Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans - the followers of Epicurus; a well-known school of atheistic materialists, who maintained that the universe is the product of chance, and that pleasure was the chief end of human existence-a principle which the more sober disciples of this school interpreted in a refined sense, while the sensual explained it in its coarser meaning.
And of the Stoics - the followers of Zeno, an equally celebrated but opposite school of philosophy, essentially pantheistic, whose principle was that the universe was under the law of an iron necessity, the spirit of which was what is called the Deity; and that a passionless conformity of the human will to this law, unmoved by all external circumstances and changes, is the perfection of virtue. While therefore the Stoical was in itself superior to the Epicurean system, both were alike hostile to the Gospel.
And some said, What will this babbler say? х spermologos (G4691)] This word, which means a picker-up of seeds'-birdlike-is applied to a gatherer and retailer of scraps of knowledge, a prater; a general term of contempt for any pretended teacher.
Other some (or 'others'), He seemeth to be a setter forth, [ katangeleus (G2604 )] of strange gods, х xenoon (G3581) daimonioon (G1140)] - 'of foreign divinities.' The word 'demons' is here used, not in the Jewish, but in the Greek sense, of 'objects of worship.' In his speech on the Areopagus we shall find the apostle taking up the very term here employed, as the starting-point of his address to the Athenians (see Acts 17:24).
Because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection - not that they took "Jesus" and "the resurrection" as the foreign divinities preached by Paul (as Chrysostom formerly, and some good critics still maintain). The divinities they meant were Yahweh, as the God of Revealed Religion, and Jesus as the risen Saviour and Judge of mankind. This resurrection from the dead would to them be a startling novelty.