The Areopagus, or, Mars’ Hill
Paul travelled south, presumably past Thermopylae and Thebes, to Athens. There he gave a public sermon on the Areopagus, the Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areios Pagos), the “Hill of Ares”.
Acts 17.22 σταθεὶς δὲ Παῦλος ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ Ἀρείου Πάγου ἔφη Ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, κατὰ πάντα ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους ὑμᾶς θεωρῶ· 23 διερχόμενος γὰρ καὶ ἀναθεωρῶν τὰ σεβάσματα ὑμῶν εὗρον καὶ βωμὸν ἐν ᾧ ἐπεγέγραπτο ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΘΕΩ. ὃ οὖν ἀγνοοῦντες εὐσεβεῖτε, τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν. … 32 ἀκούσαντες δὲ ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν οἱ μὲν ἐχλεύαζον οἱ δὲ εἶπαν Ἀκουσόμεθά σου περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν. 33 οὕτως ὁ Παῦλος ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν· 33 τινὲς δὲ ἄνδρες κολληθέντες αὐτῷ ἐπίστευσαν, ἐν οἷς καὶ Διονύσιος [ὁ] Ἀρεοπαγίτης καὶ γυνὴ ὀνόματι Δάμαρις καὶ ἕτεροι σὺν αὐτοῖς.
Acts 17.22 Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. … 32 When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 At that point Paul left them. 34 But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The Areopagus had a long and storied history, too long to recount here. Suffice it to say that over centuries the Areopagus was a setting for important speeches leading to important actions. Aeschylus wrote a play about it, and Aristotle describes it role in Athenian history.
For Paul (a) to have attracted an audience of Athenians onto the Areopagus at all, and (b) to have persuaded some Athenians to say “Ἀκουσόμεθά σου περὶ τούτου καὶ πάλιν” (“We will listen to you on this topic again!”) was a big deal. In Thessaloniki, Paul seems to have talked to the Jewish community. In Athens, he was talking to gentiles in the sophisticated cultural center of the Roman world. For Paul, it must have been like appearing at the Apollo Theater or Shea Stadium.
And in more recent times, the nation of Greece celebrates the Areopagus as much for Paul’s brief visit there as for its foundation by the goddess Athena and its role in the Persian Wars.
As with Berea, Americans have celebrated the Areopagus and its role in Paul’s mission by naming things after it. Areios Pagos is “Hill of Ares”, or Romanized/Latinized to “Mars Hill”. There is a range of mountains in Antarctica named “Mars Hills”. There are places called “Mars Hill” in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Maine (two of them!), Indiana, Arizona, and North Carolina.
Here’s a picture from sometime in the 1930s of Hoyt and Olive Blackwell, my grandparents, sitting on the Areopagus, with the Acropolis behind them.
Hoyt Blackwell (1890–1989) was a veteran of the Great War, a Professor of New Testament Greek, and later President of Mars Hill College from 1938 to 1966.
So that’s my personal connection to the Areopagus.