Acts 17:19 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They brought him unto Areopagus,— The original word is the same with that rendered Mars-hill, Acts 17:22. The name of this senate was taken from the place in which it was assembled, being a hill not far distant from the city; for the word παγος, pagos, in composition, signifies a rock, hill, or eminence. With respect to the first part of the name, authors are not so well agreed: some derive it from the Greek word 'Αρης, which signifies Mars, because he is supposed to have been the first person who was arraigned in this court. But others, with more probability, derive it from the same name, as Mars was the god of war and bloodshed, and as all wilful murders fell under the cognizance of this court; and the word Αρης itself is used to signifymurders. When this court was first instituted, is uncertain, some making it as ancient as Cecrops, and others bringing it down as low as Solon. It has indeed been objected to the latter opinion, that one of Solon's laws makes mention of the Areopagus as already existing. The difficulty is how to reconcile these accounts. The case might have been this: Solon, we know, was employed by the Athenians to new-model their commonwealth, by reforming the illconstitutions, and supplying such as were defective; so that, in the number of his regulations, was that against the admission of foreign gods without a licence from the Areopagus; and having thus enlarged its jurisdiction, he was afterwards regarded as the founder. The number of persons that composed this assembly, is variously represented. By some it is restrained to nine, by others enlarged to thirty-one, by others to fifty-one; but when Socrates was condemned by this court, there were no less than two hundred and eighty one giving their votes against him. Aristides observes, that this court was the most sacred and venerable tribunal in all Greece: so impartial and exact were their proceedings in all matters of law, that, as Demosthenes informs us, there never had been in his time, so much as one of their determinations, which either plaintiff or defendant had reason to complain of. They had three meetings in the Areopagus every month. They sat in the open air, which was customary in such courts as took cognizance of murder; that the judges might not contract any pollutionfrom conversing with men so profane: and they heard all causes at night, and in the dark, that they might not be influenced by seeing either the plaintiff or defendant. There are some remains of the place wherein this assembly met,still visible in the foundations, which form a semicircle, built with square stones of a prodigious size. See on Acts 17:34