18-21. certain . . . of the Epicureans--a well-known school of
atheistic materialists, who taught that pleasure was the chief end
of human existence; a principle which the more rational interpreted in a
refined sense, while the sensual explained it in its coarser meaning.
and of the Stoics--a celebrated school of
severe and lofty pantheists, whose principle was that the universe
was under the law of an iron necessity, the spirit of which was what is
called the Deity: and that a passionless conformity of the human will to
this law, unmoved by all external circumstances and changes, is the
perfection of virtue. While therefore the Stoical was in itself
superior to the Epicurean system, both were alike hostile to the Gospel.
"The two enemies it has ever had to contend with are the two ruling
principles of the Epicureans and Stoics--Pleasure and Pride"
[HOWSON].
What will this babbler say?--The word, which means "a picker-up of
seeds," bird-like, is applied to a gatherer and retailer of scraps of
knowledge, a prater; a general term of contempt for any pretended
teacher.
a setter forth of strange gods--"demons," but in the Greek (not
Jewish) sense of "objects of worship."
because he preached Jesus and the resurrection--Not as if they thought
he made these to be two divinities: the strange gods were Jehovah and
the Risen Saviour, ordained to judge the world.
JFB.
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