Pathways to the Nations Sample

Day 6

An Academic in Athens

The apostle Paul was born a Roman citizen in Tarsus but grew as a student and teacher in Jerusalem, where he learned at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel. Paul developed into a scholar capable of being a Pharisee (Philippians 3:5). Multilingual and with a depth of education at his disposal, Paul’s commitment to study and teaching allowed him to take the message to people in the marketplace and academia alike.

Paul felt ready for a new intellectual challenge in Roman-occupied Greece. As we’ve read in Acts 17, Paul had already journeyed from Thessalonica to Berea during his second missionary journey. Traveling south from Berea, Paul employed his education to reach out to people in the cultural center of Athens. With Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue he presented Jesus the Messiah. He reasoned with people buying, selling, and talking in the marketplace. He debated philosophers and advocated for the one True God. 

By the time Paul met with the philosophers of the Areopagus, he was primed. He wanted to persuade people that a God who came to earth as the Jews’ Messiah was in fact Good News for them as well.

Paul seized the moment to teach the philosophers about his “foreign” God. He spoke Greek (Acts 21:37) and employed his education to find common ground with the Greeks, to truly speak their language. He praised their religious nature and acknowledged their search for answers in their objects of worship. He quoted their own philosophers, turning the Greek writers’ allusions to Zeus to the advantage of Paul’s God:

      For in him we live and move and have our being (quoting Epimenides).

      We are his offspring (attributed to Aratus).

Paul’s teaching struck a chord with part of the Areopagus. Even though many balked at the resurrection, some of these leading Athenian philosophers liked his arguments enough to ask him back. Luke notes a man and a woman who believed in God following Paul’s lesson: Dionysius and Damaris. 

Paul’s personal scholarship allowed him to advance the gospel into new territory in Athens, among what we today would call an unreached people group. Over the centuries, Christian educators and students have brought the Good News along with them to new places. Christian teachers and believers studying abroad are still reaching out to fellow scholars. They have access to internationals and opportunities to share their faith that few others possess. Their commitment to study has opened pathways to the nations through academia. 

How might your field of study provide inroads for the gospel of Jesus’ Kingdom, either where you are now or wherever in the world you might be five years from now?