Acts 17:31

ESV because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

NIV For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

NASB because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.'

CSB because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."

NLT For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.'

KJV Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

NKJV because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

What does Acts 17:31 mean?

Paul is finishing his monologue to Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at the Areopagus in Athens. The gist of his argument is that the Creator God is too big and majestic to be limited to temples or represented by human-carved statues. Their idol worship is wrong. Although God has overlooked their ignorance, He will judge them now that they know the truth. They need to repent of the past behavior—turn away from it and turn toward behavior and worship that shows they understand the truth (Acts 17:24–30).

This is the most overtly Christian part of Paul's speech. Just as God determined the dates and places of nations (Acts 17:26), He determined when judgment would occur. He will judge based on what is right and wrong; not on how people think they should live their lives, but on how He intended us to live our lives. God the Father has commissioned God the Son to be the judge (John 5:22–23). He will divide those who are saved from those who aren't (Matthew 25:31–46), He will reward the works of those who are saved (1 Corinthians 4:5), and He will determine the punishment of the unsaved (Revelation 20:11–15). Jesus has the authority to judge because He is righteous, as validated by the Father raising Him from the dead.

Unfortunately, neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics believe in the resurrection of the dead or judgment after death. Stoics were somewhat pantheistic. They tried to live according to the logos—the universal law that reflects the truth of the universe—and death, to them, meant you join that logos.

The Epicureans, on the other hand, believed people cease to exist after death. In Epicurus's letter to Menoeceus, he explains it is no good to fear death because death means the end of all feeling. "Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer."

When the philosophers first heard Paul, they called him a "babbler" (Acts 17:18). They thought he had picked up bits and pieces of philosophy like a bird picks up pieces of grain. For most, Paul's argument does not disavow them of that judgment. Some, however, understand and ask him to say more (Acts 17:32). A few even believe (Acts 17:34).

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