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Note: Several times on this blog I have recommended Don Richardson’s book, Eternity in their Hearts. But I suspect that few, perhaps even no one, has purchased or read it. So I decided to write an essay based on the first chapter of his book. For those interested in some background on Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17), I think you will find the information in this post, and the ancient sources upon which it is based, very interesting.

In the sixth century before Christ, the city of Athens was hit by a severe plague. It was commonly felt among the people that the only explanation for the plague was that some god must be angry at them. Most believed the source of their trouble was the treachery of their former king, Megacles. Shortly before his death he has obtained the surrender of his enemies, the followers of Cylon, by promising them amnesty. But once they laid down their arms he had them all slaughtered. His act was a scandal even among his own people, and so it was not hard for them to imagine that one of the gods was angry with them…but which one?

And so the Athenians began to offer sacrifices to every god they knew, and that amounted to a lot of sacrifices because over the course of time the Athenians had erected shrines to hundreds, perhaps even thousands of gods. These shrines literally lined both sides of the road from the harbor to the inner city, where hundreds of additional shrines were clustered on a rocky knoll known as, the Acropolis.

Still, even after the people had offered sacrifices to every god or goddess they knew, the plague continued to ravage the city. So in desperation the city council decided to send one of their own, a councilman by the name of, Nicias, to the Island of Crete to secure the services of a legendary prophet, philosopher and poet by the name of, Epimenides.

Some weeks latter Nicias and Epimenides stepped off a ship in the town of Piraeus, Athen’s harbor town. As the traveling party wound its way walk up the road to Athens they could see signs of the plague all around them. The scene was shocking and appalling. But the thing Epimenides found most surprising was the number of shrines and statues of gods and goddesses along the way. He is reported to have quipped, “Never have I seen so many gods. In fact, it’s probably easier to find a god here than a man.”

Nicais laughed at this, and agreed, but added that he could not figure out who this other god could be, since they were already worshiping every possible god they could imagine.

Epimenides offered that perhaps that was their problem.

Upon arriving in Athens, and assessing the situation, Epimenides ordered that a flock of sheep be kept from eating for the rest of the day and night so that they would be good and hungry the next morning.

The next morning Epimenides stood before the council on Mars Hill, along with the flock of choice, hungry sheep he had requested the day before. As he stood there in front of the council, hundreds and hundreds of ordinary Athenians also gathered, desperately looking on, and hoping for some glimmer of truth, some hope of relief.

Epimenides addressed the council, “I’m going to offer a sacrifice based on three assumptions. The first one is that there is a God out there, whose name we don’t know,  but somehow He is connected to this plague. My second assumption is this; if we invoke the help of this God, he is great enough and good enough to come to our aid.

When someone protested that they could not evoke the name of a God who’s name they didn’t know, Epimenides answered, “That’s my third assumption: that this God is so great and so good, that if we call upon His name He will smile on our ignorance… as long as we acknowledge that ignorance before Him.”

And so as they all looked to the sky, and Epimenides cried out, “Unknown God, look down upon this city. Forgive this city. Deliver this city. And now, if you would choose the sheep You desire, if You would cause them to lie down upon the grass, well sacrifice them to You.” With that they released the hungry sheep to wander around the grassy hill. But miraculously, instead of grazing with the rest, several sheep, seven in all, laid down. When they did this artisans immediately marked the spot and collected the sheep for a sacrifice. Epimenides instructed them to build altars on each place a sheep had lain, and inscribe it, “To Agnos Theo, the Unknown God.” They did as he instructed and sacrificed the sacred sheep.

That very day the plague began to lift. Within a week the people of Athens were well again. Naturally they gloried and worshiped this new, unknown God; leaving flowers and garlands on His newly built altars. Some even theorized that if this unknown God would just reveal Himself they might be able to do away with the worship of all the others. A Short time latter the city council passed a motion ordering the preservation and maintenance of one of these altars for all posterity. A religious revival of the strangest sort gripped Athens. But time passed, and memories faded, and all too soon the people returned to their old gods.

Over the years the shrines were replaced with beautiful temples, and the simple uncovered altar to the unknown God was dwarfed and all but forgotten; until a visitor to the city, a man we know as the apostle Paul, noticed the little altar and began to tell people about the God that had once saved Athens, the God who had now revealed Himself so that the worship of all other gods could now be done away with, the God who had offered proof to all men through the resurrection, the God they had forgotten, the unknown God.