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‘Areopagus’ is a Greek word composed by ‘areo’ or ‘ares’ which is the name of the Greek god of war, also called Mars (in English the areopagus is called ‘Mars Hill), and ‘pagus’, which means hill.
The areopagus was a hill in Athens, near the acropolis. It was the site of a council that served as an important legal institution under the Athenian democracy. This body, called the “Council of the Areopagus,” or simply the “Areopagus,” existed long before democracy was established in Athens. Its powers and composition changed many times over the centuries. Originally, it was the central governing body of Athens, but under democracy, it was primarily the court with jurisdiction over cases of homicide and certain other serious crimes.
After an Athenian had served as a member of the Council of the Areopagus, his conduct in office was investigated, and if he passed that investigation he became a member of the Areopagus for life. The areopagus is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (17: 16-33).
At the time of Paul (under Roman domination), the areopagus had lost all its juridical powers and was little more than an academic body.
The Acts of the Apostles describes the areopagus in these terms:
“A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with Paul... They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean’. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas) (Acts 17:18-21).
It was during his second missionary journey, that Paul together with his companions of evangelization, crossed over into Europe and went to Athens.
It was at the areopagus that Paul gave his famous evangelization discourse to Greek philosophers.
The discourse given was not in Paul’s usual style, but it was an effort to speak in the manner of Greek philosophers. It was not a successful one. The Acts says:
“When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject’. At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” (Acts 17: 32-34;18:1).
Today, very often, ‘areopagus’ is used to describe any new means of evangelization.Mass Media can be described as a new ‘areopagus’ to evangelize the modern world.
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