842. Debates in the Market Place

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 12
Listen from:
Acts 17:17. Therefore disputed he... in the market daily with them that met with him.
The market was not only a place for buying and selling, for hiring and being hired (see note on Matt. 20:3, #684) but it was also a public resort for all who wished to inquire the news or to hold disputations. For this reason the Pharisees loved to go there, because, amid the crowds assembled, they would receive the ceremonious salutations in which they delighted. See Matthew 23:7; Mark 12:38; Luke 11:43; 20:46.
The Athenian market, or Agora, must not be imagined to be “like the bare spaces in many modern towns, where little attention has been paid to artistic decoration, but is rather to be compared to the beautiful squares of such Italian cities as Verona and Florence, where historical buildings have closed in the space within narrow limits, and sculpture has peopled it with impressive figures” (Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, vol.1, p. 354).