Ancient Athens: The Big Olive

The Parthenon

Saturday was an early day.  We all had to be on the bus by 8:00 a.m.  (that’s midnight for you central timezoners) to begin our trip into Athens.  We picked up our guide James once we got close into Athens and began our guided tour.  It was great having a guide.  He really knew his stuff, especially from a biblical perspective.  He was able to relate how Daniel foresaw the rise of Greece and who exactly Daniel was referring to.  

The day started with a quick stop to the 1896 Olympic Stadium.  1896 was when the modern Olympics were first revived.  From here we went on to the Acropolis.  We started our trek up the mountain, stopping at the theater on the way up.  We eventually arrived on top.  It was a beautiful morning.  We could see all around Athens from up there.  It was great getting to see the Parthenon up there (a third time for me).  I believe much of the scaffolding was down from the last time I was there.  

Looking onto Mars Hill from the Acropolis

After spending some time on top of the Acropolis we traversed down just a little bit to Mars Hill or the Areopagus, where Paul may have spoken.  The Areopagus was the name of a place as well as the body.  It’s like how you could say Congress and mean the body of people or the building they meet in.  So, there is some scholarly debate as to whether Paul actually spoke on the Areopagus or somewhere else to the Areopagus.  We sat up there and sang a song or two, then Dr. Thompson talked a little, followed by Dr. James reading Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill.  This was my fourth time to sit up there and read the sermon on Mars Hill and it’s still as amazing as the first time if not more. 

Dr. Thompson and Dr. James speaking to us on Mars Hill.

After that, we began to walk the entire way back down the Acropolis to the ancient Agora.  This included the best-preserved temple in Greece, the Temple to Hephaestus. 

We then continued into the Stoa and the museum inside.

The Temple to Hephaestus

Once we finished looking at the Stoa we continued to walk through the Plaka a ways to our lunch stop.  After lunch we went to the New Acropolis museum which opened during the summer of 2009, when I was here as a HUG student.  We went in it when I was here but we had to wade through a crazy amount of people so it was nice to not have such a crowd.  Plus, this time we still had our great guide, James. 

This ended our first day of touring.  It was great!  And, it was great to be a part of it again.  I am truly blessed to be here again.  I’ve learned so much more even this second time around.  I'm glad to be on this adventure again from another perspective; I'm loving every second of it from this perspective.