Acts 17:18

• Epicurean philosophers followed Epicureanism, a Greek school of thought founded by Epicurus, who lived from 341 to 270 BC. Epicureans believed that the main goal of life was happiness. They did not define pleasure as physical excess, as some critics said. Instead, they valued peace of mind and freedom from fear. Many people in their time called them atheists because they did not believe the gods controlled human life. They also believed that death was simply the end of a person’s existence. For safety and peace, they formed organized communities and lived apart from wider society.

• Stoic philosophers followed Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, who lived from 335 to 263 BC. Stoicism became one of the most influential philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. Stoics believed that the universe was filled with Reason, which they sometimes called God or Providence. They believed this divine Reason could also be seen in human reason. As people grew in understanding, they could move from ignorance, which leads to vice, to true knowledge, which leads to virtue.

  Stoics made detailed lists of virtues and vices. They also wrote household codes, which were instructions for family life. In some ways, Paul’s teaching sounds similar, especially in his household codes and lists of virtues and vices (Galatians 5:19–23; Ephesians 5:22–33; Colossians 3:18–4:1; 1 Timothy 3:1–13; 5:1–6:1). However, Paul's message about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was unfamiliar to these Greek philosophers.

• Their insulting use of the word babbler for Paul also shows that they looked down on him.

In this chapter, we see Paul presented as a model witness for Christ, engaging the thinkers of his day and challenging them with the Christian message. Paul quoted writers his audience would be familiar with and showed the relevance of the gospel by dialoguing with them, critiquing their assumptions, and offering Jesus as a constructive alternative (see Colossians 1:28).

Paul reminded these proud intellectuals that there is a living God to whom all human beings are answerable; that they will be judged by him through Jesus, whom God raised from the dead; and that they should therefore repent and put their faith in Jesus.