And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
19. They brought him to Mars’ Street. Though this verse a place appointed for judgment, yet Luke doth not mean that Paul was brought before the seat of the judges, that he might plead his cause before the judges of Mars’ Street. “Areopagitis,” the Areopagites.
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
And they took him,.... Not that they laid hands on him, and carried him away by violence, as a derider of their gods, and an introducer of new ones, in order to punish him; but they invited him to go with them, and they took him along with them in a friendly manner, and had him to a more convenient place for preaching and disputation...