ἄγνωστος

From the study of Acts 17:23

Range of meaning

ἄγνωστος: "unknown" (of a thing or person not known or not recognised), sometimes "unknowable." ἀγνοέω: "not to know, be unaware of, fail to understand." In Jewish and early Christian usage, "not knowing God" was a standard description of the gentile nations (LXX Ps 78[79]:6; Jer 10:25; Wisdom 13:1; Gal 4:8; 1 Thess 4:5). It describes a failure of relationship and recognition, not only a lack of information.

Against the English

"Unknown" fits ἄγνωστος well. For the participle, KJV's "ignorantly worship" and NIV's "you are ignorant of" can sound like an insult ("stupid") to modern ears. The Greek means simply "without knowing," though Luke does treat this not-knowing as something people must now leave behind (v.30).

How it drifted

In modern English "ignorant" has picked up the sense "rude" or "dull-witted." The English word "agnostic" was coined in 1869 by T. H. Huxley; a contemporary reported that he took it from this very altar. Today it names a philosophical position, which is not what the altar meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Pausanias (2nd century AD) describes "altars of gods called Unknown" at Phaleron, the old harbour of Athens (Description of Greece 1.1.4), and an altar of "Unknown Gods" at Olympia (5.14.8). Philostratus (Life of Apollonius 6.3) says Athens set up "altars even to unknown divinities." Diogenes Laertius (1.110) tells how Epimenides ended a plague at Athens by sacrificing at nameless altars wherever the sheep lay down. In Greek thought Plato's Timaeus (28c) famously calls the maker of all "hard to find." E. Norden's study Agnostos Theos (1913) collected this material.