Acts 17:32

My Notes

What Does Acts 17:32 Mean?

Acts 17:32 records the three responses to the gospel that have recurred in every generation since: "Some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Verse 34 adds the third: "Certain men clave unto him, and believed." Mockery. Delay. Belief. The same message, the same audience, three completely different responses.

The Greek echleuazon (mocked) means to sneer, to jeer, to treat with contempt. The Athenian philosophers — Stoics who believed the soul was absorbed back into the universe at death and Epicureans who denied any afterlife — found the resurrection of the dead absurd. A body that comes back to life violated every philosophical category they held. The mockery wasn't emotional. It was intellectual. They dismissed the resurrection the way a scientist dismisses a flat earth: beneath serious consideration.

The second group — "we will hear thee again" — is the most dangerous response. Not hostile, not believing. Interested but uncommitted. The Greek akousometha sou peri toutou palin (we will hear you again about this) sounds polite. It's actually a postponement dressed as interest. They're filing the gospel under "later" — a category where urgent things go to die. The mockers at least took a position. The delayers took none. They walked away intending to return and almost certainly never did. Athens never became a major center of early Christianity. The polite deferral won.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Three responses: mockery, delay, belief. Which has been your dominant response to uncomfortable truths from God — and has it changed over time?
• 2.The 'we will hear thee again' group sounds interested but never returns. Where have you been deferring a response to something God is saying — filing it under 'later'?
• 3.Athens never became a major Christian center. The polite deferral won. What does that tell you about the spiritual danger of intellectual interest without commitment?
• 4.The mockers took a position; the delayers took none. Which is actually more spiritually dangerous — outright rejection or indefinite postponement?

Devotional

Three responses. Same sermon, same crowd, same apostle. Some laughed. Some said "let's talk later." Some believed. And the distribution hasn't changed in two thousand years. Every time the gospel is presented, the room divides into the same three groups.

The mockers are the easiest to identify and the least dangerous. They've taken a position. You know where they stand. They think the resurrection is ridiculous, and they'll tell you so. The believers are the miracle — the ones who heard and responded, who let the truth rearrange their assumptions. But the middle group — the "we'll hear you again" crowd — they're the ones who should keep you up at night. Because they sound receptive. They sound interested. They sound like they're almost there. And they almost never come back.

"We will hear thee again" is the most common response to the gospel in polite society. Not rejection. Not acceptance. Deferral. The people who say "interesting, let's continue this conversation" and then never schedule the conversation. The ones who are perpetually almost persuaded. The ones who treat eternity like a podcast they'll get to eventually. Athens — one of the most intellectually sophisticated cities in history — heard the gospel from the greatest missionary who ever lived, and the dominant response was: later. Not no. Not yes. Later. And later is where more people lose their souls than in outright rejection. The mocker at least engaged. The delayer smiled, nodded, and walked into eternity uncommitted.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture