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Easter Season · Sixth Sunday of Easter · Year A

Acts 17:22-31

The God Who Made the World

May 10, 2026

St Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael
St Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael, c. 1515–16Royal Collection, on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
One of Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine tapestries, full-size designs in bodycolour that have outlived the tapestries in fame. Paul stands with both hands raised before a sceptical crowd; Dionysius and Damaris are picked out among them.This is the Areopagus sermon, the one time Paul argues from an altar his hearers already had rather than from scripture they did not.RaphaelRaphael Sanzio of Urbino (1483-1520), the youngest of the three who defined the High Renaissance. He died on Good Friday at thirty-seven.Royal Collection, on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonThe Raphael Cartoons belong to the Crown and have hung in a purpose-built gallery at the V&A since 1865, where they can be seen at the scale they were drawn.Royal Collection, on long-term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelJohn 14:15-21Jn 14:15-21
Epistle1 Pet. 3:13-221 Pt 3:13-22
Old TestamentActs 17:22-31
PsalterPs. 66:8-20Ps 66:8-20

Overview & Insights

“In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

This is the only address in Acts delivered entirely to a pagan audience, and it cites no scripture at all. Paul builds instead from what his hearers already grant, beginning with an altar inscribed to an unknown god; altars to unnamed gods are attested in Greek writers such as Pausanias and Diogenes Laertius, though always in the plural, and no singular inscription of the kind Paul reports has been found. The argument moves from God as creator, who needs no temple and no service, through providence over the times and boundaries of nations, to a call for repentance in view of judgment. Two quotations carry it, the line about living and moving and being, often traced to Epimenides, and the words “we are his offspring”, taken from the Phaenomena of the Stoic poet Aratus. The speech closes where philosophy would not follow, on a man raised from the dead.

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Commentary

Commentary on Acts 17:22-31 Working Preacher (Luther Seminary)

Lutheran academic commentary on Paul's speech at the Areopagus.

Acts 17:22-31 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Reformed preaching commentary on Paul preaching to the Athenians.

Acts 17 Commentary: Paul in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens Enduring Word

Verse-by-verse evangelical commentary on the chapter.

Acts 17 Commentary Precept Austin

Detailed word-study commentary compiling multiple conservative scholars.

Acts 17:22 Commentaries BibleHub

Collected classic commentaries on Paul's Areopagus address.

Background & Word Study

Book of Acts Overview BibleProject

Whole-book video placing Paul's Areopagus speech in the narrative of Acts.

Acts 17:22 Interlinear BibleHub

Greek interlinear for the opening of Paul's speech.

The Church Fathers

Acts 17 - Catena Catena Bible

Patristic comments on Paul's speech to the Athenians.

Study Hub

Acts 17 - Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary StudyLight

Index of verse-by-verse commentaries for the chapter.

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