Acts 17:33,34 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

So Paul departed from among them Leaving his hearers divided in their judgment, and the generality of them in that deplorable state of ignorance, folly, and superstition, in which he found them; being himself astonished, no doubt, that men who professed wisdom were so little able to discern truth. Howbeit, certain men clave unto him And inquired further into the evidence of that extraordinary doctrine which he taught concerning Jesus and his resurrection; the consequence of which was, that they believed the gospel, and made a public and courageous confession of it. Among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite One of the judges of that court; and a woman named Damaris One of considerable rank and character in the city; and others with them Whose names it is not necessary here to mention. These, it seems, were the only persons Paul met with in this famous mart of learning, capable of seeing and acknowledging the absurdity of the prevailing idolatry! It is not said that Paul wrought any miracles at Athens; and the little success with which he preached, gives reason to suppose that he wrought none. Doubtless, this was by divine appointment, and probably to try what reception the gospel would meet with from learned and inquisitive men, when offered to them merely on the footing of its own reasonableness. The truth is, if such an experiment was anywhere to be made, in order to confute those in after times who should affirm that the general reception of the gospel, in the first stage, was owing not to miracles, but to the absurdities of heathenism, and to the reasonableness of the gospel doctrine, Athens surely was the place where the trial could be made with most advantage, and Paul's oration in the Areopagus was the discourse which should have convinced reasonable men. Nevertheless, at Athens, where the human faculties were carried to the greatest perfection, the apostle was not able to convince his hearers of the folly of idolatry, nor of the reasonableness of worshipping and serving the one living and true God, by purity of mind and goodness of life!