Koine Foundations

²² Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus* and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I was passing through and looking closely at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: “to an unknown god“. Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the universe and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in temples made by hands.”
(Acts 17:22-24)

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Word Focus
God, god
θεός / theos
<Hear It>

The Greek word for god (θεός / theos) is the most frequently used noun in the New Testament (1317 times). Every first year student of Biblical Greek learns this word early on in their studies. Just like our English word “god”, the Greek word does “double duty,” being used to refer to the true God and to false gods. In both English and Greek, context determines which sense is meant. For example, in verse 23 above the word refers to an unknown false god. While in verse 24 it refers to the true creator God who is Lord of heaven and earth. The original Greek text does not distinguish the difference by using a capital letter. In English we capitalize the word “God” out of reverence, though to most people it is simply a spelling convention.

There is a feminine form of the word that is used one time in the New Testament. Goddess (θεά / thea <Hear It>) is used in Acts 19:27 by a Greek artisan named Demetrius who is concerned about the reputation “of the temple of the great goddess Artemis”.

Here is the background for the key verses for this post. Because of persecution, Paul was sent to Athens by fellow Christians who were concerned for his safety (see Acts 17:13-15). As usual, immediately after he arrived he began to share the Good News. His teaching caught the attention of some Greek philosophers who debated with him. He was then taken to the Areopagus* where he was asked to explain his teaching which was strange to the Greek listeners (see Acts 17:16-21).

As a point of contact, Paul launched his address to the council members based on an altar he had seen with the inscription, “to an unknown god”. He used this as a springboard to lead them to a knowledge of the true God. (See Paul’s complete address in Acts 17:22-31.)

As Paul noted, these pagan Greeks were very religious but ignorant of the true God. But he uses their religiosity as a common ground for replacing their ignorance with truth. Starting from common ground is a good strategy to use when sharing the Good News, especially in our culture where many people now believe in many gods or no God.

*Areopagus <Hear It>: An aristocratic judicial council in Athens. It exercised authority in religious and moral matters.

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Word Focus Lexicon

Lexical Form: ὁ θεός θεοῦ <Hear It>
Gloss: God, god
Part of Speech: Second Declension Masculine Noun
New Testament Frequency: 1317
Strong’s Number: G2316 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)

Lexical Form: ἡ θεά θεᾶς <Hear It>
Gloss: goddess
Part of Speech: First Declension Feminine Noun
New Testament Frequency: 1 (Acts 19:27)
Strong’s Number: G2299 (Link to Blue Letter Bible Lexicon)

Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.