March 4 , 2004

Three girls and a boy, all European, all college age, maybe Greek, were on Mars Hill with me. The boy kindly offered to take the picture of me on the left with the Acropolis in the background.

After he took the picture I asked them if they knew they were standing in the very footsteps of the great Apostle Paul. They had no idea who Paul was. They had no idea what an Apostle was. They even seemed confused about what the Bible is.

However, they were very excited about learning something new. The boy finally said, "Oh yes, I remember something about a Paolus."

I told them that the large plaque at the foot of the hill had a copy of the sermon Paul preached from this very spot and that it was written in Greek. One of the girls said, "We need to go see if we can read it."

I hope they did, and I hope they could, and I hope that Paul's Unknown God strikes again.

Since I took my departure down the Ancient Agora side of the hill, a questionable decision at best, I didn't have the chance to see if they stopped to read the sermon or not.

The museum on top of the Acropolis is truly fascinating. The picture on the left was taken in it.

As I was taking the picture I overheard a female guide telling, in broken English, that this was a statue of Jesus the Good Shepard and he was carrying the one sheep that went astray, or words to that effect.

I know that not everyone was raised on a farm like I was, but I would hope that most people could tell that he is carrying a calf, not a sheep. The plaque identifies the "Calf-Bearer" as Rhombos on his way to sacrifice to Athena Pallas. The work is from about 570 B.C.

The picture below is an over-view of what is called Ancient Agora. Agora simply means a market. The view is from the top of Mars Hill which, by the way, is not identified by that name anywhere at the site. It is shown as Areopagus Hill on the maps. It is where the supreme court, the Council of Areopagus, conducted business.

Ancient Agora

This Agora is the birthplace of democracy. It was here that Socrates came to expound his philosophy and all the great Greek philosophers delivered their orations. It was first developed in the 6th Century B.C. then destroyed by the Persians in 480 B.C. It was rebuild and flourished until it was destroyed again in 267 A.D. by a Gothic tribe Scandinavia.

Over time the site became a residential area. In the mid-1950s a group lead by the American School of Archaeology began a massive restoration project. More than 400 modern buildings were demolished to uncover the Agora.