers, that city of theirs. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill, and said, You men of Athens, I look upon you…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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