ΔΙΕΡΧΟΜΕΝΟΣ ΓΑΡ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΘΕΩΡΩΝ
ΤΑ ΣΕΒΑΣΜΑΤΑ ΥΜΩΝ ΕΥΡΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΒΩΜΟΝ ΕΝ
Ω ΕΠΕΓΕΓΡΑΠΤΟ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΩ ΘΕΩ
dierkhomenos gar kay anatheohrohn
ta sevasmata heemohn evron kay bohmon hen
hoh epegegrapto agnohstoh theoh
for going about and looking at the objects
of your worship i also found one altar inscribed
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD
(Acts 17:23)
Here’s what the Apostle Paul should have done. He should have walked through Athens screaming bloody murder and denouncing all the religious shrines he found as sinister objects of evil deities. He should have stood on Mars Hill and delivered a speech like this:
Evil and sinful Athenians: I think I’m going to puke. You are all caught up in the worship of false gods, and as the one true God is my witness, I am here today to condemn your ungodly idolatry and to tell you why you are so wrong and I am so right. Every single one of these altars is an affront to the one true God. Repent, you nasty, ignorant jackasses! Repent of your false worship, and worship the one true God!
But somehow the holy apostle got weak knees when he stood up on Mars Hill and so he blabbered out this sweet-as-molasses thing about how the Athenians really were worshipping the one true God, they just didn’t quite have all the correct data about the one true God, which Paul was happy to deliver to them. Ho hum. I would have preferred a fight. To be fair to the apostle, though, Christians have been pretty consistent in claiming that the God Christians worship is same the God that other people have worshipped as the supreme God under whatever names people may have used.
