AREOPAGUS (6 "Apeio; πάγος «Hill of Ares»).
A rocky hill in Athens, southwest of the Acropolis, where, according to mythology, Mars [Ares] cleared himself of the charge of the murder of Alirrothius, son of Neptune. There sat a council (βουλή), later (from the time of Aristotle) a tribunal charged with safeguarding public morality and the constitution of the State. St. Paul, having arrived in Athens (v.), disgusted by the idolatry of the city, after discussing with the Jews and proselytes in the synagogue, engaged in the agora Epicureans and Stoics concerning Jesus and the Resurrection. He was brought before the Areopagus (Acts 17:19, 22: the term "Areopagus" here probably designates not a place but an assembly) as a proclaimer of foreign divinities (ξένα δαιμόνια) and a new doctrine (καινὴ διδαχή); thus Socrates had been accused of introducing into Athens καινά δαιμόνια (Plato, Apol. Socr., 26b, 27c). The Apostle in his discourse (Acts 17:22-31) does not address judges with a personal apology, but a large audience, including the learned men of Athens, adapting himself to the Hellenic mentality. V. AGNOSTOS THEÓS.
Appealing to Athenian religiosity, which had multiplied temples and statues (especially in the agora), Paul promises to resolve the enigma and satisfy the longing he had seen expressed on an altar dedicated to an unknown god. Pausanias and Philostratus (2nd century) mention three altars to unknown deities (in the plural; St. Jerome, In epist. ad Titum, 1:12, believed that Paul had changed it to the singular) at Athens or its vicinity and at Olympia; one was discovered (1909) at Pergamum, and at Rome on the Palatine the inscription "SEI DEO SEI DEIVAE."
Paul announces the one God, creator of the invisible and infinite universe, who from one man has produced all peoples, so that men might seek Him, God being the intimate life-giver of each: "In Him we live, move, and have our being," as Aratus had said (v.); and more obscurely another poet, the Stoic Cleanthes of Assos, sang in his hymn to Zeus: "Of Him we are the offspring." After this introduction, Paul states the evangelical theme, then develops it (condemnation of idolatry, God's mercy, conversion to avoid the sanctions of His judgment, redemption in a Man who died and rose again); but before concluding he was interrupted by mockery concerning the "Resurrection." Few, in that frivolous and pretentious environment, were converted, among them the Areopagite Dionysius (v.) and a notable woman, Damaris (Acts 17:16-32).
E. Curtius, *Paulus in Athen*, in *Sitzungsber. Akad. Wissenschaften zu Berlin*, 26 (1893), pp. 925-38, and in *The Expositor*, 7th series, 4 (1907), pp. 436-55, holds that at the time of Paul the Areopagus met in the royal hall (royal portico) on the agora, where Demosthenes once spoke. This hypothesis, very probable, is today accepted by many, although contested by M. Dibelius.
E. Norden, *Agnostos Theós*, Leipzig 1913 (reprint 1929), denied the historicity of Paul's discourse, attributing it to a late compiler (90-120 A.D.) inspired by the writing of Apollonius of Tyana περὶ θυσιῶν. The bold thesis was accepted by R. Reitzenstein, P. Corssen, J. Weiss, J. Wellhausen, W. Jäger, O. Weinreich, A. Loisy, but was well refuted by A. Harnack, *Die Rede des Paulus in Athen*, in *Texte und Untersuchungen*, 39, 1, Leipzig 1913; by A. Wickenhauser, *Die Apostelgeschichte und ihr Geschichtswert*, Munich 1921, pp. 369-94; by Th. Zahn, *Die Apostelgeschichte des Lukas*, II, Leipzig 1921, pp. 599-631, 870-882; by L. Murillo, *Paulus et Pauli scripta*, I, Rome 1926, pp. 41-48; by E. Jacquier, *Actes des Apôtres*, Paris 1926, pp. CCLXXI-CCLXXXI, who vindicate with historical, archaeological, psychological, and literary arguments the authenticity of the discourse.