Acts Chapter 17 verse 21 Holy Bible
(Now all the Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.)
read chapter 17 in ASV
(Now all the Athenians and the men from other lands who come there were giving all their time to talking or hearing of anything new.)
read chapter 17 in BBE
Now all [the] Athenians and the strangers sojourning there spent their time in nothing else than to tell and to hear the news.
read chapter 17 in DARBY
(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
read chapter 17 in KJV
read chapter 17 in WBT
Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
read chapter 17 in WEB
and all Athenians, and the strangers sojourning, for nothing else were at leisure but to say something, and to hear some newer thing.
read chapter 17 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - Now for for, A.V.; the strangers sojourning there for strangers which were there, A.V. Spent their time. This gives the general sense, but the margin of the R.T., had leisure for nothing else, is much more accurate. Αὐκαιρεῖν, which is not considered good Greek, is only used by Polybius, and in the sense either of "being wealthy" or of "having leisure" or "opportunity." In the New Testament it occurs in Mark 6:31 and 1 Corinthians 16:12. Some new thing. So Cleon (Thucyd., 3:38) rates the Athenians upon their being entirely guided by words, and constantly deceived by any novelty of speech (καινότητος λόγου). And Demosthenes in his first 'Philippic' (p. 43, 7), inveighs against them because, when they ought to be up and doing, they went about the Agora, asking one another, "Is there any news? (Λέγεταί τι καινόν;)." The comparative καινότερον ix a little stronger than καινόν: "the very last news" (Alford).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) For all the Athenians and strangers.--The restless inquisitiveness of the Athenian character had been all along proverbial. In words which St. Luke almost reproduces, Demosthenes (Philipp. i., p. 43) had reproached them with idling their time away in the agora, asking what news there was of Philip's movements, or the action of their own envoys, when they ought to have been preparing for strenuous action. The "strangers" who were present were probably a motley group--young Romans sent to finish their education, artists, and sight-seers, and philosophers, from every province in the empire.Some new thing.--Literally, some newer thing; as we should say, the "very latest news." Theophrastus (c. 8) uses the self-same word in describing the questions of the loquacious prattlers of society, "Is there anything new? . . . Is there anything yet newer?"
