In July 2025, I visited Athens with my wife Bron and daughter Ellie. We went to see archaeological sites associated with the Apostle Paul. Here are some photos of the sites and museum exhibits. They help to provide context for New Testament texts associated with Athens. Enjoy!
Paul arrives in Athens
After the new believers were persecuted in Thessalonica, Paul and Silas left speedily. They came to Berea and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ in the synagogue there. The reception in Berea was was far more positive than it had been in Thessalonica (Acts 17:10–12). However, persecutors from Thessalonica followed Paul and Silas and continued stirring up unrest in Berea (Acts 17:13). So Paul was forced to leave yet again:
Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
(Acts 17:14–15 ESV)
It seems that Paul’s presence in Macedonia was deemed too dangerous for the volatile situation there. Paul was thus escorted by sea to Athens and left on his own there temporarily.
The Aegean sea route Paul took to Athens would have passed around the Southern coast of Attica towards the port of Piraeus. Here is a picture—taken from our ferry after we left Athens—of the view Paul would have seen of the coastline as he headed towards Athens:
Paul in the marketplace
Paul was in Athens to keep him away from trouble in Macedonia. But Paul wasn’t someone who easily stayed out of trouble!
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
(Acts 17:16 ESV)
Both Paul’s Jewish heritage and his belief in Jesus the Messiah led him to the strong conviction there is only one God, and that idols cannot be tolerated (see, e.g., Hosea 8:5).
Here are some of the statues, altars and temples in Athens that would have provoked Paul. They were located in and around the Athens marketplace (agora):
Paul’s response to this provocation was to engage in conversation in both the Jewish synagogue and the marketplace:
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
(Acts 17:17 ESV)
Here are some photos overlooking the ancient marketplace (agora) where Paul engaged in conversation. The first is taken from the North West, with the Areopagus and the Acropolis in the background. The second is taken from the Acropolis itself.
In particular, Paul engaged with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers:
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
(Acts 17:18 ESV)
The Epicureans and Stoics had an interest in the Greek gods, but for different reasons.
The Epicureans believed that gods existed but didn’t interfere in human life. Hence the goal of life was to be tranquil, moderate, and free from superstitious fear of the gods. Epicurus had founded this school in a garden on the outskirts Athens three and a half centuries earlier. Epicurus was born on the island of Samos (also the birthplace of Pythagoras), which we also visited on our trip:
The Stoics, on the other hand, saw the gods as different mythological expressions of the divine Logos, a rational force that permeates and governs the universe. The goal of life was to align your reason and will with this divine order. Zeno of Citium founded this school in Athens at about the same time as Epicurus founded his school.
Zeno lectured in the marketplace in the Painted Porch (stoa poikilē, hence the name “Stoics”). Here is a picture:
Hence these philosophers, for different reasons, were used to the idea of various gods and were interested in discussing them. When they heard Paul preaching about “Jesus” and “resurrection” (anastasis), they seem to have concluded he was advocating two new gods, or at least two new expressions of the divine.
To the Areopagus
The philosophers were interested in a more public and formal hearing than was possible in the marketplace. So they took Paul to the Areopagus, where they could hold a proper forum to hear and assess Paul’s teaching:
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
(Acts 17:19–21 ESV)
Geographically speaking, the “Areopagus” is a hill situated above the marketplace. The name most likely means “The Hill of Ares” (the Romans likely called it Mons Martis = Mars Hill). In previous centuries, this hill had been the site of a high council that held judicial trials.
In Paul’s day, with Athens under Roman Rule, the Areopagus Council still existed. However, it had become a more traditional body. It made judgements about moral and religious issues, and some criminal cases, but not with the same powers.
It is debated whether the Areopagus Council still actually met on the Areopagus Hill itself. It might have done so. Alternatively, it might have moved to meet somewhere in the marketplace.
If the Areopagus Council was meeting in the marketplace, a likely spot is the Royal Porch (Stoa Basileios) where judicial trials often happened. It is quite close to the Temple and Altar of Ares:
If the Council was still meeting on the Areopagus hill, then here is likely road Paul would have taken up from the marketplace. Today it’s called “Apostle Paul Street” (Apostolou Pavlou), or more literally “[Way] of the Apostle Paul”.
Here are some photos of the Areopagus hill itself:
Paul’s speech
Paul’s speech begins:
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
(Acts 17:22 ESV)
The word translated “religious” here is deisidaimōn, which can also carry connotations of being “superstitious”. The term might be deliberately ambiguous. On the one hand, it could sound like a standard opening term of praise for Paul’s audience. In that case, Paul starts by commending his hearers for being devout / religious. On the other hand, the term could also imply (especially to philosophical types like the Stoics and Epicureans) that Paul’s audience are overly fearful of gods and spirits (literally “demons”, daimones).
Sancturies for some of the Greek daimones were close by. Just opposite the marketplace is the Sanctuary of Pan and the Hill of the Nymphs, representing ancient popular fertility beliefs.
If Paul was (perhaps subtly) critiquing his audience for superstitious fear of the gods, it would fit with Paul’s following reference to the altar “to the unknown god.”
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
(Acts 17:33 ESV)
On the one hand, the mention of an altar is a point of contact between Paul and his audience (though note that no altar with this exact title has been found). Yet Paul isn’t simply praising the devotion of his audience here. In referring to “the unknown god”, Paul is critiquing their ignorance of spiritual matters despite their claims to knowledge. He is claiming to give them true knowledge about the true god, despite their ignorance.
Paul’s statement about the nature of the true God begins by critiquing the Athenians’ habit of worshipping their gods using temples and altars:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
(Acts 17:24–25 ESV)
I’ve already included photos of temples and altars in the marketplace above. Here is another prime example of kind of human-made temples Paul was critiquing: the Temple of Hephaestus (5th Century BC), built on a hill to the North-West overlooking the marketplace. Whether Paul was giving his speech to in the marketplace itself or from the Areopagus hill, this temple would have been highly visible as Paul spoke:
Also in clear view of Paul and his readers was the Acropolis, the fortress on which great temples of devotion to gods for Athenian (and Roman) world order were built:
Paul goes on to describe God’s creation of all humanity and his closeness to humans (quoting Greek poets) (Acts 17:27–28). Then he returns to the problem of idolatry and speaks about repentance, Jesus and the resurrection:
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
(Acts 17:29–31 ESV)
The end of Paul’s speech here carries an unmistakeable twist. Paul was brought to the Areopagus so humans could put his gods (Jesus and the resurrection) on trial. Indeed, Greek myths describe Athena founding this hill as a place of civic justice that limited the retributive fury of older gods (see Aeschylus, Eumenides). Others describe the god Ares being tried for murder by other gods on the same hill (e.g., Pausanius, Description of Greece 1.28.5).
The Areopagus Hill, the place of judgment, is physically and symbolically over and above the marketplace of gods down below. In this photo, note how the Areopagus looks down over the temple of Hephaestus and all the other temples and altars (including the temple and altar of Ares):
But Paul turns the tables on this idea of human justice overruling divine beings. God has raised up his own human being, and through this human being, God will judge all people with justice.
The key sticking point for Paul’s audience—which of course is still the big sticking point today—is the idea of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
(Acts 17:32–34 ESV)