# Acts Chapter 17
---
## Summarrium
Paul, Timothy and Silas travel to Thessalonica where they are rejected by the Jewish population at the synagogue and a riot breaks out. The accusation being that Paul et al have 'turned the world upside-down'. Departing Thessalonica they travel to Berea where they are well received by the Jews. However the Jewish population from Thessalonica hear of their presence and incite agitation in Berea causing Paul to depart, leaving Silas and Timothy behind.

Paul arrives at Athens where he is concerned about the idolatry of the city. He converses with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and others who wish to know 'what these things mean'. Paul makes links to the altar of the unknown God stating that God made the world, does not live in temples, and gives life to all mankind and everything that he has. Some reject the resurrection but others believe or wish to hear more.


## Meditatio
A few things have struck me about this chapter, most of which have to do with Pauls adventure in Athens. Paul meets the Epicurean and Stoics who maintain two very distinct philosophical positions.

Epicureans believe that the goal of life is to attain simple pleasures, tranquility and that absence of pain; distinct from hedonism which is an indulgence in sensual pleasures. The Stoics in contrast considered virtue the highest good attainable by man; claiming that through reason and knowledge we life in harmony with the divine logos that governs nature.

Interestingly we might see this as the common man who lives to avoid suffering and the principled man who lives according to a clear and universal moral standard. Perhaps this is an over simplification, but to mention both schools suggests some significance to our understanding of the context.

Paul's message is a strange message to their ears. The Jewish population are almost correct when they claim in verse 6 that the apostles[^1] have '*turned the world upside down*'. 

God is not manifest within a statute like all the other gods of the city, God does not inhabit a temple and God does not need sacrifices. He made all things and already has all things. Typically Gods are represented in a statue a manifest expression of the idea they represent. Typically Gods have temples and require sacrifices. 

The apostles[^1] therefore have brought news of how *Christ* has turned the world on it's head. This is a radically new kind of religion the likes of which the Greeks had never before encountered.

It is understandable that the resurrection would become a sticking point for some. Many philosophical[^3] traditions maintained that the soul was immortal, whilst the body temporary and inferior. The idea of bodily resurrection would have been difficult for some Greeks to accept because it contradicted their understanding of the afterlife; the body seen as a prison for the soul released in death. Indeed transmigration of the soul was something that the Greeks had believed in since the pre-Socratic Pythagoras and even the great sage believed the body and Soul were separate[^2].

[^1]: Using the term in it's greek definition *apostolos* meaning; those 'messengers' or 'sent ones' to Thessalonica rather than the office it has come to represent in protestant Christianity.
[^2]: Socrates, in the Phaedo makes an argument that he is not his body.
[^3]: Translates as "Philo" (Friendship love) "Sophia" (Wisdom).