17:21a–b

all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas: These words imply that Luke thought that the people of Athens were foolish to spend all their time doing this. In some languages a literal translation does not indicate or imply that they are foolish. If that is true in your language, indicate that in your translation. For example:

all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there lived ⌊foolishly⌋ by only talking about and listening to the latest ideas
-or-
all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there are addicted to chatting and listening about anything new

17:21a

all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there: This phrase refers generally to the people of Athens and non-Greek people who moved to Athens and lived there. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

the Athenians and the foreigners living there (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
people of Athens and resident non-Greeks
-or-
All the people of Athens and those from other countries who lived there (New Century Version)

Athenians: This word refers to people who were born in Athens and still lived there. Other ways to translate this word are:

native Athenians
-or-
people born in Athens

spent their time: This phrase refers to using the time people have to do something. For example:

used their time (New Century Version)

17:21b

doing nothing more than: This phrase refers to always doing something. The people living in Athens used all of the time they could to talk about and listen to new ideas. Other ways to translate this clause are:

all the time
-or-
always (New Century Version)

new ideas: This phrase in Greek is literally “something newer.” It refers to news. For the people of Athens, it referred to new ideas, philosophies, ways to live, and things like that. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

something new (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
anything new (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
new teaching

General Comment on 17:21a–b

This verse is extra information about the people who lived in Athens. Therefore, the Berean Standard Bible begins this verse with “Now,” and the New International Version puts this verse in parentheses. The story about Paul in Athens continues in 17:22a. Other ways to indicate that 17:21a–b is extra information are:

People of Athens, Greeks and non-Greeks, habitually spent all their time talking about and listening to anything new.
-or-

⌊They said this because⌋ all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time continually talking about the latest ideas and listening to them.

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.