Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
Paul did not seek out these wranglers by design, knowing them born only to cavil and brawl; but the Lord suffered stubborn men to rise and exercise him, that by their gainsaying the truth might more plainly appear. He refuted their vain cavillings meekly and modestly, avoiding the danger that ambition or desire to show wit unwrap us in superfluous contentions.
AI summary
Paul, though a scholar, made no business of their philosophy, he had learned to call it vain and stood above it. His work was to correct their disorders in religion, to turn them from idols and Satan's service to the true God in Christ. A city wholly given to idolatry needed not curious questions but correction.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 17:16-21
The Epicureans taught that the world came by blind chance, not divine design, that God takes no care of it, and that pleasure is the chief good, a doctrine their loose followers turned into sensual brutishness. The Stoics, though they believed in one God and virtue, held that fate governed all and that happiness lay in passionless conformity to necessity.
AI summary