never before introduced to their notice; and a vast concourse stood by to hear that grand object of life to the news-hunting Athenians,—"A NEW THING."
"With regard to the application of babbler, Eustathius gives two senses of the
word [Greek: spermologos]. 1. The Attics called those [Greek: spermologoi] who conversed in the market,
and places of merchandise. (In Odys. B. ad finem.) And Paul was disputing
with those he met in the market-place. 2. It is used of those who, from some false
opinions, boasted unreasonably of their learning. (Idem.) Œcumenius says, a
little bird that gathered up the seeds scattered in the market-place, was called [Greek: spermologos];
in this etymology, Suidas, Phavorinus, the scholiast upon Aristophanes de
Avibus, p. 569, and almost all grammarians agree. (Cave's Lives of the Apostles.)
(Whitby's Annot.)
"18. [Greek: spermologos]. This word is properly used of those little insignificant birds which support a precarious existence by picking up seeds scattered by the sower, or left above ground after the soil has been harrowed. See Max. Tyr. Diss. 13, p. 133., Harpocr., Aristoph. Av. 232., and the Scholiast, and Plutarch, T. 5, 50, edit. Reisk. It was metaphorically applied also to paupers who prowled about the market place, and lived by picking up any thing which might be dropped by buyers and sellers; and likewise to persons who gleaned in the corn fields. See Eustath. on Horn. Od. s. 241. Hence it was at length applied to all persons of mean condition, who, as we say, "live on their wits." Thus it is explained by Harpocrates [Greek: eutelês], mean and contemptible. And so Philo 1021 c. [Greek: chrêsamenos—doulô spermologô peritrimmati]." (Bloomfield's Annot. Acts xvii. 18.)
"The Areopagus was a place in Athens, where the senate usually assembled and took its name (as some think) from [Greek: Arês] which is the same as Mars, the god of war, who was the first person tried here, for having killed Apollo's son. Others think that, because [Greek: arês] sometimes signifies fighting, murder, or violence of any kind, and that [Greek: pagos] is properly a rock, or rising hill, it therefore seems to denote a court situated upon an eminence, (as the Areopagus was,) where causes of murder, &c. were tried. This court at present is out of the city, but in former times it stood almost in the middle of it. Its foundations, which are still standing, are built with square stones of prodigious size, in the form of a semi-circle, and support a terrace or platform, of about a hundred and forty paces, which was the court where this senate was held. In the midst of it, there was a tribunal cut in a rock, and all about were seats also of stone, where the senate heard causes in the open air, without any covering, and (as some say) in the night time, that they might not be moved to compassion at the sight of any criminal that was brought before them. This judicature was held in such high esteem for its uprightness, that when the Roman proconsuls ruled there, it was a very common thing for them to refer difficult causes to the judgment of the Areopagites. After the loss of their liberty, however, the authority of the senate declined, so that in the apostles' times, the Areopagus was not so much a court of judicature as a common rendezvous, where all curious and inquisitive persons, who spent their time in nothing else, but either in hearing or telling some new thing, were accustomed to meet, Acts xvii. 21. Notwithstanding, they appeared still to have retained the privilege of canonizing all gods that were allowed public worship; and therefore St. Paul was brought before them as an assertor and preacher of a Deity, whom they had not yet admitted among them. It does not appear that he was brought before them as a criminal, but merely as a man who had a new worship to propose to a people religious above all others, but who took care that no strange worship should be received on a footing of a tolerated religion, till it had the approbation of a court appointed to judge such matters. The address of the court to St. Paul, 'May we know what this doctrine is whereof thou speakest?' implies rather a request to a teacher, than an interrogatory to a criminal; and accordingly his reply has not the least air of an apology, suiting a person accused, but is one continued information of important truths, such as it became a teacher or benefactor, rather than a person arraigned for crime, to give. He was therefore neither acquitted nor condemned, and dismissed as a man coram non judice. We are indeed told, that when they heard of 'the resurrection of the dead,' some mocked, and others said, 'We will hear thee again of this matter,' putting off the audience to an indefinite time; so that nothing was left him but to depart." (Calmet's Commentary. Beausobre's and Hammond's Annot., and Warburton's Div. Leg.)
