Unknown God
VIEW:23 DATA:01-04-2020
UNKNOWN GOD.St. Paul, wandering along the streets of Athens, saw an altar bearing the dedication, To an Unknown God (Act_17:23). He used this as the text of his sermon before the Areopagus. There is evidence in other ancient writers in favour of the existence of such a dedication, and the conjecture may be permitted that the altar was erected as a thank-offering for life preserved in some foreign country, the name of the proper divinity of whicha very important thing in Greek ritualwas unknown to the person preserved.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
un-nōn?, (ἄγνωστος θεός, ágnōstos theós): In Act_17:23 (St. Paul's speech in Athens) the American Standard Revised Version reads: ?I found also an altar with this inscription, To AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you.? the King James Version and the English Revised Version margin translate ?to the Unknown God,? owing to the fact that in Greek certain words, of which theós is one, may drop the article when it is to be understood. In the present case the use of the article. is probably right (compare Act_17:24). In addition, the King James Version reads ?whom? and ?him? in place of ?what? and ?this.? The difference here is due to a variation in the Greek manuscripts, most of which support the King James Version. But internal probability is against the King James Version's reading, as it would have been very easy for a scribe to change neuters (referring to the divine power) into masculines after ?God,? but not vice versa. Hence, modern editors (except yon Soden's margin) have adopted the reading in the Revised Version (British and American).
Paul in Athens, ?as he beheld the city full of idols,? felt that God was truly unknown there. Hence the altar with the inscription struck him as particularly significant. Some Athenians, at any rate, felt the religious inadequacy of all known deities and were appealing to the God who they felt must exist, although they knew nothing definite about Him. No better starting-point for an address could be wished. What the inscription actually meant, however, is another question. Nothing is known about it. Altars dedicated ?to unknown gods? (in the plural) seem to have been fairly common (Jerome on Tit_1:12; Pausanias, i. 1, 4; Philaster, Vita Apoll., vi. 3), and Blase (Commentary ad loc.) has even suggested that the words in Acts were originally in the plural. But this would spoil the whole point of the speech, and the absence of references to a single inscription among thousands that existed can cause no surprise. Those inscriptions in the plural seem to have been meant in the sense ?to the other deities that may exist in addition to those already known,? but an inscription in the sing. could not have this meaning. Perhaps a votive inscription is meant, where the worshipper did not know which god to thank for some benefit received. That a slur on all the other Athenian objects of worship was intended is, however, most improbable, but Paul could not of course be expected to know the technical meaning of such inscriptions. See ATHENS.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
(ἄγνῳστος θεός, A.V. unfortunately the unknown God, instead of an unknown God), the inscription observed by Paul on some site consecrated to a deity whose name had been lost-a fact which he ingeniously adduces in his speech before the citizens to show their scrupulousness, and to lead them to the knowledge of the true God (Act_17:23). There is no evidence that it was a spot dedicated to the worship of Jehovah, as some commentators have imagined. See the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index Program hatum, p. 82. SEE ALTAR; SEE ATHENS.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
un-nōn?, (ἄγνωστος θεός, ágnōstos theós): In Act_17:23 (St. Paul's speech in Athens) the American Standard Revised Version reads: ?I found also an altar with this inscription, To AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth unto you.? the King James Version and the English Revised Version margin translate ?to the Unknown God,? owing to the fact that in Greek certain words, of which theós is one, may drop the article when it is to be understood. In the present case the use of the article. is probably right (compare Act_17:24). In addition, the King James Version reads ?whom? and ?him? in place of ?what? and ?this.? The difference here is due to a variation in the Greek manuscripts, most of which support the King James Version. But internal probability is against the King James Version's reading, as it would have been very easy for a scribe to change neuters (referring to the divine power) into masculines after ?God,? but not vice versa. Hence, modern editors (except yon Soden's margin) have adopted the reading in the Revised Version (British and American).
Paul in Athens, ?as he beheld the city full of idols,? felt that God was truly unknown there. Hence the altar with the inscription struck him as particularly significant. Some Athenians, at any rate, felt the religious inadequacy of all known deities and were appealing to the God who they felt must exist, although they knew nothing definite about Him. No better starting-point for an address could be wished. What the inscription actually meant, however, is another question. Nothing is known about it. Altars dedicated ?to unknown gods? (in the plural) seem to have been fairly common (Jerome on Tit_1:12; Pausanias, i. 1, 4; Philaster, Vita Apoll., vi. 3), and Blase (Commentary ad loc.) has even suggested that the words in Acts were originally in the plural. But this would spoil the whole point of the speech, and the absence of references to a single inscription among thousands that existed can cause no surprise. Those inscriptions in the plural seem to have been meant in the sense ?to the other deities that may exist in addition to those already known,? but an inscription in the sing. could not have this meaning. Perhaps a votive inscription is meant, where the worshipper did not know which god to thank for some benefit received. That a slur on all the other Athenian objects of worship was intended is, however, most improbable, but Paul could not of course be expected to know the technical meaning of such inscriptions. See ATHENS.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
(ἄγνῳστος θεός, A.V. unfortunately the unknown God, instead of an unknown God), the inscription observed by Paul on some site consecrated to a deity whose name had been lost-a fact which he ingeniously adduces in his speech before the citizens to show their scrupulousness, and to lead them to the knowledge of the true God (Act_17:23). There is no evidence that it was a spot dedicated to the worship of Jehovah, as some commentators have imagined. See the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index Program hatum, p. 82. SEE ALTAR; SEE ATHENS.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.
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