22. Then Paul stood . . . and said--more graphically, "standing in
the midst of Mars' hill, said." This prefatory allusion to the position
he occupied shows the writer's wish to bring the situation vividly
before us [BAUMGARTEN].
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious--rather (with
most modern interpreters and the ancient Greek ones), "in all respects
extremely reverential" or "much given to religious worship," a
conciliatory and commendatory introduction, founded on his own
observation of the symbols of devotion with which their city was
covered, and from which all Greek writers, as well as the apostle,
inferred the exemplary religiousness of the Athenians. (The authorized
translation would imply that only too much superstition was wrong,
and represents the apostle as repelling his hearers in the very first
sentence; whereas the whole discourse is studiously courteous).
JFB.
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